The Other Side of Wrong

by Christi Barth

  Someone that would make him forget his promise to be good.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Cassidy teetered as she crossed the gangplank onto the mega-yacht. She couldn’t blame it on waves, because the ship was anchored on the Potomac River, in the Georgetown harbor. She shouldn’t blame it on the blue platform heels, because she’d been walking in six-inch heels since hitting puberty.

  No, this bobble that made Matt shoot out a hand to bolster her elbow and wrist was entirely due to seeing Jake McQuinn, all alone at the very front railing. She hadn’t expected to see him again until sound check tomorrow. His manager had been annoyingly clear that Jake wouldn’t be available for anything not directly connected to performing.

  They hadn’t spoken, or even texted, in the five days since she’d left his garage. Which some women would be thrilled with—a few hours of mind-blowing sex, and then an easy out.

  But Cassidy didn’t want a mouthful of man candy. She wanted a relationship, with a very specific set of parameters.

  With somebody who understood the non-stop demands on her time and attention. With somebody who understood what it felt like to be consumed by a song. With somebody who had enough self-confidence that they wouldn’t feel threatened by her own fame and wealth.

  Smoking hot and great in bed mattered, too.

  Once you put all of those details into a profile? Very few options came up. Her tier of stardom—or bigger—narrowed the field considerably. Disqualifying self-centered jackasses narrowed it even more. But Jake McQuinn checked off every box. With the added bonus of fulfilling the fantasy she’d carried about him for years.

  Cassidy didn’t remember which charity was sponsoring this party. Didn’t matter. She’d write a bonkers check tomorrow to make up for it. Tonight, though? Tonight was step two in seeing just how well she and Jake fit together.

  There was only one hitch in her plan. Six feet, four inches of brawny bodyguard.

  As soon as they stepped onto the gleaming teak of the deck, Cassidy pulled out of Matt’s grip. “There’s a change in the plans for tonight. You don’t have to stay with me.”

  His head slowly swiveled on his thick, muscled neck, taking in the packed crowds on every level, the trays of drinks being circulated, the loud pump of the music. In other words, all the ingredients for a situation that could turn very bad, very fast. “I disagree.”

  “Your input is duly noted. But I’ll be safe. You saw—nobody is getting on board without their invites being checked.”

  “Because nobody’s ever bought an invitation to an exclusive party,” he said so drily, it was a wonder the water beneath them didn’t turn to sand. “Being rich doesn’t mean people won’t lose their shit around you, Miss Cassidy. Me shadowing you stops at least eighty percent of stupidity before anyone gets near you.”

  “It also stops me from doing anything stupid. And I think tonight, I want to throw caution to the wind. Don’t worry. I won’t be alone.” She thrust out her arm, pointing at Jake. “He’ll keep an eye on me.”

  His eyes bugged wide. “Jake McQuinn?”

  Aww, look at her stoic bodyguard acting like a groupie. “Are you a fan?”

  “Big time. Isn’t everyone?”

  “Not after their last flop, sadly. But that’s about to change. As long as I give him a pep talk tonight. A private one.” Cassidy hoped that would do the trick. Matt was devoted as to her as a brother. Actually, far more so than her own actual brothers. They had an agreement where he loosened security occasionally, and she didn’t sneak off on him.

  Anymore.

  It had taken a few years to settle into that compromise.

  “I’m not leaving the boat.” He did a quick 360 scan before settling on the dance floor around the jacuzzi near the back. “I’ll be there when you’re ready to go.”

  Cassidy squeezed his trunk of an arm in thanks. “It’ll be a while.” Then she paused. “If you’re such a big fan, any idea what Jake’s favorite drink is?”

  “Gin and tonic. Bombay Sapphire.”

  “Good to know…” She beelined inside. It was much less crowded, thanks to the stunning Indian summer weather. A brewery was sponsoring the party, so it took some sweet-talking to convince the bartender to dig up real alcohol in the owner’s suite to make Jake’s cocktail and her own Cuba Libre. Cassidy only had to smile and nod her way out of potential conversations three times before making her escape back to the deck.

