JACE (Lane Brothers Book 3) (43 page)

By Thursday I am having serious withdrawals, and I consider calling Greg just to hear his voice and prove to myself that this is real and not a dream. Monday night, after our first real talk, ever, we’d made love — yes, that’s what I’m calling it now — before he’d taken me home. Tuesday morning I’d walked into the office to a message that he’d gone away on business and wouldn’t be back before Friday.

Three days without him have been shockingly difficult. I’d fought so hard, and yet I am in exactly the place I didn’t want to be. I’m smitten with him.

That first Greg-free morning had been the arrival of the first gift, a bouquet of roses so red I’d checked to be sure they were real and not like the plastic ones Nana keeps on her bureau.

Wednesday it had been a pair of silver hoop earrings to replace the one I’d lost on the subway. Today I am staring and blushing at the contents of the Victoria’s Secret bag sitting on my desk.

There’s no way in hell I would ever buy underwear that skimpy for myself, and obviously he knows it. The phone rings, and I drag myself out of my daydreams to answer with a crisp and hopefully not breathless “Hello?”

“Hannah! Hi!”

My eyes close and I force myself not to put the phone down in reflex, knowing she’ll only call back. While I’ve been walking on clouds and loving it, I’ve also been bombarded with wedding arrangements by Selena.

“Hello, Miss Jeffries.”

“Oh, don’t be so formal, Hannah. We’re friends now! Call me Lena. Anyhow, I’m calling to find out where we should have the reception. I looked at Starlight and The Carlton Grand, but they’re both so great I can’t decide which one I like best,” she laments, and I grind my teeth to keep from cursing.

What difference will it make what I think? I’m just a lowly PA with a huge secret that makes us natural enemies. Not best friends.

“I can’t say. They’re both great. Go with Starlight if you intend to leave for the airport the same day,” I say, willing myself to speak without sounding as if I’m in pain. “The Carlton if you’re staying over and catching a flight the day after.”

Please let that be all, I beg silently as Lucy walks in, giving me a probing look. Selena trills happily, and I’m relieved when she rings off with a squeal of delight instead of another task for me.

“You look like you just swallowed toxic waste.”

“I’m fine. What can I do for you?” I ask, avoiding that can of worms.

“Oh, nothing really, I’m just bored. Jack and Owens left for that conference in Chicago, and what with everything in the packing stages I’m at loose ends,” she sighs, flopping onto the sofa.

I wish I could say the same, but apparently Gregory Lucas is a machine, and our office is pumping with correspondence and phone calls. The only reason I’m not a phone-answering zombie by now is that his other PA, Kimmy, is handling stuff on her end while I handle the agency and travel arrangements.

“What happened to you this morning, anyway? You look like you got hit by a train when you walked in.”

Only because, if it hadn’t been for the guy standing beside me on the platform, I would have been. Hit by a train, that is. The platform had been crammed this morning, and I’d been jostled just as the train was pulling in.

When I’d realized I was falling…well, let’s just say I will be forever grateful to that stranger for his reflexes. I’d been a second away from falling straight onto the tracks when he’d grabbed me.

Unfortunately, my momentum had not been ideal and I’d fallen flat on my ass and now sport a scraped elbow, what I suspect is a goose egg on the back of my head, and an ass that hurts to sit on.

I am not what you’d call graceful, so I am not unscathed. Alive, thank God, but a little banged up.

“Some asshole on the subway decided he couldn’t stand still. I almost did a header onto the tracks,” I say as I check my inbox and fire off a quick email.

“Jesus, some people are animals. You all right?”

“Eh, I’ll live.”

She stands when the conversation is stalled by my preoccupation and wags a finger at me.

“You’re no fun lately.”

“Yeah? Go see how much Taz likes being disturbed, and you can call me a stick in the mud,” I challenge.

Taz is like a madwoman lately. Even I am not going anywhere near her if I can help it. When Lucy walks off with a wave, the phone rings, and I groan before answering.

“Mr Lucas’ office.”

“Oh, darlin’, I sure do appreciate the way you say that,” he drawls, sending shiver down my spine. “How’s my girl?”

It’s corny and weird, but just hearing him call me his girl makes me happier than I should be. Seriously, who gets this giddy about a dumb phone call?

“Good. I think. I got your gift,” I breathe, blushing deeply.

“You’ll wear it for me tomorrow night,” he says, and I can hear arousal in his voice when he growls the words at me.

“I can’t.”

My knees are a torn mess and about as sexy as a case of VD. No way can I pull that thong and bra off now. Bloody knees and a swollen elbow scream emergency room, not let’s have wild monkey sex.

“You have to, darlin’,” he purrs, and I feel my sex tingle to life in anticipation of his return.

