by Abbi Glines
This made up for no calls all week. It more than made up for it. I opened my mouth when his tongue slid across my bottom lip. The pleased growl that came from his chest made my entire body feel hot and flushed. I slipped my hands into his hair and leaned into him as his minty taste invaded me. He always tasted so clean. I loved that. It made me want to crawl into his arms and never leave. There was a security with it that didn’t make sense. Just because he tasted good did not make him less dangerous to my heart than anyone else.
“You had a date tonight,” he said against my lips as his hand tightened on my waist.
I started to shake my head and stopped. He meant Jeff. Jax had called him and told him. Was that why he was here? Could he get here that quickly? I grabbed his shoulders and broke the kiss enough to catch my breath.
“Did you come because I was at Amanda’s with Jeff?” I asked. I was torn on how I wanted him to answer this. He had said he wanted to keep this casual. We were doing that. Me dating someone else was okay, but if he had come all this way because he was jealous, then I liked that. I liked it a lot. I just wasn’t sure if I wanted him here because he missed me or if I wanted him jealous.
“Yes,” he replied. I could hear the frustration in his voice. He didn’t want to care. But he did. He cared enough to come all the way here unplanned.
“You said . . . ,” I started to say, but he cut me off when his mouth covered mine again.
I had to hold tight to him because his hungry, aggressive kissing was making my knees weak. He took from me like he couldn’t get enough. I tilted my head back and let him. I wanted this. I wanted him to desire me, but I also wanted him to claim me. We had been down this road before, and when he had gotten jealous it had ended. I didn’t want to lose him again.
“I don’t like it,” he said as his mouth left mine and started moving down my neck, kissing and tasting my skin. “Did he kiss you?”
I shook my head, unable to speak from my need to breathe.
“I don’t like it,” he repeated as he stopped his delicious onslaught at the curve of my neck and shoulder. He kept his lips brushing against the sensitive skin there. “I can’t share,” he said.
“We just ate together. Everyone had a date. She needed someone for Jeff to make it an even number,” I explained.
Jason moved closer to me and slowly lifted his head. Dark blue eyes stared down at me. “Don’t do that again,” he said, then brushed his thumb over my bottom lip. “They’re always so damn plump. Like they’re swollen from kisses,” he murmured as he continued to touch my lip.
I had to concentrate to respond to his demand. Seeing him so fascinated with my lips wasn’t helping me. “We aren’t exclusive.”
He stopped touching my lip, and his eyes lifted from my lips to meet my gaze. “No. We weren’t. I’m changing that. Now,” he replied. He moved his leg forward until it was firmly wedged between my legs. “Do you want to date other people?” he asked.
His muscular thigh was pressed against me just enough to make me light-headed. I wanted to rock against him and reach that release I knew was there. His kissing had sent my body into an excited frenzy. It wouldn’t take me long. Just a little more pressure.
Jason pressed a kiss to my ear. “Answer me. I’ll give you fucking orgasms all damn night, but right now I need you to answer me.”
I moved my hands down to grab ahold of his arms. “Just you,” I told him.
Jason slipped his hand down the boxer shorts I was wearing, and his finger slipped easily inside me. Crying out, I rested my head on the wall and closed my eyes. I was already on the verge of an orgasm just from his caveman aggressiveness.
“I want this getting hot and wet just for me,” he said with labored, heavy breathing that caused me to shiver.
I nodded, because he could rest assured he was the only one getting anywhere near it these days. He had ruined me for everyone else.
“Tell me,” he urged, slipping his wet finger over my clit and causing my knees to give out. He held me up with his knees still between my legs and held on to my waist with his free hand.
“What?” I asked, unable to remember what we were talking about. My body was trembling, and all I could think about was the pleasure about to rip through me.
“That you’re mine, Jess. That you’re only mine,” he said as his hand went still.
I whimpered, needing him to keep touching me. I was so close. “Please,” I begged, desperate.
