Strictly Business (20 page)

He looked at her. This wasn’t where he’d planned. There was
no soft bed, no silky sheets, only wet grass. He didn’t even have a condom with
him. “No. You deserve more.” He still wanted her first time to be special,
perfect.

She peeled her wet shirt off, standing there in those sexy
jeans and a soft pink, lacy bra, barefoot and gorgeous. She trailed her hands
down her belly, unsnapping her jeans. “Here. Now.” Her voice was barely more
than a whisper, her need pulsing through the two simple words.

Jake stripped off his shirt as he walked toward her,
stopping her hands before she could pull down her zipper. “Let me.” It was a
command, not a question.

Jake pressed his mouth to hers, softer this time, passion
reined in for the moment. He knelt down in front of her, trailing kisses down
her chest, across her breasts, down her belly as he went. He dipped his hand
into the waistband of her jeans, sliding the zipper slowly down. Gently, he
brushed his fingers across her sex, keeping his touch light and teasing. He
heard her quick intake of breath, felt her hands curl into his shoulders. He
hooked his thumbs into the sides of her jeans and tugged them down. The wet
denim stuck to her legs, slowing his progress, but giving him more time to kiss
her. Everywhere. Her thighs, her knees, down her calves. When she kicked off
the jeans, he ran his hands up the backs of her damp legs, cupping the generous
curves of her ass, squeezing and kneading, drawing another moan from her. Jake
was determined to take this slowly. He wanted her crazy with need before he
took her innocence. He ran a trail of kisses across her belly, just above the
line of her panties, kissed her thighs around the edges of lace. When he
finally pressed a kiss to her center, he heard her cry out as her knees started
to buckle.

Jake caught her, gently laying her against the damp grass.
It was drier here, under the tree. The grass, soft and warm from the day’s sun.
He brought his mouth back up to hers, kissing her slowly, languidly while her
body silently begged him for release. She reached a hand down, unbuttoning his
jeans and yanking down the zipper before he could stop her. She pushed the
jeans off his hips, her movements jerky and urgent.

Jake laughed softly, but stood to remove his clothing. She
watched him while he undressed. he could almost feel her eyes raking over his
skin making his shaft pulse and grow even larger as he waited, letting her look
her fill. When she got to his shaft, he saw her eyes widen, a brief look of
fear run across her face. As he lay down next to her, he whispered against her
ear, “Don’t worry. I’ll be gentle and you’ll be ready. It’ll only hurt for a
second.”

* * * * *

He was huge. She had no idea how that was ever going to fit
inside her. As much as she wanted him, the sheer size of his manhood was enough
to make her reconsider. She looked into his eyes and the fear subsided to once
again be replaced by need. She felt his mouth sliding across her neck, his
tongue licking the rain from her skin. As he slid down to her breasts, easing
her bra off, he gently nipped, making her gasp. His tongue swirled around her
nipple, teasing without easing the ache. When he finally pulled her nipple into
his mouth and sucked, Jess screamed, caught somewhere between pleasure and
pain. She felt the heat increase, wetness rushing in between her legs. She
lifted her hips, silently begging for more.

His shaft was throbbing, she could feel it pulse against her
leg. That wasn't where she wanted it. When she lifted her hips she felt him
groan out his pleasure.

As his mouth moved to the other breast, his hand trailed
down, sliding inside the edge of her panties. As he moved further, closer to
her core, she parted her legs, granting him access to that most secret part of
her. He pushed her panties to the side, sliding one finger between her folds,
gasping as he found her core. “God Jess, you’re so wet, so hot. Oh, honey,
you’re making me crazy.”

She whimpered. She heard the noise, surprised to know it came
from her. Why wouldn’t he just ease this ache? Why was he torturing her first?

He latched onto her breast, sucking hard at her nipple at
the same time he thrust his finger inside her. Her body clenched around his
hand, tightening immediately, aching for release.

