Chapter Seven
Music thumped in the darkness.
With her hand clasped firmly in Jase’s, Cassie’s belly danced as they approached the crowd gathered outside Hintzen Hall, Second Oldest Dance Hall in Texas —or so the sign on the side of the building proclaimed.
“Ja-son!” A big bearded man in a camo baseball cap stepped away from the crowd of smokers hanging near the front doors. It was the guy from Roma’s. Keith? “Thought you were locked down on Five, bro?”
“Got the rigging sorted out.” Jase smiled for the first time since they’d left Saxon Lake, and his buddy moved in for a chest slamming, backslapping man-hug.
Jase stepped back, slid his arm around her waist, and yeah, freaking tingles, all over. Holding hands had been bad enough. This? It was too easy, too—
“Baby, this is the one and only Heath Savage.”
She braced herself for a bear hug, but Heath dipped his chin. “Baby?”
A corner of her lips rose. “Isn’t that what he calls all the girls?”
“No, baby, it isn’t,” Heath said. “That’s what I call all the girls. This one here…”
Her smirk melted. “What about babe?” she asked.
“Same thing, babe.”
She had no comeback for that and concentrated instead on fighting the confused satisfaction welling in her chest. This proved no easy task, especially when Jase ran his hand along the small of her back before sliding his fingers through hers once again. “We’ll catch you inside, Heath.”
Hintzen Hall was everything a dance hall should be—dark, smoky, crowded. The music was so loud, the bass so deep, it echoed in her bones. Neon beer signs crowded the walls. Sawdust, peanut shells, and probably not a small amount of spilled beer covered the floor. She loved it. And it wasn’t just the smell of old wood and new sawdust. Jase’s hand in hers felt like it belonged there as he steered through the crowd, and his breath in her ear when he leaned back and asked if she wanted something to drink half convinced her she’d already captured a buzz.
She shook her head. “I want to dance!”
That sexy-smooth grin split Jase’s lips, and he led her to the dance floor. Hooking an arm around her neck, he grasped tight to her shoulder, pulling her close in that possessive way seen in dance halls across Texas. She fell into the familiar two-step rhythm and lost herself in the music, in the feel of Jase all around her. As dangerous and unprofessional as it was, she didn’t want the song to end.
Something had changed tonight.
With lease talk off-limits, everything else about Jason Lucas had flooded in. She tingled from head to toe, giddy and nervous from the sexual tension crackling between them. Every look, every touch, every breath on her skin had her body creating its own heated rhythm between her legs, and she decided, for the moment, to let go and enjoy the chaos.
All too soon, the bass relented and the fiddles died into the din. Jase gave her the requisite spin, and she threw her head back, laughing. Her laughter died as the first haunting strains of “Some Fools Never Learn” cut through the clamor. Shivers coursed down Cassie’s spine—happened every time she heard the song. She was pretty sure the universe was trying to tell her something this time, but when she placed her hand in Jase’s and that slow grin spread across his lips, when he drew their arms in, tight between them instead of outstretched…
She was playing with fire, all right. And she was gonna get burned. Those shivers? They’d been replaced by pooling warmth, deep in her belly. As the band hit the chorus, she looked up, and the fierce attraction she saw in Jase’s eyes made her press closer as they swayed to one of the greatest country songs ever written.
Yeah, you could get into some big trouble on a dance floor.
Jase bent his head to her shoulder, and his words against her skin made her knees damn near buckle. “You smell good, Cassie.” His lips skimmed up her neck. “Like the East. Sandalwood and…desert rose.”
It was sandalwood—an oil blend she’d discovered in an import store in Houston—but the fact that his recognition intensified the want soaring through her body…
That was a problem. It was too much. Too soon.
“Jase, stop—”
“We’re on a date.” His stubble rasped against her cheek, and that throbbing rhythm between her legs turned to ache. “I’m telling my date she smells good.”
She let it rest because, damn it, he smelled good, too. With her face in his chest, she couldn’t help but notice the faintest hint of cologne, something earthy, made spicy by the heat of his body. The familiar but unidentifiable scent mingled with something all his own, a powerful intoxicant, clean and masculine, and Cassie hooked her thumb into his back belt loop, riding the high as he took her around and around the dance floor. Lost in the sensual movement of his body, she didn’t notice Heath approach, nor did she realize what he wanted until he cut in; Jase’s body felt that damn good wrapped up in hers.
