by Lora Leigh
“Eh, that’s what I pay my hands to do.” He shrugged negligently. “So I can play when I want to.”
The white T-shirt he wore stretched over his broad chest, emphasizing his lean hips and hard abs before disappearing into the band of his jeans. He was still wearing his boots, which gave his powerful legs a sexy, alpha look. There were days she wished she had fallen in love with the gentle giant rather than the brooding asshole she had given her heart to when she was sixteen years old.
“Slug.” She grinned as he braced his hand on the railing before jumping over it and landing on her balcony.
“Hell, a man has to take time to enjoy the fruits of his labors.” He smiled back at her, tipping the straw cowboy hat back on his thick head of hair as he settled himself into the padded chair beside her and accepted the beer she handed him. “Besides, I wanted to check up on you. You were too quiet Saturday night.”
She had been a nervous wreck. She felt Slade watching her, his eyes following her every move. He had been no place to be seen, but she could feel him.
She shrugged at the question, drinking her water rather than discussing Slade.
“He’s changed, huh?” Jazz finally said. “Not as easygoing as he was.”
“He always had it in him.” She threw him a quick look. “Don’t play games with me, Jazz, we both knew Slade was always too sure of himself, too arrogant. It just wasn’t as developed then.”
He nodded. “Sometimes it just takes a powerful force to strip a man down like that…”
“Don’t you start on me.” She flashed him a hard glare. “I don’t want to hear it, I don’t want to know. Slade is a part of the past and he’s going to stay there. I told you Friday night, I don’t want to hear your lectures and I mean it.”
He sighed, aggravation reflecting on his strong-boned face.
“Slade’s not in the past anymore, Jess. He’s right here now, and he’s set his sights on you again. And sorry, sweet pea, you lost your own bet. You gave in.”
She flushed at the reminder. Anyone in the office below the other morning had heard her screams. The bastard. He had made certain of it.
“Doesn’t mean a thing.” She rolled the cold water bottle between her palms. “He won’t ambush me like that again. I’m having the locks changed on the doors and security codes changed…”
“And you think that’s going to stop Slade?” He was laughing at her now. “Baby, you forget what he’s good at. Security is Slade’s specialty. Why do you think him and Zack are fighting like two polecats determined to mark their territory now? He doesn’t like our security or the company we use. He’s getting ready to overhaul the whole damned thing. He’ll ghost right past your puny little alarms.”
She lifted a lip in a silent sneer. “I’ll have him arrested.”
“For what? Making you scream in heat?” Yes, he was laughing at her. Enjoying the predicament she was finding herself in.
“When you finally fall in love, I hope it’s the bitch from hell,” she snarled. “I hope she works your guts into so many knots you can’t think straight.”
He opened his eyes wide. “I think straight now?”
Her shoulders drooped in defeat, her head dropping as she shook it in resignation. There was no making sense with Jazz. He didn’t have any sense. She was certain he was nothing but a little boy in a grown man’s hard-packed body. Damned nice packaging, but hell if he knew how to do anything but tease and torment the rest of the world.
As she opened her lips to speak, a movement from the corner of her eyes caught her attention. She was cursed. It was just that simple. A second later Slade hauled himself over the heavy rail of his balcony and stepped over the distance to hers, his gray eyes slicing toward them, his body tense, hard, as he stared at Jazz.
“Why not just build a fucking walkway between the balconies?” she snapped. “Before someone breaks their damned neck.”
What was it about jeans and boots that just made a man too sexy to look at? Combine it with the white button-down shirt and the brooding anger on Slade’s face and her pussy was creaming. Furiously. Her clit throbbed as anticipation surged through her even as anger burned inside her chest.
“What do you want?” She glared at him, hating the way her body reacted to him, how everything inside her woke up and started screaming his name.
“Have lunch with me.” He didn’t beat around the bush. “We’ll take the bike into the mountains and talk.”
Talking was the last thing on his mind if that bulge beneath his jeans was anything to go by.
