by Tessa Bailey
She smiled at something the man said, dulling Jonah’s vision at the edges. A roar began in his ears. His instinct dictated that he should take the stairs two at a time, drag her out of the restaurant by any means necessary, and ask questions later. After he’d reminded her, very clearly, who she’d called Master.
Jonah’s hands fisted at his sides, the need to touch her so painful, they shook. No, he couldn’t take this. Couldn’t sit there and watch her enjoy the company of any man beside himself. It went against the voice shouting in his head. The one chanting, Mine, mine, mine, on a loop until he almost bellowed it out loud. Even seeing her with someone else, even knowing she found him acceptable where Jonah was not, he still wanted her to an illogical degree. He absorbed the image of her, his body readying to give her the pleasure she’d denied him giving the last time they were together. It would be a cold day in hell before he let a man attempt to put out the fire he’d stoked inside her.
When the man reached across the table and laid his hand on top of Caroline’s, Jonah came off his barstool in a flash, sending it scraping loudly across the floor. He’d just made the decision to go get her, irrational or not, when their gazes collided.
Even from a distance, Jonah swore he could hear her quick intake of breath, the accelerated pumping of her heart. Green eyes widened in a face gone pale. She made a move to stand, but the man grabbed hold of her arm, as if in concern. Jonah’s jaw clenched dangerously, a low growl escaping his chest. She jerked in the man’s grip, as if Jonah had made the sound next to her ear.
Without another second’s hesitation, he strode toward the staircase.
…
Caroline sat immobile in her seat. She could hear Chris, the source she’d come here to meet, asking her if she was all right, but beyond a quick nod, she couldn’t find the wherewithal to communicate. Because she was the furthest thing from all right. So many times this week, she’d imagined seeing Jonah in a setting just like this. The market. A movie theater. The gym. Wondering if they’d ever cross paths again and imagining what it would be like. She’d never expected it to be so soon. Nor did she anticipate the immediate reaction she would have upon seeing him.
Dark, dizzying lust danced in her belly as she and Jonah maintained their blistering eye contact. She couldn’t look away from his anger. It was magnificent in its intensity. After a week of floating untethered, feeling nothing resembling what Jonah could make her feel, his unchecked emotions slammed through her hard, stealing her breath. She should be scared of an expression so forbidding, but she only wanted closer. It made little sense, and yet the sudden, pounding need overrode any kind of intelligent thought. Caroline could feel the blood moving in her veins; every breath she took sounded like a windstorm.
When Jonah’s attention transferred from her to Chris, darkening further, she forced herself back into the present situation. Chris, aka Patrick Dempsey’s way less charming twin brother, had his hand on her arm, speaking urgently near her face. Too close. Again. She’d asked him here tonight to talk about Joseph Kimble, and while he’d given her invaluable information, he’d begun treating their business meeting as more of a date. She’d continued to steer the conversation back toward her investigation, but he’d been more interested in her star sign and how she liked her eggs cooked. He was a sleazeball she had zero interest in personally.
Jonah drew her attention once more when he made for the staircase, appearing as though he were intent on doing somebody physical damage. Caroline sucked in a breath, knowing he’d misinterpreted the business meeting as a date. Kind of like Chris, but with more vicious results. He had no right to question her being out with another man. None at all. They were not in anything resembling a relationship. Yet her body—and another part of her she refused to name—told her he had every right. She should stand her ground and refuse to let him interrupt her meeting, but the look on his face propelled her into motion.
Caroline pushed back her chair and stood. “Excuse me.”
“Where are you going?” Chris asked, sounding puzzled.
She didn’t answer, her focus centered on Jonah. Stopping him from reaching the table and creating a scene. At least, that’s what she told herself at that moment. Truthfully, she was physically gravitating toward him. As she drew closer, the ache in her belly tightened, making her breath falter, a whimper passing her lips. Jonah narrowed his gaze when he saw her coming toward him and must have read something on her face, because he changed direction, leading her away from the upstairs dining room toward the back of the restaurant. When they rounded the corner, he threw a hot glance over his shoulder before opening a door marked Stairwell.
