Explosive (The Black Opals) (4 page)

Jayce spun on his heel, shot McTavish a glare, and jerked the front door open.
It was bad enough knowing McTavish was sleeping with Alyssa. Working together, sharing an office, put things on a wholly different, far more intimate level.

McTavish hung up before Jayce could hurry outside.
“Sorry about that. Got a frantic client.”

“You’ve also got a screwed up alarm system.
Call the company who installed it.” Jayce stalked out the door and slammed it shut behind him.

Halfway to his car, McTavish hollered after him, “Where are you going?”

“To Jordan’s.”

“Wait up, man.”
Behind him, McTavish’s loafers scuffed across the asphalt. “I thought you were going to take a look at the wiring.”

“I was.”
Jayce opened his car door and set one foot inside. “Until I realized Alyssa’s here.”

Confusion clouded McTavish’s expression.
“What’s that got to do with anything? She’s tied up with the cops anyway.”

What did she have to do with—Jayce groaned.
McTavish couldn’t have been ignorant of the tension that had crackled between him and Alyssa the night before. He glanced at his friend’s clearly perplexed expression. On second thought, yes, he could be that clueless. McTavish always had a bad habit of being a bit too trusting of his girlfriends. He’d always been the last to know when things were over. Usually when Jayce pointed out the obvious.

Damn it.
Ten years ago or not, McTavish had been his best friend. He would
not
poach. Nor would he stir troubled waters when he’d be gone in four days.

Jayce slid behind the wheel.
“The alarm should have tripped. You need to call your installation company.”

McTavish shoved his hands in the pockets of his dress pants and bounced a handful of loose change.
“That’s the thing…I think we want to change companies. Put in something only Alyssa and I know about.”

Jayce squinted, searching for the meaning his friend didn’t say.
Shadows clung beneath McTavish’s eyes. Lines of strain etched alongside his mouth. And the way his gaze skipped around lifted Jayce’s hackles. Something was keeping McTavish up at night.

“Who do you work for?”

Shrugging, McTavish stared over the top of the car at the office building. “I have a bunch of clients.”

“Yeah, but whose office is this?”

“Mine and Alyssa’s.”

Jayce pursed his lips as annoyance flickered.
Once, McTavish’s ability to talk around things had been a blessing. Now it only pissed Jayce off. “Who owns the deed, here, Brice?”

“Delfranco.
But he’s in jail, Jayce. The feds are watching his family. If you’re thinking he tried to break in, there’s no way.”

Oh, there was always a way.
But hearing that Delfranco, noted hit man for the Chicago Serafino family, had access to Alyssa was enough to pull him from his car. “I won’t be in town long enough to customize a system for you. But I’ll take a closer look.”

A brief flash of relief washed across McTavish’s expression.
“Thanks, bud.”

With a curt nod, Jayce returned inside, McTavish following on his heels.
As he shut the front door, Alyssa’s opened. A tall officer with deep pocks on his face frowned at her. “We were counting on your cooperation, Ms.—”

“Until you return with a subpoena, Officers, that information is confidential.”
She pointed at the exit Jayce had just closed. Her gaze landed on Jayce’s and widened in surprise. She didn’t look away. “I won’t tell you again.”

Jayce stood rooted in place, trapped by the incredible power of her rich brown eyes.
Deep inside, longing he thought he’d buried stirred. The officers shouldered past and left. Whether they said goodbye he couldn’t say—he was too busy trying to remember why he’d come.

And why he should leave.

Because if Alyssa’s chest heaved any harder, her breasts would spill over the low scoop neckline of her casual summer blouse. And damned if that stylish pencil-skirt didn’t short-circuit his brain. All he could think about was shoving that scrap of fabric to her waist and feeling those amazing legs wrapped around his waist.

Needing no more encouragement than that brief fantasy, Jayce’s cock swelled.
He bit back an oath and forced his stare away from those smooth lengths of lean muscle. Alyssa belonged to McTavish now, no matter what chemistry still flowed between them or how many invitations she cast behind her compelling eyes.

