by Crowe, Liz
She leaned away, catching Blake’s eye. He winked. She frowned.
“Okay, I’m done.” Rob stood and stretched. “Gordon, behave yourself.”
Jack stood and shook his hand. Sara watched them, a sudden compelling need to make them stay rushed through her. But she sat, accepted Blake’s and Rob’s kisses, and watched Jack show them to the door. He returned, a fresh glass of wine in hand.
“So,” he began. Sara refused to look at him. Finally alone with him, the last two years of sleep-deprived chaos, and a distinct lack of male company was making her dizzy. “I have a proposal for you.”
She kept silent but the “yes” was on her lips, if he would only ask.
He moved to one of the large leather chairs opposite her, contemplating his wine glass. “Sara, would you do me the honor of…”
She looked at him, but his gaze remained neutral, non-committal. “What? Spit it out already.”
“…Of taking on the management role at the downtown Stewart Realty Office.”
She blinked, pretty sure she’d not heard him correctly. “Uh, what?”
“You know I haven’t been able to replace Pam. The place has been in total chaos for over a year now.”
Sara sipped and watched him, willing herself to stay seated.
“Not what I was expecting.”
Jack raised an eyebrow, which sent a chill down Sara’s spine. Had she truly lost him?
Whose fault is that? I pushed him away. Insisted on my independence. Get a grip.
She unfolded her legs from underneath her and propped them on the glass-topped coffee table.
He kept his gaze trained on her as he spoke. “Let’s just say I got your message. Loud and clear. You should be proud.”
“I’m not.” She tried not to pout too obviously.
“So, about that proposal…”
Sara patted the couch next to her. “Come back over here. I think better when you’re close to me.”
He sank onto the couch, draping an arm around her. She snuggled into his side, forcing out all the guilt over how her need to do this mom thing on her own had affected so many lives.
“Okay, I’m here. Well?”
She closed her eyes when she felt his lips touch her hair.
She put a hand on his thigh, relishing the familiar musculature beneath his jeans. He shifted.
“Listen, Sara, I don’t know where your head is right now but…whoa…”
In one quick move, she was on his lap, straddling him, her face inches from his. She bit her lip. Jack clutched her hips but didn’t speak.
“Okay if you insist.” He cupped the back of her neck and pulled her in for kiss that started slow, easy, intimate, before turning into something much more. The room dimmed around her.
She threaded her hands in his hair, sucked in huge breaths of him, ran her tongue across the rough rasp of his jaw, down his neck. “God, Jack, I miss you.”
“Don’t ruin this by talking,” he growled in her ear, yanked up her t-shirt and flipped open her bra in one motion. He cupped a breast, holding it almost reverently, before lowering his lips to her nipple. The second he touched her and started lapping around the stiffened peak, she sighed.
“Oh my God, I think I just came.”
He laughed into her flesh, then pushed her to her feet, shoved her skirt up and slid her panties down to her ankles. “Wait,” she said. She ran into her room and snagged a god-knows-how-old condom from her bedside table drawer. He took and and rolled it down his cock.
“Resume your position?” His crooked smile almost broke her heart. But her body overruled the emotion, pushing her forward, back onto his lap. The sensation of his erection against her bare flesh brought fresh moans to her lips.
“Do it again,” she whispered.
“Are you sure you want to go here, Sara?” His eyes were like a midnight sky just as she remembered. “Because I’m not inclined to fuck and run.” He groaned as she reached down to unzip him, fisting his hard flesh. “Although a fuck would be nice.”
He flipped them around so fast Sara squealed, putting a hand over her mouth as he dove back down to her nipples, caressing, sucking, licking, making her back arch, her entire body throb with need. She sensed the pulse of their years’ long connection swirling around them, making her head spin as he kissed her and kissed her.
“I need this. So much,” she muttered into his lips. He started to pull away but she gripped his face. “I need you, Jack. Please. I…”
“Say it,” he said, jaw clenching. She shifted her hips, tilted them so she could feel his flesh against hers. Tears stung the back of her eyes as he lifted up and away from her, his hand on the amazing part of him that she wanted inside her. She reached up and yanked him back down, her lips near his ear.
“I’m sorry. I miss you. I need you.”
He groaned and pressed into her with one firm thrust. She wrapped her legs around him, needing to feel every inch of his body against her, inside her.
“Sara,” he whispered, his exhalations against her lips. “Look at me.” She stared at him, the hard reality of their inevitable physical connection ramping up, making them both breathless. But instead of saying anything, including the three words she wanted to hear him say, he closed his eyes, thrust hard, shuddered, and came just as the world exploded behind her eyes.
Her body clenched and pulsed with orgasmic energy. They continued moving together a few more seconds. When guilt rushed in to fill the void in her chest she shoved it back, sighed and kissed him, slow and easy. He slipped from her body, and sat, gasping. “Damn. I’ve lost my touch. What was that, all of five seconds?” He got up to dispose of the rubber.
“No, you haven’t.” She stretched and put her legs on his lap after he sat back down.
“Ma?”
