The Last Second Chance by Lucy Score
7
Joey kicked Romeo into a canter and enjoyed the bite of the wind against her cheeks. God, it was a beautiful day to ride, though it was cold enough to leave Waffles back at the stables. The January skies over Blue Moon were turquoise and cloudless. Being in perfect sync with well over a thousand pounds of thoroughbred muscle beneath her always amazed her. That two beings could be so connected without technology, without words. To her, that was the miracle.
She guided the horse in a sweeping turn along the fence line lest he think she was giving him the go ahead for the fence.
“Another time,” she murmured to him. The bay’s ears twitched an acknowledgement. She let him run for a few more minutes before slowing Romeo down to a walk. Joey took a deep breath of the razor-sharp winter air.
Gia had her yoga, and Joey had her solitary rides. Just her, a horse, and Mother Nature. This was her window of sanity in days otherwise packed with work and responsibility.
She had two lessons tonight and the paperwork she’d been avoiding for days. But right now, she had this perfect, solitary window of peace. She loved it though. Every single second of it. She spent her time doing only the things that were important to her, except when Summer or Gia dragged her into something social. And even that she didn’t mind much anymore. She had friends, she had her horses, and she had her work.
What more could she want?Joey automatically brushed aside the restlessness that arose without examining it.
Joey could feel Romeo’s energy vibrating under her. He wanted to run, to play. And maybe she did too. “Okay, buddy. Let’s have a little fun.”
She kicked him into motion again and slid both boot-clad feet out of their stirrups. Keeping the reins in her hands, she gripped the saddle horn and brought one knee onto the saddle.
She extended her free leg back and up, toes pointing and stretching to the sky. Romeo maintained a rock steady canter while she balanced carefully, every muscle active, every breath deep.
She wasn’t sure if she sensed him first or if Romeo did. But he was there all the same. Jax. He sat just on the edge of the tree line astride Cyrano, a dapple-gray quarter horse with an attitude.
She took a moment to hate the echo of awareness she had for a man she didn’t know anymore.
Joey didn’t have to see his face to know he was pissed.
And that pissed her off. She thought about turning and heading back to the stable, but Joey Greer never ran from a fight. Sometimes she galloped into them.
She pulled Romeo to a stop in front of Jax, careful to keep a safe distance between their mounts. Cyrano had the tendency to get a little mouthy.
“What the hell are you doing?” Jax said the words quietly, calmly. But there was a dangerous anger simmering beneath the surface.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” she asked evenly.
“Like you’re trying to break your neck, riding like an idiot.”
Far smaller sparks had ignited infernos between them. Joey took one of those deep, cleansing breaths that Gia was so fond of. The set of his jaw, the snap of fire in those sharp gray eyes. If he wanted a fight, then who was she to deny him.
“I know what I’m doing,” she said coolly.
“Being incredibly irresponsible? What the hell kind of stunt was that?” Cyrano shifted nervously under him.
“One I’ve been working on for a while, along with several others. You’ve been gone a long time, Jax,” she reminded. “I’m not a kid anymore.”
“I can see that.”
She swore the heat from his gaze penetrated her winter layers and licked flames over her skin.
“Then, using that stellar deductive reasoning of yours, you can probably figure out that a lot of things have changed around here in eight years, including my level of skill on the back of a horse.” She said it flippantly in a way designed to goad him.
“I’m not questioning your goddamn skills, I’m questioning your sense. You flinging yourself around on the back of a horse without safety equipment or anyone to call 911 when you crack open your thick head is stupid.”
Romeo had wandered close enough that Jax grabbed his bridle. He pulled her mount closer until their legs were brushing. “Would you let a student come out here by herself and mess around like that?”
“I was just having fun. I didn’t realize that was illegal.” She hated that he had a very small, practically insignificant point.
“I need you to be more careful. Do this shit in the indoor ring. With a helmet. And your trick saddle. And someone else around.” He was waving his free hand around as if he was conducting a symphony of pissed-offness.
“Geez, Mom. Calm down.” She rolled her eyes.
He grabbed her by the front of the jacket. “Don’t.” He said it quietly and with heat.
“Jesus, Jax. Knock it off,” she said shoving at his hand.
“Promise me.”
She could feel the muscle under her eye start to twitch. She hated conceding to anyone. Especially Jax. But he was more than stubborn enough to keep her out here until she agreed. It would take days for anyone to find their frozen bodies.
“Fine. I promise,” she growled through gritted teeth.
“Good girl.”
That pissed her off enough to take another dig. “Why do you even care anyway?”
He still had a good grip on her jacket. “You know why, Jojo.” He yanked her closer until she had to brace herself against his thigh.
“Why?” she challenged. Why did she so desperately want to hear those words from him again? Would she start believing them if he kept saying them?
“Because I never stopped loving you. You’re it for me.”
And there it was, that jagged rush of elation followed by the slick dive of doubt. He left her, abandoned her in a hospital bed all those years ago. Whatever love meant to Jackson Pierce, it wasn’t what it meant to her.
“Then where the hell have you been?” she snapped, trying to wrestle free from his grip. But without clocking him right in the face, he wasn’t letting go. Joey growled in frustration. “Forget it. Just forget it. I don’t know how to ask you anymore than you know how to answer me.”
A hint of a smile played over his lips. The dark stubble that covered his jaw gave him a dangerous look. “We never were very good at conversation. We communicated better in other ways.”
She didn’t fight him when he pulled her in to him. But the battle erupted when their lips met, each fighting to be the aggressor. It was a war that could leave them both as casualties.
Why did she want him? Why did she need his hands on her? Her heart would never forgive, so why did her body crave his touch? Could she be with him physically and still keep her heart safe? There was only one way to find out.
And it terrified her.
Joey steadied herself by bracing her hands on his hard thigh. His groan of approval had her fingers flexing into the denim. She let the warmth of his mouth flood her body with heat, testing, always testing how far she could go and still hold on to her heart.
She slid her hands an inch higher on his legs and was rewarded with a growl. Her tongue tangled with his, determined to take control. But his hand busied itself at the zipper of her jacket. It gave just enough for Jax to rip off his glove and shove his hand through the opening, palming her breast through the layers of thermal and flannel.
It was closer than they’d been in nearly a decade, and it wasn’t close enough for either of them.
Romeo shifted nervously under her, and Joey pulled back, dragging her hands down his thighs as she went. His mount pawed the ground.
“We should move before Cyrano takes a chunk out of Romeo,” she said through lips swollen from the kiss.
Jax was staring at her, his expression unreadable. There had been a time when she could read the thoughts that looped through his mind. But gone were the days she’d shared with the carefree boy, and now, in his place was a dangerous man.
He released her with what looked like reluctance, and Joey wheeled her mount around to give them all a little space.
“You need to come back to the barn,” Jax told her.
She stared at him, daring him to give another order.
“Please?” he amended.
“I’m not going to have sex with you.”
“Yet,” he corrected. “You’re not going to have sex with me yet. But there’s a delivery that needs your signature.”
“More flowers? More bacon? Not another dog. Waffles and I are just starting to enjoy our life together.”
He grinned and for a second, the fun-loving boy she’d loved so much was evident in the face of the man before her.
“Even better.”
“I don’t think you can top Waffles.”
“Guess you’ll have to find out.”
She arched a brow. “Race you back?”
