It was weird to think she wouldn’t see her mother until Christmas. Not as weird as imagining Christmas wouldn’t be here, at home, in this house, ever again.
Pull up your bootstraps, girl. Life goes on.
That it did. AJ had cried at Liza and Noah’s wedding ceremony as they’d begun their life together. As she’d cried for Dag West, his life cut short too soon. It’d served as a reminder that things could be much worse in her life than moving away from home and unrequited love.
She grabbed her purse and drove to Cord’s. He waited for her on the front porch swing. After a prolonged kiss, without saying a word, he took her hand, led her upstairs straight to his bedroom and locked the door. He stripped her bare. The need on his face ripped straight into her soul.
His clever hands and hungry mouth were everywhere and attempted to set her skin on fire. He perched her on the edge of the bed and fell to his knees, nudged her thighs wide and bent to taste her. A few teasing swirls and he latched on to her clit and sucked.
The intense concentration on that bit of flesh and nowhere else launched her into orgasm like a rocket booster.
While she attempted to return to sanity, Cord kissed his way up the center of her torso, tickling her ni**les with his lips. “Roll over onto your stomach.”
Cord’s rough fingers caressed her arms, the sensitive backs of her thighs and calves as he placed her exactly how he wanted her—butt in the air, arms stretched above her head. He lapped her spine from tailbone to the nape of her neck, sending another wave of shivers across her body.
He maneuvered his c**k inside her on a slow smooth glide. “Every bit as good as I remembered. So goddamn good.” When he layered his muscled chest over her back to drag kisses over her shoulder, she arched, craving the contact of his warm male skin on hers. While he drove into her, he straightened up and curled his hands around her hips.
AJ looked over her shoulder at him and her heart nearly stopped. Her fantasies paled in reality to this man, so ruggedly beautiful lost in passion. Eyes squeezed shut, jaw clenched. Lips full and soft from kissing her. Sweat gleamed on his torso. The veins in his arms bulged.
Cord sensed her staring at him and opened his eyes.
AJ didn’t say a thing. His restraint snapped. He slammed into her over and over. She half expected to feel the bite of his teeth on her throat like stallions did during mating.
A guttural groan burst forth from Cord as she felt the end of his c**k twitching, and her interior muscles contracted around the rigid shaft and sent her flying into an orgasm that stole her wits.
AJ collapsed face first on the bed. Firm lips feathered up her calves. He used his tongue on the back of her knees. More lingering kisses up her thigh. Then the other leg.
On her butt. Cord spent a lot of time kissing, licking and nuzzling her lower back. Equal treatment to her arms and shoulders and by the time he flipped her over, she was shaking.
Cord kissed her until she was dizzy. Until she was sopping wet with need.
He whispered, “Again,” and picked her up, carrying her to the rocking chair in the corner. He straddled her legs across the arms of the chair and sank inside her. “Always so ready for me, baby doll.”
“You know how to touch me to make me that way.”
“You’re so damn sexy I never know where I wanna touch you first.” He lifted her br**sts to his mouth level. “How about I suck these while you’re ridin’ me, cowgirl? I wanna feel your ni**les throbbin’ on my tongue when you come.”
This go round was slower, a solid, steady rocking of the chair and a longer climb to pleasure. In the aftermath, Cord kissed her like he couldn’t bear to have their lips be apart.
They didn’t talk. They returned to bed and touched and kissed and made love until they were exhausted.
Sleepy, AJ shivered beneath the covers.
“You’re always cold.” Cord rummaged in the dresser alongside the bed. “Here’s a T-shirt.”
She slipped it on. Pathetic, but she had every intention of stealing it so she’d have something to remember him by.
“I’ve gotta check on Ky. I’ll be right back.”
When he returned, AJ noticed he’d left the door cracked open. Cord spooned against her and breathed in her hair. “Stay. Just a little while. I’ll wake you up before dawn.”
“Mmm. Okay.” She knew he’d keep his word because he wouldn’t want Ky to find them in bed together. She allowed herself to drift away.
Two sharp pokes on her arm startled her awake. Her gaze flew to the alarm clock.
Five thirty.
Dammit. It had happened again.
Two more insistent pokes and AJ moved her head to see mini-Cord, aka Ky—
wearing Superman pajamas, peering at her suspiciously. “Amy Jo? Hey, how come you’re havin’ a sleepover in my daddy’s bed?”
Crap. She elbowed Cord in the ribs.
“You coulda had a sleepover in my room.”
By Ky’s petulant expression he was upset because he considered her his friend, not his father’s friend. Her fingers automatically reached out to smooth Ky’s dark sleep-tousled hair. “No way, Jose. You snore.”
Ky smiled. “Daddy snores louder.”
“No kidding.”
“So did you move back for good? I shore missed you.” Ky hopped up on the bed, right next to her. “Are you gonna babysit me today? We could bake some of them cookies. And ride horses. Hey, wanna see the pitchers of the ocean—”
“Hang on, sport,” Cord said in a husky morning voice. “Let’s have breakfast before you go makin’ any plans.”
“Are you stayin’ for breakfast, Amy Jo?”
“I-I don’t know—”
“Please?” Two enthusiastic bounces. “Pleeeeaaase?”
She was such a sucker for this kid. “Okie-dokie, artichokie, but you’d better have a coffee cup out for me by the time I get down there.”
His face bloomed with a devilish grin that was pure bad-boy McKay. “I knew you would. You can even sit by me.” The look Ky sent his dad dared him to argue about seating arrangements.
“Why don’t you get dressed and we’ll meetcha downstairs?” Cord said.
“Okay.” Ky stood on the mattress and bounced twice before he hurled himself off the bed like a long jumper.
AJ gasped.
Cord sighed.
“Better’n last time, huh, Dad?” Ky’s little chest puffed up. “Pretty soon I’ll be able to make it all the way to the door.” He scampered out.