by Em Petrova
He arched a brow. “Man, that close?”
“Yup.”
“I’m sure you kept your cool. Being a nurse and all.”
She stiffened. “Having a background in nursing, you mean. I’m a restaurant owner now.”
“Of course.”
They stared at each other wordlessly.
“Nice delivery car,” he said.
As if his words jogged her memory, she walked to the little purple door that looked no bigger than the door of a child’s playhouse. She opened it and started to fold herself behind the wheel. “Thanks! I bet yours is such a gas hog! Nice chatting with you. I’m off to deliver some brisket. Bye!” She slammed the door.
He watched her back out in the car fit for a troupe of clowns and then zip down the street. He shook his head. She was so damn cute. A smart ass too. Why did the combination have to be so lethal to his senses?
Since he didn’t actually need anything in the store, he drove back to his restaurant, only to see her go back into hers and come out again with her delivery bag plumped and full.
He pulled off his hat and thwacked it lightly against his thigh. His idea to deliver had been a sound one—at least until she stole most of the takeout barbecue business in Crossroads. He really needed to do something more to improve his business.
Sighing, he settled his hat on his head and went into his office. There, he kicked back at his desk and read over his original business model twice, all the while watching Jada come and go in her little purple car with deliveries.
By closing time, he was no closer to answers about his business, but he had a hell of a craving for barbecue chicken from his competitor. He reached for his phone and paused with his hand hovering over it. If he ordered chicken from Mortimer’s to be delivered across the street, he was sure to get a rise from Jada. But it might not be the rise he was going for.
He threw a look at his kitchen manager. “Be back in a few.”
The man gave him a mock salute and returned to chopping onions for their sauce.
The evening air was still warm from the unusually warm day, and he dragged in a deep breath. Something about the wildflowers growing along the road reminded him of Cort and Joss’s wedding at the pond…and that led to memories of Jada shoving him off the dock after he kissed her.
He didn’t know what had spurred him to do it, really. He reckoned he got caught up in the wedding ceremony and the vows of love Cort and Joss spoke. It made him hunger for a taste of that himself.
Looking where that landed him—smack in the pond, drenched to the skin. After the wedding, he was chafed for days from dancing in his wet clothes.
Every step Dom took toward Jada, his body put two and two together. His body plus her body equaled one hell of a moment of pleasure.
Maybe he could persuade Jada into having another of those forbidden moments. Would she agree to spend the night with him?
He walked up to the order window. Sure enough, she appeared in front of the screen, just as he knew she did every night at this time, when she sent her employees home and took over serving the final customers of the day by herself.
Her gaze fell on him. “What do you want?” Her tone only served in making his cock hard with the memory of her telling him off right before he spread her thighs and buried his cock inside her.
He hitched in a breath and released it slow. “Can I get a number two?”
She mashed her lips together. “I won’t sell to you.”
Eyeing her, he considered a few other ways he could go about seduction. One, he could simply walk into her kitchen, grab her and kiss her.
Or he could sting her pride with a challenge.
“Suit yourself. It’s ten bucks less you make today.”
Her blonde brows slanted together, meeting between her eyes. “Fine! That’ll be ten dollars and forty cents.”
He withdrew his wallet, making sure he opened the partitions to reveal the fact he’d restocked with not one condom but two. A glance up at her face showed him that she’d noticed, and he battled down a smile as he pulled out a ten-dollar bill and two quarters.
Sliding the money across the counter to her, he looked into her eyes and smiled. When her fingertips hit the bill, she gave a tug. He kept hold of the money.
“Do you want your number two or not?”
His gaze shot to her mouth. Three whole heartbeats passed. “I want a whole lot more than that, Jada.”
“Ugh!” She yanked the money out from under his hand and whirled from the takeout window. He heard pans clattering and two minutes later, she opened the screened window and shoved a box out at him.
Figuring this was the best he’d get, he tipped his hat and gave her a flirtatious wink. She slammed the window and then flipped the sign from open to closed.
Shaking his head and chuckling to himself, he settled at one of the picnic tables and opened his box. A fork and knife had been tossed on top haphazardly, and he had to laugh at her treatment of him.
Seconds later, she thundered outside with her cleaning rag and spray bottle. He paused with a drumstick partway to his lips. God, was she going to clean right here in front of him now? The pressure of his fly against his cock created an increased ache. The thought of her bending over in front of him…
She sprayed the first table and then scrubbed the cleaning product away. Sweet Jesus, not only did her ass wiggle—her breasts swayed.
He closed his eyes and groaned.
She slanted a look at him. “Would you like to lodge a complaint about the food?” she snapped.
He offered her a crooked smile. “No, ma’am. Everything’s very much to my likin’.” He slipped his gaze over her face to linger on her breasts and all the way down her hips. Then he purposely stuck his finger in his mouth, sucking the chicken seasonings off the tip.
She twisted away and crossed the parking lot to the farthest table, but not before he swore she gave a shiver of pleasure. Without bothering to look at his food, he ate with his hands and watched her cleaning routine that had begun to haunt his dreams. Two nights before he woke out of a dead sleep, cock bursting and his pulse hammering to thoughts of taking her mouth and splaying her across one of her tables to sink into her tight pussy.
