She shouldn’t. But she had, and she did and she didn’t know how much longer she’d be able to deny her desire for him.
Her clit pulsed as if angry at the loss of Jared’s touch. Her lower belly tightened when she thought about the touch of Jared’s hand. She still felt it on her skin and the sensation still sent tingles of fire through her.
Next to her room, a door slammed. Jared, entering his room. Probably planning to take a cold shower after the way she’d left him. She needed one herself.
She stripped off her clothes, leaving only her bra and panties on, and stared at herself in the mirror. Flushed face, chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath. Somewhere along the line her hair had gotten tousled, and she looked like she’d just risen from a nap.
No, not a nap. A fuck.
She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. No more of that. No matter how much Jared’s hands and lips had aroused her, she couldn’t let it go any further. She worked with the man. They had to travel like this to half a dozen more towns before JaBro’s busiest construction season picked up and they no longer had the manpower to plant trees.
Thank goodness they usually took only day trips. If she could just get through tonight in this motel with him right on the other side of the wall, she’d be fine.
She didn’t like him. She certainly wouldn’t fuck him. Even if her libido disagreed.
Chapter Two
As soon as she caught her breath, she rummaged in her suitcase for her normal T-shirt and jeans and put them on. Much better. Now she felt like herself again instead of some corporate bimbo.
Just as she finished changing, a tap sounded on her door. Had to be Jared. No one else in the motel even knew her.
She confirmed her guess through the peephole and tensed. Surely he didn’t expect to continue what they’d started in the car. She’d made it clear—at least she hoped she had—that she didn’t want that kind of attention from him. At least her rational brain didn’t, and she would force her body and hormones to fall into line.
Her first instinct was to ignore him. Let him spend the entire night out there banging on the door if he wanted. Seeing him after that little makeout session would be far too awkward. Her face heated at the thought.
“Cassidy, I know you’re in there,” he called. “Let me in. I promise I won’t bite or anything else.”
Rolling her eyes, she opened the door. “What do you want?” she snapped. Maybe anger would cover her embarrassment.
“Gosh, it’s nice to see you too.” He studied her outfit. “You know, that’s a good look for you. In that suit of yours you looked like someone jammed something up your ass and you didn’t know how to take it out.”
Not just a jerk. A crude jerk. Even if he did look good in the soft, faded jeans and tight T-shirt he’d changed into. The shirt accentuated his muscular arms. Cassidy clenched her fists to keep from caressing his chest. If she touched him, could she take him back to the boiling point? Make him even harder than he had been? The bed sat only a few feet away, practically begging for use. And not for sleeping.
She shook the thought out of her head and gave him her best long-suffering glare. “You’re so charming. What do you want?”
He leaned against the doorjamb. “I thought I’d be nice and ask you out to dinner to celebrate having anyone at all sign on for planting. Maybe nice doesn’t work with you.” He frowned. “Seriously, Cassidy, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you were a were-porcupine or something. All prickly and spiny.”
Were-porcupine? She stifled a laugh. If Jared knew he’d amused her, it would just encourage him. “Only to certain people,” she said coolly.
“Prickle, prickle.” He grinned. “So, dinner? I promise not to make you think I’m a jerk if you promise not to act like I am one.” He hesitated. “What happened earlier? Didn’t happen. Don’t worry. I’ll never mention it again.”
She barely stifled a sigh of relief. As long as they were in agreement, she’d at least be able to sit in the same room with him—and the same car—without feeling so awkward she couldn’t even look at the man.
Her stomach growled, reminding her that she’d been too nervous to eat before the town meeting. She wouldn’t turn down a free meal, even if it did mean having to spend time with Jared.
At least the view would be good. Spending enough time for a meal with him might be uncomfortable, but her imagination would keep her company. When she looked at him in that T-shirt, her fingers itched to creep under its hem, to stroke the bare skin above the waistband of those jeans. Fantasizing about that would definitely make the meal tolerable, if she just managed to keep her thoughts hidden from him.
Hell, she didn’t even want to admit to herself that she lusted for him. She damn sure didn’t want him to catch on. It would only make him more insufferably cocky. And would practically guarantee another grope session when they returned to the motel. No matter how horny he made her, she wouldn’t let that happen.
Even though her nipples and clit perked up at the thought.
She picked up her cardigan in case the weather turned cold, always a possibility in spring in this area, and trailed him out to the car.
Even in the middle of nowhere, apparently, people liked going out to eat. Maybe because there was nothing else to do. Within a few miles of the hotel, they found three restaurants, including one that billed itself as “family-friendly”. That apparently meant that, unlike the other two, it didn’t have a bar, according to the sign out front. Jared chose it, which surprised her. He seemed like the kind who’d want to chug down a few after a day of rallying the locals.
He pulled into the parking lot and said, “This looks as good as anywhere.”
“No alcohol,” she pointed out.
He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Do you drink? I didn’t think you did. If you want, I can find somewhere else.”
She didn’t drink. The stuff tasted horrible to her. Not to mention the whole thing about alcohol lowering inhibitions, something she couldn’t afford around him right now. She hadn’t expected him to know that, though. “No, this is fine,” she said. “You’re right, I don’t drink.”
