Favorite Places (A TroubleMaker Novel, #2) (18 page)

He pulled his
mouth from her hard bud and looked up. His nostrils were flaring. His eyes were
hooded and dark. His lips were swollen and wet, and still lingering above her tender
nipple. The man oozed of sex, and it drizzled all over her.

“No negotiating
Jess. Tonight you will be mine,” he half breathed the words.

“Yes. No more,
Chase. Tonight, I’m yours.” She lied. She’d be his not just for that night
but…forever. Because, if she had to be honest with herself, forever was all she
felt for Chase.

Catching her around
the waist, he spun her. Her feet landed on the ground. She ached between the
legs, wanting him to touch her there again, but the hot look in his eyes had stilled
her. He reached down and curled the hem of her dress into his hands. Keeping
his eyes trained on her, he slowly removed the thin material from her trembling
body. He didn’t pull his eyes from hers until he dropped the crumpled piece of
clothing on the floor. He stared down at the dress for a long second, and then
his gaze shifted to her feet. His eyes crawled up, touching every part of her
body. Every part, she wanted to rub against him. It was slow and torturous, but
as he made his way back up to her eyes, she noticed his breaths had quickened
and his muscles had tensed.

Once his eyes had
finally found hers, she thought she was going to die right there from the
intensity of the moment, No man—not even Chase himself—had ever looked at her
like that before.

“Christ, Jess.
You’re just…breathtaking,” he said with the same assurance that normally
swarmed all around him. “So fucking beautiful.”

“Chase…” Her
heart hammered in her chest.

He leaned
forward and pushed the troublemaker from the bed. “Lie down.” Without questioning
his command, she stepped back until she felt the mattress. She lowered herself down
on it.

He pulled his
shirt off and nudged his head. “Go on.”

She scooted back
until her feet were off the floor. She stretched out on the mattress.

He smiled at her,
but the usual smugness was gone. “Take your panties off. Let me see all of you.”

Again, she didn’t
hesitate. She wanted to be naked. She wanted him to see all of her, and she
wanted to see all of him as well. She shimmied out of the last stitch of
clothing and tossed it to the floor before she settled back down on the bed. He
followed suit, unbuttoning his jeans and stepping out of them and his boxers.
He stood in front of her, naked and beautiful. Her eyes dropped to his
straining erection, and this time, her entire body clenched with desire. She
bit back a cry and glanced up at him. His smile turned cocky. She welcomed it,
longing to experience some of that cockiness in bed with him.

“Are you ready
for me, Jess?”

“I’m so ready
for you.” She squirmed on the soft mattress with expectancy.

He crawled on the
bed, his thick hardness swinging between his legs. Starting at her thigh, he
kissed her flesh all the way up to her mouth, where he stopped, suspended on
all fours over her.

God, she wanted—needed—him
inside of her.

“One of the
things I want to show you tonight is how you make me feel every time you look
at me.” He raised his hand. “And I’m going to start to show you with this.”

Disappointment
slowly filled her. She’d waited far too long already to have Chase inside of
her. Still, her distress vanished the moment his hand fell between her legs,
and when his finger hit her clit, she practically shot off the bed because he
hit the spot on his first try. Something she couldn’t even do when she
pleasured her own body.  

The tension
started to build within a few strokes, and she arched against his hand. She was
ready to explode. Her teeth ground together, her lids lowered, and her eyes
rolled to the back of her head.

“No, baby. Let
me see those beautiful eyes.”

Jessina wasn’t sure if
she could stand to look at him without cumming, especially when he called her
baby
.
She wanted this feeling to last longer than two seconds, but as his finger
slowed, the fear of him stopping forced her eyes to open.

“That’s it.” His voice was raw and deep. His finger dipped inside,
and then shifted back out. He spread her wetness all around her sensitive nub
in slow, torturous circles. “Are you hot?”

From the inside out,
she was a hot freaking mess for him. She nodded her head with a little moan. “So,
so hot…”

The pressure of
his finger heightened. “Yes, you are. You’re breathing heavy too.”

She hadn’t
noticed until he mentioned it. Her heart was racing, and she was panting. Another
moan escaped her, a little louder than the last. She wanted to close her eyes
and cry out, but Chase had a knack for pulling her in and not letting her go.

Suddenly, his
finger stilled.

Terrified that he was
stopping, she rushed out a throaty whisper. “No. Please, don’t stop now.”

His head titled ever so slightly. “You want this, me touching
you?”

