Riding the Storm - Brenda Jackson [35]
Jayla blinked back the tears in her eyes. “Thanks.”
“Hey, Storm, get your mind back on the game, stop daydreaming and throw out a card.”
Thorn Westmoreland’s words recaptured Storm’s attention and he threw out a card then leaned back in his chair and frowned. “I was not daydreaming and my mind is on the game,” he said throwing out a card.
After another round of bid whist, Stone Westmoreland shook his head. “If your mind is on the game then you’re a lousy card player since you just threw out a diamond instead of a heart which means you’ve reneged.” A huge smile tilted the corners of Stone’s lips. “But I’m not complaining since that puts me closer to winning.”
Storm pushed back his chair and stood, glaring at his four brothers. Apparently they’d found his lack of concentration amusing but he didn’t find a damn thing funny about it. “I’m sitting out for a while. I need some fresh air.”
While he was walking away he heard his brother Thorn ask the others, “What’s wrong with him?”
“Don’t know,” his brother Dare replied. “He’s been acting strange ever since he got back from that conference in New Orleans.”
“Maybe the pressures of being a fire captain is getting to him,” he heard his brother Chase add. “There’s nothing worse than letting a job stress you out.”
“Yeah,” his other brothers agreed.
Storm shook his head when he opened the door and stepped out on the lanai. His brothers didn’t know how wrong they were. His new promotion or work-related stress had nothing to do with the way he’d been acting since returning from New Orleans.
He glanced up and noticed a full moon and the stars in the sky. It was a beautiful night and he was glad he had come outside to appreciate the evening for a little while.
After Thorn and Tara had gotten married, they had moved into Tara’s place since it was larger than Thorn’s, but only temporarily. They were building their dream home on a parcel of the Westmoreland family homestead, which was located on the outskirts of town. It was a pretty nice area if you liked being out in the boon-docks and cherished your privacy.
Storm shook his head as an image of a woman forced its way into his head. It was the same image he’d been trying like hell to forget the past week. Jayla Cole.
He balled his hands into fists at his side as he wondered what was wrong with him. He’d had affairs before but none had affected him the way this one had. No woman had ever remained in his thoughts after the affair had ended. He’d known there would be memories, hell he had counted on savoring them. But he had wanted them safely tucked away until he was ready to revisit them. He hadn’t counted on having no control of his own memories.
Visions of Jayla in the red dress were taking him to the cleaners and wringing him out. And then there were those images of the sway of her hips whenever she walked, whether she was in heels or flats. It didn’t matter. The woman was sensuality on legs. She was a mouthwatering piece flat on her back as well. All he had to do was close his eyes and he was reliving the evenings filled with their mind-boggling, earth-shattering lovemaking.
She had fired up and completely satisfied a need within him that he hadn’t known existed. Each and every time he had taken her to bed they had made incredible love. He could get her so wet, so hot, so ready, and likewise she could get him so hard, so needy, so out-of-his-mind greedy, to the point where getting inside her body was all he could think about; all he wanted.
And then there was the look on her face whenever she came. It was priceless. It was as if the force of what she felt stole her breath and the intensity of it exploded her world into tiny fragments as she tumbled into mindless completion. Seeing that experience on her face would then push him over the edge into the most potent climax