Reaching out, he slid his hand behind her neck, his fingers gliding into her hair, tugging her head back as he said, “Because I want you there. I. Want. You.”
* * *
Jason knew she was pushing him to admit what they both felt. What couldn’t be denied. And he was through fighting the yearning for this woman. For as long as she needed his help and desired him, too, she was his.
He slid his tongue into her mouth and knew he was lost. Arousal ripped through him, hard and fast, the warmth of her mouth and the way she pressed her body into his turning him on. He tugged on her hair and she moaned, the vibrations rippling through him. She wound her arms around his neck and pressed her lush body against his, stripping away his defenses. With a groan, he tangled his tongue with hers, then pressed kisses and nibbles down the side of her neck, suckling on the sensitive spot behind her ear.
She gripped his hair, holding on as he devoured her, tasting her flesh and finding it as sweet as she was. His cock throbbed as desire consumed him, fast and furious, based on this one first kiss alone. He could go on like this forever, just feasting on her mouth, learning what she liked, imprinting himself on her.
But without warning, the tinkle of the doorbell interrupted them and she jumped, backing away from him, fixing her hair, and swiping her hand over her mouth, her cheeks flushed as she faced the customer in front of her.
“Umm… Hi. I just wanted to buy some candy,” a woman said, stepping toward the door, her own face flushed.
“No, wait. I’m sorry. What can I get you?” Faith rushed behind the counter, leaving Jason with a hard-on the likes of which he’d never seen and the inability to speak. So he lowered himself into the chair in front of his laptop, drawing in a deep breath and hoping he could get back to work.
Long after the customer left the shop, Faith busied herself in the back, clearly avoiding him, which he let her do, knowing they’d be alone later tonight at his apartment. In the afternoon, the shop became busy, the after-school crowd tumbling in. Clearly word had gotten around and teenagers came and went, keeping Faith hopping.
At no time did Jason catch sight of anyone looking remotely suspicious, although he realized he needed a picture of her brother if he was going to recognize anyone stalking the premises. He checked in with the PI Gabe had given him and the man said he hadn’t found any hint of Colton in the city. He’d tracked his movements in his hometown up to a week ago, after which he’d disappeared. But the man was still searching.
Finally, the end of the day came, and since Faith closed up at six during the week, only staying open later on the weekends, they could go home. He helped her clean up and close the store in silence. He understood she was still flustered by the kiss. Clearly she wasn’t one of his more experienced women, and he both liked and appreciated that about her. She was unique, special, and got under his skin. And if her brother came near her, he’d have to answer to Jason.
They were settled in his car when he turned to her. They hadn’t eaten since lunch and he was starving. “How about Italian for dinner?” he asked.
Her eyes lit up at the thought of food. “Sure.”
“I know a great little place we can go. The owner is a friend of my cousin’s. He introduced me to him when I moved to town and you’ll love the food.”
“Oh! You want to go out and not order in?” she asked, sounding surprised.
He chuckled. He wanted to talk to her in a setting where she couldn’t escape to her room, make sure she understood that kiss had meant something.
“You owe me a date, sweetness.”
Her face flushed and she turned to him. “Did I ever actually agree to go out with you?”
He reached over, because they were at a stoplight, and ran his knuckles down her cheek. “By moving in with me, it was implied that we’d have dinner together.”
He drove them to a parking garage, left the car with the attendant, and strolled, his hand on the small of her back, to an old-fashioned northern Italian restaurant.
The owner, Gino, greeted him as they walked in the door. “Jason Dare, it’s been too long! Rosa! Jason is here!”
A robust woman came out of the kitchen, rushing over to greet them. “Jason! Did you bring Gabriel?” she asked, giving him a kiss on the cheek.
“He’s home with his family,” Jason said. “But I did bring a friend. Faith, this is Rosa Bianci and her husband, Gino. She makes the best pasta in the city. This place is a hidden gem.”
