Oh, how she wanted to arch her foot and run it over the hard muscles that hovered near her toes. Feel those rippling planes she’d enjoyed too briefly in his arms last night. Alyssa bit down on her lower lip to silence a whimper.
He bent forward another few inches, and the hard metal button at his waist pressed into the top of her foot. The contact sent a shock surging through her body. She gasped, and Jayce went utterly still.
* * *
Jayce couldn’t move. Hell, it was all he could do to pull in a shallow breath, let alone take his hand off the tangled cord and back out from beneath Alyssa’s desk like he should. That one, not-so-simple sound attuned every already over-sensitized nerve to the singular place their bodies joined. His cock jumped behind the fly of his jeans, shifting against the dainty arch of her foot. His gaze dropped between them, and he found the ability to lift his hips away. One black stiletto heel left him spellbound.
Silence pervaded his awareness. The complete, utter stillness that had overtaken the room with Alyssa’s gasp. He couldn’t remember when he’d ever been wound so tight. When touching her had been such an absolute need.
The tightness of her calf drew his attention to how she curled her fingers into the arms of her chair. Her thighs were tense as well, clenched as if she might rocket out of her seat, and trembling like a cornered rabbit.
Jayce closed his eyes, no longer able to fight the yearning that had plagued him since her soft curves melded against him on the dance floor, and he arched his hips, creating the necessary room to skim his mouth over the defined bone of her ankle. At the feel of her warm skin against his lips, what remained of the conflict inside him quieted. He didn’t care about the past, what complications she presented. She had always belonged to him, and touching her was as necessary as breathing.
He cupped the back of her calf and trailed his mouth up smooth skin that smelled like strawberries. Later, he’d hate himself for this weakness. Right now…goddamn, it had been too long.
He swirled his tongue over the hollow indentation on the inside of her knee, where she’d always been vulnerable, and felt the shiver that slid down her spine. Letting his lips linger, he took a moment to fight for control over his own shaky breathing. Her knees parted, giving him the necessary room to slide his hands over her thighs and let his fingertips play against the sensitive skin just beneath the hem of her short black skirt.
At the slight twist of her hips, Jayce nudged her chair away from the desk and lifted his head. Arousal softened her features, shuttered thick lashes over her clouded eyes. Soft pink lips parted with her ragged breathing. Slowly, she lifted her lashes to look at him. He didn’t give her time to think about why he’d stopped or what he intended to do next. Rising, he slipped his hands beneath her arms and tugged her to her feet.
She rose to her toes at the same time he dipped his head, and his mouth crashed into hers. She met the quest of his tongue with equal desperation. The bite of her nails as they dug into his shoulders was more heavenly than any gentle caress. Jayce fitted his hands at her waist, turned her around, and backed her against the edge of her desk. He’d have her here, fuck her until he couldn’t move, and burn her out of his system. One day. One trip down memory lane…
Alyssa’s quiet moan vibrated into him, and another shudder racked her body. Her hips ground into his, making it damn near impossible to link thoughts together. He struggled through the haze of white-hot fire that arced through his veins, fought to the surface until the instantaneous shock of ecstasy ebbed. Dropping one hand to the curve of her bottom, he guided her against his cock once more and thrust forward, stroking her clitoris.
She trembled in his arms.
“Jayce.” Eyes closed, she tipped her head to the side, holding on as if she might sink to her knees.
He raked his teeth over the throbbing vein she exposed and slipped his free hand between their bodies to cup her breast. As his thumb flicked over her tailored blouse and the pert nipple beneath, she gyrated against him again. Desire pounded at him, the need to strip her bare and sink so deep inside her that she screamed, fierce. But some things were meant to be savored, and Alyssa was one of them.
Slowly, he trailed the tip of his tongue down the length of her neck to the indentation at her shoulder. As his lips grazed across her skin, he bent her backward over the desk. Her long hair spilled across his arm and cascaded onto a pile of papers. The arched position thrust her breasts beneath his nose. He dragged his mouth across the expensive linen, watched as she shuddered in his embrace. Beneath the pad of his thumb, her nipple hardened like glass.
