Torrid - Book One

by Jayne Blue

  He didn’t.

  With his hands still planted on the desk, Jack crushed his lips down on mine. I had just enough time to draw a breath before he enveloped me in a deep, slow kiss that sent a shudder down my spine, awakening my every nerve ending. With his strong arms still pressed against the desk, he let me control the pace. It was a dare, I knew. How badly do you want this? Prove it.

  The answer was badly. I wanted him so badly that it almost shocked me. It was wrong, reckless and dangerous. But with each breath I drew, the more I craved Jack’s touch. It was maddening that he gave me only his lips. I tore at the buttons of his shirt until I had it opened to his navel. I laid my hands on his bare chest. His abs were solid, molded perfection and I wanted to see more of him. My fingers closed around his belt buckle and trembling, I loosened it. Jack’s eyes flashed fire and I felt the first tremors in the muscles of his biceps as he struggled to keep still and let me do the work.

  He pressed me back further, running his tongue along the column of my throat; I gasped. My fingers shook as I fumbled for his zipper. I opened my eyes, catching a glance at the locked door behind his shoulder. Surely Seth had a key. Someone could come at any moment and they would all see me for the whore they thought I was. Something about that ignited my core. At the same time, Jack pressed his knee between my thighs and my body responded. I spread my legs for him.

  I had his zipper down and hooked my thumbs under his waistband, dragging his pants down his muscled ass. He made a guttural noise and whispered my name against my throat. I spread my legs even wider; wrapping them around his waist I drew him closer to me. The desk was the perfect height. With my legs around Jack’s waist, I got my palms behind me and lowered myself down so I was angled toward him. I reached around with one hand and found Jack’s swollen cock. It was thick and veined, throbbing under my fingers. I felt a slow smile lift the corners of my mouth as I met Jack’s eyes. His were hooded with lust, his nostrils flared.

  Jack took one hand off the desk long enough to grab the soaked crotch of my panties and pull them down. I lifted my ass just high enough to let him drag my panties until they caught around one ankle. Then I reached down and guided him into the slick cleft between my legs and he drove himself home with a great, grunting thrust. And then Jack Manning was rooted inside me. He was so thick he filled me to the brim. I braced myself with my hands. My legs shook as I hooked my ankles around his waist and let him set the rhythm. His eyes stayed on mine as he began his first pounding thrust. I gripped the edges of Miranda’s desk and took it. I took all of him, crying out with each powerful lunge. My pussy quivered around him as he plunged deeper and deeper, his hands never leaving the desk. I held on, sliding my hands under his open shirt; I raked them across his back, coiling myself around him as he thrust. I buried my face against his chest, drinking in the smell of him.

  He was getting close and so was I. His balls were heavy against my slick opening as he pumped into me. I felt them seize and knew he couldn’t contain it much longer. I didn’t want him to. I wanted all of him. I squeezed my legs even tighter around him, drawing him closer. I felt the first shudder of his orgasm and he hesitated for an instant.

  “Yes,” I gasped against his chest. “Please. Jack. Yes.”

  Then he came. I felt the first powerful spurts heating me from the inside out and it was ecstasy. My thighs shook as I tried to grip him even harder. With my face pressed against his chest I licked and teased his nipple. It made him wild. He finally took his hands off the desk and wrapped them around me, pulling me down on him even deeper as I let him fuck me on Miranda’s desk. He came inside me. I bit him just above the nipple as he finished. He threw his head back and let out a wild laugh.

  Slick now with his seed and my own juices, he planted his hands on the desk again. He arched his back and gave me a wicked smile. It was my turn. I angled myself backwards. I braced myself with one hand on the edge of the desk and curled my fingers around his hard left bicep with the other. I pumped and thrust wildly, trying to find the right angle and friction to drive me to my own release. Jack clenched his buttocks, driving himself in even deeper. When he did it, he hit me in just the right spot to send shock waves of pleasure from my deepest core. I came hard, coiling myself around him even tighter. I bit my lip to keep from crying out. Someone might hear us. The dark, wicked part of me wanted them to.

