His Baby Deal (The Diamond Club Book 6)

by Elizabeth Lennox

  “I can try,” was all she would promise.

  “Think about my suggestion. And tomorrow morning, when you want to ogle me, why not just come down to your door and ogle me properly?”

  She gasped, remembering this morning.

  And then he pulled away. “Until tomorrow morning, Jessa,” he walked out her back door.

  Jessa stood there for a long moment, her fingers touching her lips as they tingled in reaction. Goodness, he was an excellent kisser!

  Jayce wanted to punch the air as he stood outside in the darkness. Jessa’s hand lingered on her lips. When she turned around, moments before she turned off the lights in the room, he saw her smile. It was a satisfied smile.

  “Oh, you just don’t know yet, do you darlin’?” he said into the darkness. Jayce waited until she’d locked the back door before he returned to his own house, already making plans. Because he was ninety-nine percent sure that Jessa was going to eventually agree with him on the plan. But boy was he having a good time convincing her! Jayce couldn’t remember the last time he’d been on a woman’s couch and just made out. The hot and heavy petting was frustrating, but pretty nice!

  Chapter 9

  Oz stepped into Jayce’s office and observed his brother silently for a long moment. Jayce was staring out the window, but Oz doubted that his brother saw the mountains in the distance.

  “What’s going on?” Oz finally demanded, breaking the silence.

  Jayce swung around, taking in his brother in the black cargo pants and black tee-shirt that he wore whenever he was about to hit the obstacle course. “You heading out to do the course?” he asked.

  “Yeah. Ryker moved some things around and it’s always interesting to figure out what,” Oz explained, referring to the obstacle course where their third partner and evil genius moved around obstacles and traps, set up hidden powder “bombs”, and basically made everyone’s life hell. It was great! “Want to join me?”

  Jayce thought about it for a moment.

  Oz sensed Jayce’s indecision and his concern went up several notches. Jayce was the laid back, easy going guy of their trio. He laughed easily and loved life, nothing seeming to bother him. So now that something obviously was bothering him, Oz couldn’t help but worry.

  Moving deeper into the room, he offered, “Maybe you should take that mission that Carly was going to give to Mick.” It was a dangerous task about getting intel in a foreign country where the residents were distinctly unfriendly to anyone they hadn’t known for the last one hundred years.

  “I can’t leave,” Jayce replied. “Mick can handle the mission. He’s brought back good intel on every mission he’s been sent on.”

  Oz agreed, but it wasn’t like Jayce to turn down a job. In fact, over the past year, it had been a challenge to get the man to take on more management responsibilities. He was a damn good leader, both in and out of the office. But Jayce didn’t like wearing a tie for too long. It made him antsy. Like now. The only solution to Jayce’s twitchy-ness was to go into a situation in which he had to dodge bullets and avoid being killed in various, painful ways. Jayce loved that kind of thing. He was like a cat with a hundred lives. Even Oz wouldn’t put himself into some of the dangerous situations that Jayce had gone into. And survived. In fact, the guy came back grinning and laughing after some of those dangerous missions.

  The fact that Jayce was turning down an opportunity to get out into the field, was worrisome. “What’s going on, Jayce?” Oz asked, moving deeper into the office.

  Jayce glanced at his brother, then back down at the contract in front of him. “Nothing. I just can’t go right now. Besides, Mick has been asking for more responsibility and we both know that he’s damn good at this stuff.”

  Oz crossed his massive arms over his chest. “Everyone we’ve recruited is damn good at their job, Jayce. That’s not the point.”

  “So, what is your point?” Jayce snapped, tossing his pen on the desk. “You and Ryker used to have to pull me back from volunteering for these missions. So here I am, telling you that I can’t go and you’re irritated? What the hell do you want?”

  Ryker stepped into the office, his dark eyes concerned as well.

  “Tell Ryker why you are acting like an ass,” Oz ordered.

  Ryker’s dark brows went up. But he remained silent.

