The Best Of Blaze - Six Sexy Romances

She knew he was kind of a big deal with NASA. They’d invested a lot in him and she imagined his knowledge of the training requirements would be a boon. “Okay. I guess we owe it to ourselves to give this a shot, don’t we?”

“We do,” he said. “How should we word this on the form?”

She looked down at the papers Rupert had given them, tucking a stubborn lock of hair behind her ear as she read. She tried to focus, but she was very aware of Jason standing close. Watching her.

She’d made a decision... She wasn’t sure when but there was a surety in her now that hadn’t been there before they’d walked into Rupert’s office. She was going to take this time with him and not look back. She had thought she’d have her dad with her forever and if his death had shown her anything, it was that she couldn’t wait to say and do the things she wanted. Time would keep moving on, of course, and the people who came into her life might move on, too. She had no guarantees of anything with Jason. Even if he never went back to active duty he might leave.

“I’m not sure,” she said at last. “You want to read it over? I’ll go get Shirley and see if she can help us.”

He came closer and she caught a whiff of his aftershave, remembered how she’d breathed it in when they’d laid on the grass and held each other. She closed her eyes and then pushed herself back from the conference room table.

Business. She needed to get this taken care of first, and then put this passion between the two of them to the test. See if it was going to be one quick burst or something that might last longer. There was no denying it. And she was tired of pretending she didn’t want him.

She patted him on the ass as she walked by him toward the door.

“Be right back,” she said.

But he was quick. She’d had no idea he could move that fast. He reached past her and put his hand on the door. Then he turned her in his arms and leaned over her, his hands on her shoulders as he pressed his body to hers.

“I thought you were mad at me?”

“Don’t think. That’s been the problem all along. We’re young, we want each other and if we know anything it’s that life goes fast and we aren’t guaranteed anything beyond this moment.”

“Really?”

“Hell, yes. I’m tired of being smart and pretending that I don’t want you, Jason—I mean, Ace.”

“I like that you call me Jason, even though I asked you to call me Ace. Reminds me that I’m a man, not just an astronaut,” he said, putting his forehead against hers.

This time she framed his face with her hands and kissed him. She didn’t care about anything except the way his mouth felt against hers. How impossibly right everything about this kiss was to her. She needed. Needed to believe that she was living and not just waiting for something to happen to her.

She was taking what she wanted with both hands.

6

SHE GRABBED HIS WRISTS and pressed his body into the door. Her breasts brushed his chest and he hardened in a rush as she leaned up against him and bit his earlobe.

“What are you doing?”

“Is it really that confusing?” she asked with a wink as she kissed his neck and then bit him lightly. “I’m taking control. I realized that I have been standing still for too long, rocket man.”

Rocket man.

His profession meant something to her. He heard the inference in her voice, but he was so turned on by her body close to his that he couldn’t figure it out. He couldn’t think.

He felt her hair on his neck, soft and smooth, smelling like summer strawberries, and he remembered his long year in orbit and how he’d started craving things. One of them had been sun-warmed strawberries.

He was hard and everything in him was focused on her breasts against his chest, her lips on his skin. The way she held him as if she wasn’t going to let go until she had what she wanted from him.

He wanted to give it to her, whatever she needed. Wanted this moment to never end. The air-conditioned coolness of the room contrasted with the heat that was burning inside him. He was inflamed by the way she kissed him, the passion that she’d let slip until it consumed the both of them.

He pulled one his hands free and reached behind her to cup her ass, drawing her forward. The fabric of her dress was light and he imagined he could feel her skin beneath it. He lifted her off her feet as she wrapped one leg around his thigh and pressed against the length of his cock.

Reaching between them, she rubbed her hand over his zipper and his hips jerked toward her touch as her caress moved up his chest and neck. She scraped her fingernail over his jaw and leaned up to whisper in his ear.

“I know that I’m not as mysterious as the universe...”

He let her feet fall to the floor. “The cosmos I can explore and understand through science, but you have always been a mystery to me.”

