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He seemed to relax. “That’s a good description. Anyhow, they said Jenny didn’t want to be a mother and had no intention of telling me about her, so they’d been raising Kinny by themselves. After she died, they decided to tell me. They said they loved her and would keep her if I didn’t want her, but that they were getting older and finding it harder to keep up. So, I took the test and there you go. My girl was two when she moved in with me.”
“I can’t imagine. That must’ve been so hard.”
He didn’t answer, so she figured she’d let it drop, but then, he pulled her even closer. “She saved my life.”
She knew about the accident, of course, and how it had changed him. After his friend had nearly died BASE jumping, he’d pulled out of his contract to play in Canada’s junior division. He gave up hockey to help save the ranch. But Ian had just broken up with her for the very first time, and they weren’t together, so she hadn’t heard any more about it.
Jaime drew her closer. “I love her because she’s smart and funny and sassy and independent and so fucking cute I can’t stand it, but I also love her for making me pull my head out of my ass.”
“I don’t know what you mean by that. Ian thought the world of you. He wanted tobeyou. He was always talking about Calamity, how the people here have free spirits, how they can’t be tamed.”
“Yeah, well, there’s being free, and there’s being reckless. And it was having Kinsley in my life that made me understand what I’d put my parents through.”
His gravelly voice in her ear made her shiver. There was something so dark and dirty about Jaime. If she could strip off that thin veneer of civility, what would he be like? “I think you might be too hard on yourself.”
“Not in the slightest. But I’m trying. Every day, I try to be a responsible man and parent.”
“Okay, but maybe there’s a place for everything.”
He stopped dancing and just looked at her. “What does that mean?”
“Just that you can be a good and responsible parent, son, sibling, and businessman, but outside those roles… Well, I’m just saying we all have many facets. We behave a certain way depending on the situation.”
“Gracie.” A slow grin spread across his features. “Are you trying to tell me there’s more to you than a sweet smile and cute pajama bottoms?”
“You’ll never know, will you?” She gave him a saucy grin.
He squeezed his eyes shut. “Fuck.” He let go of her hand to wrap his arm around her. “You’re killing me. You know that?”
“I don’t know why. I’m not at all your type, so what do you care what I do when I’m not smiling?”
“I’m trying very hard not to care, Gracie. Very fucking hard.”
“And I don’t know why you’d think I’m the same person around my parents as I am around my siblings or my friends. That the woman I am in the bakery is the same as the woman under the sheets.”
When his hips punched forward, pressing his erection against her stomach, she realized he’d been deliberately angled away from her. “That’s enough.” He took a step back, lifted their joined hands over her head, and spun her around.
After she found her footing again, they went back to swaying in place. She should let it go—but she wasn’t in the mood for that. “I didn’t realize you were so prissy.”
“Prissy?Me?”
She had to stifle a laugh at his reaction. “I referred to sex, and you clutched your pearls.”
“Jesus, Gracie. I’m trying to—”
“Be a responsible adult. Yes, I know. But I don’t see your daughter anywhere, and you’re not in the middle of a negotiation with a sports agent, so maybe on the dance floor with a smoking hot woman, you could loosen up and have a little fun?”
As he held her gaze, his hands traveled slowly, firmly, down her back to the rise of her ass. Her breath hitched, and her body went hot with anticipation. They slid lower, grabbed both her cheeks, and then squeezed. Hard. He pulled her in, sandwiching his cock between their bodies.
Fire flashed across her skin, her knees went weak, and if she wasn’t in a crowded ballroom, she’d reach for him. She had to know what he felt like in her hand.
She could see it so clearly, what he’d be like in bed. He’d give her what no one else ever had.
She hadn’t understood it before, but she’d only ever been with boys. Even at twenty-eight, Ian was still unformed. Tough experiences had hardened Jaime into a man.
The next song brought a flood of couples onto the dance floor until there was barely any room, but she couldn’t take her eyes off him. His palms splayed across her cheeks, fingers nearing the crack of her ass. His fingers curled, fisting her dress, and the pulsing between her legs turned into a throb.
“You don’t want my kind of fun.” His voice had turned hard.