  “I don’t have to tell either of you anything!” With a huff, he walked over to the private bathroom with a dressing room attached, grabbing a similar pair of dark pants and dark shirt. “But bring it on! If you think I’m so antsy, if you think I’ve lost my touch and need to train a bit more, then let’s go! I’ll meet you out on the course in ten.” With that, he slammed the door to his dressing room.

  Oz looked at Ryker who stared back at him. “Something is wrong.”

  Ryker nodded, then turned. “I’ll meet you out there.”

  Oz sighed, rubbing the back of his neck as he glanced at the door through which Jayce had disappeared. “Right,” sighed. “Let’s all avoid the real issue, whatever that might be.”

  With that, he walked out of his office, heading towards the obstacle course. Not only was the course a good way to train, it also was an excellent way to blow off some steam. Hopefully, that’s all Jayce needed.

  Three hours later, the team of ten men and two women headed back to the main building where showers, lockers, and beer were waiting for them. They’d finished the ten mile obstacle course and only lost one man to a powder bomb. The man had tripped a hidden wire and was covered in white powder and getting ribbed by the others. Jayce laughed right along with the others and felt a hundred percent better.

  He knew that Oz and Ryker had watched him during the exercise, but he’d ignored them, focusing on the course. The exertion and the forced, intense attention had worked. It had gotten his mind off Jessa. Damn, he wanted to hold her! He wanted to rush back to her place and tell her about the course, about the crazy surprises that Ryker had dreamed up, and hear her laugh. He wanted to lift her into his arms and carry her around because, after a workout like that, he felt on top of the world! And he wanted to share it with Jessa!

  With that goal in mind, he hurried through a shower, ignoring the ribbing from the others, and dressed, rushing back to his place so that he could change into something more comfortable and head over to Jessa’s house for…whatever she was cooking for them tonight. He didn’t care what it was. He just wanted to be with her, to talk to her, and laugh with her. And maybe, just maybe, this was the night she would allow him to make love to her.

  Even if she didn’t, he still wanted to be with her.

  Chapter 10

  Jessa looked over the table, wondering if the candles were a bit too much. Did it look like she was trying? She was trying, but she didn’t want to look like she was trying.

  Two weeks, she thought. Two weeks of kissing and holding hands and dinners with Jayce. They’d been close before, spending just about every evening together out by the water. But over the past two weeks, they’d eaten dinner together, watched movies, played cards, or taken their wine and beer down to the lake after dinner and talked quietly. And every night, he’d take her into his arms to kiss her. Every night, the kiss would get out of control…until he pulled back and asked her if she wanted him to continue.

  Every night, she’d said no. That she wasn’t ready.

  Tonight though. Tonight, she’d have a different answer when he asked. They’d have dinner, have a bit of wine and another beer because Jayce hated wine…and she’d eventually tell him that she was ready. Maybe not ready to have a baby with him, but ready to have sex.

  Taking a deep breath, she paced the length of her kitchen. “It’s just sex,” she said to the empty room. “And if I get pregnant, that will be the end of things. He won’t go away. Jayce isn’t like that. This is just sex in order to have a baby. Remember that and you’ll come out of this with a beautiful baby, and, hopefully, Jayce will still want to be friends.”

  The idea of Jayce not being w
ith her at the end of this adventure hurt her heart, but she knew that he wasn’t the daddy type. Whatever he did for a living, and she was fairly sure that it was dangerous and scary, he loved it and needed that kind of exhilaration. Jessa needed to keep that in mind. He was a good man, a strong and responsible man. And she was definitely tempted by his suggestion that sex could be enjoyable.

  That was enough.

  “Keep your heart out of this, Jessa-girl!” she told herself as she straightened the candles on the table. Picking up the beer glass, she looked at it through the light. Normally, he just drank out of the bottle. But tonight was special. She’d brought out her grandmother’s china set, added flowers, crystal glasses and, darn it, Jayce was going to drink out of a beer glass tonight!

  Was she being too fussy? Probably. But as Jessa looked around at the scene, she didn’t care. This was a seduction. She was going to seduce Jayce.