Jack jumped up, yanking his jeans up and tossing a blanket over Sara as she scrambled to reassemble her clothes. She rose, keeping the blanket wrapped around her. The little girl stood, ratty stuffed animal clutched in one hand, tears in her eyes.
“Bad dweam,” she blurted, before she started wailing in earnest. Sara scooped her up, making soothing noises, got her a glass of water and tucked her back in, ignoring the girl’s cries for “Bwake,” reminding her that Uncle Blake had gone home to his house.
She sighed and tugged on a pair of old jeans and a t-shirt, regret weighing heavy on her. She shouldn’t have done that. She and Jack had no business rekindling anything, much less their undeniable physical attraction.
“Hey.” He stood in the door, redressed, looking perfect. “Everything okay?” He eyed the sleeping girl as if staring at circus sideshow. Anger zinged through her. It was almost a relief – and gave her an excuse.
“Yeah. Let’s go back out.” He followed her. A strange new awkwardness between them made her gut roll. She ran a hand through her hair.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me, I mean, earlier. You know.” She looked up at the ceiling then leveled her gaze at him. Jack Gordon. The man of her dreams sometimes nightmares. The guy she knew better to love, to trust, to want. The guy she did want. She did love.
But she knew better. And she’d been so damn strong for the past couple of years, keeping him at arm’s length. Growing stronger as a single mom with every passing day. No need for a man in her life.
“Look, Jack, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…we shouldn’t have.”
“I agree.”
She shut her eyes, forgetting how much she counted on him to talk her out of it. His agreeing with her wasn’t what she wanted. She gripped the edge of the sink.
Stop it Sara. Grow up. You’re a parent now. Stop acting like a horny teenager.
“Then go.” She didn’t turn around as she spoke. “We got our itches scratched. No more, no less. Thanks.” She turned to face him. Holding back the compulsion that screamed in her ear to grab him, hold onto him, let him be what he wanted to be for her, she swallowed hard and tried to smile. Because this was right. They couldn’
t be together. It was be a giant disaster.
He blinked, then left without a word. Sara’s water glass made a satisfying crash onto the sink.
“Ma!” the voice called again and Sara trudged back to her room, “sorry” on her lips.
Chapter Ten
Blake looked up from the spreadsheets on his laptop when Rob tossed his keys on the counter. Smiling, he accepted a kiss and then bent back to the work at hand.
“I have a surprise for you.” Rob stated, after pouring a glass of orange juice.
“Hmm?” Blake didn’t really pay attention at first. He frowned when Rob snapped his laptop shut practically on his fingers. “Hey. I’m working here.”
“I said, I have a surprise for you.” Blake leaned back, admiring the tall, handsome blonde man with whom he shared his life and business. Rob flipped Blake’s computer back open, punched a few keys, and turned it back around to face him. A huge, luxurious looking boat sailing along an astonishing blue sea flashed up on the screen.
“Nice.”
“Yes, it will be. Your passport is up to date, right?”
Blake frowned at him.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I can’t go anywhere right now.”
“Why not?” Rob rubbed his shoulders, easing out tension with every stroke.
“Well, for starters I just hired a new brewer and I don’t think he has a good handle on things. Oh yes, right there.” He leaned back into Rob’s body let the man work the stress out of him. “And Katie needs…” Blake’s chair nearly toppled backwards at the sudden absence of anyone behind it. “What?”
Rob glared at him, shut the computer and walked out.
Sara glanced at her phone, saw it was Rob and answered as she attempted to navigate her way through the latest crisis du jour in the office she now managed. Because she had said yes to that proposal of Jack’s. He was now the general sales manager of the entire company and she managed the brokerage’s most successful branch. So he was now her boss.
Which put him at a convenient distance, she supposed.
Email had been flying fast and furious over a deal gone sour. She was trying to handle it without pulling Jack into the mix. She set the phone down and hit speaker so she could multitask. At the clipped sound of his first words, she stopped and picked it back up.
“What’s wrong Rob? Is Blake…”
“You and I need to talk.”
“Okay.” She reached over to shut her door, curious but not too worried. Rob had been such an anchor for her brother for so long. Whatever it was, she remained confident he could handle it.
“I need Blake to take a vacation with me, Sara, but he won’t because he feels too responsible for your child.”
She frowned. She’d never heard the tone he was using. Anger suffused every word, making its way into her brain and igniting a small fire of defensiveness.
“I don’t know what you…”
“Yes. You do. You have got to stop relying on him so much, Sara. It’s not good for your relationship with your daughter. And it’s playing fucking hell with my relationship with your brother.”
“But…”
“Listen, you know I love you. I love Katie. But God dammit I love Blake more, okay? He’s set himself up to be way too responsible for Katie. He started out that way. I let him do it. But now it’s got to stop.”
“I’m sorry Rob.” A rush of guilt filled her brain. She knew this moment had to come. She did rely on him too much but Blake made himself available, insisting she work whatever hours she needed to, that he had Katie under control. And he did. “You’re right,” she admitted quietly.
“I know I’m right. Now call him and tell him if he doesn’t come on this vacation with me, I may move out. I’m not kidding.” She stared at the phone that had gone dead in her hand. Shaking, holding back tears, she hit Blake’s speed dial.
