“God,” Stacey gasped, watching as he flicked the tip of his tongue across and all around it. Her head fell back again and she moaned, “Oh god, yes.”
****
Jax alternated from one breast to the other before he brought her legs up to his shoulders. His hands rubbed down her calves and thighs and playfully smacked her ass. Every curve of her is breathtaking, he thought.
His hard need found her opening and he eased just the tip inside. He was completely hard, about nine inches, and he wanted to savor every moment getting inside her. His own breath shuddered slightly as he teased her, moving in an inch at a time, until finally she slid down so that with the next thrust he was completely within her. Her gasp alerted him as shock waves go through her body.
“You feel so damn good, Stacey,” he growled, growing more excited by the moment.
He tried to move slowly, loving the reactions he was getting, but it was all so hot that he knew he wouldn’t be able to hold back much longer. Her head turned to the side as all the sensations he gave her crossed her face right before his eyes. He let out a sigh of satisfaction and allowed his pace to quicken. The sounds of his own panting mixed with her breathy moaning and he gave into his own needs.
“Ooooh, yes!” Stacey said moments before he could feel her contract around him. Her gasps rose to cries again and he felt her muscles clench to a tightness like never before. Her hand seized his arm as he reached his climax with a restrained yell of his own. Tiny tremors shook him as his orgasm sent his senses into bliss. He stayed there for a moment, getting his breath back and admiring the luscious sight of Stacey doing the same. He brought himself lower, still inside of her, and kissed her lips, forehead, and her neck.
****
Each day the two would share more and more of their personalities with each other. Jax had a playful nature, and was surprisingly not quick to judge anything she said. At first this made her suspect he might be putting on an act in order to impress her. But the more she thought about it she realized how silly that was. This man could surely attain anything he wanted, why would he bother with her if he wasn’t genuinely interested? She wondered too, if some of her meetings with the troubled people in the cases had left a greater effect on her than she realized. While there were certainly good people who needed help, she often had to talk to some who were too stressed with their own situation to say anything really nice about Stacey. And a few times she had to meet with some of the much less charming characters alongside the social worker, and she’ received more insults than she expected someone in her position would. By proxy, more than anything, but words could still cut. And she was beginning to think she’d been cut a little deeper than she knew little by little.
This just made her time with Jax all the sweeter. He was the opposite of everything she dealt with in her line of work, and she loved every minute of it. He was easy going, he was suave. Polite and endearing. He said things to her that, instead of making her skin thicker, made her heart softer. And he looked marvelous all the while.
And on the nights he puts his hands on her, or his lips, or whatever he chose she gave herself over to the intoxicating bliss she felt under his hungry eyes.
Weeks flew by. His work kept him busy as well and the only time they could go out was on the weekends. But it was alright. Stacey looked forward to each opportunity to meet with him as much as a mother of four would look forward to a complimentary spa package. She couldn’t believe that for the first time in years, she was actually falling for someone.
He was nearing thirty-seven, but that only gave her pause for an instant; he was too much of a catch to be judged by something as miniscule as an age gap. Jax wasn’t like any other man she knew and she didn’t want to lose him.
****
One evening, she was in her apartment getting ready to meet Jax when she heard a key in her door. Morgan’s voice floated in.
“Stacey are you home?”
“In the bedroom!” She called.
Morgan often felt more like her sister than anything else, so they’d long since given each other keys to their homes.
Walking to the bedroom, Morgan stopped when she saw Stacey in a form fitting white dress.
“Hot date?”
“Jax is taking me out to Café Liégeois for dinner.”
Morgan took a deep breath. “That’s what I came here to talk to you about. Ever since you started dating Jax, it’s been bothering me why he looked so familiar. Then I went online and did some research. Did he say he was an executive at a big company?”
“Yes he did…”
“Does his name happen to be Jax Burn?” Morgan interrupted.
“Yes,” Stacey turned away from the mirror. “What is it, Morgan?”
“I was afraid of this.” She took a deep breath and gave her friend a serious yet sympathetic look. “Stacey, he’s not who he seems. Jax Burn is a married man. Or, according to his online profile, he’s happily married.”
Stacey simply blinked at her for a moment, then shook her head. “No. You’re wrong. Maybe it’s not the same Jax you’re talking about. Jax isn’t married. We’ve been dating for a month.”
“Have you noticed it’s only the weekends he takes you out? Maybe it’s because he’s with his wife during the rest of the week.” She took out her phone and opened up Jax’s profile. “Isn’t this him?”
Stacey took Morgan’s phone and her heart broke. There was Jax, pictures of him and his wife on his profile for his company. “I… I can’t believe he would do this.”
Morgan looked heartbroken for her friend, and even a little guilty. She had talked Stacey into going up to Jax that night at the restaurant, after all. She didn’t think it was likely that Stacey would fall for him, but she had. “I’m so sorry, Stacey. If I had known it was him…”
“No, Morgan. Don’t blame yourself for what I did. I was the one who asked him to come back to my apartment. I’m the one who agreed to date him. Now it makes sense why he’s never stayed the night.”
