He faced her. “What do you mean?”
“I’m done. I’m tired, and really, why are we here? You’re going to ruin everything.” She stood and sauntered off before Jasper could figure out an appropriate response.
She was right. They shouldn’t have come. After he’d gone to Holly’s hotel room that afternoon, Arthur had called to ask if he had seen her since Christmas morning.
“No, I haven’t,” he had said point-blank and with a hint of agitation.
Arthur had sniffed. “I’ve always known who and what you are, Jasper. Don’t forget it.”
The call ended. Jasper rubbed his face in anguish. Arthur had already known the truth. He had never believed that Jasper was the sort of guy who would fuck around with random women. Doing that repulsed him. The behavior was too much like his father’s. And that meant Arthur had only pretended to believe him when he’d said he would treat Holly as if she were his concubine.
He wondered why Arthur had pretended to believe his deception. More importantly, Jasper wondered how in the hell he had missed the fact that his lie hadn’t worked.
Holly’s face came to mind. His desire for her was making him inefficient. He had made several mistakes that day, including purchasing BCN. But he vowed not to make any more errors.
Suddenly, a voice came over the PA system, telling everyone to enjoy the food as they talked about the purpose of the night’s gala. Holly, Kylie, and Rachel had been gone longer than Jasper was comfortable with. However, Rod immediately wanted to resume their discussion. The guy was a talker. While the person at the microphone shared statistics on human trafficking, Rod informed him about how the gala could’ve been planned better.
“Why the fuck are they serving food right now? After I eat, especially at this hour, I’ll be ready to go to bed.”
Jasper split his attention between listening to Rod and the woman speaking at the microphone and watching to see when the women would return to the table. His eyes were missing Holly. He wanted to see her walk toward the table in her slinky gold dress. Tonight, they were going to fuck. There were no ifs, buts, or maybes about that. Yes, it would be dangerous. But he didn’t care. Whatever detachment from obligation that had infected his brothers and sister was beginning to infect him.
Jasper finally pepped up when he saw one of the women who’d gone to the bathroom walking back to the table. It wasn’t Holly or her colleagues. It was Julia. She was gnawing on her bottom lip and glaring at him with sheer terror in her eyes. She was dramatic in that way whenever she was anxious, which seemed to be something she felt all the time. Soon, she made it to the table and whispered in Jasper’s ear. She said she had something to tell him, something she’d just heard. But they needed privacy.
Jasper excused himself from the table and went with her. They found a quiet room in one of the upper tiers, and that was where she relayed what she had just heard by accident.
Chapter Thirteen
“Got it, Holly,” Kylie said. There was a defiance in her eyes and the way she tightened her mouth.
Gosh, did she hate Jasper. I was starting to wonder if she hated him so much because he had ignored her sexual advances at one point in time. Her abhorrence of him was nonsensical.
“Got it,” I said weakly.
Kylie threw her hands up and faced Rachel. “She’s going to fuck it up, and we have no time. This story has to come out now.”
“Calm down, Kylie,” Rachel said in her customary reasonable tone. “We may have to admit defeat on this one.”
“Never. And I’m not working for him either.”
“What is it with you?” I blurted. “Why do you hate him so much?”
“Because he’s a crook, and so is the rest of his family.” Kylie was shivering slightly.
Rachel and I widened our eyes at each other. The rest of his family? I wondered what she meant by that, and I was going to ask her when Rachel reminded us that we’d been gone too long. We decided to table our conversation until our nine a.m. meeting the next morning in Rachel’s office. Then we would discuss our Hail Mary tactic to get Jasper to sign off on the story about sexual misconduct in Christmas Industries.
When we got back to the table, my heart felt as if it had constricted into a tiny, tight ball. Jasper and Julia were gone. Their place settings were clear, and when I asked Rod if he knew where they had gone, he said they’d informed the table that an emergency had arisen and they had to leave.
