That smile she once thought was charming but now just seemed smarmy crossed his pretty boy face. She didn’t know how she ever could have been attracted to him or his type. Jason was a million times more handsome and sexy with his rugged looks and godlike physique.
“I was passing by and thought we might visit for awhile. Maybe have a cup of coffee and talk. You know, catch up.”
“No.” Brinley shook her head, her lips pressed tightly together. “I told you the last time I saw you that this is not going to work out. You need to leave.”
“Trouble, Brinley?”
A deep voice right behind her had a look of dismay crossing Greg’s face. Logan stood to her right but even Greg could see the wide shoulders and powerful muscles on the former sheriff. It wasn’t even a question who would come out on top if there was a scuffle.
“He was just leaving, Logan. Right, Greg?”
Red-faced, Greg took a step back on the porch. “If that’s how you really feel then I will go.”
“Do that. It’s not going to work out. I’m sorry.”
She wasn’t all that sorry really but she was sorry that she was having to deal with this again. The whole situation creeped her out, and that was saying something after what had happened to her in Chicago.
Greg turned on his heels and strode to his non-descript sedan, climbing in and gunning the engine. Dirt flew behind the wheels as he backed out of the driveway and onto the main road. Brinley turned to Logan who was wearing a sour expression as he watched the other man hightail it out of there.
“Thank you. I could have gotten rid of him eventually but you being here made it much easier.”
Brinley closed the door and took another peek out of the front window to ensure Greg was gone. “Who is that and what’s his deal? I know first impressions don’t count for much, but I think he’s an asshole.”
Laughter bubbled from her lips at Logan’s bald statement. “Greg is an asshole. He’s a guy I kind of dated. Coffee dates and stuff like that. Apparently he doesn’t like the word no.”
“Greg, huh? I hope he keeps his damn distance from now on or Jason and I might have to have a chat with him. Man to man. Some guys just don’t get the whole ‘no means no’ thing. I know because I put more than a few of them in jail.”
“He’s harmless. But a nuisance. He keeps showing up uninvited. I have to admit that’s a hot button issue with me.”
“I’ll keep an eye out for Romeo.” Logan crossed his arms over his chest, his blue eyes like ice. “The flooring guys are finished, by the way, and waiting for you in the kitchen. I gave them some coffee. I hope that’s okay.”
“Perfect. Now cross your fingers that their estimate to refinish these floors isn’t an arm and a leg. I’ve only budgeted for one limb. Two is out of the question.”
Shaking off her anger and frustration, Brinley crossed into the kitchen. It was sadly ironic that Greg wouldn’t leave her alone and Jason was looking for reasons to bolt.
All she needed to do was make sure she didn’t give him any reason to do so.
*
Jason entered the elevator and punched the “4” button on the panel. He’d struck out at Damian Barnes’s home. There’d been no one at the house and the place looked deserted with a pile of newspapers on the front porch. So now Jason was giving Barnes’s workplace a try but wasn’t optimistic about his chances of meeting the elusive man.
The doors slid open and Jason walked down the hallway of the office building. There wasn’t anything special about the place, just the typical gathering of companies that didn’t have anything to do with one another. Some fly by night and some more established. According to Jared’s research Damian Barnes’s software company was a successful one. He had twelve full-time employees and was a member of the local business association. An upstanding citizen by all accounts.
Jason found the door with the plaque next to it that read, “Barnes Financial Software, Inc.” Pushing it open, he took a cursory inventory of the room behind it. On the small side, it had a few chairs for guests but most of the space was taken up by a receptionist desk that was currently empty. A glass wall behind the desk revealed even more offices and people but none of them seemed to notice his arrival.
Waiting for someone to greet him, he examined the photos on the walls. There was a large one with two men, one holding an award and the other older, maybe mid-sixties. The younger man was probably what women called handsome, but then Jason wasn’t much of a judge regarding male attractiveness.
“Can I help you?”
Jason turned quickly to find a middle-aged woman standing there with a disapproving look on her face. He gave her his most charming smile, hoping to make a better impression and perhaps learn something about the elusive Damian Barnes.
“I hope you can. I’m Jason Anderson. I was hoping I could speak to Damian Barnes if he was available. I only need a few minutes of his time.”
The woman sniffed, not moved at all by his debonair display. “Mr. Barnes does not see people without an appointment. Are you selling something? You can leave a business card if you like.”
“No, I’m not selling anything.” Jason cleared his throat, hating to reveal all the details of why he was there to someone he’d never met. He dug a business card out of his wallet and handed it to the woman. “I’m working with the Tremont Police Department to investigate a crime. We have reason to believe that Mr. Barnes might have been a witness and may have some important information.”
That was kind of the truth. Damian Barnes might know much more than he realized.
The woman looked at Jason, looked at the card, and then looked back at him. “He’s not here, actually. He’s on vacation. He went to visit a friend in San Francisco.”
Jason could believe that Barnes wasn’t at home after seeing the piles of newspaper on the front porch, but he wasn’t about to give in that easily.