“Up,” Jonah commanded as Caroline walked through the opening, shivering from the sound of his voice. She began her ascent of the stairs, heat rolling through her in ferocious waves. Every inch of her tingled with the awareness of him following close behind, no doubt watching her every step. It was impossible not to sway her hips, to allow her dress to ride higher on her thighs. Not when she could hear the low, hunger-filled sounds he made as they climbed. Not when she knew instinctively what was coming, even though they had barely exchanged words.
At the top of the staircase, Caroline pushed open the exit door and walked out onto the patio. Having been here during the summer, she knew the space was used for dining throughout the warmer months. However, the crisp fall breeze blowing her hair around her face meant they were outside alone. And Caroline couldn’t have felt a chill at that moment in two feet of snow. Finally, she turned to face Jonah, taken off guard once again by his anger.
“Who is he?” He came toward her slowly but purposefully, backing her against a concrete wall, deep in the shadows. She gasped as their bodies made contact for the first time in far too long, hard against soft, every line of his body taut with tension. “Who is he, Caroline?”
She inhaled shakily, squeezing her eyes closed when he brushed the hair back from her face. Such a tender gesture when coupled with his anger. Another contradiction. “You know it’s none of your business. You know we’re not…together.”
“Oh, believe me, I’m aware.” Jonah took both of her hands in one of his and pinned them above her, high on the wall, leaving her feeling exposed. Starting at her neck, he trailed a single finger down between her heaving breasts, over her belly, to end at the juncture of her thighs. “And yet you abandon your little date to follow me up here. Something of a mixed signal, isn’t it, sweetheart?”
Before she could answer, Jonah’s hand slipped between her legs to cup her intimately, with pure, blatant ownership. Caroline arched her back on a husky moan, thrusting her breasts toward him shamelessly. After days of attempting to ease herself, the simple act of Jonah cradling her in his hand somehow managed to be infinitely more satisfying than any effort she’d made. Each and every overwrought cell in her body rushed toward his touch greedily, reveling in the exquisiteness of it. “Oh, Jonah. Please.”
Looking as though he were in pain, he rolled his forehead against hers. “Who the fuck is he? Tell me now, goddammit.”
“He’s a source,” Caroline whispered, damning herself. By giving him an explanation, she was acknowledging something between them. “For a story I’m working on. That’s all.”
Jonah scrutinized her for long moments, as if trying to gauge her honesty. Growing impatient for more of him, Caroline brushed her lips across his, back and forth, until he finally surrendered with a deep groan. There was nothing gentle about their kiss. He took her mouth with enough passion to melt every thought left swimming in her head. Arms still locked above in his grip, Caroline went boneless against the wall, being forced to absorb every ounce of his lingering fury. He abused her mouth with his teeth, kissing her until she went dizzy from lack of oxygen, then giving her only a single gasp before continuing his punishment. When he finally released her mouth, Caroline gulped in a lung’s worth of air.
“How can I miss you this much?”
His barely audible question filled Caroline’s ey
es with tears. “I don’t understand it, either,” she answered breathily.
Between her legs, his palm began moving in slow, rhythmic circles. She could feel how damp her panties had gotten as they kissed. Judging from the flair behind Jonah’s eyes, he’d noticed, too. “Ah, baby…” he crooned. “Where else did you miss me? Tell your master.”
Caroline’s thighs began to shake, her stomach drawing tight as a bowstring. “Inside me,” she confessed against his lips. “Everywhere.”
Jonah’s chest rumbled with satisfaction over her answer. One finger edged her panties aside and pushed past her slick entrance, teasing in and out. “I’m going to fuck you hard against this wall, Caroline. Just like I should have done our first time together, before I knew you’d make it so goddamn difficult for me to have you again.”
She sucked in a breath. “Can we? Here?”
