“Do you want to run?” he asked in a rough whisper.
“Kind of,” Jenna whispered with a surge of equal parts fear and anticipation.
Josh was still advancing slowly, but now his manhood was completely erect, standing out away from his body, begging to be touched. It was a sight to see with the streetlights below coming through the window and shimmering off his hard, rippled body.
“Then run,” he whispered in a voice that was more monster of the night than human.
Jenna let the thrill of fear consume her and tore off toward the nearest doorway. She had to go through the kitchen, and then the dining room, but there was no going through that powerful body, even if he had to guess which one of her doubles he should grab at.
She had barely got halfway before hands grabbed her and whipped her into the air. Her stomach bumped down on the dining room table, making crystal and glass roll away. She didn’t care about them breaking; she was too busy trying to get out of his grasp.
She turned and wiggled, setting off excited tremors in her body. She felt a hand in the center of her back, flattening her chest to the table. His legs leaned against hers, his hips over her, his body pressing her down. She was trapped. She couldn’t move. She was so wet she couldn’t stand it, but she didn’t want it to be over yet. She wanted more build. More of the thrill of the chase—being chased, doing the chasing, it didn’t matter. It was all anticipation.
“No, Josh. Please, no!” she said in a voice choked with panic. She felt him freeze, thinking she was serious, and backed off immediately.
“Are you okay, did I hurt you?” she heard behind her.
She was crying wolf. They needed to establish a failsafe for these types of things. They needed a code word so he would know if something was really wrong.
She mentally hiccupped.
She’d worry about it tomorrow.
She turned around and slapped him across the face as hard as she could. He didn’t flinch, just took it, his expression confused and anxious.
She needed to cut this short. She didn’t want to cause any real damage. They had too many dealings with his losing control for this uncertainty to go on any longer.
Definitely needed a code word.
She stepped up to him, leaned forward…and bit him on the chest. Hard.
He sucked in his breath and backed up, his hand coming to his pec immediately. “What—?” He breathed, confusion taking over anxiety.
Laughing, she turned and fled. Her dress swirled around her legs and she heard him growl as he realized what was going on. Heavy footsteps started after her.
Fear turned into endorphins and she laughed manically as she made it into her bedroom. One minute she was running, the next she was flying through the air. She felt Josh’s hand guide her head at the last second so she’d land safely, and then he was on top of her. He pushed himself between her legs and bunched up her dress to get it out of the way. He pushed the length of his big body down onto her, his heat searing her, his long, rigid cock digging into her hip.
“Submit.” He breathed into her face, wine and sweat and passion intermingling into a savory elixir.
“No,” she defied.
He kissed her hard, bruising her mouth with his, forcing her lips open and inserting his tongue. His hips rocked against hers as his tongue gained rhythm.
“Submit,” he said again, angling so his erection rubbed against her sex.
“Put yourself inside me, Josh,” she begged as she writhed under him, trying to angle her body to capture him.
He chuckled darkly. “Not until you submit.”
“Fine. I submit,” she bleated in clipped words, widening her legs and gyrating up against him.
“Oh no, not like that. Submit to me, Jenna. You know what I want.” He moved over her, tantalizing her with his rubbing, with his motion. His control was beating hers.
“Oh, Josh, please,” she begged, still not wanting to yield.
He bent down and licked the tender spot on her neck. She moaned and arched her whole body up to him. He kissed her again, slowly, languidly, as if he had all the time in the world. All the while he was rubbing, getting himself off while just teasing her.
“Oh god, OH, Josh, okay, okay, please. I love you, okay? I’ve LOVED, hmm, you since you curled UP, oh God, with me under the tree after Dale was shot. Okay? Please enter me!”
“No more pushing me away.”
“Fine. Please!”
