Jake (Downton Cowboys #2) - Miley Maine Page 0,34

by the fire looking like the dreamy hero of a well-crafted film.

Instead, I decide to play along.

His plan is clearly to get to know me better, and I don’t have the least bit of objection to that. I, too, want to know him. I want to unveil the secrets behind his interest in me. I wish to understand him, please him, and receive the pleasure he promises with every affectionate regard he grants me.

When the flow of our conversation takes a detour into the shadowy corner of past relationships, he doesn’t quite open up. Making it clear that he would rather leave the past to the past, he fails to conceal the sadness that fleetingly clouds his eyes.

Who broke your heart, Jake Downton?

And how did she do it?

But who of us doesn’t have baggage? Who doesn’t come with a history of some sort? My greatest accomplishment was Manny, which sorely pales next to what I’m experiencing right now with Jake.

I don’t lie when I say that I don’t miss him one bit.

Manny represented the idea of a love I wished I could have; only trouble was, we weren’t meant to be. We were high school sweethearts, the kind that parties hard and kills time with stolen kisses behind the bleachers.

But, I wouldn’t call it love.

I know that I’ve only just met Jake, and that our entire relationship—if we can even call it one—is a baby of just a few days. But the spectrum of emotions and sensations I’ve experienced in our scarce encounters put anything I had with Manny to shame.

“My dreams may not be big… but they’re all right here,” I declare, confident that I would never want to leave.

Especially not when someone like him lives on a ranch just a ride away.

“Tell me one.” He shifts closer, his hand now resting on my knee.

“But I already did.” I coyly flutter my lashes.

“Four kids?” He inches toward me.

I don’t even think I can hear what he says.

I’m resting against the cushion with his body halfway covering mine. His eyes burning with the reflection of the flames, golden streaks infiltrating the light turquoise of his big, beautiful irises. It’s as if his God persona is trying to emerge.

I can smell his scent, filling my senses with an aroma that is a mix of lust and want. My heart skips a beat, maybe even two, before I realize just how much he’s ensnared me. I imagine my hands in his hair, my lips against his, his hands caressing every inch of me. It’s like I’m a completely different person.

He lifts an eyebrow.

“Four kids,” I repeat with a grin.

He leans in closer.

I no longer want to talk.

Not when his lips look like this, flushed by the heat of the fireplace, mirroring the flames that he’s stoking within me.

Unable to contain myself anymore, I push up my torso and reach out my arm, grabbing the back of his neck, pulling him to me as I press my lips against his.

Smoothly, he joins me in a private ritual, closing his eyes right away this time, letting my tongue find its way into his mouth.

It must be late into the night or in the early hours of the morning.

Who knows? Who cares?

With nothing but silence and the hushed sounds of nature in the far distance, my mind swirls down an intimate chamber of consciousness while Jake takes me into his arms, enveloping me without breaking our kiss.

Without warning, Jake stands up, never breaking our kiss as he leads me backward, leaving the warm fire behind him. We step into a dark bedroom. He draws away, flicks on the light switch, and reaches for me once more, soft and unhurried.

“I want you,” he says, and it’s as if my body responds to his words with a shudder, and a heat builds up inside me.

“Well, I’m right here,” I reply.

Wordlessly, he lowers me onto the mattress, bright eyes never leaving my face as he lowers the straps first, then pushes the rest of my clothes down, leaving me in nothing but my matching bra and underwear.

“God, you’re beautiful,” Jake murmurs, his eyes burning with desire. He leans back, takes off his own clothes, and I watch as pale light dances across taut muscles before he turns to me. In an instant, he is on top of me once more, all hard muscles and scorching heat.

He is going to drive me crazy, I can tell.

As if he senses my train of thought, Jake moves atop me, coaxing and