"Remember he thinks we left your employment. From what he saw on his cameras, we are no longer in your service."
"Right. But what does his father have to do with anything?"
Jake swallowed a mouthful of salad before answering. "We don't know. Yet. According to Matt he never knew his father and needed to find his identity. His mother told him a wealthy man was his father, but he wanted us to make sure. It might have something to do with the reason he is pissed at you, but it might also be unrelated. We're still investigating." Jake turned to Lea. "How did your day go?"
Lea shrugged her shoulders. "Nothing exciting. Cassie had a too friendly visitor, but I think he got the message to keep his hands off. He's too old for her in any case."
Cassie choked on her juice. "Joshua is married." Her indignation must have shone through because her companions burst out laughing. "You're riling me," she accused.
Lea nodded. "Yep. It's getting way too serious." She pointed a fork at Jake. "He gives you indigestion if you let him carry on about his work." She ducked when Jake playfully took a swing at her.
The rest of the meal passed in companionable spirit and Cassie looked at her plate in surprise. She didn't realise she finished off everything on her plate. She enjoyed the easy banter between the siblings. And how Jake managed to heat her blood by just breathing in her vicinity. She would like nothing better than to climb onto his lap and grind her throbbing pussy against him. Her breath hitched at the image and she quickly abandoned the train of thought, praying her body received the message to quit reacting to fantasy.
She concentrated on the conversation. Her own brother was never one for idle conversation. Maybe the need to keep his affinity for decorating rooms and his love of style hidden from her parents turned him into the silent, brooding type. At least he enjoyed the freedom being away from home and doing what he loved. People clamoured to have their homes and offices decorated by him and he had a waiting list a mile long.
“Penny for your thoughts.” Jake’s voice intruded on her thoughts and she stared blankly at him before heat sufficed her face.
“Sorry, I was thinking of my brother.” She didn’t explain further and rose from the table. “I think it’s time I turned in. Tomorrow’s going to be another long one.”
Both Lea and Jake helped doing the dishes before Lea retired to the room Jake occupied before. Cassie handed him a couple of blankets. “The sofa’s quite comfortable.” The clicking of the bedroom door echoed through the silence in the apartment.
Chapter Thirteen
Cassie perched on the bed. She slipped her jacket from her shoulders and kicked off her shoes. Her ears strained for sounds from the adjoining lounge, but only silence greeted her. Sighing, she rose from the bed and walked towards the bathroom. This was going to be harder than she anticipated. Jake being so close put her body into overdrive with images of what could have happened were they alone. Now, with Lea in the apartment and Jake probably leaving sometime during the night, she had the feeling of being close, but much too far apart.
Absentmindedly she plugged the drain and turned on the taps. Steam filled the bathroom and she walked to the bedroom to retrieve her nightgown, only to walk smack into Jake. He silenced her hiss of fright with his lips before closing the taps. Their gazes met. Electricity crackled through the air.
Jake’s eyes darkened as he stepped closer. Heat from his body scorched her senses. Their eyes remained locked.
“We shouldn’t be doing this.” His hoarse words scraped over her twitching nerve-endings.
“No we shouldn’t.”
Endless seconds passed, still he stared at her. A flame ignited in his eyes. Cassie stood motionless as lifted his hand and circled her nape with his palm. His thumb stroked the pulse beating at the base of her neck. Her breath hitched.
As if he waited for a sign, Jake pulled her against him. He tilted her head up and brushed her lips with his. Firm and soft at the same time. She wanted more. She needed more. But Jake only nibbled at her lips.
He slid his palms over her shoulders and along her arms, raising the delicate hairs beneath her blouse and tightening her nipples to impossible tension. His thumbs brushed the sides of her breasts and Cassie inhaled sharply, allowing the sensation to wash over her. Jake teased her lips with his tongue and she opened her mouth to allow him to deepen the kiss. He didn’t comply.
