Gold Star Chance Read online

  Maggie dried her hands on a dishtowel and turned to hug Chance fully. “I do love you, pain in my ass or not. Do your best to not turn me into someone who needs to be medicated.” She turned to Jax. “I’m leaving her in your care, because I know you will make her behave. For the next few hours, I can relax. Think about those offers I showed you. The one with the barn has been on the market the longest because of the price. It also includes the mineral rights. Rare in this day and age. It might be more land than what you want, I know. I worry the other one won’t be big enough for you to have room to ride. Either way, if any of those aren’t what you’re after, I know of another place that will come on the market in a few months. If you can stand living with Martin that long? It’s the old Richards place.” She turned to Chance. “You know the one I’m talking about. It’s beside your place. I talked to his nephew last week. Stan Richards is in a nursing home and suffering from dementia. His nephew has his power of attorney and told me Stan won’t ever be able to come home. He’s trying to get the affairs in order.”

  Chance’s face glowed. “That place is spectacular. If I’m not mistaken, we share a corner at the far western point. We’d be neighbors.”

  Chance’s smile heated Jax’s whole body. The thought of living beside Chance was as enticing as kissing her. She wondered if she could hold out another few months. Living with Uncle Marty isn’t unbearable. She’d need to see what the place looked like before making a decision. She doubted Chance would have said that the place was spectacular if it wasn’t. “Well, is there anything preventing us from seeing the place from the outside?”

  Maggie turned her head and appeared to be thinking. “Probably not. Once you’ve seen the property, I can talk to Adam. If you like it, I’ll see if he’d let you have first look at the place once he’s ready.”

  “We’ll take a drive by on the way back to my place. Can’t hurt.” Chance kissed Maggie’s temple and held up two fingers to pledge her Scout’s honor. “I promise…to do my duty…to not drive you crazy.”

  “Thank you, dear.”

  Jax and Chance made their way to the door. Before Chance let it shut, she stuck her head back inside. “For the rest of the day.” Chance slammed the screen door and headed for Jax’s vehicle at a fast clip, Zeus ahead of her.

  Jax watched her hunch her shoulders at Maggie’s loud protest. “You are such a shit, Chance.”

  Chance grinned. “She wouldn’t want me any other way and neither would you.”

  Jax backed the vehicle out of the drive. “Truth time, how are you feeling?”

  “Restless. That’s the truth. I feel fine. My arm hurts a little if I let it hang down too much. The rest of me is okay. I need to apologize to Taylor. She stopped by this morning, and I vented a little. She used her authority to shut me down. Informed me I can’t go back to work until she gets a signed release that has to come from, not just Faith, but Mom as well. Everyone keeps telling me to stop acting like a child, and I would if they’d stop treating me like one. I’m over fifty years old. I’ve been taking care of myself for a very long time. I’m fully capable of doing it for another fifty.”

  “Maybe they want you to have the chance to do just that. I get it. I fell off my horse once and broke my ankle. My office staff coddled me to the point I was ready to fire all of them. Constantly telling me to sit down. The work wasn’t going to do itself, and the practice was busy. Lacey was gone on a six-week teaching trip to London, or so she said, and there was no one else to pick up the slack. I get it, Chance. Honestly, I do. The difference is, you had a head injury, a grade three concussion. If it was just your arm, no one would be bitching at you half as much. You were unconscious, and that puts the concern at an entirely different level.”

  “So, she wasn’t in London to teach?”

  Jax glanced over at Chance and slowly shook her head. “Out of all that, you zeroed in on that piece of information? No wonder you drive Maggie crazy.” She laughed. “She was there to teach, except that wasn’t the whole story. I can’t tell you which affair this was, in all honesty. A British counterpart that she met at a seminar asked her to come and teach on exotics. I didn’t think anything of it until a mutual friend sent me an email with a photograph of the two of them sucking face in a London night club. It wasn’t the final straw, only one more on the camel’s back. She apologized, and we went to therapy. The next affair was with one of our office staff. That was the final straw. It was time, and I didn’t want to try any more. She obviously didn’t think I was worth being faithful to, so, I decided to come back to where I felt I could make a difference.”