Her lips were red, her skin flushed and desire was still there between them, but he wanted their first time to last the afternoon, not be a hurried coupling in the lawyer’s office.

“Let’s finish up the paperwork. I want to be alone with you,” he said.

She nodded.

She pushed past and walked out the door. He turned to the window that looked out over the street, willing his body to calm down. Reminding himself that he was always in control. But with Molly he wasn’t. She rattled him.

Maybe staying at the ranch was stupid, but he’d never been one to back down from a challenge—and this was most definitely a challenge.

He wanted her. Wanted to prove to himself that he could have her and still go off on the adventures that had always defined him. But what about Molly? She’d said she wanted to live for the moment. Did she really understand what that meant? What it would be like when he had to leave?

The door opened behind him and he glanced over his shoulder to see Shirley standing there.

“Molly asked me to show you how to fill in the paperwork,” she said.

He nodded and walked around to the other side of the conference table, sitting down across from Rupert’s secretary.

“Tell me what you want to use the ranch for,” she invited.

He told her, but his mind was on Molly. Where was she? Had she run from him again?

No, she hadn’t. She strolled in a few minutes later. He could tell she’d splashed water on her face. She sat down next to Shirley.

He relaxed as soon as she did and he knew that what he’d been telling himself, that making love to Molly would bring him back to normal, had been a lie. There was no way that he was ever going to feel normal where she was concerned. She rattled him on a soul-deep level and made him want things he didn’t think he’d ever really be able to have.

Shirley and Molly went to the other room to get more forms and he sat there wondering what was wrong with him. He could see himself living on Mars or spending his life up amongst the stars, but he couldn’t imagine being in a romantic relationship that wasn’t fleeting.

When she came back in, he read over the typed notes and the asterisk she’d added at the bottom that said if he was off the planet for more than two years she would be solely responsible for managing their inheritance.

She knew he wasn’t staying.

And still she had kissed him like she wasn’t going to let him go.

* * *

SIGNING THE PAPERS took them into the late afternoon. Rupert wanted them to come back to his office once they knew if the NASA plan would be moving forward. If it didn’t work, they’d be back to square one.

Molly listened to Jason telling Rupert about the facility and realized she was out of her depth. She only understood about an eighth of what was said in the meeting. She had a lot of work to do to prepare for this. Though she hoped her main responsibility would simply be liaising with the facility and keeping the ranch and NASA elements separate.

Seeing Jason in his element, listening to the passion in his voice as he spoke about the long-term missions, awed her. When the meeting ended, Rupert stepped out and Jason turned to her, catching her staring.

“You okay?”

She nodded. “This is really different than ranching. I don’t know how effective I’ll be as a co-director.”

He winked at her. “I’ll handle the space stuff. You’re a great manager,” he reminded her.

“I think I’d be better as a liaison,” she said, gathering up everything she’d brought with her today and putting it back in her bag.”

“Okay, that works, too. Are you expected back for evening chores?” he asked.

“Rina isn’t expecting me. I wasn’t sure how long this would take.”

“Good, would you join me for dinner?”

“That would be nice. What did you have in mind?”

“Ray’s Bar-b-que,” he said.

Ray’s was an institution in Cole’s Hill. There were some folks who drove all the way over from Houston or down from San Antonio to eat there. It was a big old smokehouse where they pit-roasted brisket for some of the best barbecue she’d ever had.

“Sounds good. If you go get dinner, I’ll pick up some cold beer at the grocery store. We can eat in the park,” she said.

“Sounds like a plan. See you there in thirty minutes.”

He walked out of the conference room and she sat there for a few more minutes before Shirley came in.

“Are you almost finished?”

“I am.”

She left the law offices and walked down to the small grocery store to pick up drinks and dessert. Then she carried the bag back to the park. She sat on the same bench they’d used that morning.

