She’d chosen to stay.

That was not lost on Lucas.

The moment Jenny had walked across the apartment and kissed him would forever be stuck in his memory.

When he’d hit the Texas border all he’d wanted was to someday see her, apologize, and try to be friendly. Now he was knuckle deep in her pussy, her legs wrapped around him and still not quite sure how they’d gotten there. All he knew was that Jenny didn’t hate him, and they’d both been hiding deeper feelings for almost a decade.

“What’s that stare supposed to mean?” Jenny’s pink cheeks and swollen bottom lip were about the best things he’d ever seen.

“It means I’m waiting for you to catch your breath.” He curled is fingers inside of her.

Jenny’s jaw dropped and her gaze slid toward the ceiling. Her vaginal muscles constricted around him.

If he were a gentleman, he’d back off. Give her the chance to leave, to be done with this. He couldn’t bring himself to go that far. If she woke up tomorrow and regretted this, he wanted to have had the full Jenny experience. It was selfish and he knew it. Until she said stop, he’d push for more.

“Oh—God.” She wrapped her hand around his wrist and tilted her head forward. She stared at him, her pupils larger, swallowing up the iris, skin flushed. “Okay—now.”

Lucas replayed those two words back a few times.

Part of his mind was screaming to stop, asking if this was really happening, but the rest of him couldn’t stop. Jenny was naked, on his kitchen counter, telling him to fuck her. The woman he’d loved, the woman no one else could measure up to, was giving him a green light. He sure as hell wasn’t pausing to reconsider.

He reached into his back pocket and prayed he still had a condom on hand. He laid the wallet on the stove and Jenny snatched it up, flipping it open.

Lucas ducked his head and licked a nipple.

“Lucas...” She shuddered against him and arched her back a bit.

He wrapped his lips around her, gently biting down on her breast. Her answering groan was pretty damn encouraging.

He needed to think about non-Jenny things for a moment. It wouldn’t take much for him to come, and he’d like to be inside of her for more than a hot, life-altering second. She’d come pretty damn fast, but there was a hell of a lot of anticipation on both sides.

Jenny’s hands slid along his stomach, groping at his belt. She seemed to have given up on words.

He straightened, her delicious little gasp the best thing he’d ever heard, right after, okay—now. He might have those two words tattooed on him for the hell of it.

“You doing this, or am I?” Lucas braced his hand on the counter, canting his hips toward Jenny. He pressed his thumb just above her clit, not on it.

“Oh, not fair...” She shifted, biting her lip, her body still reacting to him. She jerked his belt free and grinned.

“Easy.” He winced.

“Did I hurt it?” She pressed her palm to his groin and grinned. “I’ll make it better.”

Jenny leaned forward, her breasts resting against his arm, and unfastened his jeans. She eased the zipper down, her face lighting up like it was Christmas.

Maybe this went deeper for both of them. If they’d each kept the flame alive for the years they’d been apart, that had to mean something, didn’t it? Could Jenny feel the same way about him?

He knew he loved her, and that’d always been his problem. But it wasn’t a hurtle anymore. There was nothing keeping them apart.

Jenny’s hand wrapped around his cock, tugging him closer.

“Fuck,” he muttered. His vision hazed a bit and invisible fingers stroked down his spine.

All from one damn skin-to-skin touch.

God, he hoped she came fast again, then he wouldn’t have to feel quite so bad.

She’d ripped the wrapper open at some point, probably while he was mesmerized by her tits. Her hands rolling the condom on was the best feeling ever, to date.

Jenny grinned at him, her heated gaze spurring on his own desire. He slid his fingers out from her slick channel and she pulled him toward her. He watched her fit the head of his cock against her pussy, no hesitation. If anything, she was just as turned on and into this as he was.

He pressed into her, not daring to breathe as her labia parted and he slid into her body.

Fuck, it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

He gasped for air and reached for her, grasping her hip with one hand and splaying his other hand against her back. She wrapped her arm around his neck, pulling him in closer. She kissed him and he could taste the years of pent-up passion on her lips.

Lucas thrust, joining their bodies completely. Jenny gasped, her lips parting. He licked the inside of her mouth, wanting so badly to be in her in every way possible. In her body, her heart, her mind.

She shifted, her internal muscles squeezing him.