  “That’s some pretty heavy baggage, Jax. I don’t know how you did it for that long. I had a girlfriend that cheated on me once, while I was out on a jump. I came back early from a deployment and stopped by without calling first. I used my key to get into her place, flowers in hand. I walked in on her and a local police officer. I didn’t say a word. I put the flowers on the counter with my key and never went back.” Chance scratched lazily under Zeus’s chin and shrugged. “She showed up at my work trying to find out what happened. I told her to drop off whatever she still had of mine to my office. She was none too happy. She was pitching a fit, until I showed her the photo on my phone of the gun belt and uniform strewn around her apartment. I got my stuff and I never heard from her again.”

  “Oh, Chance, you’ve got to be kidding?”

  “I swear on Dad’s badge.”

  “I was fortunate enough to only see the flirtation. Thank heavens I didn’t witness the actual act. No one deserves that. What an ass she was.”

  Chance stared out the side window. “Yeah well, according to what her friends told me later, that’s what happens when you leave someone alone over and over. It wasn’t like I went on vacation without her. I was working. In the end, it was better to find out before I made a commitment I wouldn’t break.”

  They spent an hour at the barn. Chance visited each horse before they headed over to the Richards farm. “Take that next left, let’s go see the place together.”

  Jax did as directed and drove up a tree-lined road. A canopy of leaves shaded the gravel, until a simple, two-story farmhouse came into view. The front porch had two wooden swings that hung from the ceiling on long chains, and several wooden rockers. Two large, red barns sat forty yards or so from the farmhouse.

  “Oh, I love it already! The barns are stealing my heart. Anything in the house can be fixed. Hell, if it’s that bad, I’ll tear the place down and build. I wonder how much total land is with it?”

  Chance laughed. “I’m sure Maggie can tell you. Think you can stand living with Marty a while longer?”

  “I can if it means I get this place.”

  “You don’t even know what they’re going to ask for it.”

  “It won’t matter. Let’s just say, price isn’t an issue. Remember, Lacey bought me out of a multimillion-dollar practice. Given what I could have told and proven to her family, she was very generous with our split. California’s a no-fault divorce state. The family scandal would have been worse than the amount of money they offered me to go away. Trust me, it was a drop in the bucket.”

  “Damn, girl.”

  Jax winked. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Chance. I hope, with me living here, you’ll have plenty of time to fix that.”

  Chance’s grin swallowed her face. “Count on it.”

  Jax followed the circular driveway back out. More than once she caught Chance looking at her. “What?”

  “You’re even more beautiful than when we were kids. Back then, you turned every head, male or female. Mine especially.”

  “How about now? Do I still turn your head?”

  “You don’t just turn my head. You turn my whole body around and into a raging inferno.”

  Jax furrowed her brow, “What?”

  “Jax, I need to kiss you and feel your skin on mine.”

  Jax’s entire body heated, and she jerked the wheel. “You can’t say things li
ke that to me, I’ll wreck us.”

  Chance turned fully to Jax. “You’ve been wrecking me for over thirty years, in my dreams.”

  Jax quickly pulled off the side of the dirt road. A cloud of dust enveloped the vehicle. She released her seatbelt and grasped Chance’s face in her hands. “I’ll second that emotion. Now shut up and kiss me.”

  Their lips met with an almost palpable hunger. Jax threaded her hand into Chance’s hair, anchoring her in place. She plunged her tongue into the warm mouth. Chance met her with equal fervor, and Jax felt a hand possessively cup the back of her neck. After what seemed like an eternity, the two broke apart. Chests heaving, they let their foreheads touch, as each breathed in the exhalation of the other.

  Jax could barely speak. “Wow.”

  “Yeah, what you said. Some things don’t change. You still turn me into a pile of mush.”

  Jax traced Chance’s lips with her finger. “I’ll take that as a good sign.”

  “It’s a very good sign that I’m still crazy about you.”

  “That feeling is more than mutual. I also know it grows harder, every day I’m around you, not to touch you. I’d like that to be more frequent than it is now. The being around you, I mean.”