For the rest of the night, I put on a happy face. Whenever I thought about Jasper and Julia skipping out of the gala together like the perfect couple on the cover of GQ magazine, my stomach hurt. I barely ate the main course and refused dessert. Of course, whoever had made dinner was not even a quarter as good as the chef at the Christmas mansion. The food was subpar, and I planned to order a late-night BLT with a green salad as soon as I returned to my suite.
I remained spaced out through the rest of the night’s proceedings. After our dessert plates were collected, the Deep Source team was introduced, and Rachel talked about her plan to air a six-part special with Daniel Arroyo during our first week on the air.
“Real reporters on the ground in real time,” she said. “No talking heads. No actors pretending to be journalists. We’re presenting objective and serious news coverage as they used to do in the old days.”
Earlier, when we were stowed away in a tiny room near the bathroom, Rachel had asked me a number of times how I felt about Jasper owning BCN. Three times, I insisted I didn’t have a problem with it in a way that made me convince myself I was okay with it. Of course I wasn’t okay with it. His decision seemed rash and pretty crazy. I’d heard what he said about considering buying the company four months ago, but I didn’t believe him. I felt he was saying that for my ears.
Finally, the night ended, and we all made our way to our cars and limousines. Not many people stuck around to chitchat. Just about every face I passed looked as exhausted as I felt. The hotel wasn’t that far from the venue, and I was prepared to walk since I didn’t want to be confined in the back of the limousine with Kylie’s ex-boyfriend. It was strange, though—the two had barely said much to each other all night. Instead, Rod had spoken to Katherine Donovan, Dave, and Daniel for most of the night.
“Hey, Holly, wait up,” Rod called just as I stepped out into the cold night. He rubbed up against my side, walking way too close for comfort.
I shifted to my left to put some distance between us. “Oh, Rod. You know, I think I’ll walk back.”
He put his hand against the small of my back. “No way. It’s too dangerous. Come on, let’s ride back to the hotel together.”
Rod was leading me to the limousine. Only a very small part of me wanted to insist on walking. Truth be told, I was exhausted and heartbroken and just wanted to crawl into bed and figure out how to quit my new job the next morning during our nine a.m. meeting.
On the ride to the hotel, Rod kept watching me with flirty eyes and a small smile. He wanted to fuck, and I just wanted him out of my sight.
“How about we have a drink together before bed?” he asked.
“No,” I said sharply and instantly regretted my tone. I mean, we were colleagues. There was certainly a more respectful way to refuse him. “I mean I’m sleepy. I just want to go to bed.”
He nodded, still wearing a grin and a faraway look in his eyes. “The last time we tried to, you know, fuck, it wasn’t good, was it?”
“No, but only because we don’t have sexual chemistry, Rod,” I said without regretting those words.
“No? I just think I had too much to drink.”
I wanted to laugh. Was that the story he’d been telling himself?
I tilted my head and frowned thoughtfully. “I remember you only having three drinks that day and the fourth that night in my bedroom. You weren’t drunk. You were very lucid.”
He shook his head adamantly. “I’m good at appearing sober. I was drunk.” He shrugged. “I’m better at fucking than what I showed you.”<
br />
I thanked the Almighty that our car stopped in front of the hotel during my speechless moment. Truthfully, I didn’t know what to say. Even if I weren’t so hooked on Jasper, I wouldn’t do anything with Rod. He was Kylie’s ex-lover. She was a friend. I had never knowingly let any dick that had once been inside a friend of mine enter my depths. The guy would have to be special for me to cross that line, and my friend would have to grant permission before I even kissed him.
I opened my door before Rod or the driver could get out of the car. “Goodnight, Rod.” I flowed out of the back seat and walked so fast through the lobby that I was practically running. I knew Rod was somewhere behind me, intending to catch up. I’d gotten out of that vehicle so fast that I was sure he was shocked. I saw him through the narrow opening of the elevator doors after I rushed inside.
Thank goodness I had a straight shot up to the fortieth floor, where my suite was. My hands were shaking, and nervousness gripped me as I kept swiping my key wrong.
