Rock Hard

Chapter 48

When Jessica heard the front door open, she hurriedly lit the candles she’d arranged on the dining room table to set the mood. She leaned to the side so she could watch Sed approach around the two-story high pillar in the foyer, but stayed in her chair and waited for him to join her. That had been a close call. Jace had left less than ten minutes ago. If Sed would have caught him here, she knew it would have gotten ugly. And ruined Friday’s surprise.

“What’s all this?” Sed murmured.

“I thought you’d be hungry.”

When he noticed she sat waiting for him in the tiniest of pink lace negligees, he growled in appreciation. She indicated the seat to her left. “Have a seat, sweetheart.”

Sed kissed her temple and then sat beside her. “Is this my surprise? You look beautiful.”

She flushed with pleasure. “Part of it. And thank you. How’s your throat feeling?”

“Not bad. I heal quickly. I can talk okay now.”

“No, you can’t.” She reached under the table and retrieved the gift bag she’d stashed at her feet. “Your surprise is in here. Have you been good for Eric today?”

He hesitated, looking at the ceiling in deep concentration, and then nodded.

Somehow she doubted he was being sincere, but she handed the gift bag to him.

“What is—”

She covered his mouth with her hand. “No talking, Sed.”

He reached into the gift bag and pulled out a small dry-erase board and marker. He didn’t even try to hide his disappointment. “I thought you’d get me something sexy.”

“If you use that to communicate instead of talking, I have another surprise for you.”

“Yeah?”

“You’ll probably like this one better.”

He uncapped the marker and wrote OK on the board.

She reached up and cupped his face in her hand. His cheek was rough with a day’s beard growth and she took a moment to enjoy the texture against her fingertips. She then kissed him tenderly. “If you’re a good boy, I’ll be a very naughty girl.”

VERY naughty? he wrote.

“Very, very naughty,” she murmured and kissed him again.

His gaze caressed her skin in a most distracting fashion. She was determined to get through this meal without pouncing on him, but now that he was here, she doubted they’d make it all the way to dessert. He’d be lucky if she let him finish his appetizer. Or start it.

School? he wrote.

“I’ve decided to finish law school—I have important work to do—but I’ll tell you about that later. Right now, you need to eat. Are you hungry?”

He nodded earnestly.

She removed lids from the containers of food scattered across the table. “I tried to think of things that wouldn’t hurt your throat.”

He watched her reveal one dish after another. You cooked all this?

She read his message and laughed. “No, sweetheart, it’s take out. I wanted you to enjoy it, not have to choke it down and pretend I’m not poisoning you.”

He took her hand and kissed her knuckles.

“So what are you hungry for?”

You, he wrote.

“That’s dessert.”

Let’s start with dessert.

“Don’t tempt me. I’m trying to take care of you. Help you build up your strength for your concert next week. And our little side trip on Friday.” The one Jace had helped her plan while Eric kept Sed distracted in the recording studio.

His eyebrows shot up. Trip? he wrote.

“You didn’t think I was going to be very, very naughty in the privacy of our own home, did you?”

He grabbed her off her chair and pulled her onto his lap. “How naughty?” he murmured against her throat.

“Unbelievably naughty. But only if you follow doctor’s orders to the letter. No more talking, okay?”

He blinked—meaning yes—and opened his mouth wide.

“You want me to feed you?”

He blinked again.

She reached for the bowl of macaroni and cheese. She turned to straddle his lap on the chair, holding the bowl between their bodies, and offered him a bite from the plastic serving spoon. While he chewed, she took a bite herself. Since she was feeding him, his hands were free to explore her body.

He seemed to like her new pink nightie. He traced the top of the frilled bodice, which was cut so low it barely covered her nipples. And with an expert flick of Sed’s thumbs, it no longer did.

He stroked both nipples in maddening circles while she fed him another bite of overcooked mac and cheese.

After he swallowed, she leaned closer and claimed his mouth in a passionate kiss. “I love you,” she said against his lips. It felt good to say it. Without hesitation. Without regret.

“I—”

“Shhh. Don’t talk. You don’t have to say anything. I feel it.”

He shifted his hips and she really felt it then. Hard, attentive, and pressing against her mound. And since they weren’t in a restaurant, she could ride him at the dinner table like a bronco all night if she felt like it. Jessica fed him another bite and rocked her hips to rub herself against him.