She lifted her hips and
pressed herself into his hand. Almost too eagerly, she nodded.

His eyes dropped
to her mouth, and then back up. “You want me to kiss you?”

She wasn’t about
to turn back, because she needed him too much. “Yes. I want you to kiss me.”

He arched an
eyebrow. “And if I don’t?”

If he didn’t,
she would die, but she couldn’t tell him that. It would sound far too
desperate. He gazed down at her, waiting for an answer, and she decided there
was no sense trying to deny it. “I’m going to die if you don’t kiss me. I’m
going to die right here if you don’t touch me, Chase!”

He leaned down
closer to her wanton mouth. Everything inside of her cried for him as the heat
from his breath drizzled over her lips. “That is exactly how I feel, Jessina.
Just like that, every time you look at me.” His finger thrust inside of her,
and she bore down on it as his mouth touched hers.

“I’ve had to
deal with it. I’ve had to deal with dying all over, again and again, every time
you tossed those big beautiful eyes my way.”

“Chase!”

“Yes Jessina.
Let me hear the one thing that could have saved me from those hot looks. Let me
hear your sweet cries. Let me hear you fucking cum by the touch of my hand. All
I’ve ever wanted was to fill those eyes with pleasure.” His mouth claimed hers.
“To kiss you. To touch you.” His lips brushed more roughly against hers, as his
finger thrust deeper, harder and faster. “All I ever wanted was to fuck you.”

His final heated
words broke her orgasm wide open, and after she let out her last scream, felt her
last orgasmic kick, Chase dropped down on his forearms. He palmed her face, and
looked into her eyes.

“I can’t wait
any longer. I need to have you right now.” Before she could catch her breath,
he eased himself just barely inside of her. Her next breath hitched in her
throat and became trapped. She could feel him, thick and hard, at the berth of
her sex. She was ready to retreat to begging. And then she caught what looked
like a sliver of vulnerability in him as he gazed down at her.

“Take me,” she
quietly said.

 He gently
brushed her cheeks with his palms. His hands were trembling. The color of his
eyes sparkled with something new, something amorous and true. His emotions were
no longer hiding somewhere in a corner, they were right there, alive with
passion and dancing in his eyes.

“Oh, I plan to,
but before I take what I’ve needed for so long, my beautiful, Jess,” he said,
stroking her cheek once more. “I want to show you one more thing.” He guided
himself slowly inside, inch by inch. She stretched around him body and soul.

“Chase, I can’t
wait. I need you now.” She cried out his name, eyes fluttering with
anticipation.

“No…no, baby,
look at me,” he coaxed, or rather rasped in that all-too-male voice. “Don’t you
want to see what I’d like to show you?”

Jessina, lost to
the sensations in her body, met his intense, hot gaze. “Yes. I’ll take anything
you have to offer me.”

“That’s good
because what I want to give to you is something I rarely offer to anyone.”

“What, Chase?
What is it?”

“My heart.” Slowly,
he glided upward, deeper and farther into her. “It’s my heart, Jessina and right
now, you own it.”

Never in his
life had being inside of a woman felt so incredible, so tangible, or so right.
Jess wasn’t just someplace warm and hot that he planned to visit for the night.
Jess wasn’t sex, nor was she a means of fulfilling a necessity. She was part of
him, and not only was he showing her his heart, but he was also giving it to
her.

As he looked
into her eyes, their bodies melded together. The sound of their breath, the
smell of their sex, and the shuddering, it encased them as one. For Chase, it
started in his toes and vibrated through every inch of his body. His control dithered,
and he crumbled. Although he was the one imbedded deep in her, Jess was somehow
crawling inside of him, tearing down walls and conquering years of forbidding.
If she continued to tear the shit out of his barriers, he would have no other
choice but to love her.

He drew his hips
back, nearly pulling himself completely out of her. She gazed up at him, her eyes
glowing with devotion. A throaty moan fell from her pouty lips, and that did
him in. Chase’s hands hit the mattress, and he thrust his hips and moved hard
into her. Another sexy moan echoed through the room as she took all of him.

“Oh my God!” she
wailed, her hands reaching out for him.

He shook his
head and grinned. “God’s not here, baby.”

“Oh my…Chase!” she
quickly said, her fingernails digging into his shoulders as she called out his
name again.

The desperate
plea in her eyes gave him strength, and his muscles throbbed, kicking the
trembles away. “There you go, baby. You know I like it when you say my name.”
He sank himself into her. “Let me hear it again.”

