The Mistress Mistake (19 page)

They stood in silence, across the room from
each other, while they finished their quick breakfast. It was now
half past ten, as they'd slept in after being up so late the night
before.

"What do you want to do?" he asked.

"About what?"

At her misunderstanding, he elaborated,
"Today. What do you want to do today?"

"Oh. I don't know. You don't have any
plans?"

"Just you."

The look he was giving her was searing, but
since he was giving her the choice, she asked, "Is that a walking
trail behind your fence?"

"Yeah."

"Do you ever use it?"

"Yes."

"I brought tennis shoes." Jessica threw the
words out there, hoping he'd take it as a suggestion.

"You want to go for a walk?"

"Yeah. Or maybe a run," she said. "Do you
run?"

He slid his eyes down her body, all the way
to her feet and then back again. "I can probably keep up with
you."

She let out a soft puff of laughter. "Yeah,
I'll just bet. You can leave me in your dust, I don't mind. I don't
want to hold you back. My run can probably be described as more of
a jog."

"I wouldn't leave you behind, Jessica. Those
woods back there aren't to be taken lightly, understand? Those are
public city trails, and the city didn't build them just for me.
Just so you know the rules, no going back there by yourself."

"Those are the city rules?" she asked.

"Those are my rules."

"Has anything bad happened before now?"

"No, but there's a first time for everything,
and trust me when I say, it won't be anything that has to do with
you, got that?"

"Mm-hmm. Give me five minutes to put on my
shoes and tie my hair back."

"Go ahead."

Jessica turned to go and as she pulled her
hair into a ponytail and laced up her tennis shoes, she wondered at
his constant, aggressive need for her safety. He'd shown this trait
before, most especially the day she'd fallen asleep in the
clubhouse. Maybe she should take exception to it, but she didn't
feel the need, at least, not in this instance. He was most probably
right. The miles of woods and secluded trails shouldn't be taken
lightly. Besides, very soon, she was going to have to tell him
about her job and the fact that she'd be walking home in the dark a
couple of nights a week. There was absolutely no doubt in her mind;
he wasn't going to like that at all.

So, yeah, she'd pick her battles with him.
And this wasn't one of them.

****

True to his word, Connor never left her side
as they ran, although he had to slow to a walk a few times to
compensate for her shorter stride and less than stellar athletic
ability. The trails meandered through the woods, and they led to a
small park area with swings and a water fountain and bathrooms.
They stopped for a drink of water, did a few stretches by mutual
consent, and then jogged back.

All in all, they were gone about an hour, and
they were both hungry when they got back. "I need a shower before
we eat lunch," she said, but he grabbed her hand and led her to the
kitchen.

"Let's make something quick and then take a
swim. That'll take care of any grime."

Jessica was anxious to try out the pool and
so together, they diced fruit and cheese and made up a quick tuna
salad. Connor put everything on a tray and told her to go put her
swimsuit on.

They ate at the patio table under an
umbrella, and then stacked the plates back on the tray. Jessica
moved over to the steps and trying out the water temperature,
walked down into the water one step at a time instead of diving
in.

The water was perfect, crystal clear and
clean, and she twirled around in a circle, only to come to a stop
to find Connor relaxed in the chair he'd now moved over into the
rays of the sun. He was completely still and his focus was solely
on her.

He'd never seen her in the suit before, he'd
only seen the residual tan lines the suit had left. Jessica's heart
beat heavily in her throat, and aware of her body on display, she
knew he could see the effects of his handiwork on her breasts from
the night before. The bruises were even darker now, and that was
exactly where he was looking.

His brows drew together in unmistakable
tension, and whatever was going on in his brain, she knew it was
somehow related to the night they'd spent together and all that had
gone before.

