Favorite Places (A TroubleMaker Novel, #2) (15 page)

“But it’s not
considered sex unless you’re calling out my name, right? Or God’s for that
matter.” Her smile was no longer wide but lush and poised.

“Actually, it’s
when
you
call out
my
name,” he corrected, still trying to find
his cool.

Her hand stroked
the outline of his shaft still safely veiled by the thin fabric of his pants. She
arched an eyebrow. “Why not
you
calling out
my
name?”

“Because…”
Fuck!
He was about to tell her that he wasn’t ever going to let it get that far, for
he was fully aware that if it did, he’d never be able to return from it. But
then a certain challenge lit up her eyes, and Jess dropped to her knees. She gazed
indulgently up at him, and he lost all sensibility.

She placed her
fingers on the waistband of his pant. With the slightest tug, he sprang free
from the material, and she caught him in her small hand. To keep upright, he
flexed every muscle in his body and looked down at her. She licked her lips and
set her eyes on the firm flesh she held in her hand.

Shit
!
If she intended to put that particular part of him in her mouth, Chase knew
he’d be done. Fucking finished. Deal or no deal. He shook his head. “Um, Jess, nice
girls,
good
girls, they don’t do things like this,” he warned, giving
her an out.  

“How mistaken
you are, Mr. Lennox. Nice girls, they do, and they do it the best.” She sweetly
smiled up at him just before the tip of his head disappeared into her mouth.

“Fuck,” he
growled. As if the feel of her warm, juicy lips on him wasn’t enough, her
fingers gently massaged his aching blue balls. His knees bent, and the magical
strokes of her mouth, tongue, and fingers nearly had him joining her on the
floor.

Aiming for
control, and with every intention of pulling himself free, he sank his fingers
into her hair. “Damn,” he grunted and instead found himself guiding his cock in
and out of her warm mouth, struggling to hold back a much-needed release, which
seemed to be impossible. She let him push deeper and deeper, all the way to the
back of her throat.

“Oh man, this is
not happening,” he growled. Any control he’d tried to gain stifled by the hot
suction of her mouth, her teasing tongue, and the sweet cries that vibrated
against his torrid flesh. Four days’ worth of blue balls crept up on him fast,
and the amazing blowjob was going to have him cumming in record time. “Sweetheart,
you’d better back off.” He yanked her by the hair until his rigid male heat
fell free from the delicious confines of her warm and inviting mouth.

Large, nearly wounded
amber eyes burned up at him. “You really want me to stop?”

“You’d better,
unless you want a mouthful of me.”

“Oh, Chase,” she
said in a mock scolding tone, “Don’t you know why nice girls do it the best?”

He couldn’t help
but take the bait. “Tell me, Jess.” He held his breath, preparing for the
answer.

“It’s because they
don’t stop until the job is finished.”

For two long
seconds, he gazed down at the wicked seductress. She stared back up at him with
branded desire. Her pretty pink lips opened again, and the irresistible
invitation had his fingers grasping her hair even more tightly, as if hanging
on for dear life. His hips thrust forward as he pushed himself back into her engaging
mouth.

“Oh! God! Jess!”
He consummated the sex not only by calling out the Almighty’s name and hers,
but also by exploding four days’ worth of sexual frustration straight to the
back of her throat, and like the nice girl she was, Jess took every last damn drop.

The look of defeat in
Chase’s eyes and the loss of control in his voice as he called out her name made
Jessina want him even more. She figured he’d throw her on the bed and finally
cure that ache between her legs, the one she’d been dealing with since they’d
met. But he hadn’t.  Instead, when he finished literally coming undone in her
mouth, without a word he had headed to the bathroom, got ready for work, and left
with nothing more than a tight smile and a grumbled, “Goodbye.”

At that point, Jessina
decided enough was enough. The tease had gone on for far too long. Chase was
going to soothe that damn ache he’d so easily inflicted. They were going to
have sex, whether he agreed to it or not. Jessina refused to wait any longer.