  There was a sunken area, then a collection of ropes thicker than her thigh in neat loops. Jake had his forearms braced where the two sides of the railing met. The wind had tousled his hair, reminding Cassidy of how it had looked after she’d clutched at it during sex. He wore a pale blue dress shirt, the collar undone, and obviously tailored navy slacks that draped off his narrow hips and muscled thighs.

  Tiptoeing up behind him, she asked in a low voice, “Would you like a drink, sir?”

  “Only if you magically poured all of this crap beer into a tub, purified it, distilled it, and turned it into something halfway decent.”

  “Like a gin and tonic?”

  Jake swung around, and the naked surprise on his face at seeing Cassidy made her giggle. Then his eyes zeroed in on the rocks glass in her hand. “Tell me that’s the real thing.”

  “Bombay Sapphire with a twist.” She raised it in a silent toast before handing it over.

  After a long sip and a heartfelt sigh, Jake said, “Clearly you’ve climbed the career ladder. Transitioned from world-famous pop star to wish-granting fairy.”

  “I’m not sure that’d be a promotion. I hear the magical dental plan has one heck of a co-pay.”

  “How’d you get this? I was told only that wheat piss Capitol Hill Ale was being served.”

  She made a vee with her fingers and used it like a compass to touch both sides of his downturned mouth. “Did you ask for it with your grump face on?”

  “If it’s a day that ends in Y, then probably.”

  “Okay, now look at me.” Cassidy swept a hand down her side, pointing out—hopefully unnecessarily—the amount of bare skin showing in between where only three slashes of fabric held her blue dress together. “You get more good cocktails with flirtatious exposure than with snarls.”

  He traced along her ribs, his touch as much to blame for the goosebumps that erupted as the breeze off the water. “The way you look in this? I’d give you a lot more than two drinks. I’d be hard-pressed to think of anything I wouldn’t hand over to you right now.”

  “Then this is the perfect time to talk about adding some dates to our mini-tour. We can go hunt up Cam and Jones, too. They’re here, aren’t they?”

  “Yeah. Cam’s here with his girlfriend, Kylie. As for Jones, just tilt your head and listen for a crowd of squealing women. It’s like human sonar. He’ll be in the middle of them.” His fingers kept up that slow caress along one side of the top slit, and then back along the bottom of it, like a pleasure pendulum. “How about we stay out here and not talk about the tour at all?”

  “Fine by me.” She’d made her power play for the tour and gotten everything she—initially—asked for. They had managers to sort out the rest.

  If Jake wanted to chat? That was, well, music to her ears. It was exactly what Cassidy craved. A partner. Someone who knew this crazy, fast-paced, mixed-up world of stardom and would help, rather than judge her, with her problems.

  Taking her shoulders, he steered her to the railing. “Keep your back to the rest of the boat. It’ll lower the chance of being recognized. Now, would you like to talk about how grateful I am for this drink? Or something dull yet location-topical about Congress and their latest attempt to prevent a budget shutdown?”

  “I need help. A sounding board.”

  His eyebrows quirked up. “Really? Hit me. I’d love to chew on someone else’s problem for one damn minute.”

  “My sister wants to come work for me. Something between an assistant, which I’m not at all sure she’s qualified for, and an intern. Sarah is on
a mission trip for a few months, except it went all wrong. She ended up in Dubai. She needs money to get home and needs something to do until the next semester starts.”

  “Dubai? It’s a party capital. She didn’t ‘end up there.’” Shrewdly, Jake asked, “The mission trip didn’t take, did it? She pulled a stunt to get out from under your religion’s thumb and got in over her head.”

  “It isn’t my religion,” Cassidy retorted swiftly. “Not anymore.”

  “Obviously.” He gave a gentle tug at the hem of the tight skirt that could ride up to dangerously exposed if she so much as sneezed. “I’m not trying to be a jerk. Everybody knows your story. The kid who ran away from home.”

  “From the super-strict family and the religion that labeled any music sung outside of church as evil and dangerous,” she murmured.

