Jesse's Girl (MF)
Colorado Dreaming 2

Professional Reviews

4 STARS: "Don't you just love those tall, sexy, macho guys in their levi's, western shirts, boots and Stetsons? Mmmm… It's even better when they are the real deal. That's what Jesse Whelan is: a cowboy from 1869. He's been hot on the trail of the town's resident princess, Regina Winthrop, from the moment he began working on her father's ranch. This novel begins with a father's determination that his daughter is going to marry the man he has chosen for her regardless of whether either party is even interested in the other. Old Man Winthrop has decided that Regina will marry Jake Stone, a rich rancher. Jake has fallen in love with Melinda O'Chauncey. Regina's father goes over to Melinda's ranch to kill her, thereby leaving the path clear for Jake to marry Regina. Regina and Jesse rush to Melinda's ranch and intercede, saving her life. Unfortunately, Regina's father turns the shotgun on himself and commits suicide, leaving Regina to pick up the pieces and soldier on. Distraught, Regina begs Jesse to make love to her to take away the pain of her father's death. They have a hot sexual encounter, but because Jesse is a gentleman, there is no penetration, leaving Regina a virgin for her wedding night. When the sun rises the next morning, Jesse is gone and Regina is alone. Within two years, Regina has hired ranch hands that are hardworking and loyal. She has sold off cattle, making the ranch smaller and more manageable. Jake and Melinda have married and are expecting their first child. Regina is a frequent visitor to their ranch, along with her ranch foreman, Ike. When Regina arrives at Jake and Melinda's ranch for dinner one evening, who do you think is there, panting to see her again? You're right with your first guess--Jesse! Is Regina happy to see him again? Hell no! Is the passion still there from that night two years ago? Hell yes! Jesse's ready to settle down and where better than the ranch next to Regina's. He has Winslow Thurman, the town banker, prepare the paperwork and deeds relating to the sale. Jesse arranges to have Regina arrive at the bank while he is there signing papers. He knows Regina is having financial difficulties and wants to help out without her realizing it. So he proposes that they share water and grazing rights on their properties for which he will make a capital contribution, enabling her to pay off her debts. Fireworks erupt and hot foreplay begins, but with no lock on the door, that's as far as it goes. When will the fireworks between the two stop and the foreplay start? Will Regina and Jesse ever fulfill their sexual fantasies? Enter the slimy lawyer, Philip Cunningham, friend of Regina's father, to draw up the papers regarding payment for the grazing and water easements. Even with the payment, Regina still keeps finding dead cattle and cut fences. Who wants her to fail at ranching? What do they want with her ranch? Ms. Claire does a wonderful job crafting her characters, from too-hot Jesse, to firebrand Regina, to wimpy Winslow, and finally to creepy Cunningham. Team that with a terrific story full of intrigue and you've got a novel calling out to you to read it! I'm going online to get Colorado Dreaming 1 now!" -- Ann, The Romance Reviews

4 STARS: "Regina had a crazy cowboy father who guarded her obsessively until he decided to commit suicide. With Regina's father out of the way, Jesse makes his move. He will not take advantage of her while she mourns, and it takes a while to soften the heart of Regina; she has had to depend on herself for so long. Each of them come with baggage. Will it prevent them from loving each other? Could it be just a relationship of sex? I loved the characters in this book. The plot and the subplot were well developed. The sex is divine! This book has it all! I recommend it." -- Stephanie, Book Reviews R Us

Excerpt

STORY EXCERPT

“Come on, Regina, what kind of a bastard would I be to take advantage of you now, at a time like this?”

“The kind of bastard you are?”

He laughed.  “Exactly my point, which is why I’m leaving now and you’re going to take a hot bath and get some sleep and face all this in the morning.”

She approached him purposefully, and he was so mesmerized by the sight of Regina Winthrop walking toward him rather than running away that he just couldn’t budge. When she was right in front of him, she put her hands on his shoulders, stood on her tippy toes, and placed her lips against his own. Even that most innocent of kisses sent a jolt right to his cock. He stayed still as she let up the pressure a bit, but the temptation to grab her chin, tilt her head, and plunge his tongue down her throat was almost overwhelming. He tried to remember what she’d just been through and finally pushed her gently away.

“Hey, you’re not thinking straight.”

“I am,” she whispered. “I am thinking straight, and I feel like if I keep thinking right now I’ll go insane and put a shotgun to my own head.”

The admission, coupled with his memory of Old Man Winthrop’s brains spilling out over the rock of that canyon cave and Regina’s face pushed against his shoulder to shield her from the sight, caused a visceral response. He pulled her into his arms, terrified that she could even think of doing something like that to herself even now. “Hush now, honey.”

He held her full against him, her long russet hair soft beneath his fingers as he stroked her scalp soothingly and then her back. She felt so right. He’d always known how right they would be together if they ever got the chance. Now wasn’t the time, though.