“Easy, we have all night,” he whispered against her mouth before he captured her lips in a tender kiss again. The muscles of his shoulders rippled beneath her fingers as she clung to him to support her weakened knees.
Jake fumbled with the buttons on her blouse and Cassie lifted her hands to help. His almost imperceptible shake of his head arrested her fingers mid-air and she dropped her hands to her sides. His mouth left hers and she moaned at the deprivation before his lips found the sensitive spot under her ear where her pulse beat wildly. She craned her neck to allow him access and anticipation rippled through her as he took the lobe of her ear into his mouth to gently suckle.
The first button sprang loose and a whiff of air caressed her skin where his fingers warmed it before. He moved his mouth to the hollow at the base of her neck, flicking his tongue in and out of the cavity and mimicking the throbbing between her legs. The next button on her blouse opened and his tongue moved lower, finding the newly exposed skin. Need turned her blood into molten lava and she slid her hand over the hard ridge of his erection.
When she fumbled with the buckle of his belt, he removed her hands and placed them on his shoulders. His fingers returned to their task of unbuttoning her blouse, brushing against the top of her bra that strained to contain her heavy breasts. He traced the outline of the lacy garment from the sides of her breasts to the deep valley between them. Moving his hands upwards, he slipped the blouse over her shoulders, exposing her to his gaze.
“My God, you are beautiful.” His whisper took the strength out of her legs and she sagged against him. He held her from him, his eyes dark pools of lust. “No, I need to see you.”
His hands caressed the top of her shoulders, the sensitive flesh of her upper-arms, sliding over the gentle curve of her waist before he hooked his fingers into the waistband of her skirt, following the band to where he slowly opened the zipper. The skirt joined the blouse on the floor and she stood before him wearing only a bra and lace panties.
Cassie closed her eyes as his gaze ignited fires as though he’d touched her. He lifted her chin with his forefinger before he captured her mouth in a ravishing kiss, plundering her mouth, demanding and delivering simultaneously. His control slipped an inch and Jake picked her up and laid her on the bed.
Although cool against her skin, the material of the spread failed to cool her desperate need for his possession. She was desperate for his touch, for him filling her, she realized. Their time together grew too short and every moment spent with him inside her, precious and a gift.
Without breaking the kiss, Jake unclipped the hook of her bra and shifted the garment aside. He stroked the sides of her breasts and she strained against his hand. Her nipples ached for his touch, for him to relieve some of the want throbbing in the ruddy pebbles. But Jake had no intention of obliging her. He kissed and licked her neck, nibbling on her shoulder before he moved to the valley between her breasts. Her heart beat so fast, she thought she would surely die of a heart attack before he was done.
He cupped one breast in his palms, licking the soft flesh surrounding the areole. When he finally drew the nipple into his warm moist mouth, Cassie thrashed against the mattress as lust fizzed through her veins only to settle in an almost painful throb in the heart of her pussy, pouring wetness along the outer lips. Jake paid merciless attention to the one nipple, licking, sucking and even nibbling before he moved to the other breast to subject it to the same attention.
Cassie lost track of time and place. All that mattered was her and Jake on the bed and the need that pulsed inside the room, bouncing off the walls and sensitizing every inch of he
r skin. She couldn’t take much more of this torment. She wanted him inside her now. Filled to the brim.
Jake sensed Cassie’s impatience, but he needed to taste her, every inch of her before he’d allow them the release they both craved. Her skin tasted of peach blossoms and woman. A woman in need of a man. He realised his actions were those of a desperate man and maybe he was, but this felt too much like reading the final chapter of a novel he didn’t want to end.
Kissing her flat stomach, he darted his tongue in and out her navel before lowering to the smooth paradise at the top of her legs. Jake turned Cassie onto her stomach and pulled her up on her knees to expose the engorged lips of her vagina to him. The moisture glistening on them had him forcibly resist the urge to bury himself inside her so deep they didn’t know where he ended and she began. He needed to take it slow.
