Suited (St. Martin Family Saga)

by Watson, Gina

  They’d always been there for each other. She saw the scar in his brow and recalled how she’d nursed him back to consciousness from bender after bender, and he’d helped her through college. He listened for countless hours as she problem-solved her thesis topic, and then he’d helped her organize her thoughts. He’d even ended up paying for their apartment, no matter how much she’d pleaded to be allowed to help. He’d wanted her to focus on school and not work. So that last year she’d quit her waitressing job.

  She’d hated to see his pain, but she never once expressed her opinion. His problems with his father always led to a binging episode, and she hadn’t wanted to do anything that might cause more of that behavior. She’d confidently stood by and comforted him when he needed her. She’d thought one day he might be ready to confide in her, to allow her to help diffuse his pain, maybe give him some advice, but he hadn’t. He’d never turned to her. Instead he’d left.

  She attempted to speak, but no words came from her throat. She cleared it and tried again. “Cash, it’s been so long.”

  “Isabela, you’re breathtaking. God, look at you.”

  Isa’s breathing became shallow and her heartbeat erratic. The wind picked up and mingled their colognes, carrying the evocative scent up to her nose. She was burning for him already. He seemed to be feeling the same way, if his erection was any evidence. If he made the first move, she’d fall at his feet and let him do what he wanted with her. What she wanted.

  She prayed that he would.

  ≈

  “It’s been too long.” Cash reached out and tucked a lock of Isa’s hair behind her ear. Still as smooth as ever. Eyeing her industrial-sized clipboard, he asked, “Are you working on this project?”

  “Camp called me. Is he here?” She frowned, looking around in search of Camp. “He said he needed a geo-technical engineer, so here I am.”

  Cash smiled at the memory of his brother’s last words. He’d known damn well Isa’s presence would throw Cash off balance. She’d majored in some sort of engineering program, but Cash had failed to make the connection that she worked in commercial construction. God, how she’d haunted his dreams. He didn’t even know she’d stayed in the area. She’d talked about hoping to locate extended family in Croatia—he’d wondered if she’d moved out of the States and assumed, when he was at his lowest, that oceans separated them. Suddenly horrible thoughts filled his head. Had she married? Was she serious with someone? He had no right to feel it, but he was possessive of her.

  “How have you been, Isa?”

  Her full lips tightened. “Let’s stay away from the personal, Cash. I’ve come to work.”

  He frowned. “Then you can talk to me. I’ve got lead on this project.”

  Her eyes widened. “Since when have you…” She shook her head.

  “I’ve been in town a couple of weeks. And I’m helping Camp out. And I’m doing well, thanks for asking.”

  She turned away, took in a deep breath, and turned back to him. “I think we should discuss the project.”

  “Okay.” He deserved her slapdown. Only she’d forgotten how he could read her like a book. Her taut nipples and rapid breathing meant she was as turned on as he was. He gestured for her to lead the way to the temporary office. Cash watched her calf muscles flex as she climbed the steps. That dress was enough to kill a man. He adjusted his trapped cock before she turned around. His heart raced. She was talking about the soil and structural support. He trusted her integrity and her professional instincts so as far as he was concerned, she could do as she pleased with the plans. And so would he.

  Cash walked right up to her, slipped his hands into her silky hair, and drank from her mouth. His tongue forcefully penetrated her shocked lips. It wasn’t long before she was giving back everything he gave. Her soft mewling sounds drove him wild. She tasted of ginger and mint, just as he remembered. The memories rushed his mind like a tidal wave—her sweat-slicked body writhing beneath him, the way she moaned his name around her climax. God, he had to take her now. He hoped she would let him, because he wasn’t in the mood to be denied.

  His hand slipped over her breast. Even through the cloth of her dress he could feel the hardness of her nipple. While he shaped her breast and pulled at her nipple, he licked and nibbled her neck from just under her ear to the top of her chest. She was panting. Cash took the clipboard from her hands and threw it on the desk. He pressed her roughly into him and lifted her ass to rest on the table’s edge. She wrapped her legs around his waist and he slid his fingers up her calves, past her knees. When he reached her thighs, he growled long and low in the back of his throat.

