Out of the Horse’s Mouth
JAKE
THERE WAS A LOT MORE to say than what she’d said.
It was that simmering, smoldering heat inside the aloof package that stopped me from trying to talk about what had happened between us.
Correction, what was happening.
She was so much like me in that way. Shutting down rather than risking getting burned. It was my MO, and apparently hers as well.
The garage was dimly lit, and my hands were gripping the leather of the wheel so tight that I practically jerked my car into the empty parking spot next to hers.
I knew I only had a matter of minutes to try to turn this situation around. Yet the problem was even after more than sixty minutes, I still couldn’t figure out what to say.
That didn’t change the fact that time was up.
As soon as I put the Jaguar in park and switched the engine off, silence rushed in. I didn’t like it, and I turned toward Jules. “Look,” I started to say.
She was already looking over at me, and the distance in her eyes made me wonder where she’d gone on the ride back. Momentarily caught off guard by the sadness I saw, I paused for a moment, and that’s when she pounced. “I’m sorry I ruined your night off. I’ll let your sister know she needs to find someone else to help her with her wedding. I’m not the right person for the job.”
I opened my mouth to tell her that was bullshit and she knew it, but she bolted out of the car so fast, I didn’t have time to utter a single syllable before the door slammed shut.
Without any hesitation, I jerked my door open and hustled around my car.
Obviously, she hadn’t planned her escape out very well because she was still rummaging through her giant bag, which she hilariously called a briefcase, when I caught up with her. “Damn it, Jules, you’re so frustrating.”
She whirled around, and her features were locked and impassive as she stared coolly at me. “I’m frustrating. Are you kidding me?”
The space between her car and mine was tight at best, but still, I moved closer. “Look,” I started again, “I know I’m not the easiest person to deal with, but you’re no piece of cake either.”
Her eyes were wide, her nostrils flaring, and I could see the pulse beating wildly at the base of her throat. “Grrr . . . you . . . you really—”
There she went again with the growl. I couldn’t decide if she was more kitten or cat or maybe even lion, and I couldn’t stop myself from throwing my head back in laughter.
Her eyes widened in surprise. She looked . . . shocked.
I sobered and glanced curiously at her. “What’s that look for?”
She immediately dropped her gaze and remained silent.
“Jules?” I prompted.
She sighed, and then lifted her head, her stare almost rebellious as her chin thrust upward. “I’ve never seen you laugh. Or even smile, for that matter. You don’t show your emotions much, other than the angry ones. I can never tell what you’re thinking, and that’s frustrating.”
Seemed like we were both filled with frustration.
My features relaxed into an easy smile, and I noted again her surprise. “I’ve been accused of being an emotionless bastard by more than one woman, but we’ve usually had sex first.”
The laughter she expelled was exhilarating and sent an electrical charge throughout my entire body, but more specifically right to my cock. “That just about says it all then, doesn’t it?” she somehow managed to mutter through her laughter.
I shoved my hands in my pockets to stop them from streaking over that gorgeous body of hers. “Does everything have to be a battle with you?”
She stopped laughing, but her breathing remained hitched. “I could ask the same about you.”
I shook my head. “What I was trying to say in the car, twice, was that I have some kind of thing for you, and I want to figure it out.”
She said nothing for a moment, but then curiosity seemed to take hold, and she bit her lip. “All right. I’ll bite. What does figure it out mean exactly? Be friends? Date? Screw?”
I quirked a brow. No woman had ever irritated me and turned me on at the same time the way she did. “What if my answer isn’t that straightforward?”
The disgruntled look she gave me didn’t get past me.
Nor did I let it daunt me. “But, I mean, if you’d rather cut right to the screwing part, I’m good with that, too.”
Now she was laughing again. “You really are too much.”
“Oh, you have no idea,” I mused and stepped forward, pushing her back against the car.
I wanted more of what I had back at the farm.
I wanted her.
And so I took what I wanted.
Crashing my mouth to hers, the taste of her was both hot and sweet, and something I couldn’t quite identify, but I knew it was satisfying.
Her lips parted on a whimper, and she gave me full access to what I wanted. What I needed. What I craved.
This time she kissed me back harder and clung to me in a way that had her fingers digging into my back.
Feeling like I needed more, I tugged her thigh up so I could press deeper between her legs. When my hand tightened around her neck, she pushed against me, and I groaned. The vibration of it causing only more heat to shoot through me.
