“Jena, princess, what are you doing?” Matt appeared from the living room. She’d forgotten he was there. He’d taken off his jacket, and Jena was momentarily distracted by how good he looked in the soft grey v-neck he wore.
“It’s okay,” Jena told him. “You can go to bed. I have something I need to do.”
“Jena, it’s only nine o’clock. Even my mum doesn’t go to bed this early.” He eyed the box. “Want to tell me what you’re up to?”
She pasted on her best smile. Sure, it might have looked a little manic, but she could live with that. “Nothing for you to worry about,” she said.
She put the box on the floor beside the door before she turned and strode into the kitchen. She lifted the can of paint stripper she’d brought home from work and a box of matches.
Matt eyed the paint stripper. “You’re beginning to worry me.”
She smiled serenely, picked up her box and headed out the door. Without checking to see if he was following, she marched to the shell of the burned-out car and threw the box inside. A minute later she’d doused it with paint stripper and set it alight.
As she watched the blaze dance, she felt Matt come up behind her. To her surprise, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her into him, her back to his stomach. He rested his chin on top of her head. Jena felt quite toasty with the fire in front of her and Matt’s heat behind her.
Jena sank into him as she stared at the flames, but she wasn’t seeing them. Inside her head was a Technicolor replay of her time with her mother.
Her mother.
Not mom. Not anymore. Just mother. Jena shuddered at the memory, and Matt pulled her closer. With his support, Jena closed her eyes and let the memory come.
Her mother stood in front of the mirror in the ladies’ room of the pub. She fluffed her hair as she eyed Jena.
“I want you to go home with Frank,” she said.
“What?” For a second Jena thought she’d misheard.
“He has plans for you.” Her mother nodded firmly. “He’s a good man. Got a head on his shoulders. Knows what he’s aiming for, and he’ll get there. You need to give up this.” She waved her hand to signal she meant Invertary, or perhaps Jena’s life. “You need to go home.”
“Mom, he cheated on me.”
Her mother shrugged. “There isn’t a man alive who can keep it in his pants. You’d best get that through your thick head. So what if he takes a bit on the side.” She looked Jena up and down, her displeasure clear. “Not every man wants a chunky girl in his bed every night.” She turned, perched her bony hip on the edge of the sink and folded her arms over her fake breasts. “You need to grow up. Be realistic. Frank came all this way to take you home. You’re being petty making the man jump through hoops like this. He’s said he’s sorry. He’ll be more discreet from now on. You should think yourself lucky he wants you back.”
Jena gaped at her mother. “Mom, he cheated. He spent years using my money to finance his schemes. Now he's working with the mob. He isn’t a catch. Why are you pretending like he is?”
Her mother shook her head. A mocking smile in place. “You are so naïve. The world is a dirty place, and you do what you can to get ahead. I thought I taught you that. After all, you were a product of my trying to get ahead.” She let out a longsuffering sigh. “Jena, I’ve carried you for years. I would have been famous by now if I hadn’t had to deal with being a single mom. You’ve held me back long enough, and yet here you are, trying to do it again. You won’t introduce me to Josh or Mitch, even though you deliberately moved to the same town, and after everything I’ve done for you.”
Words Jena wanted to say, words she should say, stuck in her throat. All she could do was stare at her mom’s spiteful smile and feel the cut of each word as it struck her.
“Frank’s offered to introduce me to Josh and Mitch. Turns out he knows them from way back. All he wants in return is to take you home and spoil you rotten. I think that’s a fair trade, don’t you? After all, what have you got here? I hear your house is a dump and you’re running out of money.” Her mother laughed. It was nasty. “Did you know they call you Calamity Jena? They take bets on you behind your back. They have a board set up beside the bar where they take odds on some guy getting injured dating you. You’re the laughing stock of Invertary, probably Scotland, and you didn’t even know.” She sneered. “I’m ashamed of you, Jena. You’re over here chasing any man who’ll look at you twice, when you have a great guy like Frank begging you to come home. Do us all a favour. Grow up. Stop playing games. Take your man back. Then we’ll all be happy.” She turned towards the door, smiling over her shoulder at Jena. “After you, honey. Your small-town cop is waiting. I wonder how much he bet on getting lucky with you tonight?”