* * * * *

Jake growled, pulling away, pulling his hand out of her. He
yanked her panties off, fairly sure he heard them tear. He knew he needed to
find gentleness, find control, but he had to taste her. His mouth came down
hard, pressing his tongue against her nub, nipping and suckling.

Jess went wild, thrusting her hips to meet his mouth. As he
sucked her clitoris he slid one finger back inside. Her orgasm broke over her,
her sheath convulsing around his finger. She screamed as the rain poured down
around them and thunder roared.

Jake felt her come, could taste her juices still on his
tongue. It wasn’t enough. He wanted more, he wanted her crying out, begging for
him to be inside her. He pulled his fingers out, instead delving inside her
with his tongue. He thrust in and out, hard and fast as the muscles still
clenched and grabbed against his mouth.

He didn't even give her time to recover before he started
driving her up again. When her legs started to squeeze, tightening around his
head, he pulled his mouth from her core moving up to kiss her deeply. He put
two fingers in her tight sheath, trying to stretch her, make her ready for him.
He needed to be inside her, and he was rapidly losing the battle of wills. As
he felt her body start to tighten he pulled his fingers out. He didn't want to
let her come again. He needed her to be crazy, desperate and ready to take him.

Jess whimpered, a soft cry that told him she was almost
ready. She bucked her hips against him, needing release. Jake shifted, moving
over her until his shaft was barely nudging her core. She lifted her hips,
pushing against him until his tip was inside. He froze, keeping his hips away.
He was just inside her, the warmth surrounding the head of his shaft. He was
gritting his teeth to keep from slamming into her and hurting her. She wasn’t
helping matters, lifting and twisting. And the sounds she was making. Aaahhh,
there was only so much one man could take. When she lifted her legs, wrapping
them around his waist and pulling, he lost the battle and plunged all the way
in. He felt the slight tear and heard her sharply inhale. Somehow, he found the
will to hold still.

Keeping himself buried inside her, he reached between them
using his thumb to rub lazy little circles across her clitoris. He felt a rush
of warmth as her body opened and accepted him. She threw her head back and
moaned just before she tightened her legs, gripping his hips and pulling him
even deeper inside her. She was so tight. He could feel her wet heat
surrounding him and needed to move, to thrust. He had to give her time to get
used to him. As he felt her legs loosen, then tighten again as she pushed
against him, he was lost. “Aaahhh, Jess. So good.” Then he was grinding against
her, plunging hard and deep inside her. She answered him thrust for thrust.

Jake was determined to hold out until she reached orgasm. He
was thinking about anything he could to make sure she came first. When he felt
her body begin to tighten beneath his, her head going back, eyes closed in
pleasure he was amazed that she would be there so fast. He’d thought it would
take longer, being her first time, for her to find pleasure this way. He felt
her legs go taut, knew she was close, and knew he would come with her. He
pushed into her, growling against her neck as they both shattered.

Jess was blissfully happy, trying to snuggle into Jake as he
rolled off her. He held her for a moment, before he pulled away, sliding on his
jeans, gathering up his shirt and her clothes. He laid them beside her. “We
need to get in the house before you get cold.”

The words were sweet, considerate. The tone was odd. She
didn't understand why he was in such a rush to run off. She felt the tension
and fear from her morning thoughts returning. Had he been trying to break up
with her? She had set out to seduce him this evening, which obviously worked,
but maybe that wasn't really what he wanted. Physically, he clearly wanted her,
but maybe he just didn't want
her
. She dressed quickly, stuffing her
ruined panties into her pocket. Jake waited for her to dress, gently grabbing
her hand as they walked into the house.

Jess pulled her hand free and headed upstairs, tears
shimmering in her eyes. She fought to hold them back, determined that he would
not see her cry. He was right behind her, followed her all the way to her door.
As Jess put her hand on the knob, she was suddenly yanked back, pulled against
Jake in another one of those gut wrenching hugs… the kind she was beginning to
hate. As soon as he let go, she rushed in and slammed the door behind her.

