"Yep. I like your scent all over me. I like feeling the stickiness between my thighs and remembering how it got there. Does that sound weird?"

"No." He brushed his lips over her crown. "It's hot as hell." The remnants of his seed would ease the way when he fucked her first thing in the morning.

"I like having you in my bed." She kissed his pectoral. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For the smokin' hot sex. But also for not being petty and turning me down. I would've deserved your rejection for the way things have gone between us in the past."

Brandt forced her to look at him. "As far as I'm concerned that's where it can stay. In the past. We're movin' forward, right?"

"Right."

He pressed her cheek back down on his chest. "Go to sleep. Mornin' is gonna come awful early."

She snickered. "Already got your wake-up call for me planned out?"

"Definitely."

"Tell me."

"And ruin the surprise? No way."

Chapter Eleven.

Jessie and Landon were sitting side by side on the couch watching a Winnie the Pooh DVD when Brandt returned from the ranch. As soon as he'd divested himself of his outerwear, he marched over and cradled Jessie's face in his hands.

The man nearly set her lips aflame with his hungry, and yet unhurried kiss. She tried to pull away, but he breathed, "Not yet," against her mouth and returned to those deceptively lazy kisses. Then he eased back and murmured, "Not nearly enough, but it'll do for now."

Right then, Jessie understood she wasn't prepared for what it meant to be Brandt McKay's lover. Sure, he'd tried to warn her last night about his sexual appetite. About his intent to satisfy that appetite as well as building the same type of appetite in her. Maybe she'd even suspected his declaration was a little too filled with machismo. A little too over the top.

She should've known better. She should've understood after he'd made love to her so thoroughly that last go around. She should've understood when he'd proved his desire for her first thing this morning. Spooned behind her, lifting her top leg over his, fucking her slowly while one hand played with her nipples and the other controlled her clit, whispering in her ear with that made-for-morning-sex voice. She came so hard she'd ripped the sheet off the bed.

"Jess? What's up? You've got a scared rabbit look goin' on."

"Seeing this forceful side of you...is a bit of a shock."

"You'll get used to it." He smooched her mouth again.

Landon made a noise and she saw him watching them with wide-eyed wonder.

"Hey, buddy, how's the ear? Better?"

He blinked at Brandt and refocused on the TV.

Brandt laughed. "Thrown over by a cartoon bear. I'm gonna hit the shower."

Less than a minute later the water kicked on.

Landon pointed at the TV and bounced on the couch cushions when Tigger appeared on the screen. Animation and cartoons were new to him, if his total absorption in them was an indication. Jessie doubted Landon's mother used the TV as a babysitter.

Once she heard the bathroom door open, she headed down the hallway, inhaling the steam that held hints of Irish Spring soap and lime shaving cream.

She stopped in the doorway to her bedroom. Ooh. Naked Brandt. The man had such a hard-toned body. All ropy, bulging muscles and pure masculinity. Virility. Luke had been built more rangy than bulky and she'd never appreciated the differences in the male form as much as she did right then.

"Getting an eyeful, are you?"

She let her gaze drop to his groin. "Definitely got more than a mouthful going on there, Brandt."

"Christ, Jessie," he sputtered, "that's-"

"A great idea?" she supplied. "Or shocking?"

"Both, actually. And if Landon wasn't..." He made a growling noise in his throat. "We'll finish this later."

"Actually, that's why I wanted to talk to you." She watched Brandt slip on a pair of navy colored boxer briefs. Then a pair of faded Wranglers. "Last weekend you took Landon back to your place. Are you sticking around this weekend now that things have changed?"

Brandt didn't miss a beat buttoning his flannel shirt. "Do you want us to stay?"

"Yes. I can't imagine spending the weekend by myself."

Then he was in her face, kissing her almost before she finished the sentence.

She heard a thump in the living room. She broke the liplock to go check on Landon, and as she turned around, the little wild man smacked into her knees. "You afraid we're having fun without you or something?"

He tried to hoist himself up on the bed. Soon as she set him on the mattress, he started jumping in his best Tigger imitation.

"You little monkey. Where'd you learn-" Jessie's head whipped to Brandt when he snickered. "You let him jump on the bed?"

"All kids jump on the bed. Besides, I was there the whole time."

"What happens if you're not there? What happens if he sneaks into a bedroom and starts jumping while you're doing something else? What if he flies off the bed and breaks his neck?"

Brandt snagged Landon around the waist and propped him on his hip, much to Landon's displeasure. "Okay, okay, I get it. Bad uncle. No more jumpin' on the bed. And I'll make sure since I've introduced this bad behavior that all bedrooms doors will be shut from here on out."

"Good." After they trooped back into the living room and Jessie said, "I didn't plan anything for supper because I didn't know if you'd be here."

"I don't expect you to cook for me every night."

"I like to cook. So do you have any requests?"

"I'm feelin' like pizza."

