The Fight for Us (18 page)

Todd chuckled for a moment. When Joss suddenly felt the cool trail of a finger being run down her arm, she gasped and cringed, but before she could fully register what had happened, Isaiah pulled her behind him and reached for the collar of Todd’s shirt, twisting it in his grip.

“Keep your
fucking
hands off her.” His voice was seething in a quiet fury, and when Joss reached for his waist, he released his hold on Todd’s shirt and took a deep breath, stepping back from him in an obvious attempt to calm his own rage.

“Is this really why you won’t fuck me anymore, Joss? You used to be so much more fun.” Todd was smirking even as he straightened the collar of his shirt. He stared straight at Isaiah when he spoke, clearly enjoying the anger he’d incited from Isaiah.

“Leave, Todd.” She was glancing around as she spoke, trying to keep her voice quiet. Only a few sets of eyes seemed to be paying them any attention, but it didn’t mean things couldn’t spin out of control quickly with Isaiah’s hands still fisted at his sides. His stomach muscles were rippling against her hand that was still gripping him at the waist.

Todd glanced at her quickly, but ignored her comment, turning his attention back to Isaiah. “Not sure she’s worth your effort really. Trust me. She’s a lot to handle.”

“Your inability to
handle
a woman appropriately is no concern of mine, or Joss’s at this point in her life. Get lost.” Then Isaiah dismissed him again and started to turn away.

“Dance with me, Dad?” Nat suddenly appeared beside them, and Joss panicked, glancing back at Todd.

“Of course.” Isaiah forced a small smile to his lips, but the look was strained. “Give me just a minute.” Nat looked sheepishly between them for a moment and then glanced nervously at Todd before leaving them.

“
Lovely
daughter you have.” Todd’s voice was mocking, and when he started to saunter past them, Isaiah grabbed his elbow. Todd stopped mid-stride turning his attention to Isaiah and smirking.

“Come near any one of us, and you will answer to me.” Isaiah’s voice remained quiet but commanding, and he held his eyes harshly on Todd’s. Todd shook his arm away, and then finally disappeared into the crowd.

When Isaiah turned to her, he reached for a stray hair on her cheek and brushed it gently away. He glanced over her shoulder scanning the crowd for a moment, and then he shook his head.

“I’m sorry—” She started.

“Don’t apologize for him.”

She nodded. How the hell could one not apologize for that?

When he sighed and glanced away for a moment, she didn’t know how to take it. He seemed exhausted, unsure, frustrated. She couldn’t say she really had a clue.

“I don’t even know what to say at this point.” He shook his head again as he spoke, and her heart fell a bit.

She hated what he was saying, but she understood the feeling. They just couldn’t seem to get on the same page with one another at the same time to save their lives. She smiled and tried for sarcasm to save herself from the pain of that fact. “I guess we’re just never going to get this right.” She almost regretted saying it for a moment.

He shook his head subtly, and then he leaned toward her ear with the slyest of expressions. When his hand gripped her waist and his lips touched the lobe of her ear, she shivered and waited for his voice.

“The fuck we won’t.” His breath was warm against her skin, and when he righted his posture, he winked and then turned and walked away, leaving her to watch after him.

“You’re staring at his ass right now, aren’t you?” Steph elbowed her as she appeared at Joss’s side.

“Don’t be ridiculous.” She pulled her focus up from his butt. Wasn’t her fault he looked so damn good in a suit, and after leaving her with his last provocative comment, what the hell else was she supposed to do but admire the hell out of the man? He was wearing a black, trim cut suit. The white dress shirt and black skinny tie furthered her appreciation for it, and the polished black ankle boot was the perfect base for that perfection. “I need some air.” She breathed out as she forced her focus to shift to Steph.

“It’s five below outside, so I’m really hoping you mean inside air. Need company?”

“Nah. I’ll be back. I just need to cool down.” She walked quickly from the large ballroom in the Pavilion, and she started wandering. The building was a large old structure, and historic pictures of Bristol Island and the town lined the halls outside the ballroom. Bristol’s rocky and beautiful shoreline attracted photographers from all over the place, and there were no shortage of photographs of their island—old and new ones. She wasn’t the only one taking in the history of their town, and she politely nodded to one person after another as she wandered farther from the ballroom, studying one large black and white exhibit after another. Before long, she was alone in a deserted hallway away from the crowds.

