“Pretty Fly for a White Guy” sounded from the depths of Sara’s purse, providing her with just the answer she’d been searching for. What better sponsor than a bank? BCF’s involvement could be mutually beneficial for both the family and the bank. A fundraiser like the one the Gallos would need would require news coverage, and positive news coverage always meant an increase in business.
For the second time that day, she silently thanked Harrison for interrupting her personal time. He might very well be calling to fire her, but if she didn’t answer, he couldn’t do anything until Monday and by then… Make herself invaluable, that’s what Bel had said.
Their branch had fallen behind on sales quotas in the last quarter, but something like this could put them back on top again. Not only would that get Harrison off her back, it might actually make up for what Sara had done to Jacob and save her job. The press coverage would be good for BCF across the board.
And most importantly, if she came up with a proposal that corporate accepted, the Gallos would get everything they needed.
Sara sent Ray a text then very purposefully ignored Harrison’s next incoming call.
5
Jacob parked his jeep in the spa’s parking lot, then reluctantly went to meet the two women waiting out front. He bent to brush a kiss against Paige’s cheek in greeting. “Thanks for keeping her company until I could make it.”
The shorter of the two women smiled up at him, reminding him why he liked her so much. “No thanks needed. I could live here if they’d let me.”
“Not me, the service was horrible.” Elise huffed out a breath.
Paige laughed at her friend in a way Jacob would never get away with. “Please tell me you’re not still mad that they didn’t have the exact shade of red you wanted for your toenails.”
Jacob knew without Elise speaking that was exactly what she was mad about. The woman had the expectations of someone who’d grown up with more money than God. She’d never understood how he didn’t share her feelings when people didn’t cater to them while they were out. She’d looked at him like he was speaking Spanish when he’d told her he’d grown up in middle class suburbia with his mother. His father might have come from money, but his mother had only had what the man deigned fit to give her, and since Jacob hadn’t wanted anything from either of them, he’d never asked for more than what he’d been given.
The maturing of his trust fund had changed his status in life, but it hadn’t altered him as a person.
Elise glared back at the lobby doors. “They’re a full-service spa. They should have whatever their clients want.”
“Whatever their clients named Elise want, you mean?” Paige giggled again and slapped Jacob on the back, then whispered, “Good luck,” before raising her voice to tell Elise she’d see her on Monday. She waved as she walked away, and Jacob watched the auburn hair that frizzed out from beneath her green knit hat with envy as it bounced with every step the woman took away from them.
He’d give anything to be bouncing away too. Hell, he damn near wanted to take off at a run. Instead, he turned to the tall platinum blonde at his side. Lips the color of candy apple red met his as Elise stretched on tiptoes and wrapped her slender arms around his neck. Chanel°5 and the ocean mixed in a pleasing combination, yet the kiss did little to ease his angst. His desire to escape had nothing to do with Elise’s debutante attitude. The two of them didn’t have to agree on money or anything else for their arrangement to work. Sex spoke only one language and they were both fluent. But not knowing where the night and subsequent week’s visit was heading had him on edge. That coupled with his lack of sleep and the episode at his office that morning spelled disaster. And fear.
Jacob wanted to be at his house—alone—where it wouldn’t matter if he succumbed to the things that haunted him.
How would he make it through the next seven days without revealing his secret?
By taking the distraction Elise offered, that was how. And since going home alone wasn’t an option, the sooner they got to his house, the sooner he could lose himself in her and forget, if only for a little while.
He pulled away from her embrace and reached for her hand. “Ready to go?”
“Am I ever.”
He stifled a groan while helping her into the passenger seat of his jeep, then tuned out her inane chatter about her day’s spa and shopping excursion while he drove. As shitty as it sounded, he needed sex, not meaningless conversation.
Back when he’d first returned stateside, he’d used sex as a distraction as often as he could find willing partners, some nights sleeping with three or four different women. But then his friend had invited him to the exclusive Forbidden and Jacob had learned some paths were too dangerous for him to go down. He’d almost gotten Nic barred for life when he’d put a guy in a chokehold for wailing on a woman with a whip. Her screams had sent Jacob into a full out flashback and there’d been no reasoning with him that the woman had wanted it. Hell, there’d been no reasoning with him at all.
Only Nic’s brute strength had pulled Jacob off, and after that he’d given up sex entirely. Relationships had long since been off the table for him, but after that he no longer felt safe with one night stands either. What if he hurt a woman like he’d hurt that man?
That fear had led to a year’s long celibacy.
Then he’d met Elise at his father’s birthday dinner and she’d offered what had seemed at the time a perfect opportunity. Monogamous sex without the confines of a relationship somehow felt safer to him—or maybe he’d just been desperate to have another outlet added to his arsenal again. Whatever the reason, he’d agreed and things for the most part had been good.