“Bring her to me when you’re done,” he told Heath, leaving her with a stare so heated his friend’s hands on her just seemed wrong.
Heath spun her away, and Jase melted into the crowd. “How long have you been seein’ him?” It was like a dull roar in her ear, and Cassie’s stomach plummeted at Heath’s tone.
“I…this is our first date.” And had she really just said first? Implying more?
Heath jerked his head back and muttered something she couldn’t hear. His pinched expression said so much it didn’t matter, and they made a round in awkward silence as she searched for Jase in the crowd.
“You see how he’s lookin’ at you, girl?”
There. He stood at the edge of the dance floor, a beer in his hand and the hint of a smile on his lips. And she was sopping up every belly-swirling drop. Who wouldn’t? The men parting around Jase all paled in comparison. And he was watching her with a similar expression, not missing a beat when the waitress with the wannabe Hooters outfit just happened to lift her tray and stick out her butt as she brushed past him.
“I’m tellin’ you this because that’s my boy.” Heath shook his head. “No, he’s more than that. He’s like my brother. If this ain’t for real with him, you best leave him be.”
“I—”
“You don’t have to say anything. Just mark my words.”
Mark my words? Was she dancing with a date cop? They finished the song in silence, and before Cassie could flee on her own, Heath grabbed her hand and pulled her toward one of the benched tables lining the dance floor.
“Hey, woman!”
Cassie’s head snapped to the left, and her face broke into a grin at the sight of her Backstreet waitress and escape conspirator, Karyn.
Apparently in safe hands, Heath dropped Cassie’s and continued toward Jase, who sat at the far end of a bottle-strewn table, his back against the wall.
“You here with Heath?” Karyn asked, shouting over the music—a three-step number Cassie didn’t know.
Cassie shook her head and aimed a pointed gaze in Jase’s direction. Karyn’s eyebrows rose in surprise, though the following smirk showed nothing but satisfaction.
“It’s not like that,” Cassie said loudly.
“Whatever it’s like, you watch yourself tonight.”
Good God, why was everyone in Marian County trying to warn her away from Jason Lucas? First he was a man-slut, then a murderer, and now…now she had no idea what he was. And wait…wasn’t this the same woman who’d tried to hook her up with Jase in the first place? “Why would you say—” Oh, shit. Cassie whipped her head around, searching for a fuming Pixie.
“She’s not here,” Karyn said. “If she was, you’d know. She’d be all up Jase’s ass. Or plotting your death with her girls over there.” Karyn nodded to the front of the table Jase occupied. Two woman stood sentinel, moving to the music, nursing longnecks, and appraising the scene.
Great. The ex had “girls.” And Cassie had to walk right past them.
“Don’t worry,” Karyn said, smiling. “I’ve got your back.”
“You don’t have to do that. I don’t want to drag you into—”
“Listen, you’re not dragging me into anything that hasn’t been going on for twenty years,” Karyn said, and took a swig from her own bottle. “I went to school with all of them. I wasn’t friends with them then, and I’m sure as hell not friends with them now. Immature, I know, but that’s how it is. Just being honest.” Before Cassie could respond, Karyn leaned in for a quick hug. “Have fun. I’ll see you around.”
She made her way toward Jase on wooden legs, giving the women in question a wide berth. She couldn’t deny the connection they’d made at Saxon Lake or the fact that they’d left the dance floor smoldering in their wake, but she didn’t need this…this…drama. All she needed was a signature—a signature from the man giving her that grin she just couldn’t get used to, the one revealing a confidence like Cassie usually had to fake. And Jase sat straddling the bench, something else she didn’t need to see. Nor did she need to be pulled down between his legs.
“I liked watching you dance,” he said as she settled in front of him, both legs to the outside of the bench—demure and determined to stay that way. “Made me jealous as hell seeing Heath’s hands on you, though.” This was accompanied by a wink and a smile, and Cassie wasn’t sure whether he was serious or trying to put her at ease.
Breathe, Cass, breathe.
