Phoenix Rising (6 page)

The thought was not pleasant. During much of his growing-up years, Connor had run wild, following his primal instincts. Even as an adult he didn’t know if everyone had the same kind of animal awareness he did. Alex had once speculated that an average person wasn’t pushed into the type of situation where they needed their gut instincts. In other words, prison had unleashed Connor’s inner beast.

Regardless of what had given rise to his tightly leashed animalistic nature, Connor exercised constant restraint. And that threadlike control didn’t need a temptation like Jessa.

Setting the clipboard down, Connor sidestepped until he could see Jessa standing uncertainly before the mahogany bar. The soft material of her low-rise slacks caressed every curve. Her snug black-and-white top sported a vee neck that would give anyone who cared to look a glimpse of the cleft between breasts that would fit perfectly in the palms of Connor’s hands.

He and Alex were going to be beating them off with sticks. And Connor was going to kill whoever looked at her longer than necessary. But he couldn’t do that. He had no right. She wasn’t his.

Strangely enough, that just didn’t matter to Connor’s inner animal.

Connor sucked in a huge breath and ran his hands over the stubble on his scalp. When he could finally trust himself for another look, Alex was already headed in her direction.

“Hey, you showed up! I’m going to consider that a good sign.”

Jessa caught a short black apron before it could smack her in the face. Alex’s welcoming tone seemed to chase away some of her unease. Connor watched Jessa tie the apron in a deft knot around her waist and give Alex a sunny grin.

“You didn’t think I’d remember accepting the job, huh?” she teased.

A grin kicked up the corner of Alex’s generous mouth. He stepped around the bar and handed her a towel. Jessa tucked it into the apron and spent a moment arranging it to her satisfaction.

Connor still hadn’t managed to scrape up any of the self-control he had always prided himself on.

“Connor and I weren’t sure if you took us seriously when we offered you the job,” Alex admitted.

“Well, I was a little uncertain. But I figured I didn’t have anything to lose by driving down here to find out.”

“We’re glad you did.” Connor’s voice came out deeper than he’d intended. It rolled across the room and gained him Jessa’s full attention. Her hazel eyes shyly met his and she swallowed before offering a smile.

She didn’t say anything. And it took Connor a moment to realize that she was giving him the same once over he’d given her only minutes before. He resisted the urge to preen, wondering if she liked the burgundy color of his shirt, or if she preferred the blue from the day before.

A blush stained her cheeks, and Connor hid a smile. Whatever she was thinking, it was apparent that she liked what she saw. Her eyes were riveted to the patch of skin at his throat. Three of his buttons were undone. He’d not thought to redo them when he’d put his shirt back on after moving the liquor. Judging by her reaction it was better that he had left the shirt undone, anyway. Jessa seemed fascinated with that tiny glimpse of his chest.

“Jessa?” Alex was talking and neither of them had noticed. “Are you all right?”

“Uh, yeah.”

A smile twitched on Connor’s lips. He wondered if she realized how transparent her curiosity was. He only wished he knew the exact nature of her interest. It would make things far less complicated.

“Alex will show you around the bar. He knows what goes on there better than I do,” Connor explained without breaking eye contact. “But stop in the office before it gets busy and fill out the usual paperwork.”

“Okay, sure.” Her gaze flickered away. “Thanks, Connor.”

“Anytime.”

It took every ounce of control to walk away. He wanted to hang around and watch. But that wasn’t how he usually did things. And making Alex even more suspicious wasn’t going to ease things along.

Connor took refuge in the familiar confines of his job. He immersed himself in his computer, entering receipts and invoices with barely a glance. A neat stack of new hire paperwork sat on one corner of the desktop. He refused to look at it. Connor didn’t want to ponder the moment when Jessa would enter and some of his questions about her would be answered. It was likely that most of her answers would make his strange infatuation irrelevant.

It should’ve been a nice thought. That something would render things normal. That he would somehow be able to go back to choosing a willing partner for an impersonal, purely physical coupling. But that wasn’t really what he wanted.

“Are you busy back here? Alex says I probably have a few minutes before the afternoon regulars start drifting in.”