He nodded. “Me neither. Not for the past five years, anyway. Let’s see if they have a table available.” He snorted at his own joke. Only one other car sat in the lot.
Inside, one family sat at a table near the door. A mother, father and two kids in the toddler range, one of whom was throwing a minor fit about being confined to a highchair.
“Ah, domestic bliss,” Jared muttered. He led Cassidy to a table on the other side of the restaurant.
So he didn’t like kids. Cassidy made a note of the fact, even though it would never be an issue for her. As soon as the tree-planting ended, she would probably never even see him again.
It took only a couple of minutes for a waitress to bring menus and within a surprisingly short amount of time, hot meals sat on the table in front of them. The food tasted decent.
To Cassidy’s surprise, the company wasn’t bad either. Away from his role as the public face of JaBro, Jared was surprisingly funny and charming, and he entertained her with stories about his father and other relatives who worked for JaBro. They’d never had a social conversation before, she realized. Only chatter and banter during drives and while preparing presentations for the various towns they’d visited. Those conversations usually ended with some snide, sarcastic comment from him.
Here, with no pressure and no one but her to impress, he actually seemed human.
But despite his casual chatter, Jared kept his smooth façade in place. She had no way to judge whether he enjoyed her company or wanted the meal to end so he could get away from her. Even when he told a humorous tale about the time he’d nearly crashed the entire JaBro computer system, he showed no emotion other than a restrained smile.
She wondered whether that surface would crack if she reached under the table and stroked his thigh. The tablecloth hung low enough that no one would see her hand inchin
g up. By the time she reached his cock, it would be so hard he’d gasp when she touched it through his jeans.
Massaging his shaft, she would look into his eyes to see his arousal. As wet as she became just being near him, she would make him want her twice as badly. Make him ache for her.
Maybe he would even return the courtesy and fondle her while she played with him. And then they would leave in a hurry, Jared walking stiffly to hide his hard-on, and run to the backseat of the car, where they—
“Cassidy?” Jared said impatiently.
Startled out of her fantasy, she shook her head. Her face heated and she stared at her plate. “Sorry. My mind must have wandered.”
“And here I thought for a change you were actually enjoying listening to me.” He gave her a rueful smile. “I asked whether you want dessert. The waitress keeps looking this way, so she’ll probably be asking whether we’re all set.”
“No, no, I’m fine.” The only dessert she wanted was Jared’s cock in her mouth. Her clit throbbed in response to her thought.
As if that would ever happen.
At the end of the meal, Jared picked up the check. “I can pay for my own,” Cassidy protested. A token protest—she wouldn’t argue much, but she didn’t want him to think she couldn’t pay her own way. Or that she owed him something for paying.
He held the check above his head, out of her reach. “Consider it a gift from JaBro for your hard work,” he said cheerfully. “Have to make use of the corporate credit card somehow.”
“Yes, because I’m sure Daddy will appreciate you spending his company’s money on me,” she said sarcastically.
He studied her. “You really resent that, don’t you?”
“Resent what?”
He stood and pushed in his chair. “That I work for my father. That he and my uncles own JaBro. That bugs the hell out of you, right?”
Like she cared where his money came from. If his father wanted to spoil him rotten, it didn’t concern her in the least. She only had an issue with Jared’s evident sense of entitlement.
She shook her head and tried not to let her irritation seep into her tone. “No, not at all. Why would it bother me that you’ve always had all the money in the world and don’t seem to realize that not everyone does? You talk about the recession like it’s something that’s happened to other people, not like it’s something that affects you, and you act like you should be given everything you want just because you want it.”
She took a breath. Damn it, she hadn’t meant to spill all that out to him. Of course she resented him. He didn’t need to know how much, though. They still had to work together, after all. She’d just made that damn awkward.
“Yeah, I figured you felt that way.” He sounded sad rather than angry as she would have expected. “I don’t think I deserve everything. You don’t know me nearly as well as you’ve convinced yourself you do.”
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled from under a mountain of guilt. She shouldn’t have acted like such a bitch. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“No, no, I’m glad you did,” he said. He sounded sincere. “It’s good to know what you really think about me.” The server came over and he handed her the check and the credit card. She walked away. “I’d rather have you honestly hate me than pretend to like me, Cassidy.”
If you only knew what I’ve been thinking about you lately. “I don’t hate you.” It was hard to completely hate a man who wandered in and out of her imagination in various positions and stages of dress. He was too damn sexy to really hate. She had to admit she wanted him. She didn’t even dislike him quite as much as she had, though she wasn’t ready to actually like him.
“All that stuff you just said sure sounded like hatred.”
The server returned and Jared added a tip to the receipt, then signed his name. The server smiled and wished them a good night, then walked away.
Jared turned toward the door. “Ready to go?”
“I’ll walk if you’d rather,” Cassidy said quietly.
He gave her a strange look. “Why would I want you to walk? I drove you here, I’ll drive you back.”
She stood, though she hesitated to follow him. “After what I said, I wouldn’t think you’d want me in your car.”
