by Jan Bowles
In fact, she hadn’t even checked. Jessica had wanted to feel good about herself, and on the spur of the moment had thrown caution to the wind by lying on the bed to pleasure herself.
“Oh, I have the master key, Jessica, but you’ll just have to take my word for it when I tell you that I don’t carry it around with me twenty-four-seven. Besides, who knows anything for sure, honey. Perhaps you wanted me to hear you shouting my name. Perhaps you wanted me to come in and find you playing with yourself?”
He winked at her. “Stranger things have been known to happen. Especially in the sexual world Reed and I inhabit. Whatever the truth of the matter, I’m flattered that I helped you to achieve such an explosive climax.”
She blushed again, and maybe on some subconscious level Shane had a point. Perhaps she had left the door unlocked on purpose? Perhaps she had shouted out his name so loudly, because she wanted him to come in. Shane turned her on, and although her embarrassment was real and unimagined, she longed for this politically incorrect man to make her fantasies come true.
Some of his words seemed to have a darker meaning to them.
Stranger things have been known to happen in the sexual world Reed and I inhabit. Jessica wasn’t surprised to learn this because powerful men the world over came with powerful sexual appetites. Individuals like Reed and Shane Masters didn’t play by the same rules as lesser men. This thought alone turned Jessica on. None of her previous boyfriends were even in the same ballpark as her new bosses. They had been dull, whereas Shane and Reed were exciting. Her ex-boyfriends had been drearily safe and predictable, whereas her twin bosses were risk takers who dared to lay it all on the line in order to get what they wanted.
Not once during their conversation had the annoying, yet sexy as hell, smile left Shane’s lips, and when she lowered her gaze she noticed that another part of his anatomy seemed inordinately happy, too. She blushed profusely again because the outline of a mighty ridged tower was clearly visible in the front of his jeans. Try as she might, Jessica found it all but impossible to look away, and her fixation on his giant cock clearly hadn’t gone unnoticed by the man himself.
“See. You’re not the only one who has urges, honey. I’m made of flesh and blood, too.” The look of pure sexual intent left Jessica in no doubt that this powerful man wanted her. Wanted to fuck her. Deep down she wanted him to take her—control her. Jessica wanted his huge cock deep inside her. However, she wouldn’t make things easy for Shane, because the last thing any woman wanted to do was to come across as a cheap whore.
Using all the willpower she possessed, Jessica forced herself to look Shane directly in the eye. “You seem to have me at a disadvantage, Mr. Masters.”
“Shane. Call me Shane. Save the Mr. Masters crap for when we are on business.”
Just the way he spoke—those incredible blue eyes never showing the slightest chink of weakness—made her pussy wet with desire.
Fuck how I want him.
“You seem to have me at a disadvantage, Shane.” Truth be known, she loved using his Christian name. The way it slid so effortlessly from her lips only added to the sexual need that welled within her for this godlike man.
“Disadvantage, huh? Well, you have that right. I find that having people at a disadvantage, whether it be at work”—he paused suggestively, leaving her in no doubt of his intentions toward her—“or at play, is always desirable. Their disadvantage being to my advantage, so to speak.”
She figured that Shane and his twin brother took no prisoners when it came to making money. These guys hadn’t gotten to where they were today by being weak or easily influenced. No. The way he looked at her now, undressing her with those stunning blue eyes, exactly as he had done at her interview, led Jessica to believe that both Shane and Reed had cracked a few skulls together while building their empire at MAT. She imagined Shane Masters to be ruthless in both the boardroom and the bedroom, because the guy had the unstoppable demeanor of a shark hunting for its next meal.
If he wanted to fuck her right here and now, there wouldn’t be a damn thing she could do about it. The man was a sexual predator of the highest order. On one level, it amazed Jessica that things had progressed so far so quickly, because she hadn’t even started work for MAT in her capacity as their personal assistant yet. Conversely, though, sitting on the edge of the bed, looking up at Shane Masters—a man who had just caught her masturbating with him in her thoughts—felt almost normal.
