Sweet Deal

Chapter Four

Jake’s mouth brushed over hers, his lips warm and firm and whoa, heat washed down through her in a shocking rush. Even though she knew it was an act, and she hoped Andrew was watching, having Jake’s arm around her and his mouth on hers felt really, really good. Her heart fluttered wildly in her chest, nerves stretched tight at the importance of convincing Andrew she and Jake were a couple, but also with the sexual tension buzzing between them. Dammit.

Jake released her with a sexy smile and she blinked and tried to focus.

She’d been prepared for Andrew to be annoyed, but man, the black look on his face had almost scared her. Was he that pissed off about her seeing someone else? If so, this was worse than she’d thought.

And with his wife standing right there beside him! Though Gianna’d looked a little gobsmacked, too. Shelby couldn’t figure that out, but didn’t have time to pause and think about it much as she tried to maintain the act between her and Jake.

They moved forward in the line, filled their plates with hotdogs, salads and potato chips, accepted plastic cups of beer from the makeshift bar set up, and found a place to sit at one of the wooden picnic tables, sitting across from one another.

Shelby studied Jake as he lifted his hotdog to his mouth. He’d looked so disturbed. Was it because Andrew had been so annoyed? Something soft and warm unfurled inside her. He actually cared about her. Even though they didn’t know each other, he was glad he’d helped her, she could tell.

She looked down at her plate momentarily, feeling strangely emotional. This whole situation was stressful. Her coworkers, while not openly hostile toward her, weren’t exactly friendly. She had to force herself to act all cheerful and friendly, while her insides were tight and knotted. Added to that, the stress of introducing Andrew to Jake, anticipating how displeased her boss was going to be, and she was strung as taut as the finish line at the kids’ races. Jake’s support in a world where she felt out of place and unwelcome made her go all mushy and warm inside.

She sucked briefly on her bottom lip, then took a fast breath, blew it out and straightened her shoulders. She lifted her head and smiled at Jake.

“So, Shelby, is this your boyfriend?” Susan, Andrew’s secretary, sat down beside her.

Shelby smiled at Susan, a bit surprised but grateful for her new friendliness. “Yes. Susan, this is Jake Magill. Jake, Susan.” Susan introduced her husband, Steve.

“I didn’t know you were seeing someone,” Susan said, and Shelby knew exactly what she was thinking. She was thinking about Shelby’s long coffee breaks and closed door meetings with Andrew. “How long have you two been going out?”

Good thing they’d gotten together and covered this last night. They managed to answer Susan’s questions and chat with the other couple. Another couple joined them and even though the conversation became shop talk, Jake was able to participate with his technology background. In fact, he charmed the other people so much, they seemed to be relaxing and warming to her too. Shelby had to shake her head. Man, if this was what it took to get her coworkers to like her…well, it’s not like she could’ve come up with a fake date before this, but her gratitude toward Jake continued to grow. Dammit again.

After they ate, they mingled with other coworkers. These were good people, a lot of people she liked and respected, one of the reasons she enjoyed working at Gold Shield. She just wanted to fit in with them and not be the subject of icky gossip.

She and Jake schmoozed with some of the higher-ups from the company in a relaxed social atmosphere, watched the band that played, danced in the grass as the sun set and the crowd grew smaller. Families with small children left, leaving only the adults, and eventually the sky darkened, stars twinkling above, and the music grew slower and sultrier, accompanied by hushed waves washing onto the beach not far away. Jake had done his duty and they could leave, but still they danced in the warm summer evening.

Andrew and Gianna danced together too, several couples away from them, Shelby fully aware of the glances the two of them kept shooting at her and Jake. So she linked her arms around Jake’s neck and pressed her body against him. A few beers had mellowed her, and hell, his body felt so damn good against hers. Those troublesome sexual urges that so often got her into trouble were rising up inside her, making her pelvis feel full and achy, making her breasts need to press into his chest.

“You’re just a little thing, aren’t you?” Jake set his hands on her hips as they moved to the music and smiled his sexy smile down at her, his dark eyes heavy-lidded and sensual. They were both putting on a good act, but Shelby knew she was kidding herself. This was no act. She was so attracted to Jake. More than attracted. His charming personality, the easy way he talked to her coworkers, just the way he’d stepped in to help her and how he’d been so convincing in his role as her boyfriend drew her to him.