When she pushed through the door that led to the boardroom, she was met with darkness. She’d been in this room a few times over the years. It was a long rectangular room with an equally long rectangular table sitting in the middle. The far wall was one window after another looking out over the water. It was one of her favorite rooms in the building. Once she’d made her way to the far wall of windows, she placed her palms on the wide marble window ledge that ran the entire length of that wall. The hard surface was cool to the touch, and she instantly sighed as that coolness soaked into her skin. The moon was large and bright and cast a bluish hue across the room with its tall ceiling.

“I didn’t expect you to run away.”

She gasped as she spun toward the door and the towering dark figure that stood shadowed against the light from the hallway behind him.

“Isaiah…”

He stepped in, letting the door close behind him. When he reached back, clicking the lock into place, her skin prickled and her breathing became choppy and uneven. She watched his shadow move toward her until he was close enough to the windows for the moonlight to illuminate him. His still partially shadowed face was calm and serious as he approached her.

“Thought you were dancing with your daughter?”

“Done already. And Harper stole her away before the band had even stopped playing.” His voice was soothingly warm and deep. His movements were slow, calculated, and each one brought him closer and closer to her body which was trembling as she clutched the window ledge she was leaning against. “Do you really think we can’t get this right?” He placed his hands on top of hers, pinning them to the ledge, and he leaned down to her, letting his cheek touch and taunt her own. He was nuzzling against her ear with his lips—not touching her any more than the lightest caress against her skin. It was tormenting.

“I thought we’d both decided that. You just don’t have it in you, remember?” Her voice trailed off as his lips brushed her skin again.

His response was a warm humming sound that vibrated against her skin. “It feels that way sometimes, but other times…” He hummed again as goose bumps sprang up on her neck. “…well, other times I see you, and I’m suddenly calm and my world feels exceptionally and perfectly simple. I regret that conversation. Half of what I said didn’t even make sense to me. Or, at least I can’t seem to put anything into words correctly.” He was silent for a moment as he let his lips trail against her neck. “I was so nervous about seeing you tonight.” He didn’t sound at all nervous.

“Is that so? You don’t seem it.”

“It’s odd.” His lips brushed across her cheek and then back to her ear again. “I’m always nervous when I know I’m going to see you, but then when I actually do, I’m so fucking turned on I forget all about my nerves.” His hands, which had been pinning hers in place, slowly moved up her arms, trailing lightly over the fabric of her dress. They moved up over her shoulders, and then he pulled his head back from her, studying her eyes in the near darkness as his hands finally found her cheeks.

The world slowly came to a silent halt as they stared at one another. She was panting, and he was too. His lips were inches from hers, and she was begging in her mind for more. When he swallowed over a lump in his throat, her heart sank, and she let out a huff of breath. For half a second she thought he was changing his mind, but then he lunged, pushing her back harder against the window ledge as his mouth met hers and his body did too. One of his hands instantly moved to her waist, clutching at her hip and pulling her closer to him. She could feel his large and hard arousal against her stomach, and she gripped the sides of his waist, focusing on that spot and trying to keep her hands off it.

But she gave up on restraint when both of his hands traveled to the lower hem of her skirt and his palms met the back of her thighs. His fingertips were brushing along the inside of her thighs as his hands slowly made their way up her legs. He hit the top of her stockings, brushing over the clips that held them in place, and then he cursed.

“Oh, fuck,” he murmured into her mouth as he continued to kiss her. His tongue was pushing past her lips, touching every last ounce of her skin as it moved, and it was warm as it stroked her tongue.

She caught herself mewling like an animal as her fingers dug into his sides harshly, and then his hands hit the top of her thighs just under her bottom. Her breath lurched, and he squeezed, letting his fingers pull her thighs apart as they dug into the sensitive skin so near her sex. She was all heat and wetness between her legs, and he was mere inches from finding out just how much she wanted him.

