Chuckling, Jack lifted my shirt. I held on to his shoulders to pull myself off the bed and help him. “I thought the sex in the limo was very romantic.”
“Then you have a strange idea of romance, mister.” Dressed only in my bra and panties now, I yawned. My vision was starting to get fuzzy, and I was so sleepy. “If we’re going to have sex, you need to make it fast.”
“Up. One more time,” he whispered. Obligingly, I lifted myself again, and he unsnapped my bra and peeled it off my arms. The next thing I knew, I was under the covers, and he was curving his warm body around mine.
“Want you,” I murmured as I turned and sought his lips with mine.
He kissed me tenderly. “Go to sleep. I love you, baby. I’m glad you’re here. I need you.”
“Need you too.” Before I could process why he needed me, sleep claimed me.
* * *
There was a glass of water and a bottle of aspirin on the side of the table when I woke. I had a dim recollection of Jack carrying me into the elevator and undressing me. The man was just too sweet.
I heard the water start in the shower and slipped out of bed. While I padded across the room, I quickly pushed my panties down and quietly stepped into the bathroom. His back was turned to me, and when I joined him in the shower and smoothed my hand over his back, he jerked around.
“Good morning,” I whispered as I moved under the hot water and offered my mouth. He wasted no time in claiming it. The kiss was slow and sensual and fanned the flames of my growing desire.
“No hangover?” he asked as he smoothed his hands over my hips and gently moved me against the wall. His erection hung hard and heavy between us.
“Wine doesn’t usually give me a hangover.” I closed my eyes as his mouth moved to the hollow of my throat. His tongue lapped over my pulse leisurely before it skimmed down to my breasts. His hands were moving between my legs, and I was already spreading them to give him all the access he wanted.
“Are you in a hurry?” he asked huskily as he flicked his tongue over my nipple. An electric current shot straight down to my center, and I whimpered.
“Do it again.”
He obliged with my other breast, and I shuddered. “Oh, yes. I love that. I’ve got a meeting at noon, but I planned to work from home this morning. I need to get some laundry done. I haven’t been home in a while.”
“Am I monopolizing your free time?” He nuzzled my breast before he opened his mouth and suckled it. When his teeth grazed me, I arched into his mouth. In a few seconds, he could go from tender to rough, and my body was screaming for him.
“I’m not complaining.”
“Good, because I have no plans of stopping.” He slid down to his knees, and I had no plans of stopping him either. I couldn’t even think straight when he hooked one of my knees over his shoulder and slid one finger inside of me and kissed the tender flesh of my thigh. “Did you wake up wet, Blythe? That’s naughty.”
How did he not understand that I was always wet for him? The water pounded on us, and droplets gathered on his hard body. I slid my hands through his hair and gasped. “Jack.”
“Tell me what you want.”
“More.”
He kissed my thigh again. “Tell me what you want.”
“Jack, please.”
“Blythe…” The word sounded like a warning.
“Lick me. Oh, god, make me come.”
Before I could finish the sentence, his mouth was on me, and his tongue was rubbing right on my clit, and my moans were echoing off the wall. His mouth and fingers were an assault on the senses, and I was just barely hanging on. Mindless with need, I arched against him and pulled him tighter against me. My entire body trembled as my climax built higher and higher, and when it finally crashed over me, I fell with the tidal wave.
“I’ve got you. Fuck, Blythe, I love the taste of you.” With a dark mutter, he turned me and slapped my hands against the tile. “I need you, baby.”
I widened my stance, and with no other warning, his cock was sliding into me from behind, and his hand was anchoring me in place. The angle was deep and intense, and we both made a sound that bordered on feral.
“I don’t think that I can be gentle.”
“Then don’t. Take what you need. I can handle it. I love it.”
Withdrawing, he slammed into me. And there were no words. Over and over again, he thrust into me with a driving need. Water ran down my face and plastered my hair to my skin. Each stroke was harder and faster than the last, and I could barely stay upright, but he didn’t let me fall. The power and strength of his body was enough for both of us, and I jerked against him. Every nerve ending of my body was electrified and threatening to explode.
“I’m going to come, Blythe,” he muttered hoarsely. “Touch yourself, baby. I want to feel you on my cock.”
Knowing that he was holding me up, I slid a hand down and smoothed it over my clit. My fingers moved against his cock, and his reaction was explosive. I was already there, and we were shouting together, and we fell together as one.
“Blythe,” he moaned.
Knowing that he needed me, I turned in his arms and clung to him as he fell against the opposite wall. We held each other up as our hearts pounded together. The water grew lukewarm around us, and I eventually reached back and shut it off before it froze us. I didn’t want anything to ruin our glow.
Without a word, we stepped out of the shower. He slung a towel around his waist and bundled me up in a warm terry material as he pulled me close to him. Leaning against the bathroom mirror, I sighed in total contentment as he held me.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay that way forever. Opening my eyes, I touched his face. “Don’t take this the wrong way and think that I’m complaining because I am definitely not, but that’s not what I was expecting.”
