Beneath This Man (This Man Trilogy)

by Jodi Ellen Malpas

  I get halfway down and hear the front door shut quietly, and I’m halted in my tracks as I watch Jesse come into view. He stops at the bottom of the stairs and looks up at me, his handsome face expressionless and his usually bright eyes a little glazed. He removes his suit jacket and reaches up, undoing his shirt buttons slowly as he watches me. His shirt gets removed and dropped to the floor to join his jacket, as does his shoes, socks, trousers and boxers. My eyes are pulled to the red marks around his wrists when he removes his Rolex. He throws it on top of his pile of clothes. I’m never handcuffing him again.

  ‘You’re not laying a finger on me until you tell me who that woman was.’ This might take all of strength, especially if he starts the countdown or hits me with a Jesse style fuck, but I’m not backing down here.

  ‘I don’t know.’ His face is completely expressionless.

  ‘So you’ve not asked Clive to stop me from looking at the CCTV?’

  He almost smiles, but he must know because Clive would most certainly have mentioned me prying. ‘My beautiful girl is ruthless.’

  ‘My God is evasive.’ I retort quietly.

  ‘Ava, if I didn’t need you all over me right now, I’d be challenging you.’

  ‘But you do so you’ll tell me.’

  ‘I slept with her.’

  I’m not looking surprised because I had already figured that much out. ‘So why was she here?’

  ‘Because she heard I was missing.’ He doesn’t hesitate.

  ‘That’s it. She was worried?’

  He shrugs. ‘Yes. That’s it. Now I get you all over me.’

  Oh. Okay. What do I say? I asked, he told. ‘Why didn’t you just tell me this before?’

  He shrugs. ‘Because it was no big deal until you made it one.’

  He starts up the stairs slowly, completely naked and stunningly spectacular, and scoops me up without stopping, prompting me to drop the flowers and wrap myself around his body. ‘You made it a big deal by evading my questions.’

  He doesn’t reply. I also want to rip strips off him for trampling my day. I want to stamp and scream in a temper, but I can’t seem to find the strength or the inclination to do it. He talked, and now I just want him all over me. My mind is fuzzy, but my body is fizzing…for him.

  He places me on my feet and starts slowly undressing me, watching his hands work over my clothes as I stand quietly and let him do his thing. Why is he so forlorn? It’s me who has endured his challenging ways all day. He’s like a lucky bag of emotions and moods. I would have put my money on a retribution fuck after my performance this morning, but instead, I’m confronted with gentle, soft Jesse. I don’t mind. I need soft and loving right now.

  My bra is removed and my ankles tapped in the usual fashion so he can remove my knickers. Once we’re both naked, he takes me down to the thick, cream carpet and swaths me in his body, burying his face deep in my neck and breathing me into him. I mirror him and take my own hit of minty fresh water loveliness, wrapping my arms firmly around his back to pull him closer, eradicating any space that may have been between us.

  We lie on the floor in the middle of the bedroom and hold each other for the longest time. I stare up at the ceiling and stroke his hair, taking all of my comfort from his strong heartbeat thudding against my chest.

  ‘I’ve missed you.’ he mumbles into my neck.

  I shudder when I feel his hot tongue running circles around the delicate flesh under my ear. We’ve been apart for less than five hours. I would say he was unreasonable, but I have missed him too. Even though I was mad at him, I still found myself back here instead of Kate’s.

  ‘I missed you too. Thank you for the flowers.’

  ‘You’re welcome.’ He kisses up to my lips and scatters light pecks all over me before brushing my hair from my face. He gazes down at me. ‘I want to drag you to a desert island and have you all to myself forever.’

  ‘Okay. With the absence of other people, there will be no need for any trampling like behaviour.’

  His lips twitch at the corners and his eyes regain a bit of twinkle. He drops a kiss on my lips and rolls us over so I’m straddling his hips. I can feel the evidence of his mood wedged between our bodies and it triggers all of the usual desperate needs for him. My nipples pucker under his watchful eye and his grin widens into his signature, melt worthy smile, reserved only for women. I want it to be reserved only for me. An unreasonable pang of possessiveness assaults me.

  ‘I fucking love you.’ he sighs.

