The steady pulse of his climax kept time with the waves of completion rolling through her. It was, without a doubt, the best sex of her life.
Sated and relaxed, she wondered dreamily if she should catch the first plane out of Jackson. This experience had surpassed her wildest hopes and dreams. Her vacation could only go downhill from here.
3
NICK HAD EXPECTED GOOD. Good would have done nicely to bind up her psychological wounds and scratch his temporary itch. Good would have made her fairly easy to forget when she left Wyoming. But just his luck, she’d turned out to be great.
Worse yet, he’d told her so as they laughingly searched for their clothes, both of them staggering a little from the effects of incredible sex.
“You were great, too.” She smiled as she reached behind her back to fasten her bra.
He’d always adored watching a woman do that, and this woman was especially graceful at it. He had the urge to unhook her bra so she’d have to refasten it. But if he unhooked it, he’d want to touch her, and that would lead to more of what they’d recently shared. He wasn’t sure where she stood on that issue.
“I can’t tell you how this has improved my outlook,” she said.
That statement had a ring of finality, of completion, as if one session had fixed her right up and she had no inclination for another round. Bummer. “How long are you here for?” he heard himself ask while pulling on his boots.
Damn, he’d probably tipped his hand with that dumb question. And an unnecessary question at that. He could find out when he returned to the house. Ordinarily his mom welcomed the Bunk and Grub overflow guests, but she was staying in town while Grandma Judy recovered from a hip replacement. Jack must have handled getting this woman settled, and would have all the details.
“Five nights,” she said. “It was all the time I could spare from work.”
“Which is?” He shouldn’t have asked that, either. He was behaving like some lovesick fool desperate for information about the object of his affections. That was so wrong. They’d had terrific sex. Period. Sex wasn’t everything. But.he’d never had any better than this.
She buttoned her blouse. “I guess there’s no harm in saying. I own a photography studio. And before you get all impressed, let me assure you it’s strictly a meat-and-potatoes operation. I specialize in family portraits, graduation photos and weddings. The basics.”
“Nothing wrong with that.” But unless he was reading her wrong, she thought there was something wrong with that. Her description of her studio invited him to dismiss it as pedestrian. “My mom treasures her wedding pictures,” he said. “Especially since my dad passed last fall.”
His mystery woman had leaned against the truck’s front fender so she could pull on her boots. She paused in midmotion. “I’m so sorry. Was it sudden?”
“Yeah.” And he wished to hell he hadn’t brought up the subject. Way to put a damper on the proceedings. “Rollover.”
“How tragic. How long were they married?”
“Almost thirty years. They got married after I was born. I guess it makes sense, considering the times. All that free love and flower power. But then my mom got pregnant again, and that must have tipped the scales toward matrimony.” Sheesh. Maybe next he’d trot out the history of the Last Chance Ranch and regale her with that. He needed to shut up and take her back to. the road? Or the ranch house? Dilemma. He hadn’t thought past the sex, but he’d better start thinking tout de suite.
A gentleman would take her back to the ranch house. He liked to think of himself as a gentleman, despite having just had sex with a woman out in the woods, a woman whose name he didn’t know. But that had been gentlemanly, hadn’t it? She’d needed something from him, and judging from her response, he’d provided it.
Turns out it was also what he’d needed, and would probably need again soon. That was the thing about good sex. It reminded you that sex was a lot of fun and should be enjoyed more often.
In fact, maybe there was a second condom … no, that was pushing it. This area was secluded, but not so secluded that someone might not show up. Like Jack, for instance, checking on his posthole digging. That thought prompted Nick to grab the tarp, fold it quickly and toss it in the back of the truck.
“You look worried all of a sudden.” She fingercombed her short hair, which was still damp with sweat. “If it has to do with me tattling on you, then relax. That would be extremely ungrateful of me, to spill the beans and possibly get you fired.”
“I appreciate that.” He glanced down so she wouldn’t see his smile. No matter what his transgressions, Jack was stuck with him. Although Jonathan Chance Sr. had specified in his will that Jonathan Chance Jr., aka Jack, was in charge, their dad had also dictated that his other two sons have jobs for as long as the Last Chance continued in operation.
Besides, Jack needed him. Nick was a damned good vet, and the horses bred at the Last Chance were valuable and required a vet on the premises. The Last Chance herd didn’t take up all of Nick’s time, so he had other clients in the Jackson Hole area, but his primary duty was to the LC horses. Even without the terms of the will to guide Jack’s decisions, he wouldn’t trust those animals to anyone else.
That wasn’t to say Jack would let this little incident go if he found out. There was a time when he would have laughed about it, but he seemed to have misplaced his sense of humor. Nick would love to fix that problem, too, but so far all his attempts to get Jack to lighten up had failed. If his brother found out what had happened here, it could get awkward.
As if all this thinking about Jack had pulled him in Nick’s direction, he heard the sound of hoofbeats. A few seconds later, Jack rode into the clearing on Bandit, a handsome black-and-white paint who’d been named for the masklike markings around his eyes. The ranch’s topearning stud, Bandit looked as if he could have belonged to a Shoshone chief.
Jack had some Native American in him on his mother’s side, which explained his dark hair and eyes. Today he wore his don’t-mess-with-me black Stetson, although it was covered with dust, as were Jack’s jeans, his leather chaps and his long-sleeved shirt. He’d probably just finished a training session with one of the horses and was looking for something else to wrangle. His gaze swept over the scene, and his jaw tightened.
Nick did his best not to look guilty as hell. “Hey, there, Jack. What brings you out here?”
“Curiosity.” His tone was even but his eyes narrowed as he focused on Nick. “I figured you’d be done with the postholes by lunchtime and it’s nearly noon.” Turning in the saddle, he touched two fingers to the brim of his hat. “Nice to see you again, Miss Jeffries.”
Just like that, some of the mystery disappeared. Nick knew the last name of his previously anonymous lover. Soon enough he’d learn her first name, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. What if it didn’t fit his image? A woman who had stood naked and eager in the middle of a pine-scented clearing with the sun dappling her smooth skin deserved a really great first name.
He noted that Jack was behaving with polite formality by using her last name. No doubt Miss Manners would approve. Nick wondered what Miss Manners would say about using no name at all, particularly during the activity Nick and Miss Jeffries had engaged in. Nick didn’t think there was a rule of etiquette to cover that situation.