“You’re not going to tell Reed about this, are you?”
He sat next to her on the bed and toyed with her emotions some more. “Tell Reed about what, honey?”
“You know exactly what I mean.” This close, she recognized the expensive cologne he wore, and given time would come up with its name.
“Oh? I see. You’re worried I’ll tell Reed that I caught you pleasuring yourself.”
The bastard knew exactly what she meant. “Please, Shane, there’s no need to tell him something so personal. All it would do is embarrass me more than I already am. I mean, what I did, well, there’s nothing wrong with doing it. It’s perfectly normal. I mean… Well, what I trying to say is that…that when…that when… Oh my god. I don’t know what I’m saying anymore. Only…I…I…”
The size of Shane’s perfect smile seemed to bear a direct relationship to the amount of discomfort she experienced. He pressed his index finger to her lips, stilling her incessant babbling midsentence. “Shhh, honey… Shhh. Take my advice for the second time today. When you find yourself in a hole, the best thing you can do is stop digging.”
He exhibited a warmer more compassionate side to his nature, and when he started to massage the back of her neck with the most tender of touches, she couldn’t help but respond by slowly moving her head from side to side, enjoying every moment.
“So much tension, honey. So much unnecessary worry over nothing.” He was so very close to her now. So close she felt his warm breath as it fanned against her cheek.
“It’s just that I’ve barely joined MAT, and already you have a hold over me.”
“Shhh, there you go again, worrying that pretty little head of yours over nothing.”
“You mean you won’t tell him?”
“Maybe I will, maybe I won’t.” The cold calculating side to Shane’s personality returned. “Reed is my twin brother and partner at MAT. It may look as though I’m deliberately deceiving him if I don’t tell him everything I know about our new personal assistant. It might look as though I’m keeping secrets from him, and I’m sure you wouldn’t want me to compromise myself in such a way, would you, Jessica?” The nerveless predator that was Shane Masters calmly teased his fingers through her hair as he spoke.
“But you’re twisting things, you know you are. What you caught me… What you found me doing was private and has nothing to do with my work as your personal assistant.”
“Maybe you have a point, honey, but would Reed see it that way? To tell you the truth, I’m not so sure he would.”
“Don’t tell him. Just don’t tell him. How hard can it be?” She knew that her words came across as strident and confrontational. And the way those cold blue chips of ice narrowed on her, Shane knew it, too.
“Was that, ‘Don’t tell him,’ or was it ‘Please, Shane, I’m begging you. Please don’t tell your brother what you saw.’ To my ears the latter sounds far better than the former. Don’t you think, honey?”
Although his fingers still feathered suggestively through her hair, Jessica instinctively knew Shane was exerting his dominance over her. It made her pissed, but deep down it turned her on, too. Exactly what was it about a powerful man like Shane Masters that proved to be such an aphrodisiac? The submissive part of her personality suddenly emerged.
“Please, Shane, I’m begging you. Please don’t tell your brother. If you could do this one little thing for me, I would so very, very grateful to you, sir.”
“That’s better. Much better. Wasn’t so hard after all, was it? I think that you and I
will get on just fine together, Jessica.” The assertive baritone rumble that came from those perfect lips further reinforced the control he had over her.
“My brother and I usually share everything. So I would be doing you a great favor. One I may insist on being repaid at a later date.”
He had made a point of emphasizing the word “everything,” and she knew, just knew that everything included women. Oh boy. Exactly what had she let herself in for by becoming the personal secretary to two powerful and deeply attractive men? Jessica didn’t know what lay around the corner, but whatever her future held she figured it would be anything but boring.
Chapter Five
Ten days later
Sitting at the breakfast table, Reed took a sip of mango juice as he studied the complex body language developing between Jessica and his brother. What he witnessed made him feel uncomfortable, because jealousy was a new emotion to him, especially where Shane and women were concerned. In many ways Reed was in uncharted territory.
