“Yes. Thanks. It’s not like this is something you can call and report to the police. There’s no real threats.”
“It doesn’t matter. If anything else happens, you call them immediately and report it. Then you call Paul or me. I’ll give you our cell phone numbers. Meanwhile, I’ll let you talk to Alexi while I contact Paul from my cell line.” Jesse handed the phone to Alexi.
Before speaking to Nan, Alexi covered the receiver and said, “I should go back and stay with her. If this has anything to do with me, I’ll never forgive myself if harm comes to her.”
Jesse shook his head. “That’s exactly why you can’t go back. Whoever is calling may just be waiting for you to pick up the phone before he decides to act. Having Paul check the situation is our best option. If necessary, he can even take Nan back to stay at the Marriott.”
“She’d never abandon Shakespeare.”
“Your godpet? I remember.” The fact that he did remember little details about her life as if they were becoming part of his life made him frown as he called Paul.
He reached Paul immediately. “Hey, I need a favor fast.”
“I’m already out the door,” Paul said. “Sing to me.”
Jesse told Paul about Nan’s situation and gave him directions on how to reach her apartment. “Have you turned up anything?”
“Not much. Holstead worked at the bank until five, then went home where he stayed. I finally decided to come catch some shut-eye. The only thing that I’d say was a bit unusual is that the man’s house cleaning service came after he arrived. They were still there three hours later when I left, but it’s a big house.”
“Odd.” Jesse frowned. “Stay with it.”
“Will do,” Paul said. “I’ll let you know if I see any major problems with Nan’s situation. She does know I’m coming right? The last thing I want is to tangle with the police.”
“She knows.” After hanging up, Jesse stayed on the deck a minute, running things through his mind while Alexi spoke to Nan. It was probably the first real breather he’d taken since bringing Alexi home with him the night before. He rolled his neck trying to ease his tension. Maybe having Alexi around all the time was why he was so tense, he thought, rolling a kink out of his neck.
He glanced back inside to where Alexi was talking to Nan. She sat on one chair with her feet propped up on another. Desire and tension curled through him. He didn’t need a breather from her; he just needed more of her.
It’s just the circumstances that had him off kilter. Once he settled her safety problems, then everything would move back into the realm of temporary. The situation was too new for anything but the basic facts to surface, and too minor to take any major precautions, which left him hanging in mid air. That’s why he felt unsettled. He sighed, relieved to have boiled the situation down to a logical explanation.
Paul called to say he’d arrived at Nan’s and a short while later reported that there was nothing out of the ordinary around Nan’s apartment. But just in case, Paul planned to stay the night at Nan’s. It wouldn’t hurt for him to see if he could pick up any background noises from the anonymous caller.
Still, Alexi looked worried. Jesse came up behind her and rubbed her shoulders. “Paul’s there and you’re safer here.”
“I know.” She leaned into him and he had the urge to hold her so tight and close nothing would ever harm her.
Hell. He needed to get a grip. This is crazy. His craving for something sweet to eat resurfaced. “I can’t believe I didn’t get a single piece of cake. Chocolate cream is my favorite.” That bit of icing he’d stolen from James had whet his appetite. Sort of like Alexi and sex.
There’s an idea, Weldon. “Since I can’t have cake, will you play strip poker?”
“Oops,” Alexi shot up from the chair. “I’m sorry, I forgot.”
“Forgot what? How to play strip poker?”
“Cake. Your mother sent you home a cake. It’s in the back seat of your car.”
“She did?” He shook his head searching his memory for that missed tidbit of information. “She didn’t say anything.”
Alexi grinned. “I wasn’t supposed to let you know until you took me home. I think the general idea was to let you suffer for a little while first.”
“I see,” he said, processing the idea that his mother and Alexi had collaborated to pull one over on him. He wasn’t sure if he liked that idea, but he had something more important to take care or first. “So I’ve suffered for hours and there’s been a cake in my car all this time?”
Alexi nodded. “I’ll go get it.”
“No,” Jesse said smiling. “I’ll get it. You go relax for a few minutes.”