In a daze, Jena walked stiffly past her mother and out into the pub. Frank was leering at her. His smile said he thought he’d won. He’d played his ace. He’d always known how her mother could cut her down to nothing with a few well-placed words. Her gaze swung past him to Matt. He was being held in place by Grunt. Every muscle in his body screamed with rage, but all Jena saw was the worry in his eyes. Worry for her.
Without a glance at anyone else, she headed straight for him. Matt wouldn’t bet on her, she knew it. Her mother was making up more vile lies.
“I want to go home,” she told him. “I don’t feel well.”
As she knew he would, he whisked her out of there and straight home.
The scene played over and over in her head. Each time her mother looked more malicious. Frank more smugly calculating.
Matt broke into the memory by kissing her neck. Warmth slid through her, melting the ice her mother had left behind. The flames in front of her came into focus once again.
“Feeling better now?” he said against her skin.
“I thought you’d stop me,” she said to Matt.
“Wasn't worth the effort to stop you.” She felt Matt shrug. “This seemed like something you needed to do. What was in the box?”
“Mementoes. Things I thought meant something, but didn’t really.”
“From Frank?” He nuzzled against her hair.
“And my mother.” Jena smiled as she watched the flames dance. “I figured something out tonight.”
“Going to share?”
She nodded as she sank back into him. “I figured out that I’m a big fat coward.”
He laughed. “There’s nothing big or fat about you, princess.”
“I noticed you didn’t take issue with the coward comment.”
“What makes you think you’re a coward?” He stroked her bare arm with his big hand. It was soothing.
“I’ve let my mother and Frank walk over me, all because I was scared to say no. Scared they wouldn’t love me if I stood up to them.” She snorted. “They don’t love me anyway.” She noticed he didn’t disagree. “I’m tired of being walked over, Matt. I’m tired of agreeing so someone will love me. I’m tired of being scared of what will happen if I stand up for myself. See? Coward.”
“Not cowardly. Sounds to me like you were taught that love is a reward for compliance. It isn’t. It’s freely given, even when the other person pisses you off.” He nuzzled her head at her temple, placing a kiss there. It felt like the most natural thing in the world. To be in Matt’s arms, to be taking comfort from him.
“I need to be more courageous. More honest.”
“I love it when you’re honest with me, and I don’t mind a bit of conflict.” He pulled her even closer. “I hear angry sex is mind-blowing. I’m keen to give it a try. Want to be my guinea pig? I’ll say some annoying stuff, you can tell me off, we’ll build up a tonne of adrenalin then go upstairs and work it off.”
Jena chuckled, but her body vibrated with agreement. It was a very good plan indeed. They stood in silence for a few minutes, watching the flames burn out. Who knew having a burned-out car in your yard would be so useful?
“My mother wants me to go home with Frank. She made a deal with
him where she forces me to go back with him and he introduces her to Josh. Part of me isn’t surprised she’d do something like that. It says a lot about our relationship, huh?”
“Aye, it says she shouldn’t be a mother.”
Jena snorted. “I don’t know why Frank wants me back so badly. It’s out of character for him. He’s a guy who gives up easily.”
Matt stiffened behind her.
“You know something,” she said. “Don’t protect me. Tell me.” The insane macho man would probably make her wear bubble wrap if he could.
“I was going to tell you, but other things got in the way. Lake did some digging. Frank is in trouble with his business partners, the Rizzonis. He’s been too busy sleeping with strippers to make the club a success, and they want him to turn it around fast or they’ll make an example of him.” He paused, but he didn’t need to say anything else. Jena knew what kind of example he’d turn into. The kind that sank to the bottom of the ocean.
“He wants me to go back and strip in the club, doesn’t he?”
“Aye.”
