She shook her head against the wall. “Never seen either.” Her breath came in shattered gasps. “But Paris, I think.”
“I’ll take you to Rome,” he promised, “you’ll like it better, trust me.” He watched as pleasure etched itself into her features. He felt the tension in her climb, sensed how near she was to climax and pushed her closer. His thumb stroked the most sensitive bud of flesh at the apex of her thighs as his fingers continued their ministrations.
She quivered, held onto his shoulders and dug her fingers into his bare skin. She rocked her hips into his hand, moving fretfully, anxiously, chasing the release she knew was just out of reach.
“Now we know each other,” he whispered, his mouth aligned with hers. He looked into her eyes, willed her to give herself to him.
“And we have nothing in common,” she told him.
“Do you care?” He touched her deeper, harder.
She groaned. “No.”
“Me neither,” he said. “No more excuses. So come for me. Let me watch you fall.”
“I can’t,” she said between harsh breaths, her hips moving, her head moving from side to side. “It’s too much. I can’t just—”
“Let go,” he demanded, his own hunger crashing through him. Gazes locked, Jackson felt her surrender and a moment later, watched as she splintered. He swallowed her moan with his mouth, taking her soft sighs and puffs of breath as his own. He felt her body contract around his fingers and continued to stroke her long after the last ripple had faded away.
Reluctant to release her, he finally picked her up, considered taking her back to her room and finally decided on his own. There at least, were condoms in the side table drawer. A few long steps and he was there. He carried her inside, kicking the door shut behind them. In his arms, her eyes were still glazed and her mouth was open, an invitation to a kiss.
He accepted and took her lips with his as he walked across his darkened room, following a swatch of moonlight that speared in through the wide bank of windows. Setting her down on the edge of the wide mattress, he wasted no time in grasping her robe and whipping it off of her, baring her body to his gaze. In the pale wash of light, her skin looked like the finest porcelain. Her nipples were hardened tips of pale pink and the thatch of dark blond curls at the apex of her thighs tempted him.
“Jackson—” Even as she sat there, naked, he could see her mind working, providing reason after reason as to why this was a bad idea. Giving her plenty of excuses to call this off. To stop him before it was too late.
“No thinking tonight,” he said, shutting her down before she could get started. “Just feeling. We’re in this together, Casey. Let’s enjoy it.”
She laughed shortly and shook her head. “This isn’t why I came here. This isn’t what was supposed to happen.”
“This was destined to happen,” he argued, loosening the ties of his pajama bottoms and letting them fall to the floor.
She sucked in a breath.
“We both know it,” he said. “We’ve known it all along.”
Her gaze drifted over him and his already hard body tightened further. When she looked up, into his eyes, he reminded her, “From that first night, Casey, we were meant for this. Tell me you know it. You feel it.”
“I don’t know,” she admitted, shaking her head, licking her lips. “I don’t know what I feel anymore.”
“Let me help.” He set one knee on the mattress and pressed her back onto the bed. She stared up at him in the moonlight and Jackson felt a surging roar of need rise within. She touched something in him, made him crave like he’d never done before. She reached him in places no other woman had and though he didn’t want to take the time to explore those feelings, he definitely wanted to enjoy them.
He wanted her over, under and around him. He wanted her legs locked over his hips. He wanted her on top, taking him inside her heat. He wanted to watch her eyes flash with climax. Wanted to hear her soft moans and desperate sighs. And he wasn’t willing to wait another moment for any of it.
Reaching to one side, he yanked open the bedside table drawer, pulled out a condom and ripped the foil covering off. Then he sheathed himself, shifted until he was standing between her legs looking down at her and then he smiled.
“Jackson—”
“You want this as much as I do, I know it. And so do you.”
She laughed, a tight groan of sound sliding from her throat as he scooped his hands beneath her behind and lifted. “You’re like a force of nature. You show up and take over. You’re even convinced you know what I want sexually.”
He quirked a brow at her. “You’re saying I’m wrong?” He positioned her legs around his hips and held her there until she’d locked her ankles at the small of his back.
“Would it matter?”
“Yes,” he said tightly, his fingers exploring her soft folds, caressing, dipping into her heat. “If you tell me to stop, I will.”
She hissed in a breath and lifted her hips even higher into his touch. “Don’t stop.”
“I knew you’d say that.”
“Have all the answers, do you?”
“Yeah.” The tip of his penis rested at her entrance. Everything in him urged him to plunge. To take. To ravish. To pleasure. And yet he waited. “I told you before, when I know what I want, I find a way to get it.”
She whimpered a little, scooted closer, claiming the very tip of him. “And when you’re finished taking charge, will you tell me when I’ve climaxed?”
He laughed and pushed himself into her heat. “You’ll know, Casey. Trust me, you’ll know.”
Her legs tightened around his hips and he rocked into her. Heat devoured him, sensation enveloped him. She fisted her hands in the black silk sheets and held on as he moved in her over and over again, driving them both to the edge of madness, keeping them both teetering on the very brink of release.
Each time he felt her orgasm near, he pulled her back, deprived her of what she wanted, needed. He prolonged the pleasure for each of them, making each stroke a divine kind of torture.