“I might have another piece, too. It was really good.”
Yep, Jesse said to himself. He’d make sure she got some cake. He retrieved the cake from the car, and while she was engrossed in a magazine, he set up his bedroom. If Alexi wanted to play with the big boys and their treats, then she’d have to suffer the consequences. He came into the room and sat next to her on the couch.
She turned to him. “You’re not eating cake yet?”
“I will,” he said softly, leaning down and kissing her. “I’m the kind of guy who likes to have his cake and eat it, too.” He kissed her again, harder this time, then backed off. He ran his hand down the silky skin of her thighs until her legs slid apart slightly and she moaned when he kissed her again. Scooping her up, he headed for the bedroom. “I’ve got a treat for you, Lex. But we have to play a little game first.” His heart kicked up its pace at what he had in mind.
She leaned up and kissed him. “Strip poker?”
“Nope. This game is even better.” Just the sort of game to put him back in control.
Her eyes narrowed and she leaned back to look at him. “Better how?”
“This time, you have to do anything I ask you to and next time I’ll return the favor. What do you say?” He waited for her answer; his breath caught between his lungs and his mouth.
“Anything?” She looked shocked.
“Anything,” he nodded. “Except, I’ll give you the trump card. Any time you want to stop the game, you say so. Otherwise you’re completely in my hands.” He leaned down and slid his tongue along the lobe of her ear. “For as long as you wish, you’ll be my sex slave,” he whispered. “Say yes, Lex.”
“Yes.” Her answer a bare whisper upon her exhaled breath.
Blood surged to his groin and his heart pumped harder. “Close your eyes and don’t open them until I say to.” She did as he asked and he led her into the bedroom. He’d lit candles about the room and had opened the shades so that the moonlight streaming over the ocean lessened the shadows. On his bedside table was chocolate cream cake and tied to his headboard were the ends to two silk ties. He stepped back from Alexi and stripped, already ready for her.
“Keep your eyes closed, Lex. I’m going to take your clothes off. Then I’m going to kiss your breasts. Think about how that’ll feel.” She nodded. Soon he had her naked and breasts sucked to excited peaks. Then he licked his way up the backs of her legs, around her thighs up to her sex. “You want more?
“Yes.” She gasped as he slid his hand across her stomach.
He led her to the bed. “More comes with a little price. Open your eyes, Sunshine.”
He watched her glanced about the room. The candlelight, the sliced cake, the view of the stars, and then she looked at the bed. He patted the middle of the bed. “I want you to lay here and put your arms up here.” He ran his hand down one of the silk ties tied to his headboard. “You’ll be my bound slave for as long as you want. Lie down, Lex,”
She sat on the bed, a little hesitant. “Jesse, um, I—”
“Trust me,” he said softly. She drew a breath; her gaze connected with his and she lay back, lifting her arms to the headboard. Jesse’s heart thumped harder.
Kissing each of her palms, he wrapped the silk ties around her wrists several times and then placed the end of the tie in he
r hand to hold. She’d only be bound as long as she wanted to be. That fact heightened his desire. It was up to him to make her want to be bound. “You have the power to free yourself, but as long as you’re bound, you’re mine.”
Straddling her, he took a slice of the chocolate cream cake he’d cut and spooned a bite into his mouth. “This is even better than usual.” He ate the whole piece in four bites.
She narrowed her gaze at him as she lifted her head from the pillow. “That’s it?” She frowned, and those cute lines between her brows popped up. “That’s what this is about? You want to eat cake while I—tied up mind you—watch?”
“Patience, sex slave. Your master has yet to begin.”
“My master?” She rolled her eyes and laughed.
He grinned. Taking his spoon, he scraped icing off the top of the cake and spread it around her nipples, making sure he covered her rosy-peach tips completely.
“Delicious,” he murmured as he licked frosting from one nipple, taking care to swirl his tongue around and around the excited peak. She stopped laughing, her cheeks flushed, and she clenched her hands around the silk ties.