When she appeared by his elbow, he looked up at her.
“Are you about done? I need to clean this table.”
“You in a rush?”
“Yes. I want to go home and call my sister and see how she’s faring as a new mother.”
He slumped. “Aw, damn. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I was holding you up from something so important.” He felt a splinter of remorse under his skin and stood, closing the takeout box as he did. “Thanks for the meal, Jada.”
He started across the parking lot. When he reached the Mortimer’s sign, he stopped and examined it.
“You should change your sign,” he called out to her.
“Oh yeah? At least it’s more than a bit of paint slapped onto a plank!”
He grinned. “Challenge accepted, sweetheart. See ya tomorrow.”
* * * * *
“Look. At. His. Little. Toes.” Jada pressed her fingertip gently into each one of five-day-old baby Cort Bellamy’s tiny bare toes.
Joss beamed at her sister and new son. “I know. I look at them hourly at least.”
Jada lifted her gaze to her sister, who looked tired but seemed to be holding up. “And his daddy?”
“Smitten. You should see them together. In fact, I have all these photos in my phone.” Joss got off the sofa to lean over where Jada sat holding the baby in the armchair. She held her phone in front of Jada’s eyes and flipped through about thirty photos in a row of her little family.
Jada teared up at the sight of the last with all three of them snuggling in bed. “Awww, you’re all so perfect. I’m so happy for you.”
“Thanks, sis.” She squeezed Jada’s shoulders and leaned in to kiss Cort on the top of his velvety baby head covered in blond fuzz. “Mom and Dad should arrive t
omorrow night. Will you come for dinner?”
“No. You’ll all come to my place for dinner. You shouldn’t have to cook.”
“Well, I figured I’d send for takeout.” She threw a look at the table and the boxes of food Jada had brought over with her. “You didn’t have to bring so much!”
“Cold chicken makes a great midnight snack. Anyway, I’d better get going. I’m sure to have some delivery orders backing up.” She held out the baby, and Joss swooped him up into her arms as if she’d already worked through the first-time-mom jitters.
At the front door, she and Joss kissed goodbye and then Jada walked out to the little purple delivery car. She’d taken over the deliveries in the afternoons and paid a teenager for the evening shifts. She didn’t mind the work at all, and weirdly looked at it as welcome time away from her restaurant.
Ten minutes later she had all her orders loaded into the car and set off on her route. First drop off went to an older gentleman who limped to the door with a foot in a cast. They stood talking about how he tripped letting the dog out and landed wrong. Also he informed her of how happy he was to know he could order Mortimer’s special barbecue ribs anytime he wanted.
The next delivery served two old ladies for their lunch.
The final house she drew up in front of, Jada grabbed her delivery bag and started up the sidewalk. After only one knock, the door opened.
She took one look at the occupant and spun on her heel. “Oh hell no.” She started back to her car.
“Jada.”
The deep baritone shouldn’t affect her so much. After months apart, and weeks since their one and only encounter, she should be immune to Dominick Cole. He was her competition—he might as well be her enemy.
But when he caught her by the hand and spun her around, her insides quivered. They faced each other, and her breaths came so quick that her mind swam with dizziness. He slid the pad of his thumb over her cheek to her lips. His eyes burned into hers.
“I liked that barbecue so much, I wanted some more.” He curled his fingers around her wrist and took a backward step toward his open front door, hauling her with him.
Why didn’t her feet move in the opposite direction? Why was she giving in to his desires?
Maybe because they were her desires too.
He tugged her hand, drawing her up the steps and into his house, and then he closed the door. As he stepped closer to her, trapping her between the door and his hard body, her insides somersaulted like a child rolling down a hill.
“Jada… God, woman, what do you do to me?” He leaned in until he rested his forehead against hers.
She dragged in deep, rough breaths of his musky male scent. She should open the door and run down the sidewalk to her car. She should never get tricked into speaking to him again.
Several heartbeats passed.
“Kiss me.” Her plea sounded as a rasp, and the hairs on her arms prickled. She tipped her face upward just as Dom swooped in and claimed her lips.
He went still, holding the caress for a long, heart-pounding second.
She shouldn’t be doing this.
She couldn’t draw air.
Her nipples felt as though he wrapped his hot lips around both at the same time and sucked, but he hadn’t moved his mouth from hers.
Suddenly, he tore away, chest heaving. “This is your last chance to walk away from me, Jada.”
“Or what?” she challenged.
“Or you won’t be returning to work today.”
“I hope you’ve got some good employees to take over for you, because you won’t be at Savage’s either.”
He made a rough noise of want deep in his throat. Then he sagged at the knees and scooped her off her feet. Clearly, she’d given up her sanity, because she didn’t kick and scream or fight him.
Rooms zipped past her vision as he carried her to his bed. His home was set up simply, as sparse and tidy as she would expect from a man who prided himself on living out of his backpack. With the exception of a huge flat-screen, he didn’t seem to have more than the bare necessities.
That included his room. A queen bed and a nightstand holding a lamp were the only furnishings. He lay her on the dark green quilt and hovered over her.
