“Yeah. It’s true. She’s like a wounded animal, Frank,” he said softly, and hated that Samantha flinched at his side. “And Erin’s flourishing now his dad isn’t around. I’ve been noticing the difference every day. It’s chalk and cheese. So silent around his father, to so chatty now Jamie’s not around. And I think that’s why he said something that last visit, because he’s finally talking and Janice, well, she didn’t like what Erin had to say.”
“You’re sure she’s not just saying it?”
Josh was surprised to hear the plea in Frank’s voice. “I’m sure.”
“What a goddamn mess.” He cleared his throat. “I’ll handle Janice, but the truth is, and I’m sure you know this already… your threat will have worked on her. She’s as avaricious as a goddamn magpie on the hunt for shiny tchotchke.”
That Frank knew his wife so well came as no surprise to Josh.
“I figured that out when you said she’d called,” Josh admitted. “Look, Samantha doesn’t want to deny you or Janice access to Erin. She just wants to make sure there are no future threats about his guardianship. That’s entirely justifiable, isn’t it?”
There was a pause down the line.
“Yeah, it is.”
“I’ll be hiring a family law attorney to handle this mess. Just to keep you advised.”
“There’s no need to be so formal about this, Josh,” Frank argued. “I understand what’s going on and I’ll handle Janice.”
“What happens if something happens to you, Frank? I don’t like the idea of leaving Samantha unprotected. It’s no grievance against you, but if something happens to me or you, and Samantha is left fighting Janice on her own… well, I don’t want that and will do what I have to to safeguard that from happening.”
“I understand.”
“I’m glad we’re on the same page.”
“Me too. Thanks for the warning about the Sanderson deal.”
“I was always going to keep you in the loop.”
“But this time, your intentions were a little different.”
“Circumstances definitely dictated my intentions, you’re not wrong.”
Frank’s laugh was wry. “Okay, kid. I’ll speak to you another time. And, Josh?”
“Yeah, Frank?”
“Apologize to Samantha for me?”
“I will.” He cut the call, angry despite himself. “Frank wants me to tell you he’s sorry.”
“For his son beating me?” Samantha, unlike him, didn’t sound angry. She snorted. “That sounds about right. Next time he sees me this will be like water under the bridge—like it never happened. That’s the story of my fool life since I met Jamie.”
Josh winced. “The man has no guts or honor. I’m angry he wanted me to apologize on his behalf, but at least it’s something.”
“He caved in like you thought he would?”
“He did.” He fingered his cell a second, checked the notifications, then shoved it back in his pocket. “We should go. We’ve been down here twenty minutes.”
Samantha grimaced. “Well, I’m not sorry. Erin will have been fine with your guard, and he likes cars so it was better for him to be there waiting than for him to have seen us shaken up. It was a good idea to take a breather.”
He shot her a look. “I’m full of good ideas.”
She chuckled. “I’m sure your board of directors agrees with that.”
“Some,” he admitted meekly.
For a second, she studied him, then she murmured, “It’s really under control, isn’t it? This situation, I mean?”
“Yeah. And I meant what I said. I’ll get a family lawyer to draft out some kind of agreement to make sure that further threats are contained. I don’t want you to have to deal with them in the future,” he replied.
“Thank you, Josh.”
He cut her a look. “You don’t have to thank me for doing what’s only right.”
She shook her head. “That’s exactly why I have to thank you. Just because something is right doesn’t mean someone is willing to back that up. Look at Janice. She knew and did nothing. You, on the other hand, have.”
“After the fact. And too late to protect you from Jamie’s fists.”
Self-hatred filled his tone and she must’ve heard it, either that, or sensed it, because she turned, and her hand came out to cup the one he rested on his knee. She squeezed his fingers, and it didn’t surprise him that she was trying to comfort him when, if anyone deserved comfort, it was her.
“You’re beating yourself up over this, and it’s not necessary. I didn’t come to you, didn’t open your eyes to the truth, to make you feel badly about what Jamie did. How Janice behaved then? It was wrong. That she knew and didn’t help me? Also wrong. You didn’t know. Jamie hid it from you, and I did too. I appreciate everything you’ve done, but not at the expense of you hating yourself over something you could never have prevented.”
“I should have seen it. Should have seen the change in him,” He told her ruefully, and the emotion stemmed not from her words, but from the strength it took not to turn his hand in hers, and to bridge their fingers. He wanted to feel her palm against his with a desire that not only astonished him, but overwhelmed him.
“How could you have seen? What goes on behind closed doors and all that…”
“I was his closest friend. If I didn’t see it, what else was he hiding?”
She grimaced. “I really don’t want to think about it,” she admitted.
“I can’t blame you.”
Samantha sighed again, and as she squeezed his fingers, started to get up. At the same time, he moved onto his feet as well. In the melee of arms and torsos moving and shifting, they ended up leaning against each other as they stood upright.
Too close, he realized. Far too close for his or her own good.
