by Zoe Forward
No. Can’t do this. The phone fell back to the bottom of her purse, its home screen going dark.
She removed the paper goods and plastic containers of food. Smelled great, but her appetite had disappeared. The quantity of food could feed six or seven people. Maybe they should invite Kylie to join them, and anyone else in the building.
When he returned, she’d barely gotten out the containers. She opened a few to assess their contents. “How was your phone call?”
“Done.” He didn’t sound pleased. He took over arranging the food, filling a plate. He handed it to her.
She glanced down at the selections. All the right choices of items she loved when she wasn’t on the brink of committing corporate espionage. He’d even ordered the Pompano fish dish without mushrooms. “How’d you know I would’ve chosen these?”
“Good guess. We’ve eaten at Restaurant Laos before together. Thanksgiving two years ago, remember?” He shrugged.
She rolled her eyes heavenward. “Ugh. I will never volunteer to cook the turkey again. Never. Ever. Ever.”
“The turkey was…” His eyes sparkled with suppressed laughter.
“Raw.” The bird had been in the oven for at least eight hours before they realized the temperature was too low.
“Remember when your mom freaked out after finding Michael’s dog in the kitchen, licking some of her side dishes? That was the same Thanksgiving.”
Becca smiled. She’d declared all the food saliva contaminated and chucked it.
Jake released a dramatic sigh. “All of her deviled eggs in the trash.”
A snort laughed escaped her. “You hate eggs.”
He nodded.
“Laos saved us.” She couldn’t believe he remembered what she’d eaten two years ago.
She leaned in a grabbed a fried sweet potato, beating his slow-moving hand to the prize. His hand brushed hers as it descended toward the tempura container, unleashing a wave of tingles up her arm. He scrutinized the other fried vegetables, perhaps in search of another sweet potato.
She held her claimed sweet potato between them. Her eyes met his, and both of them froze. She pushed the sweet potato into his mouth. Why had she done that? It’d been spontaneous, a gut reaction.
She’d never fed a man before. It seemed almost unbearably intimate. As he drew in the morsel, he flicked his tongue across her finger on purpose.
She gasped and pulled her hand away. What’d she say after that? She didn’t even have a good explanation for why she’d even done it.
“Tasty.” His tongue flicked over her lips.
She didn’t know if he meant the sweet potato or her finger. The lightness in his gaze indicated he was teasing and enjoyed her unease. Her mortification vanished.
She giggled. “You really are very bad.”
“Magazine-certified badness.” His confidence alluded to a haven of safety, a refuge from everything so far out of her control.
A shiver worked its way down her spine. To hide what he might read on her face, she ducked and took a bite of rice.
“Thanks for grabbing the drinks.” He unscrewed a bottle of water. After a swig, which emptied half the bottle, he devoured his plate of food. Afterward, he released a contented sigh.
She nibbled on a sweet potato. “They don’t do it like this in San Diego.”
“San Diego?” His face scrunched up with confusion.
Oops. “I meant when I visited down there for Comic-Con I went out for Thai, but it wasn’t like this.”
He continued to eat in silence without comment. Had he bought her coverup? She needed to distract him from further questions.
“More?” She waved her hand over the multitude of barely touched boxes.
“No, I’m good. I’ll have Kylie see if there’s any staff around who might enjoy it.” He drank the rest of his water and unscrewed a second water.
“Why didn’t your phone call go well?” She unwrapped one of the mints at the bottom of the bag and handed one to Jake.
He reclined back against the chair and sighed long and hard. He squished the plastic wrapped candy between his fingers. “It’s complicated because there are six different groups involved in the launch of the goggles in Europe and Asia. Everyone has different ideas. No one wants to cooperate. Dates aren’t convenient for everyone. It’s minutiae. I’ll make it work.”
“Sounds like something you could delegate. You have a whole marketing department.”
“You’d think they could deal with it. Our marketing manager is good. I tried having him deal with this a few days ago, but these Europeans treat anyone other than me like shit. My marketing guy flipped out on the German. It wasn’t pretty.”
“That doesn’t sound like the best marketing guy.”
“He’s an old friend and a good guy. You’re right. We may need to shift him to another department.”
Not fire him? Jake was such a loyal, good guy at heart. “Why do you even deal with these people if they’re this difficult?”
“A necessary evil.” He smiled, but it looked forced.
She fiddled with the top of her soda bottle. “You sounded like you were pretty good at what you do when on the phone. Noah’s lucky to have you to deal with this for the company. He sucks when it comes to diplomatic things. Noah’s overall a pretty great person, but he has no patience for playing nice when someone isn’t doing what he wants. Trust me, I know from back when he’d negotiate in popsicles and M&M’s for my participation in his and Michael’s space wars games.”
Jake laughed. “M&M’s, huh?”
She rolled her eyes. “I demanded a lot of peanut M&M’s to be the helpless Princess Leia every single time. And my brothers wouldn’t ever give me a weapon. The real Leia always had a weapon.”
He reached across the coffee table for her hand. In a playful yet serious tone, he said, “That must’ve been tough.”