Rosa, an attractive older woman with dark hair, smiled at Faith. “Oh, what a pretty young lady. You finally brought a girl here to meet us!” She grasped Faith’s cheeks and held her face in her hands. “So nice to have you here.”
“It’s wonderful to meet you,” Faith said, finally getting a word in. She shot Jason an amused glance, and he was pleased she wasn’t put off by Rosa’s friendliness.
He deliberately never brought women here. Rosa, who had taken an instant liking to him in part due to the fact that he was Gabe’s cousin, and she loved Gabe and his family, would assume there was more going on than just a dinner. And Jason didn’t want any woman he was with making that assumption as well. It spoke volumes that he didn’t have a problem with Faith here now.
“Come,” Gino said. “I have your special table and nobody’s sitting there.” He led them to a small corner in the back that Jason knew well.
“Sometimes I come here and sit in the corner and work,” Jason explained. “This table is quiet.”
“And you never bring women here. Interesting,” Faith said under her breath.
Jason grinned as he held out her chair. She was going to grill him about his love life, he could see it coming. And he didn’t mind answering. She already knew his mother hadn’t met women in his life. Faith had a strong inkling as to what he was about. She just didn’t know why he kept his emotions bottled up tight. If she asked, he would admit to some things, but not to all.
After ordering fried zucchini and a bottle of Pinot Grigio wine, Jason leaned back in his seat and studied Faith. After a long day at work, she was still as pretty as he’d found her this morning when she walked out of her room, a smile on her face. He loved how she easily wore the Sweet Treats tee shirt, never worried about being dressed down, always comfortable in her own skin.
“So, how was your day?” he asked with an amused grin on his face.
She mock glared at him. “Are you looking to discuss that kiss?” she asked, surprising him that she broached the subject first.
Score one for her, he thought. Maybe he hadn’t given her enough credit. “Only if you had issues with it.”
“Issues like what? It was so good I want to do it again?”
Her admission both shocked and aroused him.
Her eyes opened wide at the words that had escaped. “And I haven’t even had a glass of wine as an excuse for being so honest,” she muttered with a shake of her head.
“Good thing I want to do it again, too,” he said, deadly serious. He reached across the table and grasped her hand, his thumb running across her skin.
He let the silence surround them for a few moments before speaking again. “I admit I didn’t plan for you, but you’re here, you’re in my life, and not only am I going to protect you, I’m going to have you,” he said, his words as serious as the growing feelings that kept taking him off guard. “Any argument?” he asked.
She swallowed hard. “No.”
“Good.” Satisfaction rushed through him. He’d felt the power in that kiss and knew they were destined to do it again … and again. He wanted his mouth and tongue on other parts of her body, tasting the innate sweetness that was Faith.
“Wine!” Gino said, coming up to the table and uncorking the bottle. He poured some for Jason to taste.
He enjoyed the flavor and nodded. The older man filled each glass. The restaurant was starting to fill up, and he was glad they’d made it here in time to snag his favorite, more isolated table.
“Would it be okay if I brought
out the house special?” Gino asked. “My Rosa would love to treat you and she cooked it with love.”
Faith smiled at the older man. “That would be fine with me,” she said.
“Me, too.”
Gino strode off and Faith met his gaze. “So tell me, Jason Dare, what is your situation with women? You haven’t wanted to introduce any to your mother, and these people are like close friends and they’ve never met one of your dates. I know you’re not gay. What are you hiding?” Faith tucked her hands beneath her chin, grinning as she put him on the spot.
He’d been prepared for this question, and he chose the easiest issue in his past to admit to. “My father’s a bigamist. Or as close to being a bigamist as one can get without marrying both women at the same time.”
He hated talking about Robert Dare. The man had raised Jason and his siblings, had been there for them, and he’d thought they had a great family … only to discover the truth.
“I’m sorry … what?” Faith asked, stunned as any rational person would be.