I’ve become a sexual animal with Gregory, and while I’m grateful that his business trip falls on my time of the month and I don’t have to have the awkward ‘I’ve got my period’ talk with him, I still miss it. A lot.

“Sorry, stud. I’ve got war wounds right now and showing off scabby knees in that lacy underwear is not hot,” I say regretfully. “We’ll have to do a rain check. As it is, I’ll have to wear band aids to bed tomorrow night.”

“You got hurt? Where? How? When?” he demands, making me chuckle at the authoritative interrogation.

“Calm down, Columbo. Sheesh, you’d swear I was mortally injured or something. Some moron on the subway jostled me, and me being the graceless lump I am, I fell. No big deal.”

Yeah right, tell that to your skull.

“You’re okay? Did you go to the doctor to get checked out?” he demands, making me frown.

“No. Don’t you yell at me. I am totally fine. I’m a little banged up, but I will most definitely live. Now, if you’re done insulting my intelligence, I need to get back to work. My boss is a machine who expects his employees to work themselves half to death,” I tease, attempting to lighten his suddenly dark mood.

I hear a sigh.

“I called because there’s a slight chance I’ll be delayed. The data on one of the ships isn’t adding up, and we’re trying to figure it out. If it’s not done by tomorrow I might need to stay.”

“But—”

I stop myself before an honest whine comes out and fiddle a rose petal that’s fallen and landed on my blotter.

“That sucks. If you’re staying I’ll need to reschedule the jet and call your housekeeper. She’s making you mac and cheese in honor of your imminent return.”

I’m not sure Selena or I stand an actual chance with Greg. Rose, his housekeeper, worships him so fiercely I’m almost afraid to call her in case she bites my head off.

“Yeah. I’ll call you in the morning and let you know.”

We say goodbye and hang up. It’s pretty impersonal, and the complete opposite of the conversations I’ve heard him have with Selena, but I ignore it and assure myself he’s just busy.

When the phone rings again, I answer with a grin and a purr.

“You forget something,
darlin
’?”

“Han.”

“Tom?” I ask, flabbergasted to hear his voice.

I’d never in my life expected to hear from Tom again. Never, not after the verbal assault we’d launched at each other across that courtroom. To say that we should despise each other for the rest of our lives is an understatement.

“Hey, Han.”

I hear the discomfort and uncertainty there and, being the new ‘let’s forgive and all sing Kumbaya’ Hannah, I decide to give him a break and don’t slam the phone down immediately.

“Hi, um, what’s up?”

“I, uh. I’m having…I mean, Shelly is pregnant and I…you know that locket my mom gave you when we got engaged?” he asks.

Yeah. Of course I remember. I’d loved Grace and she’d loved me, and when she’d given me that locket, a family heirloom, and made me promise to always cherish it, I’d taken it seriously enough not to throw it at Tom the day he walked out on our marriage.

“Yeah.”

I kinda know what he’s gonna say, but as I wait I hope against hope he won’t say it. I mean, I want at least one good thought of the guy. Just one. Just the one where he doesn’t demand I return a gift that was given to me with love. Grace is dead now and she won’t ever know, but that’s not the goddamned point.

“Could…I’d like to have it to give to my daughter.”

And here lands disappointment. Un-fucking-believable.

“How about no? How about you try to remember that your mom gave it to me, and that despite our divorce we weren’t enemies and she actually loved me?”

“Hannah.”

Ooh, here comes the ‘I will brook no arguments tone’. Predictable.

“No. Congratulations on your baby, and tell your wife I send my regards. Goodbye, Tom.”

As I put the phone down slowly, deliberately, so as not to beat it to pieces, I think of Gregory and the gifts he’s given me. He would never try to take anything away from me. He may be controlling and ruthless and relentless, but he’s the fairest man I know. Affair notwithstanding.

Gregory does not return on Friday. Or Saturday. Or even Sunday. Which is a damned shame, because if he’d been home I would have been with him and not on the subway, a place that has become my personal nemesis.

Thursday I’d run down to my station, dodging rain and knee-deep puddles. By the time I’d gotten there and stood waiting for my train, I was wet and miserable and not concentrating hard enough to notice anyone or anything.

That’s how I’d ended up falling down half a flight of stairs and broken my left arm. Pain is not something I deal with in any kind of acceptable fashion, so when I’d snapped back to reality at the bottom of the concrete steps, I’d cried like a child and sputtered my way onto the train despite needing to go to the emergency room.

When I’d gotten home my arm had looked like ham, and Chris had gone into hysterics, which meant Josey had to stay over while we got Mr Clinton downstairs to drive us to the hospital.

Saturday had seen me stumbling around and loopy enough that when Gregory called, I’d let Nana take it and fallen onto the sofa to watch old reruns of
Friends
.