Jessie frowned. "That's the one thing I don't have the stuff for."

"Don't you have frozen pizza in the freezer?"

"Nope."

"We could go to the Pizza Barn in Moorcroft?" Brandt suggested.

After the last public appearance at Dewey's, fielding a dozen questions about Landon and why she was torturing herself caring for a child that wasn't hers... Nah. Not an experience she was anxious to repeat, especially not in front of Brandt with Landon tow.

"You not wantin' to be seen in public with me?"

Her gaze caught his. "It's not about you, paranoid man. Just remembering the scream therapy I needed last time I ventured out to a restaurant. So I'd rather stay in."

Tension left Brandt's posture and he smiled. "How about if I call in an order, pick it up and we eat it here?"

"Sounds like a plan."

While Brandt was gone, Jessie fed Landon and bathed him. She dumped out the jumbo Legos on the coffee table and they sorted the pieces by color. Landon was fascinated by how the different sized parts fit and he was pleased as punch when he figured out how to snap them together by himself. Every day at the daycare and at home, she watched Landon learn something new. And rather than getting a sense of pride, it humbled her to see how hungry he was to learn.

Jessie ate the pizza one handed because Landon demanded she hold him while he drank his bottle. Brandt returned from settling Landon in his crib with that get-nekkid look in his eye.

Good thing she'd taken the time to brush her teeth.

Tell and Dalton showed up at Jessie's around noon on Sunday. Luckily they'd called first and hadn't walked in on him and Jess going at it in the shower.

Or on the couch.

Or on the kitchen counter.

Man. They could not get enough of each other. Within a few days they'd become intimate on a level he'd never experienced. As freakin' awesome as the sex was, Brandt knew it wasn't the only reason they'd become so close. They'd let their guards down and hadn't put those walls back up.

So far.

He hadn't announced that he and Jessie had become more to each other than Landon's guardians. Would Jessie shy away the first time he showed affection in front of his brothers?

Nope. She'd gone him one better and kissed him. With tongue.

She was a natural fit to their Sunday afternoon tradition-flipping back and forth between football games and waiting for Chase to compete in a televised PBR event, knocking back a few beers. Even Landon refused to nap so he could hang out with his uncles.

But at suppertime Landon staged a crying, screaming tantrum. The thought of wrestling the crabby kid into the bathtub made him shudder, but he wouldn't pass the duty off to Jessie either. Somehow Tell and Dalton ended up bathing the ornery boy. The bath time screams Brandt expected were largely absent, replaced by giggles.

Giggles?

What the hell?

He poked his head in the bathroom door and saw Tell, on his knees in front of the tub, and Landon-with Dalton's help-was spraying Tell in the face with the hand-held shower sprayer. Tell, being even keeled Tell, just let them do it and laughed right along with them.

His brothers managed to get Landon diapered and in his pajamas without incident.

Dalton held Landon while the kid sucked down his bottle. Once he'd tucked the tyke in bed, Dalton and Tell asked if they could have Landon the following Saturday night. For the last of the McKay wild men to give up their weekend plans proved his brothers intended to be part of Landon's life.

Maybe it was a little selfish, but his first thought was that he'd have Jessie all to himself for a night.

Jessie was washing dishes two days later when Keely barged into her house, demanding, "What the hell? Luke had a kid? I hate when nobody tells me this kind of shit."

"Yes. Keely. Please. Why don't you come in?"

"Shoulda locked the door if you wanted to keep me out. As soon as I heard I had to come over here and see-"

"About adding Luke's illegitimate love child to your roster of nieces and nephews?"

"No. And wow, snippy much, Jess? I came to see if you're okay."

"I'm fine."

Keely snorted. "Yeah, and you're acting like it, lashing out at me for checking on your mental well being."

Jessie blew out a breath. "Sorry. The shock hasn't been easy, but I'm coming to terms with it."

Which it, Jess? Luke's infidelity? Or Landon's presence?

Aren't they one in the same?

"Have you?" Keely demanded. "Have you really?"

"Some days, yes. Other days I wonder what the hell I'm doing and who in the universe I pissed off to have to deal with this."

"I cannot freakin' believe Brandt expected you to help him. I cannot freakin' believe you said yes." Keely paced to the kitchen and back. "Actually, I can believe you said yes."

Did Keely think she was a doormat? Only one way to find out. "Why can you believe it?"

"Because you're sweet, thoughtful, kind and generous." Keely pinned her with a look. "Damn near annoyingly perfect in that nauseating girl-next-door way, to be honest, but I like you anyway, cuz."

"Gee, thanks."

"But mostly, you said yes because Landon is as innocent in this whole situation as you are."

Keely's insight always surprised her. "You want a beer while I'm spilling the gory details of lost innocence?"

"No." Keely flopped on the couch. "I've got a late patient tonight so I have to head back to the clinic."

"How was the honeymoon?"

"Amazing."

"How's Jack?"

Keely smirked. "Amazing."