Looks like Trouble to Me (Bad Boys Need Love, Too #1)
Page 16
“Come outside.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “What?”
“Come outside.”
She dropped the phone and raced for the front door.
Jace sat outside, his truck backed into the driveway, grinning at her. He turned off the ignition and lowered the passenger window. “Come here, gorgeous,” he said. He scooted into the passenger seat and opened the door for her. “Hop in.” His eyes glittered, dark and lusty.
She glanced at his hips. “Jace! Cover yourself!” His pants were open and his cock pointed toward high noon, Savage time.
“That’s your job, baby.”
“Out here?” she spluttered.
“We don’t have much time.”
“But the neighbors will see us.”
“I don’t see anyone watching, do you?”
Her face burned with heat. “Jace.”
“This thing can’t wait much longer, baby. I’ve had a hard time holding back already.”
“I can’t do it out here.” Her attention darted in every direction. “Someone might see us.”
“The clock’s ticking, baby. I told Neil I’d be back with the parts by three.”
“Come in the house. I’ll take care of you there.”
He looked at his imaginary wristwatch. “Tick tock, baby.”
“Come on,” she pleaded.
He leaned across the seat, grabbed the keys off the dashboard and jammed them in the ignition. “You could have had me.”
“What if someone sees us,” she said, like a broken record.
“All they’ll see is me kissing my woman passionately.” He glanced at his wrist again. “Time sensitive offer, baby. Offer ends in three…”
“Jace!”
“Two…”
“Okay, okay.” She climbed on his lap and slammed the door shut. “There. Are you happy now?”
His emerald eyes twinkled as he looked at her. “I’m close. I need to be closer.”
“You’re lucky I put a skirt on today.”
“Am I? Or are you?” He put his hands around her hips, lifting her, tugged aside her panties and lowered her onto him. “Oh, fuck, baby. Someone’s juicy for her man.” He scooted his hips forward a bit, sprawled along the seat, bracing his feet on the floorboard.
“Oh, Jesus, Jace,” Zoé said. “I can’t get enough of you. I feel like I’m the addict here.” She slid up and down his cock, her core sizzling with sensation.
“As long as I’m the drug, baby.” He let his head fall back against the glass, still clutching her hips, guiding her up and down. “Here comes a car. Kiss me.”
Her head whipped back and forth. “There’s no car. You’re trying to scare me.”
“I’m trying to get you to kiss me.” He laughed.
“You’re impossible,” she said, batting his shoulder.
“Still waiting.”
She dropped her head and touched her lips to his.
His hand came around her neck and pulled her to him, plunging his tongue inside her open mouth. At the same time he rocked his hips, making circles, pushing himself as deep as he could.
She moaned, feeling the vibration in her mouth and lips. As the orgasm built, she whimpered against his lips, overcome with need. Tearing away, she moaned. “Jace!” The climax came swift and hard, her body pulsing around him.
His fingers dug into her hips, guiding her up and down. “Yeah, baby, come for me. Oh, fuck, here I come. Fuck!” He ground his hips against her, spilling his pleasure inside her. “Now a car’s coming.”
“What?” She turned her head to see a sedan slowly driving up the road. “Shit!”
Jace chuckled. “Guess we’d better look like we’re making out in the car.”
She placed her palms on his stubble covered cheeks and kissed him.
The car whizzed on by.
“Damn you! You’re going to get me…” arrested, she almost said. “In big trouble.”
“I think you like the kind of trouble I bring to the table.” He grinned at her, glanced at the clock on the dash and frowned. “Shit. I’ve got to catch that next ferry, baby, I promised Neil I’d be back to get more work done.”
Zoé rolled off of him, feeling his slippery juices roll down her leg as he slid out of her. The combined smell of him and her filled the cab in a heady musk. “Put that thing away before you get me in a boatload of trouble,” she said, straining for another kiss.
“Gotta go, babe,” he murmured into her lips.
She opened the door and hopped out.
Jace zipped up and slid to the driver’s seat.