Connor had no idea how long he’d been sitting at his desk staring into space when Jessa’s husky voice interrupted his self-recrimination.

“Come in,” he rumbled, gesturing to an extra chair.

She sat nervously on the edge of the chair, crossing her legs at the ankles and clasping her hands in her lap.

Connor took a mental inventory of his expression and unconscious body language. He didn’t think he came off as too intimidating, though Alex often told him otherwise. Yet Connor sensed there was something else bothering her. Being alone with him wasn’t causing her stress. So was it the paperwork?

“Is it the standard stuff?” Jessa asked quietly.

Connor passed her a form, “Pretty much. I just have to make a copy of your Drivers’ License and tell my accountant how many dependents you have.”

She stared blankly at the tax form before a wan smile crossed her features. “I guess I just claim myself, right?”

“Got any kids?”

“No.”

Her reply was quiet, final. As if it were an answer she loathed giving. “What about a husband?”

He wasn’t imagining her distress. It was so strong he could smell it. That same protective instinct hit him hard. Connor crossed his arms over his chest to physically prevent himself reaching out to comfort her.

“My uh,” Jessa paused to find the words. “I’m getting divorced.”

Everything clicked into place.

“Then you just claim yourself.” Connor pointed to the form. “Put a one in that box.”

“Thanks for giving me this job.”

Her words surprised him. “You’re doing us a favor, really. It’s hard for Alex to handle tables when he’s behind the bar on a busy night.”

“What happened to the last waitress?”

“She walked off the job one night last week.”

Jessa looked startled, as if there was some secret they hadn’t told her.

Connor grinned. “There’s nothing horrible going on. I promise.”

“Oh.”

Connor didn’t know why he felt compelled to spell it out. “Selena wanted more compensation than I was willing to give her.”

“Like a percentage?”

Why had he opened himself up for this? “Actually, she wanted a more permanent situation.”

There was another moment of confusion in her eyes before the light clicked on. It was strange, but Connor could sense the exact moment Jessa understood what he was getting at.

“She wanted Alex?”

“Actually, no.”

“You?”

She seemed so surprised that Connor had a hard time keeping a straight face. “What? I’m not good-looking enough to tempt someone into a relationship?”

“No, of course not!” Jessa amended quickly before realizing what she’d just implied.

And there was his answer. The attraction was real and it went both ways.

Satisfied with that, Connor didn’t delve any deeper into the strange connection they seemed to share. He wasn’t ready to deal with that yet. Especially not if it interfered with his plans to seduce Jessa and get her out of his system.

“I’m not a big believer in long term relationships.” Connor explained.

“Me neither.”

The naked derision in her words disturbed him more than it should have. “You shouldn’t let one bad apple ruin the whole bunch, Jessa.”

She gave a noncommittal shrug before changing subject. “So what kind of hours do you need me to work?”

“Pretty much any day you want to come in. We’re closed Sundays. And if you want another day off, Tuesdays tend to be a little slower.”

“So, are the activities that went on last night…” She paused to collect her thoughts. “Is that normal around here?”

Connor leveled his dark gaze at Jessa and willed her to understand. “Whatever they want to do, they can. Just as long as everyone involved is willing.”

“And if they’re not?”

Connor leaned back and laced his fingers behind his head. “That’s why I stand up there at the door and keep an eye on everything that happens.”

“Are there many fights?”

“Not usually. But if anyone starts bothering you, let me or Alex know. I don’t tolerate harassment. And nobody has the right to touch you unless you tell them it’s okay. Understand?”

She nodded. Connor knew he was acting a little fanatical. But he couldn’t help the primal rush of male dominance that swept him when he even considered standing by and letting some half-drunk moron grope Jessa’s curves.

Nobody was going to touch her, nobody.

Chapter Six

Jessa had forgotten how utterly satisfying it could be to put in a hard night’s work. It wasn’t that she hadn’t gained any enjoyment from being the wife of a busy executive. But there was something about getting to the end of a long shift and being able to look back and know you’d worked your tail off. And she had.