A tall figure stepped behind me, and I nearly froze in place.
“Let me get this for you, baby.”
I could’ve broken down and cried as a familiar presence washed over me. I let Jasper take the key out of my hand, and after one swipe, we were in my suite.
Chapter Fourteen
I forgot I was mad at him for buying my new place of employment. All the fantasies I’d had of telling him off and where to go abandoned me. I was starved for him. Our lips crashed into each other. His tongue devoured mine, and mine his. He embraced me so tight that I had to release our kiss to breathe, but the separation didn’t last long. Once we both caught our breaths, his tongue dove deep into my mouth once again.
It seemed our kissing would never satiate our desire. My body shivered as an emotion that must’ve been love poured through me. My head spun. The flavor of his mouth made me more desirous for him. His fingers gripped one side of my face and threatened to never let go.
“Mm…” he moaned as he sucked my bottom lip. “Sweet, baby, sweet.”
He tasted my lips as if they were the flesh of ripe strawberries.
“Oh God,” I whimpered.
He moaned as his rock-hard erection nudged the lower part of my belly, making promises to soon invade my throbbing pussy. My fingers mussed his hair, which was soft, a distinct difference from his hard body.
Our kissing wasn’t even close to coming to an end as he guided me against the door and grinded his cock against my pussy. I whimpered as pleasurable flickers flowered in my sex.
“All night, I wanted to tear this dress off you,” he said then sucked the side of my neck so hard that it stung, but then his soft, warm tongue stroked the skin, soothing the ache.
I put my hands on the sides of Jasper’s head as he bit my right nipple through the silky cloth. My nipples were so hard, so sensitive, and he wailed like a lost puppy as his mouth went from one to the other, back and forth. My pussy wept for him as I pushed my pelvis against him, giving him hints of what I wanted him to do to me. Jasper shoved an arm under my dress, and his fingers dove into my wet, slippery pussy. In and out, he finger-banged me as he continued to gnaw on my nipples. He did everything at a rapid pace, never stopping, even when someone gently rapped on the door.
“Holly?” Rod called from the hallway.
Jasper pressed his lips against my ear. “Do not speak,” he whispered.
There was no way I was going to do that.
Rod called me again, but before I could answer, Jasper swept me into his arms, and we kissed feverishly as he carried me into the bedroom. I think Rod said something like “I’m sorry” as my lover laid me down on the king-sized bed. My lover lifted the hem of my dress until the material bunched over my belly.
My lover’s dazed eyes devoured my pussy when he saw I wasn’t wearing panties. He wasted no time separating my knees, wrapping his arms around my thighs, and guiding his face toward my slit.
“Damn it, baby,” he muttered, then his tongue slid up the skin of my inner thigh.
I sucked air as the erotic sensation made me tingle. He did the same on my other thigh before his tongue stroked my clit.
“Ah,” I cried as his tongue made an immediate impact.
My pussy was sensitive, ready to explode with orgasm without much stimulation.
“Mm,” Jasper whispered as he continued on his quest to make me come and come hard.
I gasped, whimpered, and hissed the closer I came to orgasm. I knew he loved that I was making sounds without caring if Rod was still standing outside my door or not. Rod couldn’t have known I was about to fuck the owner of the media company he worked for. And Jasper was eating me out so expertly that nothing I clenched could keep me from wriggling with pleasure. The orgasmic sensations built one on top of the other, taking circuitous routes to the ultimate climax. I sucked air as his strong fingers dug deep into my ass cheeks, bringing an ache with the best feeling ever.
Then it hit me. “Ah,” I cried at the top of my lungs.
Jasper stood. My eyes were dazed, as if I had just ingested the best drug ever. I watched him stand, take a condom out of his pocket, rip open the packet, and slide it over his engorged cock.
Our eyes remained connected. I had no guilt or apprehension about what was about to come next. Once he had prepared his dick, he spread my knees farther apart and greedily slammed his cock into my depths. My pussy embraced him, swallowing him whole.