Zoé scooted around to the driver’s window and leaned in for one more intoxicating kiss. When she pulled away, Jace looked at her with a serious expression.
“You’ve got to let me clean up the mess I’m in, baby. No more spy games, okay? Please let me deal with my past. I don’t care to re-live it or drag you through it. I want to keep you safe, happy, and trouble free.” He stepped on the brake and cranked the keys in the ignition. When the engine roared, he gunned the engine a couple times. “That’s how you make me feel.” He gave her one of his wicked, panty drenching smiles.
Get a grip. She closed her eyes briefly, took a deep, calming breath, and opened them, staring into his emerald eyes. “Okay,” she said in a soft voice. “No more spy games.”
“I’m doing this for us, baby. I’m clearing a path so I can…” He faltered.
“So you can what?” She brushed a lock of brown waves from his forehead.
He shifted into drive. “Gotta run, baby.”
“Tell me what you were going to say.”
“Foot’s on the gas, girl. I don’t want to run over your toes.”
Zoé stepped back. “Tell me what you were going to say. So you can what?”
The truck pulled slowly away from her. “Later, baby.”
“Tell me!”
“So I can fucking love you, Zoé Dubois,” he called, fishtailing out into the street and speeding away.
Chapter 20
Jace’s phone immediately rang. He slid the connect button and said, “Miss me already?”
“So you can fucking love me? That’s what you said to me?” Zoé said. “You fishtail away from my home, leaving tire rubber in the road like a teenager, calling the words I’ve longed to hear on the fly? I’ve been dying ever since I confessed true love to you!”
“Well,” he said, grinning, “I love fucking you and I love you so I’m getting ready to fucking love you. See the logic here?”
She let out an exasperated groan. “When did you figure this out, stud?”
“When did I figure what out? That I love fucking you? That was on the Deus.”
“No! That you love me!”
“That I fucking love you, you mean.”
“Come on, Jace,” she huffed. “When did you figure you loved me?”
“The moment I laid eyes on you at Chica Ríos.” She said nothing, making him smile at the impact his words had made. “Aren’t you going to say anything?”
“You’re playing with me.”
“No, baby, I’m dead serious. When I met you I knew you were a good woman. You made me smile. You made me feel like I’d turned the corner on my fucked up life and good was waiting for me. You’re my reward. You’re also my reason for powering through everything to get to the other side.” A soft whimper met his ears. “Baby! Don’t cry! This is a good thing, I promise.”
“I know,” she said, sniffling through the phone. “We’re moving at the speed of light, you know.”
“It’s not fast enough for me, girl. I want to blaze through the heavens with you.”
“You terrify me sometimes, Jace. I still know barely anything about you, I’m already madly in love with you and you still terrify me.”
“I think you don’t like feeling out of control.”
“Who does?”
“Ride it, baby. It’s a rush.” He lifted his gaze at the freeway signage, spying the exit he needed. He heard he
r breath catch. “Baby, I won’t hurt you or drag you into foul play. Is that what you’re worried about?”
“A little.”
“I told you, I’m putting my past behind me. I only have one more detail to deal with and I’m home free. Well, that and this fucking trial.”
“The Billy lawsuit?”
“Yep. We got served the other day. Neil and I. We have a meeting with the lawyers next week and then we see where we go from there.”
“Oh, Jace, I’m so sorry.”
“Me, too. Billy O’Reilly is a royal prick. I can deal with him but he’s dragged my boss into it. Neil Jenner is one of the best guys on the planet. He doesn’t deserve this.”
“You don’t either,” Zoé said softly.
Jace chewed the inside of his cheek. “Maybe.”
“You sound so calm about it. Why aren’t you hysterical?”
He chuckled. “Hysteria only adds more drama. I don’t do hysteria.”
“You do anger pretty well,” she stated.
“You don’t like it?”
“I didn’t say that. It was only a comment.”