The day hadn’t turned out at all as she’d expected. Everything had changed—how she saw Jason, what the future of the ranch might be. She felt panic in her stomach the way she did whenever things changed. Sometimes she felt like the big, worn oak tree that stood behind the barn. Rooted so deeply that the wind barely made the branches sway. She liked it. Consistency was what she wanted and needed. She knew things couldn’t stay the same, that change was necessary. But as much as she knew she needed to accept Jason’s plan for a new facility in order to keep the ranch in the family and to ensure its continued success, she wasn’t too sure about it.

“You’re looking way too serious for a picnic,” Jason said as he walked up to her. Now he had a baseball cap on, not his usual cowboy hat, and his sunglasses hid his eyes from her.

“Dad used to say I could worry about a new pair of shoes.” It wasn’t much of an answer, but maybe he’d let it go. Please, she thought.

“You always have been very serious. I have a suggestion, if you’re game.”

“I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t,” she said.

“Good. I parked next to your truck. Why don’t we head back toward the ranch? I know a nice, secluded spot where we can eat our dinner.”

That suited her just fine. She needed time alone with her thoughts.

They went back to the trucks, and Molly followed Jason’s pickup until he pulled off the road. Then he got out of his truck and hopped in the cab of hers.

“This is our property,” she said.

“I know. Drive toward that copse of trees,” he said.

She nodded, putting the truck back in gear. They bounced over the field as the sun started sinking low toward the horizon. She parked near the trees. Jason got out and then walked around to the bed of the pickup. He put down the tailgate as she joined him and he climbed into the back of the truck, unfolding a blanket that he must have tossed back there before he’d gotten in the cab.

“You’ve thought of everything.”

“I try. Part of my job is being prepared for anything,” he said.

“You must be very good at it.”

“I am. That’s why I’m determined to make this facility work,” he said.

She sat on the tailgate and then swung her legs up, settling down next to Jason on the blanket. She pulled the grocery bag closer and handed him an ice-cold Lone Star beer before taking out a tub of potato salad and some forks. “I didn’t get any plates. I figured we could share.”

“That works for me,” he said, giving her a sandwich.

She opened the paper wrapping and closed her eyes, breathing in the scent of the barbecue beef sandwich. “I swear heaven must smell like this.”

He laughed and she blushed. “It’s been a while since I’ve done this.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t around when your dad died,” he said.

“It’s okay. Today in that meeting, I realized you are doing exactly what you should be.”

“I’ve always thought so, but now I’m questioning it,” he said, taking a big bite of his sandwich.

She watched him chew before shaking herself and turning away.

“That’s just because of your health.”

“And you,” he said.

She knew he meant the ranch and the attraction, nothing more. And she was fine with that. But a part of her wished it really was about her. Molly, the person, not his business partner, not his fling. Not Mick’s daughter.

* * *

HE’D NEVER THOUGHT about getting older or the years passing. He always lived his life one day at the time. But he had to face things now. It wasn’t just his health that weighed heavily on his mind. Mick had only been sixty-five. He’d probably imagined he had years ahead of him to spend with Molly, get the ranch in order, do everything that mattered. Ace was only thirty-one, but his job was dangerous and life was uncertain. He didn’t want to miss out on the important things—and for the first time he wondered if some of those things might be right here on Earth.

“I mean that,” he said to Molly. She’d shrugged slightly when he’d said she was part of what was changing him.

“Sure you do. We’re partners. We will be taking on a huge responsibility if NASA awards that bid to us,” she said. “You better be serious. I have no clue how to do any of it without you.”

“You’d figure it out pretty quick. Besides NASA will hire all the other personnel. The Cronus program has a few people in place but they will add more once the facility is built and staffed. Are you happy with this decision?” he asked. “I hope I didn’t force it on you.”

“I’m okay with it. The only thing that would have truly made me happy was finding a way to go back to how things were. You know?”

“I do know. It’s hard to see your home change and to realize that you have to embrace it or lose it.”

“It is. I didn’t know you thought of the Bar T like that,” she said.

He glanced over at her, removing his ball cap and putting his sunglasses inside of it. He took a deep breath.