When she’d ducked into the bar, Jessa hadn’t paid a whit of attention to what its name was. But Connor had named his bar
Phoenix Rising
. After spending an entire shift working with Alex and Connor, Jessa knew it was more than just a name.

She might have been out of circulation for almost two decades while living the life of an average housewife. But Jessa found it hard to believe that all the things going on in that bar were normal. There were plenty of power drinkers, social drinkers, partiers, depressed businessmen, searching singles and lonely ones. But there were also a number of patrons who’d come there to find a partner for a quick romp in the back corner.

By the end of the night, she’d witnessed six women performing oral sex, two women enthusiastically fondling each other’s breasts and four different couples fornicating in every position physically possible. Not only that, but one ambitious guy had pleasured two different women with only a forty-five second break in between. No matter how odd it seemed to witness all that, she couldn’t help but be impressed.

There had come a point during the night where Jessa stopped wondering why her gaze kept returning to the dark corners of the bar. She accepted the tantalizing glimpse of people living events she’d not thought of in the last nineteen years.

Her cotton panties were damp from the constant arousal. It was hard to say if the new erotic awareness sweeping her body was because of the things she saw or because of Connor’s steady black gaze. Anytime she looked around the room, her eyes would lock with his. The odd sensation was becoming hard to ignore. Even harder to disregard was the rising sense of anticipation that sent her heart rate soaring when their eyes met and held.

It was 2:00 a.m. when the last drunken customer fumbled his way into a taxi on the cobbled street out front. Jessa watched the yellow vehicle lurch into motion and vaguely wondered if the poor cab driver was going to have to clean his seats before his shift was done.

“Excuse me, please.”

The breathy voice belonged to a strangely familiar, though scantily clad, woman standing expectantly at the door. “Sorry, it’s past last call. Maybe come back tomorrow night, hmm?”

The leggy dark-haired temptress chuckled, the sound even breathier than her speech if that were possible. “You’ve got it all wrong, sweetheart.”

“She’s all right.”

Connor’s voice rumbled through the doorway as he approached. Jessa quickly stepped aside and the woman eased her way into the bar on her five hundred dollar an hour stilettos.

The heels jogged Jessa’s memory. The leggy brunette was Alex’s lover.

Apparently, it was a regular thing between the two of them because she was flinging off her clothes as she walked to meet him. Her transparent camisole went flying through the air and fluttered to the floor. It was quickly followed by Alex’s shirt, which he obligingly tossed on the growing pile.

“Been waiting for you all night.” Alex’s grumble belied his grin.

“Anticipation makes it better.”

“Saucy wench,” Alex murmured before grabbing the back of her head and devouring her mouth.

She sighed with pleasure as his hands settled on her bare breasts. Alex flicked his thumbs back and forth to make her nipples harden into tiny pink peaks. Pulling his mouth away from hers, he lowered his head and pulled one of the hard buds into his mouth. She flung her head back and writhed against him.

Alex tightened his grip on her full breast and drew his teeth across her nipple. The pale pink areola was vivid against the white of his teeth. Jessa pulled her own lip into her mouth and bit down hard but couldn’t stifle her tiny gasp. Alex looked up at the noise. His blue eyes sought hers and held as he laved his tongue around the swollen, elongated nipple.

Jessa’s soft cry of surprise rang in her ears.

“They like it that we’re watching, Jessa,” Connor’s voice brought her abruptly back to the moment. “That’s why Alex is looking over here. He’s enjoying your reaction.”

“I’ve got no reaction,” Jessa snapped.

“None?”

The question in his voice was unmistakable. It was a growl, his chest rumbling as he stepped behind her. The front door was still open. Cool air swept across the heated flesh of her arms and neck, raising gooseflesh. She desperately wanted to lift her long hair away from the nape of her neck to feel the wash of air on her flushed skin. She resisted the urge. She didn’t want Connor to know how much the whole scene affected her.

* * *

She was desperately fighting the arousal. A fine sheen of perspiration coated her face and neck. Tension racked her muscles. Connor wondered what it cost her to deny her own sexuality each and every day. And more importantly, why did she do it?