“Chase!” His
name abandoned her mouth in a husky cry, and her arms wrapped around him. “You
are all mine Chase.” She was glistening with desire. Her eyes glossy, lips
swollen, and the sounds she was making were so fucking hot.

“Yes baby, I am
all yours.” The truth expelled so easily from him. He wasn’t going to be able
to hold out much longer. “You’re so tight and swollen around me. Fuck! You feel
so good.” He rocked her to his rhythm. “You’re ready, aren’t you?” He hoped she
was, because his time was about to come.

Her legs were
shaking against his thighs, and her bottom lip quivered as she nodded.

He leaned down
and kissed her pretty pink lips. “First, I want to see it.” He swayed back and
slowly rotated his hips. “Show me, Jess.” He lightly ground his body into hers.
“Let me see your heart.”

A faint smile
touched her mouth as she ran a hand down his chest. “I can’t show it to you
right now,” she said. His erection started to wane, and his body stilled. Then,
when those long lashes lifted, her beautiful eyes clamped around his heart, and
he knew it was all over. “I can’t show you because I don’t have it. It’s
currently in your possession, Mr. Lennox.”

“You’re damn right it
is,” he growled, and he wasn’t ever going to give it back. He surged forward,
and she raised herself against him. The last wall, the strongest barrier, broke,
and when Chase let go, Jess was right there to catch him.

Jessina rolled
over in the bed and found it empty again. She got up and searched the house for
Chase. They’d had sex more than once, and the second time around had lasted
longer. And with the things Chase had done to her body, it was a wonder she
could walk at all.

She padded down
the stairs and found the man with magical hands in the kitchen. His back was
turned to her. He was fully dressed for the office. She quietly stood watching
him, worried that when he saw her, he was going to cast her a wayward glance
and head out the door, just as he had the last time her mouth had been
intimately close to him. She didn’t know what she’d do if he pushed her away
again. The worry consumed her.

He turned
around, holding a cup of coffee and a plate of fruit in his hands, but he didn’t
say anything. Leaning against the doorframe, she anxiously rubbed one foot over
the other. His eyes dropped to her feet before he made his way over to the
table, where he set the mug and plate down. He pivoted and took the few steps
toward her. His hand weeded through her bed-head hair, and he pulled her to him.
“Mornin’, beautiful.” His head bent, and his lips fell gently upon hers. Slow
and savoring, he brushed her mouth a few times. When he pulled back, his eyes
were glistening. He smiled. “Hungry?”

“Starving.” She
smiled back at him, her worries slipping away. “You helped me burn a few
calories last night.”

His smile grew
bigger. “Well, eat up, because when I get home, I plan to do it again.” He
tapped her on the nose, and then turned to pull a chair out for her.

She sat down and
took a long swig of the hot coffee.

He tightened his
tie and picked his coat up off a chair. “I need to go in to the office for a
few hours, but you stay here and relax.” He leaned down and gave her another
long, closed-mouth kiss. “Rest up for later,” he said with a naughty wink.

She liked the
sound of that almost as much as she liked the way Chase was looking at her. Something
about his gaze was different now, more open. There were no shadows of doubt in
his eyes. He wasn’t trying to hide anything. His affection, desire, and want
for her, it was written all over his handsome face. For the first time, she
thought there might actually be a future for them, but then she remembered. “Oh.
I almost forgot. My flight leaves tonight.”

Shoving an arm
into his suit coat, Chase flicked unreadable eyes at her. “That’s right. You
have somewhere to be tomorrow, don’t you?”

She could see
the interest on his face, but she wasn’t ready to explain her terrible
mistakes. She didn’t want to ruin the morning, so she waved her hand. “Yeah. It’s
just something I need to take care of.”

He cocked an
eyebrow. “And you don’t want to tell me what it is?”

She stood up and
wrapped her arms around his neck. “Not right now.”

“But you will
eventually?”

She kissed him. “Yes,
Chase. I’ll tell you…when I’m ready.”

“Okay.” He
shrugged, apparently satisfied with her answer. “What time do you have to be at
the airport? I’ll take you.”

“I need to be
there by eight thirty.”

“Perfect. That’ll
give me enough time to get back here and have my wicked way with you before we
need to head out.”

“Perfect,” she
agreed, beaming. She liked the sound of that too. She leaned in for another
kiss, but she was going to make it last a little longer, and her tongue would
be making an appearance.