“Don’t question me.” He added a second finger and thrust them both deep, licking his lips when she cried out. When he spoke again, his voice radiated intensity. “Anywhere, Caroline. I’ll take you anywhere. If I were dying of thirst in the desert and I knew you needed a good fucking, I would find a way back just to give it to you. Can I make it any clearer?”
“N-no.”
“No, what?”
“Master,” she corrected herself quickly. “No, Master.”
Jonah finally released her hands to peel the soaked panties down her legs. Their lips interlocked, but didn’t kiss, as the material slipped to the ground. Caroline brought her shaking hands to his belt and unbuckled it before carefully drawing down his zipper. The farther the zipper descended, the harder he bit into her bottom lip, only relenting when she gasped. His erection pressed urgently into her hand, and she fleetingly realized he wasn’t wearing underwear. Why that fact somehow made her even hotter, Caroline had no idea. Nor did she care.
“Please, I need you.”
He soothed her swollen lip with his tongue, all the while roughly tugging her dress up over her hips. “Ah, sweetheart. Do you have any idea how raw you’re about to get it?”
“Show me.” She savored his arousal, the steeliness of it in her hand, wanting to go on touching him but also ready to cry unless she felt him moving inside her soon. Feeling bold, Caroline positioned his thick erection between her legs and dragged it through her wetness, gasping when it encountered her most sensitive spot. Jonah didn’t give her a chance to repeat the action, throwing her higher on the wall with a guttural noise, rolling on a condom from his pants pocket, then slamming into her with force that rendered her incapable of releasing the scream trapped in her throat.
Jonah went still, burying his face against her neck and muttering epithet-filled oaths. She didn’t understand a single word and yet knew exactly what he meant. With Jonah locked inside her, she felt complete for the first time in days. It crashed over her with startling clarity, the cause of her discomfort and anxiousness all week. The realization was accompanied by a warning flitting through her brain. This reliance is bad. So bad.
“Stop.” Jonah raised his head to penetrate her soul with lust-crazed eyes. “Stop thinking about how we got here. You think I don’t know how crazy this is that I can’t concentrate anymore unless you’re with me? Unless I’m inside your tight little body?” He kissed her angrily. “I’m right there with you, Caroline. Just focus on me and we’ll ride it out.”
Caroline nodded dazedly; her lips moved but no sound emerged until Jonah wrenched her thighs up around his waist and began to move. He slid out and shoved home once, twice, hips pumping methodically, before something inside him snapped and he began to fuck her. There really was no other word to describe Jonah pounding into her relentlessly, his hard flesh reaching deeper with each drive. Incoherent moans fell from her lips, urging him to keep going, begging him to take her even harder.
“Do you know what I was going to do when I reached your table, Caroline?” He breathed the question into her ear, words delivered in time with his hips’ bucking movements. She bit her lip and shook her head in response. “I don’t know, either. But I suspect it would have gone something like this.”
Suddenly, Jonah dropped her legs to the ground and pulled out of her. Caroline cried out in protest, reaching for him, but he spun her toward the wall. She only had a quick glimpse of him, agonizingly male and intimidating in the moonlight, then all she could see was her hands braced on the concrete. When his palm connected with her bare bottom, the sting felt glorious. A rush of energy, incredibly potent and sweet, sang through her veins. The combination of power and defenselessness toppled the last of her inhibitions. Using the wall for support, she pushed her ass higher into the air, seeking more punishment from his hand.
“Yes, I think I would have bent you over that table and spanked your tasty, fuckable ass right in front of your goddamn date. What do you think of that?”
Caroline moaned toward the sky. “I love it. I hate it. I don’t know.”
Jonah slapped her flesh one final time before pressing close, forcing her against the wall with his bigger body. His teeth pulled at her ear. “Figure it out,” he rasped before dipping low and entering her from behind in a single upward drive, bringing her up onto her toes. At the same time, his teeth sank into her shoulder, marking her. It hurt. It felt incredible. She needed more. Everything.