“Baby.” Leaning down, he brushed his lips along mine. “Your sexy naked body was wrapped around mine all night. What can I say? The need sort of built.”
“You could have woken me up.”
“You needed to sleep, and I wanted to hold you.” His eyes clouded with worry. “I had an unexpected day yesterday. You were my anchor.”
“Unexpected. What happened?”
Sighing, he released me and walked back into the bedroom. Stripping off the towel, he ran it over his body and hair. I took a moment to enjoy the show. There was nothing soft about Jack Drayson. The man was all muscle and raw sexual power. I’d been fucked so thoroughly that I could barely stand, and I was already wishing I had more time to take him again.
“I’ve got to get going. I need to stop by my father’s estate before heading into the office today. You don’t need to rush. I’ll call Carl and have him pick you up and take you home when you’re ready.”
“Carl.” I frowned. “Jack, we talked about this. I neither need nor want a bodyguard.”
“Then consider him your driver for today. I won’t have time to drop you off at your apartment. Besides, I think he misses Rachel.”
That made me smile, but it didn’t distract me. “Something’s wrong. I can tell. Did the detectives uncover something new?”
“No.” With his clothes in hand, he glanced over his shoulder at me but didn’t meet my eyes. “It’s nothing. Well, it’s not nothing, but I don’t really have time to go into it right now. I had a visitor yesterday.”
“A visitor,” I echoed flatly. “Like another ex-girlfriend?”
“No. Jesus, Blythe.” Swearing a little more, he tugged on his shirt and glared at me. “Is that going to be the first thing that pops into your head every time?”
It was unfair of me, but he was acting strangely. “No. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I guess I’m just a little on edge.”
“It’s okay. I get it. Believe me, I do.” Stepping into his pants, he zipped them up and hurried over to me. “I’ll talk to you about it tonight. I promise. Try not to sulk when Carl’s around. He might take it personally.”
“Driver mea
ns he stays in the car.”
“He’s a bodyguard. It’s in his nature to guard you. I’ll tell him to try to reign it in. We’ll talk about it more tonight.”
With one quick kiss, he was out of the bedroom. Sinking into the mattress, I tried to figure out what the hell just happened.
Sixteen
Jack
My father’s office was the complete opposite of his estate. Oh, it was still large and impressive with a breathtaking view of the shores of Miami, but here, Hale Drayson didn’t need expensive things to show off his wealth and status. He was literally sitting on it. All twenty floors beneath the office worked for him as they oversaw his extensive enterprise.
I didn’t make an appointment. I didn’t even care if he was busy. He and I needed to talk, and I wanted to see that first reaction when I told him that she was back.
It should have amused me that the only two places that made me feel so powerless were connected to my father. My family home felt more like a museum to the finer things in life than a loving sanctuary, and in this building, I wasn’t a congressman. I was just Hale’s son.
Not that it didn’t afford me some kind of status. At least no one tried to stop me when I exited the elevator and strolled across the polished hardwood to announce myself to his secretary. Her eyes widened in surprise, but she put a call directly into my father. A minute later, the door opened.
I knew Hale would have let me in if he weren’t in the office with someone. I rarely came here, and he would assume that something had happened in the investigation. Even if he was talking business, he would have cut the meeting short. I would have made sure of that.
When I walked in, his face was a mask of fury. “Are they charging you?” he asked as he pushed a button and the doors closed automatically behind me.
“This isn’t about the investigation.” Ignoring the chair in front of his desk, I walked instead to the large window and stared out at the waves that crashed below. “What drove my mother to have an affair?”
“What?” In the faint reflection, I saw him reach out and grab the desk. He was unsteady. I’d never seen that before. “This is not the time or the place to discuss it.”
“There won’t be another time or another place.” Turning, I glanced at the clock. “Unless you’d prefer not to have your say before I meet her.”
“Donna is here?” He sank down into his chair. “And you’ve agreed to meet with her? How long have you known?”
He was angry, but there was also something else hiding behind the rage. Fear? No. My father didn’t fear anything, but there was something there. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. “She came to my office yesterday.”
“Yesterday,” he spat. “And you’re just now telling me?”
“I needed time to decide if I wanted to meet with her.” And I needed to lose myself in Blythe’s arms for the night. I’d barely slept but being next to her helped to keep me focused. Before I’d even slipped inside of her this morning, I knew that I was going to meet my mother. If nothing else, her timing was suspicious, and I needed to know what she had to say.
And I needed to see her to see that she and Blythe were different. It disgusted me, but I couldn’t let go of the fear that I would turn around and Blythe would be walking away from me for the last time.
“She’s a parasite, Jack. She will use you, suck you dry, and then walk away.”
“Yes,” I mused softly as I watched him. He’d left that huge desk of his, the fortress in which he often cherished more than anything else, and started to pace. Yes, he was more than angry. “So you’ve said over the years, but you’ve never told me what happened. I know that she had an affair, but she left and never contacted me again. Her own son. Not once. Did you say something to her? Did you keep her from me?”
