Chapter Six

Mae had to admit, Jason’s words were scary at first, but a good scary. She’d never really seen herself as a possession or being the type of woman who enjoyed being possessed by a man. But as he spent the weekend showing her she was his girl, she was pleasantly surprised at how quickly she grew accustomed to him making her coffee for her the way she liked it, reminding her to eat, and choosing what she would wear in accordance with his plans for the day. While he was bossy and stuff, it always had the ulterior motive of her comfort at heart, so it ended up being okay. It wasn’t something she was used to, though. No other man she’d dated had treated her this way.

After their first night of intense love-making, where she had given him her virginity, they cooled it on the sex. Jason kissed her every chance he could, but when she would make overtures for more, he would still her and tell her she was too sore.

Maybe, but it was a good sore, and she couldn’t convince him to do it again. The man had the restraint of a saint. She could feel it in the way he touched her, his breathing, but Jason refused to go further.

“Tell me, generally speaking, what sort of work does ADS do?”

Mae shrugged. They were eating brunch on Sunday, their last day before going back to work. She had used the opportunity to cook for someone else and made eggs benedict, her favorite, while Jason sliced up the fruit. They were eating and sipping cheap champagne but feeling like a million bucks.

“We mainly collect documents for class-action lawsuits. That’s the bulk of our work. We also offer a variety of other services like certified copies of records, depositions, stuff like that. But I don’t work with those departments unless we need to make copies of the records I collect through subpoenas. Right now, our biggest jobs are the class-action lawsuits against the oil companies that are fracking around the U.S. We actually have several cases we’re working on against oil companies and the land management organizations involved.” She took a bite of fruit, licking the juice from her lips. “Why?”

Jason chewed the huge bite of eggs he’d just taken. “Nothing specific. I just got this job and don’t know much about the company. I haven’t had a chance to look at stuff thoroughly yet to see if there’s anything that answers my questions about those guys who came in week before last.”

For the first time since the incident, Mae remembered the USB drive. She knew she needed to turn it in to the authorities, but that last guy who’d questioned her had given her a serious case of the heebie jeebies, and she didn’t have any other contact info. And dropping it off with some random person at the Austin Police Department didn’t seem right, either.

“Hang on a second.” She got up from the table and walked to her desk, where she had stashed it in a drawer. “Here. The guy who was at my desk left this behind.”

“And you didn’t give it to anybody?” Jason’s face was a mesh of wrinkles. He was disappointed, and it made her feel awful.

“No, I didn’t. Did you talk to that agent who was so nasty? Harper? I didn’t want to talk to the guy, much less be helpful. I know it’s wrong. By not giving it to him, I’m probably messing up the investigation, but something was off with him,” Mae explained, hoping he understood and wouldn’t hate her. She knew the drive had potentially serious ramifications, but she also knew the guy hadn’t finished anything with it.

“I agree, but you should have given it to somebody.”

“I’m giving it to you. I don’t have anybody else’s information, besides that one guy who insisted I give him all my info. And I don’t trust him. At all.”

Jason pocketed the drive as his features softened. “I know all that had to be scary for you.”

“It was.” She shuddered at the memory of being sure she would die.

“Well, these guys were obviously working for someone because they didn’t have the smarts to do that on their own. They were probably members of some sort of local mercenary group or some shit. Like something in an ad in the back of an old Soldier of Fortune magazine. Not that they do that anymore …” He trailed off as he thought about it. “The way publishing works these days, anybody can publish anything subversive and nobody’s the wiser. That’s probably how they were contacted.”

“For what, though? Why would they blow us up?”

“It has to be something y’all had in the copy center down in the basement.”

Mae nodded. The basement was where everything was copied before certified copies were sent to law firms and the originals sent back to wherever they were subpoenaed. But why was the drive in her computer?

“Fracking? I’d have to check, but most of the other cases we are working on are small potatoes in comparison.” Some shampoo company was their next largest assignment, she would wager to guess.

“Well, someone’s trying to sue oil companies. That’s big money with a lot of major players, both domestic and international. A lot of people are heavily invested in the success of American oil.” His voice took on a musing quality. “And the failure of it.”

Mae felt a niggling of fear in her belly. “What exactly is your job?”

Jason sighed. “To keep the building secure from outside people and stop this from happening again. But for some reason, I feel like I can’t do that without knowing why it happened in the first place. My gut tells me this is it.” He palmed the tabletop in a gesture of victory.

“Will it help you do your job better?”

He looked her dead in the eyes, a gleam of excitement there. “For the first time in forever, I want to do something right. I mean, I wanted to do it right when I was dealing with explosives in the Marines, but that was because if I didn’t, I died. But now, I want to be exact because it’s the right thing to do, it’s a job well done. I don’t know why, but suddenly, this is something I’m called to do. I know how to do it, and I have the opportunity to do it right, so I want to. Security is about gathering intel to protect my package, and my package is you.”

“It’s the company,” Mae corrected.

Jason’s voice lowered, and the intensity with which he spoke sent a thrill up Mae’s spine. “As far as I’m concerned, the company is made up of a bunch of yous. So it’s you I’m protecting. Mr. Amir seems like a nice guy and all, but he’s not the only one I want to keep safe.”

Mae squirmed, feeling his words in her core. The seductive tone of his voice and the sudden change of subject from the possible attackers to her made her feel things she didn’t really have a right to. She hadn’t known Jason very long, but she was ready to follow him to the ends of the earth.

He held out his hand. “Come here.”

She took his hand and allowed him to tug her onto his lap, where he cradled her and held her close. His strong heartbeat rang out in her ears, and his voice was a soothing rumble as he spoke against her hair.