Jena wasn’t even surprised at Frank’s plan. He’d watched her politely turn down offers to strip for years. He knew how she felt about it. She thought he’d understood. Obviously understanding only went so far when it got in the way of something he wanted.
“They only want me for what I can do for them.” It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t even a realisation. Deep down, Jena had known this for a very long time.
“Not everybody is like that. You need to learn how to tell the difference. You need to stand up for what you want instead of doing whatever everyone else wants you to do. You can start by saying no to all these bloody men who ask you out.”
Jena laughed hard. It felt good. It felt freeing. She turned in Matt’s arms and slid her hands up to rest on his pecs. She felt his heart beat under her fingertips. Slowly, she looked up to find him studying her. His eyes dark with promise.
“I need to stand up for what I want. That’s what you said. Right?”
His blue eyes darkened with desire and amusement. “Aye, that’s what I said.”
“I know what I want,” Jena whispered. “I’m standing up for it right now.”
“Tell me,” he whispered back.
“I want you.”
Matt’s eyes turned as black as the night sky above them. His hands flexed on the small of her back. His lips quirked into a mischievous smile that made her stomach clench.
“I’m really hoping you mean in a sweaty, naked way and not in a supportive friend sort of way.”
Jena smiled up at him. “Is that what we are, Matt? Friends?”
“No, we’re not friends. I keep telling you, we’re in a relationship. A sweaty, dirty, sex-filled relationship.”
Jena couldn’t resist an eye roll. “Yeah, that sounds delightful. Not.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll show you exactly how delightful it can be.”
“Promises, promises. You asked what I want and I told you. Are you going to give it to me?”
“Always, princess. Always. You only have to ask.”
With a sexy little smile, his lips descended on hers.
His kiss dominated her. His passion inflamed her. His very touch demanded she meet him halfway, that she fight to participate. This was no claiming. It was a dance of equals. A beautiful, passionate dance.
She wound her fingers into his hair and clutched him closer to her. Rising on tiptoe to get nearer, to gain dominance. Exhilaration zapped through her body. She’d never experienced anything like this before. It was supercharged. Mind-blowing in its intensity.
“I’m not stopping,” he whispered breathlessly against her lips.
“If you do, I’ll hurt you. I have pink power tools and I know how to use them.”
He laughed against her lips, making her knees weaken. “No, you really don’t,” he said.
Strong arms scooped her up, and she found herself cradled against hot man flesh. He strode through the house and up the stairs to her bedroom as Jena spent her time kissing, nipping, licking her way up his throat to his jaw. The sound of him kicking her door open did nothing to distract her.
The cool, soft cotton of her bedding hit her back as Matt placed her on the bed. A second later he was stretched out at her side, up on his elbow, her face cupped in his hand, his mouth on hers. He didn’t tease. He devoured.
Jena clung onto his shoulders, her nails digging in to firm muscle. She threw a leg over his hip and pressed up into him.
“Speed up,” she demanded when she came up for breath.
“In a hurry?” He cocked an eyebrow with a grin.
Jena trailed her fingertip over his kiss-swollen lips. “Yes.”
He growled as he captured her mouth again. A large hand slipped under the back of her top. Her skin burned at his touch. She groaned her approval as her hands ran down over the muscle on his back. She wanted to flip him onto his stomach and torture him the same way he’d tortured her in the kitchen. She wanted to lick and kiss every inch of him. She wanted to trail her nails over sensitive skin and bite shoulder muscle that was so thick it wouldn’t budge. She wanted it all. She wanted all of him. And she wanted it now.
“More.” The forcefulness of the demand surprised her, even through her daze of need.
She felt her pyjama pants slide over her hips. She kicked them off. Fingers snuck under the seam of her panties and they ripped away. A deep rumble came from his chest and worked its way through her body.
He wasn’t going fast enough. She needed him. She needed him now.
With strength she didn’t know she possessed, Jena toppled Matt and climbed on top of him. She ran her tongue down his neck to the shoulder muscle she wanted between her teeth.