“Scarred me for life, obviously. I hoard M&M’s.” She remained locked by his blue gaze, which promised the kind of pleasure she wasn’t likely to recover from. The kind she’d had a taste of twice; she craved the whole sundae, not just the toppings.
“What would it cost for you to play Leia these days, Becca?” She couldn’t define how the way he said her name made her feel, but never in her life had a man saying her name felt so sexual.
“I’m sure the price could be negotiated, but it won’t come cheap.” Tingles shot up her arm where his thumb caressed the palm of her hand. Her heart thumped hard.
“I’d enjoy that negotiation.”
A bolt of lust blasted through her veins as heat poured into her core. A tremble rocked her body.
Her cell phone dinged the herald of an incoming text. She jumped, ripping her hand out of his. Ice shuddered through her as she excavated her phone from her bag. She didn’t want to look, but she had to.
“Who is it?” Disappointment flared in his gaze when she glanced up.
Pascal: Tick tock.
“Nothing.”
“Whatever it is ruined an interesting conversation.”
“We have to get going.” She busied herself clearing the table, but she couldn’t keep her eyes off the angles of his body.
You are in so much trouble.
9
Jake maneuvered through the intense city traffic. Something wasn’t right with Becca. She kept chewing on the inside of her cheek and checking her phone.
Her phone dinged with another incoming message. A quick glance her way found her clutching the phone and pale.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
She typed for a moment before glancing up. “What?”
“Bad message? Was it from your mom or something?”
“Mom?” She glanced at the phone in confusion. “No. Other stuff.”
He pulled into the valet circle of her hotel and cleared his throat to get her attention. “We’re here. What would make the most sense is if you run up and change while I wait.”
“Don’t you need to change too?” The
valet opened the door for her.
“I’ve got my suit in the trunk. I’ll change at the church.”
“Come up and change in the room. It’s not a big deal.”
Yes, it is a big deal. The intimacy of changing clothes in proximity to her, of partial nakedness, wasn’t a game plan he could handle. Sweat broke out across his back. “I’ll be fine.”
“Grab your stuff and valet the car.” She cocked her head.
“Yesterday…we can’t go there again.”
“You think I’m suggesting we have a quickie before the rehearsal? We’re already pressed for time, and you’ve made it crystal clear you think us involved is tantamount to the apocalypse.” She rolled her eyes and got out of the car.
“That’s not what I said. Today and yesterday we shouldn’t have—”
“Stop,” she interrupted. She leaned into the car to glare at him. “We kissed. It was hot. I won’t lie about that. I don’t regret it. If anything had happened, it might’ve been pretty good. But at this point I get it. We’re not going to do anything about it, and we’re not going to the wedding together because you have hang-ups. There’s no reason you have to be seen with me more than is necessary for this wedding. You know what, don’t wait for me. Go on. I’ll take a cab to the rehearsal.” She slammed the door.
“Whoa. Wait up, Becca,” he called as he hopped out of the car. She didn’t pause her march into the hotel. He popped his trunk to grab the suit bag and threw his keys at the valet. He grabbed the valet ticket and jogged after Becca, catching her before the elevator doors closed.
She punched the button for her floor and moved to the far end of the car, putting as much space between them as possible. The elevator car headed upward.
“What’s going on here?” he asked her.
“Forget it.” She stared at the mirrored walls, not meeting his gaze.
“Look, I shouldn’t have kissed you last night or today. I’m trying to be decent about it. The two of us…it’s out of control.”
“Kissing me both times were mistakes. Got it.” She plucked at the strap of her purse.
“Neither should’ve have happened, but I didn’t say I regretted it.”
The elevator opened on her floor. She stomped to her room and swiped the key. It lit up red. She did it twice more, getting red each time. “Come on. Open then hell up.”
He grabbed the keycard out of her hand and swiped it slowly. It lit green. She elbowed him out of the way and pushed into her room at a speed suggesting she hoped he’d get locked outside in the hallway.
He threw his suit bag on the sofa, grabbed her arm, and whipped her around.
“What?” Her cheeks flushed.
“I thought I made it clear last night that this has nothing to do with me not wanting you. This is a bad time for whatever this is between us. Really bad time. There’s something going on here, Becca. There’s always been something.” He pressed her against the wall, his body flush to hers in all the right places, indicating just how turned on he was.
Breath rushed out of her. “Is this you trying to prove a point and then walk away again?”
He dipped his head to lightly nip the depression behind her ear. She gasped. His lips moved lower. “You drove me insane today. Absolutely insane. I wanted to do this all day.”
Her head fell back, leaving exposed the smooth skin of her neck. Unable to resist, he kissed a path up the smooth arc of her neck. His hand fell to her hip, digging into the denim of her jeans to hold her in place.
“There are so many reasons I know I shouldn’t.” He kissed her deeply until he had to pull back for air. “I want you, Becca. I have since… God, forever. It’s wrong though. We both know it.”
“Maybe you think it’s wrong. I don’t.” Her hands kneaded from his ass to his lower back, pushing his shirt up to touch him. Her hot fingertips dragged across his back, sending tremor ripples through his skin.
