by Jodi Redford
He’d pushed her away. Both physically and emotionally. Because she’d been a virgin. The precious gift she’d saved for him, he’d viewed as nothing but a terrible anvil around his neck. She’d stupidly envisioned a happily ever after that he wanted no part of.
The true curse in that picture was her own, for being young, naïve and foolishly in love with someone who didn’t want her and never would.
She was far from being that girl anymore. She’d learned her lesson the hard way. Once they were done with this job, she’d tell him goodbye. For good.
Jerrick Hunter wouldn’t be the thief of her heart. Never again.
Chapter Six
Liquid lust competing with the trickle of foreboding crawling along his spine, Jerrick surveyed the provocative garments hanging on the end rack in the back room of Passion’s Pleasures. The outfits left little to the imagination. Considering his imagination was already fully stocked with raw, explicitly raunchy thoughts of Avi, his sanity held no prayer of surviving the sight of her in any of the alluring getups displayed in front of him.
“Gotta admit, I wouldn’t have taken you for a member of the lifestyle. Or is this for business?”
He tore his attention from the garments and glanced at the male beside him. Torrance Passion had assisted Jerrick a time or two with certain jobs requiring a specialized look. Overall, Jerrick trusted the man as much as he did anyone within his close circle of contacts. Given the sinister nature of this particular assignment, keeping with his cover was the only option. “The scene has always intrigued me, and I’ve recently met a woman who’s game for giving it a go.”
“Lucky lady.”
Choosing to ignore the appreciative glint in Torrance’s eyes, Jerrick snatched the closest outfit. It consisted of a series of shiny black leather strips that banded over a female’s breasts and pussy, leaving a whole lot of the rest of her completely bare. He immediately hooked the ensemble back on the rod. No amount of wheedling would coax Avily into the getup. Just as well. It’d save his brain from detonating.
He fished through the rack until he came to a short red leather dress with an eye-popping slit up the thigh. Heavy boning lined the strapless bust, and the low cut ensured maximum plumpage of the wearer’s breasts. He stroked the supple leather, imagining it molded to Avily’s creamy, delicate flesh. Desire fired his blood to the boiling point. Despite knowing the torture he’d be putting himself through, he draped the dress over his arm and searched for his contribution to their cover. He located a pair of breeches fashioned from the same red leather as the dress.
Torrance strode to a nearby bin and began pawing through its contents. A moment later he came up with a black leather crisscrossing harness. “And for the lucky lady…” He held up a matching collar and leash.
Realizing he’d be the one wearing the damn leash, Jerrick smothered a grimace.
He’d known Avily wouldn’t give in to his request without finding a way to make his life miserable in the process, but he’d never expected her to stoop so low. Her diabolical evilness was scarier than shit. Still, a part of him couldn’t help admiring the creative lengths she’d go to in order to make him suffer. Avi’s mind in the wrong hands…hell, talk about a terrifying prospect. He resisted a shudder.
“Interested in adding any toys to your playtime?”
That went without saying. Intrigue getting the better of him, he followed Torrance to the adjacent room where the racier products were kept out of sight of the few customers possessing delicate sensibilities. Sex toys of every type and purpose lined the shelves. There were also edible oils, body paints and candles designed to provide a wicked edge to intimate encounters.
“Does your lady care for a bit of pain with her pleasure?”
Jerrick eyed the crop in Torrance’s hand. No way in hell he’d let that anywhere near Avi. Resisting the urge to rub his ass, Jerrick surveyed the other implements on display. A small flogger with ultrafine leather strips and toggles nabbed his attention. He freed the loop from its hook and tested the whip with a sharp flick against his arm. The resulting sensation was more enticing tingle than sting. Promising. He shifted his focus to the collection of furred mitts nestled in a nearby basket. He picked up the black one and inspected it.
“When she’s been on her best behavior. Or needs to be tormented beyond reason,” Torrance said with a chuckle.