She’d fix them a
nice dinner, they’d have a couple glasses of wine to help her loosen up, and
then, when they settled in for the night, she’d attack. Sure, Chase was good at
keeping his sexual urges under control. But he tended to lose that discipline
the second she touched him. He could try to ignore her or even deny his lust, but
Jessina knew in her gut that he wanted her too.

Sex was all she really
wanted from him anyway, right. Well, she’d follow his lead, and lie to herself,
she’d tell herself that’s all it was too. To have Chase, to be his for just one
night, she’d deny the truth. She’d ignore the fact that her heart was landing far
too easily into his hands.

Unfortunately, her
clandestine plans to ambush him that evening were quickly squashed. While she
prepared dinner, Chase had texted her that he wouldn’t be home until late and
that she shouldn’t wait up for him.

After a few
glasses of wine and finishing her book, Jessina dozed off on the sofa. She woke
a couple hours later, her mouth pasty and dry from the wine. In desperate need
of some hydration, she got up and headed for the kitchen. The light was on, and
she heard male laughter. She stopped, wondering if it was Chase, because she’d
never heard him laugh like that. The sound curled her toes and warmed her
heart.

Jessina rested
her head against the doorjamb and saw him sitting at the table with his back to
her, talking on his cell.

“Yeah, I kind of
miss you too,” he said in a teasing tone to the person on the other end of the
phone.

Jessina’s entire
body went numb. Her heart squeezed tight from the playful but tender statement.

“I can’t wait to
see you either, Hannah.”

Hannah?
Who the hell is Hannah?

“Really? You’ve
gotta be joking.” He let out a gruff laugh. “Okay, okay.” He rolled his fingers
over the table. “I know. Yeah, I’ll see ya soon.” He started to pull the phone
away, then put it back to his ear. “What?” He lightly chuckled, and his
shoulders gave a faint shake. “Yeah, I love you too.”

Love? He loves her too?

The quick blow to her heart instantly choked Jessina, making
it impossible for her to take her next breath. She stumbled back away from the
doorway. He’d said the words so easily, so casually, those three little words a
man like Chase obviously dreaded. Whoever was on the other end of that line was
one lucky woman because Chase Lennox loved her. Tears burned Jessina’s eyes. A
lump formed in her dry, scratchy throat. She was suffocating, as if someone was
squeezing her heart in a lemon press.

Oh! Hell! No!

She refused to
let a man hurt her again. She wasn’t about to let Chase own her emotions like
Lance had. But, damn it, she couldn’t leave. The bitter, gritty truth was that she
needed his money.

She stalked into
the bedroom and grabbed a pillow and blanket. She went back out to the living
room and, with a huff, settled back onto the sofa. A few minutes later, she
heard Chase enter the room. She lay soundless, feigning sleep. She could hear
him moving closer, and then the footsteps stopped, that familiar scent
consuming her. A warm finger touched her face. It slowly ran down her cheek.

“Jess,” he
huskily whispered. “Hey, Jess, it’s time for bed.”

She fluttered
her eyes open and found him kneeling in front of her. She could make out the outline
of his handsome face, and the blue in his eyes glistened in the dim light
streaming in from the kitchen. She had never wanted to cry so bad in all her
life, and that made her want to hit him. Where Chase Lennox was concerned, her
heart was involved, and there would be no getting around it.

He smiled, a
warm gesture that would have gone perfectly with the wholehearted laugh and words
of endearment he’d just expressed to the woman on the phone out in the kitchen,
and the thought only made Jessina’s heart die a little more. “Come on,
sweetheart. I’ll help you into the bedroom.” He stroked her cheek again. “You must
have passed out.”

“I meant to,”
she quietly said.

He tilted his
head. “What do you mean, you meant to?”

“I want to sleep
on the couch, Mr. Lennox. I-I don’t want to sleep with you tonight.”