Jessa’s eyes continually moved back to Alex and Isabel. The slender secretary with the long black hair and gray eyes was his latest favorite. And while Connor generally enjoyed their frantic rendezvous, he had eyes for none but Jessa.

It was so tempting to take her, bend her over the bar, and fuck her; forget the sensitive bullshit.

But it wasn’t that simple anymore. Connor might have wanted to get her out of his system, but Jessa wasn’t a one-night stand. And one night wasn’t going to be enough. He wanted hundreds of nights. A thousand chances to spread her thighs, stretch her cunt wide with his fingers and press his cock deep inside her wet pussy wouldn’t be enough.

He was a God damned fool.

So instead of roughly spinning her around and pushing her against the bar only a few steps away, Connor gently lifted her hair from her neck. The thick mass of honey-colored silk was heavier than it looked. He reveled in the texture while inhaling deeply of the faint rosemary and mint scent of her shampoo.

“What are you doing?” she demanded tensely.

“I’m going to help you relax, Jessa.”

“I’m fine. I don’t need to…Oh!”

Jessa’s words died when his big, supple fingers began to work the knotted tension from her neck. Her chin dropped and Connor saw her eyes begin to slide shut.

“No, keep watching them, Jessa.”

She wanted to tell him to stop. Connor could feel the protest in the tension of her spine. But he ignored her inhibitions and continued his slow assault.

Connor moved closer before pulling Jessa back against him. Her voluptuous frame was small in comparison to his. The top of her head rested against his pectorals and his groin nestled in the small of her back. Her body heat fueled his lust and made his cock leap to full attention. Connor considered shifting his body to keep her unaware of his erection. But he wanted her to know how affected he was by her.

She was still watching Alex and Isabel. A smile ghosted over Connor’s features. Alex’s jeans barely rested on the tilt of his hips as he stood with his back braced against a column. His thick cock was deep inside Isabel’s warm mouth. The way she suckled and laved over his shaft and sac you would’ve thought she needed their sustenance to live. Her moans were punctuated with sharp shouts of pleasure from Alex until he could no longer take the torture. He abruptly grabbed the sides of her head with his hands and held her mouth still while he pumped his cock in and out of her throat. She squealed in excitement and grabbed his ass to pull him closer.

“She wants him to cum in her mouth,” Connor whispered in Jessa’s ear.

Jessa’s voice was hoarse. “Why would she want something like that?”

“She craves the taste of his cum. Isabel loves to suck him dry and beg for more.”

“Will he,” Jessa swallowed thickly. “Will he cum in her mouth?”

“No, he wants to feel her pussy milk his cock.”

Her knees gave way with his announcement. Connor braced her light weight against his torso and settled her in his arms. Jessa’s hands gripped his forearms until her knuckles turned white. She didn’t seem to realize that she wasn’t standing under her own power.

Connor growled deep in his throat. His self-control was slipping away. But his thoughts and desires were jumbled, and he was of two minds as to how he should proceed. It was getting damn hard to keep his intentions straight, or even to remember exactly what they were.

He bit back a groan at the thought of Jessa’s sweet pussy. To plunge his cock in and out of her cunt until she came undone, her voice breaking over his name.

But something stayed his lust, funneled his fierce sexual appetite into the gentle caresses and coaxing encouragement he sensed Jessa desperately needed.

So instead of ripping her jeans from her body and shoving his cock balls-deep in her hot slit, he splayed one big hand across her belly and used the other one to unclasp her bra and discard both it and her snug shirt.

Her full breasts swung forward and brushed the back of his hand. Connor shifted until he could rub the soft underside of each breast. Her breath hitched and she would’ve looked up at him but for Alex’s sudden movement across the room.

Alex pulled his cock roughly from his lover’s mouth and picked her up. Isabel’s mini skirt landed unceremoniously atop the pile on their way past. Without wasting another second, he carried her to a table and laid her on top. Hooking his finger into her thong, he impatiently pulled it aside and flung her legs over his shoulders.

