“We have billed the Split Rock as a luxury resort. I’m glad you like it. With all the times you’ve been around you haven’t checked out the rooms?”

“No.” He wandered to the window. “Are they all like this?”

“This is the only room with a hot tub.” Janie smoothed her hands up his broad back and inhaled his familiar scent—starched cotton, warm skin and always, a hint of the outdoors.

“No one has ever done anything like this for me, Janie. Not only renting us a fancy room, but inviting my family . . . I can’t believe . . .” He paused and cleared his throat. “Thank you. This is a day I’ll never forget.”

Janie ducked under his arm to press against the front of his body. “This will be a night you’ll never forget either.”

Heat flared in his eyes, turning them molten silver. “Yeah?”

“Uh-huh. You know how you always like to be in charge in the bedroom? Well, there’s a new kink master in town and her name is Mistress Janie.”

“Got big plans for me, Mistress Janie?”

“Mmm-hmm. I even brought a bag of tricks along.” She snaked her hand around the back of his neck, pulling his mouth to hers for a kiss. A sweet, slow, wet kiss that she dragged out as long as possible. Then she whispered, “Lose the clothes, cowboy,” and slithered out of his grasp.

Abe kept his hot gaze on hers as he kicked off his boots and toed off his socks. Unbuttoned his shirt and carefully draped it across the back of the plush easy chair. Shucked his jeans and underwear, placing them alongside his shirt. He stood in front of her, totally naked, totally hard, and totally at her whim.

She smirked. Circling slowly, she randomly touched him. Tracing the line of his spine down to the cleft of his butt cheeks. Her fingers mapped the dips and grooves of the muscles in his forearms and biceps. She used the back of her knuckles to follow that sexy cut of muscle from his hip to his abdomen. While brushing her thumbs across his ni**les, she kissed his chest. One time. Then she challenged, “Suck or f**k?”

“Fuck.” Pause. “As long as I get to touch you.”

“You don’t get to set the parameters, Mr. Lawson. You’ll do it my way.”

“Oh, you are enjoying the hell outta this, aren’t you?”

“Yep. Now hop on in the hot tub and I’ll be right there.”

Abe removed the hot tub cover while Janie stripped. He turned on the jets and the water frothed as they immersed themselves.

For several minutes they relaxed in the bubbling water. Her foot connected with his and she inched her toes up his shin. “Do you like this?”

“I’d like it more if you weren’t so far away.”

She floated over to him, anchoring a knee on either side of his hips. “Is this better?”

“Much.” He placed his lips on the side of her neck and sucked, scattering kisses across the slope of her shoulder. Down her chest. Up to her ear. “I’m yours, Janie. Only yours. Do with me what you will.”

Even in their most passionate moments, Abe could bowl her over with his pure sweetness. She fisted his c**k at the base and rolled back, aligning it so she could join their bodies with a single push.

He groaned. “So good. Every damn time.”

As frantic as they always were to get their hands on one another, this time there was no hurry. But there was passion. There was desire. This was the type of lovemaking they hadn’t indulged in. Sweet. Long, wet kisses perfectly matched to the leisurely glide of their bodies beneath the cocoon of water. They rocked and touched and tasted, not exchanging words. Letting kisses and caresses speak.

The climb to the peak of pleasure was as unhurried as the descent. When they finally released their tight hold on one another, Janie smooched Abe’s forehead. “I’m a little pruny.”

“No complaints from me.” He nuzzled her cheek. “You’ll still be a hot number fifty years from now when you’re permanently pruny.”

She tossed him a towel and slipped on one of the guest robes. “You want a beer? Or would you rather have champagne to celebrate this momentous occasion?”

“Beer. Definitely.”

Abe snagged the other robe and they moved to the sitting area. He raised his bottle to her. “A toast?”

“To what?”

“To you.”

That surprised her. “Me? Why?”

“Because you are the perfect woman.”

She stilled. “Really? Or are you just saying that because I f**ked you and brought you a beer?”

He tipped up the bottle. Drank.

“Abe?”

“I never say something I don’t mean, even in jest, Janie. You know that about me.”

Ask him if he loves you. Ask him if you two have a future despite your past. Ask him if he wants you to stay in Muddy Gap with him.

But Janie wasn’t sure she wanted to hear his answer, especially not tonight when this was his celebration.

After he finished the beer, she grabbed his hand and led him into the sleeping area. She moved a bench a foot from the end of the bed. “Sit.”

“You givin’ me a lap dance?”

“No. This time it’s all about me.” Trailing her fingers down his chest, she let her breath whisper across his ear. “But I promise you’ll love it.”

“I don’t doubt that, cupcake.” He kissed the line of her jaw to the tip of her chin.

When his hands gripped her ass, she pushed his hands back by his sides. “No-touching rule is in effect.”