“Don’t be hard on yourself,” Morgan said. “How could you know he was married? He never wore his ring. What are you going to do about tonight?”
Stacey shrugged. “I can’t cancel now, he’s on his way. But I am going to confront him about his lies.”
“If you need me to talk to after, come on over. I’ll be waiting with the tubs of ice cream and sad movies for us to binge on,” she gave a half smile.
“Thanks, you’re the best friend I could ever ask for. But let’s see how tonight goes before we make any sad movie plans.”
“Agreed.” She moved to give Stacey a hug. “Good luck with the scoundrel, and remember, you deserve so much better.”
Jax arrived at Stacey’s not long after Morgan left. He knocked on the door and Stacey answered. “Don’t we have a date tonight?” He asked seeing Stacey wearing jeans and a t-shirt.
“I don’t know, you tell me. Do we have a date? Or do you have a wife waiting for you back home?”
Silence filled the room as the color drained from his face. “My wife?”
“Yes, your wife. Did you think I wouldn’t find out about her? You do know that with the internet it’s easy to find out the lives of just about everyone. Executive recluse or not.”
Jax’s mouth moved to find the words he was looking for. “Stacey -”
She nodded as the confirmation was written right in front of her.
“I’m so sorry -”
“Of course you are,” she muttered with some venom.
“But it isn’t what you think-”
“It never is, is it?”
“I can explain this to you!”
“What for? You can explain that while you were dating me you had a wife back home? That tends to speak for itself, Jax.”
“Yes, but I really can. You don’t understand. My wife isn’t a true wife. I mean, we’re married, but there is no love there, we don’t sleep together. It was a marriage of convenience under pretenses I didn’t want to get into
as we were first getting to know each other.”
Stacey leaned her head against her hand on the door frame and chuckled with absolutely no humor. “Oh my god.”
“I know how it sounds, but it’s the true.”
“Do you really expect me to believe that? Even if you hadn’t been lying to me all this time?”
“We really don’t see each other that way,” Jax urged.
“You have a wife,” Stacey said, visibly angry now. “A wife! It doesn’t matter why you’re married. You went through the process, you made the commitment, and now you’re somebody’s husband! Doesn’t that mean anything to you? Who do you think you are, trying to drag me around on some sneaky fling?”
Jax frowned, “That’s not what I’m doing at all!”
“I,” Stacey said carefully, trying not to give under the tremendous emotion building up inside of her as he heard her own words, “I honestly thought… That you were different. I knew the risks, but I really wanted to have faith that some man out there wasn’t a scoundrel. ”
“Stacey -”
“But that’s what happens when you play with risks, isn’t it? I can definitely take the hint.” She opened the door and pointed to the hall. “At least I know better than to let myself get dragged in the dust afterward. Get out now.”
“Stacey please don’t end it this way. If you knew the truth…. if you’ll just hear me out.”
She didn’t look at him. She knew if she looked into his eyes, she’d believe his lies. “I said get out,” she hissed. “We’re over.”
He moved his hands toward her, pleadingly.
“Now!” she yelled.
Jax heaved a heavy sigh and obeyed. He stopped in the doorway, speaking over his shoulder.
“I’ll give you your space, but if you change your mind you know where to find me. It’s you I love.”
Stacey glared through his back and shook her head angrily.
“When you’re ready to hear me – to hear the truth, please call me.”
He stepped into the hall and Stacey immediately slammed the door behind him. Tears streaming down her cheeks. She gripped her hands in her hair and paced angrily in the small living room. She hated herself for crying but she hated him even more for making it impossible not to. How dare he? How dare he? She put her back to the wall and glared up at the ceiling; cursing her own stupidity, her own hope. Her own willingness to fall for him as easily. Of course he was already married. That - Stacey growled between clenched teeth and cursed him. Him and all the men of the world. Every one of them who ever made any woman feel this way. Or guy, or whatever. For that matter, curse all the women too who’d ever done anything like this to hurt someone. Just… curse everybody!
Everybody but one, she told herself as the hot tears kept falling down her face and neck. She went to the phone and took a minute to calm herself before dialing her best friend.
Morgan opened her door to find Stacey’s red-rimmed eyes unable to even meet hers. Morgan immediately took her hand and led her inside, closing the door behind them. They stood facing each other as Stacey apparently tried to find words. She couldn’t. And her face grimaced with the painful effort.
“Oh, honey,” Morgan said softly, and took Stacey into her arms as the brunette broke down and started sobbing.
****
Several moments after tears and whispers of comfort, Morgan got her warm washcloth for her face and brought her to the living room where there was a stack of DVD’s waiting on the table. Morgan sat her down and disappeared for a second only to return with two tubs of ice cream and some chocolate syrup.
“You already knew,” Stacey said with a weak smile. “That I’d be coming over tonight.”
“I’d be pretty worried if you didn’t,” Morgan said. “Figured you come over, say you didn’t want to discuss it, then tell your best girl all about it.”