He withdrew and her breathing stuttered, her nails digging into his shoulder. He flexed his hips, driving into her harder than he intended, but damn. She groaned and curled her legs tighter around him.

He grasped her hips with both hands and lifted, thrusting deeper. Jenny let go of him, bracing her hands on the counter, lifting in time with him. She stared at him, her gaze spurring him on as he pistioned in and out of her body.

Her head dropped back, and her body seemed to ripple. The keening wail of pleasure sent goose bumps across his shoulders.

“Fuck—Jenny.”

Lucas bit his tongue to keep from finishing that sentence.

He loved her.

He fucking loved her with every piece of his soul, mind, body—all of it.

He rocked into her, burying his face in the crook of her neck and let the orgasm take his mind.

They stood there for several long seconds, neither speaking, clinging to each other.

If it weren’t for the sting of nail tracks across his shoulders he might be tempted to think it was all a very realistic wet dream. But it wasn’t. Deep down he knew this was real.

Lucas could never tell Jenny the truth, the role he’d played in Walker’s arrest, which had begun the downward spiral that’d broken them apart. If she knew the truth, what he’d done, she’d never forgive him and they would never get the chance to be together.

“Oh...” Jenny chuckled into his ear.

“What?” He peered over his shoulder.

Omen lay on top of their shirts, her little legs pointed at the ceiling, tongue lolling out.

“She’s so cute,” Jenny whispered.

“We just had sex and you want to talk about my dog?” Lucas kissed Jenny’s cheek.

“Well, you shouldn’t have picked a cute one.”

“I didn’t pick her. She picked me.”

“The best ones do.” Jenny kissed his cheek.

g

Jenny re-checked the soaps. Again.

It was like someone had attached an IV of pure caffeine to her for a good hour. Oh, she’d snoozed blissfully wrapped up in Lucas’ arms, and then, around five o’ clock, her eyes had popped open. For the life of her she couldn’t lie still, so she’d rolled out of bed, taken Omen out and then woken Lucas up long enough to lock the door behind her. Coming into work early was just a thing to do, something to keep her busy while her mind obsessed about a couple key points.

Lucas was home.

He not only forgave her, but they’d had sex.

All she’d intended was to kiss him, if that. Oh, she’d hoped for more, maybe said a few, silent prayers they wanted the same thing, but she’d tried her best to be realistic about what could happen between them.

Dear God, she’d had sex with Lucas.

It still didn’t seem real.

The front door chimed.

Jenny frowned.

Had she unlocked it?

Damn. It was technically still too early and she wasn’t ready to listen to clients.

“Morning,” a familiar voice hollered.

“Kellie.” Jenny strode for the front of the shop, relieved and nervous about facing her friend.

“Hey.” Kellie leaned on the front counter, a bottle of water in hand and her skin damp with sweat. “I wanted to come by, check on things.”

“Everything’s good,” Jenny said slowly.

“Carly has class this morning, but she wanted me to,” Kellie pulled out her phone and squinted at it, “remind you that she needs the pictures for the website and to let her know about the services page.”

“Oh—shit. Right. I was supposed to do that last night.” Jenny slapped her hand across her brow. Carly was spearheading a website for all the local businesses up and down Greenville. It was a fantastic idea to increase business and promote the area as the place to be.

“Yeah, I told her to bump you down the list, which I think just made her a whole lot grumpier.” Kellie sighed.

“How bad is it?” Jenny cringed.

“Well, Jacob’s kid was born last night, so I imagine Carly will be a bitch all week, which sucks because she’s going to take it out on Lucas.”

Jenny winced. She felt for Carly, truly she did, on a level that few people would understand. “Yeah.” Kellie pointed at Jenny. “That’s the face I’m making on the inside. I’ll talk to Lucas about it, kind of clue him in, and hopefully it all goes well.”

“Just tell him.”

“Yeah, but it’s Carly’s life. I mean... She dates. She has boyfriends...but...”

“It’s Carly’s life.” Kellie held her hands up.

Jenny got it. She did. But at some point Carly had to wrap her head around the fact that the man she loved was married and had a baby. Those were not small obstacles, no matter if Jacob didn’t love his wife, if it’d been an arranged marriage, or any other reasons that could be piled on.

