Playing for Keeps/A Tempting Stranger (2 page)

Read Playing for Keeps/A Tempting Stranger Online

Authors: Lori Copeland

Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #General, #Contemporary, #Westerns, #test

BOOK: Playing for Keeps/A Tempting Stranger
2.64Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
 
Page 16
to scratch behind the soft furry ears. ''You miss her, too, don't you?"
Picking the cat up in her arms, she continued on to the big airy kitchen that used to be so alive with the smell of breads and cakes baking or some other delectable aroma drifting from the old stove that sat in the corner. She put the cat down and headed for the coffeepot and plugged it in. Then she set a small saucer of cream down on the floor for Tabby and waited for the pot to perk.
Taking her coffee to the oak table sitting in front of the open window that looked out onto Aunt Rainey's backyard, she sat down. All her aunt's flowers were there to see, blooming in rare profusion, almost as if in silent tribute to her. Two lilac bushes were spilling their fragrance into the yard as Jessica's gaze found the big old "snowball bush" she had played under as a child for so many hours in the late summer evenings. As she drank in the fragrance her mind jumped back to that night Jason had come to her in the shed.
Jason had stepped into the dimly lit shed, his eyes squinting to adjust to the near darkness. "Are you in here, Angel?" He called her by the pet name he had always used when they were kids.
"Yes, Jason," she murmured, wishing desperately he would call her sweetheart or darling or something romantic just once instead of Angel. Angel sounded so-so young!
Jessica's pulse began to race as he knelt down beside her, the faint aroma of his aftershave washing over her. His large hand reached out to stroke the calf's side gently before his eyes roamed slowly over the low cut of her beige sundress, his emerald gaze boldly fastening on her voluptuous breasts. Jessica met his blatant stare, her eyes beginning to sparkle dangerously.
"Mercy!" Jason seemed at a loss for words. A cocky little grin spread rapidly across his face. "When did you, 'er . . . grow up, little girl?"
 
Page 17
Jessica flushed a bright crimson as she tried to pull the top of her dress up a little farther. ''What's the matter, Jason? Isn't Marcygrown-up?" she retorted snidely. Marcy Evans was a
gorgeous
redhead Jason had been dating for the last few months.
Jason shook his head longingly, that little grin still on his handsome face. "Not asuhgrown-up as you are, Jessie."
Jessica stood up, totally disgusted with the whole conversation. "Excuse me, Jason, but I have a date." She tossed her head regally and started around him.
Jason stuck his muscled arm out on the rafter directly behind her, blocking her exit. "What's your hurry, Angel? I didn't hear a car drive up."
Jessica felt as if someone had suddenly shut off the supply of air to her lungs. Jason's face was dangerously close to hers now, his beautiful green eyes languidly running over her slightly flushed face. Jessica began to tremble as he brought one large hand up to cup her face gently.
"Damn, little Jessie!" he whispered huskily. "I think you've turned into a woman while I wasn't looking."
Jessica smiled weakly, her eyes locked hypnotically with his. "You
definitely
have not been looking. I can testify to that!" She laughed shakily.
"How old are you now, anyway?" Jason ran the tip of his finger around the creamy perfection of her jawline, turning Jessica's knees to water.
"Seventeen."
"Is that a fact? Seventeen," he mused lightly, his soft breath fanning her face. Jessica moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue, the feeling of light-headed giddiness assailing her now. "I wonder what it's like to kiss a girl of seventeen," Jason teased softly, his fingers tracing soft patterns along her face.
"I'm sure if anyone would know, you would," Jessica breathed unsteadily, her hands working their way up shyly around his neck. This had to be some glorious,
 