  “The fourteen-year-old girl who lied and bluffed her way into an audition for a label with a gospel song because it was all she knew and signed a major contract that day. The girl who celebrated by getting a soda because she’d never had one because for whatever fucked up reason, bubbles were evil.”

  Cassidy sipped from her drink, still enjoying the slight fizz on her lips as much as she had that long-ago day in Los Angeles when she’d choked on her first carbonation. “Bubbles are pleasurable. And people tend to sin in order to get greater worldly pleasure, rather than trusting in the Lord to provide.”

  “Still rolls right off your tongue?”

  “Just like the Pledge of Allegiance. The difference is that I still believe in my country. A religion that won’t let me sing in my own shower? No thank you.”

  Jake captured a carefully styled flyaway tendril of her hair. He rubbed it in between his thumb and forefinger. And even though Cassidy knew that hair didn’t have nerve endings, she swore she felt that simple caress. “You were brave, you know. To do that.”

  It hadn’t felt brave. It had felt like an act of desperation. “I didn’t have a choice. I was dying inside. I had to break free.”

  “You think Sarah’s at the same point in her life?”

  “It’s hard to tell. I haven’t talked to her in years. My parents forbade any of my siblings to have contact with me.”

  Jake gave a half-smirk, half-wince. “Funny, my dad cut me off too, when I wouldn’t worship his religion. Only his religion is money and appearances.”

  “That doesn’t sound too far off.” It made Cassidy sad. How a line could be drawn in the sand with no room for love or understanding? “How people saw our family, what they would think about me being a godless whore in Hollywood, mattered far more than who I was on the inside. It mattered more than how much I loved my brothers and sisters. Still matters more than all the money and time I’ve given to charities.”

  “But your sister still reached out to you.”

  “Yes. Maybe.” Being shunned, cut off from her own family, had taught Cassidy that trust didn’t linger—it had to be continuously earned and proven. So, she didn’t wholly trust that Sarah was actually taking a stand and choosing to be a sister again. “There’s every chance she just needs an exit strategy, and I’m a better bet than Mom and Dad.”

  “No matter the reason, she is stranded halfway around the globe.” Jake pointed out at the snaking ribbon of navy blue that eventually emptied into the Chesapeake Bay and out to the Atlantic. “In a part of the world where women don’t have nearly the same freedoms they do here.”

  “Oh, I’m getting Sarah out of there, no matter what. I’ll buy her a ticket back to the States.” That part was a no-brainer. Cassidy took a quick sip of her drink and then laid her hand on his forearm. “What I want your opinion on is whether or not I should take a chance and take her on as my assistant once she’s here. Just because she’s family.”

  His arms swung down from the railing. His head dropped. And a hollow, bitter laugh that absolutely shocked her streamed out of Jake. “You don't want to know how I feel about family ties. Not this month. Probably not this year. I resent the hell out of them.”

  Ohhh-kay. There was a story there. One that probably had to do with Jake living in his parents’ house when she’d tracked him down last week. No wonder he wanted to focus on someone else’s problem. “What if she's asking for money, for help, because it’s the only way she figures I’ll even talk to her?”

  “That could be true. Hell, it could just be ten percent true. If so, I’m guessing you don’t want to regret missing out on what might be a chance. A door cracking open. So why not give her the job?”

  Which was exactly the way Cassidy had been leaning. But she was a sucker for a heart-tugging story. More than a little obsessed with reunion videos on YouTube between soldiers and their dogs. They made her cry every time. She’d needed someone like Jake to also point out the value in opening herself up to be hurt again.

  And thus, the next obvious question was delivered in a low murmur. “What if it doesn’t work out?”

  He shrugged. “At least you’ll know.”

  It meant a lot that Jake hadn’t dismissed her family drama. She’d noticed him angle his entire body toward her as he listened. As he gave her both his full attention, and his full-scale honesty. That was rare to encounter at her level of celebrity.

  People pretended to listen. They agreed with her, no matter what. Both qualities which annoyed her to no end. And had led Cassidy to place her full faith in the old saying “actions speak louder than words.”

