As Hot as It Gets

“Anyway—” he cleared his throat, “—we were madly in love, planned on gettin’ married and havin’ babies and livin’ happily ever after.”

“So what changed?” Mia’s fingers stroked his chin, skimming over the thick beard that he was dying to shave off.

“Sex,” he said flatly. “You already know I like to experiment—well, I liked it back then, too.”

Mia hazarded a guess. “But Tiffany didn’t?”

“Heck, no, Tiff loved it. She loved everything we did in bed. Only problem was, it embarrassed her. She didn’t want to admit that she liked it dirty, and she made me promise that our bedroom activities would stay between us, and us alone. I was perfectly fine with that.” He shrugged. “I mean, I don’t like people knowin’ my business either. So yeah, things were good. We were a nice upstanding couple in public, and a pair of kinky sex maniacs in private.”

Mia continued to caress his face, urging him with her warm touch to keep going.

“The night before my twentieth birthday, Tiff had somethin’ special planned. We were both livin’ at home at that point, so we used to sneak over to the cabin on my folks’ property to fool around.”

He didn’t mention that Tiff was now living in that very same cabin with his brother, but the irony didn’t escape him. “She told me to meet her at the cabin, and when I showed up, she was buck naked and holding a length of rope. She announced that my birthday present was that I’d get to tie her up and f**k her in the ass. We’d always wanted to play around with ropes, so everything that followed was one hundred percent consensual. She initiated it, and she loved every second of it.”

Jackson stopped abruptly, a burst of resentment going off in his chest.

“Hey, don’t stop now,” Mia said softly. “Tell me what happened afterwards.”

“That night? Nothin’. But the next mornin’, Tiff was out in the paddock with her father. It was sweltering outside, so she rolled up her sleeves without thinkin’, and her daddy instantly noticed the rope marks on her wrists.” Jackson released a weary breath. “I guess we weren’t too careful the night before.”

Mia’s breath hitched. “Shit.”

“Shit is right. When her father demanded to know where she got those marks, Tiff panicked. She blurted out the first thing that came to her head.” He spoke through clenched teeth now. “She told her daddy that I tied her up and had my way with her—without her consent.”

Horror erupted in Mia’s eyes. “No.”

“Yes.” His insides twisted with bitterness. “As you can probably imagine, Casper Griffen freaked the f**k out. He grabbed his shotgun, hopped in his pickup and hightailed it over to my house.”

“Oh my God.”

“Tiff had already called to warn me he was coming, so we were all out on the porch when he showed up. He started hurling threats and accusations, said the sheriff was on his way.” Bile coated Jackson’s throat. “My father, God bless him, had his own shotgun out, and he ordered Casper to get the heck off our property, told him we’d settle it in court if we had to.”

Even though years had passed, the mortification he’d felt on that awful morning remained fresher than ever. Jackson’s chest ached as he remembered the unwavering confidence on his father’s face. Kurt Ramsey hadn’t believed Casper’s claims for a second. He’d stood protectively at his son’s side, prepared to shoot Tiff’s father if it came down to it.

“Neither of my parents believed Casper’s accusation,” Jackson said roughly. “My sister, well, she was too young to know what was going on, so they sent her to a friend’s house while we waited for the sheriff. But Shane… Shane thought I was guilty.”

That elicited a livid curse from Mia. “How could he possibly think that?”

“I didn’t know it at the time, but he was in love with Tiff. Turns out he had a thing for her in high school, but she was three years younger so he was waitin’ for her to grow up a little before he asked her out. But by then she was already with me. Shane didn’t say a word to me about it, but secretly he was jealous as heck that I was dating the girl he wanted. And when Casper showed up, Shane wasn’t thinking clearly. He was only thinking about Tiff, and the thought of anyone hurtin’ her, especially his own brother, sent him into a blind rage.”

Mia gasped. “What did he do?”

“After my dad shooed Casper off our land, I headed out to the barn. I needed to be alone, to make sense of it all. I couldn’t believe Tiff had accused me of doing such a despicable thing. I desperately wanted to talk to her and find out why she’d done it, but my folks advised me not to contact her, at least not until we spoke to the sheriff.” The frustration he’d felt back then returned now in full-force. “Lord, I was already havin’ visions of going to jail—for something I didn’t even do—so eventually I went out to see the horses. Being around them always calmed me down. But Shane followed me into the barn and…”

He stopped. Couldn’t go on. That hot July morning had been the single worst day of his life. He’d never told anyone about it. Hadn’t allowed himself to think about it.

Mia twisted around so that she was straddling him. Her gaze shone with encouragement as she planted both hands on his shoulders and said, “What did he do?”