Sed stared into her eyes, his gaze so intense it made her heart throb. “I need to tell you something.”

“Write it down.” She tried to feed him another bite, but he turned his head to one side.

“You need to hear it.”

“Sed, don’t make me resort to duct tape.”

“I haven’t kissed another woman since I met you.”

She snorted with laughter. “Yeah right.”

“It’s true.”

“Sed, I caught you naked with three girls the night we got back together. I’m not stupid.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t have sex with other women, I said I haven’t kissed another woman.”

“Oh.” Her gaze dropped to his chin. Why did he think that was so important? “Why not?”

“I only kiss women I love.”

Her brow knotted with confusion. “But you kissed me that first night in the strip club and then again when you said you hated me on the tour bus.” And pretty much constantly ever since.

“I only kiss women I love.” He cupped her cheek in one hand and pressed his lips to hers. “Only you.”

She supposed that was his way of being true to her. She wondered why he’d waited so long to tell her. “I’m glad,” she whispered.

“Have you?”

When she opened her mouth to speak, he covered her lips with two fingers. “Never mind.”

“You act like you know what I’m going to say.”

“It’s none of my business.”

She captured his wrist with her free hand and pulled his hand away from her lips. “I have kissed a couple of men.” Jessica held his gaze so he’d know she was being serious.

He winced and she was pretty sure it wasn’t due to throat pain.

“But I didn’t enjoy it. There was no passion. Not like with you. Not even close.” She smiled at him gently, as both of his dimples made an appearance. And while she was making confessions… “For the record…” She took a deep breath. “I haven’t had sex with anyone since we broke up.”

“No one?”

Unable to meet his eyes, she shook her head. It was kind of embarrassing to admit how much he’d affected her. How he’d ruled certain parts of her life, even in his absence.

“Not once in two years?”

Her nostrils flared. “No! I said I haven’t. What? You don’t believe me?”

He took the bowl from her and set it on the table before wrapping both arms around her and hugging her against his chest.

“I should have never let you go, Jess. I should have gone after you. I should have fixed it. Whatever I had to do, I should have—”

She pulled back to look into his eyes. His watery gaze drifted to the ceiling as he tried to get a handle on his emotions.

“I have plenty of regrets of my own, Sed, but I’ve decided to let them go. You should too. We can’t change the past, but we can move forward.”

“So much wasted time.”

She shook her head. “No regrets.” She grabbed his chin to gain his attention and gave him a stern look. “And you’re talking way too much. If you say one more word, I’m cancelling our trip next week.”

That shut him up, but it didn’t stop him from expressing his feelings with his hands and lips. He suckled the pulse point beneath her ear and she gasped, her body instantly igniting with need.

“Before you get me too worked up, I should warn you that I have the first draft of a paper to write this weekend, so you’re going to have to entertain yourself while I hit the books.”

He pulled back to look at her, scowling.

“You’re the one who insisted I go back to school. Remember?”

He sighed and nodded.

“But tonight, I’m yours.”

He grinned and reached for the dry erase board. You don’t want to be a nurse anymore? he wrote.

She flushed and shook her head. “I was just afraid to go back to law school. The way Dean Taylor made me feel and that whole failure thing… I’m over it.” She grinned at him. “But I can still be your nurse. Tell me how I can make you more comfortable, Mr. Lionheart.” She ran a finger down the center of his chest.

Feed me, he wrote. Not the request she’d had in mind, but okay.

“What would you like? Mashed potatoes? Cheese soup?”

Something cold.

“Your throat’s really bothering you, isn’t it?”

He nodded. She shouldn’t have let him talk as much as she had. She would be a more attentive nurse from this point forward.

She scanned the table for something cold and soothing. “Gelatin? Or I can get a Popsicle out of the freezer.”

His hand tightened on her hip, telling her he didn’t want her to get up.

Jell-O is fine.

She claimed the bowl of orange gelatin cubes and fed them to him with her fingers.

Tell me about school today, he wrote and set the dry erase board aside.

“Um, okay. I found out I’m not the only one the dean has propositioned sexually. I also found out how Dr. Ellington gets her way and the reason she probably hates me in the first place.”