“Yeah, well, I’d say I do anger, passion, recklessness, fearlessness and determination pretty darn well. I can be stubborn and intense. Creative, too.” He paused. “Oh, and fucking - I can definitely roll with that, where you’re concerned.”
“What about screwing and making love? And laying me out under the stars? You promised.”
“Let’s skip screwing. Sounds like something you do to a jar or a boat engine. We can jump to a fucking, making-love combo. Sometimes under the stars. How’s that? Now that you know I fucking love you.” Another chuckle rumbled out of him. “Pretty good logic, don’t you think?”
“Jace.”
The way she said his name made him grin. He heard the smile in her voice and pictured her shaking her head at him. “Are you rolling your eyes? Shaking your head?”
“No, I finished those two moves. Now I’m smirking. You’re completely impossible.”
“And I keep telling you, I am totally, completely, without reservation within the realm of possibilities for you, Zoé Dubois. If you still want me, that is.”
“I do. I told you, I’m already head over heels in love with you.”
He swallowed, hard, thinking, This L-word is going to be hard to say.
“Say something, stud.”
“I don’t know what to say.” He clenched and released the steering wheel. “I’m not going to be all stars, suckers, and fairy-dust, Zoé.”
“What?” she spluttered. “What the hell does that mean?”
“It means, most people follow a script when they say they love another. I find it impossible to follow a script. I make up my life as I go. I don’t want you to get all sentimental and silly with me, now that you know I love you.”
“Okay,” she said cautiously.
“I’m not going to be any different,” he continued, suddenly feeling defensive. “I’m not going to be the guy who comes home at five, leaves at seven in the morning, and buys you flowers on Sunday.” His fingers moved restlessly over the steering wheel. “I’m not that guy.”
“Okay, Jace. I never said I wanted that, did I?”
“No, but most girls do.”
“I’m not most girls.”
“I noticed. That’s one of the things I love about you.” There. That came out easy. He turned into the ferry driveway, pulling up to the ticket stand. “Hold up, baby, I’ve got to get my ferry ticket.”
“One adult?” the somber male asked him. He leaned down in his ticket booth to peer inside the cab of the Ford.
“That’s right.” He handed him his credit card.
Once he’d shoved it back in his wallet, ticket on the seat next to him, he said, “Okay, I’m back.”
“I’m glad. I hate it when you go away.”
“Me, too.” He breathed in the feeling of safety, warmth and acceptance he felt pouring from this woman, wondering if he’d be able to live up to it.
“Jace?”
“Yeah?” He pulled the truck to a stop in the ferry line.
“Oh, never mind, I’ve pestered you with enough questions today.” She huffed her breathe through the phone. “Let me just say this - yesterday I thought I loved you.”
He tensed.
“Today, knowing a little, teensy, tiny bit more about you, I love you even more.”
He let out his breath. “Thank you, baby. You’ve got a lot of courage and heart to say that.”
“You bring it out in me. You make me feel strong. And capable. And crazy - a lot.”
He chuckled. “You do the same for me, too.”
“I’m just saying - I’m leaving the door wide open for you to share with me. I want to know all of you, not just the parts you want me to see.”
His heart began to rabbit race in his chest, heading for destinations unknown. “One day at a time, baby. With a solid commitment for more. Will that be enough for you? I sure hope so. Because that’s all I have to give.”
Chapter 21
“That’s all he has to give,” Zoé muttered, stepping from her house into the tidy garage, and sliding into the Jeep. As far as she was concerned, two days ago he’d given her the moon, the stars, the planets, and the sun, all tied up in one splendiferous bow. First, he’d told her that he loved her. Second, he told her that he was committed to continuing. “What more is there, Jace Savage?” she said.
Once she’d pulled onto the street, she tapped Tanya’s number. “I’m on my way, T,” she said. “Jace will meet us there. Yeah, he knows where the Moonlit bar is - who doesn’t? It’s a West Seattle institution.”