  Jake’s actions—not schmoozing with everyone else, choosing to simply talk with her rather than lunging for a hot quickie, giving his true opinion rather than whatever he thought she wanted to hear—made her appreciate him all the more. She decided to throw caution to the wind. Be spontaneous. Make an undoubtedly bad but fun decision.

  Show him with her own actions how much she appreciated his attention.

  “That’s good advice. I owe you. And I don't like to leave a debt unpaid, so....” Cassidy dropped to her knees. Setting her drink on the deck, she made quick work of his belt and zipper.

  Was a blow job an extreme measure of gratitude for a little free advice? Maybe.

  But Cassidy knew if she didn’t do it, if she didn’t seize this unguarded moment with Jake, he’d be right. She’d regret missing out on what might be a chance to extend their connection. To walk away with one heck of a memory.

  “Cassidy, are you crazy? You can’t do this here.”

  “Watch me.” She cupped his already tight balls before yanking his boxer briefs down his thighs. “Seriously. I’m betting you’ll enjoy the view.”

  “That’s the point. Anyone would and could enjoy—” his words disintegrated into a long moan as she licked him from the base of his shaft up to the tip. “I’m trying to protect you. This is wrong.”

  His chivalry was both noted and appreciated. In theory. In reality? Cassidy had a bodyguard to protect her. To keep her safe. All she wanted from Jake was for him to let her be herself.

  Cassidy used her electric blue nails to trace feather-light circles around his balls. Jake shuddered with each circuit. “I spent my whole childhood being told what I wanted to do, what I liked to do, was wrong. You know what’s on the other side of wrong? What’s right for me.”

  “It’s feeling pretty damned right for me, too.”

  He was so tall that sitting on her heels wasn’t getting the job done. Pressing up, she was able to suck on him like an erotic lollipop. Her tongue swirled up, down, in circles. At the same time, she kept up the light, teasing caress on his balls with one hand while the other stroked his thick, long shaft. Her squeezing took on the rhythm of the electronica thumping through the ship’s speakers.

  When Jake’s hand landed on top of her head, she reared back. And tried not to giggle at how his penis tried to follow, jutting out toward her instead of straight up. “The only thing that will give away what we’re doing is if you give me sex hair. Hands off the ’do.”

  An actual growl came out before Jake harshly said, “I need to touch you.”
/>   “Later. It’s my turn right now.”

  “Not for long,” he warned as he braced his hands wide apart on the railing.

  Speed was of the essence in not getting discovered. Cassidy applied herself to getting him there. She hummed a little in the back of her throat while sucking down as much of him as possible. She scratched and tickled the insides of his thighs before circling back to palm his balls again.

  Most of all, she kept up the steady rhythm of suction and sliding licks. Cassidy enjoyed the salty stickiness of the fat drops of pre-cum that kept collecting as fast as she could swirl them off. She loved the tremors running along his legs. The steady stream of semi-incoherent praise and pleas from him. And when he began to fuck her mouth, well, she absolutely loved the knowledge that she had driven him to the edge.

  Jake exploded mere seconds later, his whole body shaking. Cassidy had barely swallowed it all down when he grabbed her beneath her arms and lifted her to her feet, facing the railing. “Did that get you hot? Getting me off?”

  “Of course it did.”

  The recklessness, the danger, the speed, had all been sexy.

  Overriding all of that, though, was Jake himself. Feeling the crisp hair on his balls, the softer hair dusting his muscled thighs. The musky scent of him when she’d buried her nose at the crook between his leg and his stomach. Every groan he’d made had been an aural stroke between her very damp folds.

  Cassidy looked over her shoulder at him. Jake’s whole face was backlit and shadowed. But there was enough light from the full moon to show an unmistakably smug and satisfied man. One whose super-broad shoulders and torso would hide her from the view of anyone else on the boat.

  “Like you said, actions speak louder than words.” With a twist to those sensual lips, Jake reached around to cup her drenched thong with his hand.

  The surprise of it whooshed all the air out of her lungs. When she tried to suck in air, it resulted in a raspy gasp. Because he surprised her yet again. He pushed two fingers inside her. Crooked one of them a little to the side and began…jiggling? Massaging?