What to Read After FSOG: The Gemstone Collection (WTRAFSOG)

by CJ Roberts

  She drifted off, the sun and sounds of the Lake Michigan summer afternoon lulling her into sleep. Then she heard him, the low growl of his voice insistent and familiar.

  “Sara.”

  “Hmm…” She crossed her legs.

  “Sara, kiss me.” The deep voice was insistent.

  “No, I can’t.”

  “Yes, you can.” The mild lake wind caressed her skin like a lover.

  Sara reached her arms up over her head and stretched as her body reacted to the half-waking dream. Squeezing both eyes shut, she imagined his hands as they moved up her legs, to her hips, across her stomach and to her breasts.

  “Sara?”

  She shook her head, unwilling to respond even in her own head. He was so incredibly wrong for her. She knew it. Why couldn’t she stop?

  “Sara!”

  She uncrossed her legs and bent them, to allow the wind to cool her more heated areas.

  “Earth to Sara!” She sat up, nearly banging foreheads with her brother.

  “Jesus, what?” She frowned at the man who could pass as her twin.

  He plopped himself down on the chair and stared at her. She closed her eyes again, determined to ignore him. The last thing she needed right now was an interrogation from her overprotective sibling.

  “What is with you anyway?” He grabbed her cheeks in one strong hand and pinched them, pursing her lips just as he used to do when they were kids.

  “Get off me.” She pulled her face away and her eyes filled with sudden and alarming tears.

  “Nope, sorry, I’m sick of you avoiding me. Since when do you want to sit on the beach, I mean really?” He pushed her over and she half fell onto the sand. Blake’s gaze bore into her. He patted the chair in front of him. She sat but avoided any more eye contact, pulled her hair up into a ponytail, and contemplated what in the hell lie she could say that would convince him to leave her alone. Her phone buzzed. Blake sighed and tried to grab the device before she could reach for it.

  “Fuck off, I’m a busy realtor you know, let me work.” She held the phone out of his reach over her head, but he was much stronger. Restraining her with one hand on her shoulder, he pressed hard, rendering her immobile as he looked at her phone.

  “Ow, damn it,” she yelped and watched his face change once he read what flashed on her screen.

  “What?” She reached for it again.

  Blake looked up at her and held the phone out of her reach so she sat back down, defeated. His mouth was set, his eyes hard.

  Shit, Jack’s just sent another completely inappropriate text like he’d been doing all weekend long.

  Blake shook his head, lowered the hand holding her phone and dropped it into her lap. She shrugged. He could have as many opinions as he wanted to about whom she dated. Of course she wasn’t exactly “dating” Jack Gordon, her brain helpfully reminded her. She had let him fuck her in two public places with little or no resistance and would have likely let him right there on the beach chair if her wet bikini bottoms were any indication. She wanted him to tell her what to do, when to come. Needed to feel his hands on her day and night. Not details she felt comfortable sharing with her brother.

  She tucked the phone back in her bag without looking at it. Blake still stared holes into her. He opened his mouth to speak.

  “Hey kids,” Rob called out. “It’s beer-thirty.” He joined them and set a tray of drinks and snacks on the large sawed off tree trunk that served as a table between the chairs.

  She took the ice-cold glass he handed her. Blake still hadn’t spoken or moved from his spot at the foot of her chair so she swung her legs around to sit facing Rob.

  “Thanks.” She took a sip.

  Blake took his beer from the tray and drained half of it.

  “Ok, then,” Rob said as he settled himself on the chair next to the two of them. “Guess I should have brought you a few more, huh?” He glanced at Sara before he looked at Blake, and they both waited for him to speak.

  Sara did not like keeping anything from her brother. Blake’s inflexibility with her these days, his judgmental attitude, made her unhappy to put it mildly. She missed their usual, easy camaraderie. They had hardly ever fought, even as teenagers. A united front in the face of their parent’s turbulent relationship had always trumped any sibling conflict. Sara sighed and wiped her sweaty palms on the towel.

  “So.” Blake stared at her but spoke to Rob. “Seems your buddy Jack Gordon has taken a shine to my sister.”

