by Lee Taylor
Dameon’s voice was hoarse from shouting, but his excitement was palpable over the phone.
“Damn, Jesse, what I wouldn’t give for you to have been there. You would’ve been proud of Trey. He really came through. As usual he held back in the beginning but between me and DaShon challenging him to play up, he rose to the occasion. I tell you, in a couple of years Trey will be our superstar. He’s so damned smart. Hell, he sees opportunities for plays that I don’t see.”
“I was there, Dameon. Thanks to you, I feel like I saw the entire game. Do you realize that you sent me 83 texts in 2 1/2 hours?”
Jesse couldn’t believe how emotional she was. She’d been riding high on excitement and now in the flush of their victory, she was close to tears. Hearing Dameon’s voice, she realized with a start that as much as she wanted to see and talk to Trey, she wanted Dameon more. She must have betrayed her longing because Dameon’s next words startled her—and sent a shiver of excitement cascading down her spine.
Chapter 25
“What are you wearing, Jesse?”
Jesse startled and almost dropped the phone. God, could he see through the ether?
“I… I don’t understand. What do you mean?”
“Ah, tiger. You know exactly what I mean. I’m crazy without you here and I’m liable to get crazier. I’m so hopped up on adrenaline with equal parts of testosterone it’s probably a good thing for you that you’re not here.”
Jesse slammed her eyes shut, afraid that she might somehow convey the image of the heated woman she saw in the mirror. When she managed to find her voice, she was as surprised by the unbidden words that slipped out as Dameon must have been.
“Why? What… would you do if I was there?”
Following a silence that ratcheted up her fear and her excitement, Dameon’s words didn’t disappoint. Rather, he shocked her senseless.
“Well, tiger, given the size of my cock, about the only thing I could do is to put you up on your hands and knees and take you from behind, hard.”
Jesse gasped fighting back the urge to groan.
His voice was low, sexy.
“How about it, Jesse? Would you like me to do that? Put you up on your hands and knees? Spread your legs apart slowly, then hike up your naked ass and pound my cock into you?”
He paused, his voice dropping to a husky drawl. “Would that be okay with you, tiger? Do you think you could take all of me?”
She gasped as a shocking blast of electricity ricocheted through her body straight to her core.
Dameon’s low chuckle teased her ear.
“Can I take that as a yes, tiger?”
Jesse struggled to respond but her mouth was too dry. She didn’t have enough spit to swallow much less speak. Any clever or even reasonably coherent response was lost at his next words.
“I asked you a question, baby. Answer me.”
Jesse dropped to the edge of the bed, her legs no longer able to hold her upright. “Which… which question?”
“Hmm, you’re right. I did ask you several. Let’s start at the top. What are you wearing, honey?”
Jesse shut her eyes as if he could see her and by closing her eyes she could shield herself. Her white lacy bra pushed up her full breasts, forcing soft mounds of flesh to overflow the scalloped edges. Her matching panties were a mere scrap of satin, the stretchy lace bands riding low on her hips. Jesse didn’t need a mirror to know what she looked like. Just the thought of him seeing her risqué underwear made her panties wet.
She was glad that her voice was somewhat normal, although it was an effort to speak.
“I was getting undressed when you called. I’m… not wearing… much.”
“Show me.”
“What?” Her shocked question sounded as scandalized as she felt.
“You heard me, Jesse. Show me what you’re wearing. Send me a picture.”
To her amazement, it was as though she was an observer, a voyeur, watching a sexually charged tableau. Stunned, she saw the red-headed woman rise to her feet and assume a casually erotic posture. Before she could pull back she’d snapped the picture. Dameon’s audible gasp confirmed that she’d clicked on ‘send.’
“Holy Christ, Jesse.” His gruff exclamation said it all.
“Jesse?”
When she didn’t answer, he persisted.
“Take off your bra. And honey, after you do that? Cup your breasts and present them to me.”
His silky command shocked her out of her dream state.
“Oh my God, Dameon. I can’t do that. I won’t. That is—”
He broke in.
“That is the sexiest thing you could do for me, tiger. Do it, Jesse. Show me your beautiful breasts. I’m dying for you, baby.”
Jesse heard the need behind his command. Shocked at her own acquiescence, she swallowed hard then unclasped the front release on her bra and slid it over her shoulders, dropping it to the floor. Before her rational self could pull her back, she cupped her overflowing breasts as best she could in one hand. With the other, she snapped a picture. Her audacious act earned her a deep groan from her distant lover.
Dameon was silent for a long moment. His voice was low, thick with wonder.
“Damn, darlin’. Look at you. Your nipples are tight, beaded, poking up. They look like aroused berries aching for my touch.”
Jesse startled. She glanced down at her breasts stunned to see that he was right. Her nipples were hard, tight nubs. And yes, they were aching for his touch.
He crooned softly, sending sparkling waves of sensation from her breasts to her clit. “Jesse, I’m not there so you’ll have to stand in for me. I know you can’t suck on your nipples the way that I would if I was there, but you can pull on them, pinch them.” At her gasp, he upped the ante. “Pinch them, tiger, hard. Drive yourself crazy.”
