the prize?”
“You. Naked.” Jackson winked.
The yogurt’s creamy texture turned to mushy cardboard. She set down the carton. “Hmm.”
“Why are you eating that junk? You’re Lupine and Lupines eat meat, in case you forgot while you were at school.”
Self-conscious of her weight, she shrugged. She adored bacon down to the last fatty calorie, but no way would she put it in her mouth.
“If you’re going to eat dairy, what about mint chocolate chip ice cream with crushed Oreos? Remember our jaunt to DQ?”
A small smile escaped.. “It was great.” Then she remembered how wide her hips were. “I don’t eat that anymore. There’s no benefit to eating ice cream.”
Jackson sighed and turned down the heat under the bacon and the eggs. “Lexie, talk to me. You’ve changed.”
She stared at the kitchen clock, its second hand merrily sweeping around the disc. “No big deal. I’m dieting. Have to keep my weight down for competition.”
“Diet? You?”
Yeah, diet, because I’m too fat…when I’m naked I’ve got jiggles when I walk…okay, let’s notgo there, thinking about nudity, not with this gorgeous, naked cowboy so close…
“Everyone says I’m too big to compete.” Lexie blushed, hoping Jackson had never heard about her hated and yet infamous nickname.
“Diamond ever complain about you mounting her?”
As she shook her head, he continued, “You’re first in your division, all the time. Your weight ever stop you from sliding into the turns or controlling your horse?”
Another headshake. Staring at the clock, Lexie folded her arms across her belly, trying to hide her bulges as he approached.
Two warm hands cupped her cheeks. He ran a thumb over her bottom lip and a shiver coursed down her spine. Hell, even that was plump. But she loved having him touch her.“You’re beautiful as you are, and you don’t need to lose weight. You’re a perfect female.”
Blinking, she finally dragged her gaze away to look up at him. Perfect was applied to Lupines like Jackson, not her. Did he really think she was perfect, the way she was?
“Seriously?” Lexie dared to hope.
“Never been more serious in my life.”
Her eyes closed as his mouth descended on hers. Such a gentle, sweet kiss, simmering with passion beneath. Lexie breathed in his spicy scent, arousal flooding her loins. When he drew away, disappointment stabbed her.
Something else stabbed at her as well, hard and prodding her belly. Lexie didn’t glance down, but Jackson grinned as she turned beet red.
“Sorry. Condition of being around you, darlin’. Can’t help but get turned on.”
She went to the table, intrigued that she got Jackson sexually aroused. Judging from the sexy, sleepy look in his eyes, he wanted more. It was a heady feeling. Would he kiss her again? But Jackson only dished out the bacon and eggs onto a big plate. “Help yourself to a real breakfast. Be right back,” he told her.
Jackson ran upstairs to the master bathroom.
He closed and locked the door behind him. Time to take business in hand, so to speak.
Lexie drove him wild. Having her this close sent all his hormones raging. As a virile Lupine, his wolf savored the thought of throwing her down and mounting her, thrusting hard and deep.
Time enough for that later. He would be her first lover, and he intended to take it nice and slow. A thrill of pure male possessiveness filled him at the thought of her lying beneath him, her soft body cushioning his as he tutored her in the art of lovemaking.
Lexie was curvaceous and feminine. She thought herself plump, and man, he could kill the Skins who called her that. She was petite and sexy, with that tangle of dark brown curls spilling down her back.
He thought about fisting a hand in those curls as he rode her from the back, and more pre-cum seeped from his painfully hard cock.
He removed the apron and tossed it aside, then opened drawers and searched. Ah, excellent. An unopened tube of