Yesterday evening, they had all returned from a business trip to Stuttgart in Germany, the home of Porsche cars. Jessica had performed magnificently in her new role as their personal assistant, and had been icy calm under pressure. It transpired that this sexy and extremely capable lady had actually undersold herself at interview, because unbeknown to either of them she spoke fluent German, along with all the other languages. Was that six in total?
Reed understood his twin brother well enough to know that he hadn’t fucked the delicious Jessica yet, but despite the strong bond they shared as twins, he had an unshakeable feeling Shane knew something he didn’t. Reed didn’t like being at a disadvantage to anyone, especially Shane. He loved his brother, but sibling rivalry had always played a big part when they were growing up.
Jessica really was the complete package. Although he tried to convince himself otherwise, making love to, and then taking control of this exquisite creature before Shane, was becoming a priority for him. It was the smallest of feminine gestures that turned him on the most… The way she delicately held her glass of juice, her perfectly manicured nails occasionally caressing the slender stem. The refined and almost sexy way she dabbed the cotton napkin to her lips after eating suggested to him that she came from an educated background.
As he took a banana from the fruit bowl, Reed had an erection. That was the Jessica effect. Shane appeared to be taking control of the conversation he was having with her, and Reed decided to let his little brother know there were three people sitting at the breakfast table, and not two. He broke into their cozy chat, cutting Shane dead in the process.
“So, Jessica, tell me, what did you think of Stuttgart?”
Shane was clearly pissed with the interruption. Well, fuck him, he’d get over it soon enough.
“Actually, Reed…” She dabbed the napkin to those luscious red lips once more. “Stuttgart isn’t as pretty as the name implies, and there was far more industry there than I had imagined.”
He smiled at her naiveté. “It was a business trip, Jess. I’m sorry you were disappointed to find there were no beaches to sun yourself on after you had finished for the day.”
“Jessica is well aware that Stuttgart isn’t on the coast, Reed. She’s an educated woman, in case you hadn’t noticed.” His brother’s retort came with a certain amount of vitriol, which further reinforced that Shane was becoming a serious rival when it came to Jessica’s affections.
Reed cursed himself. He had walked straight into that one, and had been sucker punched by his brother as a result.
He saw that Jessica looked uneasy. She shifted uncomfortably on her chair, and clearly sensed the lack of harmony developing between himself and Shane.
Almost as though trying to lighten the mood, she said, “The flight over there on the MAT Learjet was spectacular. I’ve only flown on commercial jets before. I felt like the girl in a James Bond movie.”
Before Reed could reply, Shane took back the advantage once more. “Perhaps you and I could take the Learjet out by ourselves, honey. I’m a qualified pilot.”
Brotherly love had its limits. “We are both qualified pilots, Shane, or did that simple fact conveniently slip your memory?”
“In that case, perhaps you could both take me for a flight in the Learjet.”
Reed recognized that Jessica was doing her best to be diplomatic as she tried to defuse a situation that could so easily spiral out of control.
He and his brother had shared women more times than Reed could remember, and had this generous offer been made by just about any other woman on Earth, then he and Shane would have happily accepted. On one particularly memorable occasion they had fucked seven girls between them as the company Learjet had speared across the Atlantic Ocean with the controls set to autopilot.
Jessica was special to both of them. Special enough that they seemed reluctant to share her should the opportunity arise.
Shane was giving him that “fuck you, Reed” look that he had seen before when his brother was pissed with him. Reed sent it straight back across the breakfast table. “Fuck you Shane.”
To make Jessica feel more at ease, Reed decided to start a less contentious conversation. “Tell me about your parents, Jess. With all your qualifications and mastery of foreign languages, I imagine them to be highfliers themselves.” He watched her visibly wince.
“Oh…oh er…er yes. I have wonderful parents. Without their love and encouragement, I don’t think I could have achieved half of what I have.”