He’d never known this all-encompassing wash of pleasure. He’d never felt so connected to a woman in his bed. He’d never watched her pleasure and felt it magnify his own. For a man who liked to be in charge of everything in his life, Jackson was suddenly sure that it was Casey driving this train.
Casey, whose soft groans and frantic whispers fed the fires inside him until they burned brighter than he would have thought possible. This was more than he’d found in that first night with her. This was deeper, bigger. This was more. Of everything. He felt her desire and stoked it. Felt her tension and created more. He wanted to be the one to take her higher and faster than any other man had before. He wanted to touch her as she had somehow touched him.
When finally, her body fisted around his, Jackson knew he couldn’t delay his own release a moment longer. He surrendered to the inevitable. Gave himself up to the woman who had so completely splintered his defenses.
And when the storm passed, he stretched out on the bed beside her, gathered her close and listened to the furious beat of her heart.
Tomorrow would be time enough to figure out what the hell had just happened.
Seven
Over the next week, Jackson alternately buried himself in work and indulged himself at home. But for the first time in his life, he couldn’t seem to keep his mind on business and that was a little disconcerting. It was taking all of his focus to maintain schedules, look at new routes and assign his pilots.
Before Casey, he’d spent nearly every waking moment at the airfield. Hanging with the other pilots, taking the jets up, plotting and planning the expansion of King Jets had been his be-all and end-all.
Now, everything had changed.
“I’ll take the Vegas run today,” Dan Stone said, leaning across Jackson’s desk to point to one of the scheduled flights on their weekly roster. “And I can do Phoenix tomorrow,” he added, then straightened up. “But you’ve got to put
one of the other guys on the Maine flight Thursday.”
“Why?” Jackson looked up at one of his best pilots. Most of King Jets clients were wealthy, pampered and knew what they wanted. They even had favorite pilots and Dan was one that was most often requested.
Jackson acknowledged that for some people, flying was a terrifying ordeal. He just found it hard to understand anyone who didn’t love being up in the air, surrounded by clouds, with the ground no more than a smudge of green beneath you. For him, flying was about freedom. Always had been. Dan Stone was just like Jackson in that way, so the fact that the man was turning down a long flight in favor of a couple of short hops was curious.
“It’s Patti,” Dan said, tucking his hands into the pockets of his black slacks. “She’s due any day now and she doesn’t want me gone for long.”
“Ah.” That’s right. Jackson had forgotten all about Dan’s wife being pregnant with their first child. “Okay then, we’ll hand off the Maine flight to Paul Hannah. He should be fine with it. Then once Patti’s delivered, you can—”
“That’s the thing, boss,” Dan interrupted him with a wince. “Patti’s a little crazed right now, talking about how she wants me to quit flying. Too dangerous.”
“You’re kidding.” Jackson leaned back in his chair and stared up at the other man. Dan looked uncomfortable as hell.
“Wish I was,” the man said with a shake of his head. He walked over to the bank of windows in Jackson’s office and looked down at the airfield where blue King Jets were lined up like a military unit on parade. “She’s never liked me flying. In fact, it’s the one thing that almost kept her from marrying me. She’s scared every time I go up. And now that we’ve got the baby coming…”
Jackson watched his friend. They’d been flying together for years. And he knew that Dan, more than anyone else, understood that soul-deep need Jackson had always had to be in the air. “Can you do it?” he asked. “Quit, I mean. Could you really walk away from flying?”
Dan turned his head and gave Jackson a rueful smile. “I don’t know. Never considered such a thing before.” He tipped his head so that he could stare up at the blue, cloud-studded sky and a sigh left him. “I do know that Patti and the baby mean more to me than anything—including flying.”
Funny, but Jackson had never really thought about the inherent dangers in air travel. To him, being in a plane, behind the controls of a powerful jet, skimming through the sky—it was second nature. Something that was as much a part of him as his brown eyes. Sure, there was a risk whenever you took a plane up. But hell, he faced a higher chance of an accident just taking his car on the freeway.
And he wondered if he could walk away from something he loved so much for the sake of someone he loved more. The question had never come up for him before. Was it because the thought of crashing, dying had never bothered him much since he’d never had anything to lose? As that question resonated in his thoughts, his mind dredged up images of Mia. And Casey.
Casey?
Jackson shifted uneasily in his chair. Loving his daughter was one thing. It was to be expected. But feelings for her mother weren’t a part of his game plan. Yes, he wanted her. More every damn day, despite how many times a night they came together. But anything more than lust was simply not allowed to happen. There were other considerations—Marian.
That name shot through his mind like a blazing comet, leaving behind a streak of fiery red sparks. Hell, he’d forgotten all about Marian over the last couple of weeks. He’d never called her back after walking out on their dinner together. He’d never bothered to check in to say he’d been busy and he still hadn’t proposed.
“Everything okay?” Dan asked, frowning at him. “You suddenly look like you’ve got food poisoning or something.”
Not surprising, given the thoughts rushing through his mind. But Jackson shook his head and said, “No, I’m…fine. Just have a lot on my mind.”
“I know the feeling,” Dan mused with a shrug.