When his hands finally moved up to the exposed cheeks of her bottom, he groaned loudly, finally letting his mouth leave hers and moving to her ear. His hands gripped her buttocks, and his moans tickled the skin just below her ear as he nuzzled against her neck. She trembled as his finger ran under the G-string and down between her legs to brush across the lips of her vagina. She knew she was wet, and when his finger brushed between the lips quickly, his curse made it clear he hadn’t missed it.

“Fucking hell, Joss.” He nipped her neck with his teeth, and she cried out, but his finger abandoned her, and he swiftly reached down to the back of her thighs, gripping and lifting her to the window ledge. Her warm bottom met the cool hard surface, and she gasped as she settled onto the wide ledge, parting her legs as he pushed between them.

“I refuse to think we can’t figure this out.” He sounded nearly angry as he spoke against her ear, and then his hands were pushing up under her skirt again, this time on the tops of her thighs. He pulled her legs apart wider, growling as he did. And then she lost her mind.

Her hands finally left the sides of his waist, and she was fumbling with the buckle of his belt, and then the button and zipper of his dress pants. She was whimpering as her fingers worked, and he was panting and taking one lurching breath after another between his warm, deep moans.

“Don’t touch me unless you want to keep going.”

She shuddered as she listened to the desperate need in his voice, and then she slid her hand past the fly of his pants, running her palm over the hard bulge.

“Oh, God.” He groaned.

She didn’t give her brain time to talk herself down from this ledge, and she hastily ran her fingers up to the waistband of his underwear, pulling the elastic out and down along his groin and feeling his cock spring free. She was the one moaning this time. As she grasped the thick, hard shaft, his breath caught in his throat on a gasp. She stroked, and when she glanced to his dark shadowed face, his lips were parted and he was watching her.

She let her palm round the bulbous head of his cock, and a trail of precum was left in its wake as her hand moved back down along his length. She’d give anything for more light, but the feel of him under her touch promised hard, large perfection. He let her hand touch, caress, squeeze, and rub him for a few moments, but he was nearing a threshold. When his body started to tremor, and his gasps became quick and desperate, he pulled her hand from his body, bunching her skirt up to her waist as he pushed toward her.

He slipped the thin fabric covering her pussy to the side, and then she felt him sliding between her lips, coating himself with her cum. She leaned back, and then his eyes met hers once more. He glanced down to the shadowed spot between their bodies. There was nothing to see given the darkness, but she could feel everything she needed to. The head of his cock was right there, exactly where it needed to be, and when his focus shifted back up to her, he pushed. The thrust was harsh as he painfully filled her body with one swift move that sank him deep to her core. What they were doing was beyond inappropriate, and it was also beyond conscious and rational thought at this point. She gasped, and the deep growling groan he made sent a shudder through her and forced her muscles to clench tight around his length.

He cursed when he felt the stricture, and then after one final pause, he started pounding. The ache dissipated quickly as his hips moved and thrust between her legs. He sank and withdrew over and over, filling and then leaving her, driving her mad with need. She cried out as he hit her depths, and then she clutched the back of his neck with one hand as she planted the other behind her hip to brace herself against the harsh, jolting penetrations.

He seemed as insane as she felt at the moment, and as he continued to plunge, her body started to tingle and shake. He was driving her closer and closer to her edge, and in one blinding moment, every muscle in her body tensed and her insides exploded around him, tightening on his length as it sank into her. She cried out loudly, and her head fell back as a powerful orgasm radiated out from her clit to every other nerve ending in her body like an electrical fire branching out from her core.

It was only three more powerful strokes before he was growling out his own release, stilling himself deep inside her. He was nearly collapsed against her, and she still clutched the back of his neck as his forehead sank to hers. Neither of them seemed capable of doing anything but panting into one another’s open mouths as they gasped for air.

“This is the boardroom where our city council meets on a monthly basis.” A muffled voice from the hallway left them both scrambling, and she hissed as he pulled back from her quickly, leaving her body as the ache set in. His eyes flashed to hers and his brow flinched, but he still seemed too shocked to speak.