“Hey there, Slade, you’re not going to say hi to me?” Jazz’s booming voice caused Jessie to wince. She could hear the challenge in it. “Slade ain’t talked to me all day. He’s being right unsociable, sweet pea.”
Slade didn’t even look at Jazz, he continued to stare at Jessie, his expression forbidding, reminding her of the warning he had given her the other morning.
“Can you believe this?” Jazz grumped. “Son of a bitch loosens my teeth for me and then can’t even say howdy two days later. My best girl won’t talk to me, and my favorite cow tried to stomp my feet. I’m tellin’ ya’ll, Mercury must be in retrograde again.”
“Shut up, Jazz,” she muttered, the look in Slade’s eyes making her nervous.
“Shut up, hell,” he retorted, flashing Slade a hard smile. “Bastard goes riding off for five fucking years without even a ‘by your leave’ and thinks he can just walk right in and own the world again. Maybe I want to keep my little stake in it.”
Slade growled.
Jessie jumped to her feet, wedging herself between the two of them. “I’ve had enough of this. Take it somewhere else, both of you. Go kill each other for all I care but you’re not doing it on my balcony. Get off.”
“You wouldn’t let me, remember?” Jazz flashed her a wicked smile as Slade took a warning step forward, his hands gripping her arms to move her to the side.
Jessie stared at Jazz incredulously. “Have you lost what little mind you used to own?” she asked carefully.
“Maybe.” He tipped the beer to his lips, swallowing in a lazy movement as he winked back at her flirtatiously. “You’d be worth being senseless for, sweet pea.”
“Jessie.” Slade’s voice was darker, more dangerous than she had ever heard it. And warning. She glanced at him, her lips thinning at the dangerous tension that marked his expression.
“Fuck it. Kill each other. See if I care.” She stomped around Slade, glancing at the balcony where Zack stood watching the scene in amusement.
“Would you care to make sure they don’t kill each other on my damned balcony?” she snarled. “And unless you want your security boy locked in jail for the week, keep him out of my damned apartment.” Evading Slade’s hand as he reached out to her, Jessie pushed her way into the apartment and slammed the glass door closed behind her.
“Jessie.” Slade’s voice was furious through the door, not that she really cared at that point. She could have cheerfully taken a bat to both of them right then. It was like dealing with two little over-spoiled children.
Jerking a cami and shorts from her dresser, she grabbed her sneakers from the floor and stalked to the bathroom for a shower. A cold shower. The more she fought with Slade, the more aroused she had become. He was killing her, destroying her control and her will and she had no idea how to fight it.
Half an hour later, dressed, furious and aching, she left her apartment, heading for the stairwell when the door opened and Slade stepped into the hallway.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” His expression was dark, his gray eyes glittering with lust and suppressed anger. She moved to push past him, determined to ignore him. She found herself plastered to the wall instead, pulled from her feet. Slade’s aroused body held her pinned to the wall. Jesse felt lightning flare through her clit, a heated kick of sensation spearing her womb as he pressed his jeans-covered erection into the notch he forced between her thighs.
“Your puss
y’s fucking wet,” he growled, his eyes thunderclouds of lust. “Your nipples are hard and your face is flushed, I bet I could sink inside you now and you’d glove me like a silken fist. So why are you running?”
“Let. Me. Go.” She held herself stiffly, her nails biting into his powerful forearms as she glared at him.
His hips pressed tighter, stealing her breath at the caress to her clit. Oh God, if he did that many more times, she was going to come.
“Don’t run from me, Jessie.” His voice was a guttural throb. “We both know it’s not going to work. We can start over—”
“Like hell,” she snarled back in his face, shaking with the force of the anger surging through her. “For God’s sake, Slade. You’ve been gone five years. Five fucking years. Did you think I was going to just lie here pining for you and wait for you to bring that big overconfident dick of yours back into my life?” she snapped insultingly. “Do you think because my body likes how you touch it that that’s all it’s going to take to turn me back into the stupid little girl I was then?” She struck out at his shoulders with her fists, bucking against him, snarling when he refused to let her go.
