Wildcard by Cheyenne McCray

about the time he saw Trace lying on her back, staring up at the canopy of the bed. The light beside her bed was on, its stained-glass shade casting rainbow fragments across her face and the pale blue nightgown she wore.
    Jess hesitated, hand at the ready, the pebble feeling warm and solid between his fingers.
    That gown had thin little straps that would easily break if he tugged on them, and he was sure the silky-looking material would feel soft beneath his hands, just like her skin. The nightgown was hiked up to the top of her thighs, but not quite high enough for him to see anything more than her shapely legs.
    Her thighs were squeezed together tightly, and she squirmed a little, as though trying to alleviate an ache there. But in the next moment she reached her hands up and pulled at the top of her nightgown, freeing both her breasts.
    Jess dropped his arm back to his side. The pebble—hell, all the pebbles—fell out of his hands.
    The woman had damn perfect breasts with cherry dark nipples just begging for his mouth.
    His cock bucked against the denim of his jeans. He knew he should have some moral battle inside, but the reaction was too strong, too deep. This woman, oh, yeah, she was his. He had claimed her at Nicole’s, and he was claiming her again, right there under her sister’s tree.
    He unbuckled his belt, unzipped his jeans, and released his aching cock. With slow familiar strokes he moved his hand up and down the length of his cock as he watched Trace cup her breasts and squeeze her nipples.
    “Yeah, that’s it, sugar,” he murmured as she slipped one hand down and then she spread her legs wide as though welcoming him between her thighs.
    She hitched her nightgown up around her waist and his groin tightened when he saw she wasn’t wearing any underwear. “That’s one beautiful pussy,” he said softly as he worked his cock. “Can’t wait to fuck you.”
    Trace’s fingers slipped between her folds and she began rubbing her clit in a slow, circular motion. With her free hand she pushed up one of her generous breasts and flicked her tongue against her own nipple.
    Damn but that turned him on. He’d never watched a woman licking and sucking her own nipples, and the sight was damn arousing.
    Her fingers grew more frantic and his strokes more intense.
    When she came, she threw back her head, and she bit her lip as though to keep from crying out. Her body trembled and vibrated, and she kept rubbing her clit until she came a second time.
    As her body relaxed, a dreamy expression covered her face, and he only hoped she’d been imaging that he was fucking her. She raised her fingers to her nose as though to smell her juices, and that was enough to make Jess’s climax hit him in a rush.
    He bit the inside of his cheek as his come squirted onto the plants outside Trace’s bedroom window. Damn that had felt good. But the real thing was going to feel a whole lot better once she was ready to take his cock inside her pussy.
    Trace rolled over and switched off the light, plunging her room into darkness. Jess fixed his belt and jeans, and melted out into the night.
     
    * * * * *
     
    Trace waved her sister and new brother-in-law off as Jake’s black truck sped down the dusty road. They had a holiday party to attend in Tucson, and had decided to spend the night at a resort there, rather than making the hundred-plus mile drive back the same night. Dee had wanted Trace to come, but Trace had begged off, telling her sister that she still needed to recover from jetlag. Besides, she had to let Harold know she’d arrived safely, and she wanted to e-mail Lani and a couple of her other friends, too.
    For a moment she stayed on the porch, enjoying what was left of the early evening sunshine. The December desert air smelled so fresh and clean. Over the Mule Mountains to the west, the sun hung low, teasing the sky with wisps of lavender, peach, and mauve. Blue, Dee’s Border Collie, raised his head and sniffed the wind,