  “Nice to know I’m not alone in that. I’m on fire, Jax. Every cell of my body is crying out for you. The day I looked up and saw you at the command post, someone threw gasoline on the torch I’ve carried for you deep down in my soul. Hell, when I woke up in the ER, I was down at the riverbank, reliving my eighteenth birthday with you.”

  Jax put a hand up over her mouth. “You’re kidding.”

  “I swear! You were just about to give me my birthday present when I regained consciousness. Do you have any idea what it’s like to wake up from an erotic dream of one of the best days of my life, in the presence of my ex-girlfriend?”

  “Oh Chance, that is so wrong.”

  “You bet it’s wrong. We hadn’t even got to the best part yet. I’d just untied your top.” Chance smiled and gave her a toothy grin, clicking her teeth together.

  Jax squirmed uncomfortably. She remembered holding that tie to Chance’s lips and letting her pull the knot out. The smirk Jax couldn’t contain reached her toes.

  Chance ran a finger down the side of Jax’s face. “I think you remember that moment as much as I do.”

  Jax held up her hand. “I plead the fifth.”

  “I was legal and so were you. It wouldn’t have mattered if we weren’t. I’d never wanted anything or anyone that badly in my life. The minute I saw you again, it was as if years melted right into the ground.”

  “Not going to lie, I felt the same way. You walked out of my dreams. I had no idea whether you’d even want to see me.” Jax cupped Chance’s cheek and ran her thumb over the soft lips in front of her.

  “I have an empty house not far away. I think we should get started on a reenactment.”

  Jax couldn’t help but laugh. “You think so, huh?”

  Chance leaned over and kissed her with enough heat to melt the polar icecaps. “Nope, I know so. Drive, Dr. St. Claire.”

  It took Jax a few minutes to bring her pulse rate back down, allowing the blood to flow back into her brain. “Kiss me like that again, and I’ll recreate your birthday present right in the bed of this truck.”

  Chance leaned over and nipped at Jax’s earlobe, causing her to shiver in pleasure. “I have so many more things I want to do with you beyond kissing you senseless. Put the truck in drive, Jax.”

  Jax needed a few deep cleansing breaths to clear the red haze of arousal and desire from her eyes. When she could see clearly again, she moved the gearshift. With great restraint, she pushed on the accelerator.

  It took only minutes to reach Chance’s from the Richards property. They stumbled into the house, leaving Zeus in the yard. Jax spun Chance against the wall and kissed her with the desperation their separation fueled. She pushed her hands under the tight, black T-shirt and ran her hands up the hard oblique muscles that rippled under her fingers. She wanted this woman badly enough that if they didn’t find a bed, she’d take Chance right there against the wall. Back then, she’d been the more aggressive of the two of them. She’d always felt Chance was holding back, afraid to be too forceful because of her larger frame and strength.

  “Let go, Chance. I won’t break. You take me to your room, or I’m stripping you down right here in your kitchen.”

  She watched something flash across the flinty blue eyes. Chance’s pupils dilated. Before her eyes, Jax saw the passionate girl she’d fallen for turn into a beautifully powerful woman. With one quick motion, Chance turned Jax to the wall and bent slightly. Jax felt a strong arm, slide under her ass.

  “Hold onto me. Don’t think, hold on.”

  Jax did as asked. She wrapped her arms around Chance’s neck and her legs around her waist, as she felt herself being lifted into the air.

  “Holy shit, you’re strong.”

  “You ain’t seen nothing yet, baby.” Chance marched through the house and down the hall. “Wait until I have two good arms.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind. For now, take me to bed, Sheriff.”

  Chance walked into her bedroom and kissed Jax, as she gently placed her on the bed and covered her with her own body. “You have entirely too many clothes on.”

  An arched eyebrow was the only warning Jax gave before she pushed Chance over onto her back to straddle her. With crossed arms, she grabbed the bottom of her T-shirt. Once her long hair pulled through the neck, she tossed it to the side. “Your turn.” She pulled the shirt from Chance’s shorts and slowly began to pull the fabric up over her torso. Her eyes locked with Chance’s. She let her fingers play along the center line that separated the abdominal muscles, scratching lightly. Chance arched into her touch.

