by Jacobs, Ann
When he finished filling his pot, he backed away from the bramble and stopped on the path beside Althea. “I can’t wait, either, sweetheart.”
▪ ▪ ▪
By the time they’d cleaned the berries, night had settled in, turning the sky dusky purple against the backdrop of a distant mountain framed in Jared’s kitchen window.
“Let’s go sit on the porch.” Althea wanted to savor the berries and ice cream—not homemade but a premium brand she’d found in his freezer—and a quiet evening with Jared.
She followed him outside, and they sat next to each other on two of the oak-slat rockers he’d bought from Jim. As comfortable as if they’d been together for years instead of days, she ate her sinfully sweet berries and watched him take his time with his. He looked good enough to eat, cast in twilight shadow while the sun disappeared beyond the horizon.
I could love you so easily if only I could control my fear. Every day she found it harder to persuade herself her emotions weren’t involved. When she was being honest with herself, she admitted the pull Jared exerted on her was much more than simple lust.
His tongue darted out and captured a drop of ice cream off his upper lip.
“Taste good?”
“Delicious. It’s worth every scratch I got, liberating berries from the bramble.”
If she freed the stranglehold on her emotions, if she let herself love him, would the pleasure be worth the pain of losing him?
“Althea?”
“Yes.” If only she were as certain about Jared as he was about the berries. “I’ll be right back,” she told him when she took his bowl.
The few seconds it took to take the dishes inside gave her a chance to calm her racing heart. She sat again, took his hand and traced the calluses on his palm.
He brought her hand to his lips. “I’m sorry you argued with Jim. I’ve been away from here so long, I didn’t give a thought about folks thinking badly—”
“Stop, Jared. I don’t care what anybody thinks. As long as we want to be together, nothing else matters.” Then she realized she no longer had a choice. What they shared was already much more than physical. A lot more. More than she had the courage to face.
He squeezed her hand, then stood and moved close to the porch rail. Beyond him a silvery moon lit the blackness of the sky. The howl from some nocturnal mountain creature sent chills up her spine. She wanted nothing more than to feel safe in his strong arms.
She stood and moved close to him. A sudden breeze ruffled his hair and filled her nostrils with the scent of evergreens. She’d always associate that clean, woodsy scent with magical nights on Big Bear Mountain. With him.
He rested his hand at her waist. “I never wanted to be with a woman before—really be with her—the way I want to be with you.”
I’m not ready to hear this. Keep it casual so I won’t be so afraid. “Let’s go inside.”
More than anything, Althea needed to feel his arms around her and listen to the steady cadence of his breathing. It didn’t matter if they had sex so long as she could hold him, savor the closeness. She’d deal with that tonight. Tomorrow would be soon enough to deal with her fears.
▪ ▪ ▪
Waking up with Althea in his arms was a dream come true, and the sex they shared was the best he’d ever experienced. But Jared wanted more. He wanted her to love him for a lifetime, not just for a little while.
He shifted her in his arms and craned his neck so he could read the digital clock on his desk. Three-thirty. If he hadn’t gone to sleep by now, chances are he wouldn’t nod off before six, when she had to get up and ready for work.
Carefully, so as not to wake her, he untangled their bodies and got up as quietly as he could. Once out of bed, he made his way to the shower, turned the water on full blast and stepped under the needle-sharp spray. Breathing deeply, he let the hot water do its job on muscles he hadn’t realized were so tense until they began to loosen up.
Jared knew exactly what was bothering him. He didn’t want to leave Althea, even for a day, not until he was satisfied that she’d been persuaded that the feelings they had for each other were worth holding on to. He had no choice, though, because he had to go back to Atlanta and interview the three candidates Laura had screened for the marketing director job that couldn’t go unfilled for much longer. The guy he’d promoted after Marcie had quit was good enough as a number-two man, but the results over the past year proved he didn’t have the vision necessary to create and execute effective marketing campaigns.
With a little luck, he shouldn’t have to spend more than a few days away from here, but he couldn’t guarantee that. At least he’d hurry back up here for the weekend if the interview process ended up taking longer than he hoped.
He ducked his head under the water, reached for the shampoo and lathered his hair. While his eyes were closed he felt a cool breeze hit his spine as the shower door popped open. He turned, shook off water from his face and saw Althea. “I thought you were asleep, sweetheart. I’m sorry if I woke you.”
“You didn’t. I’m sorry if I startled you.” She stepped inside and snuggled with him under the steamy spray.
He wasn’t sorry at all. Seeing her beautiful body and listening to her talk in that sleepy, sexy voice got him instantly hard, ready to carry her back to bed and make love the rest of the night. It hit him that what he really wanted was to stake his claim in the most basic way possible.
Shyly she took his cock in her hand. “I want to love you. May I?”
If only she did—love him. “Feel free.”
When she kissed him, her lips were soft, as smooth as velvet. She tasted faintly like the berries they’d picked earlier, when her tongue fenced coyly with his. She slid one hand over his back while stroking his erection with the other. Her nipples pressed into his chest, rigid nubs inviting to be sucked and played with.
