Let It Ride by Jillian Burns

soothing.
    â€œI’m sorry. Maybe you wanted to go out to celebrate?” He cupped her heel in one hand and squeezed, while his other thumb kneaded into the ball of her foot.
    â€œNo. This is amazing.” With her eyes still closed, she smiled.
    He lowered her foot and took the other one, massaging it with the same expertise.
    When the silence went on too long, she opened hereyes, lifted her head and looked at him. Simmering chocolate-brown eyes pierced her. “What?”
    â€œHow’d you end up in Vegas?”
    She stilled. Why talk about her past with him? This was supposed to be a one-night fling. “How do you know I haven’t lived here all my life?”
    His brows drew together. “Your mom mentioned a few things.”
    Jordan pulled her foot from his grasp and drew her knees up, hugging them to her. Talk about a mood killer. Who knows what else her mom had told him?
    â€œTell me.” He reached across and cupped her face, caressing her cheek with his thumb.
    Oh, what did it matter? Meeting his gaze, she drew in a deep breath. “My story is disgustingly unoriginal. Girl meets boy. Boy seduces girl into running off to Vegas. Boy takes off and leaves girl stranded.”
    He dropped his hand. “I want to find the bastard and maim him.”
    â€œIt was so long ago. He doesn’t matter anymore.”
    â€œHe hurt you.”
    He said it so tenderly. Suddenly her eyes stung with unshed tears. A protective armor seemed to fall away, letting feelings flood in. She realized she’d had to be strong for so long she’d never allowed herself to acknowledge the pain. There hadn’t been time to grieve. Only survive.
    â€œDo you…do you still love him?” His voice, was low, hesitant.
    â€œNo.” She pulled from his grasp and moved to kneelbetween his thighs. Water sloshed and splashed around them as she placed her palm on his cheek and lightly touched her lips to his. “I just haven’t let myself feel anything since then. But I can let the hurt go now.” She pressed gentle kisses on his nose and eyes and then moved to his right temple and down his scarred neck. “I don’t want to be closed off from my feelings anymore.”
    His arms came round her and brought her to him. “You’re amazing.” He moved her hair off her shoulder and kissed her there.
    â€œHave you ever…thought you were in love?”
    He shook his head. “I’ve always wanted more out of life than a mortgage and two-point-five kids.”
    â€œDid you always know you wanted to be a fighter pilot?”
    He grinned. “No, I, of course, wanted to be an astronaut. I used to want to be the first man to walk on Mars.”
    â€œWow, big dream.” She raised her brows.
    He shrugged. “It didn’t seem out of reach. My dad always talked about the day Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon. How amazing it was. When I was ten, he took us to watch the space shuttle Atlantis launch from Kennedy Space Center. Skipped school to do it.” His gaze wandered to the ceiling and he leaned his head back against the shower tiles. “We drove all night and watched the sun come up.”
    He was quiet a moment as if remembering, then lifted his head and looked at her again. “After that I read all about the Galileo probe, and tracked it for years thinking someday I’d go to Jupiter, too.”
    â€œThey have a probe that went all the way to Jupiter?” She turned and sat between his raised knees, leaning back against his chest.
    â€œYeah. Took six years.” He picked up the soap and rubbed it between his palms. “It witnessed a comet crash into Jupiter in ’94, orbited it thirty-five times and sent back over fourteen thousand images before it disintegrated in Jupiter’s atmosphere in 2003.”
    In 2003. Seemed like a lifetime ago. She’d graduated high school that May and run off with Ian.
    â€œSo, you joined