It was too easy to picture Avi tied to his bed, desperate pleas pouring from her while he ran the mitt over her quivering skin. He could practically feel the hard little nubs of her nipples pebbling under his tongue, the muscles of her belly tensing the closer the silky fur drifted toward her weeping center. One stroke over her slippery clit and her back would bow, the desperation in her eyes begging him to take her. Claim her.
Fingers tightening on the mitt, he dragged in a labored breath. Although he suspected it’d be the death of him, he stashed the kinky item with his growing pile of purchases and followed Torrance to the checkout.
For the millionth time in the past hour, Avily peered at the compu-clock on the wall opposite the checkout counter. She was doing a piss-poor job holding firm to her resolve to not dwell on Jerrick and his damnable promise of stopping by tonight.
It was already half past seven. Clearly he’d found something more important to do than begin their training.
Fine by her. No, fantastic, to be precise. He was doing her a huge favor not showing up. Saved her the trouble of having to endure even a second stuck with the one individual who drove her mad with lust and just plain mad, period. Although it would have been nice to yell his ear off for being such a rude ass for stiffing her without a token apology thrown in for good measure.
If she really had been forced to cancel a date because of him, there’d be no place on Aurion he could safely hide from her wrath. Grumping beneath her breath, she trekked to the entrance of the shop and flipped the sign to Closed. A couple paused in front of the window, their eyes only for each other while they held hands. The man cupped the female’s cheek before leaning forward and kissing her sweetly.
A sharp, wistful tug cinched Avily’s heart. Feeling like a loveless loser and a peeping Tom, she tore her attention from the adoring pair and jerked away from the glass pane. Yeah, she’d never felt more alone in her life, but was she going to curl into a pathetic ball and sob over it?
Probably. Though not until she was upstairs later and out of sight of prying eyes. There was also a better-than-decent chance she’d polish off the remaining bottles of Larry’s.
Aw, damn it. She already did that last night. Hence the pounding headache that’d refused to grant her a moment’s peace all day. Another disturbing but not entirely unpleasant side effect from the alcohol was the dream she’d had about Jerrick. Recalling it, she frowned and leaned her hip against the display of handcrafted bath salts.
Odd that she’d dreamed of Jerrick the night before he crashed back into her life. Then again, she had spotted him at the Twisted Thorn. No doubt it’d played a huge part in her spinning nocturnal fantasies about him. Not that she didn’t already do that on an aggravating basis. But this dream had been particularly vivid, though not overtly sexual like the others. Despite that, her lips tingled at the memory of his phantom kiss.
For the second time that day, she pressed shaky fingers to her mouth. A loud tap rattled the door behind her, and she jumped. Pulse revving, she ground her teeth. So the bastard had decided to make an appearance after all. Sucking in a deep, steadying breath, she pivoted.
As predicted, a familiar face waited on the other side of the front door, but it wasn’t the one she’d expected. Blinking, she stared at Thane Pearce. He raised his hand and waggled his fingers in greeting.
Oh crap, was their date for tonight? She racked her brain, trying to remember. Damn Larry the Fairy and his intoxicating wiliness. Biting the bullet, she hurried to the entrance and slid the bolt free. “Uh, hello.”
“I was passing by and noticed your light on. I’m not interrupting your wor
k, I hope?”
Apparently their date wasn’t this evening. She fizzled a silent breath of relief. “No, not at all.” Imagine that, a guy who actually gave a rat’s ass about her plans. How quaint and refreshing. “Come in.”
He stepped past the threshold, and their arms brushed. She waited for the shivers of excitement to leap across her skin the way they always did at Jerrick’s smallest touch.
Nothing.
It was ridiculous and unfair. Thane was an exceptionally handsome man. There should be a spark there, damn it.
His gaze unabashedly curious, Thane surveyed his surroundings. It dawned on her then that she hadn’t invited him in last night. Apparently Jerrick wasn’t the only insufferably rude jerk in the equation. “Would you like a tour?”
“Only if you have time.”