“I want to, baby. Nothing I want more than to feel you come on my hand,” he said, making me cry out in frustration. “But I need you to tell me. This is just us now. No more dating. Just us,” he said. His voice sounded far away, but I understood him.
This was what I wanted. Silly man thought he had to get me so worked up I couldn’t think straight to get this answer. All he had to do was ask. I had been waiting on this. Too scared to hope for it.
“Yes. Just you. I’ve always”—I gasped as his finger slowly slid inside me—“just wanted you. I love you,” I managed to say before the waves of release washed over me.
I heard his name rip from my lips as I lost conscious thought, no longer caring if I crumpled to the floor. It felt too good. I could feel the trembles still racking my body and moaned as the ecstasy held on tight, not letting me go just yet.
The ground beneath me moved, and I tried to open my eyes but I only managed to wrap my arms around Jason. I never felt the hard ground beneath my feet, but Jason’s warmth grew stronger, and I curled against him. This was what safety felt like. I had never truly understood what it felt like to be safe.
Finally able to open my eyes, I looked up at Jason’s face and realized we were outside and walking. Before I could manage to ask him what we were doing, he slid into the back of the limo with me still in his arms. The door closed behind us, and I sat up and looked around before I turned back to him.
“What are we doing?”
Jason grabbed my face and kissed me with an urgency I immediately reacted to even though he had just sucked most of my energy from me inside the house. He pulled away first and shook his head with a grin. “Damn, Jess.”
“What?” I asked, still not sure what was going on.
He continued to cup my face in his hands like I was some precious object. “You’re going to kill me or drive me insane. I can’t seem to care. I’m looking forward to it,” he said.
I returned his smile and covered his hands with mine. “I’m glad you’re here.”
He chuckled softly. “I might have gotten a little possessive when I heard you were having dinner with another guy.”
I wasn’t going to lie to him. I was glad he had cared. “It was really nothing,” I assured him.
Jason leaned forward and pulled my bottom lip into his mouth and sucked on it. I loved that he was so enamored with my lips. No one had ever been so obsessed with them before.
“I have fantasies about these lips,” he said when he leaned back.
I wanted to know all about his fantasies so I could make them a reality. But first I wanted to know where we were going. “Where are we going? And I didn’t lock the door to the house.”
Jason gave me a crooked grin. “I locked it and put the key back in the very bad hiding place you keep it in. And we’re going to my place. I want you in bed with me all night.”
Oh. I liked that. A lot. “So you aren’t going back yet?”
“You’ve got me the rest of the weekend,” he replied.
I couldn’t keep the silly grin off my face.
JASON
Watching Jess sleep was like crack. I couldn’t get enough. She was so unbelievably beautiful, and once you got to know the real Jess, you realized she was fucking sweet. The badass smart mouth who thumbed her nose at rules and skirted the law whenever she could had a kind heart. She’d been hurt in the past, and her life had been hard. It gave her an edge. But there was still an innocence there I hadn’t expected.
She loved me. She had said it several times last nig
ht, and I hadn’t been able to say anything back. Each time I’d reacted by bringing her pleasure simply because I wanted to hear her say it again. I didn’t deserve it, but I wanted it nonetheless.
I had also been dealing with the realization that she’d never felt safe. I wasn’t even sure she realized that she had been mumbling about finally feeling safe when I’d held her against me. But it had struck me like a damn brick to my chest. No man had taken care of her and her mother. The guys in her life had only taken from her. No one had taken care of her.
It caused an ache in my chest so intense it had been hard to breathe. She was vulnerable, but no one realized it. She hid behind a strong, brave facade, and it pissed me the hell off that Rock let her. He was her cousin. From what I could tell, he was a good husband and he was great with those kids. Why didn’t he protect Jess the same way? He let people talk about her and guys treat her like shit.