He pressed his thigh into the V of her legs, pushing her legs apart. She gasped at the pressure against her core. “We shouldn’t do this because of me. Because of Noah. Because I’m part of your family.”
“I don’t care,” she said hoarsely. “Let’s do this and not analyze.”
“This is crazy.” He kissed her again, unable to get enough of her taste. Her body melted into his, and the world around him ceased to exist. He planned to strip off her insanely tight jeans and press her against the wall. Or lean her against the bed and lick every wonderful inch of her body.
His hand trailed to her breast, and he felt its hardened peak. Her body trembled as he rolled it between his fingers.
Stop. Before this turns into a catastrophe. He could have her now, but he couldn’t keep her. He didn’t deserve her. She came from a family of everything right and good and would end up with the whole fairytale one day. Whereas he wasn’t Prince Charming. He came from Shitville, a shit family, and shit genes programmed to drag to hell any woman with which he attempted permanence.
There could only be a right now. She needed to understand that if they kept going. But touching her became as necessary as breathing.
“You are so tempting…so beautiful.” His fingers pulled her shirt over her head so he could see the soft swells he’d been imaging. He cupped a breast, losing a little more of his self-control, and brushed his thumb over the hard peak.
Another breathy moan from her shattered through him. He unbuttoned her jeans and teased the edge of her underwear.
“Please, Jake…please.”
His head dipped to one breast, his tongue flicked out, and he drew her into his mouth. Her skin was so soft. The taste of her was incredible.
His fingers teased along the saturated edges of her sex. He might’ve done this a hundred times, but with Becca everything was different. She mesmerized him with her responses.
She was so trusting and yielding in his arms. So damned perfect.
His phone rang. She tensed.
“That was yours, right? Not mine?” she asked.
He jerked away, dislodging his knee from between her legs, but he caught her before she fell.
His phone rang again. He yanked it out of his pocket and read the screen. “It’s your mom.”
Her gaze passed from shell-shocked to fear. She muttered, “Your phone rang. Not mine. Wasn’t mine. Couldn’t do it.”
What the hell did that mean? She expected a call but didn’t want the call. Perhaps, she meant she couldn’t do what just happened between them. He agreed with that. But he’d never seen her look so terrified.
“Your mom doesn’t know what happened, and if she did, she probably wouldn’t be that upset.”
“Mom?” Confusion clouded her eyes.
“What’s going on, Becca? You know I’d never push you into anything you don’t want to do.” His phone resumed its ringtone again.
“Just answer it,” she said. Her head fell back against the wall as she gazed at the ceiling.
“This is Jake,” he said gruffly into the phone.
“Where are you two? We’re leaving for the church in minutes. Never mind coming with us. Too late now. We’re in the car already. You’ll have to meet us there. Did you get everything sorted out?” He could hear some shuffling noises in the background.
He cleared his throat. “There were some kinks with the printed material, which we had corrected. It took them a while to fix the mistakes. We’ll pop by the hotel, change, and be there on time.”
“Good.” The phone call ended.
“Becca, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Let’s dress and get to the rehearsal before my mom has a conniption fit.” She unbuttoned her jeans. They hit the floor as she walked away.
Holy shit. His stared transfixed at the minuscule black thong separating two perfect globes of her ass. Hoarsely, he said, “I’ll just change in the bathroom or something.”
How the hell was he going to keep his hands off her now?
10
Becca was strung tight. As Jake pulled into a
parallel up the street from the church, she blurted, “Are we going together as a date or not today?”
Why even ask? It didn’t matter anymore. She was about as close to Jake as she could get, not that it mattered. Being close was supposed to facilitate an opportunity to steal information. When presented with the perfect opportunity to do exactly that, she’d chickened out.
“We’re driving in together. I’ll give you a ride back to the hotel.”
“All right. Whatever.” She fiddled with her earring.
“What the hell is going on with you?”
“We’re going to be late.” She whipped out of the car and jogged to the church’s side door.
He beat her to the door and held it open for her. Her mom rushed them before he could push his question further. Based on the storm clouds in his gaze, he wasn’t done pressing her.
Mom wrapped her tight and squeezed. She effused in a tone that sounded like she’d jacked herself up on three espressos and a bag of jellybeans, “I’m so glad you guys made it in time.”
Becca hugged back. “I’m glad you sent Jake along. They messed up some things, but he…” She met Jake’s gaze momentarily while she stepped away from Mom. “He got tough and made them fix it. I couldn’t have done it without him.”
A high-pitched laugh escaped her mom, but her face didn’t express joy. “Everything’s going to be great.”
She couldn’t interpret Jake’s expression before he turned away and headed to where Noah stood with the other guys. Her mind tormented her over what just happened between them. One minute they’d been arguing and the next she’d been close to shattering. She’d forgotten everything in those few moments, which had been wonderful.
Her mom babbled about the caterer. Something about the wrong cheese dip, but Becca couldn’t fully understand her other concerns.
“Let the wedding planner do her job, Mom.”
“Never hurts to triple check things.” Her mom whispered, “You’re worried about catching the bouquet at your cousin’s wedding last year, aren’t you? No one here will judge you.”
You’re judging me. “They’ll all be thinking about it.”