Caroline’s lips moved, words spilling out, begging words she had no control over. Their bodies moved together in a desperate dance, grinding, straining, lifting, giving, taking. As he drove her higher, closer to some unimaginable place, he growled filth into her ear. Promises she knew couldn’t be kept, praise for her body and how it felt to be inside her. In that moment, she reveled in it. Believed every word he said.
The hand gripping her hip slid down between her legs to pet her clitoris. “Come on, baby. I can still feel you holding back. Give it to me. Give me that part of you reserved only for your master. I fucking want it. And you love to give me what I want.”
Recognizing the truth of his words, Caroline pressed her forehead into the wall. Her mind was preventing her body from letting go. And God, she needed to let go. Walking away without having rid herself of the weeklong ache wasn’t a possibility. Not when he was the only one who could relieve her of it. She focused on Jonah, on the feeling of his thick erection filling her so completely, the fingers stroking with such care between her thighs, his muscled abdomen flexing against her bottom with every thrust. She let his scent, his voice, the unnatural pull he had on her take over. Her movements increased in pace and urgency, hips writhing back onto him, inner walls clenching around him until a growl of approval from his throat finally sent her hurtling past the threshold of pleasure and into ecstasy.
“Oh, God. Jonah.”
“That’s it, sweetheart.” His movements became frantic, uneven, his rhythm increasing even more as he moved in and out of her, prolonging her climax. “Ah, fuck, that’s it. Milk me while I come. Show me how tight it gets when I satisfy you.”
Jonah went still after one final push, groaning into her hair as shudders wracked his body. It felt unspeakably sexy, feeling him shake against her back and bottom, unable to control himself. Neither could she. Her upper half melted, falling forward onto the wall for support, until Jonah pulled her back against his chest and held her in an unbreakable embrace.
He inhaled deeply, withdrawing from her and gently straightening her dress. “Before you retreat into your head, I’m going to ask you just to let go of your disapproval for an hour, Caroline. Let me take you out of here. Away from whoever the fuck that guy is, touching your hand, looking at you without your glasses on. Just walk with me and don’t think too hard.” He rubbed his lips against her temple. “One hour. Can you do that for me?”
She shouldn’t. Spending time with Jonah was a horrible idea. Even if the idea of talking to him, the simple act of walking with him, excited her beyond reason. This bond was already too great, even though she didn’t understand it. Being in his presence would only make it grow. But somethin
g in her chest twisted at his plaintiveness, urged her to accept.
“Yes.”
Chapter Fourteen
Jonah made sure no one lingered in the hallway before letting Caroline exit the stairwell ahead of him. He still couldn’t believe she’d agreed to spend time with him, but he wasn’t about to waste a minute of it questioning her decision. Or reading too much into it. For all he knew, she’d only agreed because her brain had been too scrambled from their mind-blowing sex to do anything but consent. God knew he still hadn’t quite recovered from the perfection of her responses or even his own. From the time he’d seen her sitting upstairs until mere moments ago, he’d been a man controlled by impulse. He’d never been so frantic to possess a woman, and it only grew more undeniable each time they were together.
As she passed, he brushed her hair back over her shoulder so the teeth marks would be visible, but Caroline only glanced up at him with interest, not perceiving his intention. Jonah smiled down at her, not caring if that omission made him a son of a bitch. Their interlude on the deserted patio hadn’t been enough to dissipate his jealousy. It still had a firm grip around his neck, and with his hand riding the small of her back protectively, her petite body displaying signs of his passion for her, it only seemed to increase. When they entered the dining room, the bastard still sat at their table, talking into his cell phone.
Caroline glanced at him in confusion when he led her away from the table, toward the stairs leading down to ground level. “I have to go pay the check. It’s a business meeting.”
“We’ll pay it downstairs.”
“Jonah—”
He leaned down to speak, very precisely, into her ear. “You will not return to another man after I’ve just come inside you, Caroline. I won’t be able to stand it.”
She stared at him for long moments but finally nodded. “He’s an asshole anyway.”
Something ugly curled in his belly at the implication she’d been treated with anything less than respect. “Really.”
