Stranded with My Stepbrother Chapter 93

-Caleb-

Two weeks passed faster than I expected. Faster than I wanted, for sure. Jacey and I spent days working hard on the farm, though I left middays to help Horace at his vet clinic.

“You’ve gotten some more muscles,” Jacey observed one evening when she and I were making dinner in the kitchen.

That just brought to mind the fact we hadn’t been intimate since our injuries. I wasn’t sure which one of us was more scared of breaking the other one.

I looked around. Billy was still watching television in the living room. I put my hand on her ass and squeezed gently. “Do you like muscles?”

She gasped and almost dumped the whole pot of spaghetti sauce she was warming up. I grabbed the handle before it fell. “Caleb!”

After righting the pot, I put my hand right back where it had been. “I asked, do you like muscles?”

Jacey blushed as red as the sauce. “Yes, I like your muscles.”

“Has somebody been watching me muck out the stables?” I went on with a grin.

She turned even more crimson. “Maybe.”

I leaned in and nuzzled her neck. “Does someone… miss me?”

Jacey melted into a puddle of goo, leaning back against me, her eyes closed. “Maybe.”

“Just maybe?” I nibbled her ear.

“Caleb, be good. We have to make dinner,” she whined, though her whole body was telling me exactly what I needed to know. It had been far too long. For both of us.

“You know I’m good, baby,” I whispered.

She swallowed, and I remembered just how good that throat felt around my dick. “Why are you getting so… uh… frisky… now?”

“Because you like muscles.” I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her shoulder. “So we’re gonna have to blame this one on you.”

“Blame what on who?” Billy asked.

Jacey yelped and started stirring like she was a blender. “Nothing! Nothing.”

I glanced over at him and saw him giving us a knowing smile. “Make a noise, will you?”

“And have you all ruining my grandma’s kitchen counters? I don’t think so,” Billy joked.

“We’d never!” she gasped, looking at him as well. “Oh my God, Billy, not in your kitchen!”

“I don’t know, I was thinking about it,” I mumbled.

She swatted me with the spoon, getting spaghetti sauce on my arm. “Cheeky!”

Billy burst into loud guffaws. “You two are the best. Most entertainment I’ve had in a long time. Better than Jeopardy!”

“Glad we can entertain you,” I grinned.

“Caleb. The noodles,” she said.

I looked at the potato pot that was nearly boiling over. “Right.” I reluctantly let her go. “I suppose we can have dinner first.”

“Not too much. Not as much fun on a full stomach,” Billy teased.

“‘Girl Survives Several Assassination Attempts. Dies of Embarrassment,’” she quipped.

“I can think of better ways…” I began.

Jacey swatted me again. More spaghetti sauce clung to my shirt. “You work on those noodles, mister, or we won’t be exploring any ‘better ways’ tonight!”

“Oh, I very much doubt that,” I said, using my low, sexy voice.

“Okay. Fine. So it’ll probably happen anyway, but we’re getting dinner on that table, Killeen,” she scolded me.

“Yes, baby. Whatever you say.” I checked the noodles and saw I’d almost let them get overcooked. I quickly dumped the pot out into a colander in the sink.

“Better check the garlic bread, too,” Billy said, starting to set the table.

I sniffed the air, and Jacey jumped aside to let me get to the oven. “Still good!” I responded after pulling back the foil. The edges were just starting to get a little black, but the bread was mostly nicely browned. I took it out and plated it.

“I think the sauce is nice and warm. We should be ready. Salad’s in the fridge,” she said, setting the small pot of sauce down on a trivet on the table.

I rinsed the noodles with hot water, tossed them a few times in the colander to get the water off, then dumped them in a bowl with tongs and set the bowl on the table.

Billy got the salad and a variety of dressings.

“Ready to testify tomorrow?” he asked after we’d all gotten our food on our plates.

I choked. Jacey pounded me on the back. “You don’t ever mince words, do you, Billy?”

“Nope,” he replied. “I kind of figured you two were nervous, and I thought we’d talk about it.”

“Not a lot to talk about, I guess,” I said, taking a swig of water. “We’re going there. We’re testifying. I mean, hopefully they get to our testimony tomorrow. It’s bad enough we’re going to be out in the open, but I’d hate for anybody to follow us back here.”

“Jake thought of that. Won’t give you the details, but suffice to say, if you don’t get called tomorrow, he’s got somewhere for you to go until you do get called,” Billy assured us.

Jacey breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh thank God. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”

“I’d rather nothing bad happen to me, too, come to think of it,” he smiled. Then he sobered. “If things get hairy, Jake’s taking you away. No questions asked. If they want your testimony, they can do it over Teams, Zoom, Google, or what-have-you, too. INTERPOL’s not the only organization that needs to realize it’s the twenty-first century.”

“Oh. Good point,” she murmured. “Why are we going in?”

He grunted. “So the trial’s not delayed again. That Chalmers bastard is a piece of work, according to Jake. He says there’ll be grounds for another extension if you two don’t show up in person, and Jake figured you’d rather have it all over with instead of this thing dragging out for years. There’s your family to consider, too.”

“He could have asked us,” she protested.

“No, Officer Alexander’s right. We need to get this behind us, for our sake and for our family’s sake. No more delays,” I said.