“Shush.” The fingers of one hand gripped her hair as the growl vibrated between them. He held her in place easily. “You’ll be my sweet little Jessie,” he whispered, staring into her eyes, stealing her breath with the depth of emotion in his gaze. “Yes, baby, you are my sweet little treasure. All mine. That tight little pussy, your smart little mouth, and that tender heart you think you can hide from me.” His hips rotated against hers. “All mine.”
His lips brushed hers and she was almost lost. Almost.
“No!” She jerked to the side, forcing her legs down, stumbling away from him as she fought to steady her breathing.
Hard hands helped right her, but they weren’t Slade’s. Jazz and Zack were there, catching her as she stumbled. She jerked away from them, staring at them in fury, in pain. He was going to kill her. He was breaking her heart, pushing for the one thing she was most terrified of—giving him her heart again. Losing him again would kill her and she knew it.
“Moron.” Her voice was thick with tears. Emotions tore through her, feelings she had hidden even from herself while he had been gone. Things she didn’t want to feel, didn’t want to destroy her again. “Can’t you understand this is over?” she cried. “You left me, Slade. I didn’t leave you and I won’t let you destroy me again.”
She moved quickly from the three of them, walking furiously toward the parking lot and freedom. If she didn’t get away from him, she was going to break. She was going to lose her heart, her senses and her mind and that terrified her.
Slade watched her leave, tenderness swelling inside him even as his heart clenched at the pain he saw in her face. God, she had grown, become stronger, surer. She wasn’t going to fall into his arms. His Jessie had a backbone that was stiff as steel and despite the fact that he knew, to the bottom of his soul he knew, she still loved him, she wasn’t willing to give in yet.
“She’s going to shoot your ass before it’s over with.” Jazz shook his head as Slade glanced at him. The other man’s expression was pitying, his gaze filled with resignation. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jessie that damned mad. You make her cry and she’s going to rip your eyes out, Slade. You know that about her. She’s been like that since she was a kid.”
That wasn’t anger. It was pain, confusion, a woman fighting a battle she had no hope of winning. That’s what Slade knew. For a second, one pulse pounding, hotter than hell second, she had been his, her body relaxing, melting into him, ready for him. He had seen it in her eyes, felt it in the soft curves that pressed against his erection.
She wasn’t pissed; she was scared. Scared and running. There was a difference.
“She’ll be okay.” He flexed his shoulders, fighting the tension building there. “I’ll make sure of it.” He hadn’t come back, he hadn’t bet his soul on winning her back for nothing. For five years she had haunted him, cried out to him in his dreams and tortured him in his fantasies. She had been all that had kept him sane, and he had no intention of letting her go.
“Slade, man, do you know what the hell you’re doing?” Exasperation echoed in Zack’s voice.
“Hell no, he don’t,” Jazz chimed in. “He’s like a bull in a china shop chasing a little mouse. He’s going to break everything in his path.”
“Starting with your numb skull,” Slade bit out, the knowledge that his buddy had bedded his woman enraging him. “Don’t push me, man. The only reason you’re still alive is because she would likely shoot me herself if I killed you. Castration is still an option.”
Jazz snorted. “Dickhead. Maybe she deserves better than you. Maybe I think I can take care of her a hell of a lot better than you’ve proved you’re capable of.”
“What the fucking hell is up with your goddamned maybes?” Slade yelled, his fists tightening with restrained rage. “Did you fry your fucking brain while I was gone?”
“Maybe.” A wide grin split his face. “You have to admit, she’s hot enough to do it…”
Slade jumped for him.
Chapter Fourteen
Jessie pulled into the shaded parking lot for Rigor Construction late that evening, checking carefully for any sign of Slade as she parked then slipped into the door that led to the stairs. He was making her paranoid, she thought as she unlocked the apartment door, checked her rooms quickly then tossed her packages to the bed. She closed the curtains over the balcony door and windows, letting the cool air of the air conditioner wash over her flushed flesh as she stripped.