Sed lifted an eyebrow in interest, his tongue teasing her fingertips as he accepted her offering of gelatin.

“Ellington sucks the dean’s cock in his office. And I’m pretty sure it pisses her off that he calls my name while she does it. I heard him.”

Sed choked on the jiggly orange cube he’d just slurped down his throat. Before he could vocalize a protest, Jessica covered his lips with her fingers.

“He’s no threat to you, sweetheart. And now that I know what a slime ball he is, I’m no longer intimidated by him. I’ve dealt with his kind before. He can’t get to me. I won’t give him that power ever again.”

She could tell Sed was struggling with his strong protective instincts. He probably wanted to pound Dean Taylor into the ground which, honestly, she wouldn’t mind watching. After several deep breaths, Sed nodded at her to continue. She smiled and offered him another cube of gelatin.

“So I’m building a sexual harassment case against him. A big one. You might call it huge. His secretary knows all kinds of things that go on behind closed doors and she was happy to share information. She told me about a student who graduated a few years ago who is now a practicing lawyer. Apparently, Taylor harassed a friend of hers until she dropped out of school. Sound familiar?”

Sed cupped her cheek, sympathy in his blue eyes.

“Anyway, I went and talked to her lawyer friend this afternoon. She agreed to take on the case pro bono. I’ll be doing a lot of the leg work—building the case, contacting witnesses and stuff—because she’s so busy with her current case load, but I cannot wait to get to work on this. Taylor is not going to get away with that kind of behavior anymore. I wish I was done with school so I could cross-examine that bastard on the stand. One more year and I can put slime balls like him in their place. I had planned to become a defense attorney, but this is what I want to do. Protect women from jackasses who use their positions of power to sexually harass them. It pisses me off to no end.”

Sed surprised her by kissing her until she was breathless. When he pulled away, he gazed into her eyes with a new awareness.

“You get off on this shit,” he murmured.

She laughed. “Well, yeah, I guess so.”

“I get it now.” She could practically see the light bulb go on over his head. “God, baby, I’m sorry I ever asked you to give it up.”

He kissed her again, starving for her mouth. And she didn’t have to wonder if he kissed other women like this. He didn’t kiss other women at all. Only her. The bowl of gelatin slipped from her grip and landed with a ploppy-clatter somewhere on the marble floor. She didn’t care. She had to keep kissing him. Kissing him and holding his handsome face while she sucked at his lips.

She rocked her hips against him, rubbing her mound against the hard bulge in his pants. Too many clothes. Too many. She needed him. Inside. Desperately. Now.

Thank God he was a mind reader.

Sed reached between them, unfastened his pants, and released his cock. She cried out against his lips, unwilling to separate their mouths even when he slid the crotch of her panties aside and directed his rigid member into her throbbing flesh. She sank down, shuddering with delight as he filled her. Her feet found the rails under the chair and she used them for leverage to rise and fall over him. Faster, she rode him. Faster. Fueling her need. Still kissing him.

His cock, hard and thick, rubbed her in exactly the right spot each time it plunged into her body. He felt so good inside her. Perfect. Her pleasure built quickly to its climax. Pulsations of sheer delight rippled through her insides. She cried out into his mouth and shuddered against him.

Jessica stopped, unable to move. After a moment, Sed wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted her onto the edge of the table. She cried out in protest as his cock fell free from her body and their mouths separated. He stood and pushed his pants down to his knees. She slid her hands beneath his shirt and lifted it to expose his tight abs.

“Nine more?” he murmured as he directed his jutting cock back into her eager body.

She wrapped her legs loosely around his hips. “I think I can handle five more. Tops.”

He grinned at her and slowly pulled out. Slowly. Slowly. In complete control. His fingers sought her clit. A spasm gripped her body and she shuddered.

“Only five?”

She chuckled. “Don’t wear yourself out. You have to go to the studio tomorrow.” Her hands shifted from his belly to his back and he shuddered. He surged forward, burying himself deep. Her back arched in ecstasy.

“Why?” he said breathlessly. “I can’t sing anyway.”

“You are too much of a distraction and I have to write my paper. I have to pass that class.” And she would pass. Failure was not an option. But she had other reasons to send him off to the studio. She had to make plans for Friday. The day she was going to ask Sed to marry her.