  Jessa snorted inelegantly. “Right. As if I need to do anything other than say ‘boo’.” But still, she looked around, the effort she’d gone through today helping to relax her and give her something to do other than worry about what would happen.

  “You can always change your mind,” she reminded herself.

  Before she could say anything else, the doorbell rang. “This is it!” she whispered, her lips and fingers and…well, her whole body felt numb. Was it like this every time she waited on Jayce to come home? Possibly. But it was more pronounced tonight.

  Walking over to the door, she smoothed her hands over the front of her yellow summer dress. It was short and flirty and she’d slipped on a pair of tan wedge espadrilles to give herself a bit of extra height. The dress and shoes helped her feel sexy and pretty and she hoped that Jayce approved of her wardrobe choice.

  Pulling the door open, her breath caught in her throat as she took in the sight of Jayce in jeans and a white, collared shirt, unbuttoned at the neck, looking…magnificent! The white shirt made his skin look darker, sexier. Swarthier! Did he seem more relaxed?

  No. Not really. But yes, there was something about him that was different tonight. Or maybe, there was something different about herself.

  “Jessa!” he groaned and stepped through the doorway. Every night, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her until she melted into his arms. Tonight though, he stepped into the house and slammed the front door shut, but instead of pulling her into his arms, he stared at her.

  “What does this mean, Jessa?” he asked, using that low, sexy voice that she loved. A shiver went through her and she wanted to smooth her dress again, but kept her hands at her sides, not wanting to show how nervous she was by fidgeting.

  “Um…dinner is ready if you are hungry.”

  Jayce’s mind went blank at the sight of her. The tension he’d banished by going through the obstacle course this afternoon was back, but ten times more intense. And it was all because of the damn dress! She looked so beautiful! The yellow dress made her skin look soft and touchable, adding a warmth that he hadn’t noticed before. It was cut low on top, giving him a slight glimpse of her cleavage and short on the bottom, revealing sexy legs that, until now, had mostly been covered by jeans or those short pants…capris, or whatever women called them now. The heels lengthened her calf muscles, adding a sleekness to her legs that made his mouth water and she smelled like vanilla. Or cinnamon? He wasn’t sure, but he was hooked! Hell, he’d been hooked since the first moment he’d seen her planting flowers when he’d bought his house next door.

  But now…everything about her dress and her nervousness screamed that she was ready.

  “Are you ready?” he asked, not wanting to assume anything.

  “Ready? Um…dinner is ready. I thought we could…”

  He stepped closer, barely an inch away from her and she tilted her head back, revealing her long, sensitive neck. He knew each of the places on her neck that made her squirm. “Are you ready, Jessa?” He reached out, touching the floaty material of her summer dress. “Does this mean what I think it means?”

  Her sexy tongue darted out, wetting her lips. That full, lower lip that he’d become addicted to over the past couple of weeks. Damn, he loved her lips! And now that he’d seen more of them, Jayce knew that he loved her legs too!

  “Yes. It means that I’m ready,” she breathed, but she backed up a step. Jayce followed, moving in time with each of her steps.

  “If you’re ready, why are you walking away from me?”

  The wall stopped her retreat and he placed a hand on either side of her head, looking down at her. He wouldn’t move, not until he understood what she was thinking. “Talk to me, Jessa. If you’re still too nervous, then we won’t take this further.”

  She looked up into his eyes and he admired the way the yellow made her chocolate eyes darker.

  “I’m ready, Jayce. I just…I’m nervous. Could we take it slowly?”

  Jayce wondered if she’d consider him howling with triumph as a bad thing. Probably.

  “We’ll take it as slow as you need, honey,” he assured her, and prayed that he could maintain that promise. Lowering his head, he kissed her softly. Her lips trembled so he didn’t press her for a deeper kiss. But he took her hands, lifting them so that her fingers rested on his shoulders.

  “Tell me if I move too fast, Jessa,” he whispered into her ear a moment before he nibbled on her earlobe. He felt her shiver and smiled, but didn’t stop his ministrations.