Jess’s eyelashes fluttered, and I enjoyed that perfect moment when she opened her eyes and her gaze found mine. A small, sleepy smile touched her lips. In that moment I knew nothing was more important to me than keeping this woman safe and taken care of. I loved her. I hadn’t expected that, but it had happened. She’d become my world, and I intended to give her the life she deserved. She wasn’t going to be scared and alone again. I would make damn sure my girl always felt safe.
Before I could say any of this, there was a swift knock on my door before it swung open and my mother stepped into the room.
Well, fuck.
Mother’s eyes went to Jess, then swung back to me. I could see her compose herself. She hadn’t come in here expecting to find a girl in my bed. It was obvious by the shock on her face.
“Jason,” she said in her businesslike tone, which meant she was angry and trying to keep it under control.
“Mother,” I replied.
Jess had gone completely still beside me, and I was thankful I had the covers pulled up, covering her very naked body. I looked down at her. “Jess, meet my mother, who has forgotten her manners this morning about respecting others’ privacy,” I told her, then pressed a kiss to her nose to reassure her before looking back at my mother. “Mother, this is Jess, my girlfriend.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
JESS
Meeting a guy’s mother while naked in his bed was never good. Especially when the guy was someone like Jason. Hank’s mother would have been shocked, then made a comment about not knocking me up. Maybe even called me a whore.
Jason’s mother reeked of money. She hadn’t expected to find a girl in bed with him. That much was obvious. And honestly, a relief, in a way. At least I knew he didn’t do this often. I hoped that proved to her that I wasn’t some slut after him because of his brother.
Jason’s arm stayed firmly tucked around me like he was keeping me out of harm’s way and protected. It was sweet and eased my mind some. But the disappointment in his mother’s eyes was hard to ignore. She expected more from Jason than . . . me. I couldn’t blame her, really. Jason was brilliant and had a future ahead of him so much bigger than me. I wanted to reassure her that I wasn’t going to hold him back. I wanted all his dreams to come true too. I didn’t say anything, though. She didn’t look like she wanted to speak to me.
“Girlfriend?” she repeated, distaste in her voice as the word rolled off her tongue. “I was unaware you had a girlfriend. Johanna was under the impression you would be accompanying her to the cotillion next weekend. Her mother called to let me know the color of her dress so you could order her corsage.”
Jason’s body went rigid beside me, and his arm tightened as he pulled me even closer to him. “I told Johanna I would be her escort before things got serious between Jess and me. I’ll still take her, but it will be a friends-only thing.”
I was trying to figure out what a cotillion was and why it was okay for Jason to still buy a girl flowers and take her to this thing when he’d gotten upset over me just having dinner with Jeff.
“Yes, well, we will talk about this later. You need to get dressed.” She paused and looked at me. “Both of you,” she said, again with the disgusted tone in her voice. “We can continue this conversation over breakfast.”
“We’ll be down shortly,” he replied.
His mother nodded and stepped out of the room, closing the door a little harder than necessary.
Jason let out a frustrated sigh and laid his head back down. “She lives to control me. I swear I can’t get away from her. Not even here.”
I turned to look at him. “Your mother?” I asked, wondering if we were talking about his mother or Johanna.
“Yeah, my mother,” he said, then leaned over and kissed me. “I’m sorry about that. Not how I wanted you to wake up. I had some really good plans that she just shot to hell.”
I wanted to know what those plans were, but I was afraid his mother would come back and demand we get dressed if we took too long. “We need to get dressed,” I said.
He frowned, then nodded. “Yeah, she’ll be back if we don’t get down there soon.”
I slipped out of his embrace and started to get out of bed when his arms slid back around my waist and he pulled me back against his chest. “You look gorgeous when you wake up. I’ve been watching you sleep for an hour, imagining how good your skin tastes in the morning.”
I wanted to melt into him and let him keep telling me what he had been thinking, but his mother’s presence in the house and the name Johanna were keeping me from doing that.