Jesse couldn’t hold back her moan any more than she could keep from pinching one tight nub and then the other. She put the phone on speaker and set it down, afraid she might drop it. Her hands were slick with sweat.
“Jesse, listen to me. Take a picture of your face. Right now and send it to me.”
Jesse echoed his harsh intake of breath when she saw the picture she’d sent. She’d thrown her head back, baring her throat, her eyes were closed, the tip of her tongue pressed between her full lips. She looked… enraptured.
“Christ, tiger. If you look like that from hearing my voice, imagine what you’ll look like when I have my hands on you.”
Jesse stared at the photo in shock. She didn’t recognize the woman in the picture. She was so beautiful, but also so vulnerable. The picture shook her back to her senses. Oh my god, what was she doing? How could she possibly have revealed herself like this? She was horrified.
“Dameon, no. I can’t do this. Really. Stop.”
“Uh uh, no, no, no. Sure you can. Remember? You’re good at this. You told me you were.” She could imagine his teasing smile. “As I recall you even put money on it.”
He continued, “When we’re together I want you to show me what you do. Will you do that, tiger? Show me how you bring yourself to orgasm?”
Jesse’s moan became a soft whimper. She slipped her hand between her legs as if she could stop the moisture collecting there. His next words demonstrated the futility of her gesture.
“But, tonight, Jesse, I’m in charge. I’m the boss. I’ll tell you what I want you to do and just to be sure that you do, I want you to send me a picture each step of the way. I want to see what you look like when I’m bringing you to orgasm. I want to see how your face flushes. How you bite down on your bottom lip. How you lick your lips. Your mouth drives me crazy, tiger. I imagine it around my cock. Your tongue licking the head, your lips, your mouth sucking me deep into your throat.” He groaned a hard passionate sound.
Her soft moans echoed his. Waves of passion stormed over her. His words were driving her higher and higher up a passionate peak that she was dying to climb.
His guttural whisper urged her o
n. “Now, Jesse. I want you to slip off those damp panties of yours. When you do that, hold them to your nose and breathe in deep.”
At the sound of her jagged breath, he crooned, “That’s the way, baby. Now send me a picture so that I can see if your musky fragrance does to you what it does to me.”
Step by step he coached her through an erotic dance, insisting that she touch herself in ways she never had. Following each outrageous demand, he told her to send him a picture to document the passion that had her sobbing wildly with desire. Finally, unable to stifle the tsunami of sensations that were threatening to explode, she cried out, begging him to let her come.
When she could no longer hold back, he said, “Now, Jesse, now. Come for me, baby.”
And she did.
~~~
The next morning, she and Zoey joined the other parents and a surprising crowd of well- wishers at the airport. In addition to Shaunda and all the team mothers, a contingent of police officers showed up along with the Mayor and a host of dignitaries. The eager press captured the scene.
Jesse stood arm in arm with Trey, hugging him close, watching Dameon respond to myriad questions with grace and humor. In the middle of the press conference, he insisted that each of the players come forward to be recognized. Their glowing faces confirmed that for most them this would be a singular moment in their lives. Seeing them, Jesse allowed herself to appreciate fully what Dameon and the others had done. They’d literally saved troubled lives and put these young men on the path to success.
After what seemed like hours, Dameon made his way through the crowd to her. The sensations swamping her flared the closer he got. She could hardly look at him, remembering what she’d done last night. His only nod to their outrageous escapade was a wicked wink.
Shaunda hugged him as he went by.
“How do you do it, Wolf? After all of that, you look positively relaxed.”
Dameon grinned at Shaunda and put his arm around Jesse, who tried not to gasp when he slipped his hand along her side and surreptitiously pinched her bottom. Keeping his gaze on Shaunda, he could have been discussing a session with his lieutenant, not standing next to the woman he’d brought to a screaming climax scant hours before.
“Well, Shaunda, after the game, I spent most of the night on the telephone. We were working on an important project. One of the most challenging I’ve dealt with. We accomplished a lot. I feel like we achieved a significant breakthrough.”
~~~
The next morning when the axe fell and Jesse’s life changed forever, Dameon’s teasing words were a cruel reminder of what might have been—but now likely never would be.
Chapter 26
Jesse was heading out the door for her morning run when she saw the man coming up the sidewalk. The insignia on his compact car declared a process server. She had the urge to dash back into the house and refuse to sign for the ominous package in his hands. A cloak of doom settling over her, she introduced herself and scribbled on the assigned line that she had indeed received the subpoena. Admittedly, she’d been expecting it. She put it on the table unopened. She knew what it would say, just not how bad it would be. She debated whether she would continue with her morning schedule. She’d planned to run and then go to Trey’s after school practice where she would meet up with Dameon. When she turned to leave, grabbing her water bottle and baseball cap she got as far as the front porch. Forcing herself back inside, she snatched the large envelope and ripped it open.
She wasn’t sure how or when she sat down on the front steps with her head on her knees, gasping for air. The outline of the petition Garrett had filed with the court was breathtaking. And terrifying. Breaking though the legalese, it stated that in Garrett’s opinion Trey was in imminent physical danger and wanted him removed immediately and permanently from Jesse’s care. The reasons were stunning and included all of the items that she’d been afraid he would use. She skipped over the detailed petition and got to the bottom of the petition where the court had rendered its preliminary opinion.