Jessica moved into the deep end, and tread
water a while, just to escape from his eyes on her body. She did a
couple of slow laps, her muscles still tired from her run. When she
came to a stop, Connor was walking toward her, with a couple of
floats he'd retrieved from the storage building at the far corner
of the yard. Dropping one into the water in front of her, he tossed
the other in the pool and dove in after it, coming up from the deep
end with a display of strength and agility. He swam a couple of
lengths of the pool, and then crawled on top of his float, and
paddled over beside her.

Jessica was already lying on her back on her
float, and Connor pushed up next to her, facing in her direction,
with her feet pointing in the direction of his head. He lifted one
of her legs, and pulled it next to him on his float and put his arm
over it, to keep her anchored by his side.

Propping his other arm behind his head, he
relaxed his body into the float and focused his attention on her
once again.

He made no move to rush into conversation,
and Jessica relaxed under the bright rays of the sun, enjoying the
warmth on her skin and tired muscles. Even though she knew she had
to tell him about her job by tomorrow, she put it on the back
burner and just enjoyed this time with him. She accepted that, in
her mind at least, their relationship had changed with her
scholarship and job. She didn't have to accept his money anymore,
and even though he didn't know it yet, she did, and that made all
the difference in the world to her bruised heart and battered
morale.

Suddenly, to her way of thinking, they were
on more level footing, equals in this crazy relationship they'd
forged. Her eyes slipped closed, and she floated for a moment,
letting all the angst slip away as she enjoyed the tactile feel of
the sun on her face and the water under her hand where she twirled
it beside her.

When she heard his deep sigh, her eyes flew
open and landed on him, where he was staring at the marks he'd left
on her breast, on full display in the tiny swimsuit top. The
muscles in the side of his face worked, and when he began to speak,
he didn't raise his eyes away from her chest. "I wanted a
relationship like this one because--"

When Jessica realized that he was finally
going to answer her question of the night before, her heart started
racing in her chest. But when his words stalled, so did the beat of
her heart.

She waited for him to start speaking again,
too afraid to spoil the moment, and not knowing what to say
anyway.

His hand caressed her leg, running from the
arch of her foot to her knee and then back again. "Because . . . I
have a strong sex drive, Jessica. That was probably the best thing
about marriage. Not having to go out and find sex."

When he said the word 'marriage', Jessica
almost fainted and fell from her float. She just managed to stay
still and control any involuntarily jerk her body wanted to make. A
ribbon of jealousy that she couldn't deny swirled down and settled
in her stomach. But again, she was completely speechless, and
waited for him to continue.

"And after Val died, there I was, alone
again. Week after week, sometimes night after night . . . sleeping
with a different woman all the time lost its appeal, very
quickly."

The jealousy mostly disappeared with his
words and empathy took its place. She was completely caught off
guard; when he'd mentioned marriage she'd quickly assumed there had
been a divorce, but now she was shaken to find out he'd lost his
wife, and it was all suddenly becoming clear, in a hazy sort of
way, why he had done what he had. He cleared his throat and looked
away, into the sparkling water, and Jessica knew that that was it.
He was through talking. If she wanted to know anything more, she
was going to have to ask. "I'm so sorry, Connor." She let the words
fall and land between them, but he only nodded once and continued
to look away from her. "How long ago did she die?"

"A little over a year ago, in a car
accident."

Jessica was relieved he'd at least given her
that much information, and it bolstered her nerves to continue. "If
you had such a good marriage the first time . . . " She kept her
voice soft and gentle, " . . . And you enjoy being in a
relationship so much, why wouldn't you have just tried to move on?
Find another woman to share your life with?" She lowered her voice
an octave and said slowly and softly, "It wouldn't have been hard,
you know. You're well-off, educated, incredibly good-looking--"

His eyes came back to hers and he cut her
off. "You don't understand. Val loved me. She loved me with
everything she had to give, and I--" His words stopped again as he
took a deep breath. "Never mind. I don't want to talk about this
anymore, okay?"