The air from our panting crashed against each other as we gazed deep into each other’s eyes. My hips eagerly met his every thrust. I saw something in his eyes. Maybe it was a question, but it definitely looked like confusion. I wondered if he felt as I did. What we were doing could never end. He and I would never be able to wipe ourselves from the other’s presence. Instead of less Jasper Christmas, I wanted more, more, so much more.
I pressed my head deeper into the pillow and opened my mouth to release a deep sigh. His mouth came down on mine. Our kissing was silky and indulgent. I fought the urge to whisper that I loved him.
“You’re so fucking…” He sucked air as though he were overcome by the pleasures flowing through his manhood.
“Mm…” I moaned.
Our thrusts collided in unison. Our lovemaking had become a fine-tuned instrument. He urged me to come before he did. To help me along, he rammed my pussy, shifting steadily, allowing himself to be guided by my sounds. Shit, he did it again. The tingling had started. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the sensation so that I wouldn’t lose it.
“Are you close?” he asked breathlessly.
I could hear that he was barely hanging on.
“Answer me, baby,” he insisted.
“Yes,” I cried, holding him tightly.
He kept up the cadence, begging me to come because my pussy felt too good.
Then it happened. The sensations were electric, intense, pouring through my sex like Niagara Falls. I screamed. He roared. Our bodies convulsed against each other.
For the longest time, we lay there. Jasper had rolled me on top of him. I would’ve been perfectly content to stay like that forever, but that wasn’t feasible. We both knew it.
“What is it you have to convince me to do?” he finally asked.
“What?” I was severely confused by his question.
“Julia overheard a conversation you were having with your colleagues at the gala.”
I quickly raised my head off his chest. He was watching me with narrowed eyes. My lips parted, but I was lost for words. My first inclination was to maintain the upper hand. But the expectation in his eyes rendered me to a new state of mind. I couldn’t fool myself any longer. I was on Jasper’s side and had been for a while. So I told him all about the sexual misconduct allegations and what Kylie and Rachel wanted me to do. “They’re aware that they’re on the losing side of the coin, but it’s Kylie who’s unable to let it go.”
“What about you?” Jasper asked.
“What about me?”
“Whose side are you
on?”
“Yours, always yours.”
He closed his eyes as if he relished the words I had just spoken.
“You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for you to say that.” He kissed me delicately. “Know that I’m always on your side.”
My mind raced back to my conversation with Rachel and Kylie. I had promised not to tip Jasper off until after our meeting the next morning, but I hadn’t meant it when I’d agreed.
“So, what are you going to do?” I asked.
He heaved a sigh. “The allegations are true.” He closed his eyes and breathed again. “I knew horrible shit happened in the Lower Manhattan office, but it was my father’s place, not mine.”
“What do you mean your father’s place and not yours?” I asked.
“We’re off the record here,” he said. “Nothing you say or I say leaves this room, okay?”
After a moment, I nodded.
“My father had his demons. He grew up wealthy but not safe. You know what I mean?”
The look in his eyes said it all. Randolph Christmas was an abandoned and abused boy.
I nodded. “Did you grow up safe?” I barely asked. My heart was beating like crazy. I wanted him to say yes, that no one had ever hurt him.
“No,” he said.
I released the breath I had been holding. Our gazes remained locked. I remembered Gina had told me she tried to service Jasper, but he couldn’t get it up.
“Did you suffer sexual abuse?” I asked since we were being frank.
“No. But I was tortured to conform to my father’s will.”
I frowned. “Tortured?”
“Physically and emotionally tortured. Randolph called it the Roman way. He believed he had to mold me into someone who would do exactly what he told me to do, no questions asked. Especially after…” He took a deep breath.
“After what?”
Jasper looked around the room until his eyes landed on the desk. He pointed his chin at a lifestyle magazine. “I’ll get that,” he said and rolled me off him.
Desire: The Dark Christmases Page 10