  Rob looked at Sara. She rolled her eyes and shrugged, but her heart fluttered in her chest. Blake had a real knack for making her feel like a naughty high school girl. Fighting the anger rising in her chest, she leveled what she hoped was a neutral expression at him.

  “Do you think he’s a good choice for her?” Blake continued, as though Sara didn’t already know the answer.

  Rob contemplated Lake Michigan a moment then turned to Blake and Sara.

  “Hard to say.” He drained his own beer.

  “No, I thought not,” Blake stated, avoiding his sister’s gaze and ignoring Rob’s non-committal response. “But hey, you know, I’m sure he’s a lot of fun, eh Sara?” Blake finally looked her way. His deep green eyes snapped with anger. “I mean that’s all that matters to you, right?”

  Rob reached over to touch Blake’s arm. The two men were not much for public displays, so when they did touch, it made Sara glad for her brother’s good fortune in the relationship department. But her temper still flared. His bullshit comments couldn’t go unanswered.

  She started to stand, but Blake held in her place. The three of them sat for a minute like that – connected by the touch of a hand. Rob spoke first.

  “Blake, calm down, Sara is a grownup. She can make her own choices.” He didn’t take his eyes from Blake’s face.

  Sara pulled her arm out of her brother’s grasp.

  “Look, I know you mean well.” Angry tears collected in her eyes. “We can’t all be so lucky to find our soul mate you know.” She leaned over to Rob who kissed the top of her head. She needed Rob on her side at least a little or she’d never be able to control Blake’s increasing overreactions. “Yes, I know him, but we aren’t ‘together’ or anything like that. I mean we work for the same company. We have a difficult transaction going. We’re bound to talk…or whatever.”

  “Um, based on the text I read, I’m willing to guess you guys are doing more than working your deal.” Blake looked at her. His eyes had softened, much to her relief.

  Her phone buzzed again, rattling her bag. She lifted an eyebrow at her brother and ignored it. Blake ran a hand across his face, put his elbow on one well-toned thigh to prop up his head. Rob patted his leg.

  “There, there,” he said and smiled his gorgeous, Nordic god smile. “Our Sara is a hottie, after all, and has been without the company of a man for a while. My old friend Mr. Gordon, is a sucker for that.”

  “Yeah, thanks, that really makes me feel so much better.” Blake drained the remainder of his beer. He stood up and took the tray up to the cabin for refills as Sara pulled her phone from the bag. She tried her best not to blush but the message set her nerve endings on high alert.

  “Next time I’m going to put one of the creamy strawberries inside your gorgeous pussy and lick you until you purr.”

  She glanced at the previous message. “I need to smack that luscious ass again. You game?” was the winning prose Blake got to read.

  She sighed, embarrassed, thrilled, mortified and horny all at once. A state that had been a constant for her since Jack had taken her up against the wall of her office earlier that summer.

  Rob put a hand on her shoulder. She looked at him, her face flushed.

  “Sara, please, just don’t take anything too seriously with him,” he told her. “I’ve known him a long time and witnessed his bullshit first hand. Hell, I helped him perpetuate it on occasion.” Blake returned then, bearing fresh drinks for them all. Sara picked hers up and sipped at it, leaning back on
her chair. “Just be smart.”

  “I don’t know a thing about him really other than through company gossip,” she said, hoping Rob would open up and spill some of Jack’s history. Watching the tall, blond Adonis of a man, she had a brief flash of regret that he’d chosen the other team. But her brother had so been unhappy after his last female relationship ended in disaster.

  He’d told her he was bisexual back in high school when they’d gotten high together during a particularly difficult separation period their parents had endured. Sara had had no end of friends madly in love with her handsome, intense, athletic brother. The new wrinkle in his personality hadn’t bothered her, other than to make her worry for his ultimate happiness.

  When he and Rob had met at a beer festival in Chicago, Blake had never looked back and Sara was truly happy for him. Their gastro-brewery-pub was one Ann Arbor’s hottest eateries right now. They were an amazing team.