She tried to do just that as Jase caught the attention of a nearby waitress, pointed to the bottle in front of him, and flicked two fingers.
And she really didn’t need to be drinking.
Jase swept her hair over one of her shoulders. “Relax,” he said, pulling her closer.
Relax? Not gonna happen, not with all the nerve endings she possessed singing the praises of Jase’s body nestled against hers. She didn’t think it possible, but he upped the turn-on factor when he moved his lips against her bared neck. “This hair…”
The heady combination of lush lips and warm breath made her shudder violently. In response, Jase hissed through his teeth. He shifted, and proof positive of his own arousal pressed against her backside. Oh God, she wanted more. She wanted him to reach around and cup her, rock her against him, public venue be damned. As if acknowledging this madness, Cassie let her head fall to Jase’s shoulder. A calloused hand wrapped around her neck, and he whispered into her ear. “I want to feel your hair against my skin.”
She was a shuddering mess. If he was trying to exploit her vulnerabilities…
“Who is this bitch?”
Cassie’s head snapped forward, and she immediately zeroed in on the slinger of that arrow. One of the ex’s girls, a willowy woman with a slightly hooked nose and board-straight platinum hair, curled a lip while her heftier friend whispered something in her ear.
Jase turned Cassie’s head so their eyes met. “Relax.”
“Yeah,” she breathed. “I’m trying.”
“You’re going to get stares. Aren’t you used to that by now?”
And what the hell was that supposed to mean? “Only hard cases grow used to insults and sneers.”
“All softness in my arms, huh?” He grinned. “I just meant they’re jealous, babe.”
Of her? Of her with Jase? Yeah, Marian County was definitely stuck in junior high. Proving this, the women began covering their mouths and talking in hushed tones. And the pettiness continued when the shorter, stockier girl decided to make an announcement. “You’re so not worth our time.”
Wow. Cassie was pretty sure she’d read that line in a Baby-sitter’s Club book when she was like…eleven. But she shouldn’t joke. That level of immaturity was kind of alarming. Ready for anything, Cassie watched the resident mean girls move off and disappear into the crowd on the opposite side of the dance floor. Behind her, Jase moved slowly to the rhythm of a well-done Waylon cover. How…how could he play it off like that?
Because a couple of adolescent women weren’t worth ruffling feathers over. Huh. Maturity. She could get used to that. And Jase’s swaying body was quite the incentive for Cassie to push the incident from her mind. She was working on that when the waitress appeared, slammed down two bottles, collected some money from Jase, and spun, nearly colliding with Heath.
“You comin’ out to Three tomorrow?” Heath asked, taking a seat.
“Planning on it.” Jase sounded annoyed, but Cassie reached for her bottle, somewhat relieved by the distraction. “Problems?”
“Only that the damn rig’s right up next to a hell of a marsh. Distracting, you know?”
Distractions all around then. Like Jase’s arm curled tight around her waist. “Gotta keep your head in the game, Heath. Can’t have you hurt ’cause you’re counting birds.”
Heath shook his head and scooted closer. “Tell me you haven’t seen ’em lighting out there…green wings, blue wings, cinnamons? And when they bank? Blocks out the sky, bro. That marsh…” Heath shook his head, “…pristine. Hope that well don’t fuck it up. Not like I’d get to set up a duck blind back there, you know ol’ Blackmore, but that’s the kind of place us hunters dream about keeping clean, safe.”
Jase tensed behind her. “I hate that well being there, too, but I don’t get a say in where to sink the bit. And that’s the bitch of this job. You see some beautiful country. You also see some of it disappear.”
Heath inched closer, and when he leaned toward Jase, Cassie found herself in the middle of a big dude sandwich. Bring it now, bitches. “You sure this is what you want, Jase?”
Jase’s arm slid up her stomach, stopping just below her breasts. “I know exactly what I want. Getting there fast, too.”
Though Jase’s warm hand sent chills skittering across her skin, something told Cassie she wasn’t the subject of that last remark.
“Then what?” Heath asked.
“Then I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing. You, too. You hear me?”
“I can’t…I’m not…you.” Heath’s eyes moved up her body to settle on Jase’s face, and Cassie flushed. “I can’t—”
“Yeah. You can.”