Page 18
wonderful dream, and Jessica prayed she'd never waken from it.
Jason's arm dropped from the rafter to encircle her waist, tenderly drawing her closer to his lean, taut thighs, his breathing quickening. ''No, you're wrong there, Angel. My women are usually a little older than seventeen"he grinned"but I have a feeling I'm about to establish a new recordeven for me." He brought his mouth down to brush gently across Jessica's quivering lips. At first contact with Jason's mouth Jessica grew even weaker, and she leaned feebly against his granite frame.
"What's the matter, Angel, haven't you ever been kissed before?" He drew back hesitantly, his face seriously scanning Jessica's.
"Of course I've been kissed before," Jessica whispered raggedly. "Just neverby you."
Jason's mouth turned up in just a hint of a smile as he brought his mouth close to hers. "And you
still
haven't been kissed by me, but I plan on taking care of that . . ." His mouth came down gently, then opened more fully over hers, his tongue reaching out to search demandingly for hers. Jessica had been wrong! She had only thought she had been kissed.
Never
had she been so totally caught up in a man's arms, so completely powerless over her own body. She surged against Jason, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck, her body straining for closer contact with his. The kiss deepened as Jason's hands came up to cup one of her breasts tenderly, the soft white mound fitting perfectly in his large hand . . . almost as if it had been made for his hand only.
"Jessie! Where are you, girl?" The booming voice of Uncle Fred rang out as Jessica and Jason broke apart, breathing in quick, short spurts.
"Jim's, here, Jessie."
Jason dropped his arms from around Jessica's waist reluctantly. "Your date's here."
"I know," she whispered."
 
Page 19
''Well, old woman of seventeen," he said, drawing her back for one last long kiss, "I'll be seeing you around. Thanks for my lesson on kissinguhyounger women!"
Jessica was still having difficulty in catching her breath as she gulped, "You're welcome. And thank
you
," she finished timidly.
Jason pushed his Stetson back on his head, eyeing her seductively, his mouth forming a wicked grin. "My pleasure, Angel."
Jessica stepped out of the shed, her pulse still pounding. She had just experienced one of the most wonderful events of her life, but she really wished it had not happened. Although it was something that she had daydreamed and fantasized about over and over again, she knew it would only be harder now. There would never be a future for her and Jason. He was ten years older than she, and no matter what had taken place a few minutes ago, she was still "little Jessie Cole" to him.
The next few days dragged by slowly for Jessica, her mind unwillingly reliving the moments in Jason's arms that hot evening in the old shed. She would wake in the middle of the night from a fitful sleep and lie in her dark room remembering the feel of his persuasive mouth on hers, and tears would rise swiftly to her eyes as a sense of total helplessness engulfed her. "In a few weeks she would leave for college and never have the opportunity to see him except on occasional visits home. Sighing softly, she would toss restlessly and stare out the large window beside her bed. The quiet sounds of the night would fill the room as Jessica's eyes drooped sleepily. Her last coherent thoughts before sinking back down into soft gray mist would be of golden-brown hair, kissed by the sun, and the most beautiful jade-green eyes God had ever put on this earth.
Jessica came back to the present with a sense of deep loss and took her empty cup to the sink, rinsed it out, and put it in the side drainer. She'd better finish packing away
 
Page 20
some of Aunt Rainey's personal possessions, she decided reluctantly.
She had worked steadily through the hot morning, removing old memories, when it suddenly occurred to her that she wanted to stay here in the old house that held so much of her past.
Well, why not,
she reasoned. She had no real ties in Austin. She could easily inform the school that she would not be back this fall. For the last four years she had taught home economics in the local school system there, living in her small garage apartment, not far from the school.
Yes,
she pondered,
why not move back here?
Maybe with the inheritance she would receive from the estate she could start her own little catering business, something that had been on her mind now for quite awhile. Even though the town was small, she thought that it could accommodate such a business. Nothing elaborate, just something big enough to support her and give her the opportunity to do what she loved bestcook (or ''create," as her professor in college always said).
For a brief moment Jessica let her mind teasingly play around with the idea of what her life would have been like if Aunt Rainey and Uncle Fred had not intervened in her marriage to Jason. Right now she would probably have a home of her
own
to care for. That's what she really wanted more than anything in the whole world. She couldn't wait for the day when she would have her own yard full of flowers and children to care for and a husband to cuddle close to every night and share the wild, joyful union she had experienced with Jason that one wonderful night eight long years ago.
Jessica sighed wistfully, taking another one of Aunt Rainey's dresses and folding it. Here she was, twenty-five years old, and she still didn't have any of those things. Not that she hadn't received plenty of opportunities, because she had. In fact she had been very seriously involved with a professor two years ago, but somehow there always
 