  For several, long moments, he stood there kissing her neck and ears, waiting for something. He wasn’t sure what, but was fairly sure she’d give him a signal when she felt relaxed enough to move on.

  When her fingers slid down from his shoulders to his chest, Jayce knew that she was ready. And damn, her hands felt really good against his chest! Slowly, her fingers explored his chest and arms, sliding along his shirt and he wanted to rip the material away so that he could feel her fingers against his skin.

  While she explored his chest, he did a bit of his own exploration. His hands moved lower, fluttering around along the edge of her pretty sundress. The edge taunted him, but he didn’t slide his hands under the material. Instead, he shifted his hands higher, curving around her small waist, then moving higher to cup her breasts. The movement of his thumb rubbing against her nipples made her gasp, her body tightening and he absorbed the sound into his mouth, deepening the kiss. His fingers slid back down and he wanted to laugh when she whimpered as his hands shifted to the hem of her dress. But he was too intent now. He wanted to see her. Explore her. And this dress! Her legs! Damn, she was beautiful!

  “Jessa!” he groaned as his hands slid underneath the dress and discovered lace. He loved lace!

  Jessa gasped when Jayce pulled away from her. But that was nothing compared to the shock she felt when he knelt down in front of her, lifting the short hem of her summer dress. She was intensely glad that she’d bought the new matching panty and bra set. The pink lace shimmered in the light as his fingers traced along the edge of the lace.

  “I like this,” he groaned.

  He leaned in closer, his hot mouth kissing her right above the small bow several inches underneath her belly button. Good grief, that felt amazing! He gently nipped at her skin and she laughed, feeling that nip all the way down deep in her belly. All of her girly parts were swollen and aching for more.

  Unfortunately, she’d been so hesitant to move forward and Jayce was such a gentleman, he was determined to take this slowly. This was her fault, she thought. All her fault! What would he do if she got down on her knees and rode him?

  She was just about to find out when he stood up and lifted her into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Speeding up this process,” he told her as he took the stairs, carrying her into her bedroom.

  Jessa laughed, charmed by his eagerness and more turned on than she’d thought possible!

  “I thought you were going to go slowly,” she commented, as he shouldered his way through
her bedroom door.

  “Don’t worry about a thing, Jessa,” he urged, as he laid her down on the bed, then stood up, pulling his white shirt up and over his head. A few buttons snapped off, but he didn’t seem to notice.

  As the material pulled away, revealing his tanned skin, Jessa’s mouth went dry. She’d seen him shirtless so many times over the past several months, but this…this was different!

  Before she had time to fully appreciate the magnificence of Jayce’s chest and arms, he was back, bracing his arms on either side of her head as he leaned down to kiss her. This was no tentative kiss though. This was a deep, soul-drugging, toe curling, mind-shattering kiss that had her wiggling underneath him, digging her nails into his bare shoulders.

  Bare shoulders, oh my!

  Then Jayce lowered his body, pressing his hips between her knees and she held her breath as he pressed all of that magnificence against her body.

  “You feel amazing, Jessa,” he groaned as he nibbled along her throat.

  “You feel great too!” she whispered, her fingers sliding happily against his skin. “Really good!”

  Another kiss, then he moved his mouth back to her neck, then lower. Lower still! Jessa had no idea how he’d gotten the buttons on her summer dress loose, but nor did she care. Especially when his mouth lowered, covering her nipple, his teeth scraping against the sensitive nub through the layer of lace.

  “Jayce!” she gasped, rolling her hips against his. But the ache there wasn’t appeased and his mouth wasn’t close enough. She pulled the strap of her bra down, then tugged at his head, offering her breast with nothing to stop the heat of his mouth to…

  “Jayce!” she gasped, arching her back as he pleasured her nipple. “More!” she begged. “Oh, please don’t stop!”

  He stopped! But only long enough to move over to her other breast and Jessa moaned again as his finger slid underneath the lace of her bra, rubbing back and forth, teasing her body into a fever pitch unlike anything she’d ever experienced before.