I reached for his hands and pulled them off of me, then stood up and reached for my clothes, realizing he had brought me over here last night in a pair of boxers and a tank top. I couldn’t go downstairs dressed like that.
Turning around to look at Jason, I found him still sitting on the bed, staring at my naked body. That was hard to ignore. I wanted to forget Johanna and his mother and just crawl back into bed. But this was important. I wanted her to like me.
“I don’t have anything to wear,” I told him, feeling my skin heat up under his gaze.
He lifted his eyes to meet mine after they lingered on my breasts. “Have I mentioned that I hate my mother?” he asked. Then his lips curled into a sexy smile.
I put my hands on my hips, knowing it only made my breasts look better, and frowned at him. “I am pretty sure she hates me, too. So finding me something other than my tank top and boxer shorts would be wise.”
Jason’s eyes were back on my chest. “Jess,” he said slowly.
“Hmm?”
“You need to cover yourself or I’m not going to be able to focus on anything other than bending you over my bed.”
Oh. My nipples went taut and he muttered a curse. I wrapped my arms over my chest and Jason shook his head as if he were trying to clear it. “Okay, right, uh, clothes,” he said, looking anywhere but at me. He opened a drawer and pulled out a T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. “These are too small. I’ve had them here for a couple of years. They also have a drawstring,” he said, handing them to me without looking at me. “Put them on fast, please,” he said.
Smiling, I took the clothes and pulled on the tank top I had worn, since I didn’t have a bra, then finished dressing myself. The clothes were baggy but not too bad. “I’m dressed,” I told him as he pulled on a pair of jeans. He turned back around and his gaze traveled down my body. When his eyes met mine again, a pleased look was on his face. “I like you in my clothes.”
I liked wearing his clothes. I was doubting his mother was going to like it, though. But there wasn’t much I could do about that.
Jason pulled a shirt over his head, then held out his hand for me to take. I let him pull me against him before I put my hand up to stop him from kissing me. “Wait.”
His frown was instant. I knew he didn’t realize the thing with Johanna bothered me. He was acting like it wasn’t a big deal. He hadn’t even brought it up after his mother left the room. But it was a big deal. I wanted to know who she was. What a cotillion was and why he was still plann
ing on taking her.
“Who’s Johanna and what’s a cotillion?” I asked.
Jason sighed and ran his hand through his hair like he was frustrated. If I wasn’t so completely obsessed with him, that would piss me off. But where Jason was concerned, I was weak. I loved him too much.
“A girl from home. Our parents are friends. They have a place in the Hamptons next door to ours. We’ve grown up together. And a cotillion is a stupid thing they do at the country club my parents are members of, where girls enter society. They get all dressed up, and it’s a dance thing. Like I said, it’s stupid.”
He was taking her to a dance. A girl who his mother approved of and he had known his whole life. My stomach felt sick. She would be all dressed up in a fabulous, expensive dress, and he would put his hands on her as they danced. I stepped back from him, needing some space.
I had asked for this when I had decided to enjoy Jason while I had him. I should have known there was a Johanna. There always was.
“Jess,” he said, reaching for me, but I pulled my hand away and put it behind my back.
“I should go,” I told him before walking to the door.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” he said, running in front of me and blocking the door. “You aren’t walking out of here mad at me. You’re the only girl I want. If I could get out of this thing with Jo, I would. But it would leave her in a bind for an escort, and she’s a friend. That’s it. A friend. She knows it, even if my mother would like to pretend otherwise.”
I wanted to believe him, but it still stung. I felt like he was choosing “Jo” over me. Which didn’t surprise me. No man had ever put me first. Why I should expect that from Jason just because I’d told him I loved him, I didn’t know.
“Fine. I still want to go home. Can you have your driver take me, please?”
Jason grabbed my waist. “No. You aren’t leaving like this. You’re upset, and I can’t fucking handle that. I don’t want you upset. What do you want me to do? Tell me how I can fix this, and I’ll do it, Jess. Just please don’t be mad at me.”