The blue in his
eyes darkened like a stormy ocean. “Why?” he asked in a hasty tone that had her
pulling the blanket up to her chin.

“I just don’t
want to.”

“Sorry, but that’s
not a good enough reason.” He leaned over and, blanket and all, scooped her up.
“You told me to help you get over your phobia, and I’m a man of my word.”

“Hey!” She
struggled to break free. “Put me down!” She kicked and yelled, but he wouldn’t
release his tight grip. Ignoring her arguments, he calmly walked her into the
bedroom and plopped her down on the bed.

She sprang forward
to jump off the bed, but the caution in his eyes stopped her. She dropped back
down on the mattress.

Suspiciously
watching her, he loosened his tie, pulled it free from his collar, and tossed
it on the dresser. His eyebrows furrowed together. “What’s wrong with you?”

What’s
wrong with me? Me! Screw this!
She wasn’t about to
beat around the bush because he’d never given her the courtesy of doing so. “I
heard you…on the phone.”

His forehead
wrinkled, enhancing the confusion already festering on his face. “Huh?”

“I heard you! You
said you miss her!” She waited, but when he continued to stand there like a
dumbfounded fool, she continued, “You said, “I love you, Hannah!”

“Oh,” he sighed
and pushed a hand through his hair, finally catching on.  

“Oh?” she snapped in
response. “Oh? What the hell, Chase! Is that really all you have to say for
yourself? If you have a damn girlfriend, what the hell do you need me for?”

“What? A girlfriend?” he asked, looking dumbfounded again.

Jessina’s heart shattered into a zillion pieces, and a flood
of tears threatened to break through her anger. He was going to break more than
her heart, and he didn’t seem to care. “I’m done!” She swallowed back an
impending salty river. “Whoever you’re in love with, she can be your damn pretend
wife!”

“Wait! No she can’t.
She’s, uh…”

“Why not?” She
found the strength to get up from the bed and meet him head-on. “You love her,
right? You said it yourself. I heard you, so don’t try to deny it. I wasn’t
hearing things, was I?”

His flat, dead,
silent stare only irked her further.

“Well? Do you
love her or not?”

“Yes, but…damn
it!” he growled.

Again, Jessina
found it impossible to take her next breath. His admission paralyzed and muted
her. Her knees wobbled and surrendered. She began to fall.

Chase grabbed her by
the arms and pulled her close to him. “But Jess, she’s not my wife. You are,” and
before she could react, his mouth covered hers. The kiss was brutal, savage, and
hungry, but it was also captivating. Like her breath, he’d stolen any will she
had to fight him.

During the ride
to the ranch, Jessina refused to speak to Chase or even acknowledge him. The
night before, when he’d finally released her from the kiss, he’d turned cold
and callous. He refused to let her sleep on the sofa, but he assured her that
when they got to the ranch, she could have her “precious space” back. She wanted
to tell him that there could never be enough miles of “precious space” between
them. She wanted to leave his apartment and never look back, but she couldn’t.
Somehow, she just had to deal with the fact that he was in love with someone
else, and set her feelings aside, so she could finish out the rest of the week.
She owed that much to the people she’d let down.

For all she
knew, maybe the fucked-up situation she’d found herself in was retribution for
what she’d done to her friends and co-workers, payback for dismissing the signs
and falling for Chase, just as she had for Lance. She’d certainly fallen even
harder and faster for Chase Lennox. That was the only explanation for how she
felt when she heard him say those three little words on the phone, spoken to
another woman.

After he’d kissed
her, the horrible man smashed her heart to smithereens and made her sleep in
his arms all night. All things considered, she decided it was much worse to be
Chased than Lanced. Lance had been a monster, but Chase was clearly heartless.  

She glanced over
at the heartbreaker. His eyes fixed on the road. The day-old scruff looked good
on his firm chin, and the soft flannel looked snuggly. His eyes were so blue in
the bright morning sun. But she didn’t linger. She dragged her eyes away from
him just as they pulled through a wide gate.