Alyssa regained her footing, released her tight grip on his shoulders, and slid her palms down the front of his chest. A quiet murmur of satisfaction rumbled in Jayce’s throat, the hungry way her fingers devoured him nothing less than heavenly. Sweet Mary he’d missed this. Dreamt about it so many times he could have sworn he remembered every fleeting detail of the clandestine nights they’d spent together. But nothing compared to reality. Nothing burned so pleasurably as the feel of her hands.
When those delectable fingers glided over the denim that confined his swollen cock, his body bucked forward of its own volition. He sucked in a sharp breath through his nose, and seeking to return the same blissful torment, closed his mouth over her linen-clad nipple. She was so close to the same place of hedonistic abandon that he hovered on the edge of, he could taste it. So close to coming apart in his hands.
As another throaty moan slipped off her lips, Jayce crimped her nipple between his teeth.
* * *
One devastating wave of sensation after another rolled through Alyssa, taking her to a place she both craved and feared. She couldn’t stop the insistent way her hips gyrated against Jayce’s, couldn’t terminate the endless ache he provoked. Each tug on her breast, each flick of his tongue against her nipple, each mind-numbing pinch of his teeth broke off bits of her control.
Fighting against the rise of ecstasy, she squirmed against his powerful body. She wanted him naked, wanted to feel that hard length of muscle against her skin, wanted to feel the sweet satisfaction of his cock sliding deep inside her.
“Jayce…oh, Jayce…” Her whisper hung between them, met only by the sound of his labored breathing.
He pressed his hips into hers and rolled them in a slow, deliberate circle. His cock rubbed her clitoris through her skirt, and the moisture between her legs increased. She was so painfully wet and ready that had he been anyone else, she would have been embarrassed. But no, he was Jayce, the only man alive who could make her body hum with a casual caress and make her want to beg when he touched her like this.
He could break her so easily.
He lifted his head to whisper, “Come for me, baby. I know you want to.” The hand at her breast skimmed down her side, across the top of her thigh. His fingertips dipped beneath the hem of her skirt, nudging it higher, to trace the edge of her panties. Teasing the way he knew she liked. His breath washed across her skin. “Stop fighting it. Let go and come.”
His quiet directive stole into her subconscious, provoking her body to obey. Ecstasy spiked, and her pussy clamped down hard.
The easy way he stripped away her control, terrified her. She couldn’t do this. No matter how she wanted to submit to bliss, she couldn’t give Jayce that sort of power over her. There was only one way she could yield to his offered pleasure—with Brice, who she could ground herself with. Brice who couldn’t tap into all the things she locked away. Brice who couldn’t come close to unraveling her.
Struggling to rise above the haze that obliterated her thoughts, she pushed at Jayce’s shoulders. “I can’t,” she murmured.
“Yes, you can.” His finger drifted closer to her soaked opening.
“No.” With more strength, she pushed again. “I won’t do this without Brice.”
S i x
Brice.
With one single utterance, all the desire that blistered through Jayce’s veins turned to jagged shards of ice. He
drew back from Alyssa, certain his hearing had failed. “What?”
Alyssa straightened her shirt and tugged her skirt back down over her thighs. She pointedly avoided eye contact, letting her silence fill in all the gaps.
“I don’t fucking believe this.” Shoveling both hands through his hair, Jayce took another step away from her. Brice—not that she didn’t want to fuck him, she just refused to do so solo? Since when had she become addicted to threesomes?
He shot her a scathing look. “I get no, Alyssa. You don’t want to fuck me? Fine. But don’t make excuses. Stuff them away with the rest of the shit you won’t tell me. Like what the hell happened to us.” He stalked toward the door, unable to escape fast enough, but couldn’t resist a parting jab. “While you’re at it, you should clue loverboy in on what nearly just happened between us. I doubt he’d agree with your variety of faithfulness.”
“Brice and I have an…arrangement.”
Her quiet voice stopped him for a nanosecond. But when the words connected with his brain, he scoffed in disdain. “So you can fuck who you want so long as he’s there? How perfect for you.”