Jess woke the next morning, sore and tender in all the right
places. She smiled, thinking of Jake. The smile was quickly replaced by a stab
of pain. She had no idea what had gone wrong last night, but she knew, the way
women just know, that something had. Something had gone terribly wrong.

As she showered, dressed and carefully applied her makeup,
she wished, for the first time in weeks that she still had her contacts. She
knew she was trying to hide behind makeup and plastic, but she didn’t care. She
spent extra time, making sure her makeup was perfect, and hiding the dark
circles under her eyes. As she headed down to the kitchen, she was grateful
that everyone should already be gone. She was going to grab coffee and head out
to the house site, hopefully without seeing anyone at all.

Over the next couple of days, Jake was attentive. Sweet
even. But he was still acting odd. Jess had thought that finally making love
would be the best thing that could happen to her, to them. And yet, he was
almost worse now than he had been before. She had expected that once the
virginity was off the table he would quit tiptoeing around. Instead, he was
even more cautious and 'nice' than before they'd had sex.

It had been two more days of door opening, hand holding and
polite conversation. And two more nights of long silent hugs and sleeping
alone. Each night he would walk her to her room, give her one of those hugs,
kiss her head and tell her to sleep well. Then he would head to his bedroom.
Alone.

She had expected more. From what her friends had told her,
with any new relationship, once the couple finally had sex, generally they were
all over each other for the next several months. Like a dam bursting. And her
body agreed. She was more than ready to do this again. And again, and again.
And he was treating her like a sister or a friend.

She wanted to talk to him, to just ask him what was going
on, but she was afraid she might not like the answer. What if he really had
been trying to push her away and their night together was simply a lapse in
judgment? Was she really ready to hear that after what was the best night of
her life?

Knowing that the answer was 'definitely not', she decided
she would just find another way to deal with the adrenaline and desire raging
through her. Physical labor. Men seemed to think it was the answer to
everything, so she figured she'd give it a try.

Heading over to the home site, she aimed to ask Mike to let
her do the most physically demanding job she was able to.

* * * * *

By Saturday afternoon, Jake'd had all he could handle. He
had done everything he could think of to keep his hands off Jess for the last
couple days. He had thought about dragging her off to his room, the barn, hell
anywhere he could get her alone. He'd thought about it every minute of every
day. But he'd kept himself in check. He knew she had to be sore considering his
size and rough handling of her.

He had given thought to at least bringing her to his bed at
night, just to hold her while she slept. Something he had dreamed of almost as
much as sex. But until she had time to recover, until she gave him some sign
that she was ready again, he didn't think it was a good idea. Too much
temptation.

Now, it was Saturday afternoon and he could no longer keep
his mind on his work. He had to see her. Looking around he made sure that
everything was under control. Most of the ranch hands were wrapping up what
they were doing and heading in for the day.

He turned and headed out to the home site. Jess would still
be there he was sure.

When he got there, Mike looked up, nodding to Jake as he
finished his conversation with one of the guys. When he got done, he headed
over to Jake.

“Hey Jake. What can I do for you? Just here to take a look
around, see how things are going?”

“No, I'm here to work.” Jake figured it was a good way to
keep busy until Jess was done for the day.

Clearly, that wasn’t what Mike had been expecting. “Work?”

“Yeah, work. I’m pretty good with my hands. I built that
barn we have over there, helped my dad with the stables. Tell me what to do and
I’ll do it.”

“Why?”

“I just need to. It’s my house anyway. Just tell me what you
want me to do, damn it.” Jake ran his hands through his hair, the frustration
finally sneaking out despite his best efforts.

After a long pause, which Jake knew Mike was using to try
and size up the situation, he finally got an answer.

“Yeah, sure. We can always use a strong back. They’re
inside, facing your fireplace right now. Or, you can work on the deck off the
master suite. We're getting ready to knock off though. It is Saturday.”

Jake wanted to ask where Jess was, but wasn’t sure whether
he would go find her or run the other way. “I’ll do the deck.” He figured Jess
was probably working on the fireplace, doing the more detailed work, not the
heavy construction. He headed into the house without even looking back at Mike.