The mask dropped away, and Hale looked at me with raw pain in his eyes. It struck me hard, and all of my reservations faded away. I looked at his life with hard and cold logic. My mother had been gone for two decades, and Hale had never remarried. He’d never seriously dated either. He was still considered a handsome man, and his wealth and status attracted models and celebrities and the world’s most beautiful women. I wasn’t naive enough to think that he didn’t have his discreet affairs, but as far as I knew, he’d never taken them seriously.
Did my mother hurt him as badly as she’d hurt me?
“Is that what you think of me?” he asked hoarsely. “That I would keep a mother away from her son? You were just a child, Jack, and you didn’t exactly bottle your feelings up. I knew how much you missed her. I wouldn’t have kept her from you.”
I believed him. “So, what happened?”
Straightening, he looked at me coolly, and the mask was right back in place. Calmly walking back to his desk, he sat back down. “Donna was a woman. She did what women did. She stuck around until someone could offer her something better. I may have had money, but I didn’t have the respect that I do now. I guess she hoped that she could find that elsewhere.” As if he could read my mind, he lifted his eyes and met my gaze. “It was not you.”
“And how do you know that?”
“Because if it was you, she would have simply left. She wouldn’t have flaunted her lovers to hurt me. I can’t stop you from meeting her. She is your mother, and you have a right to know her and see her for what she really is. Maybe it’s good that you do. Maybe then you can see that she’s not the paragon you built up in your head.” He turned his back to me. “Maybe it will make you think twice about falling for a woman’s seductions.”
Blythe.
Without a word, I turned and walked out of the office. I hadn’t gotten the details I’d wanted, but I’d learned a great deal about my father.
* * *
“Jack. Darling.”
As I approached the small cafe, Donna rose and widened her arms, but I just gave her a stiff nod and pulled out a chair. During the lunch hour, the roads were busy, and cars whizzed by next to us. I hadn’t wanted to meet her on the patio, but the inside was far too busy and crowded. At least there was enough foliage climbing up the trellis to block us from any nosy photographers. There were a few other tables with customers around us, but they weren’t within direct earshot.
After a quick glance around, I decided that no one had recognized me. Certainly, no one recognized her. How could they? It wasn’t like she was in my life.
Quickly, she sat back down. “I’m so glad that you’ve decided to meet me. We have so much catching up to do.”
“I’m not here to catch up. I’m not here to reminisce about better days, and I don’t really care to know what you’ve been doing while you were away. Just get to the point and tell me why you’re here. Do you need money?”
“Money?” Her smile faltered. “Jack, I’m your mother.”
“The title doesn’t mean much when you don’t play the role well.”
“Right.” She blew out a breath. “I deserve that.”
The waitress interrupted us, but I didn’t plan on being there long enough to eat. I just didn’t want my mother near my office again. I ordered a drink and a sandwich to go.
“I wasn’t lying when I said that I’d heard about your ex-girlfriend. I knew I’d stayed away long enough.” Her hands trembled as she reached for her glass. Once again, the emerald was the only piece of jewelry she wore. If she needed money, she could have pawned it. She wore a designer dress with the matching blazer slung over her chair, and I knew enough to see that her purse was expensive. Whatever Donna had been doing, she didn’t look like she needed money.
“You can’t honestly think that I would believe that my father had something to do with it.”
“You don’t know Hale like I do,” she whispered, then cleared her throat before going on. “When we first met, he was so handsome and so charming. Your grandparents liked him immediately, but I think that was mostly because of his money. Hale was an up and comer in the business world, and he was making money hand over fist. I was bedazzled by the gifts
he showered on me. I fell hard and fast for him, and I think the love blinded me.”
I rolled my eyes. “No offense, but I’m not all that interested in hearing how my parents got together. You’re not exactly my role model for a happy marriage.”
“Maybe not, but this is something you need to hear.” Her voice was sharp, and I almost smiled. Was my mother about to ground me for interrupting her? “Your father has two very different sides. The one he shows the world and the one he shows once the doors are closed and locked.”
“Are you saying that he abused you?”
She averted her gaze and lowered her head. “Not physically, but he was manipulative and cruel. After we married, I felt like a princess who’d been locked away in the tower. I was surrounded by beauty, but the things that mattered the most to me couldn’t touch me. I wasn’t allowed to talk to my friends or my family. I was so isolated and alone.”
It wasn’t an unfamiliar feeling. My stomach clenched, and I nodded to indicate that she should continue.
“When I had you, things got better. You were a good baby, and Hale doted on you. We were a family, and things were good again. He’d so desperately wanted an heir.”
“Believe me when I tell you, I’m not the son he wanted.” I wasn’t bitter about it. I’d learned long ago that it would do no good to get upset by my father’s lack of approval. Nothing was ever good enough until I got into politics. Now, I still wasn’t sure where we stood.
Grief flashed in her eyes, and she reached across to take my hand. I tried to pull back, but I was too slow. “Don’t pull away, Jack. Not now. I owe you a million apologies for not being there for you. I always thought…I feared that you would grow up…”
His Fall From Power Page 10