  “Of course,” Rob interrupted her thoughts. “The guy hasn’t always had it so easy.”

  Sara tried not to act too interested. Blake scoffed into his second beer.

  “He definitely knows the meaning of hard work. He used to come back to Ann Arbor every summer and handle construction jobs for his dad’s company.” Rob motioned for Blake to come sit by him. Sara realized he was trying to humanize the man Blake had demonized. “Talk about a ball breaking bastard.” Rob shook his head. “Jack used to dread when he’d get a call from his dad. His mom was an alcoholic – dead from it by the time Jack was about to graduate high school. You know Keystone Construction?” Rob looked at her. “That’s Jack’s family.”

  Sara’s eyes widened. Blake rolled his.

  “Yeah, so Jack partied like a maniac during school but had nearly a four point oh all the way through. His dad wouldn’t accept any less and, as much as he hated the old fuck, he wouldn’t do anything that might displease him.” Rob finished his beer, then sat back tried to pull Blake with him. Sara smiled. She knew her brother’s stubborn streak mirrored hers. He wouldn’t melt that easily. Rob shrugged.

  “He met Jenna in law school,” Rob said, as they both ignored Blake. “What a bitch.” He sighed. “Truly, I never got what he saw in her, beyond the obvious fact she was built like a fucking Penthouse pet and smart as a whip,” Blake looked over at his lover, then shifted back in the chair. Rob smiled and put his feet on either side of the chaise so Blake could lean against him. Rob pulled him close, put his arms around her brother’s shoulders and kissed his neck.

  “Hey, finish, would ya, before you get all moony on me,” she demanded, her heart racing at the thought of getting some real insight into the man who haunted her dreams.

  “Well, let’s say she wins the prize as the one who scored Jack Gordon’s whole heart, then stuffed it in a shredder before torching it. The two of them were into some pretty out-there stuff. Had gone to a bunch of BDSM parties.” Sara raised her eyebrow at him. “It was some intense shit. It affected Jack in a big way. They’d deemed him a ‘natural Master,’ whatever the fuck that means. It was like he didn’t know if it was a good or bad thing either, but, Jenna loved it. Wore some kind of crazy necklace she called her ‘collar’ declaring herself Jack’s official submissive.”

  Sara heard her heartbeat in her ears.

  “He isn’t that bad really.” He ran a finger down Blake’s neck, across his shoulder and down his arm. “He feels deeply about women, wants to make them happy. He’s gotten so good at making them that way on the surface, it’s hard to get past that in his own head,” Rob insisted when Blake shifted in his seat. “Every single woman he was with – and there were plenty – had his full, complete, undivided attention, until he found the next one. Until Jenna.”

  Sara finished her second beer and sat up, staring at Rob.

  “He called me overseas the week of his law school graduation, told me he’d bought her a ring and was going to ask her to marry him. He had plenty of money after years being foreman on Keystone job sites.” Rob sighed and ran a hand through his thick blond hair. Blake reached up and touched his cheek. “He’s my friend, Blake, I’m not gonna pretend otherwise,” Rob insisted. “I’m sorry I gave you the wrong impression about him. But then, with Jenna…I don’t know. He was crazed with something. Some kind of combined buzz over trying to compete at a tough school and taking on this whole-new ‘lifestyle’ thing she insisted on. It nearly killed him.”

  She nodded, realizing this was the “ask but don’t tell” moment with reference to Jack Gordon.

  “Look, I’m not planning on marrying the guy,” she told them. “I know him better than most at this point. I know what I’m getting is whatever he’s willing to give and it’s okay.”

  Rob grabbed her other hand and pulled her over to sit with him and Blake, putting a strong arm around her.

  “I love you, just like I love your brother, Sara, and I don’t want you to get hurt. Jack has the potential to be a great guy, but trust me when I say he’s yet to fully embrace that right now. Jenna told him she had been fucking both of his housemates for the last six months, laughed at his offer of marriage, and never spoke to him again after graduation day.”