Alex gave Jessa one more piercing blue glance to make certain she was watching before he plunged his huge cock deep inside Isabel’s wet cunt. Isabel cried his name and arched her back in ecstasy. Alex pounded in and out of her pussy at a furious pace. The wet sound of their flesh coming together tore a soft moan from Jessa’s throat.

Connor was struck with a mighty wave of desire by the tiny sound. Forcing his brain to concentrate on the woman in his arms and not his rock hard erection, he cupped her breasts. As he’d thought, they fit perfectly in the palms of his hands. Rolling her nipples between thumbs and forefingers, he was rewarded with another moan.

“You shouldn’t be doing this,” she protested weakly.

“Yes, I should.”

“It’s not…it’s just not appropriate.”

“Fuck appropriate.”

“If feels so…” she broke off as if she couldn’t decide what to say.

“How does it feel?”

“Good. Strange. I don’t know anymore.”

Connor chuckled and swept her up into his arms. Depositing her gently on the bar, he replaced his fingers with his mouth on her right breast before Jessa had time to voice an objection.

Her voice broke on a word that might’ve been his name.

“Easy, Jessa,” he rumbled against her taut nipple. “We’ve only a short way to go tonight.”

“Why?” she gasped.

Because he didn’t know how much longer he could hold back.

Connor gorged on her breasts, filling his mouth with them each in turn until she was limp against his arm, unable to hold herself up.

“Lift your hips,” he demanded roughly.

She complied without a word, arching her back. Connor skillfully unsnapped and unfastened her slacks with his free hand while lustily suckling her swollen pink nipples. He slid the soft material past her knees and left it.

“Look at me, Jessa.”

Her eyes were hazy with passion, glinting whiskey brown in the dim lights above the bar. Bracing her weight on her hands, Jessa spread her legs for Connor as if she were unable to keep them closed. As if her hot, aching flesh wanted him to bring her to peak as badly as he wanted to do it.

Jessa’s thighs were smooth and pale beneath his callused palms. Connor slid his hands gently toward their apex. He wanted to savor every moment. From the sight of her legs opening before him to the heady scent of the sweet cream flooding her pussy.

The honey-brown curls of her pubic thatch were close cropped into a narrow strip. Connor spread her wider and was rewarded by a glimpse of hot pink flesh between her legs. Her inner labia were engorged and slick with her hot juices. Connor ran three fingers through her curls until they rested against the heat of Jessa’s pussy lips. Spreading her wide, Connor took his first look at the beauty of Jessa’s hot cunt open wide to his eyes.

She was sweet perfection. The hood of her clitoris opened and he could see the throb of her heartbeat at the apex of the tiny nub. Deep within her folds lay the puckered entrance to her vagina, pink and damp with cream.

Jessa shuddered at his touch, her knees quivering and her head lolling back as he held her open with one hand and used a finger to stroke her from perineum to clit. Soaking his fingers in her creamy juice, Connor slid them rhythmically along her slit until each stroke drew a wail from Jessa’s mouth.

Still stroking her wet slit, Connor leaned forward and pressed his lips to the pulse point below her ear. “I’m going to slide my fingers inside you, Jessa.”

She whimpered as he used one finger to penetrate her tight sheath.

“You’re so fucking hot, Jessa. Can you feel how tight you are around my finger?”

She tried to nod, but was lost when he pushed another finger inside her cunt and spread them to stretch her vagina. Connor withdrew his fingers just long enough to thrust them back inside. She shuddered around him, convulsing against his hand.

“Relax sweetheart; we’re nowhere near done,” Connor soothed.

He inserted another long finger into her pussy and watched her melt around him. Jessa’s legs went rigid and she cried out as her hips bucked involuntarily. Connor rubbed the pad of ribbed muscle inside her vagina, pushing against her pelvic bone until she was almost weeping from the exquisite pressure.

“Connor, please!” she gasped.

“Please what?”

“I-I don’t know! I can’t keep going! I can’t do this!”

A lusty smile curved his mouth and Connor increased his pace, thrusting in and out with such force that his hand pounded against her. Each insertion was punctuated by a wet pop as he pulled his fingers free only to plunge them in again.