In so many words, the court accepted at face value Garrett’s claims that Trey was in danger. The court ruled that until the expedited hearing which was scheduled one week from today, Jesse was forbidden to have any contact with Trey. If she persisted in trying to see him, the court would place Trey in a safe house until a final ruling from the court.
Jesse spent most of the day in shock. She ran, yes. But rather than running her usual ten miles she doubled the distance. By the end of the day, exhausted and numb, she had her plan in place. She would do what she had always done. She would handle the case by herself. In the process of her run she decided that she could not and would not bring Dameon into the case. She knew he would want to help but there was no way she could make him understand. He would be horrified and would want to know all the ugly details from her past—and that wasn’t an option. She also would not call on her father. He was angry enough about why she’d left the Army. He’d wanted to press charges against her commanding officer but Jesse and General Peters had talked him down.
By the next morning, she’d made her decision. She would involve Eric Grant because she had to have someone represent her in court. But she herself would manage the case. She would instruct Eric every step of the way, and fire him if he so much as breathed a word to either Dameon or her father. She knew at some level she was in shock mode. But she’d been there before and she’d survived. And she could do it again. She’d left the Army and come to Albuquerque to fight for her son, and that was what she intended to do.
~~~
Dameon had left several messages for Jesse. He knew that Trey would be at his father’s house this week and hoped that he and Jesse could find time to be alone. Zoey was with him and that complicated issues. His need to be with Jesse was so great, he arranged to have Marina spend the week at their house to give him the freedom to see Jesse. He’d thought of nothing else since their erotic phone call on Saturday night. If Dameon didn’t have the photographic record stored on his phone he would’ve thought he dreamed it. He’d known in his gut what a powerfully sexy woman Jesse was, but clicking from one picture to the next, he was stunned. He knew that she was beautiful but until he studied the pictures he’d not guessed at the depth of her passions. And the fact that she’d consented, if reluctantly at first, to his outrageous demands drove his lust to a fever pitch. The question was how long he could hold off without spiriting her away for a long weekend… or a long month. Hell, one night would never suffice.
Disappointed that Jesse wasn’t at practice, Dameon checked his phone several times but there were no messages. He was surprised that Trey wasn’t there either, but assumed he must have had a conflict with something at school. Dameon considered running by Jesse’s house after practice to make sure she was okay, but Zoey had left a message that she needed help on a class project. By the time he was able to call Jesse again it was late. When she didn’t answer, he begrudgingly accepted that she was sleeping, and contented himself with looking at her pictures on his phone. The next morning he left a message that he was managing a precinct-wide training session and would catch up with her tonight at the practice. Trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice, he told her that he was worried about her, concerned that she hadn’t returned his calls. He forced himself to end the message on a light hearted note, telling her how much he missed her and that he needed his “Jesse fix.”
~~~
“Jesse, are you insane? You waltz in here with one of the most damning subpoenas I’ve seen in twenty years of practicing law and act surprised that I’m angry?”
Jesse had never seen Eric like this. He was always smiling, no matter how dire the circumstances. That he was as angry with her as he was, merely confirmed that her plan to manage her own case was the correct one.
She shrugged. “I assumed Garrett’s lawyers sent you a copy.”
“Yes, dammit. They did. But I was in Santa Fe yesterday and my clueless secretary didn’t bother to tell me that one of my
clients had been served. While I will probably fire her for her ignorance, I’m guessing that she assumed my ‘client’ would call and tell me.”
When Jesse tried to interrupt, Eric held up his hand stopping her.
“Look Jesse, I just got off the telephone with Garrett’s lead attorney, Martin Lawson. In the event that it has escaped you, we are in a shitload of trouble. I’ve not seen a case this detailed or this inflammatory about one of my clients in all my years of practice.”
He softened his expression and appealed to her.
“Honey, we have six days—actually five now—to put together a response to a 12-person legal team’s assertion that your son is in imminent physical danger if he is allowed to be with you.”
Jesse sat up straighter in her chair. “If you’re trying to frighten me, Eric, it won’t work. I’m past being afraid. I’ve been afraid for so long, not knowing what Garrett would do, that it’s almost a relief to see his petition. I’ve been expecting this. The only thing that I didn’t expect was how far Garrett would go. You know that we have to keep him from learning why I left the Army. If he finds out he will go public. If I break my non-disclosure agreement that was signed by General Peters, Elliott Caldwell will come after me. Elliott will do exactly what you told me we had to avoid at all costs and that is to create a public feeding frenzy regarding the case. When you advised me to sign the non-disclosure and not ‘out’ that sexual harassing freak, you told me I couldn’t win. If the matter became public record the Army would bring an Article 15 against me for attacking my superior officer. You said not only would I lose the case but I would lose my son.”
Eric sunk back in his chair and closed his eyes. If Jesse weren’t so benumbed and so determined, she would’ve been concerned for her attorney. Eric wasn’t exaggerating. His anxiety was real. This was as serious as she believed it was. It made her decision all the clearer.