Stacey gave a small laugh and accepted a tub. “Not like we’ve done this before.”
“When you’ve been close as long as we have and still haven’t been married, yeah. I’d say we’ve had a few rounds.” Morgan settled herself down on the couch and turned the TV to the DVD player.
“Guess that says volumes about me,” Stacey mumbled.
“Hey, there’s been plenty of times when I was the one ranting about the dirt bag and you were the one boosting me back up. That’s what we’re here for.” She hit play and sat back, gesturing to the movie pile. “That’s probably how I got such an impressive collection of this stuff.”
“Well, I ended it with him. I refuse to be the side bitch to any man.”
“Good,” Morgan said. “He isn’t worth it and you’ll get over him in time.”
“He tried though. To get me to ‘hear him out’…”
Stacey relayed what happened while Morgan adjusted the volume against the movie’s intro music. Throughout the film she piped up with another detail or what was on her mind as it came to her. When the ice cream was eaten up all too soon, Morgan brought out a surprise roll of cookie dough for them to share.
Stacey smiled and shook her head. “I don’t know how great we’re going to feel about ourselves with the way we’re eating.”
“Oh come on, you know the drill: sweets now to ease the worst of pain, then use what’s left to fuel the workouts later and feel like yourself again.”
“Yes, doctor,” Stacey joked.
By the fourth movie of the night, the sugar had crashed and Stacey felt exhausted. “Morgan, this is it. You’re my witness to what I’m about to say. I am through with relationships. No more am I going to allow my heart to be broken. From now on it’s going to be casual flings. That way my heart can never be broken again!”
Chapter 3
Three years passed since that night Stacey kicked Jax out of her apartment. The night when her heart was broken for the last time. Keeping true to her word, she didn’t allow herself to get involved in another relationship. It didn’t bother her that her friends were settling down and getting married. Morgan tried to set Stacey up with guy friends, but Stacey always made an excuse why it wouldn’t work. She was loving the comfort of single life and nothing was going to stop that.
Jax called Stacey every night for the first month after she called off the affair. He wouldn’t take no for an answer, until Stacey threatened to have him looked at for harassment. Stacey never received a call from Jax after that day. Part of her had wanted to hear him out. To know that maybe it was all some twisted misunderstanding and that she really could forgive him. But she refused to give herself the chance to be tricked again. It hurt, but she knew she didn’t need him. She’d lasted this long never having a real relationship, why did she need one now?
By comparison to the pain of her breakup, the stress at work seems much preferable. She noticed she’d adopted more of a callous nature to people’s excuses, which proved to be a boon on several accounts. And the long hours that work demanded of her made leaving the ugly mess with Jax behind that much easier. Not having to think about the future or relationships or where her life was headed seemed to take a great deal off her mind. Up until she got that one phone call from Morgan.
“He asked!” she screamed into the phone to Stacey. “He did the whole package; down on one knee, big fat ring, everything! You’ve got to be my maid of honor, please say you will.”
There was no way Stacey was going to say no. But now Morgan was begging Stacey to come to the wedding with a date. She was the maid of honor and Morgan said it would look weird if she came without a man on her arm. Stacey didn’t care that her friends didn’t understand her decision. They would never know the hurt and embarrassment that she felt being the other woman in Jax’s life. Or at least she hoped they’d never feel that.
*****
Stacey jumped, hearing her phone ring. “Hey Morgan,” she answered. “I got your text. I’ll head over to the store to pick up my dress today. I didn’t forget.”
“Great, Stacey. But I’m actually calling you for another reason. I
van and I decided to have a destination wedding. We’re getting married on Destin Beach in Florida!”
“Florida?!” Stacey shot back. “Are you crazy? How can you change the place of the wedding on such short notice? How are you going to get everyone to go?”
“Don’t be silly, Stacey, we have enough time. The wedding is in three months. Ivan’s family has a house on the beach so we’re going to use that for the ceremony and reception. Our families and friends are going to have no problem getting there in that amount of time. I’m calling because Ivan bought you a ticket so you wouldn’t have to worry about the cost.”
“Morgan,” Stacey’s shoulders slumped. “He didn’t have to do that. I could’ve bought the ticket myself.”
“You’re my maid of honor and spent so much on the dress already. Since this was a sudden change, we wanted to surprise you with the ticket.”
“Well tell him ‘Thank you’ from me. That was very kind of him.”
“You can take the time off from work to get to the wedding right?” Morgan asked.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s easy or not, I wouldn’t miss my best friend’s wedding. I’ll talk to them, and I’ll get the time off, don’t worry. This is important to me.”
“Great! And don’t forget to bring a date to the wedding too.”
Stacey sighed. “Morgan, we’ve been through this. What would be so wrong if I came to the wedding alone?”
“You cannot show up without a date to my wedding, Stacey. It just wouldn’t…”
“That’s nice, Morgan. Listen I have to go and get to the office.” Stacey hated to cut Morgan off so suddenly, but she didn’t want another lecture on getting a boyfriend.
CEO in the Sand Page 3