“I didn’t think I’d ever be lucky enough to meet someone like you, and I certainly never thought I’d ever want to be everything I can for another person. I was floundering until I met you. Now I have a purpose. And hope. I want you to understand that.” Jason’s voice reverberated through his chest, sending a warm feeling through Mae’s body.

The light conversations and joking they’d done all weekend were nothing compared to these words of resolution. They’d watched movies, gone for walks, and superficially lived a relaxing weekend. But this, this right here, was zinging Mae straight to her toes. She wanted to hear more words like this from him, wanted to know how he felt. About everything.

She snuggled deeper in his embrace. “You know, part of me really likes my job, even though my parents always wanted me to do something different. But I make decent money, get benefits and stuff. For a girl my age, it’s rare to be settled and not out partying all the time. I just never really saw the benefit of that, you know?” Jason nodded against her head. “But since you’ve started working there, something has changed. I have been happy with just my job and coming home to cook for one and watch movies, but now I want more than just that.”

Jason stiffened. “What do you mean? You want to go back to school or something?”

She smiled against his chest as he tightened his arms around her. Unsure if she should go this far with her expressed devotion, Mae took a deep breath. He’d made some declarations, now it was her turn. “No. I still like my job. But now I want to come home to somebody. You’ve made me realize companionship is important, having someone to do things with, to talk about work with, to cook for.” She shrugged, suddenly feeling stupid. “I know that’s pretty heavy. We barely know each other, and it’s a lot for our third day together. Sorry. I’m not saying it has to necessarily be you …”

Jason slipped his hand under her chin and lifted her face to meet his eyes. “I’m saying it then. It better be me. I want you in my life. There’s a connection here, and it may not last forever, but God, I hope it fucking does.”

Jason lowered his lips to hers and kissed her, but it was different from the other kisses he’d bestowed on her this weekend. This one was not only claiming but also pleading. His tongue swooped in, even as his hands gripped her tighter, making her have to struggle to turn in his arms. When he felt her wishes, he helped, and soon she was straddling him in the chair at her tiny table in the breakfast nook.

Jason was hard underneath her, and Mae couldn’t resist grinding against his erection in a flagrant attempt to relieve the horniness she’d felt since she met the man. He gripped her hips, as if to keep her still, but eventually gave up, moving his hands to her waist and breasts as he groaned helplessly into her mouth.

“I want this with you,” she whispered into his kisses, which only served to light a fire under him as his movements grew more frantic and he squeezed her breasts together.

**

Her words did something to Jason, snapped the swelling in his chest and made his dick jump. Things had been sweet when he’d taken her virginity, but he had been trying to hold back on all the things he wanted to do to her because she was so sweet, but also because he was a little afraid of his urges around her.

But her saying she wanted this, and teasing him mercilessly, had his insides twitching and jerking out of control. Before he realized it, he had her off his lap and spinning around, bent over the tiny breakfast table. Her palms slapped loudly against the top as she let out a soft, feminine sound in her chest.

Her round ass in the air taunted him, and Mae tried to reach for him, her dainty hands clutching blindly behind her. Jason wrapped his massive hand around her wrists, clasping them together at the base of her back.

God, he wanted to be everywhere. He released his erection from his jeans, fumbling one-handed with the condom while he continued holding her. Mae was so fucking beautiful laid out like this. They’d had such a sweet weekend in bed, cooking together, taking walks around her neighborhood, and watching movies. He had stifled all the thoughts of dirty things he wanted to do to her, not wanting to hurt her, stretch her body too much.

Jason was an adult and could control his baser urges, but this morning he’d had all he could take. Seeing her body–not yet dressed for the day, wearing only a flimsy gown which he effortlessly flipped up over her ass, squirming with desire for him–made Jason lose all semblance of control.

With a groan, he sank deep into her, her soaking-wet pussy taking him like a champ. Mae let out a sharp noise of pleasure, wiggling her hips to allow him deeper.

“Jesus, fuck. So damn tight,” he growled, even as he started moving inside her, willing her body to adjust, to accept him. He wanted her back arched. Currently, she had her head buried in the table top. He needed her aware of her surroundings.

Gripping her hair at the low ponytail she had at the base of her neck, Jason pulled her head up. Mae gasped, letting out something feral that made Jason almost let go.

He rocked against her, the sounds of their bodies joining interspersed with their grunts and groans of pleasure.

This was everything Jason had ever wanted. Right here. Laid out across her table. Just like this.

Mae was perfection. Everything about her sang to Jason as he rocked in and out of her sweetness. He’d gone down on her three times yesterday to make up for the fact he wouldn’t fuck her, and every time had left him with the dichotomous sense of satisfaction at bringing her pleasure as well as the disappointment he couldn’t sink inside her like he wanted.

Well, pound inside her like he wanted.

Jason realized that was what he was doing now while he’d gotten lost in his own thoughts. He was pounding, gentleness be damned, and the noises she made told him she liked it.

Holy crap.

She liked this.

Arranging her hands so she grasped her own elbows behind her back, he kept a tight hold on her hair and used his free hand to smack her round ass, leaving a bright-red handprint on the pristine white flesh.

Mae let out a low moan at the sharp contact, but her pussy clenched around him, and he hissed his pleasure right before he did it again.

He could feel the beginning of her climax as she started pulsing around him, her legs quivering.

That was all it took.

Jason emptied himself inside her, letting loose a roar of triumph. Triumph he’d found Mae, he’d met her, he’d taken her.

And she liked it.

She liked him.

She liked this.

Jason now had everything he’d never realized he wanted.