  He kissed the top of her head, then Blake’s. “You don’t live through that, after all the bullshit he had growing up at home, and emerge with your psyche intact. I was in Paris by then at cooking school. His other housemate called me to say he’d had to take him to the emergency room during the night. Jack had passed out after drinking an entire fifth of bourbon himself. He’s been a different man ever since.”

  Jack chose that moment to buzz her with a text.

  Rob touched her shoulder.

  “I can’t advise you to expect anything more from Jack than what’s on the surface. He’s spent a lot of years making himself into this guy his is now.” He shrugged. “He will either be the worst, or the best thing that will ever happen to you.” He put a hand over Blake’s mouth before he could speak. “You decide.”

  Sara looked down at her phone screen.

  “Hey, what are you doing? Did you get my messages?”

  She sighed and looked over at Rob and Blake. Rob had both arms around her brother’s neck, and was kissing his bare shoulder. She lowered her eyes to her phone and responded.

  “Yeah. Up North. With brother. He’s not happy.”

  It took a minute before she got her response.

  “Blake, right? Partners with Rob Frietag? I know that guy.”

  “Yep. And he has a pretty definite opinion about you.”

  “I’ll bet he does. He and I did some collateral damage in our day.”

  “Really? He was into girls?”

  “Oh yeah, we were quite the tag team, don’t let him tell you any different.”

  “Wow.”

  “I’ll bet he swings both ways now – some things are hard to give up.”

  “Hmm. Makes him a good match for my brother. He’s done his own fair share of female-related damage.”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if those 2 find a nice young lady to settle down with someday – a nice and cozy threesome. I hear that can work out quite well.”

  Sara didn’t know how to respond to that. Thoughts of Jack, in love, vulnerable, hurt…she couldn’t process it. Her phone buzzed with another message from him, breaking her reverie.

  “So what lies are they telling you about me?”

  “Well, let’s say you are NOT their fav person at the moment.”

  “Whatev. I get that a lot. So about that strawberry…”

  7

  Nearly two weeks passed before she saw Jack again. He sent daily sexy texts, teasing, inviting but never calling or making any kind of formal invitation to meet. She had to sit on her hands, but she would not allow herself to respond. It somehow energized her, the self-control she had found in spite of her underlying disappointment with his inability to reconnect.

  She had convinced three of her listing clients – including the Open House Picnic one with the view – to lower their price
s, and she felt that she’d have offers on two of them soon. Hot yoga had become part of her fitness routine – the perfect exercise for a type-A personality as it included pure physical and mental torture for ninety minutes in a one-hundred-degree room providing her with the sort of focus she never thought she lacked.

  The second week of virtual silence after having spent a lonely two hours at her most recent open house with no picnic in sight, she finally admitted feeling absolutely horny. Strange really, having gone so long without close physical contact with a man how a few highly charged encounters would leave her with such a taste – no, a requirement – for more. He probably planned it this way, she thought as she prepped for her weekly sales meeting, as she fully acknowledged that if “he” showed up at that moment she’d rip his clothes off and fuck him where he stood. The psychological angle of him taking control, making her submit to him, made her shudder with anticipation.

  Sara smiled at her reflection in the mirror. If she were completely honest with herself, she’d have to admit that the illicit nature of this thing they were doing turned her on more than anything she’d ever experienced in her life. She even knew it was likely the entire real estate community knew about them by now. Jack was not known for silence on the subject of his female conquests.

  She sighed and brushed her hair back. The occasional twinges of wanting more from him – visions of a future that included him – haunted her, but she would not allow them to gain a foothold. She was an independent woman and successful in her own right. She could cope with a purely physical relationship, as she had claimed to Blake and Rob. But the small taste of his real self, that day at the open house, had not been enough.

  Smoothing her hands over the black linen skirt, she turned sideways and admired top she’d chosen – the sunny yellow top that flared out over the waistband, which showed the slightest hint of cleavage. She allowed herself a small moment of satisfaction. Her latest shoe conquest: a pair of classic patent Jimmy Choos she’d ordered online and had spent an entire commission check to buy, graced her feet. After grabbing her to-go coffee, she headed for the car.