“Hell, Jena, I’m burning here.” His voice was a deep rasp of need.
He pulled her shirt over her head and threw it to the floor. A second later, his hands engulfed her breasts. Jena pushed into him with a moan, her tongue never leaving his skin. He tasted of salt and musk. Of crisp summer rain on her tongue. It was addictive. Her lips trailed to his nipple and she nipped at him. He cursed, his fingers flexing on her nipples in retaliation. A surge of heat rushed through her body. She felt lightheaded, but it hardly registered, because overwhelming everything else was a desperate need to feel him. To have him inside of her. To have all of him.
She pushed his pants over his hips as she swirled her tongue around his belly button.
“Jena.” She wasn’t sure if her name was a protest or a plea.
She didn’t care. She had what she wanted in the palm of her hand. On one smooth move she arched up over him and slid him into place. His hips came up off the bed as he thrust up into her.
“Yes. That’s it. Don’t stop.” She threw her head back as his hands moved to her hips.
Jena was lost in a whirl of sensation. She couldn’t think. All she could do was feel. Need. Desperately need.
“Fast. Hard.” Her voice wasn’t her own. It was hoarse, demanding, desperate.
Matt gave her what she needed as her nails dug into the flesh on his stomach. He propelled her upwards, out of her body, far away, riding on a wave of sensation and need. Riding the crest of overwhelming desire. All at once the wave broke. She screamed as she fell. Overwhelmed. Lost in him. She only knew his touch, his taste, his scent. There was nothing else. She felt him groan beneath her as she collapsed onto his chest.
Slowly, oh so slowly, she came back to herself. Matt’s hand stroked her back as his breathing evened out beneath her. She felt his heartbeat slow as she trailed her fingers through the smattering of hair on his chest. His hand worked its way up to the back of her head, where he clutched her hair. He angled her head to look in her eyes.
As soon as Jena’s eyes met his, her breath caught. No one had ever looked at her like that before. Like she was everything they wanted. Her heart stuttered at the sight. He pulled her up to his lips and gave her a lazy kiss.
“I changed my mind,” h
e told her with that panty-melting grin of his. “Next time you want me, don’t ask, just take. Taking works great. Taking is good. You can take anytime.”
With a chuckle, Jena rested her cheek back on his chest and closed her eyes.
Taking was indeed good. Cocooned in his warmth and strength, she felt her eyelids grow heavy. A moment later, she was asleep.
23
“I need to get Jena alone.” Frank Di Marco was pacing his hotel room. Agitation poured from him. Grunt noticed the trembling hands his temporary boss tried to hide. He was terrified. Things weren’t going as planned. Time was running out and he was getting desperate. “That Keystone Cop is with her all the time. You need to do something about him.” He pointed at Joe. “I ain’t paying you to sit around. This is no vacation.”
Joe’s jaw clenched. His biceps flexed. Grunt knew the signs. He was holding on to his self-control by a thread.
“What do you want us to do, boss?” Joe spat the word.
“What do I want?” Frank shouted. “I want you to do the job I’m paying you to do. I need access to Jena. And I need it now. How am I supposed to convince her to come with me if I can’t even talk to her? That cop won’t let her out of his sight. I need him gone. I need her alone. And it needs to happen now. Her mom isn’t pulling her weight. Jena isn’t listening to her.” Frank poked another finger in Joe’s direction. Joe looked about ten seconds away from breaking the finger off and feeding it to the man. “I need you two gorillas to pick Jena up. There’s an old factory outside town. I want you to take her there.” He cracked his knuckles. “I’m done screwing around. She’s gonna listen to what I have to say and I need a real quiet place where she can hear me properly.” His grin was equal parts stupid and malicious. Not a good combination. “Got it?” he yelled.
“Got it,” Grunt said to distract Joe from violence.
Frank threw up his hands. “The ape talks!”
Now it was Grunt’s turn to imagine all the ways he could pop the guy’s head like an overripe grape.
Calamity Jena Page 18