From the beginning, she’d made it clear that she was looking for the same type of boundaries that he needed, having no desire to change the freedom her current life offered. Her father’s money meant she could go anywhere and do anything, and tying herself to one person would only hinder that. She hadn’t been turned off by Jacob’s fear of marriage or children, instead sharing that she felt the same, if not stronger, than he did. Jacob liked kids—sometimes he preferred them to adults—but enjoying the simplicity of their company didn’t equate to him wanting to have children of his own. Elise, on the other hand, was so scared of kids, when her father had tried to make her attend some function at a children’s hospital, she’d broken out in hives and run off for a month-long spa retreat.
A part of Jacob wondered what she was running from this time. They’d spoken last week and there’d been no mention then of a trip to see him.
“That was fast.” Elise stopped detailing her day as he pulled up at the security gate blocking his driveway. “Did you speed the whole way here?”
Jacob shook his head though he couldn’t rightly say for sure. Having been lost in his own thoughts, he had little recollection of the drive.
If only he could tune out the next seven days as easily.
In silence, he punched his key code into the security pad, then drove the rest of the short driveway and parked in front of the house he’d splurged on. He didn’t need to be frugal with his money, yet any expenditures outside of the norm ate at his guilt. He did most of his own cooking and cleaning, but because the house had more space than he could ever hope to fill, someone came in two days a week to take care of the things he didn’t have time for, and even that expense bothered him. He only bought nice suits out of necessity for his job and his fifteen-year-old jeep he’d keep until she died.
His home purchase had been the one place he allowed extravagances.
The peace he’d experienced the first time he saw the glass-and-stone enclosed house that sat right on the cliffs above Black’s Beach. It’d been different than the light he’d experienced with Sara earlier, but still just as powerful. When driving didn’t soothe his demons, sitting out under the stars near his pool usually did. The waves crashing onto the shores below spoke of strength, and when he was at his weakest, he needed the reminder that storms came and went bu
t the land still prevailed.
He unlocked the front door and let Elise enter first.
“You’re awfully quiet tonight.” She turned to face him with a look he knew well. “What would you say if I told you I have a surprise for you?”
His cock perked up immediately. “I’d say, what are we waiting for?” With the exception of this visit, Elise’s surprises were usually ones he enjoyed. The things she could do with her mouth could bring a saint to his knees.
And Jacob was no saint.
Nor was he ashamed to admit it. His cock wasn’t the only thing that perked up. He returned her grin. “Race you to your suite?” They might not share his own bed, but he’d fuck her good in the guest suite of her choosing as many times as she wanted.
Knowing the score, she hiked up her black dress, kicked off her heels, and ran up the tiled stairs, heading in the opposite direction from his bedroom once she reached the top with him close behind. He needed this more than he’d needed the woman Sara from earlier. Or at least that’s what he told himself as they rushed into the second-floor suite and he lifted Elise around the waist and tossed her squealing, wriggling body onto the bed. What business did he have of thinking about another woman now, even if he’d only been thinking of the way she’d made him feel?
Elise hopped up onto her knees and crooked her finger at him, letting him know she’d make him feel something entirely more tangible than Sara had. Lightness like that offered by the stranger earlier didn’t have anything on the wickedness staring back at him at the moment.
Damn, Elise looked good. And she looked ready for one of his favorite activities.
He climbed onto the bed next to her and reached for the condoms on the nightstand.
She blocked his attempt.
With one move, she moved between him and his target and shimmied out of her dress. “Don’t you want my surprise?”
“I thought that’s what I was about to get.”
“Oh, honey, you’re about to get it all right.” She pointed to the long scar along her abdomen.
Thinking she wanted reassurances he found her attractive despite it, he bent to kiss where she pointed.
He’d never cared one bit about the scar. He had plenty of his own.
To show her that, he trailed his tongue along the raised skin then tugged her legs out from under her so that she lay in wait for him. He dipped his head between the V of her thighs, letting her know exactly how attractive he found her.
She pulled away from him, panting. “We’ll get to that later. Come here.”
Gladly.
Jacob reached for the condoms again.
And again, she hindered him from picking them up.
She swatted his hand and they fell to the floor out of sight underneath the bed. “Elise…” He couldn’t stop his growl. His cock pulsed its frustration. “I don’t have it in me tonight to play games. I want your pussy. Either let me have my way with you with my mouth, or hand over the damn condoms.”
Instead of doing either, she pointed to her scar again. “The car accident that did this left me barren. I can’t have kids. That’s my surprise. I thought we’ve been together long enough, we could do without the whole condom thing now.” A naughty gleam entered her eyes as she spread her legs. “Don’t you want to know what it feels like to slide in and out of here bare?”
Jacob swallowed past the desire in his throat. As much as he wanted to find out exactly that, he hadn’t risked that before with anyone, not even before he’d signed up for the Marines. The thought alone sent him into near panic.
Elise spread her legs even further and dipped one manicured fingernail between folds that glistened with her arousal.
Elise, the woman who hated kids.
His resistance slipped a notch. “Are you sure? I mean, with all your father’s money in combination with medical advancements, are you sure that there’s no chance of you getting pregnant?”
She brought her finger to his lips and grinned when he sucked it into his mouth. “Are you seriously doubting me?”