As the kiss grew more demanding, it muddled my head and took me somewhere else entirely. The air crackled dangerously between us, and I let myself go. My hands wandering, my lips seeking, my tongue thrusting, and my body wanting.
When I felt my control starting to fray, I lifted my head, but didn’t step back, didn’t let her go. “We should talk first.”
Breathless and panting, she was attempting to steady herself and placed a hand on my chest as if she needed the support. “Okay, you’re the first guy to ever say something like that to me.”
Firsts were all over the place tonight.
“It’s just that jumping into bed, or anyplace, would be easy, and I’m not saying I don’t want to.” I glanced down at my raging erection, “I mean obviously, I do.”
A smile feathered her lips along with a slight blush that coated her cheeks. “But . . .”
“Yes, there is a but.”
“Isn’t there always?”
I shrugged. “But, you are going to plan my sister’s wedding.”
She shook her head back and forth. “I can’t. I don’t have enough resources to pull it off.”
“Yes, you can. And yes you are. Somehow, someway you will make that day happen because I’m not letting you quit.”
She raised a perky brow, and I couldn’t help but glance further down at her perky nipples. Fuck, I wanted to take them in my mouth. “Did you just say you’re not letting me?”
I shook off the thought of putting her in my car and having her naked beneath me right this minute. “Yes, I’m not letting you quit. I’ll sue you if I have to.”
Her palms pressed harder against my chest. “Oh yeah, on what grounds?”
I smiled. “Misrepresentation.”
“Of what?”
“Using that sexy body of yours to lure me into doing business with you and then not allowing me to sink deep inside you. Not allowing me to fuck you so hard and for so long that you can’t even remember your own name.”
I watched her eyes smolder with an explosive heat and had to order myself not to press her right back against the car and just take her right there. In a public place. She cleared her throat. Straightened her shoulders. Her voice was shaky when she finally spoke. “I never said I wouldn’t allow that.”
Triumph blazed in my eyes. “Good. Then the faster we can move past the business aspect of our relationship, the faster we can move on to getting naked.”
“That’s right to the point.”
“I’m always right to the point. You’ll figure that out soon enough, just like you’re going to figure out where to have this wedding. And then once you do, you are going to plan the biggest event the country has seen in decades.” I lifted her chin with my fingers. “Do you understand me?”
She nodded. Swallowed. Went to open her mouth, but I shut it with a kiss.
“Don’t even think of disagreeing,” I whispered around her lips.
Ignoring me, she placed her hands on my face and leaned back. “What I was going to say is what happened to figuring us out? To being friends? To dating? You’re skipping right to the sex part.”
“Isn’t that the best part?” I murmured.
Dirty blonde hair and big eyes framed an unexpected charm of twin dimples. “Well, yes, and no.”
“No?” I asked in surprise.
“I mean, when it’s good, yes.”
“I don’t know who you’ve been having sex with, but I promise you with me it will be more than good.”
She rolled her eyes at my flirtation, but those dimples flicked in amusement on her cheeks when she went on. “You sound like Tony the Tiger by the way, and I’m waiting for you to say, It’s great.”
An exasperated sigh escaped my throat, but so did a surprised smile. She knew how to dish it, that was for certain.
“Seriously though, Jake, dating is how you get to know someone.”
I sobered. “Dating is . . . complicated, and expectant, and time-consuming,” I ran my hand through my hair. “Three things I can’t handle in my life right now, and besides, I have a job waiting for me in New York.”
“New York?”
I nodded. “In the trauma unit at New York Presbyterian Hospital.”
“When do you start?”
“That’s open-ended right now.”
She nodded as if she understood that it was dependent on my grandmother. Then she rose on her toes, linked her hands behind my head, and laid her mouth on mine. A jolt of pleasure shot straight through me. I had to fight the urge to grab her as I had before, because all I wanted to do was release even a small portion of that pent-up lust that was between us.
I could have just a little taste right here, and it would help do just that. I ran a hand up her body then down it again. Stopping at the loose waistband of her pants, I eased my fingers inside.
Quivering, she drew back, and a pretty flush tinged her tan cheeks pink. “How about this? I agree to plan the wedding—with your help—and you agree not to define us, to see where things go, regardless of the place.”
All kinds of alarm bells went off in my head, and I pulled my hand back. That was dangerous right there because it meant she wanted more than I knew I could give.
Than I had to give.
“Look,” she said. “I have a business to run that you must already know is floundering, and that is my first priority. I like you, and I want to figure this out between us, but I want to do so with an open mind.”
I looked down at her. “Figure it out, that’s all.”