He moved to her other breast, but this time hovered just over it. “Lift your breast to my mouth, arch your back and make me suck you. Spread your legs for me too. Let me know that you’re thinking about me inside of you. Let me know you want to come, Lexi. Show me.”
“Jesse, I—”
He swiped a finger of icing from the top of the cake and held it to her lips. “Lick my finger, Lexi. Show me how you want me to suck your nipple.” She opened her mouth and he slid his finger inside. Looking at him, she swirled her tongue around his finger, licking off all the icing, then she sucked hard on his finger, her rhythm matching the slight rock of her hips that pressed against his bottom. He moved his mouth to her breast, but kept his finger in her mouth. “Show me again.” She licked his finger and he licked her nipple. She ran her tongue completely around his finger and he circled her nipple with his tongue. She lightly nipped the tip of his finger with her teeth and he gently grasped her nipple between his teeth. She sucked on his finger and he drew her nipple into his mouth, sucking to the increasing rock of her hips.
He’d planned to lick and tease her everywhere. To put cake everywhere and eat it too. But something was happening with his plan. The pace moved too fast. The need to have her grew too great. The urgency of her hips straining against him was too demanding to ignore. He slid off her and moved to the bottom of the bed. “Spread your legs wide for me, Lexi. Open them as wide as you can and lift yourself up to me.” She opened her legs and he slid between them. “Arch your back, Lex. Dig your heels into the mattress and lift yourself to me.”
Pulling against the silk ties, she bent her knees, dug her heels in, and lifted her sex to him. He leaned down and kissed her right where he knew her hot spot to be.
“Jesse!” She screamed out his name, her hips shuddering as she climaxed. He kept pleasuring her until she could take no more. Her breasts rose and fell heavily. Her pupils were dilated with desire, and her cheeks were flushed. Her hair spread upon his pillows in a wild disarray of color and curls. She had never looked more beautiful. Seating himself between her legs, he moved over the top of her, pressing his body to the moist silk of her body and he kissed her deeply. Kissed her until her body stilled.
“My turn,” she gasped. “Trade places with me, Jesse. Be my slave now.”
He frowned. He’d only just begun. This was about distance, about him being in control, about driving Alexi wild for sex. “But—“
“Please, Jesse. Free me and be my slave now.”
Unwrapping the silk ties from her wrists, he lay back on the bed with a sigh. This wasn’t what he had planned. She straddled him in a flash, urging him to put his arms up so that she could bind him. His erection brushed against the soft skin of her bottom. And when she leaned her head back, her silky hair feathered teasing touches to the tip of his penis.
Groaning, he placed his hands at the headboard. She imprisoned him with his ties, doing as he did, placing the ends within his grip, giving him the option of freedom as well.
“Take a deep breath for me, Jesse.” He sucked in air and watched her as she explored the contours of his chest and shoulders first with her hands and then with her tongue. She licked his flat nipples then moved lower and lower, spreading fire as she touched and kissed everywhere, but exactly where he needed her hot mouth to be. It was pure pleasuring torture.
“Lexi.” He strained against the ties, urging her to his erection.
“Show me, love slave. Show me what you want.”
What had made him think this game would be fun? It was driving him crazy. She was driving him crazy. He arched his back, thrusting his erection higher. “You know where,” he said, impatient to feel her tongue on him.
She slid off of him, smiling. Swiping frosting from the cake she eased her finger to his mouth. “Show me, Jesse.”
He groaned and sucked her finger into his mouth hard. Then he swirled his tongue quickly around and around, devouring the sweet icing, needing to devour her as he planned and frustrated that he couldn’t.
“Spread your legs, Jesse.” He slid his legs apart, groaning as her hair brushed his inner thigh when she slid between his legs and finally grasped his erection in her hands. Was this how she’d felt? This need and this frustration? This vulnerability to the whims of your lover? She licked the tip of him and his hips jerked from the bed. He was too hot for this, too needy for her. He’d never had this kind of desperate burn.
“Lexi. Take me inside of you. Ride me, Lexi.” He started to undo his wrist and she stopped him.