She slammed a stack of papers onto her desk. “It’s not like that, Jayce.”
“Then what is it like, Alyssa?” He should go—this argument wasn’t going to solve the mountains that lay between them. But no matter how he told himself that, he couldn’t step the rest of the way through the doorway. Nor could he stop himself from goading her on. “Way I see it, either you’ve got McTavish pathetically wrapped around your little finger, or you’re afraid I’ll corner you with uncomfortable pillow talk.”
The shaky way her fingers fumbled with her papers told him he’d come close to the mark. Maybe a bit too close. Was she afraid to be alone with him? The thought stuffed an uncomfortable knot into the back of his throat. He could think of no possible reason for her fear, save one. That if he got her talking, she’d confess she’d terminated her pregnancy.
Jayce shoved the thought aside. He’d find out one way or another. But not at the rate he was going. Throwing insults would only earn him her hate. Besides, she was more likely concerned about what sort of obligation he expected from her when he left. No worries there—she’d already made it perfectly clear what she didn’t want from him.
“Look, I leave in four days. I’m not inviting McTavish to my bed. But if you decide you want me, he’s got my number.” He pivoted toward the door once more then glanced over his shoulder. “One night, Alyssa. That’s all I want.”
One night to replace the memories he couldn’t escape.
Shaking his head at the disparity of it all, he stalked out the door. What a damned fool he was. McTavish wasn’t the one wrapped around her little finger, not by a long-shot. She’d moved on without so much as a backward glance on the dreams they’d shared. And here he was, a glutton for punishment, chasing after her like a dog on the scent of a bitch in heat.
Hurting all over again with her rejection.
At his car, he climbed behind the wheel and dropped his head onto the headrest. By now, he should be accustomed to the pain of longing that resided behind his ribs. But being near her was like injecting heroine—dangerous and alluring. He couldn’t say no, couldn’t walk away, no matter how she tore him into pieces.
His cell phone vibrated from the console, and with a harassed sigh, Jayce leaned forward to read the text.
Still looking at the house, right? I’ll pick up beer.
Jayce stared at the blinking cursor that followed McTavish’s message. Inspect their house. Pretend he knew security systems like the back of his hand. More tangled lies. He’d give his thumbs to say no. To go back to Jordan’s, take her out to a movie, and forget today. But he’d given McTavish his word. If he weaseled out of inspecting their security system today, he’d have to deal with the promise tomorrow. On Saturday, when Alyssa wouldn’t be cooped up in her office.
This vacation couldn’t end soon enough.
Jayce tapped in a response. Gotta make it quick. Have plans with Jordan tonight. Another lie, but who was keeping track? It was certainly a damn sight better than the one he was about to execute, that of pretending he hadn’t just crossed boundaries with McTavish’s girl.
Grumbling, Jayce tossed his cell onto the console and dropped the pickup into reverse. He’d lived a lot of falsehoods since he became a Black Opal, but not one had ever weighed on his conscious like this. He would have to look McTavish in the eye, knowing all the while that he’d just betrayed the one person, aside from Alyssa, who had always been there for him.
* * *
Alyssa sat behind her desk, unable to see the ledger she held in her hand. The sheen of tears gathered in her eyes turned the numbers into illegible squiggles. One night…Jayce asked for one night when one entanglement with him had been life-changing. Hell, she could hardly look at children on television anymore. All she saw was the child she’d lost and the men who’d taken him. Now, Jayce wanted her to go back to the place of happiness before then, before she’d stupidly ignored his warning and gone to that damned bonfire.
She dropped her head into her hands to stave off the threatening memories. Voices hovered at the edge of her mind. Sounds she’d learned how to suffocate with the help of Brice’s steadfast friendship. But they rose in the aftermath of Jayce’s presence, the brutal remarks as terrifying as the darkness that had engulfed her ten years ago. She squeezed her eyes shut.
“You can’t hurt me. I’m stronger than this.” Alyssa spoke to drown out the horrific noise. She set her jaw and lifted her head. “I have nothing to be afraid of.”