  “Christ.”

  The woman was wearing thigh highs and garters. He felt more drops of come leak in his shorts. At this rate he would come just from feeling her up. He slowed himself down by removing one of her pumps and massaging her foot and calf. No, that didn’t help. Touching her soft skin had him remembering all the other times he’d touched her. How each encounter had ended with him pumping his seed into her, over her, on her. He needed to have her. His hands pushed the hem of her skirt up to her waist.

  Cash gasped at the sight of her open to him. She’d always been sexy but now, in the delicate French lingerie that barely covered her, she was more erotic than anything he’d ever seen. And he’d seen a lot. He palmed her cunt and felt her thinly clothed mound wet against his hand. He slid the thin material of her panties to one side and found her clit. He massaged the hard bud with his thumb and pushed his middle finger into her pussy. She dropped her hands to the desk and pushed her hips toward him, bucking against his fingers as the two of them took her into climax. Her body trembled and jerked, and she moaned his name repeatedly, ending on a whisper with her last wave.

  Isa leaned forward and reached out to Cash’s crotch. She massaged him through his trousers. When she felt the hard thickness of his erection, her tongue swiped across her bottom lip. Then her hands efficiently undid his pants. When she freed him, she stroked his cock in her velvet grip while she watched his seed drip from the tip. God, he couldn’t decide what to watch, her hands on his cock or her face with her eyes focused on him with sensual concentration. She bit her lip, looked into his eyes, and then, without breaking her gaze, she sent her tongue out to lap up his fluid.

  “Fuck, Isa,” Cash cried.

  He used his hands to lift her legs high, placing them around his hips.

  Cash mumbled, “I need you.”

  Isa nodded. Cash grasped his cock and grazed it through her silky, wet folds. When his tip lined up with her entrance, he dove in using one swift, forceful motion. Isa cried out at the fullness, as she always had. “God, it’s good to be home.” Cash meant that in more ways than one. When Isa started gyrating her hips, Cash pulled out to the tip and slammed home again. He attempted to be slow and sensual, but as it always was with Isa, he couldn’t control himself. He slammed into her again and again, thrusting with all his might. He held her tight, ensuring that she took his fullness. He picked them up and turned, pushing her against the wall. As he rammed her with his full length, her body climbed higher and higher up the wall. When Isa’s warm channel gripped his cock tight, it drove him over the edge. He pumped his release into her while she trembled beneath him. Her name was a whisper over his lips.

  He let her down slowly, feeling her rub against him. He needed that just as much as the sexual release. When he let her go, she set about righting her clothes, and he stuffed himself back into his trousers. He cleared his throat before asking, “Are you seeing someone?”

  “After that, I surely hope not.” She smiled at him. “Same is true about you, I guess.”

  “I’m not seeing anyone.”

  She turned to him, balancing herself with a hand on his shoulder as she put on her heels. “What are you doing here?”

  “You want the short version or the long?”

  “I have time.”

  Cash smirked. “I was hoping you’d choose that option. Have dinner with me ton
ight so we can catch up.”

  Isa frowned. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Why the hell not? We just caught up physically.”

  “Getting physical is one thing, getting emotional is quite another.” She turned and reached for her clipboard.

  Cash grasped her upper arm. “The hell it is. You can’t separate one from the other.”

  “I said no, Cash.”

  Cash sucked in air through his teeth and released her, feeling as if he’d been burned. “Isa, please, we’ve only just found each other again. I need you.”

  Isa laughed. It wasn’t a laugh Cash had ever heard before. It carried a hardness that saddened him.

  “And where were you when I needed you?”

  When had she needed him?

  Isa turned and met his gaze. “You left without a word. We loved each other and you just walked out on me, on us. I won’t give you another chance to do that.”