Funnier when you’re loopy. A lot funnier.

Sunday I’d waited for him to call all day, and I have to be honest enough that when he hadn’t, it had hurt.

Now I’m back in the office, and it’s ten and he still isn’t back. Dammit.

“Thanks a lot, A-hole. Get me to like you and then don’t call. Just like a man,” I mutter as I pack another box and grab the tape to seal it.

“I didn’t call because I thought you needed the rest. Besides, Nana told me not to bug you while you were ‘under the influence’ in case you said something you’d regret.”

I jump to my feet at those words and spin around to see him leaning against the doorframe of our joined offices, his pose casual.

“Like what?” I ask, striving for a calm I do not feel.

I want to jump him and kiss the hell out of him. Instead I mirror his casual pose, leaning a hip against my desk, and watch his lips twitch with amusement.

“Well, she said, and I quote, ‘Hannah is a very loving person and would never have sexual intercourse with a man she doesn’t have feelings for.’ Or something along those lines.”

Nana is so going to another home if she can’t keep her opinions to herself.

“Well, what Nana thinks she knows and what’s true aren’t necessarily exclusive,” I aver, watching him prowl toward me.

“What the hell happened to you?”

I shrug and allow him to pull me into his office, gratified to hear the snick of the lock turning. Making out with my boss, at work no less, is not a good idea, but I pull his head down and kiss him anyway, putting all the pent-up desire and longing I feel into it.

I’ve missed him, and waiting another moment to feel his passion is not an option. Our tongues meet, and he’s kissing me back, taking control of the kiss, ravaging my mouth desperately.

I pull back, sucking in air, and stare at him, drinking in his loss of control and the wild look I’ve never seen before.

“Jesus, I missed you,” he says, cupping my face to bring me closer.

Our breaths mingle, our mouths are so close, and I feel the urge to bite him, lick at him, anything just to still the fierce ache of lust coiling in my belly.

When I lean in to do just that, he pecks my lips and firmly sets me away. His eyes lose that heat I crave, and I flinch when he curses and takes my injured arm, turning me to inspect the bruise at my temple and then dropping to his knees to lift my skirt and look at my knees.

“You look like hell,” he growls, coming back to his feet.

“Gee, thanks. What happened to you missing me?”

So sue me. I’m frustrated and unhappy. Whereas I want nothing more than to throw him to the sofa and lick him from head to toe, and then some other parts in between, he’s only interested in cataloguing my injuries.

“Be serious, Han. What the hell happened to you?” he mutters.

I shift away and walk to the sofa, shrugging slightly as I sit down.

“A very bad week, apparently. Thursday some schmo almost jostled me onto the tracks, and then Friday I took a header down the subway steps. It was raining, and apparently I am not the most graceful of beings in the rain.”

So humiliating to admit I can’t walk for shit when it’s raining.

“You fell twice on the subway?” he asks skeptically. “That seems coincidental.”

I snort and lean back.

“Nope. I am the epitome of clumsiness, unfortunately. Are you about done with the inspection?” I ask, fiddling with the top button of my blouse.

His lips twitch and he leans back against his desk, his eyes lowering suggestively.

“Why?”

I answer by flicking the button open and progressing down to the next one.

“Oh, I thought we could…” I let the thought peter off and keep going until I am bare from the neck down, the black bra he’d sent me last week pushing my breasts up in an enticing display.

I see his eyes narrow when I lift my hips slightly and unzip my skirt, looking up at him as I spread the fabric and allow him a brief glimpse of the matching thong.

It’s so naughty taunting him this way, and even more dangerous when I consider where we are, but I know the risk is worth it when his lips thin and he pushes upright, watching me predatorily.

“You want to be fucked?” he asks.

I nod and prove the point by pushing the skirt down and kicking it away. With my shirt open and hanging off my shoulders, I open my legs and stroke my right hand over my thighs, moaning at the sensation.

“You missed me too, didn’t you?” he growls, and I know it bugs him that I haven’t said it yet.

I remain silent and watch him frown slightly.

“You won’t tell me?”

I shake my head and run my hands up to cup my bra-covered breasts, trying to recapture the mood. Gregory takes an audible breath, his eyes focusing where my fingers glance over my nipples, and I know I have him back where I want him.

“God you’re beautiful,” he growls, pausing just feet away, so close and yet far enough that I’m left disappointed.

“And you’re still dressed and too far away,” I retort, sliding my hand between my breasts and down my belly, pausing at the low-riding waistband of the thong.

I’m hot and ready and so achy I have to press my thighs together for a small relief.

“Ah, but you haven’t given me what I want,” he drawls, prowling over and dropping to his knees to insinuate himself between my legs. “Should I tease you, Hannah, darlin’?”