Without hesitation he made a quick movement with his arm to rip her panties away and thrust into her in one quick, clean shot. She groaned with the entrance, contracting her legs so he thrust to the hilt, within her fully. They were too far gone to go slow and easy. Probably wouldn’t feel it through numbed bodies anyway. He rammed into her, hitting her body hard with his, taking everything she had and then some.
“No, stop, OH, please, no Josh, too much,” she yelled as he plunged, harder and harder, faster and faster.
“You. Are. Mine.” He panted with his powerful thrusts. “I’m…claiming…you…for…good.”
“Oh,” she screamed, unable to take any more onslaught, but then hit a new high of pleasure so sharp it cut.
He pushed, not relenting. Though he was clearly tired, not easing. She hit another brick wall, not able to take it. “Come, Josh. Please. Let. Me. Come.”
“No,” he breathed. “I am. Yours. Take more. Of me.” His breathing was labored but he kept on, groaning when they passed through the next wall and climbed higher.
He pushed even harder then. The momentum hurled them into uncharted lands. The pain was so sweet that Jenna was crying with it. Josh lowered his head even as he strove, forcing himself harder and harder, higher and higher, Jenna reaching up and bucking for each dive, working her muscles, unable to take it, needing it to end but wanting to surge on. Pummel after pummel, breathing and slapping of bodies forcing all sound from the room. The rushing built, the moaning increased, the world minimized into a white-hot point of contact.
“Ooooooohhhhh!” Jenna let out her rapture, erupting into a pleasure so extreme she was drowning in it. Josh stiffened over her, saying her name over and over, coming into her as she vibrated under him.
With one final convulsion they collapsed on the bed in a heap of sex, limbs, and dress. They floated for a while, Jenna’s body airless, weakened with climax and pleasure.
“I am so tired,” Josh said quietly into her ear.
“That isn’t my idea of sweet nothings,” Jenna replied lazily.
“I love you so much it is rooted in my chest. I want you forever. Bare me some chillen. Take off those four-inch heels and get in the kitchen, wench. Etcetera, etcetera. That better?”
“So, how tired?”
Josh chuckled. “So tired that I plan to move a fraction so I don’t cut off all your circulation, and sleep mostly on top of you. Hopefully next time I wake up I’ll be hard and I’ll roll over and you’ll do all the work.”
“When you wake up next I’ll be hungover and won’t be rolling anywhere. But the rest sounded good.”
“I have one more rule of yours to break, and I plan on doing that tomorrow sometime.”
“Okay. Later in the day, please.”
“As you wish.”
“You need to get some original lines.”
“You are the creative one. I am the monstrous one. I don’t need originality.”
“Shut up and sleep.”
“And don’t call me Shirley.”
Jenna laughed despite herself and promptly fell asleep.
Chapter Fifteen
The day dawned bright and clear, although, traditional in New York at the tail end of summer, muggy. It was eight o’clock Monday morning and Jenna and Josh were walking into the office. They had spent a glorious weekend in various stages of undress in Jenna’s apartment. They ordered in, they watched movies, and mostly, they made love.
It was like a dam had burst inside her, knocking down Humpty Dumpty and all his sitting places th
roughout her life. She shared some of her most intimate secrets with Josh, and listened as he opened up and let his own floods come.
Now, Monday morning, in the cold face of the city and daily life, she was nervous about what obstacles and vulnerabilities this new intimacy would bring. But all the contents were spilled. The best she could do was stop sharing from now on, but knowing Josh as she did, trusting him, made her feel something she couldn’t identify. It was such a deep connection, so personal, bringing her closer to him than she had been with anyone, even Erika, that she was loath to even contemplate giving it up. Emotionally, she needed him. Mentally, she wanted him. Logically, he was perfect for her, and if she was going to be happy with anyone, it would be him.
Or maybe the simplest explanation was that she was finally, irrevocably, in love. Proper love. The kind they wrote stories about.
When she checked her messages she found one from Don about some help starting at nine. Jenna sighed in relief. She had a big list of simple things that needed to be done but were time consuming, and she was sure the others did too. Help would be appreciated.
