Devil in Texas (Rugged and Risque 1)

Several topics later, their meal arrived and silence ensued. Then they gave up their table for another group that had been on the lengthy waitlist. Obviously tourists, as the locals clearly knew Mike and Ruby’s was the place to be—and required a reservation if one was to eat at a respectable hour.

They stepped outside and George said, “I’d suggest we go for a cocktail somewhere, but…”

“Actually,” Liza said, “I don’t mind if we call it a night.” She was beat. “Are you okay with that?” she asked Jack.

He grinned down at her. “You said something about a massage and a hot bath earlier, so…” He let his voice trail off as he grinned at her.

Her stomach flipped. “Jack,” she said, trying to sound shocked over his audacity in mentioning something so private in front of Jess and George. But of course she wasn’t. Couldn’t say the idea was too far from her mind either.

Jess said, “So I’ll see you tomorrow morning around eight?”

“Be there with bells on.”

Jess gave Liza a quick hug, startling her. “I’m so glad you came to Wilder.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Though, in her exhausted state—both physical and emotional, because she’d responded in a way she hadn’t imagined to the people who were actually kind to her—Liza wondered if she was getting in over her head.

Planting seeds she wasn’t quite ready to cultivate…

&

nbsp; Chapter Sixteen

They went their separate ways and Jack helped Liza into the cab of his truck. When he pulled up to the cottage, she waited this time for him to round the vehicle and open the door for her. She knew he liked doing that. She could give him that one, she thought with a smile.

They walked up the pathway and crossed the porch. She unlocked the door and turned back to him. Jack propped a forearm against the doorframe and leaned in to kiss her.

“Hmm, that was nice,” she said on a sigh when he pulled away. Her arms wrapped around his neck, she whispered in his ear, “I’m still interested in that bath. You game?”

“If it’s what you want.”

She smiled at him. “You already know what I want.”

He groaned.

She rushed on. “But I could use a little de-stressor. A nice, hot soak to warm me up and relax my muscles.”

His blue irises deepened in color. “Whatever you want,” he repeated.

Taking his hand, Liza led him into the bathroom. While the water ran in the oversize tub that sat beside the glass-enclosed shower, she turned to Jack and went to work on the buttons of his black dress shirt. She stripped his clothes off slowly, running her hands over his body as she discarded the material and revealed his hard muscles and smooth skin. He watched her enjoy touching him. Her fingers glided over the defined ledge of his pectoral muscles, one nail scraping against a nipple, causing him to suck in his breath.

She smiled as she leaned toward him and kissed his warm flesh. Her lips trailed over his chest to the other nipple and she licked it, then sucked on it.

Jack’s hands gripped her hips. “Thought we were taking a bath,” he said in a tight voice.

“We are,” she whispered back as she flicked the nipple again with her tongue.

“Liza,” he said in that warning tone of his.

Her hand smoothed over the front of his dress pants, gliding along his erection. Jack groaned and she let her fingers slide lower until she cupped his balls.

“I like making you hard,” she told him in a soft voice.

“And you’re damn good at it.” He let out a low growl as she stroked him through the loose material at his crotch. “Problem is, I want to act on it.”

“Patience,” she whispered as she moved her hand back up to the waist of his pants. She unhooked his black leather belt, released the button and slid the zipper down its track. It made an erotic sound against the flow of water behind them. “Bath first.”