  ‘I know you do.’ I circle my palms over his chest and pinch his nipple. ‘I love you, too.’

  ‘Even after today?’

  Oh good. Is he acknowledging that he was a challenge today? This is progress. ‘You mean after you stalked me all day?’

  He pouts playfully and shifts his arms under his head to elevate it slightly. I dribble as his muscles bunch and flex. ‘I was worried about you.’ he protests, and I raise a mocking eyebrow at him. ‘I was.’ he argues.

  He wasn’t worried about me at all. He had an unreasonable and unwarranted attack of possessiveness. ‘You were over-the-top and stupidly possessive. My challenging man needs to relax.’

  He scoffs. ‘I’m not challenging.’

  ‘You’re challenging and in denial.’

  His brow furrows. ‘What am I in denial about?’

  ‘Being challenging and unreasonable. Your performance today was way off the scales of unreasonableness.’ I need to know he won’t hijack every business meeting I have with a male client. He said it would be only Mikael, but then followed it up with and all other male threats. His idea of a threat is a million miles away from my idea of a threat. He’s going to trample all of my male clients, I know it. My work diary is going to be padlocked and so is my mouth. I’m not telling him anything.

  He looks at me with a little scowl. ‘He would have made a move on you and then I’d really have to trample him.’

  I laugh lightly. Like he didn’t make a good enough job of that already? He doesn’t need to know that Mikael has already made his move. I will be keeping that snippet of information to myself. ‘Well, I think you made your point pretty clear. It was embarrassing.’ I grumble.

  ‘It was necessary.’ he mutters, and I roll my eyes, making a dramatic display of my exasperation.

  ‘You should run more.’ I say. ‘Oh, the bath!’ I jump up and run into the bathroom.

  ‘No, I need you more.’ he calls to my back.

  ‘Don’t you have me enough?’ I flip the tap off. He’s had me here all week. He calls me, texts me, sends me flowers and gets John to drive me to work. It’s all some form of contact or control. I bet he couldn’t go a whole day without some form of trample or intrusion on my working day. Would I want him to not interfere? I like the flowers and the messages; it’s the tramples I have an issue with. Would he be tempted to have a drink to try and get through the day? Could I risk it? My relaxed brain begins to ache…again.

  I make my way back into the bedroom, finding him still sprawled on the floor. He is just too delicious. I walk over and settle myself back on his hips.

  ‘Have you enough?’ he asks. ‘No, I don’t. I need you every second of the day, just like you need me.’ He reaches up and pinches my nipple, and I jerk on top of him, catching a full on rub from his erection. He gives me his roguish grin.

  ‘What if you couldn’t have me all day?’ I ask. There will be times in the future when he might actually be on a real business trip. Or, perhaps, I will.

  His grin disappears instantly and is replaced with a glare pointed straight at me. ‘Are you going to try and stop me?’

  ‘No, but there may be situations when you can’t have instant access to me. I might be unobtainable.’

  A fleeting look of panic flies across his face and his bottom lip disappears between his teeth. He’s considering what I’ve suggested, and it’s now I realise that he absolutely meant it when he said he’ll have me wherever and whenever he wants. Now that really is un
reasonable. I’ve seen the result of a few missed calls on my part – he was frantic.

  ‘Would you make a grab for the vodka?’ There, I’ve said it.

  He laughs, and I frown. What’s so funny?

  ‘I promised you I will never have another drink. I meant it,’ he says surely. He sits up and rests his hands on my hips. I jerk, and he smiles. ‘Bath, I want your wet slippery skin all over mine.’

  ‘Your confidence is commendable.’ I mumble sarcastically as I ease myself up and put my hand out to him.

  He looks at me with narrowed eyes and reaches up to take my hand, yanking me forward and spinning me onto my back. He rests his big body all over me and drops his lips to mine in a long, lingering kiss. ‘It is all very easy because I have you. Unravel your knickers, lady.’

  Ha! Easy for him to say. I’m dealing with a neurotic madcap. ‘So, tomorrow I’ll be undisturbed all day?’ I ask. He will never be able to leave me alone all day, I know it.

  He pulls his head back to look at me, the cogs starting to spin wildly as he chews his lip again. ‘Lunch?’

  I knew it. He can’t do it. ‘I’m meeting Kate for lunch.’ I dismiss his request.