Her scent filled the air around him, and it packed such a wallop he almost choked. He pressed his hand to her arm to steady her, and she did the same; only her hand fell against his chest. Unbidden, his pecs tightened at the delicate touch. The tip of her fingers brushing his shirt, like a butterfly’s wings against the silk, felt as powerful a caress as another woman’s hand around his shaft.
Before he knew what she was about, she’d leaned up on tiptoe. Suddenly in his face, she pressed her lips to his cheek, and whispered, “Thank you, Josh. For everything.”
He could have left it there.
Should have left it there.
She didn’t deserve for him to overpower her with these strange feelings she was building in him. But just like he couldn’t stop his lungs from needing the next breath, he couldn’t stop his head from tilting to the side, couldn’t stop his lips swiping across her cheek, coming to a final halt at hers.
As their mouths touched, he felt her stiffen up. Fully expecting her to reject his touch, he was astonished when she didn’t take a step back. When, if anything, she pressed her other hand to his chest, and the tips of both sets of fingers dug deep into the hardened muscle.
They stood there, breathing in each other’s air, their lips touching in an innocent kiss. So innocent, it reminded him of his first kiss with Eloise Jamison back in second grade. When neither of them had really known what they were doing, hadn’t particularly understood what a kiss was, just knew that it was something everybody was sneaking at that moment.
There was no sensuality to it, not really. It was too chaste, too innocent. And yet, his body responded as though she was doing a striptease in front of him. As though she was actively trying to entice him.
The thoughts built up in his head.
Working him over, seducing him more than she even could.
He shuddered, felt her shiver against him, and then she slanted her head and let him in.
His tongue speared between her lips and thrust against hers. The moan she made nearly broke him. It decimated his control, slammed into him with the force of a freight train.
Her taste, goddamnit, it was like nothing he’d ever known.
>
He groaned into her mouth, loved the noises she made, the whispers and whimpers of sound that escaped her as he made love to her mouth; and that was what they were doing.
This was no hard kiss.
No sloppy tongue fuck between two people who knew the score.
This was gentle, and soft.
It was breath-stealing, and that was the reaction he felt.
Overwhelmed, he made to pull back, to put distance between them, but her hands slid up higher on his chest, coming up to dig deep into his shoulders. He felt the bite of her nails, felt them score and scratch through his jacket.
How he wanted to feel them against his skin.
To experience her claws.
She was so damn placid all the time that he wanted to see her riled up. Wanted to see her lose all control, to be freed from the restraints marriage to his bastard of a best friend had shackled her in.
He wanted her to fly, he realized.
With a grunt, he grabbed a hold of her ass and pressed her harder into him. Rocking his shaft against her belly had her stiffening, but when he thought she’d step back, demand space, she didn’t, if anything, she cocked her leg and stacked it on his hip.
He grunted at the perfect angle of her soft belly caressing and holding his hardness in place. Rocking his pelvis, he felt himself harden and knew that it would be so easy to climax. Would be so easy to find release from even this most meager of caresses.
She let out a soft mewl as he curved his hand about her waist and moved higher to shape her breast from the side. When she arched her back, rippling against him, he couldn’t stop himself.
He moved them in a short two-step and pressed her into the wall.
At that moment, he didn’t care if they were in a luxury condo in the city center. He didn’t even care if there were cameras filming them. At that exact moment, she took up all his thoughts, left him with nothing behind.
Samantha moaned as her back collided with the plaster behind her, but he hoisted her up, grateful that her skirt was baggy and loose-fitting, that it swayed around her legs rather than constraining her. The new angle had him sending her skirt up to her groin, and he felt the soft silk of her thighs against his palm.
With a moan, he delved between them and let out a hiss that had him pulling his mouth from hers at how hot she was, how fucking wet.
He shuddered, pressed his forehead to hers. “You’re so wet for me,” he whispered, his tone like gravel.
She whispered,. “Yes. Please, yes.”
Her pleading set him on fire and before he knew what he was about, he pinned her hard to the wall and used sheer brute force to keep her up there as he moved his fingers between them to release his shaft.
He was mindless at that moment, mindless where he’d never been out of control.
The sensation was both freeing and terrifying, but he was too far gone to question, too far gone to even think about the consequences.
All that mattered was her. Here and now.
He shuddered the second his fist was around his cock, and he pushed it against her. She jolted, then let out a deep sigh that resonated with him so badly, he felt like howling out his desire.
She wriggled her fingers between them, pulled her panties aside and bared her to him.
With a moan, he surged inside her.
She was so slick, so hot and wet, that she took him easily. Her tight walls clenching firmly around him as he plowed her, not stopping until he was home free inside her depths.
She shuddered, her pussy muscles rippling around him as she accepted all he had to give.
The pair of them stayed there, unmoving, as they both processed how fucking good it felt to be like this together, then she clenched down hard as her hands came up to grab the back of his neck and head. He felt the pinprick of her nails dragging against his scalp and let out a sharp grunt. He began to tilt his hips as an urgency overcame him, overwhelming him until he felt certain he’d come before he even got her worked up.