  He’d made her hard and without hope. God, he was to blame for her attitude.

  “I’m sorry. You know my father was crashing down hard on me. I had to get out of here. I had to show everyone who didn’t believe in me that I could be something.”

  “I had always known that, Cash. You’d always been something to me. I believe I told you that a time or two.”

  She had. Cash remembered her telling him at least once per day that he could be anything, that he would always be successful. She used to say he had a knack for making money and the looks to get people to board his train. She’d believed in him even then, in spite of the drugs, alcohol, and the arrests. He’d been a mess, but she’d never left his side. He’d been so wrapped up in his own little world he hadn’t thought how his leaving would impact her. She had every right to be mad.

  “I’m sorry, Isa, I would never knowingly hurt you.”

  “I’ve gotta go. I have another appointment.”

  “When will I see you again?”

  “Four o’clock tomorrow. It’s on our calendar. Better download it to iCal.”

  She walked out, and her car engine came to life. Cash pressed his palms down against the table and tried to calm himself. But he lost the battle rather quickly and in one motion wiped the contents of the table to the floor. “Fuck!”

  He walked to his truck and phoned his brother. Of course the call went straight to voicemail. Hell, Camp probably saw his name on the display and clicked the ringer off.

  “Hi, you’ve reached Camp; leave a message.”

  Cash had a message for him all right.

  “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me Isa was on this project? At least I could have prepared myself. Instead I was blindsided. You better hope I don’t see you until I cool off because I’ll beat the shit out of you. Uncool, Camp.”

  Cash sat in his truck, his thoughts consumed with Isa. He was such a prick he hadn’t even considered all she’d been through. He’d just needed to get out of Dodge and quick. They’d been together for three years. She’d fallen in love with his large family because she had none. Her dad had come to America on a work visa. After he’d purchased a home, he sent for Isa and her mother. Then her parents had gone missing. It was all very mysterious. Their bodies had turned up in a canal. She was seven. He remembered her explaining to him how frightened she’d been since she didn’t speak English. She didn’t know what was going on or what had happened to her parents. She’d been put into foster care and was moved from home to home. They’d considered her a difficult child. “God, I’m sorry, baby.” He slammed his palm into his steering wheel. “I’m so fucking sorry.”

  4

  As of three thirty the next afternoon, Cash still hadn’t heard from Camp. As he sat at his desk waiting for Isa, he thought how he couldn’t wait to lay into Camp something fierce. Secretly, though, he imagined he could hug and kiss Camp if it meant a reunion with Isa. Cash palmed the ten-thousand-dollar casino chip in his pocket. He kept it on him wherever he went. He’d sworn it brought him luck, or at least easy times. He needed its power desperately now.

  When Isa walked in, Cash was in the office making last minute calls to organize an equipment delivery. They would need the site leveled. His eyes followed her in from the door. Not again, he thought, groaning to himself. She was wearing a silky metallic-gray pencil skirt that hugged every curve. And those stilettos, those fucking stilettos. He hardened instantly at the sight. He shifted in his chair to make room for his growing erection. When he got off the phone, Isa started talking about the advantages and disadvantages of column versus sheet piling in consideration of the soil properties. She’d asked him a question and waited for an answer. He’d missed the question completely as he was fixated on the buttons of the Oxford shirt that hugged her breasts. She looked all woman in the shirt that was originally designed for men.

  “Uh, what was that?”

  She exhaled in exasperation, one hand going to her hip. “Are you even listening to me?”

  Cash shifted again in his chair. “I’m all ears.” Liar.

  “I asked if cost was a factor or if the developer wanted to make the structure sound enough to withstand hurricane-force winds and driving rain.”

  “Yeah, the wind and rain thing.”

  She started talking again about the available options. God, he wished their relationship had gone differently. Maybe if he’d only just met her now, when he finally had his shit together, they’d have stood a chance at happiness.