She didn’t need to be privy to something this private, whatever it was. She also didn’t need to be gossiped about by Jase’s ex-girlfriend’s posse. She needed his lease signed in a few days, and she needed to be gone in a month. She needed a long weekend with her mother and time off from work, but she sure as hell did not need to be feeling the dangerous things she was feeling for the man at her back.
Cassie twisted her head and found her mouth just inches from Jase’s. “I’m going to hit the ladies room,” she whispered, wondering if they had a cold shower in there.
He nodded and they locked eyes. In that moment, what she needed faded to the background. She wanted more time with him, more than her job would allow. Time to get to know the man behind the conversation he’d just had with his friend. She wanted time like this, heady and seductive, a slow-simmering romance. Time she could never have, not with him.
“Hurry back.” Jase tilted his chin, catching her lips with his. It wasn’t a kiss, but it was damn close.
She pretty much fled the scene.
A line stretched out of the women’s bathroom—not surprising given the number of people and empty beer bottles crowding the dance hall. She didn’t really need to go. She had to go, had to get away for a minute. Or two. Or forever. What was happening with Jase couldn’t happen. And if she continued down this path, the false hope flitting around in her head would become crushing disappointment. That she knew for sure.
A shoulder slammed into hers, spinning her around.
“Excu—” Her words died on her tongue when she recognized Blondie, the pixie pal.
The woman’s face twisted into a sneer. “Why don’t you watch where you’re going?”
Cassie’s mouth sagged for a split second before she busted out laughing. Maybe it was the beer. Whatever it was, she let Blondie have it. “Watch where I’m going? I’m not going anywhere. I’m standing in line. You were leaving the bathroom and decided to plow into me in a juvenile attempt at…at…I don’t even know what.”
“Listen, bitch, I don’t know what you’re doing here with Jase,” she said, pointing a French-tipped nail in Cassie’s face, “but you better back away from him.”
Cassie smiled like a maniac. “Seriously? Are you in junior high?” She really needed an answer to that question.
Blondie moved closer as her friend from earlier loomed in the background. “I’m a grown woman and I’ll kick your ass like one.”
Cassie’s eyebrows rose in disbelief. “Because I showed up at a dance with Jason Lucas?”
Several heads snapped her way at this admission, and Cassie didn’t miss the fact the crowd pressed closer.
“That’s ground you don’t tread on. You don’t show up here, hanging all over him—”
“I think it’s kind of the other way around, Sasha,” a voice behind Cassie’s shoulder snipped.
“Shut up, Karyn,” Sasha snarled, and Cassie realized the woman wasn’t as pretty as she’d thought. Makeup made her that way, but you couldn’t hide her type of ugly. “Nobody gives a damn about your opinion, river rat.”
“Don’t listen to her, Karyn,” Cassie said over her shoulder. “I think you’re the shit.”
“You think she’s the shit?” Sasha asked. “What, are you into women, too? Gonna make it a threesome with Jase?” She smirked. “Not like he’d be a stranger to that.”
Cassie reeled, stunned at the extent to which Sasha’s admission affected her. Jase had been with two women at one time? Was this Sasha one of them?
“Cat got your tongue, Dimples?”
“Why don’t you take your white-trash ass back to whatever trailer park you crawled out of and leave me the hell alone?”
Damn. Did she really just say that? She must have, because Sasha’s hands found purchase in Cassie’s hair and started pulling. Needles of pain pricked all along the sides of her head, and she couldn’t see a thing. Her safety shield had become her prison.
Cassie kicked and twisted. Her blood boiled in anger and embarrassment. So this is how they do it in Marian County, she thought, trying to find her balance. That was unfortunate, because if she wanted to keep her beloved hair, she was going to have to regress a few decades.
She shoved Sasha. With an oomph, the woman stumbled backward. What felt like ten thousand follicles ripped from Cassie’s scalp, and pain lanced through her body, all the way down to her toes. She probably would have collapsed, but hands held her up. Drunks love a fight, and no one in Hintzen was about to let the altercation end so easily.
Okay, then. Cassie brushed whatever remained of her hair out of her face and caught a split-second peek at Karyn and Sasha on the floor.