“Wait,” she said, moving up his body and giving him hope that he’d be buried in her within seconds. When she straddled him again, she placed herself so that her moist sex rubbed his penis. He wanted to be inside of her and as deep as he could get now. She leaned up and he thought she was getting the condom. Hell, he’d almost forgotten the condom.
Instead of the condom, she held a piece of the cake. Then she sat back, teasing his erection with her bottom and put the cake in her mouth, licking her lips. He couldn’t believe it.
“Lexi!” He jerked his hands free and she laughed, showing him the condom she’d hid.
“You’re in big trouble,” he said, reaching for her breasts. He caught hold of her nipples and rolled them to hot peaks. Then, sliding his finger into the groove of her sex, he found her hot spot and demanded that she reach the frenzied level consuming him.
Groaning, she tore the open condom with her teeth and slid it on him. Steadying her hips, he placed her just right and thrust into her. She gasped, arching into him, pressing against him. There was no time, no patience for anything but hard sex.
“Jesse!” The tension in her told him she was on the verge.
“Yes,” he shouted as he arched off the bed, lifting her up, and burying himself deeper inside of her.
Impaled on him, she squirmed and thrust again, shoving him over the edge. His heels and shoulders dug into the mattress and he climaxed, riding a wave of mind numbing pleasure as Alexi’s hot body convulsed against him. She collapsed on him the same time his muscles gave out and they fell to the bed. He was incapable of movement or thought. He just lay there, heart thundering, and body quivering. She curled against him and he pulled her close. It was just sex. His need to hold her close just a by-product of how great the sex between them was.
Sometime during the night the candles sputtered out. He awoke to the dim light of dawn to see Alexi watching him. She looked like a soft dose of heaven lying there next to him. “Good morning,” she said, smiling.
“Morning.” He rubbed the stubble on his jaw and thought about kissing her. “Wanna spend the day in bed?”
She shook her head. “I’m going to see Roger today.”
He shut his eyes, counted to ten. Surely he had to be dreaming. After last night, there’s no way another man’s name was on her lips. It was a hell of a way to s
tart off the day.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“If you’re going to see Roger, then I’m going with you,” Jesse said, emphatically stabbing the air with the spatula he was using to scramble the eggs. When the vibrations of his outburst faded, he looked at the spatula as if it was demon possessed and dropped it.
Alexi saw an embarrassing flush rise in Jesse’s cheeks as he realized how jealously possessive he’d sounded. He backtracked. Fast. “I mean it’ll be safer for you not to go around by yourself. We don’t know what the phone calls last night meant. I’ll take you to the gallery and you’ll be with Karin there. When you’re ready, I’ll pick you up and run you over to the hospital for your lunch with Nan. I’ll take care of my errands in between times. Then I’ll pick you up in time to make your three o’clock appointment with Roger. After that we’ll meet your dad, okay?”
“No.” She drew a breath, trying to calm her rising frustration. Ever since she woke up this morning and felt how good it was to be lying there next to Jesse, everything seemed off kilter. How could she gain the distance she needed if he was with her? She’d considered the safety angle and had made sure she wasn’t alone except for when in a taxi. Throughout a somewhat restless night, she’d replayed bits of Jesse’s conversation with James. She and Jesse were a world apart when it came to viewing relationships. After the sex between them last night, the more she considered her growing need for him, the more she realized that she had to find a balance. Getting back to the routine of her life would help. It might also force whoever was behind the trouble to reveal their identity.
“No,” she said again. “It’s not okay.” She pulled his bathrobe closer about her and tried to ignore the lingering scent of his aftershave. She stuck her nose over the toaster to get rid of the smell of Jesse and concentrated on their argument. The toast popped. She snatched the pieces out then buttered them so hard they became flat.
When Jesse didn’t reply, she looked his way. He was staring at her backside and she belatedly realized that the way she was leaning over made the soft cotton robe hug the contours of her bottom. She stood up straight. “No,” she said again.
Wild Irish (Book 1 of the Weldon Brothers Series) Page 16