  He would give everything, all his fame and fortune, to go back and do it over, do right by her. She’d worked so hard during college, and he’d not taken his classes seriously even once. What had she even seen in him? She attended college on full academic scholarship—for fucking engineering, of all things. She’d had to keep her academics up all the while waiting tables at that seafood place. She hadn’t even owned a car during that time. Her circumstances had gotten easier when she met him. She didn’t have to work so many hours, especially when he moved her into his apartment. One of their first arguments had been about money. She’d been proud and wanted to pay her half of the rent, not knowing his father paid the exorbitant price for the prime location. She’d worked herself up from nothing, his Isa. She was a fighter.

  “Isa, I’m sorry I hurt you. Do you hate me? Truly?”

  Isa sat in the chair across from his desk and cocked her head as she studied him.

  “I could never hate you. When you left it was like I woke up without my right leg or arm and I had to learn how to exist without those parts. I am upset, mad even, that you left without a word, but that doesn’t change the love I have for you, that I’ll always have for you.”

  To hear her say those words melted his insides. “Can we be friends then?”

  She smiled. “I’d like that.”

  Cash leaned forward, pleased to be making headway with her. “Friends share meals together, you know. Have dinner with me tonight.”

  She seemed to be thinking hard about something. Maybe an excuse, so he was surprised when she simply said, “Okay.”

  His smile slowly grew, until his cheeks and jaw felt the stretch. “Really?”

  She giggled. “Really.”

  He liked to hear her giggle—she used to do it a lot more. He’d make it his mission to elicit more of that. “Shall I come for you?”

  “No, I’ll come to you. Are you at the estate?”

  “I’m staying with Camp.”

  “I know where he lives; I’ll see you at eight.”

  “I’ll be waiting.”

  She still loved him; that was something. That was a lot of something. He planned to build on that to get them back to a place where they could be happy like they once were before he’d fucked things up. He couldn’t do anything about the past, but he intended to be around for her future.

  She hadn’t left the country, hadn’t even left town. Didn’t that mean something?

  ≈

  Isa thought about what she’d just committed to as she drove herself to the gym. At least she had a plan.
She would drive to his house, they would go eat, and when they returned, she’d get in her car and leave. She wouldn’t even go inside.

  She’d been devastated when he’d left. The fool had even missed her graduation. She had no family, but the St. Martins had turned out for her, just as they’d always done since she met them. And damn it all to hell if she hadn’t fallen head over heels with Cash soon after she’d met him. He’d been so kind and solicitous of her needs, and she’d never had anyone treat her like that before. He’d seemed to revel in her intelligence, where most guys were intimidated by it. Conversations with him were always stimulating. They’d talked about everything and had gotten on well together. One project they’d taken on as a couple was a Habitat for Humanity house. Since she was the one with the engineering background, he’d stepped back and let her shine. Told everyone his girl knew all about laying the foundation. Had them all taking orders from her by the end of the day.

  Isa thought about Cash all through her workout. Thought about their past, but also imagined their future. And when she got home and showered, she thought of him some more. Yet in the privacy of her bathroom she thought about a lot more than how he’d left her. She thought about his body, about how he could turn her on with just a glance from his sexy eyes. How he so thoroughly and easily satisfied her. How she felt when he touched her.

  She let her hands play over her body as the water washed over her, as she thought of Cash touching her. He’d touched her tenderly, roughly, with passion, and with care. She brought herself to orgasm imagining his fingers driving her crazy.

  As Isa pulled into the driveway at Camp’s house, she knew she was way too excited about having dinner with him. At first she’d been conflicted, but she’d quickly gotten over it. She wanted to have him again. He’d awakened something inside of her all those years ago and no one else could satisfy her the way he could. His intensity had always made her burn. If it was possible, it was even stronger now. She wondered if maybe they should be friends with benefits. She couldn’t think in terms of forever, but she could think of right now. And right now what she needed was for him to make her body sing the way no other man could.