“My father had another family with a woman he was legally married to, and five kids, including me, while he had an affair with my mother and raised me and my siblings with her. She knew, or found out, and stayed with him anyway.” A pain throbbed in his temple as it always did when this subject came up. But it was nothing compared to the pain of losing his best friend, so as much as it hurt, he would stick with this part of his past for now.
“Wow. That’s … awful. I’m sorry,” Faith murmured.
He nodded. “It’s complicated. He married Emma St. Claire as part of a merger of two families. It wasn’t a love match, and instead of trying to create one, my father, Robert, met my mom and fell in love. I think that’s how he justified what he did.” Jason shook his head. “Although we didn’t know it at the time, he told his other family that he was traveling on business for his hotels when he was really with us.” He swallowed hard. “He missed major events in their lives like graduations and birthdays but came to ours. Again, justifying it because he was in love with my mother and not theirs.”
“What a pig,” Faith muttered honestly and Jason managed a laugh.
“Truer words were never spoken,” he said.
“How did you find out?”
He took a long sip of wine and she did the same. “Well, that’s where Sienna’s illness comes in. She had been diagnosed with leukemia. Chemo and treatments didn’t work, so they wanted to do a bone marrow transplant. None of us were matches, so Robert decided to go to his other family and ask them to be tested.”
Faith had leaned in, utterly engrossed in the story, and he didn’t blame her.
“He dropped the bomb on his legitimate family, destroyed them, and yet his wife … Emma … was gracious enough to test her kids. Avery, the youngest, was a match, and she donated her bone marrow to my sister.”
Jason recalled those difficult days and sighed. “I guess you could say I was left with a bad taste in my mouth for relationships and issues with trust.” He also had a problem fearing that the people he loved would leave him, which stemmed from his father’s behavior as well.
“All the siblings have made their peace with each other. The girls are the closest but we’re all a family.”
“And your parents? What’s their story now?” Faith asked.
Jason scowled. “My father is currently in love with another woman and in the process of divorcing my mother. It’s been difficult,” he said, swirling the wine around in the glass. “My mother knew about his first wife. She got my father by cheating, not that she knew it when the relationship began. But now she’s losing him the same way.”
Faith glanced at him. “You really haven’t had the best example of a stable marriage or family, have you?” she murmured.
He shook his head. Although if he had to dig deep, he’d say that Levi’s death had impacted him far more as an adult than his father’s betrayal. “There’s so much more,” he admitted. “But I’m not really up to talking about it now,” he said, bracing himself for her to push harder for more information.
“I respect that,” she said gently. “Everything in its time.”
He blinked, shocked that she didn’t ask for more answers when he knew how curious she must be. Yet she respected his barriers, and for that he was grateful.
“Dinner!” Gino said, showing up just in time as far as Jason was concerned.
The enjoyed a delicious gnocchi along with their fried zucchini and homemade cannoli for dessert. By the time they’d finished eating, Faith finally looked like she was drooping where she sat, exhaustion beginning to catch up with her.
“Are you ready to go home and get some sleep?” he asked.
She nodded. “But I was wondering if we could stop by my apartment? I forgot to pick up some extra work shirts, and I’m too tired to wash and dry this one tonight.”
“Of course.” He’d get her in and out of there quickly, so she could go back to his place and get some sleep.
But when they arrived at her building and walked up the darkened stairway, they discovered her door had been taped up because someone had clearly kicked it open. The wood had splintered and there was yellow tape across the door.
“Oh my God!” Faith reached for one of the strips, obviously determined to get inside, but Jason grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back.
“Hang on. We have no idea what happened. Do you have a landlord?”
Before she could answer, a bald man with a large beer belly came striding toward them from the other side of the hall. “It’s about time you came back,” he said, scowling and clearly pissed off.
“Mr. Donovan, what happened?” Faith asked.
“The neighbors said they heard a noise in the middle of the night, and the next day your door was shattered.”