She removed her arms from around my neck and offered me her pinky. “Pinky swear.”
I shook my head. “I am not doing that.”
“Come on, please, it means we both understand the deal. We enter into a relationship with no expectations.”
“But with sex?” Hey, I was hopeful.
She smiled. “Yes, with sex.”
I offered my pinky and couldn’t believe I was doing such a foolish thing. She just had a way about her. Part strong woman, part lost girl. She was both a kitten and a lion, and I was drawn to her. With my pinky wrapped around hers, I said, “Now, for the sex part.”
“Yes.” Her eyes were wide, and her lips parted.
However, before I could tell her we were going to my place in midtown because it was closer than Buckhead, and I didn’t want to hear anything about it, my phone started ringing from my car, where I’d left it. I uncurled my pinky and held up a finger. “Give me one second.”
She nodded.
Opening the door, I grabbed for my cell. It was late, so either there was an emergency at the hospital, or it was concerning my grandmother. “Dr. Kissinger,” I answered.
“Dr. Kissinger, this is Matthew.”
I stood and held my phone to my ear. My heart was clambering in my chest. “Yes Matthew, is something wrong?”
Matthew was my grandmother’s night nurse. I’d hired him to take care of her at her home, and tonight was his first night.
“Yes. Yes. Everything is fine. And I hate to bother you, but she’s asking when you’ll be home.”
Relief washed over me and I laughed. “Tell her I’m on my way and then will you please remind her that I’m nearly thirty, which means she no longer has to wait up for me.”
“Yes sir, I understand sir, but I’d rather not if you don’t mind.”
“Sure thing, Matthew, I’ll tell her myself when I get there.”
“Okay, sir, goodbye then.”
I shoved my phone in my front pocket and backed Jules up against the car. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to postpone things. My grandmother just came home today, and I told her I’d stay with her. Somehow she took that to mean I need to be home before she goes to bed.”
Jules was giggling. “I heard you, and I think it’s cute.”
I thrust my hard cock against her. “Baby, I’m anything but cute. When you get home tonight, and you’re touching yourself, thinking of me and what I’m going to do to you, I doubt the word cute will come to mind.”
“I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I’ve been playing with myself a lot since meeting you.”
I groaned and thrust into her again. “That’s something we have in common then because I’ve had an itch I haven’t been able to scratch. But tonight when I get in the shower and grip my cock, this time I’ll be thinking about you playing with your gorgeous pussy and the sounds you make when you come.”
Her lips formed a perfect O. “When will I see you?”
Stepping back, I took her bag and immediately found her keys. “Me or my cock?”
“Don’t they come together?”
Unlocking her door, I smirked. “Oh, they do. Trust me, they do.”
“Seriously, when?”
I opened her door. “I’ll call you tomorrow, but check your phone tonight.”
“Are you going to send me a dick pic?” she asked, lowering herself inside.
“Not just a dick pic. Something better,” I told her and stepped back to shut the door. “Now get going. I’ll follow you out. If I don’t get back to Rosewood, my grandmother won’t get any sleep tonight.”
“That’s it!” she shouted with a burst of excitement.
“What’s it?”
“Rosewood. We’ll have the wedding at Rosewood and recreate the scene in that picture of your great-grandmother. A tea party in the garden before the ceremony during the day and the ball of all balls inside at night. It will be just like one of Gatsby’s parties, only so much better.”
I had to hand it to Jules; my sister would love the 1920’s vibe. I wasn’t so sure she’d love the Rosewood idea, though. Yet, I could sell her on that, especially since I knew Mimi would go for the suggestion the minute I repeated it. I tapped my knuckles on the hood. “Start planning, but Juliette, not before you make yourself come thinking of me.”
She ignored me again. It was really starting to irritate me, and that only turned me on more. “I need to come over, but not tomorrow. How about Sunday?”
I raised a brow. “My grandmother will be home, but if you insist on having me, I guess I’ll have to say yes.”
“Not for sex,” she scolded.
“I know,” I said and closed the door.
She opened the window. “I’ll be there at eleven.”
I leaned in. “What about getting together tomorrow for the sex part?”
With eyes the brightest green, freckles alight, and dimples practically dancing, she shoved me back. “Oh, that will have to wait. I have a lot to do tomorrow. See you Sunday,” she said, and then closed the window.
I watched her back out and then I watched the taillights of her little Miata fade. As she turned the corner, I wondered if this was all a big mistake because I couldn’t wait to see her again.
And that was so unlike me.
So very unlike me.