Beautiful Distraction (36 page)

“When I’m done with you you’ll be panting my name, begging
for release,” Jett whispered.

Not likely, but I didn’t want to shatter his illusion. Other
men had never been able to get that particular response from me. Jett might be
hot as hell with a body to drool over and a kiss to melt the Arctic, but in the
end I doubted his dick could perform miracles.

He pushed me down onto the grass and lowered his face
between my thighs, cupping my ass as he soaked up my female scent, making me
blush. Raising his gaze to meet mine, he let his tongue swirl between my folds,
focusing on the tiny nub at the top. A tremble began to form somewhere deep
inside me and spread through my whole body, gathering in my vagina. I moaned
and arched my back, bringing my hips closer to his magic mouth. If he didn’t
enter me soon I’d embarrass myself by begging him to take me on the spot.

“Jett.” My voice dripped with want. He laughed briefly and
continued his torture, swirling and licking. Quivering, I let out a broken moan
and clawed at his shoulders. “I need you inside.” My voice sounded hoarse with
demand, matching the deep, approving rumble in his throat.

“Not yet, baby.”

Holy mother of
pearls, he was so good.

I pushed my fingers through his hair, not quite able to
decide whether to force him up or pin him down. I moaned louder as he trailed
the tip of his tongue through my sensitive slit, devouring every drop of
moisture.

“Please,” I rocked my hips against him.

His tongue continued to torture me, again and again, moving
up to my clit, licking around it, causing a strangled scream of pleasure to
form somewhere at the back of my throat.

“You want me inside?” Jett said, suddenly sitting up. I
whimpered as the soft breeze hit my sex, cooling down the heated sensation left
by his mouth. I nodded, and a wicked grin flashed on his face. Slowly he pushed
a finger into me, followed by another, his gaze never leaving me as he pulled
his fingers out again. The next time he entered me deeper and faster, thrusting
in and out. I moaned as he repeated the process moving gradually deeper and
faster until his fingers were all the way in, stretching me, teasing me,
torturing me.

“Oh god.” My back arched. My hips lifted to meet his
fingers, begging him for more. This wasn’t going according to plan. He wasn’t
supposed to make me feel so much pleasure, and yet the even thrusts of his
fingers pushed me past anything I ever experienced before.

“A little bit more,” Jett whispered. His eyes remained glued
to me as he dipped back down. Keeping his fingers impaled in me, his tongue
flicked over my clit once, twice, sending the world before my eyes into a
spinning carousel. Heat pooled between my legs, and a deep moan escaped my
throat—then another—while my heart began to race. I bucked against
him, driving his fingers deeper into me. More heat seared me, driving me
insane. My vision blurred into darkness as my body tensed.

“Let me see you come,” Jett ordered. His deep, sexy voice
was the last caress I needed. My clit began to pound with a steady hard throb
that turned into all-consuming heat. With a stifled cry, my hips jerked against
him, and I came against Jett’s hot mouth. The world dissipated and I exploded
in a million sensations that washed over me at once.

I bit my lip hard as I peered at Jett’s relaxed features
from the corners of my eyes. We didn’t sleep together on the shore of
Lucazzone’s estate. For some reason he just adjusted my panties back in place
and sat up, turning away from me as though to give me enough privacy to regain
my composure. My hands shot up his strong back, massaging his lean muscles in
the process, hopefully signaling just how much I wanted to go all the way.

“Don’t,” Jett said, holding me off with a simple request. My
hands jerked away, as though seared, and somehow his words burned more than
fire. No man I ever slept with had behaved like this. If they went down, they
would demand that I return the favor. Why didn’t Jett? Why wouldn’t he finish
what we started right there and then?

I couldn’t stop the sudden onset of feeling inadequate making
me doubt myself. Had I done something wrong? Maybe it was the way I reacted to
his touch that put him off sleeping with me.

Even though I didn’t want to, my sex kept twitching at the
sight of him. It wasn’t natural and certainly not something I ever experienced
before. This dark, sultry, earth-shattering lust had to stop. I couldn’t deal
with hot waves of wanting that made being around him—without touching
him—unbearable. He was so close and yet so far. The attraction was
palpable, and yet I didn’t feel confident enough to act on it. I was in this
zone in which things were not black and white, but a blurred in-between shade
where nothing made sense.