Nonetheless, he wouldn’t be leaving her alone tonight, not when she sounded so desperate.

“I’ll stay here with you then. Right outside your bedroom door if you want. When you’ve had some sleep, you’ll feel better.”

She buried her face in his shoulder, and he thought he felt just a touch of moisture on his shirt and with it a touch of his own panic. Jesus, if she started to cry, he didn’t know what he’d do.

“Please, Jesse. I feel so empty right now, so cold and empty. I can’t stand it.” In his arms, in the embrace he was trying to make comforting, she snuggled closer, tilting her hips right up against the erection that he was a right bastard for having at a time like this.

“But when I’m with you, I know I can feel something. Just to get close to you, just in the same room sometimes, gives me such a tingle. It’s magical. I think about you when I lie in bed and feel all tight and achy and wicked.  Wicked just for feeling that way about you. But now I don’t care. I want to be wicked. I am wicked.”

Her confessions weren’t helping. He strived for a “good friend in time of need” tone, rather than an “about to come in his pants at the thought of her in bed thinking about him” tone. “You’re not wicked, sugar. All this crap they fill women’s heads with about not feeling… ah…sexual is just that. Crap.”

“Then love me. Now.”

“I can’t, Reggie. It wouldn’t be right.”

She reached up, her long fingers threading through his hair, and pulled his head down into another fervent kiss. The surprise of it is what did him in. This time, when her warm, soft lips pressed up against his, he thrust his tongue inside, suddenly feeling unable to help himself. She opened to him eagerly. Damn, but she tasted so good, so fresh and womanly. He groaned.  Now he was the one not thinking straight.

“Please, Jesse,” she whispered against his lips after a moment. “Make me feel the magic. I know you can. I’ve always known you could.”

Her sweet, warm breath mingled with his own as she waited for his answer.  Here, now, they were all alone just as he’d fantasized so many times, and she was asking him, begging him, to make her feel better. And if there was one thing Jesse Whelan was good at, it was making a gal feel better.

“You’d regret this, Regina.”

“No, no I wouldn’t. I know you want to. I can feel it. I can feel your…your thing.” She glanced down. “So just do it!”

He almost grinned at the tone.  Now, that was a might more like the spoiled little rich girl he knew.  Not begging now, but demanding. Demanding he fuck her, when in all probability, she didn’t exactly even know what that meant.

“Of course I want to, sweetheart.  That’s not really the point.”

Her lower lip trembled, and she bit it on one side, as if the sharp nip of pain might bring it into line.  All of a sudden, he saw he wasn’t going to get anywhere reasoning with Regina. She always did have more determination than was good for a girl. But she also looked dead tired, circles of deep blue uncharacteristically lurking beneath her eyes. Maybe he could just get her to rest. Lord knows, there wasn’t any woman here to help with it. Melinda might have, assuming she didn’t blame Regina for what her father had tried to do, but they had left Melinda and Jake back in town. He sure as hell couldn’t leave Regina alone long enough to ride back there.

“All right then. Let’s go upstairs.”

It was a first step at least to trying to get her to sleep. Regina smiled, took his hand, and led him up the long, ornate staircase to her fancy, white-frilled room at the top.

She sat on the edge of her bed. She seemed more nervous now. He was glad of it. It would make it easier to talk her out of this wild idea, not that he’d ever imagined he would be trying to talk Regina Winthrop out of going to bed with him. Clearly, this was a world gone mad.

Adult Excerpt

He’d gotten to his breeches by now, and he started to unbutton them, kicking his boots off as he went, but then he stopped, sitting down on the bed. “What happened to your impressive new vocabulary?”

“What?”

“Going about this.  Doing it. You were more expressive over at Jake’s that first night I got back.  I know you mentioned you don’t like to overuse certain words, being a lady and all, but if ever there was a time for trying out a few of them, I think the time’s now.”

“Oh, that.” She bit her lower lip and offered haltingly, “Ah, do you want to, ah, fuck me?”

He chuckled, pulling his breeches off and climbing naked into bed. He leaned over her and whispered, “Say it like you mean it, girl.”

“Make me,” she whispered back.

He kissed her, harder than he’d meant to, grinding his lips against her soft ones, thrusting his tongue in her mouth so far he was probably going to choke the poor girl. But he was just so hungry for her. She kissed him back, her soft hands coming up to cradle his face, and the sweetness of the gesture just about undid him. His cock was pounding for entrance between her long, silky legs, but he ignored it, just relishing the feel of her soft fingers, her lips open and welcoming.

But he could hold his cock off for only so long. He groaned and pulled away from the kiss. “Let’s get this off you.” He reached for the hem of her nightgown and pulled it over her head, tossing it to the end of the bed. Unexpectedly for his bold Regina, she crossed her arms over her chest, and he caught her wrists, holding them out, not letting her. “Let me see you.”