After she broke the kiss, she slid down the length of his torso until she was on her knees before him. Her nipples grazed spots just above his knees, places he hadn’t realized were sensitive until now.
Inch by inch she took him in her mouth. He wasn’t about to protest because it felt—incredible. She made him feel ten feet tall and weak as a baby, all at the same time.
He leaned against the shower wall, not certain he could keep standing on his own when she cupped his ass and took him deeper. The way she held him, as though she thought he might try to escape—a ludicrous idea for sure—made him shudder.
She moved, sucked, took him deep down her throat and then let up, swirling her tongue over him the way she might play with a giant lollipop. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on a complex algebraic equation, anything to hold off the conclusion that would be inevitable if she kept up with this incredibly arousing torture.
Nothing was going to stop him from coming if she kept it up. “Stop, now!”
She paid him no mind until he reached down, lifted her to her feet, and turned her to face the built-in shower seat. “Bend over and hold on to the seat.”
Seeing her like that, her legs spread wide, her backside in the air and her head bent in obvious submission, just made him hotter, more desperate to be inside her.
He took a step forward, flexed his knees and sank deep in her tight, wet sheath. He surrounded her with his arms, one high so he could fondle her breasts, the other on her belly to steady her for his ravenous thrusts.
Hot water sluiced over his back. He didn’t want this to end, not yet. She felt too good, too his. This felt so right and he wanted it to last. He gritted his teeth, deliberately bit his own tongue. Anything to distract his body from the completion it wanted so much, to prolong this—this feeling of power and possession.
What Althea had begun when she joined him in the shower, Jared was about to finish. In her position she was helpless, a prisoner to his will. Everywhere they touched, she burned. God help her, she loved the way he’d taken over.
She saw his hands on her breasts and at the apex of her thigh
s. She caught glimpses of his aroused sex when he withdrew, only to thrust inside her harder, faster than before. The ragged sounds of their breathing mingled in an erotic symphony.
His early-morning stubble scraped against the back of her neck. She hadn’t realized before how sensitive that flesh could be, but his touch there sent tingling sensations all through her body. His hot breath smelled of mint, reminding her how she loved to taste his mouth…and every other place on his hard, fit body.
She couldn’t move. She didn’t care. It was enough that she could see, feel, hear, smell and taste her lover. It thrilled her to experience the heady elixir of being possessed.
His breathing, already ragged, became desperate sounding gasps for air. He held her so tight she felt all his muscles contract. He pulled out but just for a second before he made one deep, final thrust and made a deep, guttural scream that sounded like that of a primal beast claiming its mate.
His climax triggered her own, and as she shuddered with the power of it she sought more than just the pleasure that overwhelmed her. Spent, she rested her head against the shower wall.
“Are you okay?” Gently, he pulled away from her, keeping his hands on her as though he thought she might collapse. She might, at that.
“More than okay.” She wanted to look at him, reassure herself that the fierce male animal who’d just possessed her so completely was the same gentle lover she’d joined in the shower earlier. She needed to know he hadn’t stolen her soul and left her an empty shell wanting nothing more than to do his bidding.
When she turned around she saw he was shutting off the water as though nothing earth shattering had happened.
“Let’s go back to bed.” He didn’t say much but the heated look on his face told her what they’d done had affected him as much as it had her.
▪ ▪ ▪
“I have to go to Atlanta for a few days to interview candidates for a new marketing director. Want to join me?” Jared asked the next morning while they ate sugared blackberries with their toast and coffee.
“I can’t. I’ve got the shop to look after.”
“Couldn’t you ask Trina to come in?”
Althea shook her head. “Not while the berries are so plentiful. Besides, I can’t afford to take off every time I take a notion to.”
Jared looked disappointed, but then he smiled. “That’s okay. Knowing you’re here will make me hurry and do what I have to do so I can get back here quickly. Want me to bring you something special?”
I just want you to bring yourself back to me. That initial reaction surprised her. Troubled her, just not as much as it would have even a week ago.
“I can’t think of anything. Except—would it be okay if I stay here nights so I can work on your quilt while you’re away?” Althea could picture him tangled up in that quilt, looking at her as though she’d hung the moon. If she didn’t put in some time on it when Jared wasn’t around to distract her, it wouldn’t get finished for years.
“I’d like knowing you’re here, waiting for me.” He said it in a teasing tone, but from the expression in his dark eyes she guessed he meant every word. “Come here.”
When he held her, he made her feel whole. He made her want him more than she feared losing him. But later, as she headed down the mountain to open her shop, the fear came back with a vengeance.
Chapter Eighteen
“What have I done?”
Long after she should have opened the shop, Althea stood in the bedroom of her cabin. She tried in vain to convince herself she hadn’t fallen in love with Jared Cain.
Desperate, she pulled Bill’s picture out of the drawer where she’d put it. She clutched it to her chest. Tears flowed from her eyes as she made herself relive the day she’d lost him forever, revisit the deep grief that had enveloped her for so long after he’d died.