Jett didn’t say a word as I shrugged back into my clothes
and followed him up the path and back to his parked car. We kept silent as he
helped me into the passenger side and loped around to the driver’s seat, put
the car in gear, and drove all the way home.

His
home, I
reminded myself, the beautiful house on the lake and the pretend normalcy of a
work relationship that wasn’t. Ignoring the sting in my eyes, I peered out the
window at the blurred countryside, no longer minding Jett’s dangerous driving.
It seemed like an eternity passed before we finally reached his house. The
moment the tires screeched to a halt, I jumped out of the car and only stopped
as I reached the front door, my back turned to Jett as I waited for him to
catch up.

He unlocked the door and let me enter first, then closed it
behind us. Avoiding his gaze I hesitated, unsure what to say. In the end, all I
managed was a feeble, “Thanks.”

His brows shot up, and a glint of irritation appeared in his
eyes. “For what? The ride? My highly appreciated company?” A nerve twitched on
his right temple.

He was angry and I had no idea why. My mouth clamped shut.
What the hell was wrong with him? How could he change from sensual and
passionate to cold and calculated in the blink of an eye?

“Or do you mean for going down on you?” He inched
dangerously close. His fingers gripped my chin and forced my face up. His
height intimidated me. Peering up his towering body into blazing eyes, I felt
tiny and powerless against his caginess. Only he knew what went on inside his
mind, and he certainly made no attempt to share it with me.

“Thank you for what, Brooke?” His arm wrapped around my
waist and turned me around, pushing me against the wall, his thigh parting my
legs in the process. His palms moved up the front of my shirt as his teeth
grated my earlobe.

“The contract—I wanted to reciprocate,” I whispered.
“You didn’t let me.” I don’t know why it was such a big deal, but for some
reason it was. He had made me feel an intense pleasure I had never felt before,
and I wanted to see whether I could make him feel the same way.

I wanted to be as special to him as he was to me. I wanted
him to surrender to me. To what I could give him.

And where would that take you, Stewart?

Probably nowhere.

“Ah, the contract. You think it’s about giving and taking in
equal measures.” He sighed impatiently. His hot breath on my neck made me shudder.
“I play by my own rules, Brooke. As they say: sometimes it’s all about you, and
sometimes it’s all about me.”

I nodded slowly, wondering where he was going with this. His
thumb brushed my cheek a moment before he moved away from me.

“Go take a shower and meet me in my office. I need you to
prepare some paperwork for me.”

What the hell?

He was playing mind games or how else could I explain his
constant changes? My breath came in ragged heaps as I hurried past him and up
the stairs to my room, eager to escape him, if only for a brief time.

***

The shower cleared my head a little. Unfortunately, it
didn’t clear my confusion about Jett. I kept telling myself that I only knew
him for a couple days, which wasn’t nearly enough to find out how a man ticked.
My mother had taught me men were complex, but once you got to their core they
weren’t that different from us. Based on my brief encounter with Jett, I begged
to differ. In the end he was my boss and not some random guy I dated, I
reminded myself. So I didn’t need to understand. All that mattered was doing my
job well.

Figuring I had wasted enough time, I tied my long brown hair
in a high ponytail, put on clean underwear, a new shirt and slacks, and headed
for Jett’s office, not knowing what to expect next.

I found him sitting at his desk, engrossed in a mostly
monosyllabic phone conversation with the prevalent words being ‘no’, ‘crap’,
and ‘uh-huh’. He motioned for me to sit down on the padded chair opposite him
and turned back to the notes in front of him, the frown on his forehead
deepening. God, being serious suited him. I discarded the sudden memory flashes
of his sexy mouth between my legs, and forced my mind back to reality. He didn’t
even bother to look at me as he resumed his conversation. I sat there for a
minute or two, trying hard not to tune in, but Jett’s anger was so palpable, it
made focusing on anything else impossible.

“Next time, don’t let anyone string us along. Either they
sign or they don’t. Have I made myself clear?” Jett said a moment before he
slammed down the phone.

Bloody hell, he sure knew how to end a conversation. I
definitely hoped I’d never have him on the other end of the line.