That she had plenty of. Refusing to mope over the pathetic reality, she guided him through the store, attempting to keep her enthusiasm to a minimum when he questioned her on the various stock artfully arranged throughout the shop. If given full rein, she could ramble on obnoxiously about her business, particularly if some poor, unsuspecting soul started her on a roll.
She risked a peek at Thane and noted that his eyes hadn’t turned glassy. Yet. “Any luck with the storefront search?”
“My real estate broker showed me a couple promising leads today. Nothing I’m prone to jump at and make an immediate offer on though.”
“You’re better to take your time. It took four months for this place to land on the market. I’m glad I didn’t settle for less than what I wanted.”
“True. I’m a firm believer in going after what you truly want.”
Did she imagine it, or did his eyes glow a tad more intensely after that statement? Swallowing against the uncomfortable lump lodged in her throat, she broke their locked gazes.
“I’m really happy you invited me to dinner, Avily.”
She rubbed the nape of her neck and resisted the urge to squirm. “Speaking of that—”
“I’m looking forward to getting to know you better.”
“There isn’t much more to discover about me. I’m an open book.” I’m a filthy liar.
“I highly doubt that. In fact, I find you extremely intriguing.”
“You don’t get around much, do you?”
He chuckled. “Why do you find it unbelievable that I could be immensely attracted to you?”
“Whoa. You didn’t mention anything about immense attraction.”
“I did.”
She tossed up her arms. “Yeah, a second ago.”
His mouth quirked at one corner. “But I’ve been thinking it since the moment I met you.”
I should be swooning right now. What the hell is wrong with me? If it had been Jerrick telling her this heady, heart-pounding stuff, she’d be putty at his feet.
Furious at that knowledge, she rubbed her arms and restlessly paced in front of the end rack of sachets. The lavender and chamomile bundles were doing a crappy job of soothing her stress.
“Did I say something wrong?”
She glanced in Thane’s direction and took in the worried uncertainty pinching his brow. A heavy blanket of guilt and weariness settled over her. He’d been nothing but charming and attentive in the short span she’d known him. For gods’ sake, he’d tackled a thief in order to get her coin purse for her. He was the nicest man on the planet, and he professed to be attracted to her? She was the queen of idiots for not jumping his bones before he regained his senses.
Hell, maybe that’s exactly what she should do. There was always the chance she wasn’t feeling any earthshaking chemistry between them because she was too blinded by her stupid unrequited love for Jerrick. She needed to prove to herself she was putting him behind her. That he no longer held her captive beneath his spell. She would not resign herself to a lifetime of sexy dreams that left her unfulfilled and a tightly held faded memory of a kiss that’d rocked her world.
Why settle for those measly offerings when her days could be filled with real world-rocking kisses…starting right this instant.
Her focus set determinedly on Thane’s full, masculine lips, she advanced on him.
He offered her a wary look. “Should I be worried right now?”
“Not at all.”
“Are you sure? Because your expression is rather fierce—” The remainder of his words broke off with a grunt as she stood on tiptoe and pressed her mouth to his. His eyes remained wide and unblinking for a long moment before drifting shut. A low groan rumbling through his chest, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, drawing her closer. His lips parted beneath hers, and the sweep of his tongue invited her to open to his gentle coaxing. She met his tongue in a tentative glide.
Okay, this wasn’t horrible. In fact, far as damn good kissers went, Thane deserved a gold star. He stroked a hand through her hair and tilted her head, deepening the kiss in the process.
A gruff clearing of a throat to the right of them broke through the temporary haze of pleasantness. Jerking out of Thane’s hold, she glanced in the direction of the noise.
Her gaze locked with Jerrick’s. His features were set in an emotionless stone mask. Despite that, she swore she detected a glimmer of pissiness in his cold stare.
Good gods, was he jealous? Before her tiny niggle of giddiness could take root, Jerrick opened his mouth and effectively killed her momentary delusion.
“You forgot to order our dinner.”
Chapter Seven
“Excuse me?” Avi’s demand straddled the line of becoming a full-fledged fulminous roar.