The next three messages were from news reporters who wanted comments and quotes. She would have to talk to the PR firm about responding. Given the choice, she would ignore the whole thing. There had been enough excitement surrounding the fight to get the building built, but staying in the public’s good graces probably meant less chance of the planning committee going back on whatever promises they made.
So much for having that simple life.
Jenna looked up to find a beautiful, willowy young woman in her doorway. She had large brown eyes, a classic Roman face with high cheekbones, a straight nose, and a dainty cleft in her chin. With large breasts and a flat stomach, she was curvy, and about Erika’s height or a little more, probably twenty-one years old if she was a day.
Normally Jenna wouldn’t care about another pretty girl. She didn’t strive to be the prettiest in the room by any stretch, and throughout her youth she had dealt with beautiful people constantly, but now…there was Josh. Sharing close quarters with a striking, younger person was daunting.
“Yes?” Jenna said, inwardly grimacing at the edge in her voice.
“Hi, Miss Anderson? I’m Monica, the new departmental assistant? I am here to help with anything you need? Don said to mention that I am a recent graduate of USC, so I am equipped to help with a wide range of things.” She flicked her hair when she finished. Jenna officially decided to never flick her own hair again.
The younger woman’s voice was clear and light and slightly elevated, but the fact that everything she said tilted up into a question, like a classic depiction of a valley girl from the ’80s, was irritating. She probably came from the upper middle class, which made sense with a school like USC. Still, they did have a good program, so she was probably decent.
“Call me Jenna. Right now I need duplicates made and filed. I have a stack right there.” Jenna pointed to the edge of her desk. “Deadline is the end of the week. Let me know if you have any problems.”
“Oh, great.” Monica didn’t sound all that thrilled, but threw in another hair flick. Jenna didn’t care. She would do the work or she would be fired. Nothing else was important.
Monica walked farther into the room and noticed Josh, who was reading an architectural magazine. Ever since he had taken control of Jax’s house, he had been reading up on architecture and carpentry. He called it reconnaissance, and though it made Jenna laugh, he took to it seriously.
“That is Joshua Williams, my bodyguard,” Jenna said as she went back to her work. She heard an “oh” of appreciation that made her glance back up. Josh had stood up to shake Monica’s hand before sitting back down and returning to his studies.
Monica turned back to the pile of work, looking flushed. Jenna felt a pang of anxiety, but went back to her work, determined not to give way to jealousy.
“We need to work harder on your poker face,” Josh said when Monica had left.
He was still looking at the magazine, but the left corner of his full lips was quirked upward.
“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jenna said as she went back to her work.
“If that young girl hadn’t been so concerned about the mountain of work, she would’ve seen the look of death on your face and probably quit right then.”
“It wasn’t the mountain of work she was concerned about. It was a mountain of man.”
Josh snorted in that self-depreciating way he had. The guy didn’t think he was anything special. He was a fool, obviously.
It was Thursday afternoon and Jenna walked into Don’s office to discuss the following day’s events. All bodyguards were to be present, which was why Jenna was only slightly surprised to see a giant black man against the far wall. He must have been six feet, seven inches tall, with a girth that might have been muscle once, but was now covered in a thick layer of fat. His hands would make a basketball look like a child’s toy, and his neck was as big as a tree trunk. He towered over Jax, who was standing right next to him with a comfortable expression. It was the first time Jax had looked small.
As he hadn’t been in the office during the day like Josh and Jax, and usually stuck to the lobby of the building, Jenna probably hadn’t seen him.
“Jenna, glad you could fit us into your busy schedule,” Don said as he glanced at some papers in front of him.
“I’m not late, am I?” Jenna asked Erika quietly.
“No,” Don answered. “You are not late for once. And actually showed up, which is a miracle. Let’s quit wasting time. To my right, you will notice a mountain range comprised of men. Big men, one and all. You might recognize them as your bodyguards. I recognize them as cattle, milling and flocking around the company with nothing to do but drink coffee and take up space.