He pressed her shoulders into the mattress, opening her up to his gaze. And his tongue. He drank his fill from her, teasing her clit until her whimpers grew so loud he expected Lea to burst through the door at any moment. His cock throbbed inside his pants, chaffing against the constraints. Already he could feel the pre-cum wetting his boxers.
As he nibbled at her clit, he rubbed the tight opening of her anus, eliciting more moans from Cassie. He gently increased the pressure and slipped the tip of his finger inside. Shudders raked through her body, resonating in his blood. When he placed another digit inside her wet pussy and she started riding both fingers, Jake abandoned any pretence of being in control.
His clothes landed in a heap on the floor and he slammed inside her, filling her to the brim and more, gasping at the way her pussy clamped his shaft. Gritting his teeth he forced himself to remain still, but Cassie would have nothing of that. She wiggled her bottom, grinding his cock against the ribbed edges inside her pussy. When she tucked her bottom under her and pinned his penis in a vice-like grip, Jake lost control.
He pulled her hips towards him and impaled her on his shaft. She lifted her shoulders and arched her back, the movement of her buttocks against his lower abdomen encouraging him to increase the rhythm. Jake needed no further invitation and he pumped into her, the gentle slapping sounds of her breasts only fuelling the fire raging through him.
The spasms of her pussy triggered his own release and he slammed into her one final time before spinning into a vortex of ecstasy. Cassie collapsed onto the mattress and he followed her, unwilling to break their union yet.
A soft sigh had him rolling off her and gathering her into his arms. Skin on skin they drifted to sleep only for Jake to wake a couple of hours later. Cassie’s breath fanned his chest and Jake remained motionless for several minutes before reluctantly shifting from under her. He stared at her sleeping form and a lump formed in his throat. He was in too deep. Way over his head with this woman. She managed to upend his life in a matter of days.
Jake sneaked to the guest bathroom, showered and dressed before he softly knocked on Lea’s bedroom door. She creaked the door open, weapon raised and cocked an eyebrow at him. He placed a finger over his lips and nodded in the direction of Cassie’s room.
“I’m leaving. Take care of her.”
“You just take care of yourself and don’t make any stupid mistakes because your head is in your pants on this one.”
His mouth opened to snap at her, but she raised a valid point. Where Cassie was concerned all his logical functions seemed to focus on how quickly he could get her horizontal or vertical for that matter and get into her. So he just nodded and tiptoed out of the apartment, waiting for the click of the locks behind him before taking the stairs.
The chill of the early morning woke her and Cassie crawled under the sheets. She reached out, but found only emptiness next to her. The place where Jake had slept cold and abandoned. Pressing her face into the pillow she gave in to the tears for the first time since the futility of a relationship with Jake dawned. The cold of the morning crept into her heart, filling the void left by Jake’s absence with despair. She allowed the tears to flow unhindered, knowing once they were spent, she would get up and move on. Trying to ignore the pain. Experience taught her it was the only way to cope. She’d done it before and she could do it again.
When the first rays of light filtered through the curtains, Cassie showered, dressed and applied her make-up with care. This was personal and she had no intention of fending off questions about the dark circles under her eyes.
Lea held out a steaming mug of coffee and Cassie accepted it with thanks as she entered the kitchen. If Lea noticed anything amiss, she refrained from commenting. Instead, she sat at the table and unfolded a newspaper in front of her.
“What’s your schedule like for today?” she asked between sipping her own coffee and paging through the paper.
“One meeting this morning, then the rest of the day is ours to spend as we please.”
“Great. I’ve been dying to try out the new coffee shop in the mall.” Lea glanced over at Cassie. “Ever been there?”
Cassie shook her head. Sitting alone inside a coffee shop wasn’t her idea of fun. “Sounds good.” She glanced at her watch. “We better get going.”
By eleven Cassie had the meeting wrapped up and she watched as Lea pulled out of the parking lot. She amazed even herself when she handed Lea the keys to her car. Nobody but her ever drove her car, not that anyone would want to, but Lea appeared eager to get a feel for the old girl as she called the car.