For some unknown reason his seemingly innocuous question had rattled her. Jessica’s angelic face burned red with embarrassment, and she seemed desperate to talk about something else. Anything else.
“Tell me more about the little girl who lives in the house. What with this place being so big, and with us flying to Germany on business, I’ve barely had a chance to speak to her. Coral, your housekeeper, tells me her name is Ellie May, and that she is just three years old.”
“Ellie May is my sister’s kid.”
“Oh, I see. I naturally assumed that she—”
“Was either mine or Shane’s.”
“Yes. Yes, that is exactly what I thought.”
The enchanting pink bloom that colored her cheeks had now subsided, and despite this being a more delicate conversation than the one about her parents, Jessica seemed more at ease with it.
Shane forced his way into the conversation once more. “Well you assumed wrong, honey. Go on, I can see from the inquisitive look on that pretty face of yours that you have another question, and I figure I know exactly what that question is.”
“But unless I’ve missed something, your sister doesn’t live here at Masters Retreat?”
The anguished look that Reed shared with his brother clearly hadn’t gone unnoticed by Jessica.
“If I’ve said something I shouldn’t have then I can only apologize for my lack of discretion.”
“It’s not your fault. You weren’t to know, Jess.”
She shuffled uncomfortably on her chair and he found her vulnerability appealing. “Know what, Reed?”
“Sadly, our sister, Sarah Jane, was killed in a car crash.”
“Oh no…no. I’m so very sorry to hear that.” A trembling hand fluttered to her throat, and he realized that Jessica was displaying genuine compassion. She wasn’t acting the part with crocodile tears and fake sympathy. No. Her emotions were the real thing.
“A drunk truck driver deprived our kid sister of her life that night, and if Shane and myself had been able to get our hands on the asshole, we would have ripped him apart with our bare hands and worried about the consequences after.”
Jessica’s perfectly manicured fingers now covered both her nose and mouth, and Reed saw that those wonderful big brown eyes were glassy with emotion. She had not met Sarah Jane and now never would, but Reed liked the way that Jessica had empathy for another human being. He sensed she was kind, and deep down he knew she was insecure.
“Four good people died th
at night, because of the irresponsible actions of one man.”
“Four people? Oh no, it gets worse.”
Breathing deeply, almost as though reliving the phone call from the hospital and the subsequent identification of the bodies, Reed continued with the harrowing story. “Our sister, her husband, and both his sisters died that night when thirty tons of out-of-control truck changed lanes with a drunk driver slumped over the steering wheel.”
He stared across the breakfast table at Shane, who clearly shared his emotions. “Can you believe it, Jess? The truck driver walked away with barely a scratch.” Reed shook his head before banging his fist on the breakfast table as undiluted bitterness and anger began to well up inside him. “If Shane and I had our way, the bastard would never have walked again, never have breathed again. To make things worse, it later came to light that this asshole had two previous convictions for driving while intoxicated. Unbelievable.”
“But he went to prison for what he did? Please tell me this guy got what was coming to him, Reed.”
“Yeah. That’s some consolation I suppose. The prick won’t be tasting freedom again for a very, very long time.”
“Good, and may he rot in hell for the misery he has put you and Shane through.” Jessica suddenly looked slightly confused, her brows drawing together. “But…but…”
“You’re wondering where Ellie May figures in all this, aren’t you?”
“Yes. The thought had crossed my mind.”
“She was also in the car on the night of the crash. She went everywhere with her mother. Sarah Jane used to say that being without Ellie May was like being without a major limb. She adored that kid.”
“That’s so sad.” She wiped away a teardrop that trickled down her porcelain skin and Reed knew that Jessica had something unique, something special.
“Luckily she escaped unhurt, apart from a few bruises. We like to think she was asleep in the child restraint when the truck hit. One good thing, Jess, little Ellie has absolutely no recollection of the accident itself.”