“Tomorrow they will either earn their place, or, as I am inclined to believe, will earn their pink slips. I’ll be going over with them the security for the event and their places within it. If you have lunch orders, you might want to place them now. Okay, let’s move on to some actual work, shall we?”
Don shuffled through his papers.
Jenna took out her phone and texted Erika. He’s in a shitty mood today…
Erika’s phone vibrated and Erika nodded slightly at Jenna before Don went on. “I am passing out schedules. This PR ridiculousness is giving us more time, which is great. Look over the timeline and let me know if it is doable. Actually, assure me it is doable. If you can’t assure me, tell me what it’ll take to give me that assurance and we’ll talk about it. Jenna, you are taking lead on this. You do it anyway, so we might as well make it official. I don’t think I’m stepping on any toes with that one. It also means you are in charge of Monica. Make it work. Okay, any problems I need to know about?” Don looked straight at Jenna.
“I’ll look at your schedule before I test your mood any more,” Jenna stated in a flat voice.
“Wise. All right, get out. Except you, Jenna.”
Josh made no move to follow the others. Don looked at him directly. “Jenna, tell your cliché that I don’t need him to guard you from me.”
“Wow, Don, not pulling any punches today, huh?”
As Josh was not her dog, Jenna didn’t bother to look at him. She heard his fabric rustle and noted Don’s eyes following the movement with increased hostility. She had a feeling that Josh had a look of his own.
Don’s direct stare landed on her. “So, you own a wine bar, huh?”
“So, you can read, huh?”
“Not in the mood for your humor, or lack thereof. I figured on some pictures. I didn’t figure on a whole bunch of press and write-ups. Newspapers have been plaguing my office all morning. You are the newest professional sensation. Yee haw. Waste of damn time. Well. If that PR firm is going to try and take your time away from your real work, they are pissing up the wrong tree.”
“Agreed.”
Don relaxed a fraction, though she barely noticed it because he was s
till wound tighter than that snake she had almost sat on in the woods. “At least you are thinking rationally. Sometimes I forget that you aren’t a silly girl desperate to get your picture taken. Let’s speak plainly, shall we? Now that we have a big green light, everyone and his Aunt Flo wants a piece.”
Jenna cleared her throat into her fist. “Aunt Flo is generally a name women use to describe their periods.”
“Oh. Well, this situation is just as messy and without logic as a woman on PMS, so it’ll work—”
“On PMS? What is it, a drug?”
“You broads go mental, so yeah, it’s a drug, and the dealer should be shot. Focus.”
Jenna wiped the residual smile off her face. Don waited a beat, and then continued. “Now, tomorrow’s event is big. Buyers are interested, but they haven’t actually bought anything yet. We need everything to go off without a hitch. I don’t think there’ll be any problems, but I am not God, so who’s to say. This new bunch of PR nincompoops know what they are doing, so look pretty, play the game, smile all the time, drop the bitch act, and we’ll set sail. Capiche?”
“Yup.”
“Now, talk to me—how bad off are we?”
“Actually, despite the fact that Mike is going to have a nervous breakdown sometime soon, we’re really moving. I have to crack the whip with that new assistant you hired, but if we can get her doing her job quickly, or at all, then we’ll be ahead of schedule, even with reduced staff.”
“Good, very good. I’ve been talking in ears about your miracle team. I’m setting you up to ask for a big payoff. With you as the leader, I know you’ll ask. So. Keep it up. We are on the home stretch now.”
“Good. I’m tired.”
“I know. On a side note.” Don leaned back and put his feet up on his desk. “I’ve noticed you’re a lot more relaxed lately. You actually smile and enjoy yourself. Your cliché have anything to do with that?”
“I don’t think I am any different…”
Unexpected Guardian (Skyline Trilogy Book 3) Page 12