Jessica had a million more questions but she
knew when to stop. She had some pieces of the puzzle now, but not
the one piece that she desperately needed. He needed time. The
anguish she'd seen in his eyes cut her deeply and all she wanted to
do was to soothe him. She gave him a bittersweet smile and nodded
her head. "Okay." Shutting her eyes, she pretended to rest in the
sunlight, while inside, the puzzle that was Connor Montgomery was
driving her crazy.

****

They'd spent the day in easy companionship.
They floated and swam, and grilled hamburgers for supper. There had
been one entirely too hot make out session in the swimming pool,
but it was daylight and Saturday, and the neighborhood children
were playing and could be heard in the distance. It wasn't
conducive for outdoor sex, even with a six-foot wooden fence, and
Jessica was thankful that Connor hadn't pushed it.

But now, coming from her shower and her
muscles warm and relaxed from the day in the sun, the things he'd
shared with her earlier made her heart bleed for him. He'd been in
pain, and she wanted to soothe that pain, in any way she could.

And she knew the thing he'd be most able to
accept from her.

Night had fallen, and dressed in only her
sleeping shirt and panties, she walked into the living room and
found him relaxed on the couch, clean from the shower he'd
undoubtedly had in one of the other bathrooms and dressed in
another pair of shorts, watching television.

When she saw him sitting there, she knew what
she wanted to do. It was something she'd been thinking about for
some time now, and after learning what she had, she wanted to
comfort him, wanted to take their intimacy to a new level. In her
mind, there wasn't an issue of money between them any longer, and
what she wanted to do with him came from her heart, and had nothing
to do with anything else. When his eyes fell on hers, they lit with
an unmistakable light that was a balm to her soul, and he raised
his hand in a deceptively lazy fashion for her to join him.

She walked to him and accepted his hand,
sitting down beside him. Lifting the remote control from the coffee
table, she turned off the television with a single press of a
button. Turning back, she found his heated scrutiny fastened on her
every movement and knew that, if she wanted her way just now, she
needed to make a move and quickly, before he pounced on her.

Her heart beating crazily, she cocked her
head to the side, and hid partially behind the fall of her hair, as
she tried to hold his eyes. She licked her dry lips and attempted
to make her voice strong and flirty but knew she hadn't pulled it
off entirely when she heard her own whisper, "Do you want to play a
game?"

His nostrils flared and his eyes fell to her
lips and there was no question he recognized his own words coming
back at him and what they implied. "What do you have in mind?" The
frog she heard in his throat and the red that tinged his cheekbones
gave her courage to keep going.

"Can we pretend that we're dating?" She again
borrowed the words he'd used once before, and while she spoke, she
let go of his hand and levered herself from the couch. She landed
with her knees on the floor and pushed her torso between his spread
thighs. Her words continued in whispers, which was still all she
could manage. "We could pretend that until very recently, I was a
virgin." Her hands landed on the steely muscles of his thighs and
her eyes slid to the bulge in his shorts. "And that even though
you've taught me a lot of new things . . . " Her hand slid to his
erection and she felt the heat coming from him in waves through the
material of his shorts. " . . . there's something I've never done
before." Her eyes lifted and tangled with his and she stopped
speaking all together as she waited for his reaction.

She didn't have to wait long. He inhaled
sharply and she watched in fascination as his Adam's apple
convulsed in his throat.
"Jesus Christ, Jessica
. Are you
offering to give me head?"

Fire licking through her at his blunt
question, she nodded her head, just once.

His eyes narrowed and his muscles tensed. "I
don't want to pretend. I want to know the truth, for real. Have you
ever done it before?"

She shook her head. "No."

His hand speared into her hair and he gripped
the side of her head. "And this is something you want to do?"

"Yes." Her bravery fled. "If it's what you
want."

"Oh, fuck, yeah, sweetheart,"
he said
in a guttural groan.

She blushed. She actually felt herself blush
at the vehemence in his tone. "Okay. But I don't know how--"