Her insides quivered at what her being here—giving herself up to him—would mean. They had so much working against them. Besides a short-lived past relationship, they were adversaries. They might have once been friends and briefly lovers, but this felt bigger.
“You tricked me into coming over here,” she whispered, gaze locked on his stubbled jaw so rough and untamed compared to his soft, almost tender lips.
He nodded. “I can’t stop thinking about you.” He traced a fingertip over her collarbone, down between her breasts, his stare scorching into her and stealing her last bit of willpower.
She opened her mouth to try to find some way to stop this before she lost her heart to him again—if she’d ever gained it back into her possession in the first place.
He kissed her, cutting off her protests. Need blasted up from a burning well of desire that never seemed to quench since the first time she met him. Maybe the fact they were adversaries only deepened the forbidden, but fact was, she wanted him then, and she wanted him more now.
He angled his head to plunder her, sliding his tongue over hers with a warm, silky flip. She moaned out and gripped his broad shoulders as he passed his tongue over hers again and again and again until her insides clenched with want.
He cupped her ass in one wide palm, lifting her off the bed into his erection. They shared a groan and then he had her flattened to him, grinding his cock against her pussy and ravishing her mouth.
She grew dizzy at the feel of Dom, the man she’d wanted so much during the time after he left town. She tried to steel her heart against him, to move on with her life, but fact was, he’d never totally left her, had he?
He’d been with her those months when she cared for his grandfather. And when she took over Mortimer’s, she had moments where she longed to share her news with Dom. Even when he was driving her crazy, she wanted this.
Wanted him. On top of her, pressing her down and claiming her lips with heated, passionate passes of his mouth.
He rocked into her. She scrabbled between his shoulder blades to yank the T-shirt over his head. As soon as she tossed it aside, he took her mouth again, harder, with firm insistence. Her pussy throbbed, and her panties were soaked.
“Jada…” His whisper washed over her lips. She hooked her legs around his waist, levering herself into him.
He twisted his mouth to her ear and lapped the shell. “I’m going to take off all your clothes and kiss you from head to toe. Then I’m going to bury my tongue in your hot pussy and tongue-fuck you until you’re coming all over my face.”
She shuddered at the hot, dirty promises dropping from his lips.
“Then I’m going to spread your legs and sink inside you and not let you up until dawn.”
She pressed her fingertips into his chiseled spine. “And I’m going to crawl on top of you and suck you into my mouth.”
He shuddered. “I’ll never last, sweetheart.” He took her mouth again, delivering sucking passes while he stripped off her top and then her bra. With her nipples jutting up for him, he drew one bud between his lips. Desire pooled low in her belly, and she helped him remove the rest of her clothes and his too.
True to his word, he started at her ear and moved down her throat to the tops of her breasts, kissing and nibbling every inch of flesh. Her breaths sounded loud in the quiet of the house, but she didn’t hold back her reactions to the soft feel of his mouth on her nipples, belly and down to her hip. He dipped his tongue into the hollow of her hip bone.
“Dom!”
He grazed his teeth over her lower belly, raking a path to her mound. He brushed his five o’clock shadow over her sensitive skin and then sucked her clit into his mouth. She came off the bed to the soft pull on her bud. When she began to tremble, he slid hi
s fingers between her soaked folds and probed two fingers down her seam to her entrance.
He thrust inside her, and she cried out. Gasping, she opened her legs to bring him deeper, rising and falling with each plunge inside her. Her peak came hard and fast, without warning, and she twisted her face into the pillow with a muffled cry.
With hard thrusts of his fingers inside her, he continued tormenting her with his mouth until her insides grew into tense molten knots.
He withdrew his fingers slow and easy and then pushed them high inside her. She continued to pulse, that tight need stripping away all her cares.
He licked a path upward again, and he trapped her gaze under his. She gasped and reached for his shoulders. Digging her fingers in, she dragged him up her body to kiss him. The flavor of herself on his lips only pulled another moan from her, and he kissed her long and deep as he fumbled in his nightstand for a condom.
Leaning onto his knees, he stroked the condom over his turgid length. “Pull your legs up and back for me.”
Her insides quivered as she obeyed his order. Gaze locked with hers, he pressed the flared head of his cock against her pussy. With one hard thrust, he filled her to bursting, stretching her to that pinch of pleasure and stealing her last care.
He braced his weight on one arm and looked down at the place where they were joined. Knowing he watched himself sink into her turned her on even more, and she hooked her legs higher on his hips to accept him to the hilt.
“God, I’ve wanted you like this for so long.” He jerked his cock out and slid it home again. Her insides hummed at the slick invasion. Passion rose up.
He cupped her breast, his callused fingers swishing over her nipple until she sucked in a harsh gasp. Abruptly, he pulled out, stretched onto the bed behind her, lifted her thigh and teased his cock into her.
* * * * *
The snug fit of her pussy around his cock had Dom aching and on the verge of madness. With her round thigh hooked over his arm, he sank in again, balls-deep, and groaned.
He settled his lips at her ear and rocked. “You’re so wet for me. You want to come on my cock, don’t you?”