“Yeah, Jacey, I was the minority vote. I said to let them extend it until the cows come home, but then Jake pointed out about your family,” Billy agreed. “Can’t really argue when family’s on the line.”

Her shoulders slumped. “That’s true.”

I rubbed her back. “We’ll get this all figured out. We’ll testify. Masterson will have to let our family go, and we can get on with our lives without this hanging over our heads.”

“Makes sense. Sorry, I wasn’t thinking about Dad, Jeanie, and the little mite.” She looked up at me with misty eyes. “Do you suppose we’ll get Will?”

“We’ll fight for him,” I promised.

“Chalmers said the strangest thing. He called me Will’s surrogate, not his mother,” she said, frowning.

“Chalmers is an ass, and he was just trying to get a rise out of you, like he did out of me. Because I’m an idiot,” I told her.

Jacey gave me a watery smile. “But you’re my idiot.”

“Good.” I kissed some sauce off the corner of her mouth.

“You two are adorable,” Billy sighed. “Wish I’d found a wife.”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “Billy, you’re, like, fifty. You’ve got time.”

“I suppose that’s true.” He grinned at us. “But how can I fill up this place with kids when you’re going to be popping out a dozen or so?”

Her jaw dropped. “I will NOT be popping out a dozen or so!”

“Half a dozen?” I teased.

Jacey scowled at me. “Three at the very most.”

“Sold!” I gave her a soft kiss.

She sighed against my lips and this time put her hand innocently on my thigh. I could tell right away she hadn’t meant to do it, but it made my pants tight just the same. Dinner couldn’t end soon enough!

“I think, after dinner, I’ll need to watch a loud action movie,” Billy chuckled.

“Good plan,” I replied.

Jacey turned pink again and quickly removed her hand. “I just want to be respectful of your space, Billy. It’s not like when we were on the road.”

“Ah, the road,” I reminisced, remembering all ten thousand lakes. I also remembered Jacey going outside her usual comfort zone and getting a bit naughty with Hansen and Bea around.

This place didn’t have quite the same vibe. This was Billy’s home. Neither of us wanted to make him feel uncomfortable in it.

She swatted me right out of my reverie. “Stop having dirty thoughts around Billy.”

“I’m not having dirty thoughts!” I lied.

“Uh-huh. And the Pope is Lutheran,” he chuckled. “Okay, you two had better finish eating a little bit. Something tells me you’re going to need your strength.”

“Billy!” she gasped.

“Just telling it like it is, as the kids say,” he laughed.

“You’re only fifty, remember?” I reminded him again.

“I’m mature for my age.” He grinned.

Jacey just shook her head. She did, however, start eating faster, glancing at me from the corner of her eye.

I was completely on board with the finishing-food-and-going-to-the-bedroom idea she was telegraphing to me. I dug in myself, trying not to get more spaghetti sauce on my shirt than she already had. But it was a losing battle, especially with the speed at which I was eating.

Billy just chuckled to himself and kept eating at a leisurely pace.

When she was finished, I decided I was, too. I picked up our plates, though mine still had a little swatch of salad, and took them to the sink.

“Waste not, want not, Caleb!” he called, still chuckling around a mouthful of garlic bread.

I grimaced but set Jacey’s plate in the sink and leaned back around the counter with mine poised at my chest. I wolfed down my salad, then put my plate in the sink as well.

“Suppose someone should do the dishes,” he said with a little whistle.

“You’re cruel, Billy. Cruel,” I groaned, starting to fill the sink with suds.

“And put the food away,” he continued with a mischievous smile.

“Cruel,” I repeated.

Jacey was already up, picking up the different pots, plates, bowls, and dressings.

“I didn’t say I was finished!” Billy protested.

“You’re finished, unless you want to do the clean-up,” she said in a no-nonsense tone.

He grumbled goodnaturedly. “I suppose I’ll be taking my dessert in the TV room, then.”

“We didn’t make dessert,” I said flatly. “So you’re on your own.”

“Talk about cruel!” Billy shook his head. “All right. I suppose I can take a pint of Cherries Garcia out of the freezer.”

“And wash your spoon,” she said to him.

He pouted. “You’re both so mean!” He hip-checked me out of the way of the fridge in the small kitchen and got himself a pint of ice cream. Then he grabbed a spoon and wandered off to the TV room.

I grabbed Jacey as soon as she walked into the kitchen with the salad dressings and pinned her against the counter, my lips crashing down on hers.

She dropped the dressings down onto the counter behind her and wrapped her arms around my neck, pressing her body against mine.

I wasn’t the only one whose body had changed. She was a bit more muscular herself. It was hot as hell.

“Caleb, we can’t do it in here!” she gasped between deep kisses. “We have to finish the dishes—!”

“Fuck the dishes. They can wait. We’ll just say we were letting them soak,” I growled, nipping her lower lip.

“All night?!” Jacey objected.

I gave her my sexiest smile. “I’m glad we’re on the same page about how long we’re going to be making love.”

She blushed. “Well, I just know when you get started…”

“When we get started,” I corrected her.

“When we get started, we tend not to stop,” she mumbled against my lips.

“Then it’s time we get started,” I whispered in her ear before lifting her in my arms and heading for the bedroom.