“Does he call in? It’s very important that I talk to him, ma’am. I’ve left messages at his home and here–”
“Yes.” The receptionist nodded and placed the card on her desk. “I was the one who took those messages and I did pass them on to Mr. Barnes. He calls in every other day. I’m sure he’ll contact you when he gets back into town.”
Fighting his rising frustration, Jason tried one more time. “Would it be possible for me to talk to him when he calls in? Does he call at the same time of day?”
More disapproval. The dragon lady clearly didn’t like being questioned.
“No, he doesn’t. I’m afraid you’ll just have to wait until he gets back.”
Effectively cornered, Jason admitted defeat. At least for the battle but not the war.
“I’d appreciate you letting him know again that I’m anxious to speak to him. Do you know when he’ll be back?”
The first crack in the woman’s armor. Her smile faltered and she seemed unsure. “That I don’t know. He left a few weeks ago and hasn’t given a return date.”
Jason whistled. “Lucky man. Thank you for your help.” He turned to leave but then pointed to the framed picture on the wall. “Is that Mr. Barnes?”
The receptionist beamed with pride for her boss. “Yes, it is. He was receiving the very prestigious Alliance Award for excellence in interface design. Mr. Barnes is a brilliant man.”
Barnes sure as hell didn’t look much like his childhood photos. The skinny, geeky boy with thick glasses had grown into a confident man despite what he’d experienced as a youth. It was good to see he hadn’t let the trauma of his past affect his future.
“I’m sure he his. Thank you and I hope to hear from him very soon. Good day.”
Jason exited the office and strode down the hall, punching the down arrow with too much force. The case was frozen in place and going nowhere fast. He’d promised Brinley he’d find this guy but things were not looking good.
Time to go back to the beginning and start again.
Chapter Twenty-Five
‡
“I
didn’t think a half wall of wallpaper would be this much work.”
Brinley wiped at her damp forehead, the summer heat still blazing despite the sun beginning to set in the west. The old air conditioning unit was struggling to keep up and she’d have to look into replacing it eventually.
Right after she won the lottery or inherited a fortune from a long lost uncle.
This house was costing her every penny of her savings and she wasn’t sure she even wanted it anymore since finding out her living room had hosted a dead body from an unsolved murder. She wasn’t a superstitious person but it still gave her the willies. She was glad that she spent nights at Jason’s house, although she’d never admit it out loud to him.
“It wasn’t the wallpaper that was the pain in the ass—it was the chair rail that was the real work. Now I know what they meant when they said ‘Measure twice and cut once’. They weren’t kidding.”
Jason took a long drink from a frosty water bottle and then lounged against a dining table leg while mopping his brow with a bandana.
“It’s going to look even better when I get the floors refinished. I’m having them do all of the downstairs. I’ll have to wait on the upstairs for now. Too expensive.”
Jason pointed to a spot in the corner of the room near the entry to the kitchen. “You should have them look at that area over there. It makes a noise when I walk on it. Maybe they can fix it or replace those boards.”
Brinley frowned and stood, walking to the corner where he’d pointed. “Here? I’ve never heard anything.”
Jason hopped to his feet and joined her, pressing on a board with his tennis shoe. “Right here. Can you hear it?”
Brinley strained to hear what he was talking about, even kneeling down to get closer to the floor. “Jason, I can’t hear anything.”
“It’s there. Just listen.”
He walked over the boards and then back.
“Okay, I can hear a little something, but geez, you’d have to be Huck to hear it. Do you have some sort of wolf hearing?”
Jason shrugged, the muscles in his back bunching under his t-shirt and making it hard to breathe. Watching him work and sweat all day had done naughty things to her libido.
“You develop the senses you need in the dark. Listening was important.”
Crap. He had that serious, intense expression back. She should have known it had to do with when he was in captivity. Wanting him happy and playful again, she changed the subject, hoping it wasn’t too late.
“I’ll point it out to them but the house is old. I may have to live with it.” She threw her arms around his neck and smiled up at him. “I couldn’t have done this without you. Dinner is on me tonight.”
“I needed to take a day off from this case and decompress.” Jason patted her bottom and grabbed another water bottle from the dining table. “We’re spinning our wheels and it’s starting to piss me off.”
Brinley wiped her hands on a towel and then stepped back to survey their work from a distance. “This looks really amazing and I’m grateful that you decided to spend your day off helping me.”
The dining room looked better than she had originally envisioned. The brown and gold striped wallpaper on the bottom half of the wall went perfectly with the cream color she’d painted last week. It was the perfect backdrop for the dark oak dining table and chairs that had once been her grandmother’s. Add in the cafe au lait colored drapes and the room was almost perfection.
“I can be handy around the house every now and then.” Jason’s eyes were twinkling with mirth, his earlier mood quickly forgotten. “And as for dinner, I have that handled too. We’re having a picnic under the stars.”
Brinley’s brows shot up. “A picnic? You had time to sneak out today and prepare food when I wasn’t looking? You are talented.”
“When have you ever seen me cook?” Jason snorted. “Before I met you I lived on take out, cereal, and frozen waffles—that is if I couldn’t scrounge a meal at my mom and dad’s. No, I ordered our dinner this morning before we got started. It should be here in about an hour which leaves us plenty of time to shower up.”