She could pretend this was all just an act. Yeah. When the evening ended and they parted, Jake’s favor over and done with, she’d be fine. But right now, pretending was so much fun.

“I hope Andrew doesn’t give you a hard time at work next week,” Jake murmured, a small crease between his thick, straight eyebrows.

“I’m hoping he’ll just leave me alone. I mean, I still need to work with him. Well, you know what I mean.”

“I know what you mean, Shelby Rose.”

The way he called her that made her go all soft inside. They shared a slow smile, gazes fastened on each other as they danced.

They drank another beer, chatted a bit more, danced again. As the evening grew cooler, Shelby slipped on a hoodie she’d brought. She almost forgot to be aware of where Andrew was, and whether he was watching them. As the crowd dwindled, she looked at Jake with regret.

“We could leave now,” she said softly. “I think our mission is accomplished.”

“Yeah. Okay.” He nodded and set down the cola he’d requested instead of beer last time. “I’ll drive you back to your car.”

“Oh. Yeah.” She hesitated. “You know, that wasn’t very smart of me, but I think I’ve had too much to drink.” She bit her bottom lip as she met his eyes. “I completely forgot I had to drive.”

“That’s okay. I’ll just drive you home then. Will you be able to get your car tomorrow?”

Things were pleasantly blurry as they walked hand in hand toward the parking lot. “Yeah, I’ll get it somehow. But thanks for driving me home. Geez, I feel so stupid.”

“You are far from stupid, Shelby Rose.”

“I like how you call me that,” she confessed. He opened the passenger door of his Audi SUV, and she paused. “Man, this is a high vehicle.”

“It is for an elf,” he said. “Here.” He lifted her and sat her on the passenger seat, then closed her door.

“Hey!” But he was walking around the vehicle to his side. She glared at him when he slid in and he grinned.

“I’m teasing.” He leaned over and brushed his mouth across hers, sending tingles cascading over her whole body. She blinked at him, then remembered to fasten her seatbelt.

He parked on the street in front of her apartment building in the quiet residential neighborhood and walked with her to the door. As she paused at the door, the shadows of the tall queen palm shifting moonlight over and around them, he slipped his fingers beneath her chin and lifted her face. She stared back at him, her gaze moving over his dark eyes, crinkled at the corners as he smiled, the cleft in the middle of his chin, the sexy curve of his lower lip. Oh. Her breath whooshed out of her.

Heat expanded, the air around them feeling like it might ignite, and then they were wrapped in each other’s arms, mouths fused together in a hot, impetuous kiss, bold, frantic and hungry.

His arms crushed her to him, her purse thunked to the ground and her feet lifted as he hauled her higher and tighter to his body.

“Jesus,” he muttered against her mouth, before taking it again in another devouring kiss. She kissed him back, mindless, frenzied. The sexual tension that had been smoldering inside her all evening burst into flames. Heat swept over her.

His tongue dragged over hers, licked her bottom lip, then his mouth sealed over hers again. An intense ache bloomed low in her belly, and she slid her hands into his hair, holding his head, and she kissed him back, a full-mouthed, full-bodied kiss that had more heat exploding between them.

Eventually, she pulled back, panting, heart hammering, and gasped, “Wait.”

He made a sound like a groan.

“We don’t have to do this,” she wheezed. “This was supposed to be an act.”

He made a derisive noise. “Yeah. It was supposed to be. But don’t tell me you don’t feel it too, Shelby Rose.”

His hands tightened on her ass, pulling her against him, and she felt his erection against her belly. Holy crap, he was big. She’d made him that hard. And he’d made her so wet her panties were soaked. You couldn’t fake that kind of reaction. She gazed up at him, uncertain of what to do now.

“Invite me in,” he ordered softly.