“Yeah?” He sounded pissed.
“Honey, you have to listen to me now…”
Chapter Eleven
Jack stared at the computer screen, trying to absorb the chart his new secretary had prepared. He gave up after a few minutes, exhausted with the myriad bullshit details he now had to sweat. Named general manager of the Stewart Realty Empire over two years ago, he still couldn’t fully wrap his mind around all the added stress. At the time, it had seemed like the perfect solution to take his mind off the daily dilemma. The woman he loved beyond reason, refusing to acknowledge him, and the distinct and alarming lack of sexual activity that followed.
He’d been mistaken.
In hindsight, it probably hadn’t been the best idea to convince her to take on the sales manager’s job at the downtown office, which forced them together on a near daily basis, almost always under stressful circumstances. Head pounding, he slammed the laptop shut.
“Jack?” Jason poked his head in the new office, “We need to focus on…”
Jack held up a hand. He was through for the day. Period. He’d spent an utterly horrific morning dodging bullets from lame-ass attorneys trying to press bogus lawsuits on a couple of his agents for misrepresentation and had presided over a rancorous management meeting in which he’d been assaulted on all sides. The icing on the cake was Sara in her full-throated fury at him for cutting her office’s budget for things like the premium coffee and cable on all those frigging electricity-sucking televisions.
“You might as well shut us down and stick me out in a shitty strip mall, Jack. I gotta have this stuff. People expect it. We look cheap otherwise and my clients don’t want to feel like their downtown office agents are too tight to spring for locally sourced coffee or ESPN, you get me?”
He’d reminded her—through gritted teeth— that because he knew exactly how much that fucking showpiece of an office cost to run every month, there would be changes. She’d have to get creative. It was either that, or he’d have to increase each of her agents’ desk fees, the monthly amount each agent paid the company to cover stuff like printing and, in her case, premium cable and fancy coffee.
His teeth ached, watching the costs rising every month. Making the situation worse, it was happening in conjunction with a leveling-off of high-end sales from that branch. He made it perfectly clear he would not continue to fund the toys and premium caffeine unless her sales numbers came up significantly.
The meeting had gone downhill from there.
She made him absolutely insane, for so many reasons. She’d been a perfect manager so far—tough, but approachable, firm but fair. He knew she’d get her head around it soon and start cranking out revenue, but having to work so closely with her pretty much ripped his guts out daily.
He’d offered to take her out on dates, only half-kidding about quick jaunts to Paris or Rome. She’d laugh, remind him she couldn’t afford a babysitter, and go back to ignoring him. Or biting his fucking head off. Which reminded him all over again that she was right. They had less than zero business being together.
He ran a hand down his face, tried to forget the moment they’d shared at her house a couple of years ago. Since then he’d made a point to find a willing woman or two to take his edge off. He’d caved that night on her couch out of pure physical need, but it had left himself wide open for her rejection. Something he had no interest in experiencing ever again.
The dates had proved to be just that–nothing but physical release. He was sick of them, and himself, already.
Yet, even with all of that, the sight of her name on an incoming text still made him smile.
“Hey, Blake and Rob are on vacation. Can you pick up Katie from daycare?”
He frowned. The baby years had flown by in a blur of diapers, breast milk and avoidance on his part. Babies made him nervous, period. He recognized his own lameness, but it seemed she had plenty of help from family, and Craig. Although since being accepted to medical school down in Nashville, he’d obviously been of less use.
Jack had always felt like a fifth wheel around the kid, frankly, with so many people involved he
r day-to-day care. Ashamed to acknowledge he didn’t even know where “daycare” was, he agreed, got the details and headed out.
* * *
He parked at the daycare building—which was a total zoo by the time he arrived— and followed Sara’s instructions about going to the main office to present his identification since he’d never picked Katie up before. Little kids swarmed through the huge hallway, screeching, and flinging themselves into their parents’ arms. The place reeked of pee and stale lunch boxes.
By the time the annoying paperwork was completed, it had more or less cleared out. He stood, like a chastened schoolboy, in front of the director’s desk as she called Sara to confirm that he, one Mr. Jack Gordon, said with a long appraising look at him and his drivers’ license, had been authorized to retrieve one Miss Katherine Elizabeth Thornton.
He adjusted his tie, suddenly nervous about having her in his car, worried he hadn’t installed the car seat he’d retrieved from Sara’s office properly. Not to mention a whole host of shit he couldn’t even begin to name, the main worry coming face-to-face with Katie.
He hadn’t seen her in months. Would she even recognize him?
He glanced around, still waiting for them to copy his ID and, if the time commitment was any indication, to do a federal background check on him. Anger replaced anxiety as his patience waned. He tapped his foot.
“Look, I’m good, okay. I’m her…” He stopped dead. The woman at the desk looked up expectantly. “Uncle.” His voice faded.
“Katie certainly has a lot of those,” the annoying person chirped before handing his ID back and pointing to a side door. She gave him a different sort of look. This one he recognized. He smiled at her. She was sort of good looking, actually. “You gay like her other uncles?”
“Nope.”