Chase walked into his
office, tossing and catching the little black velvet box in his hand. He had
stopped by a jewelry store before heading into work. With Caplin due in a few
days, his bride was going to need a ring. A few steps in, he realized he was
whistling. He couldn’t remember ever whistling, let alone while he was at work.
He shook his head, set the box on the desk, and powered up his laptop. He sank
back into his leather chair. He had a conference call in a half-hour, then a
meeting with Morgan Tills, which he hoped wouldn’t last longer than an hour.
Finally, there was a big corporate meeting, but he’d cut that to a short twenty
minutes. He shook his head once more.
What’s with me anyway? Am I really
counting down the hours and minutes until I can see Jess again?

He had Hannah to
thank. She’d planted the seed in his head to give Jess a chance. At first, he
hadn’t been swayed, even when he’d found Jess bent over that damn troublemaking
suitcase with her inviting ass in the air. Sure, he’d wanted her even before
then, but he’d been fighting that battle since the day he’d met her. Something
inside of him had snapped, though, when Jess told him she wanted to go home.
The thought of her leaving jolted his mind back to Hannah’s words that Chase
wouldn’t have let Jess anywhere near his niece, if he thought that she would have
hurt her.

The girl was
only sixteen, but she was wise beyond her years. Chase knew he should stop
being such a “chicken.” He had trusted her with his niece, and he knew that he
should trust her enough to let her into his heart a little.
Might as well
give it a try and see what happens.
Hell, he’d taken bigger risks in his
life, and after the night they had shared together, he was glad he had. He
cared for Jess, and in time, he thought he might even grow to love her.
Imagine
that. Chase Lennox, me, in love.  

“Mr. Lennox?” his
assistance’s voice came through the intercom.

He pressed the
talk button, still smiling over the crazy notion. “Yes, Katie?”

“Mr. Hobart is
here to see you. He didn’t schedule an appointment, but he says—”

“That’s all
right,” Chase interrupted, realizing he’d forgotten all about James. “Send him
right in.” 

A few seconds
later, the middle-aged, scruffy, overweight P.I. stalked into his office with a
manila folder in his hand. “Mr. Lennox,” he grunted with a nod.

Chase was
tempted to tell James the deal was off. Of course, he was going to pay the man,
but Chase figured it was high time for him to start trusting people, Jess
included. Nevertheless, past fuck-ups and years of being cautious outweighed the
temptation to do so. “Have a seat, James.”

The man placed
the folder on the desk and hunkered down in the chair. “I’ve completed my
investigation of Jessina Landi.” He nudged his head at the file. “There’s my
full report.”

Chase leaned
forward and picked up the thin folder. “And?”

“Up until about
a year ago, the girl was on the straight and narrow.”

“What happened a
year ago?” Chase asked, sifting through the papers as a thousand things ran
through his head, worst-case scenarios that he hoped and prayed weren’t even
remotely close to what the P.I. had discovered.

“Well, it seems
the company she was workin’ for, some kind of vet clinic, was shut down. The
owner, uh…shit. What’s his name?” He scrubbed his chin, and then snapped his
beefy fingers. “Henderson! Yeah, that’s it. Lance Henderson. The guy owned a
couple of those clinics, and your girl was his accountant.”

Chase looked up
at Hobart. He knew Jess was doing far more than bookkeeping for Lance the
asshole. She was also the guy’s fiancée.

“Henderson
embezzled from the employee pension fund,” Hobart said bluntly, “and Landi was
responsible for forwarding the withheld funds from the employee contributions, depositing
them into their own 401(k) plans. Sorry to tell ya this, but everything I found
suggests they were in cahoots, workin’ together on the scam.”

“What?”

“They were
stealing from the employees,” Hobart clarified, but Chase got that. What he
couldn’t register was the part about Jess being a thief.

The folder
slipped from his hand and fell onto the desk, but his heart fell even farther. “Are
you sure she was involved?”

Hobart grimaced.
“She was managing the finances, Mr. Lennox. She had to know.” He stood up. “Anyway,
there’s a hearing. My informant who works in the California legal department
said that it’s on the docket for tomorrow, and Ms. Landi is scheduled to appear
in court, but that’s all he could tell me about it.”

“Tomorrow? In
California?” Chase couldn’t believe he was about to go home, fuck Jess hard, and
then take her to the airport so she could defend herself in court for stealing
from her ex-lover’s company.