He forced himself to break eye contact and stalk into McTavish’s office, where he hunkered down by the window and examined the wires there.
Behind him, Alyssa’s door shut heavily
.

F i v e

A
lyssa gritted her teeth and eyed Jayce from beneath her eyelashes as he fiddled with a connection wire over her doorway. The first of a stack of file folders lay open before her, a mere four forms logged into her accounting system. She couldn’t think with Jayce hovering around, and the way the step-ladder he used placed his tight, jeans-clad buttocks in her direct line of sight made her want to squirm in her chair. He’d always possessed the ability to make denim sinful.

“Are you going to be much longer?” she asked, biting back annoyance. The way he flat out managed to pretend she didn’t exist, when her body hummed with awareness of him, ticked her off.

“I’m just trying to figure out…” He trailed away thoughtfully, dismounted the ladder, and crossed to the opposite corner of the room, his attention locked on the thin fiber.

“Figure out?”

“Where this comes from.” His fingers fumbled at the top of the windowsill, where the cord disappeared behind the trim.

Alyssa pointed to the bottom corner near the floor.
“Look down.”

Jayce followed her directive then crouched near the carpeting.
“There’s no sensor on your window.” He glanced over his shoulder. “McTavish, where’s the sensor for the window in here?”

Giving up all hope of accomplishing anything, Alyssa pushed her chair back and set her feet on the desk as Brice wandered to the door.
His appreciative gaze raked down the length of her legs, then locked with hers. Ever so slightly, he inclined his head toward Jayce, suggestion unmistakable. The subtle heat behind his blue eyes made the already present discomfort between her legs more aggravating. He wasn’t who her body hungered for, yet the unspoken question in his gaze boomed through her head:
Well?

Before she could lower her feet, Jayce turned to address Brice.
But Jayce’s keen perception caught Brice’s distraction, and when Jayce’s eyes followed the same path, Alyssa shivered. Unlike the comfortable heat behind Brice’s stare, Jayce’s burned with a predatory hunger. A dangerous possessive gleam that made her stomach flip wildly. She dropped her feet to the floor.

“It should be there, Jayce.
On the inside corner of the joint,” Brice answered.

His statement thankfully jerked Jayce’s attention off her and back to his inspection.
Alyssa exhaled a measured breath. Maybe she could fabricate a lunch appointment and escape. Leaning forward, she flipped open her calendar.

“It’s not here.
But the wire’s visible. And it hasn’t been cut.”

Jayce’s low baritone voice pulled her attention back to him.
Brice leaned around Jayce’s powerful torso to inspect the place Jayce indicated. But the chirrup of Brice’s cell phone interrupted. He pulled the device from his pocket. The time he took to tap in a message left her vulnerable once more to the hungry way Jayce’s gaze canvassed her breasts.

Damn him.
He wouldn’t bring himself to talk to her, but he had no problem touching her in far more intimate ways. She should leave. Immediately. Before she became seriously tempted to entertain Brice’s suggestion.

Brice shoved his phone back into his pocket.
A strange urgency turned his words into a rush. “I have to run for a bit.”

“What?”
Alyssa shot him a pleading look. He couldn’t possibly leave her alone with Jayce. Not when he knew how desperately she didn’t want to be near him.

“Gotta drop something off at the courthouse.”
He strode out of her office, into his, and then returned to the small waiting area between, briefcase in hand. “You’ll help out Jayce if he needs anything, right?” A hint of amusement reflected in his expression.

He was so going to pay for this later.
She narrowed her gaze. “Sure.”

“I’ll be fine.
Not much longer,” Jayce assured.

As the front door clicked behind Brice, Jayce returned to his knees on the floor, feeling around on the carpet.
She watched the play of his long fingers against the short fibers, studied the ripple of his shoulders as he crawled on all fours, following the path of the hidden cord.