“And speaking of Carly’s life, her ex is coming in today for a tattoo.” Kellie took a long pull on her water bottle.

“Oh, dear... Which one?” Jenny leaned on the case, her chin propped in her hand.

“Uh, I’m not entirely sure. He was on the team, though. I think Will?”

“Please no...” Jenny remembered the needy guy. He’d seemed cool at first, but under the cool-guy look was someone way too co-dependent for someone like Carly.

Some people might let a life-changing accident like getting paralyzed from the waist down end their dreams. Not Carly. It was one thing Jenny admired about the young woman. She’d defied her parents, choosing to live how she wanted, she had friends, she was almost done putting herself through college, she’d played some sort of wheelchair rugby for a while and she dated. Dear God, her romantic life was more exciting than Jenny’s had ever been. And yet, she was falling victim to the same trap Jenny had—forbidden romance.

“How are you doing? With Lucas back, I mean?” Kellie’s question was totally innocent, and yet...she didn’t know.

“Good.” The less Jenny said, the less she gave away, right?

“No weirdness or anything? I mean, I know you two were close when all that shit went down with Walker.” Kellie grimaced.

“Yeah.” Jenny swallowed down those memories. “My problem was never with Lucas.”

“Good, I’m glad to hear it.”

A car pulled up to the curb outside of the shop. Jenny pushed through the little swinging door and flipped on the Open sign.

“Okay, I’ll let you get to work. Wish us luck today. Pandora is going to be in sometime this afternoon, so that should be fun.”

“She’ll be fine with it.” Jenny opened the shop door for a woman toting a large pet carrier. “Good morning.”

Kellie ducked out after the woman with a wave.

“I’m so glad you’re open.” The woman set the carrier down and swiped at her brow.

“Who do we have here?” Jenny knelt and peered into the carrier. A dark form crouched in the back, trying to make itself as small as possible.

“I heard on the radio that the new shelter? The no-kill one? They’re at capacity and having to turn down animals. I just—I couldn’t do nothing.”

“Yeah? So who do we have here?” Jenny spoke in a low, soothing tone. She eased down to her knees and elbows.

“They were trying to adopt out some of their animals and this little girl, well, I just looked at her and I couldn’t leave her. She’s timid as a hare. I just had the vet look her over, but I was hoping we might be able to do something to make her feel better.” The woman reached down and opened the carrier door. “Come here, Lady, come on.”

The hunched figure edged forward, responding to the woman with a wag. The pup crawled forward, belly on the ground, until she could lick the woman’s fingers.

Jenny covered her mouth with her hand and blinked rapidly.

The animals fur was patchy and old scabs flaked off from where she’d been hurt.

“She was one of a handful of dogs they rescued from a fighting farm.” The woman sat on top of the carrier and the dog seemed to ooze out until she could put her head on her human’s knee.

Jenny swallowed, trying to find words.

“Such a brave, beautiful girl,” the woman muttered at the pup.

“She is.” Jenny dug into the pouch at her belt and pulled out a treat. “May I?”

“Please! Do you think you can do anything for her? I mean, I know it’s vain to want to help her look better, but... I just feel like if she looks better maybe she’d feel better?”

“Well, we want to be careful with her. These spots look healed, so what we can do is a conditioning treatment that’ll help her skin and hair. I wouldn’t want to do too much to her all at once, but we can even out her coat, help her feel more comfortable in the heat.” Jenny offered the pup one treat then another and another. She stroked through the dog’s fur.

Someone had washed and tended to her carefully. Despite her rough appearance, her hair and skin seemed to be in good shape. Her nails weren’t terribly long.

“Where did you say the shelter was?” Jenny asked.

“Hopeful Paws? It’s down in Deep Ellum. The girl who runs it is a doll. Plus, they have a bunch of the local firemen out helping this weekend.”

Jenny hadn’t wanted another dog since Batman passed, but she had the strangest urge to rush down there right now. Maybe it was having Lucas back? Or seeing Omen? Things were changing, and maybe it was time for her to change, too.

“Okay, well, let’s see what we can do for Lady.” She gave the dog’s head a pat and slowly stood.

Lady’s transformation would be a slow process, something they had to work at. It sounded an awful lot like what Jenny had gone through herself.

•  •