No Limits (6 page)

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

S
HE
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.

* * *

S
IGNING
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.

* * *

H
E
'
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.