He came to a stop on the opposite side of her desk.
Slowly he unfolded all six feet of his incredible body and stood. “Excuse me.”

Puzzlement creased her brow.
“Excuse—”

Jayce moved to her elbow, nudged her chair aside, and knelt beside her knees.
The clean scent of soap wafted to her nose. She closed her eyes, breathed him in, and willed her heart to stop turning cartwheels. So close. So within easy reach of sliding her fingers through his thick black hair.

His shirtsleeve brushed her calf as he edged further beneath the desk.
Her breath caught. Another shiver rolled through her. “Jayce.” She drew in a sharp breath as cotton brushed her skin again. “Is this really necessary?”

Jayce’s voice held frustration as he fumbled with a tangle of cords near the back corner.
“I’m trying…” He leaned over her foot so far that she could feel the warmth radiating off his body. “...to see where this goes.”

Oh, how she wanted to arch her foot and run it over the hard muscles that hovered near her toes.
Feel those rippling planes she’d enjoyed too briefly in his arms last night. Alyssa bit down on her lower lip to silence a whimper.

He bent forward another few inches, and the hard metal button at his waist pressed into the top of her foot.
The contact sent a shock surging through her body. She gasped, and Jayce went utterly still.

* * *

Jayce couldn’t move. Hell, it was all he could do to pull in a shallow breath, let alone take his hand off the tangled cord and back out from beneath Alyssa’s desk like he should. That one, not-so-simple sound attuned every already over-sensitized nerve to the singular place their bodies joined. His cock jumped behind the fly of his jeans, shifting against the dainty arch of her foot. His gaze dropped between them, and he found the ability to lift his hips away. One black stiletto heel left him spellbound.

Silence pervaded his awareness.
The complete, utter stillness that had overtaken the room with Alyssa’s gasp. He couldn’t remember when he’d ever been wound so tight. When touching her had been such an absolute need.

The tightness of her calf drew his attention to how she curled her fingers into the arms of her chair. Her thighs were tense as well, clenched as if she might rocket out of her seat, and trembling like a cornered rabbit.

Jayce closed his eyes, no longer able to fight the yearning that had plagued him since her soft curves melded against him on the dance floor, and he arched his hips, creating the necessary room to skim his mouth over the defined bone of her ankle. At the feel of her warm skin against his lips, what remained of the conflict inside him quieted. He didn’t care about the past, what complications she presented. She had always belonged to him, and touching her was as necessary as breathing.

He cupped the back of her calf and trailed his mouth up smooth skin that smelled like strawberries.
Later, he’d hate himself for this weakness. Right now…goddamn, it had been too long.

He swirled his tongue over the hollow indentation on the inside of her knee, where she’d always been vulnerable, and felt the shiver that slid down her spine.
Letting his lips linger, he took a moment to fight for control over his own shaky breathing. Her knees parted, giving him the necessary room to slide his hands over her thighs and let his fingertips play against the sensitive skin just beneath the hem of her short black skirt.

At the slight twist of her hips, Jayce nudged her chair away from the desk and lifted his head.
Arousal softened her features, shuttered thick lashes over her clouded eyes. Soft pink lips parted with her ragged breathing. Slowly, she lifted her lashes to look at him. He didn’t give her time to think about why he’d stopped or what he intended to do next. Rising, he slipped his hands beneath her arms and tugged her to her feet.

She rose to her toes at the same time he dipped his head, and his mouth crashed into hers.
She met the quest of his tongue with equal desperation. The bite of her nails as they dug into his shoulders was more heavenly than any gentle caress. Jayce fitted his hands at her waist, turned her around, and backed her against the edge of her desk. He’d have her here, fuck her until he couldn’t move, and burn her out of his system. One day. One trip down memory lane…

Alyssa’s quiet moan vibrated into him, and another shudder racked her body.
Her hips ground into his, making it damn near impossible to link thoughts together. He struggled through the haze of white-hot fire that arced through his veins, fought to the surface until the instantaneous shock of ecstasy ebbed. Dropping one hand to the curve of her bottom, he guided her against his cock once more and thrust forward, stroking her clitoris.