  As the last of my orgasm sent shudders through my body, Jack drew me close to him. He whispered my name against my ear as he smoothed a hand down the curve of my head. I collapsed, boneless against the desk and he held me there. If he hadn’t, I don’t think I could have supported myself. As I finally let my legs slide down from around his waist, my muscles ached and trembled.

  Finally, Jack rose and took a step back. He kept his eyes on mine, his face still lit with a smile as he buttoned his shirt and tucked it into his waistband. For an instant I felt shy, but Jack’s face was kind. I smiled back. He reached down and found my black lace panties. I took them from him and slid them up over my hips. I was still slick with Jack and the idea of walking back out there with him knowing it sent a fresh wave of heat through me. The skirt of my silk dress was wrinkled but it was black and most of the guests out there were drunk. I doubted anyone but Jack would notice.

  Jack held out a hand and helped me pop off my perch on the edge of Miranda’s desk. My bare feet sunk into the plush white carpeting and without my heels, Jack towered over me by about a foot. He was tall and strong and looking at me with sexy eyes and the secret we held.

  “I meant to ask you something,” he said, his smile still broad.

  “Go ahead.”

  “Your earrings,” he said; reaching a hand out he tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “Did Seth give those to you?”

  For the first time, I realized that’s why Jack had touched me in the first place. The earrings. I felt a slow blush creep into my cheeks but there was no turning back now.

  “More or less,” I said. “He told me they were Miranda’s.” I fingered the matching teardrop pendant and held it out for him. Jack’s eyes widened and darkened. “They aren’t, are they?” I said, the truth slowly dawning on me as I remembered the argument I’d overheard just before I stole away for Miranda’s study.

  “No,” Jack said; his voice had gone flat.

  I thought about taking them off and giving them to Jack then and there. It made sense now why that simple teakwood jewelry box with the broken latch looked so out of place with Miranda’s flashier things. They weren’t her things at all. They must have belonged to Jack’s mother. I had the fleeting, unbidden thought that I wished I’d known her instead.

  “Don’t say anything to him,” Jack said. “About the jewelry. Not yet. Just ... don’t let him do anything with it.”

  “I won’t,” I said. And then it dawned on me what he meant. Seth could be spiteful. Unpredictable. It would be like him to get rid of whatever else was in that jewelry box if Jack wanted it. “I’ll keep it safe.”

  So now we had a second secret between us. That slow smirk came back into Jack’s face as he realized it too. His hand rested on the door knob and he shot me a devastating wink just before he opened the door and walked away.

  Chapter Six

  Jack

  When I closed the door, I took a moment to lean against it. The hallway was dark. Whatever was left of the party was going on at the other end of the house. It’s the reason I came down here. I thought I’d be alone. I slid my hand into my pants pocket to make sure the ring was still there. With shaking fingers, I pulled it out and held it in my palm.

  It was just a simple, one-carat round stone on a thin gold band. The stone wasn’t even a real diamond. My dad was knee deep in student loans when he and my mother got married and she refused to let him take out another loan for a diamond. Years later, when he made his first million, she didn’t want a replacement. She loved the one she had. She said it reminded her of how they started their life together. I’d forgotten how small my mother’s
fingers had been. I couldn’t slip it past the first knuckle on my pinky.

  I heard voices further down the hall and stepped away from the door. I couldn’t wait for Tora. I wanted to, but we shouldn’t walk out together. Besides, she might not have yet found what she was looking for in Miranda’s study. I hope she did. Fuck you very much, Miranda. I closed my fingers around the ring and put it back in my pocket. What other things had she kept from me after my father died?

  “Where the hell did you go?” R.J. put a hand on my shoulder as I walked back into the dining room. He was my date for the evening. I figured if I had to suffer through the night, why shouldn’t he?

  “Just needed a break from the Seth Show,” I said, thumping him on the back.

  R.J. raised his scotch glass and pointed toward the corner. Seth was standing next to Ed Jeffries, making an ass of himself, if his wild gesturing and bloodshot eyes were any indication.

