Page 71 of Sweet Like Whiskey

He lays kisses across my skin, from one shoulder to the next, sending a little cascade of sparks down my spine. “Mm. My mom was browsing through a wedding magazine while we were waiting for an appointment. Doctor’s, I think. She asked which wedding dress I thought was prettiest, and I told her it didn’t matter because I’d never be marrying a girl.”

He huffs a little, and my lips quirk into a smile. “What’d she say to that?” I ask.

I can practically feel him shaking his head. “She said, ‘And what if your future husband wants to wear a dress, Jackson Darling? What then?’ She might as well have smacked me upside the head. Shetsked, and I pointed to the dress I thought was prettiest. Then she gave me a big kiss on the top of my head, and that was that.”

I chuckle, turning my face to the side as Jackson runs his thumb and forefinger up the back of my neck, pressing into the tendons there. He does it a few times before brushing my hair out of my face.

“Any better?” he asks.

“Yeah,” I breathe. “Loads. Thank you.”

He hums, easing back and making room for me to flip over. His eyes run down the dried mess on my torso as I turn.

“Hope you have spare sheets,” I tell him. “And another pillow.”

He grunts a little as he steps off the bed, the shifting of his ass as he walks away causing me to moan internally. “I’m not a Neanderthal,” he calls from the hallway.

I huff a laugh, gingerly stepping down and following him. “No? My ex might disagree.”

He groans. “We still on that?”

“Oh, we’ll never be off that.Partner.”

Jackson throws a pillow at me as I round the corner into the hall. I laugh, catching it in midair as he heads toward me, a pile of white linens in his hands. He plucks the pillow from my grasp, sets it, with the sheets, inside his doorway, and then grabs the back of my neck in a loose hold.

“You. Me. Shower,” he grunts, tugging me into the bathroom.

I laugh so hard I wheeze, and Jackson’s scowl tips into a smile. I don’t complain as he proceeds to direct me into the shower with grunts and clipped words. I let Jackson take care of me as we wash up. And once fresh sheets are on the bed, I let him convince me without words to stay.

Chapter 18

Jackson

“Uh-oh,” my biggest nuisance of a brother says, riding up next to me on his horse, Clementine. The pair slows beside me and Starlight, joining our walk along the fence line out in one of the far pastures. The ranch house isn’t even visible from here. “Should I be concerned?”

“By what?” I ask, distracted by thoughts of Ash.

Ash in my bed.

Ash’s ass high in the air.

The sounds Ash made when he came.Twice.

Ash’s hair spread across my pillow.

Ash’s face as he slept.

Colton snorts. “Yoursmile,” he answers. “I think the last time I saw that was when you hid all my underwear out in the horse barn. I was, what…nine?”

“I smile,” I defend.

“Uh-huh,” he says, sounding incredulous. “You’re a regular ray of sunshine.”

Sunshine.Ash.

“There you go again,” Colton says, smacking my shoulder. “What in the hell?”

“I’m allowed to be in a good mood,” I say, stopping Starlight to check a length of wire fencing that looks bowed, as if something hefty fell into it.

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