Nothing other than losing her heart, which had never really given up on Jayce.
She owed it to Jayce to explain. To justify the pain that flashed behind his eyes when he threw her silence in his face. But it had taken her years to overcome the way her parents faulted her for the barbarous rape. Years to rise above the shame, the nightmares, the haunting sobs of another girl subjected to the simultaneous torture. What if Jayce blamed her as well?
In some portion of her heart, she knew he wouldn’t. But the larger portion, the part that had been subjected to the betrayal and humiliation of her parents, screamed in warning. She’d refused to listen to Jayce’s insistence that she not attend the party. He’d been miles away, and she lonely beyond all reason. All she’d wanted was a little entertainment, a few hours of laughter to make the remaining weeks before she could join him easier.
How could she have known her graduation gift would be a hospital bed and the distant memory of a boy’s frightened observation: Dude, she’s bleeding. You better call an ambulance or something.
As a tear slipped down Alyssa’s cheek, she choked back the riptide of memories. This was exactly why she couldn’t get tangled up with Jayce. Going back to him meant going back to everything else. And everything else she’d worked too hard to overcome.
She swiped at her eyes and squinted at the ledger. Pulling in a deep breath, she flipped open the pages and ran a finger down the column of figures. Right now, Parker was in trouble. Judging from the insistence of the cops, that subpoena would be here tomorrow morning. Before it arrived, she wanted to review the ledgers again. Double-check for errors in case her work was called into question. If James Parker was going down, she didn’t intend to go down with him. And if her calculations were incorrect, she wanted to be prepared for interrogation.
She couldn’t, wouldn’t, alter the books now. But at least she’d know what to expect. Though she was positive the prosecution wouldn’t find errors on her part.
While she was at it though, she ought to get together all the bank statements he mailed, all the emails he sent. And those were all in storage in her house, away from the office in case one of Brice’s connections to the mob went sour.
Alyssa shoved the ledger and the fat file folder into her briefcase and snapped it shut. With a soulful sigh, she pushed away from her desk and stood. Now the office would hold memories of Jayce, just like everything else. He
r one place where everything was predictable. Damn him.
She left the office quickly, pausing on the front step to set the alarm and habitually lock the damaged deadbolt. The surrounding silence settled into her awareness. Warily, she looked around. If someone was watching the place, waiting for the opportunity to finish the break-in, she was a sitting duck. A chill drifted down her spine.
Stop it. You’re being ridiculous. It’s just irrational fear.
She refused to let some random crook scare her away from her work. Squaring her shoulders, she took a deep breath. She’d go home, have a glass of wine, and soak in a hot bath. Relax. Unwind. Then she’d finish cataloguing the Anderson’s dividend reports. Once she had that squared away, she could afford some time to herself to consider how to convince Jayce into believing she truly wanted him, but couldn’t breech that territory alone.
As she dug through her purse for her car keys, the upbeat electronic notes from her cell phone announced an incoming call. She fished out the device, squinted at the unfamiliar number. Frowning, she answered, “Alyssa Martin.”
“Alyssa, so good to catch you. This is Harold Bryer. We met at Parker’s Christmas party last year.”
Oh, God. The slimeball of the century. Parker’s lawyer was a true snake in the grass if she’d ever met one. Alyssa wrinkled her nose. “What can I do for you, Mr. Bryer?”
“I just wanted to touch base with you. I spoke to Parker briefly today. I’m sure you’re aware of his situation.”
“Mm-hm.” She tucked the phone against her shoulder and continued toward her car.
“I wanted to make sure we were on the same page.”
“What page would that be?”
His chuckle gave her the willies. It rasped like some ghostly touch from beyond. She grimaced as she opened her car door. A package of gum lay in her seat. She tossed it aside with a mutter. Damn that Brice—if he didn’t stop leaving trash in her car when he drove it, she was going to hide her keys. He was lucky the gum hadn’t melted or she hadn’t sat in it.
Explosive (The Black Opals) Page 5