Now that was a tantalizing thought. Brinley was all about being squeaky clean when Jason was the one scrubbing her back.
“Do you think there will be enough hot water for both of us?” Brinley looked up at him from beneath her lashes. For the most part she sucked at flirting but clearly Jason got the message. His lips twitched, trying to suppress what she assumed was laughter.
“Running out would be a problem. Maybe we should shower together to make sure.” He actually had the nerve to waggle his eyebrows and give her a wolfish smile. “Last one in the shower has to do the dishes after dinner.”
Of course she was going to lose. Jason sprinted off while she quickly locked the door and turned off the lights. Logan would be staying there again tonight but right now he was visiting a friend in Springwood and wouldn’t be back until around nine.
Which meant that she and Jason would be alone for awhile.
By the time she reached the bathroom after giving Huck a cuddle, Jason was already under the steamy spray singing a Bruce Springsteen song at the top of his lungs. And doing a darn good job of it. She shed her clothes as quickly as possible and slipped into the shower behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing her face to his muscled back.
She let her hands trail down his ridged abdomen before encircling his already hard cock with her greedy fingers.
“Shit,” he hissed. “That feels good. But don’t think you’re going to get out of doing the dishes, young lady.”
Tightening her grip, she began to move her hands up and down while nipping at the damp flesh of his back. His cock swelled even larger under her ministrations and he had to place a hand on the tiled wall to brace himself. “Are you sure?”
She heard him suck in a breath and then a groan. “Honey, I’m not even sure of my own damn name when you do that. After the other night you should remember that payback is a bitch.”
Brinley remembered the evening well. Jason had kept her on the edge of orgasm with his fingers and tongue for what seemed like hours before letting her go over. What had followed had been the most intense pleasure of her life but she wasn’t sure she could take that every single time they made love. She was far too needy to be able to wait that long.
“No teasing tonight.” Brinley wriggled from his back to his front so they were face to face. “I can’t wait that long.”
Jason’s rough hands massaged her bottom as the warm spray ran over their bodies, amping up her arousal. “I thought you enjoyed the other night. I know I did.”
Her fingers glided up his arms to his wide shoulders. “I did. Very much. But I need you now. Any complaints about that?”
He chuckled and leaned down to kiss her neck, nuzzling at a sensitive spot behind her ear until she was sighing and grinding against his large frame. His cock was trapped between their bodies, a rod of steel pressed into the softness of her belly.
“Not a one. The truth is I don’t think I can wait either. I can’t keep my hands off of you.”
Thank heaven for that. It felt like those magic fingers were everywhere at once. Pinching and caressing her nipples and then sliding through her already drenched slit, circling her swollen clit. Waves of heat swept over her flesh like a wildfire through the prairie.
Her hips bucked underneath his hands as she climbed ever closer to the top. In the humid confines of the shower it felt like they were the only two people in the world, insulated from all the worries and problems weighing on her shoulders. Here in this place she could forget all of that and just be a woman with her man.
Pressing her back to the cool tile, Jason lifted her effortlessly in his arms. Her feet no longer touched the ground but she trusted him implicitly to keep her from harm. His head dipped and he captured a nipple in his mouth, sucking it in deep and then scraping the sides lightly with his teeth until she was trembling in his arms.
Her nails dug into the muscles of his back, her breathing short and labored. “Now, Jason. Please now.”
He didn’t make her wait, lining up his cock and plunging deep with the first thrust. Brinley cried out at the beauty of being so sublimely filled as she wrapped her legs around his waist. Her forehead resting on his, the room started to spin and arrows of pleasure headed straight to her clit as he began to move. Each stroke rubbed her g-spot even as the cascade of water sluiced over her overheated flesh. The double sensations quickly sent her straight to the top and she whispered hot words of encouragement in his ear.
Feeling his fingers tighten on her hips, he thrust harder and faster, pinning her to the wall until she couldn’t breathe, could barely catch her breath. She was on fire from the inside out and would happily turn to ash in his strong arms.
When her climax hit the world seemed to shatter into thousands of pieces. Light and color danced behind her lids as Jason thrust one last time before growling his own release. Her whole body tightened painfully but the pleasure washing over her was too good. Too intense.
She watched fascinated as Jason came down to earth with her, his features relaxing into a smile of satisfaction. He looked sated, his eyes heavy-lidded but still taking in every detail of her shattered appearance – her messy hair, swollen lips, and love bites on her skin that would surely turn into bruises. The damn alpha male knew what havoc he’d created and would probably strut around if she let him.
Who was she kidding? She wanted to strut too. The sex had been that brilliantly good.
She clung to him as he lowered her onto the tile, her legs still shaking from her shattering orgasm. Cuddling her close and whispering silly romantic words, he held her until her breathing returned to normal. But it was her heart that still ached painfully.
She was in love with Jason.
It wasn’t simply lust or friendship but something much deeper and infinitely more wonderful if he felt the same. He clearly cared for her but was it enough? Could it grow into something that would last? She wanted a lifetime with him.
Damsel in Danger (Danger Incorporated Book 1) Page 17