  “Oh God.”

  Chance flinched slightly when Jax used a sensuous touch to slide her fingers along the raised lines of scar tissue that randomly intersected up her left side.

  Jax bent and kissed the juncture of her shoulder. “You’re so damn sexy.”

  Chance ran the back of her hand across Jax’s chest forcing a sharp intake of breath as she popped the front clasp on the black silk bra, releasing her breasts. “From my vantage point, you’re the sexy one. Do you know how long I’ve waited to feel you straddle my hips again?”

  “About as long as it has been for me, a lifetime.” Jax leaned forward and held herself above Chance. “And too damn long. Sit up so I can get that shirt off you.”

  Chance complied, and Jax pulled the T-shirt and jog bra off her body. Chance reached up and explored Jax’s shoulders with feather-light touches. She traced the collarbones that bordered the prominent hollows that joined with the muscles of her neck.

  Chance groaned, as Jax bent and took a nipple in her mouth, sucking it in. She reached up to cup the back of Jax’s head, pressing her lips harder into her flesh. “Shit, Jax.”

  “I’m through waiting to touch you and make love to you. It has been too damn long. I have no intention of waiting one more second to be with you. We still have too many clothes on and this going slow is killing me. Off, now!” Jax’s tone broached no argument.

  ***

  They struggled to divest themselves of the rest of their clothes, before Jax resumed her position straddling Chance. The incredible feeling of this beautiful woman’s wet center felt like liquid heat as it met Chance’s skin. She put her hand over Jax’s breast and squeezed, gently at first, before pinching the nipple, making the lithe body arch into her touch.

  She cursed her casted hand. “I’ve waited for this for so long. I’m dying to touch you.”

  “Then do it. Nothing’s stopping you and it’s well past time.” Jax stared into her eyes, her pupils so dilated, they looked like black pools of ink, liquid and fathomless.

  Chance moved her right hand between their bodies. Without any further foreplay, she buried two fingers deep inside Jax. She felt her lover rock back and forth. With eac
h movement, her fingers pushed deeper inside. The feeling was exquisite and passion burned with the intensity of a flashover, as she watched Jax put her head back.

  “Don’t stop, Chance. Don’t stop.”

  Chance knew in her heart, she’d give Jax anything she asked for. She rolled them over until the most beautiful woman she’d ever seen lay beneath her, rocking her hips to meet Chance’s thrusts. She leaned on her left elbow, as she tried to hold her weight off of Jax. The heat of their reunion burned her skin, as she closed her lips around Jax’s nipple and bit down. She felt fingers weave into her hair and hold on tight. She needed to taste her, and she was determined to make that happen as she kissed down Jax’s body until she lay between her thighs, hovering above her center. Chance lowered her mouth and felt Jax buck against her so hard that teeth met pubic bone. Worried, she pulled back to look at her lover, but Jax pushed her head back down.

  “Please, I need you. Now.”

  Those words lit a fire inside of Chance more powerful than the wildfire that had seared her skin so many years ago. As Chance took Jax’s clit between her lips, she sucked until she felt Jax’s back arch off the bed. When she added a third finger and crooked them, she felt the tremble start in Jax’s thighs. Chance reveled in the feeling that transported her back to a place she hadn’t been in a long time.

  “Chance!”

  The flood of Jax’s climax filled Chance’s mouth, and she drank as greedily as if she’d been in the desert, dying of thirst. Still wanting more, Chance coaxed her lover to a second orgasm by flicking her tongue back and forth across the still hardened clit. Jax trembled beneath her touch, yet never asked her to stop, encouraging Chance to continue as she met Chance’s thrusts. The feeling of Jax’s center clenching hard around her fingers, made Chance feel safe and at peace. It’d been a gift to touch her all those years ago. She held this moment with the same reverence. When the spasms subsided and Jax’s legs trembled, Chance climbed back up the body beneath her and collapsed into Jax’s arms.