  He pouts. ‘Can’t I come?’

  No, he can’t come because I need time with Kate to talk about him and his challenging ways. ‘No.’ I state firmly.

  ‘I think you’re being unreasonable.’ he complains.

  I throw my head back on a laugh. He really is thick skinned, but then I jerk and buck as his grabs my hipbone and squeezes. ‘Stop!’ I screech.

  ‘No!’

  ‘Please!’ Tears jump into my eyes as I try to fight him off. I can’t bear it.

  ‘Lunch?’ he says calmly, as he continues tickling me.

  ‘Absolutely not!’ I cry through my uncontrollable laughter. This isn’t fair. I’m not submitting. No way!

  ‘Maybe a sense fuck will do it.’ He releases my hip and I relax, trying to get my erratic breathing under control.

  ‘Jesse, I can’t be with you every second of the day.’ I try to reason.

  ‘If you give up work you could be.’ He’s deadly serious.

  My eyes widen in disgust. Never! I love my job. ‘Now who is being unreason… Ohhhhh!’ I lose my trail as he plunges deep into me. Oh God, here comes the sense fuck, but what is he trying to get me to submit to? Lunch or retiring? At twenty six? How ridiculous!

  He wastes no time breaking me in. He powers into me like a madman. My legs fall open and he pins my wrists on either side of my head. ‘Lunch?’ he asks as he thrusts hard.

  My brain has just turned to mush, but it still registers that this is a lunch sense fuck. I’m relieved. Lunch will be easier to relent to, rather than retiring, but I still don’t plan on going down easily. Mr Challenging has a challenge on his hands.

  ‘No!’ I shout defiantly.

  He growls and surges forward, his firmness stroking me hard and fast as he drives in and out like a wild animal. ‘You are so receptive to me.’

  I am! He lays one finger on me and I’m all over the place. ‘Jesse, please.’

  He hits me hard with his hips and grinds firmly. ‘Baby, let me have lunch with you.’

  I shake my head, holding my breath.

  ‘Do I feel good?’

  ‘Yes!’ I shout on a rushed exhale. The crest of a booming orgasm descends on me and his grip tightens around my wrists.

  ‘Say yes.’ he insists harshly, and I know he’s on his way to explosion too.

  What if I don’t say yes? What if I hold out on him? ‘No!’ I’m not giving in. He can’t fuck sense into me every time I don’t agree to something.

  He hammers on, my thighs tensing, my mind knotted. ‘Ava, give me what I want.’

  ‘Jesse!’

  ‘You’re going to come.’

  ‘Yes!’ I cry. All of the pent up stress of the day is going to come rushing out at any moment.

  ‘Oh, fuck, baby, you do serious things to me.’ He hits me with another powerful, thundering of his hips.

  My mind goes blank, and I’m about to detonate when he stops dead in his tracks, subsequently stopping my imminent orgasm dead in its tracks. ‘What are you doing?’ I scream, completely stunned. I tilt my hips to try and get the friction I need to tip me over the edge, but he pulls his own hips back until he is only just inside me. ‘You bastard!’ I spit.

  ‘Watch your fucking mouth! Say yes, Ava.’ he pants, but his words are controlled. How is he doing this? I know he’s ready to come.

  ‘No.’ I affirm.

  He shakes his head and then locks eyes with me as he plunges, oh so slowly, and swivels his hips.

  ‘Ohhh.’ I groan. ‘Faster.’

  ‘Say the word, Ava.’ He repeats the teasing move. ‘Say it, and you’ll get what you want.’

  ‘You don’t play fair.’ I complain.

  ‘You want me to stop?’

  ‘No!’ I shout in frustration. This is torture at its worst.

  He flexes his hold on my wrists. ‘I’ll ask you one more time, baby. Lunch?’ He flicks his hips forward as he asks, and I lose any determination I had to defy him.

  ‘Fuck me.’ I cry as he looks down at me, amusement plaguing his expression.

  ‘Watch your mouth.’ He’s grinning. ‘Was that a yes?’

  ‘YES!’ I scream.

  ‘Good girl.’ he praises, and then powers forward, hammering into me and tossing me straight back into a fast build-up to release. I stiffen from head to toe as sizzling hotness travels through my blood stream and my skin heats from the friction of being pushed across the carpet by his manic momentum.