She looked away from his intense stare as he took in the lush curves. “Don’t. I’m all skinny now.”

He shook his head. She was thinner, but her tits were still high and firm like little apples and the curve of her hips still pronounced. “You’re perfect.” He pushed her down, coming over her to kiss her neck, her collarbone, the valley between those two luscious globes. And then he worked his mouth to her rosy nipple, playing with it with his tongue, sucking it until she gasped and he moved to the other one. He started to kiss his way down her flat tummy, over one hip bone and towards the tangle of soft chestnut curls. He had wanted to do this to her that night but was afraid he would shock her. As he moved lower, it looked like he was right. He heard a squeal, and her hands were suddenly in his hair, trying to tug him back up.

“Stop that! What are you doing?”

She was so close he could smell her arousal, and it acted on him like the most potent aphrodisiac. “I’m going to kiss you.” His voice was so gravelly that he could barely get the words out.

“There?”

“Yeah. There. You learn the word for there, sugar?”  He punctuated his question by cupping his palm gently between her legs. 

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Yeah, it’s your pussy, and right now I’m going to kiss you there.  You’ll like it.”  He pulled her tugging hands from his hair and set his mouth gently to her engorged clit and then to the wet warmth between her legs. “Oh, God, you taste good,” he murmured against her and thrust his tongue firmly into her wet pussy, one palm on each thigh to hold her open to him.

She groaned above him, struggling at first, so he moved his hands up to her hips to anchor her still as he lapped up her sweet, creamy pussy. Moments later, she cried out, and he felt her spasm against him. He moved up, kissing her gently as he went, and then when he was poised above her, he kissed her on her lips, letting her taste herself on his mouth.

“Say it,” he urged as he kissed her. “Ask me to fuck you.”

“Oh, God, Jesse, yes. Please.”

“Please what?”

“Please fuck me,” she moaned against his mouth, and he fingered her, nice and wet from his attentions, pulling her vaginal lips apart.  “Please fuck me now, Jesse.”

“Since you ask so nicely.”

He plunged his rigid cock into her with one thrust.

They gasped in unison, but he suddenly realized hers may have had a fringe of pain in it. He had thrust harder than he’d meant to, taking her by surprise with the force of it. He’d forgotten yet again what a novice she was at this. He needed to be more gentle, not treat her like Violet or some other gal at Sally’s, at least until she got a little more used to it. Then he would pound away at her with everything he had.

“Are you all right, sweetheart? I’m sorry.” He held perfectly still, letting her adjust to him.  

He felt the deep breath she took. “Yes, I’m fine. It just took my breath away for a minute. I’m okay now.”

“You’re going to be more than okay, Regina. I promise.” He moved very gently and was rewarded with a low hum of what he could only hope was approval as evidenced by her soft hands moving down over his back to his ass.

He thrust harder, lured on by the tight, warm feel of her pussy, and she grabbed his ass tighter, pulling his cock deeper into her. He kissed her as he set the rhythm, balancing up on one palm, his other hand caressing her breast, until he pulled his mouth from her lips to give those magnificent tits the attention they deserved.

When she was moaning and seemed about to come, he flipped onto his back, bringing her with him, his hands on her hips. She put her palms on his chest to keep her balance, sitting up a little, coming into a kneeling position.

“Oh,” she said softly.

He moved her hips up and down on his cock, her pussy so wet it accommodated the motion easily.

“Oh,” she said louder.

“I’m beginning to think you were lying to me about that talkin’ dirty thing, girl.” He chuckled.

“I was. I can barely breathe around you, Jesse, let alone talk.” This time it was her moving her hips, clenching her pussy around his rigid cock as she did so, and he felt like he couldn’t breathe.

“Yeah, just like that.” His hands went to caress her tits. “If there ever was a woman made to ride a man, it’s you, Regina.”

She found the rhythm as naturally as he knew she would, her eyes closed as she moved on him. “You saying I’m bossy?”

“More like take charge, but either way, I like it.”

His hands wandered back to her ass, feeling the fine silk of her sweet cheeks lightly, running one finger along the crack as she fucked him.

She broke her rhythm at the strange touch, opening her eyes, and at the startled look in them, he laughed.  “What, you don’t like that, sugar?”

“I don’t know.”

His finger teasingly wandered further in between the cheeks of her ass as he watched her.  “I could make you like it, sweetheart,” he promised, touching one fingertip lightly to the forbidden entrance.

The wide-eyed hazel eyes told him she probably didn’t even quite know what he meant.  He laughed.  Someday, maybe, but it might be too much just now.

He pulled his finger away and slapped her ass playfully.  “Get moving, girl. Don’t worry about me.  I promise to be good.”