Sasha’s friend charged.
Better prepared this time, Cassie’s fist connected with some manner of flesh and bone, though she couldn’t really say where or how because everything seemed blurry. She knew she was crying. She knew little else…except that her knuckles burned and throbbed and hurt like hell.
“Stupid bitch!” someone screamed.
Before her second assailant landed the return blow she sensed coming, Cassie was lifted up and away. The crowded dance hall tilted, and she saw rafters.
Jase hugged her tight to his chest. “Cassie.”
She buried her burning face in his shirt, unwilling to meet the eyes of anyone watching. Which was everyone.
“What the hell?” Sasha shrieked.
“What the hell? I should be asking you that.” Jase’s arms tightened around her, his voice level but harsh. “You laid your hands on my woman.”
Cassie heard a choking sound and swept a clump of hair from her wet face to see a snarling Sasha. The flushed woman strained against a man’s arm, held tight across her chest. Heath?
“Your woman?” Sasha screamed. “Your woman?”
His woman?
“Daphne’s gonna shit over this!”
Jase’s chest rumbled as a deep chuckle escaped his throat. But when he looked down that laughter fled. Blue eyes searched hers, revealing something new, something raw and unchecked.
“You okay, Karyn?” Jase’s ragged voice matched the look she’d seen on his face.
“Yeah,” Karyn said, brushing a strand of hair from Cassie’s face. “And I told you I didn’t want to see that pretty face messed up.”
“I think that part’s okay,” she winced.
“Jase!” Sasha screeched again.
Cassie mustered her ugliest glare as Jase spit on the ground at Sasha’s feet. Turning, he carried her through the crowd with all the reverence of a bridegroom. Spitting wasn’t the most gentlemanly thing he could have done, but it made a point, a point she kind of liked.
Cool night air hit her skin, and Cassie drew a deep, shuddering breath, coming back to her senses—senses that told her this was wrong. This attraction was way wrong.
“Jase.”
“I’ve got you.”
“Jase.”
“We’re almost to the truck.”
“Put. Me. Down.”
He complied so suddenly her head spun. “You okay, babe?”
“No, I’m not okay. And quit calling me babe, baby, or anything related.”
He reached out to cup her cheek. “I’m sorr—”
“You’re sorry?” She wrenched away from him “No, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I agreed to this. I just got into a fight in front of half of Marian. I’m here on a job.”
“Cass—”
“The last time I threw down over a guy in a dance hall, I was seventeen years old.”
Some combination of curiosity and satisfaction flickered across his face. “So you came out of retirement for me?”
Cassie narrowed her eyes and shook her head. “Is this what y’all do down here? Fight? Because that’s all I’ve seen in the last week.”
“People fight for what they believe in. Some people believe in nothing but themselves, others—”
“And what do you believe in?”
His lips parted, but he didn’t respond. She took a step toward him. Her anger pulsed. She particularly felt it along her stinging scalp. “I’m not seventeen. I’m not your woman. And I don’t appreciate being used to make your ex jealous.”
He leaned into her. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“‘Daphne’s gonna shit when she hears about this?’ And you laugh? What kind of people act like that?”
“Daphne doesn’t have a right to shit over anything I do. Hearing she thinks so is one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard. And don’t you get that a woman like you brings out the worst in a different type of woman? A woman like Sasha?”
“So almost getting scalped was my fault?” Unbelievable. “Just take me back to my motel.” She spun and started walking in the direction of his truck.
“Cassie!”
She turned but didn’t stop. Walking backward, she shrugged. “What could you possibly have to say to me?”
He stalked toward her. Slow, deliberate. Predatory. And just like an animal, he growled, low in his throat. “Look at me.”
She shouldn’t have done it, but she did. She met those blue, blue eyes and saw the hurt there. Her jaw trembled. She was so damn attracted to Jason Lucas, and she shouldn’t be. Couldn’t be. Maybe from afar, maybe in her dreams, but not this, this was too gritty, too real.
She spun and ran. Yeah, ran, weak ankle and all. They were in junior high, remember?
He caught her. She knew he would. She even wanted him to. Strong arms wrapped around her, a better safety shield than she’d ever had.