“Yeah. It’s all
right there, in the folder.” Hobart looked at him expectantly. “Uh, I gotta
another appointment to get to. Think you can settle up my bill now?”

Chase couldn’t
breathe. He couldn’t feel his damn legs. His head was pounding from the heated
blood coursing through his veins. His chest tightened as he realized he’d been
swindled—again.
Fuck, this shit hurts.
He clutched his chest, staring at
the black velvet box.
Damn it!
He’d been right about Jessina Landi from
the very beginning.

Hobart cleared
his throat. Chase glanced up at him, and pulled his hand from his aching chest.
The businessman he was, Chase knew he had to shut down, to turn it all off so
he could get up and pay the man his money.

Money!
Fuck, it always comes down to the damn cash, doesn’t it?

Jessina glanced at her
cell and saw that it was eight o’clock. She had to be at the airport within the
hour but she hadn’t heard from Chase all day. She’d left him two messages, and
when she’d tried to call his office, the secretary had told her he was tied up
in meetings. She tried not to worry. Chase was a busy man. She preoccupied
herself by packing her bags, but those were now waiting by the front door,
eager for his arrival.

Pacing, she
considered calling a cab, but that would only cost money that she didn’t really
have. She pulled back the curtain for one last check, and her anxiety subsided
when she saw the headlights of a vehicle pulling up the long, dirt road.
Thank
God!
She sighed and grabbed her suitcase.

The black Malibu
was new, a car she’d never seen Chase driving before, but she didn’t waste too much
time thinking about it as she dragged her bags toward it. She was just happy to
see him, so she yanked open the door. Her smile plummeted when she saw his
assistant, Katie, sitting in the driver seat.

“Sorry. He got
held up at the office,” she quickly explained.

“Oh,” was all
Jessina could drum up.

“I popped the
trunk, if you wanna put your stuff in there.”

After Jessina
set her suitcase in the trunk, she got into the passenger seat, feeling confused,
hurt, and even more worried than before. Chase hadn’t forgotten that she needed
to get to the airport or that he was supposed to take her. He just hadn’t
bothered to call. She glanced over at Katie, fully aware that pressing the
ever-so-faithful assistant for any information would be to no avail. As such, the
trip proved to be silent and awkward.

Jessina couldn’t catch
her breath. She hurried out of the courtroom and took a deep breath. Her body still
shaking from seeing Lance again. She exhaled in relief, thankful that it was
all over. Per the prosecution, she only had to testify that one time, and she’d
be granted immunity. It wasn’t that she’d done anything wrong, but her
testimony would guarantee that the defense couldn’t come back and try to pin
the embezzlement on her.

With still no
word from Chase, she was glad Jon, her lawyer and friend, had shown up to give
his support. The night before, in her hotel room, they’d carefully gone through
her testimony. Jessina thought she was ready to face Lance, but the sight of
him just reminded her of how foolish and naïve she’d been.

She got up on
the stand, told the truth, and felt better for it. It certainly wouldn’t help
all of her friends and co-workers get their hard-earned money and pension
benefits back, but she hoped they would take some solace in the fact that Lance
lost everything and would be going away to jail for five years. He had no right
to run a business. He only had it because his father had left it to him in his Will.
It had taken Lance and his well-hidden gambling addiction one year to suck it
dry. He’d even stolen from the charity funds. He was an asshole, and he deserved
everything he had coming to him.

And that was the
last thing and the last day Jessina would ever think about Lance Henderson ever
again.  

Daly City was no
Hollywood. It was a small town, so the embezzlement scam was big news. Jon told
her to go out the back doors and said he’d head out the front, handle the
reporters, and bring the car around. Jessina made her way to the back entrance
of the courthouse, pushed the heavy metal door open, and let it slam behind her,
accidentally summoning a swarm of people, cameras, and microphones to run in
her direction, like vultures waiting to feed on the dead.  

A long
microphone brushed her on the side of the head as a man in a suit and tie,
holding a smaller one in his hand, started toward her. After stepping into her
three-foot comfort zone, he thrust the microphone in her face. “Ms. Landi, is
it true that…”

His words faded
away as Jessina’s pending panic attack turned her deaf. Her heart skipped a few
beats, and her skin tingled until it went numb. Everything started to spin,
moving too fast and dizzying her. There were about ten people crowding her space,
but it felt more like a hundred. They were moving closer and closer, entering
her comfort zone and stealing the air around her. She gasped for each breath, suffocating.