  ‘Jesse!’ I’m gripped from every direction by stabbing shots of pleasure flying through my nervous system, exploding at my core.

  I scream.

  His drives become more urgent and his breathing loud and erratic as he smashes against me on carnal shouts and releases everything he has, my core muscles clenching greedily onto him, my limp, exhausted body completely helpless to his unforgiving blows.

  He collapses on top of me in a sweaty heap and rocks gently against me. ‘My work here is done.’ he pants in my ear.

  I lie under his hard, warm body, trying to gather my senses and breath, and wonder if it will always be like this. He gets the results he wants, so yes, it probably will be. I’ve got to learn to deal with this. I’ve got to train myself to repel him. I laugh at such a pointless exercise. I don’t want to repel him.

  He pushes himself up on his hands and it’s only now I notice he doesn’t wince. ‘Your hand!’ I cry.

  He lifts it up and I can still see slight bruising, but the swelling has subsided massively. ‘It’s fine. Sarah had me keep ice on it for most of the afternoon.’

  What?

  ‘Sarah?’ I blurt without thinking about what tone I should use. It comes out accusingly.

  He frowns at me, and I hate myself for sounding so shocked. ‘She was just being a friend.’ he says coolly, but this only heightens my concern. She would have seen his marked wrists. It wouldn’t take much intelligence to figure out where they had come from. Another woman looking after him doesn’t sit well, and the fact that it’s pouty lips really has my jealous streak racing to the surface. She has made it obvious that she doesn’t like me, at the same time making it perfectly obvious that she really likes Jesse. And the women of The Manor will probably treat me with the same brusqueness and …my head hurts.

  I suddenly feel extremely uncomfortable with my possessiveness. Good God, I ridicule Jesse for this. I’m a bloody hypocrite and the way he is staring down at me, gaging my mood, isn’t helping. He’s a very desirable man, who assaults women with that fucking smile and has them in puddles at his feet.

  I wriggle underneath him to get free and he obliges, letting me up on a frown. I head straight for the bathroom and immerse myself in the hot bath. I’m really not comfortable with these feelings. I’ve never been jealous in my life. I’m going to be fighting women off on a daily basis. That’s a full
time job in itself. Maybe I will need to retire.

  ‘Has someone got a touch of the green eyed monster?’

  I look up and see him stood in all of his naked glory by the bathroom doorway. ‘No.’ I scoff. I couldn’t be more obviously jealous if I tried.

  He walks over to the bath and steps in behind me, lowering his body until I’m cradled between his legs. He drapes his arms over my shoulders and pulls me back to rest on his chest. ‘Ava, you are the only woman for me,’ he says softly in my ear. ‘And I am all yours.’ He picks up the natural sponge from the edge of the bath, dips it to soak up some water, and then starts running it across my breasts.

  ‘You need to tell me more about yourself.’

  I feel his chest lift on a sigh. ‘What do you want to know?’

  ‘Is The Manor strictly business or have you mixed it with pleasure?’ I’m pleased with my forward tone. I know he has mixed it with pleasure because Mr Creep who got roughed up by Jesse the day I found out about The Manor’s happenings said as much. And so did Sam, for that matter. Then why am I asking? I feel my blood begin to boil with bitterness.

  The sponge pauses between my breasts for a few seconds, but then he continues smoothing it over my body. ‘Dive straight in, why don’t you.’ he says dryly.

  ‘Tell me.’ I press.

  He sighs, so heavily I almost turn around to glare at him, just so he knows I don’t appreciate his bored reaction to my question. ‘I’ve dabbled.’ he says irritably.

  Dabbled?

  I’m not sure I like the sound of dabbling, especially in this area of enquiry. ‘Are you still dabbling?’

  ‘No!’ He’s truly defensive.

  ‘When was the last time you dabbled?’ I don’t think I want to know this. Why am I asking these questions? His sponge strokes pause again. Please don’t tell me he has to think about this.

  ‘Way before I met you.’ He continues caressing me with the sponge.

  ‘How long before you met me?’ I need to shut up. I really don’t want to know this stuff, but damn, I can’t stop the stupid questions flying out.