“Cassie,” he whispered into her hair. “Baby—”
“Don’t call me that. Just please…don’t.”
He swept the hair away from her ear in a move so tender her heart contracted. “Don’t run from me. You won’t get far. And I’ll always catch you. Always.”
Oh God.
When he picked her up this time, she melted right into him.
…
Jase barreled past Cassie’s attempt to block him from entering her motel room.
“You need to go.”
“No.” He backed her into the wall beside the dresser. “You didn’t say a damn thing the whole ride here.” He’d never, ever laid his hands on a woman, but that hadn’t stopped him from fantasizing about planting his boot in Sasha’s face the entire, silent ride back to Cassie’s motel. “Did she hurt you?”
“No, she didn’t hurt me.”
“She did.” Jase threaded his hands through the hair at Cassie’s temples. “That doesn’t happen again. No one touches you again. Ever.”
“That’s going to be true once I ditch this town.”
He worked his fingers in slow circles against her scalp. “Is that what you want?”
She lied again. “That’s all I want in the whole world.”
“No, it’s not.” He knew something deep drove her, something so deep she’d agreed to what had turned into a disaster of a date. He didn’t know what it was, but he aimed to find out. He just had to keep her safe in the meantime.
He held her desperate gaze for a long moment before bending his face to her neck. His lips skimmed from collarbone to ear, taking in her scent, her fear, and desperately wondering if she felt the same electric shocks spiking straight southward.
“Please…”
“Ask me anything, Cassie, but don’t ask me to stop.” His teeth grazed her earlobe, and at her intake of breath, those shocks became a live wire, connecting every inch of flesh from his mouth to his groin. “Don’t ask me to stop touching you, because I don’t know if I can.”
He’d always been proud of his ability to resist. But he hadn’t resisted her. And now the power was hers. She had him completely, and there was no way he was leaving without tasting her again. He needed it. God, he hadn’t known how much he needed it.
She clutched the front of his shirt, and he groaned. Then, everything blew up in his face.
“What’s going on around here? And how are you involved?”
He pulled away, masking his irritation. Because those were the last questions he wanted to answer while he had his greedy hands on her sweet curves. “What?”
“I need to know if your hands are dirty.” She swallowed and squeezed her eyes shut, as if bracing herself for the answer. “And I need to know before this goes any further.”
He removed her hands from his shirt. Lacing them through his, he pinned them to the wall on either side of her head. There was no way around this.
“No, my hands aren’t exactly clean,” he admitted. “I grew up hard and fast. Then I went to war.” And returned miraculously unscathed. As fucked up as it sounded, he credited his unconventional upbringing for the fact that he hadn’t come home with full-blown PTSD. That didn’t mean he slept easy when he laid it down day after an exhausting day.
Except for last night.
And the night before. And—
Cassie lowered her gaze to his chest, to the dog tags hidden under his shirt. Her. He’d closed his eyes thinking about her, even if it was just the promise of her. A dizzying sensation engulfed him. From the nearness of her warm, soft body, from the pressure of her hands, tiny and trapped within his, trusting, but not.
“My hands aren’t dirty in the way you’re imagining. And they’ll never hurt you,” he whispered fiercely. “I promise you that.”
“Why did you tell me to stay away from your brother?” she asked. “From the Neelys?”
He hadn’t lied to her, but at the same time, his hands weren’t sparkling clean, either. And Cassie stood in their grasp, hurting and afraid. Because of his past. Because Clint’s problems had become his own again in a way he hadn’t imagined.
“Tell me,” she demanded.
“There are things that go on in this county…” Things I can’t talk about. “Things I don’t want you a part of…” Even that little admission set the room to spinning, and his tainted blood pounded through his veins.
“That’s not good enough,” she insisted. And she probably had no idea how her set jaw made her mouth fuller, poutier.
“That’s all I’m going to give you,” he said. “Besides this.” He lowered his mouth to hers and whispered against her lips. “Open for me.” Make this room stop spinning.
Tracing the seam of her lips with his tongue, he slid his hands down her outstretched arms. His fingers played over her neck, the hollow of her collarbone, and when her tongue flicked out to meet his, intense arousal gripped his core. But it was the sweet moan when he pressed his hips to hers that completely shattered any sort of gentlemanly resistance. But the room had stilled. And the deeper he plunged into the kiss, the more the chaos around him faded.
