CHAPTER 9
Lia walked toward one of the horse barns for the grand tour alongside Jared Gordon, heir apparent of Gordon Equine.
He was handsome, polite and he lived and breathed horses. She had learned that about him already. Although, after a few long boring dinners with the senator’s son where he talked of nothing but his political aspirations, horses would be a nice change of topic.
She glanced sideways at the young Mr. Gordon. Too bad when she pictured getting hot and sweaty with a man, it was always James who came to mind.
Hmm. Now that she thought about it, this guy reminded her a bit of James. Same warm brown hair with golden highlights. Same hazel eyes swirled with flecks of gold and green. Same drawl in his speech.
But the one big dissimilarity, the deal-breaker, was the fact that when she looked at Jared, her heart didn’t pump until she felt dizzy. Not like it did when she’d seen James standing in the hallway in front of the elevator that led to the presidential suite that night so many months ago.
She sighed at the memory.
How pitiful was she? In fact, it was all she could do to prevent herself from searching through her old cell-phone calls to try to find James’s phone number so she could call him. Would an incoming number still be on there after six months? Maybe she should check.
Amelia Monroe-Carrington, calling a man. This must be what happened when a woman turned thirty.
What was that statistic she’d heard? Something like a woman was more likely to get hit by a truck than married after the age of thirty?
Humph. She could get married tomorrow to John Dickson if she wanted to, but thinking about who the candidate was, she’d rather get hit by a truck.
She brought her attention back to the tour of the farm. Jared was explaining something about his philosophies regarding natural breeding versus artificial insemination, all of which were going right over her head.
Lia smiled and nodded, a skill she’d perfected young. She was doing a good job of pretending she knew what he was talking about until she glanced up and spotted a man who literally knocked her right off her designer pumps.
Just as she was about to take a header in the dirt, James treated her to the crooked smile she remembered so well from that night and caught her by both arms.
“Easy there, darlin’.”
“You all right, Miss Amelia?” Jared was next to her in an instant, glancing at the floor, probably to see what she’d tripped over besides her own feet and shock.
She managed to nod a response to his question as she began to tremble simply from being in James’s presence again.
Lia stared up at him for what seemed like an eternity as Jared continued, “Miss Amelia. This is my oldest brother Jimmy, and my second oldest brother Jack.”
Jared made the introductions that delivered the second shock of the day. James the waiter was really Jimmy Gordon, as in Gordon Equine?
She finally managed to break her gaze from him and see the man next to him. When she looked closer at the brother under the cowboy hat, she found he was actually the cleavage-gazing bartender from the party where she’d met James—make that Jimmy. She turned back to him.
Gathering her composure, she straightened her spine and extended her hand. “A pleasure to meet you, Jimmy.”
Her voice may have been cordial, but she sincerely hoped her narrowed eyes said what she was really thinking. That being, what the hell were two successful horse breeders doing playing at being wait staff miles away and why hadn’t James—or rather Jimmy, called her after their night together?
“The pleasure is all mine.” He smirked, apparently unaffected by her subtle censure.
“We’re taking a tour of the breeding barns. You two wanna tag along?” Jared invited his brothers, not knowing what their mere presence was doing to her.
Torn between wanting to never let him out of her sight again and wanting to be as far away from him as she could get, Lia waited for the answer.
“Sure. I’d love to tag along.” His gaze never leaving her face, Jimmy smiled, which seemed to be the default expression for him. He offered his arm to her. “Miss Amelia?”
She only nodded. At the moment, she wasn’t sure her voice would function. Swallowing hard, she placed her hand in the crook of his warm, muscular arm.
The group moved on and Jimmy made a show of following, but it wasn’t long before she found herself pulled off into a deserted part of the barn.
When they were alone together, he grabbed her face with both hands.
“I’ve been waiting a long time to do this.” He grinned and then kissed her.
Hard. Demanding. He took possession of her mouth and, to her horror, she responded.