He shrugged. “You were just being honest. Come on. It’s cold here after dark. You really don’t want to walk.”
She knew she’d hurt him and she didn’t really want the awkward silence she knew would fill the car. Walking would be better.
As they stepped outside, though, she found that he was right about the temperature. She shivered and pulled on her cardigan before entering his car. Walking would have been extremely unpleasant. Not only because of the cold. The townspeople had apparently decided they had better things to spend their money on than streetlights, and beyond the parking lot lay only pitch darkness.
She spent the ride back to the motel staring out the window. Not that she saw much, other than the lights in the houses they passed. Still, it was better than looking at Jared. Just the sight of him would remind her of her total bitch act in the restaurant. No matter how much of a jerk he was, he hadn’t deserved her rant, and she disliked herself enough for it without a reminder.
As soon as they pulled into the motel parking lot, she opened her door.
“You in some kind of hurry?” Jared asked, a bitter edge to his voice. Apparently the drive had given him time to decide he didn’t have to take what she’d said. “Maybe you think my sense of entitlement is contagious? Or maybe you’re just afraid I’ll attack you again, because you certainly didn’t want what we did earlier.”
She sighed and forced herself to look him in the eye. “Look, I’m sorry I said that.” She hoped she sounded suitably apologetic. “I didn’t mean to insult you. My mouth shot off ahead of my brain. That’s why I’m going to my room now, so you don’t have to deal with me anymore. Thanks for the ride and for dinner.” She paused. “And I never said I didn’t want what happened. Only that I didn’t want anything more.”
“Wait a minute, Cass,” he said softly.
She exited the car and shut the door. Cass? Come to think of it, he’d called her that several times today. No one else had ever used that nickname for her.
She didn’t want to admit she liked the sound of it coming from him.
Inside her room, she locked the door and flopped onto the bed. She doubted she’d hear from him again tonight. She’d just lie here quietly, in her own room with her own bed, and eventually change into her nightie and go to sleep. Just like she did every night at home in the apartment she shared with her cat.
Of course, maybe he would come to her door. Tap on it like he’d done earlier. Saunter in with an arrogant little wink and strip off that T-shirt of his to reveal his muscular chest.
Her nipples tautened and a pleasant shiver ran between her legs. Pleasant and annoying. No matter how badly she wanted Jared, nothing would occur between them. Oh, sure, she could try to make it happen. Go next door to Jared’s room on the pretext of apologizing for her comments at dinner. Press herself against him to feel his hardening cock. Remove her shirt and bra and put his hands on her breasts.
Right. Because I’m such a siren I’d be able to pull that off.
Outside her room, a door slammed. Through the thin wall separating her room from Jared’s came several thuds, followed by muffled swearing. Apparently Jared had finally left the car. And he hadn’t chosen to come to her room.
Something banged against the wall. A moment later, Jared moaned loudly.
He must have hurt himself. Cassidy scrambled from the bed and hurried to her door. Then Jared repeated his moan. This time, she recognized it. Not pain. Pleasure.
Holy crap, is he jerking off?
Small thuds sounded on the wall. As if maybe Jared was hitting it with his elbow as he stroked himself.
Images of Jared stroking his hard cock firmly with one hand filled her mind. Of course she had no idea what he looked like nude, but
her imagination filled in the blank nicely. Just the right length, not too thick, upright in his fist. Him leaning on the thin barrier between their rooms, eyes closed to better watch his own fantasies.
She wondered whether they involved her.
What would he do to her if she offered him the chance? She’d never make such an offer, of course. Not to a man like Jared Jackson. He would just see it as proof that he was the hottest thing walking, and she certainly didn’t want to feed his ego. It seemed to do just fine on its own.
Still, it would be so easy to walk over to the next room. Knock on his door, interrupt his playtime. He moaned louder, punctuating her thought. He had to know she’d be able to hear him.
Maybe that was his plan.
Her belly tightened and her pussy grew wet. Does he want me to hear?
“Fuck, Cass!” he cried out.
Oh yeah, he wanted her to hear. How dare he shout out her name?
How dare he make it so obvious that she turned him on when she was already so hot for him?
He was fantasizing about her while he played with himself. While he held his cock, maybe he pictured thrusting it in and out of her wet cunt.
That same picture filled her mind and she slipped her hand under the waistband of her jeans.
On the other side of the wall, Jared’s moans gave way to sharp cries. He had to be close, or at least wanted her to think he was.
Her jeans were just tight enough that she couldn’t reach her clit, so she quickly shimmied them and her panties off. Standing nude from the waist down, she toyed with the idea of grabbing a towel to wrap around herself and going next door. Since Jared apparently wanted to imagine her, she could give him a visual.
“Cassidy!”
Or not. Going to his room would give him exactly what he wanted, and she wouldn’t do that.
Leaning back, she put one foot up on the low bureau beside her, spreading her legs for better access. She needed some relief from the heat that spread through her, centered at her core. Hearing Jared’s moans increased her desire for him, and if she didn’t do something about it herself, she might give in to the impulse to go to him.
Seeds of Desire Page 2