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“Yeah, about that.” George took a deep sip from his glass, then said, “The two of you are burning up the rumor mill.”
Jack shrugged. “No one’s business but our own.”
“When you’re in the privacy of your own home, sure. But you’re on public display, my friend. And I don’t just mean running for office. Apparently, you two left a lot of tongues wagging in town today.”
Jack grinned. “I am having trouble keeping my hands off her.” Especially after they’d made love. Christ, he hadn’t been that excited in years. If ever. The way she looked at him. The way she touched him. The way she felt beneath him, her long legs wrapped around him, her wet cunt clutching at him, squeezing him tight… If there really was such a thing as sex addiction, he might have it with this woman.
“I know it’s natural for you to do whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want,” George said. “To hell with the consequences. But with Liza… There might be some repercussions to consider.”
Jack reached into the cooler behind the bar and pulled out a longneck bottle of beer. He didn’t typically drink on the job, but the thought of his dick in Liza’s tight pussy or possibly the topic of “repercussions” had him in need. He popped the top and took a long pull before he said, “Something’s different with her, I’ll admit.”
“Not like your usual chippies from the city, huh? None of whom you ever invited to town, I might add. Not for dinner or a booty call.”
True. Jack had kept his sex life private all these years. It was easier that way. So why had he been so nonchalant about his public displays of affection today? Aside from Lydia, because he didn’t like flaunting anything in her face, he hadn’t given a hoot about who saw him with Liza. Hadn’t cared what they thought about it or had to say about it. Not when they were holding hands, not when he’d snuggled up to her in the booth at Pietro’s, not when he’d kissed her in the parking lot.
Resting his forearms on the bar, he gave George a serious look and said, “I think I want everyone to know she’s off limits.”
“For how long?” George asked. “Because once you take her off the market, she may lose the chance to get back on it. After you’re done with her, that is.”
Meaning Jack would ruin her reputation. He’d considered that last night. He may not parade his women around town, but it was no great mystery that he’d gotten around. Right up until two years ago or so. Then he’d become too busy with other things in his life. The expansion of the saloon. The morality sanction. Repairs to the house.
He thought about all the excuses he’d come up with to stay in town rather than drive over to Austin and find a woman to spend the night with.
As he took another swig of beer, a thought crystallized in his brain, telling him something more was going on than he’d originally suspected. It wasn’t just about the sex when it came to Liza.
“There’s something about her,” he told his friend. “I can’t describe it. It’s…everything, actually.”
It occurred to him that he hadn’t fucked her last night not just because he knew she wasn’t the one-night stand type. She wasn’t the love-’em-and-leave-’em kind, either. As he’d thought about her when sleep had eluded him, his body craving her touch, his mind filled with the image of her green eyes and her long legs and her full breasts, and the sounds of her sexy moans taunting him, he’d thought about what he’d wanted from this woman. And discovered in the morning that it wasn’t just a quick romp. He wanted to know her. Not just her body, but her mind too.
He had no intentions of ditching her now that he’d fucked her. He’d gotten a taste of her that left him wanting more. So much more. Problem was, she’d signed a four-week lease, had a whole life back in New York that she’d left on a whim and had made absolutely no commitment to stay in town. Or in Texas, for that matter.
All of which should make him sigh with relief. When she moved on, he wouldn’t be the bad guy for ending it. Because Jack always ended it.
But he wasn’t thinking in those terms with Liza. He was thinking in terms of a journey they were sharing, because things happening this weekend were as new to him as they were to her. He liked taking her to lunch and seeing her in his bar and sharing a bed with her. He liked that life in Wilder was new and exciting to her, because it made it that way for him too. He’d forgotten along the way the reasons why he stayed, especially with the morality sanction causing so many problems for him.
But these past couple of days he’d felt…reenergized. Ready to fight the good fight. Take on whomever he had to in order to help turn the town around.
Liza gave him a new perspective on life in Wilder. He hadn’t even realized he’d lost his somewhere along the way. But last
night, he’d been reminded of all the good his father had done before his mother had taken a whopping bite out of his dreams. Sam Wade had liked his life in Wilder before that. Jack had enjoyed his life here too, until the reverend and his crusaders had gotten heavy-handed.
There was a balance to be struck and he wanted to help people see that. This was his town as much as it was the Bains’ or anyone else. Including Liza, the newcomer. Just like the rest of them, she shouldn’t have to conform to someone else’s ideals in order to fit in. Perhaps that’s why he’d felt so comfortable showing them off as an item today.
And he truly did think of them that way. He was interested in seeing how things between them progressed, even if it might prove detrimental to him in the end. Because, again, she hadn’t committed to staying. Had a whole other life elsewhere, with someone else. A someone who might come looking for her, wanting her back, no matter how easily she’d dismissed Peter this afternoon when Jack had made his inquiry.
Frowning, he stood and drained his beer. To which George replied, “I’d say the phrase ‘she’s under your skin’ is a horrific understatement.”
Jack tossed his empty bottle in the trash. “You’d be right.”
Thankfully, he didn’t have the opportunity to elaborate, because George’s wife entered the bar and Jack busied himself opening a bottle of Chardonnay for her. George took his book and his drink and joined her at a table, where Jack delivered her wine.
“I heard the good news,” Jess said. “George told me you’re running for office.”
“Guess there’s no getting out of it now.”
She laughed. “Not a chance. Of course, we’ll do everything we can to help.”
“Just keep coming in so I can afford this joint.”