“Anyway, I’ve got some time still to think about this.”
“Sure you do,” Jackson said, preferring to think about Dan’s problems than his own. “And, if you do decide to hang up your wings, I want you to know you’ve still got a job here.” He stood up, held out his hand. “You can take charge of the ground crew, or you can move into design. You’ve always had a good eye and I can use a man who knows what passengers want in a plane and can look at the designs with a pilot’s eye.”
Dan nodded, shook Jackson’s hand and said, “Thanks, boss. I appreciate it.”
When the other man left, Jackson dropped back into his chair. He had to make a call. Had to go see Marian, explain about Mia and tell her they wouldn’t be getting married anytime soon.
She wasn’t going to be happy about it, but damned if he could bring himself to care. The truth was, it didn’t really matter how Marian took the news. The very fact that he hadn’t given her a single thought in two weeks told him all he needed to know. Whether the idea to marry into the Cornice family had started as a good one or not, it clearly was a bad idea at the moment.
“I’ve got news on your Cassiopeia.”
“Huh? What?” He glanced up from his desk to find Anna standing in the open doorway of his office. Pushing thoughts of his soon to be ex-almost-fiancée out of his mind, he repeated, “What?”
“Casey? You remember. The girl with blue eyes? The woman you wanted me to locate for you? The one I’ve been trying to find for two weeks?” Anna lifted one eyebrow and planted a fist on her hip. “Well, I found her. She’s been hiding at your house.”
“Funny.”
“I thought so.”
Jackson leaned back in his desk chair. “Sorry. Never occurred to me that you’d still be looking for her.”
“Your wish, my command,” she said with a shrug.
“That’s how the employer/employee thing works.”
“Not usually,” he muttered.
“I heard that.”
“Not surprising,” he said with a grin.
She walked into the office, a woman completely sure of her position and not the least bit intimidated by the boss she sometimes treated like one of her own children. “So,” she said, putting both hands on the edge of his desk and leaning in. “This nice woman calls, introduces herself as Casey Davis and asks me to let you know that she won’t be home for dinner.”
“Why not?” He straightened up, frowning.
“The funny thing is, I hear a baby crying in the background while Casey and I are chatting.” Anna’s eyes narrowed on him. “Care to elaborate?”
“Where’s she going to be?” Jackson ignored her dig for information, as he was on a quest for his own.
Anna straightened up. “She said she had an appointment with a potential client.”
“Client?” But she ran a silly little one-woman operation out of her house—his house. Why would she need to meet anyone about that? Couldn’t she just do the meeting on the phone? And who was she meeting?
“That’s what she said,” Anna told him. “Then, she said that she would be dropping Mia off here with you about four.”
He stood and immediately started looking around his office, trying to spot potential danger zones. His gaze went from uncovered electrical outlets, to long cords, to the trash can, to…impossible. This was not a baby-proofed place.
“Who’s Mia?” Anna’s voice broke into his thoughts.
“My daughter,” he said and heard the awe in his voice as he said the words. He’d had that baby girl in his house for one week and already his priorities had shifted. Seeing Mia’s smile first thing in the morning was a bigger jolt to his system than his usual cup of coffee. Holding her before she fell asleep turned his heart into mush and seeing her tears was enough to bring him to his knees.
He was a man desperately in love with his child.
And completely at a loss over her mother.
“Your daughter?” Anna grinned hugely, sprang around the desk and wrapped Jac
kson up in a hard hug. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why haven’t I met her?”
“Yes, I just found out myself, and you will this afternoon at four,” he said, answering all of her questions.
“This is great, Jackson,” Anna said. Then her eyes clouded and her smile slowly faded. “Can’t wait to meet the mysterious Cassiopeia and the no doubt beautiful Mia. But, what are you going to do about Marian?”
Scowling, he said, “Get her on the phone for me, will you? Guess it’s time I made a date for Marian and I to have a chat.”
As Casey steered the big black boat of an SUV down the road, headed for King Airfield, she had to admit it had been an amazing week.
She and Mia had, in a few short days, settled comfortably into Jackson’s gorgeous mansion on the hill. It would have been difficult not to. Before she and Mia moved in, Jackson had hired a cook, a full-time housekeeper and then later offered to add a nanny to the staff. But Casey drew the line there. She didn’t want strangers raising her child and Jackson had seemed pleased with her reaction.
The house itself was gigantic and though it took Casey a couple of days to learn her way around, she had to admit that there was a warmth to the place she hadn’t expected. The rooms were big, but decorated in a comfortable style. Overstuffed furniture begged to be curled up in. Window seats beckoned and shelves filled with books called to her.
And as far as her bedroom went, she’d never even dreamed of having such a lush, romantic room—not that she spent much time in it. Despite her better judgment, she hadn’t been able to stay away from Jackson.
The man was completely her opposite in every way and yet, there was such a near-overwhelming magnetic attraction to him, she’d given up trying to fight it. Every night, after tucking Mia in, Casey and Jackson moved to his bedroom and there, they spent hours locked in each other’s arms. In bed, their differences didn’t seem to matter so much.
Which was just a little disturbing.
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