“I was thinking about my childhood home.”

“Oh. What happened there? You never talked about it when we were younger,” she said, taking a sip of her beer and shifting on the blanket until she could rest her back against the wheel well, stretching her legs out in front of her. “Unless you don’t want to say.”

“I wouldn’t have brought it up,” he said, smiling at her. “I lived in a low-income apartment complex. My old man was gone before I was born. Mom got sick, pancreatic cancer. They moved her to hospice, and after she died no one seemed to remember me. So I just lived in our apartment by myself. The water and electricity worked for about two months and then they shut it off, but no one came to take over the apartment. I started shoplifting food, and then fell in with a bad crowd...”

She reached over and rubbed his leg. “I’m sorry.”

“Mick told me everyone knows heartache. Some of us just get more of it than others,” Ace said. Mick had been laconic with his words, but what he did say always seemed to be exactly what Ace had needed to hear.

“Sounds like Dad. Being here helped you, didn’t it?”

“Yes,” he said. “More than I can say.”

“When I was younger I never understood why Dad took you boys in. Jeb tried to explain it to me when I was being a bratty teenager and not talking to Dad, but I still didn’t get it until just now. We had so much and I’m really glad that Dad invited you and the other boys to share it.”

“Me, too,” Jason said. Mick had saved him. Not just from jail but also from the man he might have been. Someone who never thought to dream of the stars.

“I am going to have to talk to the bank tomorrow,” she said.

He shook his head.

“What?”

“We’re on a picnic—no talk of chores or business,” he said.

“What will we talk about?”

He leaned against the wheel well on his side and stretched his legs out next to hers. He crossed his arms over his chest. There was so much he wanted to know about her; he wasn’t sure where to start.

“What did you do after high school?” he asked.

“Went to community college in Houston for one semester. I got an apartment near campus with Annabelle, do you remember her?”

“Vaguely. You used to hang out with her in the summers, right?” he asked. He had an image of a redheaded girl in his mind, but he wasn’t sure if that was Annabelle.

“Yeah. Anyway, turns out she is very messy and not too disciplined, so we didn’t like living together and I didn’t much like college so I came back home and took some online classes in business management. Dad thought it would be good for me when I took over the ranch.”

“Was it?”

“Yes, so far. What did you do when you first left the ranch?” she asked.

He didn’t want to talk about himself. He wanted to know more about her. What she’d said about her friend intrigued him. “Are you a clean freak?”

“What?”

“You said Annabelle was messy,” he said.

“Oh. I just like things in their place. Orderly, you know. She left stuff everywhere.”

“I like things orderly, too,” he said.

“That makes sense. On the ISS you have very little room,” she said. “What’s it like living in such a small space for a year?” she asked. “I think I’d go crazy if I couldn’t go outside, breathe in the fresh air and walk through the fields.”

She gestured to the ranch and he noticed how slim her arms were, how gracefully she moved.

“You would.”

7

“I GUESS YOU have the whole universe spread out before you, though. The ranch must seem small compared to that,” she said.

He tipped his head back, staring up. As the sun set and the sky darkened, she saw stars and satellites twinkling in the sky.

“It does. But most of the time all I can do is look at the surrounding stars and the Earth through the space station’s windows,” he said at last. His voice was low, husky and relaxed. He seemed to be at peace, which she’d never noticed in him before.

“Most of the time?”

“Space walks,” he said. “I put on a space suit, tether myself to a line and go out for an extravehicular activity. I love the freedom of floating around up there.”

“Isn’t that scary?” she asked. She was scared just thinking about him up there, exposed and vulnerable. She reminded herself that he was nothing more than a guy she knew from childhood. A guy who turned her on, made her hotter than a two-dollar pistol as her gramps used to say. Yet he seemed like more than that somehow. He attracted her like nothing—no one—else ever had.

“No more so than galloping across the field when a horse has its head,” he said.

“But if you fall from a horse, you don’t have far to go.”

She was still trying to understand the draw that universe had for him.

