Jack could hardly believe after 20-plus years he finally felt like a man in every sense. But this time felt completely different in every way.

Not the least of which was the way his body felt sinking into her, in the bed of his pickup. He had thought his connection to Wendy had been real, and their lifelong friendship had a lot to do with it. But after she had changed, he had changed. There had never been another woman to penetrate his soul, mind and spirit like Maggie. And there was nobody who ever made him feel such a strong urge to fight, flirt and fuck. 

When she simply asked when they could get married, he suddenly saw his whole future come together like a jigsaw puzzle he’d been working at for centuries. Finally, someone had thrown open the curtains and there was light, and everything made sense. 

As if that wasn’t enough luck for one night, when he’d leaned in to kiss her to seal the deal, she was warm and welcoming and hungry all at once. He watched her breathlessly pull away and let him watch her unbutton her shirt all the way down, exposing another barely there bra, which nearly failed to hold in her breasts as she bent over to peel off her jeans. 

He offered to take her to a more comfortable location. “Maggie, we can go home first if you want.”

She had smiled at him and said, “Nah, I’ve always wanted to get messy in the back of a pickup.”

When she was done with her little striptease, Jack was ready to make her squirm. He smoothed his hand up her thigh as she stood over him, palmed her tight belly. 

“C’mere.” He took her hands and pulled her down toward him. No way did he want anyone else getting a glimpse of his woman’s body out here in the wide-open plains. Maggie landed in his lap, straddling him and pushing him back against the soft mound of blankets. 

“You’ve had a long day, cowboy, let me take care of you.”

As nice as that thought was, Jack was not having it. He wasn’t a tired, old man. Especially not around Maggie. “Don’t even try it, woman.”

Jack lifted her like a breeze, caught her with one arm between her thighs, the other arm stabilizing her injured shoulder, and nested Maggie upright against the pillows. Slightly above her, he spread her thighs open to him.

She seared him with a look of surprise and delight and ache. She wanted it bad, but there was no way he was going to let her run this show. He was a man, goddammit. His blood ran hot with desires, and his cock was as hard as it had ever been at the age of 16. He drank in the look in her eyes as he inched his way down and found her core to get her nice and ready for him. He needn’t have bothered. What his hands and mouth found there was already dripping and begging for it. She gasped and cried out a little as his lips tenderly kissed her lower lips and his tongue made contact with her erect little pebble. Oh, she tasted fantastic when she was primed for him.

“Your pussy is ready for me, Maggie.”

She sighed. “Yes, Jack.”

“Me and only me.”

“Yes. Please.”

He kissed, licked and nibbled his way up her body, over her belly, stopping to suckle at each nipple, while his thumb ripened the other. Maggie’s torso arched up toward him. He could tell she was closer to losing control with every touch, lick, and bite. He was making her literally squirm underneath him.

Bracing himself with one hand on the rim of the pickup bed, Jack finally powered into her. Maggie locked her thighs around his torso and drew him in deeper. 

“Woman, you are so tight and you feel so good you should be an illegal substance.”

Her thighs hugged him closer still, and she whispered, “Grab my ass and bite my nipple so I can come at the same time as you.”

Jack smiled inside at her inability to just let him be in control. But no, he wasn’t going to let her tell him what to do. Instead of following orders, Jack reached under her and lifted her hips. To her shock, he traced a finger down between her buttocks and inserted the tip of his finger into her anus as he gave one last push. He detonated inside her. Maggie’s own climax took her by surprise and she slammed into him, her cervix flexing and convulsing around his cock. 

Too late, he remembered he had condoms in his nightstand. Oops. Next time he’d have to remember to put some in his glove box, now that he knew she liked to do it in his truck.

They rode their orgasms together until she collapsed under him, breathlessly. 

Maggie was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. And he’d seen plenty of beautiful things in the world. She lay under him, flushed and satiated. Just knowing he had done that to her almost had him ready to go a second time. Nobody had ever done that to him.

And it was that overwhelming sense of happiness that compelled him to speak his truth. He just hoped he wasn’t about to make a complete idiot of himself.

* * *

Maggie could hardly believe what she was hearing. 

Mostly because she could hardly hear at all, with her whole body floating 100 feet in the air. Jack was good. Really, really good. 

“Maggie,” he said. “Baby. I want you to know I will never treat you the way those other guys treated you. I want to go back to what we said to each other on the dance floor. I can’t see my future without you. I know I’m not much of a catch, but I love you. And I hope you can find your way to loving me.”

She could barely breathe. But in a good way. When she floated back down and came to her senses, she registered everything he had just said. Did he just say he loved her? He did. That’s what she had heard.

Every sensible part of her told her to be careful. Just because she’d never heard those words from Alex or any other man didn’t mean this time it was different. 

But her heart told her head to shove it, and she took a leap. “Jack, I don’t know what you see in the mirror, but you’re the fucking Silver Fox of Middleburg. As far as I’m concerned, you’re mine and I’m keeping you. You’re stuck with me. I have loved you since the moment I watched you lay out that Easley turd in the bar. And Jack, I do not mess around. If we’re going to do this, then let’s do this. As soon as possible.”

The two of them wrapped each other up in the blankets and made plans to go to the courthouse the next day to apply for a marriage license. Despite being naked under the Iowa night sky, she felt safe in Jack’s arms. As long as they were together, she had a protector and someone who would have her back. She made a mistake leaving the farm the first time; she would never make that mistake again. This is where she was meant to be: working with a good man during the day, and feeling that man against her skin and inside her at night. Their tender words turned into mumbles, mumbles into sighs, sighs into the even, deep breathing of the kind of sleep that can only come under the watch of the moon, the crickets and the barn owls.