“Nobody came out to check on the unusual sound?” Jason asked in disbelief. His gut instincts about this neighborhood had been spot on.
The heavyset man shook his head. “You’re going to pay to fix the door, young lady.”
Jason stepped into the man’s personal space. “That’s Ms. Lancaster to you. And how about you back off. Did you call the cops?”
“Not my job, not my problem.”
“It’ll be your problem if any of her things are missing and no one reported it. She’s not fixing your door, either. That’s your goddamn job.” Jason pushed past the other man and gingerly removed the tape put up over her door.
“Jason, it’s fine. I’ll deal with it later,” Faith said.
Donovan shook his head and, grumbling, walked back the way he came.
Jason held her hand and led the way into an apartment whose contents had been turned upside down and ripped to shreds.
Chapter Five
Faith held on to her composure by a thread, but she was determined not to let Colton get to her. She’d survive this like she had everything else he’d done to her. Through sheer grit and determination.
She stepped over the sofa pillows he’d tossed onto the floor, the books he’d flipped through and ripped, and the contents of drawers left open that he’d rifled through. She wasn’t sure why he thought she’d be stupid enough to leave money around the house, but that was a desperate addict’s thought process.
“Are you okay?” Jason asked, his hand in hers, his body a solid presence by her side.
“Yes.” She straightened her shoulders. “There was nothing here for him to find.”
“At a glance, is anything missing?”
For the first time, she looked beyond the mess on the floor. She had a small television she’d taken from her room at home in Iowa that sat on the counter in the kitchen. Gone.
She swallowed hard. “Television is gone. My laptop would probably have been gone if I didn’t bring it with me to work.” And her laptop contained all of her business files, so she was grateful for that.
“Any jewelry?” he asked.
“I keep a small box beside my bed. It has a few necklaces, and… Oh
my God. Mom’s necklace!” She broke free from his grasp and ran for the small bedroom, which hadn’t fared any better than the living area.
Her bed had been ripped apart, her clothes tossed, probably just for spite, and as she knelt down beside the small night table she’d bought at a secondhand store, her heart stopped. The doors were swinging open, and inside, where her beloved jewelry box had been, was empty.
“It’s gone.” That’s when all the strength she’d been holding on to fled. “The one thing I had left of my mother is gone.”
Jason knelt down beside her. “We’ll find it,” he promised.
She glanced up at him, feeling the tears shimmer in her eyes, but she couldn’t control them. The pain of losing her mother was always there, just below the surface, yet she had no choice but to keep moving forward.
This was a blow that hurt. “You can’t know that.” She looked into his serious eyes.
“I know I can do my best. We need to outthink him. I bet he pawns it for cash. If you have a photograph of it? Or if not, if you can describe it, my private investigator will look for it in nearby pawnshops.”
“Private investigator?” Her legs cramped and she rose to her feet. He followed and they sat down on her messy bed.
“Jack Renault. I have him looking for your brother. I wanted to know if he was in the city, although I think there’s no doubt. He’s just good at going underground.” Jason frowned, his frustration at her situation obvious.
“You barely know me and you hired a PI? You’re letting me stay in your apartment. I don’t understand.”
“I’m not sure I do, either, but here we are.” He lifted a hand, his knuckles stroking her cheek. “You’re safe with me.”
Her stomach pitched with unexpected desire for this man. She said the only thing she could. “Thank you.”
He treated her to a sexy smile but quickly sobered. “We should call the police.”
She nodded, knowing it was going to be a long night.
* * *
A week had passed since the break-in. The police had no solid leads and neither did Jason’s investigator, so Jason kept Faith close and they went about their lives. He’d taken time off from the club in the evenings, but he had a plan to implement and his friends were getting antsy, wanting him to come by and see the work that had been accomplished so far. He hadn’t wanted to leave Faith home alone, and given how exhausted she was after work, he’d sacrificed his own business needs.
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