“You could easily break your neck and die,” he said at last. “But the thrill of letting your horse run across the field, of feeling the wind whipping around you, of being free—it’s enough of an incentive that you don’t worry about that possibility. You know the risk is worth it.”

She uncrossed her legs and sat up from where she’d been leaning. As the darkness deepened and it became harder to see his features, he revealed things he wouldn’t say in the light of day. It had been the same two nights ago when he’d gone riding with her.

Why was it they both felt safer in the dark?

She couldn’t dwell on that.

“What if your tether breaks? What if you just float away?”

“I’d be out there with the stars, seeing parts of the universe only a handful have ever seen... I’d say that would be worth the cost.”

“It seems too big, too scary for me.”

“Some of the things you do scare me,” he said.

“Like what?” she asked. “You’ve done everything I do.”

He put his hand on her leg, just held it loosely, but a shiver went up her body. “Okay, maybe that’s true, but I hated it—at least when I first arrived at fourteen. I was so dusty and dirty and every night when I went to bed, I’d stare out the window above my bed and think about being up there with the stars.”

Even when he’d been closest to her, he’d been just out of her reach. She knew this. Why did she keep trying to find some way to convince herself he was the kind of man who’d stay?

She should stop thinking of him as Jason and remember he was Ace. That’s all he could ever be to her.

Ace.

Superstar astronaut. Heart in the stars. He was here because he was grounded. As soon as the all clear came he’d be gone.

He hadn’t even hesitated to sign that document earlier that had given her the right to make all decisions about the ranch if he was off the planet for more than two years.

“Why did Dad give you half the ranch?” she asked.

He shrugged. But she felt that he knew more.

“Don’t lie.”

“Lifting my shoulders isn’t lying,” he said.

“Not telling the truth is. Please, tell me,” she said.

“He told me once that he was afraid you’d never have a chance to be anything more than what he and the Bar T had made you. I guess he didn’t want to put the full weight of owning the ranch on you. Maybe he thought I’d be able to help.”

She could hear her father’s voice in Jason’s words. Heard the worry he’d felt in the last few months before his accident. Tears burned her eyes and she blinked, trying to stem them, but failed. “Why didn’t he ask me what I wanted?”

“Maybe he was afraid of the answer.”

She hugged herself and put her head down. The ache she felt for her father was all-consuming. She just wanted one more hug. One more chance to smell that unique scent of Old Spice aftershave and worn leather. To know she didn’t have to worry because he was there.

She felt Jason’s hand on her arm.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“Me, too. I... What did he think I’d do?”

“Live. He said that he suspected you were hiding from something here,” Jason said.

She went still. The tears stopped and she realized her father knew there was more to her coming back from Houston than a messy roommate.

“What are you hiding from?”

* * *

TALKING NEVER WAS her strong suit. She’d never learned to hide what she was feeling, to protect herself. She pulled her arm out from under Jason’s and scooted toward the end of the truck. She hopped down and stood there. Twilight had darkened and she was caught between night and day. She was dressed up rather than wearing her usual jeans and scuffed boots. She almost felt like she didn’t belong here right now.

She was a mess. She’d been pretending for too long that she wasn’t. Thought she was going to make a deal with Jason and somehow get the ranch back on solid financial ground once and for all. But now she acknowledged she’d been kidding herself. She was never going to get out of this morass.

She knew it as surely as she knew that she’d been sending mixed signals all day. She wanted him. She wanted to lose herself in that sweet crush she remembered from a more innocent time. When she’d had no idea what real heartbreak and loss felt like.

Jason slid to the end of the pickup truck and sat there, his legs hanging over the tailgate as he quietly watched her. She noticed that he had on some kind of hiking boot, not Western boots. He wasn’t a cowboy. How many times was she going to have to be faced with that knowledge before it sank in?

“You okay?”

No.

“Of course. I mean, you just told me my dad thought I was hiding, and I had to make a deal that requires me to let strangers come onto my land. I’m partners with a man I barely know...yeah, I’m great.”