Jerrick tried his damnedest to tune out the overwhelming desire to smash his fist into the nose of her kissing partner and instead focused on Avi’s livid expression.
What the devil did she have to be bloody angry about? She wasn’t the one who’d spent the longest three hours in history stuck in gridlocked traffic. She also didn’t waste another forty-five minutes going restaurant to restaurant in an attempt to track down one that hadn’t run out of food for the night, since the deli where he was supposed to pick up their meals insisted they’d never received an order. And to top it all off, she hadn’t been the one to walk in on the slobberfest going on in the middle of her goddamn store.
“You have a lot of nerve preaching to me about forgetting, Jerrick Hunter!”
“Why the hell are you shouting at me? I didn’t forget shit.”
“No? What happened to seven p.m.?”
“The drive back here took longer than I expected.”
She slammed her hands on her hips. “And what? Your fingers fell off, making it impossible for you to pick up a micro com and call me?”
Damn sassy woman. “We’ll discuss this later, Avi.”
“We have nothing to discuss. Period.”
The stranger who’d been groping Avily coughed into his fist. “Perhaps it’s best if I go.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Avily said between clenched teeth.
“Yes, he does,” Jerrick countered in an equally firm voice.
Deciding to heed Jerrick rather than Avily, the man leaned down and bussed her cheek before granting Jerrick a wary eye and walking toward the entrance.
Her steely glare pinned to Jerrick’s face, Avily called after the departing stranger. “I’ll see you this weekend, Thane. We said Saturday for our date, right?”
Thane slid a hesitant look in Jerrick’s direction before nodding. “See you then.”
Jerrick waited for the door to close behind the man and then returned his focus to Avily. “What the fuck kind of name is Thane?”
Steam threatened to erupt from Avily’s ears. “Where do you get off thinking you can mosey in here and boss around me and my dates?”
“First of all, I don’t bloody mosey. Secondly, you damn well knew I was coming tonight.”
“Almost an hour late.”
He growled. For shit’s sake, you’d think they were married with the way she carried on. There was a terrifying thought. Hi
s days filled with endless nagging and bickering.
Followed by hot, sweaty sex every night when they made up. Jerrick quickly snipped that intoxicating image from his mind. “Would you like me to grovel at your feet? Or can we move onto something more productive—like focusing our heads on developing our cover for Club Rapture?” His thoughts veered to the garment and goodie bags he’d left on her checkout desk, and a hot wash of desire swamped him.
At least he wouldn’t have to fake horniness where Avi was concerned. If anything, keeping his raging lust for her in check would be the challenging aspect of this job.
Then again, she seemed to have no shortage of males desperate to get in her pants these days. “How many damn men do you have on the string, anyway?”
She blinked, apparently taken off-guard by his swift, surly change of topic. Fast as it’d appeared, her confusion vanished and morphed into a renewed surge of outrage. “That’s none of your damn business.”
He tamped down the primal alpha residing deep within him that wanted to beat his chest right before tugging Avi into his arms and showing her precisely how wrong she was.
Fuck and damnation, where was this possessive bullshit coming from? Certainly not from the part of his brain where reason and intelligence resided. “Everything that impacts you is my business.” That much at least was true. And completely undeniable. He’d undertaken his role as her mentor and guardian too many years ago to count, much less disregard. If there was one thing he didn’t do, it was shirk his responsibilities.
Avi snorted. “I’m not a kid anymore, Jer. You can stop treating me like one.”
If only he did view her as a child. His life would be immensely easier, and he wouldn’t be walking around with a perpetual hard-on. “I swore to your mother I’d watch over you. I’m not going back on my word, no matter how much you’d like me to.”
“You really need to stop taking it as your duty to watch over every damn person on the planet.”
Shit, ain’t that the truth.
A calculating gleam entered Avi’s eyes. “You had no problem disappearing off the face of Aurion for five years. If not for Dash coming back in the picture, I doubt you and I would even be speaking right now.”