They ordered sandwiches and coffee before Lea popped her elbows on the table. Behind her, the cosmopolitan décor of the shop clashed violently with the canary yellow sweater she’d donned and Cassie suppressed a grin.
“How was I supposed to know the place had such appalling taste in décor?” Lea shrugged her shoulders and Cassie giggled. It felt good to find a reason to smile.
“That’s better. You’ve been much too serious the past couple of days. I thought having Jake over last night would unwind some of the tension, but the patches under your eyes tell a different story.”
Lea broke off her monologue when the waiter arrived with their order, but only waited until he was out of earshot before she continued. “So what’s up with you and my big bad brother?”
Cassie couldn’t fault her for wanting to protect Jake. After-all she knew virtually nothing about him. She shrugged. “Nothing. He works for me.”
“And pigs fly.” She waved her hand through the air. “I’ve known my brother a long time and I’ve never seen him so unsettled. Not even when Sarah . . . shit.” Lea clamped her mouth shut.
Cassie waited patiently for Lea to continue. Experience taught her if you allow enough time, the person unwilling to talk, usually continues after weighing the consequences of his actions one more time. She had no appetite but bit into the sandwich and followed it with a mouthful of coffee. Although Lea kept her face expressionless, the war raging behind the brown eyes was evident.
Lea lowered her fork. “Aw hell, you’re bound to hear it sometime anyway. If he wants my hide he can have it.”
She stared at Cassie for a few seconds before she inhaled deeply and continued. “I guess I should start with our parents. Like you, we grew up with money being no object, but we had an added advantage that our parents thought money could compensate for the lack of love and attention they wouldn’t or couldn’t provide.”
Cassie nodded. She could relate to that. Her parents showered them with gifts and money, but never with the unconditional acceptance of who they were. They measured everything in monetary terms and if there was no financial benefit to attending a school meeting, they simply ignored it. If a she or her brother excelled in sport, they received a demure congratulations. Only when they won awards for entrepreneurship did it elicit a more than tepid response from her parents.
“As soon as Jake could, he enrolled in the police academy and excelled in all areas. He’d finally found a place where he was accepted for who he was and not who his family was.”
“You both did.” Cassie kept her voice ne
utral. So far, the story didn’t differ much from her own.
“Anyway, Jake met Sarah while he was between missions on one of those rare occasions where we had more than two days R&R at a time. The attraction was instantaneous and they were inseparable for the whole two weeks. After that, every time he returned from a mission, they were together. We all expected to hear wedding bells ringing within months, if not weeks.”
Lea took a bite of her sandwich before continuing. “Then Jake was shot and placed on desk duty for six months until he recovered fully. He went to Sarah’s apartment the evening he was discharged from hospital and although he didn’t say much, we all gathered he caught her with another soldier. Apparently her idea of having a boyfriend meant dating several guys at the same time as long as they were all soldiers and worked outside town often.”
“Jake didn’t like sharing.”
“Jake never shared anything. Not his feelings, not his toys when he was little and certainly not his women. After that night he never spoke of her again. He never explained what happened, but we gathered bits and pieces over the years to put it together.”
“How long ago was this?”
Lea tilted her head to the side. “It must be more than six years now.”
“Why did he leave the force?”
“Couldn’t take the desk job. He lasted all of two months before he quit and joined Matt in the business.”
“I see.”
“No, I don’t think you do. My brother hadn’t been serious about anyone since Sarah and his dates lasted exactly one evening. Never before had he spent more than one night with someone.”
Cassie laughed softly and waved her hand dismissively at Lea. “You have it wrong. Jake is protecting me. I hired him to do so.”
“Did the contract require him sleeping with you?”
Dropping her eyes to the half-eaten sandwich on her plate, Cassie prayed her cheeks didn’t show the heat suffusing them. She picked up her cup and sipped the cooled liquid, buying time to avoid answering.
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