“Everything okay?” I asked hesitantly.

“Another fucked-up deal,” Jett replied, massaging his
temples. “I swear, at times I’m thinking I might just have to do everything
myself if I want this company to stay afloat. It’s hard finding reliable
people.” Looking up he smiled, and I knew he was about to change the subject,
as though he’d already said too much.

“I need you to go through my correspondence and cancel any
meetings, physical or otherwise, I might have this week,” Jett said. “Then
clear my schedule.”

“Sure.” I frowned but knew better than to ask questions.

“Good.” He pushed a thick file across the desk. “I trust
you’re accustomed with the Lucazzone estate by now?”

The telltale heat of a blush rushed to my cheeks. Oh, I was
accustomed with the Lucazzone estate all right, though not the way I’d
initially thought. Jett’s lips curved into his panty-dropping grin.

“I thought so. Anyway, I want you to take care of it. Look
through each and every note, find a loophole and then get us the estate.”

“But—” I almost choked on my breath. This was a
multi-million dollar deal.

Jett pushed back his chair and walked around the desk.
Stopping in front of me, he sank into a crouch so I could feel his hot breath
on my skin. “James said you were the best. Was he lying?”

God, he was beautiful. His eyes...his face...his lips. I
leaned back, as if the little distance could protect me from his magnetism, and
shook my head. “No. But this is huge and I—” Didn’t have the experience,
I wanted to add when Jett cut me off.

“I believe in you,” he said slowly. “Don’t disappoint me.”

Jett Mayfield was huge and he believed in my skills. For a
moment I just stared at him, unable to utter the two words I desperately wanted
to communicate.

Thank you.

The air charged between us. My gaze lowered to his open
lips, so close to mine, and moisture gathered between my legs, soaking the
sheer material of my panties. Clearing his throat, Jett stood and returned to
his seat, but not fast enough to hide his own shallow breath and the lust in
his eyes. He wasn’t as unaffected as he pretended to be. A sense of pride and
victory grabbed hold of my heart. I crossed my arms over my chest, amused.

“Lunch should be waiting for you in the kitchen,” he said
coolly, avoiding my gaze. “I’ll be in Malpesa for the rest of the day.”

“Why?” The word slipped out before I could stop myself. His
gaze shot up, brows raised.

“Meeting with a client.”

“There’s nothing on your schedule.”

He leaned back in his chair and regarded me for a few
seconds. “Not everything’s noted in my schedule, Brooke. Like our little stroll
this morning. Do you think the Lucazzone household had an enjoyable view?” A
devilish grin lit up his face, sending me into yet another blushing frenzy.

“What? You said—” I stumbled over my words, not able
to finish the sentence.

“No. I said no one is living
t
here
...literally, on
the shoreline. I didn’t say no one is living
inside
the
house.” His grin widened. My
cheeks caught fire from yet another wave of sheer mortification.

Dammit, the ball was in his court again.

I had just lost another battle.

“Do you think anyone saw us?” I whispered.

He shrugged. “Does it matter?”

It did because I wasn’t the kind who had sex in a public
place where everyone could gawk at me.

“Relax, Brooke,” Jett said softly. “The house’s been
standing empty for months.” His finger brushed my flaming cheek. “But you liked
the danger of being caught, didn’t you?”

I nodded even though it wasn’t just the chance of being
caught that had made my blood boil.

“Good, because there are so many other things I plan to do
with you,” he whispered in that deep, sexy voice layered with intrigue.

My breath hitched. Oh, I definitely couldn’t wait.

The phone rang, interrupting our moment. Jett groaned and
turned to check the caller ID.

“Fuck!” Letting go of me, he grabbed the phone and pressed
his hand against the microphone. His dusky eyes were on me, leaving no doubt
his words were meant for my ears only. “I want you so badly but, unfortunately,
work’s calling.” His mouth moved to mine in a quick but heated kiss, and then
he was back in his no-nonsense work mojo.

“Mayfield,” he said into his phone. His voice was hard and
determined, showing none of the passion I could sure as hell still feel rushing
through my veins.

Straightening my back, I mustered all my poise and forced
myself to walk out of the room slowly, minding each step so I wouldn’t trip
over my own two feet.