Samantha let out a soft cry that fired his blood even higher as he began to thrust into her, harder, deeper, faster. The slap-slap of their skin, the sounds of slickness between them sent them both to another level as she used her grip on his head to drag him closer to her.
Within the space of a breath, her lips were on his. They began to kiss once more, plunging and raking into each other, biting and sucking, slurping and sampling.
Sensation shuddered through him as she took charge of the kiss while he handled other matters. He managed to slip a hand between them and used the narrow space to begin to frig her clit.
Her gasping breaths were swallowed by him, and when she pulsed around him, her pussy clamping down and releasing, he quickened his pace, needing her to come before he shamed himself inside her.
When a sharp, hoarse exhalation escaped her, one that had her ripping her head back and her lips from his, she tilted against the wall, gulping down deep breaths that moved in the same rhythm as her pussy around his shaft.
“I’m coming!” she gasped, and he felt it. Felt it without her having to say a damn word.
Before she could do much more than gulp, he felt his orgasm too. It boiled like a brew in his blood. Made every part of him burst into flame as sensation overwhelmed him.
It blackened his senses. Blinded his eyes, deafened him as the cataclysmic release roared through him, until all he knew, the only thing that grounded him to this planet, was her clasp on him.
Her hold on him.
Chapter 11
Samantha
Samantha shot Josh a look as they rode down in the elevator.
Still feeling flushed, half-mortified, half-ashamed, and more than a little redolent with what he’d just made her feel, she was the most uncertain she’d ever been.
And she’d been in an abusive marriage.
Uncertain?
She’d spent so much time uncertain it bordered on the ridiculous. And yet, here she was, barely a year after having been given freedom, and tumbling into what, no matter how she looked at it, seemed certain to be a disaster in the making.
She rubbed her forehead as her thighs, almost of their own volition, clenched as the lift rocked. The faint spasm had her pussy twitching in memory, and her eyes fell closed as remembered sensation whooshed through her.
That had been so good.
So… urgent.
So hot and so liberating it was almost like…
She gnawed at her bottom lip as she realized just how bad Jamie had been in bed.
Sure, it wasn’t fair to compare the two men, but how couldn’t she?
Jamie had been her only lover until ten minutes ago. Now? Well, now, she knew different.
She’d never felt that kind of fire before. It had flared between them like an inferno, and where it had come from, she still didn’t know. They’d been apart, sitting on the floor, discussing the shittiest of situations, and almost free and clear of one another.
Then, they’d stumbled into each other a little, their bodies had brushed, and out of nothing, they’d been there. In each other’s faces. Their mouths connecting, their tongues tangling.
She licked her lips as they tingled at the memory. That had been one of the most powerful experiences of her life, and though she knew she’d regret it later, at that moment, she couldn’t find it in herself to regret anything.
How could she when she felt so astonishingly good?
Still, she didn’t appreciate the immediate distance Josh had shoved between them the minute he’d come back to himself.
She didn’t exactly feel like a slut. How could she be that? When she’d had sex with two men in her whole life? But the way he’d pulled away certainly hadn’t left her feeling warm and cozy inside.
She flushed with heat when he grabbed her arm. “What?” she asked, blinking up at him.
“Are you okay?” He was scowling down at her.
Well, technically, he was scowling at her general vicinity.
She didn’t kn
ow Josh well. Even though she’d been married to his best friend, and the two men had hung out a lot, they hadn’t spent a lot of time together really. But, what she did know, was the man wasn’t the kind to avoid eye contact.
What did that mean then?
Had she spooked him?
Could that be it?
There was no way he couldn’t have enjoyed what had just happened between them. It had been like a wildfire had just morphed into existence between them… And, that was why, though she found his behavior decidedly odd, she wasn’t worried.
What had sparked to life was unique.
And if he wanted to hide from that, then she was okay with it. More fool him.
She’d spent too long chasing after one man, and there was no way in hell, she was going to chase after any other.
“I’m fine,” she told him brightly, refusing to be ashamed over what had happened.
Sure, it had been spontaneous, and they’d been damn lucky not getting caught—just how close it had come had the power to make her blush. A tenant or resident could have walked into the hallway at any given moment and caught them in the act! And that wasn’t to say that security cameras hadn’t filmed them…
The thought had her clearing her thought. “I am fine, but just a question…”
“What?” he asked, his gaze on her chin again.
She licked her lips. “Will you be making sure there’s no security footage of what just happened?”
“I’ll make certain of it,” he murmured, as though that went without saying.
And, despite herself, she found his firm authority appealing.
There was something about him. Something that was unique and made him burn like a living flame that scorched her just to look at him.
She was used to money, and she was used to privilege now—well, used to and happy with were two different things—but Josh, she knew, lived in a whole other sphere of influence.
In his world, he could make her in-laws quake in their shoes.
That was impressive.
It was enough to make her pussy clench down hungrily if she were being honest with herself.
Believing Her: An Enemies to Lovers Fake Fiancé Romance Page 9