When she arrived at Moonlit, the sky had begun liquefying into dusk, moody peach, purple and oranges blurring the edges of the clouds. The bar faced the water, where people strolled along the sidewalk across the street or in the sand, enjoying the pleasant evening. She stepped out of the Jeep as Jace and his Angel powered into the lot, parking next to her.
“My bike’s getting lonely, baby,” he said, removing his helmet, dressed, as usual, in his leathers, jeans and a linen shirt. “You need a ride.”
She arched an eyebrow. “I need a ride, or you need a rider?”
He laughed and shook out his lustrous hair. “Both.”
“You get sexier by the day,” she said, leaning against the cool metal of her vehicle. “You’re like an Adonis or a David or a….”
“That’s because I’ve got you to keep my sexy alive and well,” he interrupted, grinning at her.
Tanya and Tony pulled up in their Subaru, pulling up next to them.
“There are my friends,” Zoé said, pointing at their car.
He didn’t spare them a glance. “I haven’t greeted you properly yet,” he said, stepping in front of her. “Let’s follow proper procedures.” He took her face in his hands and kissed her once, twice, thrice, the third one deep and hard.
He smelled like fresh air, motorcycle, and Jace. She softened into the kiss, whispers of self-consciousness protesting, waving their hands in the recesses of her mind.
“Ahem,” Tanya said. “Onlookers in the parking lot.”
She pulled away from Jace, breathless, cheeks on fire. “I’m sorry,” she said, looking askance at Jace’s beautiful face. The man screamed hot sex.
“I’m not,” Jace said. “I’m Jace Savage,” he said, shaking Tony’s hand confidently. “Tony, right?”
“That’s right. Tony De Luca. This is my wife, Tanya.”
“A pleasure,” he said, giving Tanya’s hand a light shake.
Her eyes widened as she regarded him. “Good to meet you.” When he turned away from her, Tanya looked at Zoé and mouthed, Oh my God! waving her fingers at her face like a fan.
“Shall we?” Jace slung his arm around Zoé, guiding her into the bar.
Once seated in the booth, he asked, “What will everyone have? The tab’s on me tonight.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Zoé said.
“Someone’s in a good mood,” Zoé said.
“Someone’s sitting next to his favorite girl.” He pulled her closer, drawing his hand up and down the inside of her leg.
Zoé shivered and felt her face flush - again. Intoxicating shivers wound their way between her legs. Damn, damn, damn.
“I think I heard of you, Jace,” Tony said.
“Yeah?” Jace said, signaling for the waitress.
Zoé felt him tense, gripping her leg ever so slightly.
“Didn’t you win some prestigious photo award?”
He let out a breath and continued stroking. “Yeah, that was me all right. Caught a photo of a jaguar in Brazil’s jungle.” He framed the air with his fingers. “Right time, right place, and boom! Perfect shot.”
“Brazil! Sounds exciting!” Tanya said, clearly impressed.
“How’d you get so close to that animal? It looked like you could reach out and touch him,” Zoé asked.
“I used the zoom, but yeah, I was pretty close. I have a way with wild things.” His fingers traced a wicked, slow path up the inside of her thigh. “Especially pussy cats.”
Sweet Jesus. She grabbed his hand and gently guided his fingers back down to her leg to a safer place.
He chuckled. “So what do you two do? Zoé tells me you’re into garden design?”
“Yes,” Tanya said. “We have our own nursery. We specialize in native design for high end clients. The ones with money.”
Jace nodded, smiling politely.
He’s bored stiff with my safe friends, Zoé thought.
A pretty waitress with glossy red hair and too perky boobs sashayed over and brightened. “Jace Savage! Long time no see, love!”
Jace flicked a glance at her, recognition forming on his face. “Darlene! Good to see you! How you been?”
“Great. I’ve missed hanging out.” She rested her fingertips on the table, showing everyone her boob job.
Yeah, yeah, we see them. Zoé felt fifteen kinds of mad, as jealousy swarmed like bees around her heart. He’s mine.
Jace tugged on Zoé’s leg, pulling her closer. He leaned in next to her ear and whispered, “Stop tripping.”