I moan when he leans in and blows a breath over a nipple.

“Tell me what I want to hear, darlin’.”

Another moan escapes when he licks a path from my parted lips down through the valley between my breasts, stopping to dip his tongue into my navel and then pull it down to the edge of the thong.

I feel his breath there, almost but not quite where I need him, and I push up, groaning when his hands clamp around my hips and hold me in place.

“Nuh-uh, Hannah, I told you what I want, darlin’. I’ll give you what you want as soon as you surrender.”

“Please.”

“I like the sound of that, babe, but it’s not quite what I’m going for.”

Without warning he dips his head and settles his mouth over me, rubbing at my clit through the lace in a slow swirl of his tongue. I reach my right hand out and spear my fingers though his hair as I bite into my lips.

“Greg, please.”

He looks up and holds my eyes, rubbing me just to the point of need and then stopping, his eyes demanding when I still refuse him.

“You’d better tell me, Han. Tell me, or I’m going to put these clothes back on you and send you back to work,” he warns, closing his teeth gently around my clit. “Tell me, and I’ll make you come.”

My resistance crumbles, toppling like a stack of cards when he intensifies the pressure and breathes heavily along my folds. I’m so close now, so strung with need I’ll give him whatever he wants if only he’ll take me to that place where nothing exists but him and me and the pleasure we give each other.

“I…oh, harder…I missed you,” I moan, almost yelling my satisfaction when he grabs my hips and yanks me to the edge of the sofa, burying his face deeper and licking with the force I need.

“Good girl,” he growls, rubbing and nipping at me until I’m wet and so close to orgasm I’m begging for him to get me there.

“You’re so beautiful, darlin’, so perfect,” he snarls, lifting his mouth away from me to hook his fingers into the thin band and jerk, ripping my underwear in half.

His eyes are wild, and yet he’s gentle and teasing when he lowers his head again and licks me from my opening to the edge of my crease, his eyes closing in ecstasy.

“Jerking off while trying to remember your taste is not satisfying,” he mumbles against my folds, the tickling sensation of his words pushing me closer to the edge.

“Greg, let me come. Please.”

My hand is in his hair, pulling as I grind closer. He grunts, and I realize I’ve bonked his head with my cast.

“Sorry.”

“You’re really impatient for a woman who wouldn’t tell me she missed me,” he teases, sitting back to stare mockingly at me.

“I told you I did.”

I need him now, with a desperation that’s eating at my insides, and he wants to tease. God, he’s so frustrating.

“I think it’s your turn to show me, darlin’. Come on and show me how much you missed me,” he whispers, and I look down to see a strange look in his eyes.

Need, and something indefinable.

Uncertainty crashes through me, but I squash it down and sit up, wanting to give him what he needs, wanting to be what he needs. Always.

“Take off your pants, Greg,” I purr, falling to my knees in front of him and unhooking my bra as he complies.

When he’s naked, his muscles rippling with every breath, I lean forward and take him in hand, stroking slowly as I reach up and fuse our lips in a kiss that is all tongue and burning desire.

He’s panting into my mouth and thrusting his hips into my hands, growling softly when I collect the moisture from his tip and use it to stroke him to the edge of ecstasy.

I’ve gone past need and into a realm of desperation that makes my movements jerky and harder than I would have used on his cock.

He doesn’t seem to mind, though, and soon his hand is covering mine, squeezing to tighten my grip as he thrusts faster.

“God, Greg,” I moan, loving the unrestrained look of lust on his face and the growling moans that whisper over my lips. “I need you. Please.”

“Then take me, darlin’,” he whispers, unfurling my hand and hoisting me up to straddle his hips.

He pauses and reaches back, coming back with a condom that takes seconds to unwrap and roll on.

“Take what you need, Hannah. Give me what I want,” he orders.

I comply with a moan, reaching down to center him as I balance on my knees and lower myself, holding my breath as my sex opens, swallowing him down till every inch fills me.

We freeze, panting, sharing breaths as we savor the moment before he grips my hips and lifts, pulling back before lowering me slowly.

“I’ve been dreaming of this.”

Me too. I’ve lain awake at night thinking about his touch, his kiss, and wanting him so badly I’ve barely slept since he left. He wants this, needs my capitulation and confessions of need.

I am too breathless to answer at this point, so I use my body instead, clenching around him as I lift up and down, riding him in a desperate rhythm that has me screaming my pleasure scant minutes later.

My pleasure triggers his own, and he tenses, coming with a groan muffled against my neck.

“I missed you too, so much.”

And that scares me because Gregory Lucas has now become more than my lover. He’s a necessity that I can never hope to keep.