She headed for the shower, flexing the tense muscles of her shoulders as she stepped into the bathroom. Adjusting the water, she moved beneath the spray and let it pound at the kinks in her back.
Slade was making her crazy. Another day or two of this and she was going to be a jabbering, horny idiot. A smile crossed her lips. Or maybe not. The toys she had purchased at the little store were going to have to help. The thick vibrating dildo wasn’t Slade, but it should be relief. The anal toy and mini massaging Pocket Rocket hedged her bets that if she could get rid of the arousal, then she could hold out against Slade.
Finally clean, refreshed, she flipped off the water, dried her hair before wrapping a larger towel around her body and stepping from the bathroom. She glanced at her feet, considering her toes and a little girly pampering. Maybe a coat of scarlet polish. That would look good, give her a smidgen of added confidence maybe, she thought as she started to lift her head.
And she caught sight of the boots. Dark, scarred boots and frayed denim.
Jessie came to a stop, her heart racing as her chest tightened in feminine fear. Not physical fear—primal fear. The fear of a woman who knows she is caught. And she was caught. The bag from the toy store lay on the floor, the containers the toys had been sealed in had been opened.
Her gaze lifted over long muscular legs, a mouthwatering bulge that had her cunt screaming out in joy. Up, up, to the dark, lust-lined expression of the man she had never had the strength to resist. In one hand he held the dildo, in the other the anal wand.
He considered the wand for a long moment before shifting his gaze to hers. His gray eyes were nearly black in his hard face.
“Do you really think this is going to do it?” he asked. “That when you slip it up your tight little ass that it’s going to give you what I did?”
She licked her lips nervously, suddenly terrified of what she knew he could and he would do to her.
“I asked you not to come back here.”
God, how had he gotten in and she hadn’t even known it? Hadn’t heard him? She trembled, shaking with the hunger burning in her soul, the needs ripping through her. She had existed on autopilot for five years. Going through the motions, pretending, even to herself, that everything was okay. Now she was alive again and it was killing her.
He glanced at the wand.
“I remember how tight your little ass is.” His
voice was strangled. “How much you liked having it opened, having my cock sinking into it, making the pleasure hurt. Do you think this is going to make you hurt enough, Jessie?”
He stepped closer. Jessie retreated.
“Don’t,” she whispered, suddenly desperate, knowing she couldn’t fight him as well as herself. “Don’t do this to me, Slade. Please leave.”
“I’m not Jazz, Jessie,” he growled. “I won’t walk away and I’ll sure as hell not dangle on a string while you try to make up your mind. I’ve dangled on someone else’s string for five fucking years. I’m pulling in the slack now, baby.”
He picked up the tube of lubrication he had laid on the small bed table as he tossed the dildo to the chair in the corner of her bedroom. “You won’t need that, darlin’. My cock is plenty good enough to still the fires in that sweet pussy. But this,” he indicated the wand in his hand, “we can play with this a little.” Her ass flexed, her anus tingling in response as she fought for the fury she knew should be burning inside her. All she could find was the arousal, the lust.
Yes, he had taught her body to crave him, just as he had declared. And it did crave. It hungered. It screamed with need, and finding the will to fight it was killing her. She retreated instead, moving back as he edged closer, his expression so dark, so intent, she felt the juices dripping from her pussy in response.
“I don’t want you!” She stomped her foot furiously. “I hate you, Slade. Do you hear me?” She retreated further, the breath locking in her throat at the knowledge that he was pushing her closer to the bed.
“I hear you, baby,” he crooned, his gray eyes gentling but no less filled with lust. “But you love what I do to you, don’t you? You love how I can make you hurt and crave more of it. How the pleasure gets so fucking hot, you know you’re going to burn and you jump right into the fire. That’s what I’m going to do, Jessie. I’m going to show you all the things we both only dreamed of in the last five years.”