Cassie tore her mouth from his, panting. “Please…”
Not yet. And he wrapped a hand around her throat so she knew. Her soft gasp, the movement of her hips…they let him know she understood, that she wasn’t going anywhere yet.
On a mission of its own, his other hand coursed down, over her chest, and as he licked up her neck, Cassie twisted her fingers into his shirt. Christ, she was just as turned on as he was. But her sounds…
The little moans as his lips planted hungry kisses down her neck, the hiss in his ear as he traced the outline of her bra cup…
He imagined himself deep inside her, the same hand clasped around her neck, possessive and utterly in control. Except he felt completely the opposite. Those needy, wanting sounds begged him to his knees, where he could further explore—
“Jase…”
I know, baby…
Even his toes tingled, aching for more than a tease, for more than he knew she’d allow. How far…?
His thumb zeroed in on a perfect, pebble-sized nipple and circled. Her mouth parted, and he didn’t know if she meant to slap him or sigh. He pinched, and she hissed in a breath. Her hips moved against his in an undeniable way, and when the rest of his fingers sank into her flesh it was too indecent to be called a caress. “I’ve needed my hands right here since I met you.”
“I thought…” She was struggling to form a sentence. A good sign. So was her ragged breath in his ear as he bent to kiss her neck. “I thought…ass.”
“That, too.” He ran his knuckles up the inside of her thigh. “And these legs wrapped around my waist. And this mouth all over me.” The next kiss wasn’t gentle, either, nor was his hand, sliding under her skirt, over the front of her lace panties. She pressed her body to his, moaning. But he wanted her shuddering and shaking, begging for him not to stop. He hooked his thumb under the edge of her panties. From her inner thigh to the hollow of her hip to the bottom of her plump ass, his work-hardened hands had never felt something so soft, so yielding to a rough touch, and that right there…
Man. Knees.
How was he still standing?
Her hands sank into his hair. “I can’t.”
His hand splayed over her ass, pulling her hard into his thigh. “You want me.” Tell me you do because… “I need it from your lips. Your body tells me you do, but—”
“I can’t.” He got it. But her hand encouraging his at her breast said she wanted something, and his own arousal, hard against her hip, grew even harder as his fingers delved down the center of her ass. He could smell how much she did want him, but what he discovered between her legs shocked him. Oh, she wanted him. “You don’t want this,” he whispered. “You need this. Why’re you fighting so hard?”
She answered with a whimper. She was reeling, too, spun out by his breath in her ear, by his fingers stroking her from behind. It aroused him beyond belief, but he had to know and stopped suddenly. “Six months…”
“What?”
His gaze roamed her face, not quite understanding. “Six months you’ve been here, and I only saw you for the first time last week. You don’t go out, except for work. Other than that, you’re here, with your files and your books.”
“I don’t get—”
“A woman like you? I would have seen you. I would have heard about you. How long has it been?”
“Has what been?”
He whispered roughly, right in her face. “Since a man touched you like this?”
A shudder rippled across her skin, and she screwed her eyes shut, silently acknowledging that she liked the dirty things he said to her. “How long?” he whispered, gently fisting her hair with the hand he’d shoved down her panties.
“Like this?” She opened her eyes and swallowed. “Never.” It was no more than a breath.
He shifted and nestled between her legs. Cassie threw her head back, but he was the one who saw stars as he ground into the heat between her legs. It wasn’t just him who—
“Never,” she breathed again.
“Why’d you have to say that?” With a growl, he tore her from the wall and stumbled to the bed. He dropped her on her back, and her hair splayed wildly over the comforter. Flushed and swollen lipped, she stared into his ravenous eyes, unblinking. It was bold and vulnerable and so fucking beautiful it hurt somewhere deep inside. He had no idea how he restrained himself, how he didn’t tear her clothes in a frenzy to give her what she needed. She was so wet, so ready. For him. “Tomorrow night,” he whispered. “My place.”
“You’ll read the lease?” she said, breathless.
He nodded. If that’s what she needed to stay close to him. Because he needed that, too. He just hadn’t known how much until tonight.