She trembled in his arms.

“Jayce.” Eyes closed, she tipped her head to the side, holding on as if she might sink to her knees.

He raked his teeth over the throbbing vein she exposed and slipped his free hand between their bodies to cup her breast.
As his thumb flicked over her tailored blouse and the pert nipple beneath, she gyrated against him again. Desire pounded at him, the need to strip her bare and sink so deep inside her that she screamed, fierce. But some things were meant to be savored, and Alyssa was one of them.

Slowly, he trailed the tip of his tongue down the length of her neck to the indentation at her shoulder.
As his lips grazed across her skin, he bent her backward over the desk. Her long hair spilled across his arm and cascaded onto a pile of papers. The arched position thrust her breasts beneath his nose. He dragged his mouth across the expensive linen, watched as she shuddered in his embrace. Beneath the pad of his thumb, her nipple hardened like glass.

Alyssa regained her footing, released her tight grip on his shoulders, and slid her palms down the front of his chest.
A quiet murmur of satisfaction rumbled in Jayce’s throat, the hungry way her fingers devoured him nothing less than heavenly. Sweet Mary he’d missed this. Dreamt about it so many times he could have sworn he remembered every fleeting detail of the clandestine nights they’d spent together. But nothing compared to reality. Nothing burned so pleasurably as the feel of her hands.

When those delectable fingers glided over the denim that confined his swollen cock, his body bucked forward of its own volition.
He sucked in a sharp breath through his nose, and seeking to return the same blissful torment, closed his mouth over her linen-clad nipple. She was so close to the same place of hedonistic abandon that he hovered on the edge of, he could taste it. So close to coming apart in his hands.

As another throaty moan slipped off her lips, Jayce crimped her nipple between his teeth.

* * *

One devastating wave of sensation after another rolled through Alyssa, taking her to a place she both craved and feared.
She couldn’t stop the insistent way her hips gyrated against Jayce’s, couldn’t terminate the endless ache he provoked. Each tug on her breast, each flick of his tongue against her nipple, each mind-numbing pinch of his teeth broke off bits of her control.

Fighting against the rise of ecstasy, she squirmed against his powerful body.
She wanted him naked, wanted to feel that hard length of muscle against her skin, wanted to feel the sweet satisfaction of his cock sliding deep inside her.

“Jayce…oh, Jayce…”
Her whisper hung between them, met only by the sound of his labored breathing.

He pressed his hips into hers and rolled them in a slow, deliberate circle.
His cock rubbed her clitoris through her skirt, and the moisture between her legs increased. She was so painfully wet and ready that had he been anyone else, she would have been embarrassed. But no, he was Jayce, the only man alive who could make her body hum with a casual caress and make her want to beg when he touched her like this.

He could break her so easily.

He lifted his head to whisper, “Come for me, baby. I know you want to.” The hand at her breast skimmed down her side, across the top of her thigh. His fingertips dipped beneath the hem of her skirt, nudging it higher, to trace the edge of her panties. Teasing the way he knew she liked. His breath washed across her skin. “Stop fighting it. Let go and come.”

His quiet directive stole into her subconscious, provoking her body to obey.
Ecstasy spiked, and her pussy clamped down hard.

The easy way he stripped away her control, terrified her.
She couldn’t do this. No matter how she wanted to submit to bliss, she couldn’t give Jayce that sort of power over her. There was only one way she could yield to his offered pleasure—with Brice, who she could ground herself with. Brice who couldn’t tap into all the things she locked away. Brice who couldn’t come close to unraveling her.

Struggling to rise above the haze that obliterated her thoughts, she pushed at Jayce’s shoulders.
“I can’t,” she murmured.