Hotter than Texas (Pecan Creek) - By Tina Leonard Page 0,44
tire swing back as far as he could. “Hang on, beautiful. I’m about to share my secret of serenity with you.”
He let go of the tire, and Sugar swung over the creek.
“Let go!” he called to her.
“No! Jake!” Sugar let out an impressive squeal.
He laughed and jumped on the other tire swing, running as fast as he could to guide the tire into a long loop over the creek. He released himself at the apex, falling into the cool, cleansing water.
A moment later, Sugar fell beside him, making an ungraceful splash and surprising him. “You did it!”
She came up for air, pushing water at him. “I had no choice. It was let go and cool off, or stay sweaty and hot.”
He grinned. “I thought you might see it my way. Now you feel the peace, don’t you?”
She nodded, pushing her red hair out of her eyes. “This is beautiful, Jake.”
“Yeah. It is.” He floated on his back, staring up at the tree canopy overhead. Sugar pushed him under, and he grabbed her ankle as she tried to escape her misdeed. “Oh no, you don’t. You play, you pay.”
Sugar laughed. “That sounds like something one of your guy friends would say. Larry, Curly or Moe.”
Jake pulled her to him, giving her a slight dunk just for fun, mainly to hear her squeal, with which she obliged him. She shocked him by coming up for air and launching herself at his back, sinking him.
Okay, he’d forgotten she’d spent time in the military. She could take care of herself.
“Hey,” he said, holding her against him as tight as he could so she couldn’t attack him again, “I think you lost your top, doll.”
She looked down, and he dunked her. This time Sugar jerked his shorts half off his butt, and he figured as badly as he wanted to reciprocate, it would not win him any prizes with Sugar.
Instead, he tugged her to him, kissing her the way he’d been dying to do for weeks—ever since she’d shown up at his house, sassing him and daring him to call bullshit on her attitude. He couldn’t get enough of her mouth—God, she was sweet—and when she wrapped her long legs around his waist, Jake was pretty sure he’d died and gone to hell.
Because that was where men like him went when they had bad intentions. “God, you’re fine,” he said, and she kissed him till he was breathless and she was gasping with heat. God, he wanted her right here and now, in his hidden sanctuary, but it wasn’t time. He couldn’t throw himself on the fire of his horniness, because she was the kind of girl who had to be romanced and respected.
He was going to be walking with three legs for the next week.
“Jake,” she said, and he heard the desire in her voice, and it killed him to kiss her one last time, then push her back under the water.
She shot out of the water as soon as he moved his hand, launching herself at his head, taking him down under the water, which was where he needed to be, cooling off and trying not to drown.
He took her in his arms and carried her to the bank, kissing her on the forehead, the nose, the lips, and then the crest of her breasts peeking above the white eyelet blouse that was plastered against her skin.
“I don’t feel as serene as I normally do,” he told her. “It’s usually more quiet and subdued here.”
She smiled at him, her hair a tangled red mop. “I’m going to bring Lucy and Maggie here one day.”
“Think you can get Maggie to go off the tire?”
“I do,” Sugar said. “She’d love it.”
He set her on the wooden bench and adjusted his shorts, trying to get comfortable, which was hard, because wood and cool water and sticking shorts were not a comfortable combination for a man who had the problem he had. “And Lucy?”
“Lucy could go either way. She’ll either love swinging, or she’ll think it’s dumb.”
He grinned and settled her into his lap. Sugar laid her head against his shoulder, and he stared up at the canopy.
This was peace.
It wouldn’t last long—but it felt great while it did.
Peace did not last forever, which Jake had always known. PC wasn’t a place where currents of calm and serenity remained for long.
“I need a place to stay permanently,” Kel announced when Jake opened his own front door.
Jake had just dropped Sugar off not twenty minutes ago; he was