  “Is he fucking hammered?”

  “Getting there.” Reed Burnett came up behind me, shaking his head.

  “You think he’s blown it already?” R.J. asked. “Tonight was kind of important for him, wasn’t it?”

  I shrugged. “If the party thinks he can beat whoever they run on the other side, none of what he does tonight matters. He’s still got a name.” Indeed. He had my name.

  My heart skipped as Tora came back into the room. Her hair was perfect, her dress impeccable. He pale green eyes glimmered under the lights as she stole a furtive glance at me. She came to Seth’s side and put a soft hand on his elbow, steadying him as he swayed. His smile broadened when he saw her. He put a clumsy arm around her shoulder and she had to brace herself to keep her balance as he leaned on her. She was cool, though: smooth, small but strong. She kept him level with a smile on her face. Only I knew the lie she concealed and it made my blood quicken and my balls tighten to think about it.

  “I think I need to get the hell out of here,” I said. “You ready, R.J.?” He nodded and set his drink on the nearest end table.

  “I’m right behind you,” Reed said.

  The three of us walked up to Seth together. If I’d been alone, I wouldn’t have bothered to say goodbye.

  “You’re leaving?” Seth said. His arm was still heavy around Tora’s shoulder and she kept her smile frozen in place. I held my hand out so he would have to let her go and shake it. I put a smile on my face and hoped I was as good as she was at concealing what was going on behind it. Her smile warmed for just an instant and I knew it was for me.

  I took Seth’s hand in both of mine and gave it a firm shake. “I’ll see you around.”

  “You’re not leaving,” Seth said. “You’re not leaving town, I mean. You can’t yet.”

  “I can’t stay forever,” I said. I couldn’t take my eyes off Tora. It was risky as hell, if someone beside her noticed. She kept that perfect smile on her face. Only her eyes betrayed the turmoil going on behind them. They flashed green fire.

  “You’re my best man,” Seth said.

  Tora’s smile dropped for a split second but she recovered. My own smile widened. “Your what now?” I said.

  Seth put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me away from the rest of the group.

  “I wanted to talk to you about it earlier,” he said. “I was going to call you. You have to, man. You’re my brother, right? You’re my only brother.”

  Shit.

  “I, uh ... I’m honored Seth, it’s just really fast. It’s really short notice. I can’t stay away indefinitely. I have my own business to run.”

  “You have to!” Seth’s voice took on an almost childish tone.

  “When again?”

  “A couple weeks,” he said. “The wedding is on the fifth. You have to stand up with me. We’re all that’s left, you and me. We’re the last of the Mannings.”

  I flinched when he said it. Nothing about that had changed. “Right,” I said. “But, Seth, don’t you have a best friend or something? There’s gotta be ...”

  “You!” Seth said. He was starting to sway on his feet and his outburst was starting to draw attention. The idiot was in danger of revealing himself for a fall-down drunk. Jesus. I had no idea he’d gotten bad like this.

  “It’s got to be you. And, Jack ... you do this for me and I’ll see what I can do about finding that shit of your mom’s.”

  My blood boiled. “I thought you said you were sure there wasn’t anything else? You said you already looked.”

  Seth laughed. “S’ a big house. I might get lucky.” He laughed again and started to stagger away from me but Tora was there. She put her arm under his.

  “We’re really so glad you could come out and support Seth tonight,” she said. “It means so much to him ... so much to us.” Her smile was there but her eyes bore through mine.

  “It was my pleasure,” I said, shooting her a wink and loving the hint of a blush that crept into her face and dotted the smooth skin of her chest. Then I gestured to R.J. and Reed and got the hell out of there as fast as I could.

  ***

  An hour later, I was back in my hotel room at The Drake. I was alone finally, but I couldn’t get Tora Blake out of my head. Her scent was on my clothes, in my hair ... a mixture of her perfume and the intoxicating fragrance of her arousal. I hadn’t planned to fuck her. I swear I hadn’t. I was still trying to decide if I regretted it.