Page 21
seemed to be a large void in her life in the area of love. So she broke off that relationship and since then had kept all her suitors at a distance. After every brief courtship she came away with the distinct feeling that Russell or Mark or whoever was not who she wanted in her dream house. No, only one face kept recurring to herone with lazy green eyes, a golden-haired chest, and a warm caressing mouthbut he was lost to her forever.
She felt guilty that she had not been back home more often in the last few years. Every letter she had received from Aunt Rainey had the same theme: Come home for good, Jessica. Toward the end, when their health was failing rapidly, Aunt Rainey had apologized for her and Fred's interference in her marriage and begged Jessica's forgiveness. She pleaded that they had done what they thought best at the time but had been plagued by doubts over the years.
Jessica had written to assure her that she loved them and forgave them, although the hurt was still deeply entrenched in her heart. She could never come home again to stay, and she hoped they understood.
It honestly wasn't all their fault,
she thought resentfully. If Jason had
really
loved her, he would have fought harder to keep the marriage. Instead he had walked away that morning eight years ago, and she hadn't seen him since.
Well, she was ready to change her life nowto come back home. She was adult enough to live in the same town with Jason. After all, he was just a mangranted, an exceptional man, but a man nonetheless. And she
certainly
wasn't the same love-sick girl she had been eight years ago. There were
plenty
more fish in the sea where he came from. She was just going to have to look a little harder for the one she wanted, that was all.
She packed away the rest of her aunt's belongings and went into the bedroom to dress. Standing in her bikini bra and panties, she searched through her closet for something
 
Page 22
to wear, letting the tiny bit of breeze coming through the open window cool her sticky body.
Boy, how I wish I could put on a pair of shorts and a cool halter top,
she thought, giggling out loud as she imagined the look on Judge Baker's face had she really had the nerve to show up like that.
He must be a least seventy years old by now, or maybe older
, she thought. He had been not only Uncle Fred's lawyer but a very close friend of the family's all the years she was growing up.
Discarding the idea of the shorts, she reached for a cotton wraparound skirt instead, adding a matching lightweight top with tiny threads of lavender running through it. The trim on the blouse brought out the violet of her eyes. She always managed to have a fairly decent tan, she mused as she twisted around in front of the mirror hanging on her closet door, so she wouldn't need any hose. It was at times like this that she really appreciated the dark coloring she had inherited from her Spanish mother and grandmother. Even in the dead of winter she always had a golden-brown glow about her. In the summer it turned to a deep bronze shade.
Deciding she would pass inspection, she reached for her brown strap sandals and bounded back down the stairs, pausing in front of the hall mirror to check her hair. She ran a brush through the long, thick dark tresses and thought back to that night when Jason had come to take her out.
Jessica, Uncle Fred, and Aunt Rainey had been sitting on the large front porch of the old farmhouse after supper that Saturday night, hoping to catch a cool breeze in the hot early evening. Aunt Rainey sat fanning herself with a paper fan, her crisp cotton housedress beginning to wilt in the stifling heat.
''I don't know what were going to do without you, Jessie, when you're gone," Aunt Rainey said with a sigh, "but I'm as excited as if I was going to college myself." She beamed.

Other books

The Age of the Unthinkable by Joshua Cooper Ramo
Close to You by Kara Isaac
The Fateful Lightning by Jeff Shaara
IGMS Issue 9 by IGMS
Bones Omnibus by Mark Wheaton
Wood and Stone by John Cowper Powys
The Arraignment by Steve Martini