Fighting for composure, she set the picture down and sat on a chintz-covered chair by her bedroom window. She thought about her life. Her grief. And Jared.
I probably wouldn’t lose him the same way I lost Bill. He’s not a cop, and he doesn’t do the kind of work that makes it likely he’ll ever step in front of a criminal’s gun. Jared had told her that, and she couldn’t dispute his logic.
She looked around the room, feeling Jared’s pleasure almost as if he were there. Funny. He’d only spent one night here, but she sensed him here as much as at his place on Big Bear Mountain.
Althea finally faced the truth, but it didn’t make her happy. She’d gone and done what she’d promised herself she never would do again. She’d fallen in love and made herself vulnerable again to more agony, heartache and pain. While Jared probably wouldn’t fall victim to a criminal’s gun and he might easily outlive her, she could lose him in other ways. To the city…his company…to the world he lived in. A world where she didn’t belong.
Losing him that way would hurt as much as if he died. Maybe more.
▪ ▪ ▪
“Morning, Jared.”
“Welcome back.”
“Thought you might stay up in the woods and never show your face again, my friend.”
Jared grinned as he exchanged greetings with a dozen programmers while taking a shortcut through the large, open office where they worked. He allowed himself a moment’s regret that he no longer had time to come up with new games, or play with ideas instead of sales projections and financial statements. “Got any new ideas on the burners?” he asked chief programmer, Todd Gray.
“Always.” Todd mentioned a couple of projects then asked Jared about his pet game. “What’s going on with Captain Morgan?”
“He’s scheduled to make his appearance in time for the Christmas rush—as soon as Marketing comes up with a new name for him.”
Todd shrugged. “I like Captain Morgan.”
“Apparently the people who named the rum liked that name, too.” The packaging for the new game was only one of many reasons Jared had to find a new marketing director—quickly.
“You staying around awhile, boss?”
“A few days. I’m going to be tied up, interviewing marketing director candidates Laura has vetted for me. You can e-mail me any prototype games you’re ready for me to look at.” Jared headed for his own office at the back of the building.
Laura had laid out resumes in the order she’d scheduled the candidates to come for interviews. Jared noticed that only one applicant, a young woman Marcie had hired before she left last year, came from within the company.
A mug of steaming coffee sat on the other side of his desk along with a warm bran muffin. Laura apparently thought he needed fortification before seeing the applicants. Noticing he had only ten minutes before the first one would arrive, he wolfed down the muffin and washed it down with a few sips of the coffee.
By late afternoon Jared had interviewed ten applicants, listened to ten different ideas as to how to market the quest game Todd wanted to call Captain Morgan. Finally finished for the day, he rubbed his head as he tried to make sense of scribbles he’d made on a legal pad. When Laura came in, he glanced up from his notes.
“What do you think of them?” She gestured toward the stack of resumes on the corner of his desk.
“I like Georgette Boyer,” he said. It surprised him that he’d picked the woman who already worked for him, but her ideas impressed him. “I also like the idea of hiring a director from within the company. Do you have any idea why she didn’t apply for the director’s job as soon as Marcie left?”
Laura shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe she was leery about trying to fill Marcie’s shoes. She is short on experience.”
“How much should we pay her?” Jared flipped through Boyer’s presentation folder and then passed it to Laura.
After looking through the folder, Laura grinned. “I assume you’ve already made up your mind to promote her.”
“Yeah. It’s good for morale to promote from within. Besides, I want to get this done so I can go home.” To Althea. He let himself enjoy a memory of her standing
on his porch, a gentle wind mussing up her hair.
Laura handed him the folder. “I’d say to start her at a hundred thousand.”
Surprised, Jared met his assistant’s gaze. “Marcie made three times that much.”
“She did by the time she left. She didn’t when she started. Besides, you were engaged to her most of the time she was here.”
“True. A hundred grand it is. But set Georgette up on an incentive program. I don’t want to exploit an employee just because she’s inexperienced.”
Laura smiled. “You’d give away the place if I didn’t keep an eye on your money.”
“I know. You tell me that often enough.” His marketing director choice was made. Now he wanted to hear about the special project he’d given Laura last week. “How’s the negotiation coming for that property outside Blairsville?”
“Helen sent me another counteroffer today.” She named a figure close to twenty thousand dollars less than he’d been willing to pay. “The owner’s also willing to give a credit for the cost of grading the site and tearing out the old concrete.”
Jared nodded. By turning the negotiating over to Laura, he’d saved himself a bundle. “Go ahead, accept the offer. My architect is cleaning up some rough plans I sketched out for the building. I’ll have him fax the specs to you so you can put the job out for bids from contractors.”
She flipped a page in the pad where she was taking notes and then looked over at him. “How should the land be titled?”
“Call Russ. I asked him last week to start the paperwork to set up a charitable foundation.” He had no doubt the lawyer and Cain Software’s CFO had already determined the best way to write off the costs the company would incur on behalf of the co-op.