  I stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom waiting for the shower to get hot. I peeled off my shirt, thinking of Tora’s hands as she ran them under it. She’d been so wet, so eager, so fast. She had marked me, leaving a bite mark on my chest. A slow smile crept into my face.

  Fuck.

  I should get the hell out of town. I should get on a plane, get back to Virginia and my life, Chicago and the specter of Miranda Manning behind me once and for all. Fuck Seth. He was a lying weasel just like his mother.

  Steam poured out of the shower and I stepped under the jets. I hissed when the water hit the scored flesh on my back. It was pleasure mixed with pain and the memory of how those scratches got there made me hard all over again. Tora had raked them across my skin when she came. She’d been wet for me the minute I touched her. She fucked like a pro – and I knew my share of them – but something about her had been different.

  Fuck.

  I wanted her again. Soon. Who was she? As far as I could tell, she had come out of nowhere. The conventional wisdom in the room tonight – as well as apparently Miranda’s –was that she was just a gold digger. She could be. But something about that story didn’t ring true. She was after something in that study and my ego wasn’t so far out of whack that I believed it was just me. Not at first. And now, I’d committed to standing up with Seth if he actually went through with it and married her.

  What in God’s green earth did she see in him? Money? Maybe. Love? I doubted it. And I’d seen his limp-dicked performance at the funeral home. It seemed he was drunk more than he was sober and clearly couldn’t satisfy her in bed. Just the idea of that sent white rage through my veins. I shook it off.

  My cell phone was ringing when I stepped out of the shower. I tucked a towel around my waist but dripped water all over the floor when I crossed the room to answer it.

  “Hey, R.J.,” I answered after reading the caller ID. “What, you miss me already?”

  “Don’t flatter yourself,” he said. “I just forgot to ask you before we left last night, we’re trying to put a foursome together for tomorrow morning. It would be you, me, my dad and whoever else we can scrape together.”

  “Reed can still swing a club? He can barely fucking see.”

  R.J. laughed. “Just duck and don’t get into any cart he’s driving. Nine o’clock tee time work for you? We’ll pick you up at eight.”

  “I’ll be ready,” I said and hung up the phone. I had the makings of another plan that R.J. might just be able to help me out with. It was a hunch. Tora Blake could be just what everyone thought she was. She could just be after Seth’s fortune – which would p
robably increase by a couple of zeroes when Miranda’s estate was probated. But then why the hell would she risk getting caught fucking me under the same roof as Seth’s political-coming-out party?

  I ran a hand over the puckered bite mark she left. Fuck, indeed. Tora Blake had gotten under my skin in more ways than one.

  Chapter Seven

  Tora

  Mercifully, the rest of Seth’s guests left just after Jack did. Seth staggered up to the bedroom. I closed the door behind me as Seth sat down heavily on the end of the bed, hanging his head low, almost between his legs. He let out a great sigh and his shoulders heaved.

  “Baby?” I said. Carefully, I sank to the space on the end of the bed next to him.

  “Did I just blow that?” he asked. With great effort, he pulled his head up and looked at me with blood-rimmed blue eyes.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t think they believe in me. They condescend. They think I’m stupid. They judge me.”

  “Seth,” I said. “I think you’re reading into things that aren’t there. I think most of them just wanted to hear directly from you that you’re committed to running. You gave them that.”

  Seth stood and took a shaky step forward. He meant to pace, I think, but had enough presence of mind to realize his balance was too wobbly. He plunked back down on the bed and buried his face in his hands.

  “You don’t understand. You haven’t been here long enough.”

  “So explain it to me. What do you think you did that was so wrong?”

  “I’m not her!” It came out as a muffled yell into his hands. “I’m not her and I’m not him!”

  “Who?”

  “Fucking Jack!”

  My heart beat a little faster as Seth seemed to invoke my sin. He didn’t know. Couldn’t. But frayed as my own nerves were, I worried I might betray something in my eyes. Seth’s blood alcohol level helped me conceal the lie. He was so wrapped up in his own misery and paranoia, he wasn’t able to read mine.