Was he? With the taste of her pussy on his tongue, his cock wanted a chance to take her at her word, but—
“Really, Jacob? Why would I lie? All I’m after here is to feel you skin-to-skin. If we’re monogamous, give me one good reason why we have to deny ourselves that amazing feeling. I’m not a medical expert, but I’ve seen enough of my tests and gone to enough doctors to know that no amount of money or medicine can fix the mounds of scar tissue that is my uterus. Put your finger inside me, Jacob.” She grabbed his wrist, using her hand to guide him inside her, then clenched her vaginal walls around him. “This could be your cock, risk free, if you stopped being so stubborn.”
Her rationale erased any doubts that he had, quieting the feeling in his gut that said something wasn’t right. His fear made him question everything and tonight he just wanted to forget. Helping him to do that, she grabbed hold of his hair and brought his mouth down to meet hers in a searing kiss, her nails digging into his scalp.
Fuck yeah, he wanted this.
He needed this.
On arms that shook, he lowered himself on top of her and poised the tip of his cock at her entrance. He stopped kissing her only long enough to ask, “Are you sure?”
In answer, she crossed her ankles behind his back and dug her heels into his ass.
Her teeth on his neck broke him. Any control he’d had vanished and he sunk his full length into her in one hard stroke.
She squealed her approval while he shouted his own.
Damn, that felt good—so good, he’d have to find some way to thank her for the unexpected visit in the morning. Without the barrier of a condom, he felt every slide and pull of her muscles against his rigid flesh. He moved inside her to the synchronized pulse of blood through his veins.
“Yes, Jacob. I’m… so… close...”
She might be, but close wouldn’t cut it. Not tonight. Not after she’d given him such a gift.
“Dulzura…” He canted his hips, using his pelvis to stimulate her clit as he drove himself home over and over again. When he neared his own edge, he slowed their pace, making sure he never lost contact with the part of her that made her scream.
“No!” Elise pushed her heels in harder against his ass. “Don’t stop. I don’t care if you come before I do, don’t—” Her pussy contracted around him as the orgasm shook her body.
The feel of that, of her body rhythmically tightening around him, took Jacob the rest of the way home. He pounded into her again and tingles started at the base of his spine. Then his own release came on just as quickly as hers, tearing through him and leaving him depleted. He collapsed on top of her. “Mier…da.”
“I don’t know…” Elise’s legs unlocked from around him as they panted together. “… what ‘mierda’ means… but yeah, me too.” Her giggle pushed his spent cock out of her body, and they both groaned.
Jacob’s groan quickly turned into terror—the kind of terror he spent his days and nights fighting against.
Sweat gathered at the base of his spine
What the fuck had he just done?
What if Elise…? What if he…?
He couldn’t have a child. He couldn’t. Children were helpless. His men had had an armored car and automatic weapons and he’d still lost them. How could he protect a child?
What if he had a child and it died because of him?
What if…?
One hundred.
Ninety-nine.
Jacob had to force himself to take the slow, deep breaths that helped center him when he was close to the edge, all the while Elise lay next to him, curling up into his side. He should’ve expected a reaction of this magnitude—he’d lived with this fear for six years and his gut had warned him about it—yet it still blindsided him. He’d thought his uneasiness had come from a misguided notion that Elise was manipulating him.
Man up and do not freak out on her here. Do you hear me, soldier?
Jacob curled his hands
into fists and continued his backward countdown, thinking of the family that loved him.
His birth parents may not have given him what he’d needed, but he’d received plenty of love from the Carpenter’s, starting on his thirteenth birthday. Instead of going home after school that day, he’d gone to the arcades at Mission Beach. His life hadn’t been the same since. Not only had he made two new friends that day, but when Nic took Jacob and Marc to meet his grandmother, two lost boys found a surrogate family. Nic’s father had joined the Marines and never come home, so the woman raised his boy as she had him. And because there was always room at Mama Bea’s table, she raised Marc and Jacob too.
But Jacob didn’t just owe her for providing him with a healthy childhood; he had her to thank for the limited coping skills he had as well.
When he’d returned stateside, she hadn’t asked him any questions, she’d simply handed him a book on PTSD, then patted him on the back and walked away, somehow knowing that he struggled even though he never spoke of it.
A gentle snore came from Elise just as Jacob’s heart rate returned to normal.
He disentangled himself from her grasp, moving away from the hand that immediately reached out to draw him back to her. “Shh, dulzura, go back to sleep.”
Post-traumatic stress disorder hardly seemed a fitting name for the horror that gripped him more often than not, but he’d read the book out of respect for Mama Bea, and in moments like now, he was grateful he’d done so. Six years later, however, he’d yet to call the number on the therapist’s business card she’d tucked inside the first page. Not even Mama’s love could get him to do that.
Jacob deserved every single one of the demons he lived with.
But that didn’t mean he wanted to share them with anyone, least of all with a woman who was no more than a fuckbuddy.
He slid to the foot of the bed in a quest for his clothes as quietly as possible. Finding his pants, he threw them over his shoulder and headed for the door.
Morrow's Horizon (The Morrow Women Series Book 1) Page 6