She kissed him back until she was breathless and she enjoyed it, until the relief over seeing him again was replaced with the anger and hurt she’d been harboring for six months.
Pulling away, she punched him in the arm. “Stop that, you bastard. I’m mad at you. Why didn’t you call me?”
Oh well, so much for her plan to act cool and aloof if she ever saw him again.
A fly probably would have bothered him more than her hitting him had. Smiling, he captured both her hands in his and kissed them, one by one.
Drawing in a deep breath, he let it out in a sigh. “Ah, darlin’, I wanted to. Believe me. I hate to say it, but we both know what that night together was. You’re the governor’s daughter. If I had called, you probably would have changed your phone number and gotten a restraining order.”
“That’s not true.” If it were, he’d never have been able to inflict six months of torture on her. Lia disengaged herself from his grasp and folded her arms. “You don’t know me at all.”
“Sure, I know you.” Jimmy stepped closer and pinned her between his rock hard body and a wall of stacked hay bales. “I know the cute little way you snore when you fall asleep after making love.”
He leaned down, rested his big hands on her waist and kissed his way down her neck before continuing, “I know you have a tiny tattoo of a heart on your right ass cheek, and now that I’m aware of who you are, I’m pretty sure Daddy knows nothing about it. And I know exactly how to touch you to make you come.” His voice dipped lower and if possible, got even sexier.
Her insides rebelled against her mind and twisted with need, with want, for him. “Okay. Enough. I get it.”
Jimmy smiled. “You’re right, darlin’. Less talking, more kissing.”
He leaned low and she let him kiss her again.
Let him. Who was she kidding? She loved him kissing her. There was no letting about it. It wasn’t as if she was an unwilling participant.
Running her hands up under his shirt, she remembered exactly how good it felt to touch him. She couldn’t stop the sound of pleasure that escaped her.
This kiss had affected him too. He groaned and pressed closer against her. She felt the bulge in his jeans and the need inside her grew.
“Oh, darlin’. You have no idea how good you feel.”
As charming as this country setting was, she wished they were back at the Hilton on that big bed. She braced her hands against his chest, hoping to hold back both her desire and the advance of his head toward hers. “We can’t do this here.”
“Not true at all. Here in this very hay room is where I lost my virginity.”
Jimmy’s casually delivered revelation left Lia insanely jealous of whoever that lucky girl was, even though she was probably married with a minivan full of kids by now.
The sound of voices got louder as the group began moving back toward their hiding place.
Jimmy dropped one last kiss on her lips and released her. “You’d better get back.”
She nodded but wasn’t convinced her legs would work to get her back to where she was supposed to be.
Luckily, he wasn’t ready to release her yet anyway. Jimmy curled his hand around the back of her neck. “When can I see you again?” he asked.
“Call me.”
Shocked at her own answer, Lia couldn’t stop the bitter laugh that escaped her.
He treated her to a dimple-filled grin. “Don’t worry, darlin’. This time I will.”
“See that you do.” Leaving him and his oh-so-tempting, hard-all-over body by the bales of hay, Lia moved to the doorway.
She waited and then slipped in behind the rear of the group unnoticed. Unnoticed that is, by everyone except for the other mysterious Gordon brother, Jack, who winked at her and treated her to the same crooked smile Jimmy wore so often.
Ignoring Jack, she tried not to appear too self-conscious as she ran a finger around the edge of her probably smeared lipstick.
Lipstick she could fix, but there was nothing she could do about the blush she felt creep into her cheeks or the Gordon man who’d crept into her heart.
The cell phone in her purse vibrated. She hung back behind the other visitors and hit to answer the call from the unidentified number. “Hello?”
“Hey, darlin’. See? I’m calling, as promised.”
She shook her head but couldn’t help feeling like a teenager again.
He’d kept her phone number all this time. For six long months. Somehow, that made up for the fact he hadn’t called it for as long. “Yes, so I see. Thank you. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Count on it.”
Maybe she was stupid or naïve but she did count on it—on him. Only time would prove whether she was right or wrong to do so.