She licked her lips. She wanted to, she really, really did, but she’d made this mistake before. Slept with guys too soon, because they got her all hot and bothered, because dammit she liked men, and she loved sex. Her friends had analyzed to death her tendency to fall into bed with men and she knew it had to do with wanting attention from them, and she was determined she was done with all that. But all those old doubts fell away when she studied him, remembering what he’d done for her that evening, how he’d helped her, how he’d really cared that she fixed things with her boss, and a tender warmth spread through her. She was lost.

“Okay.” She bent to pick up her purse where she’d dropped it, but he was faster scooping it up and handing it to her. She took it, dragged her eyes off his face, and led the way through the small lobby toward the elevator.

“Third floor,” she murmured inside, and he punched the button. Awareness crackled around them in the small space and then they were all over each other again, kissing in deep, wet, sliding kisses. Her hands dug into his big shoulders and she gasped when he spun her around and pressed her against the elevator wall with his body. Dear god in heaven, that felt good, his big, strong body crushing her, and she strained to get closer still. He lifted one of her legs up to rest on his thigh and oh yes, that was so very good, with added pressure right between her legs.

The elevator doors slid open and they fell out, still clutching each other, and somehow stumbled down the hall to the door of her apartment. Lust and adrenaline surged through her veins like liquid heat as she tried to get her key in the lock with shaking hands. He crowded her from behind, nuzzling her hair, and then the door opened and they surged inside. Jake kicked the door closed behind him.

She should have been nervous, afraid even, of bringing a stranger into her apartment, especially someone who was so dominant and big and almost overwhelming, but all she could think of was that she wanted to strip him naked and lick him all over.

Foreplay had apparently been occurring over the course of the picnic, with the sexy dancing and touches and heated looks they’d shared all for the purpose of convincing people they were actually together. Now heat had built to the point of combustion and neither of them needed, nor wanted, to wait any longer.

Clothes flew off on the way to the bedroom between hot kisses, her tank top landing on the hall floor, his T-shirt on the knob of the bathroom door. She’d left the hall light on, and some light spilled into her dark bedroom as somehow they found their way in there, hands all over each other.

“Christ, you’ve got me so hot, I don’t even know my own name,” Jake muttered against her jaw.

“Oh I know.” She moaned at the rough texture of his beard stubble against her face. “Me too.”

He caught her chin in one hand and turned her face back to his for another long, heated kiss, his other hand finding the button of her jeans. His fingers slipped inside, pushing the zipper down, his fingertips just brushing the edge of her panties. She moaned again.

His fingers slid down from her jaw to gently cup her throat in a dominant, possessive gesture that sent a ripple of excitement through her as they continued to kiss, mouths moving together. His tongue slid into her mouth, tasting faintly of the cola he’d been drinking earlier, dark and sweet. Then he trailed his fingertips down between her breasts, which ached and swelled in the lacy cups of her bra. She rubbed against him, bringing forth a low growl.

He pulled back a bit and looked down between them. “Sweet god have mercy,” he whispered, just staring at her breasts.

Yes, guys generally loved her breasts. And because this was the first time Jake had appeared to even notice them, she was inordinately happy that he was so appreciative, and affection for him swelled even bigger inside her.

He studied them, then slid both hands up to cup them, almost reverently. He pushed them together then rubbed his thumbs over her nipples through the lace, and heat flashed over every nerve ending.

“Very nice.” And then he grabbed her and picked her up. With a small shriek, she wrapped her legs around his waist, her arms around his head, and he carried her over to her bed. “You’ve got me so hot, I can’t fucking wait,” he growled. “This first time isn’t gonna be slow and gentle, sweetheart.”

“That’s okay.” She landed on the bed and he kneeled beside her, grasping her jeans and dragging them down over her legs, leaving her in pink lace bra and matching thong. “I can’t wait either.”

This first time. She’d be crazy to let hope and affection mingle, like it did every other time she had sex with a man, knowing that he was probably like every other guy and once he’d gotten off, he’d be gone and she’d never see him again.

But really, wasn’t that what this was all about? He’d helped her out by pretending they were a couple and that was it. Done. Never to be seen again. So what did it matter if they had sex? Why couldn’t she have hot, one-night-stand sex with a gorgeous guy? And if she was going to, wasn’t it better that it was Jake instead of her boss?

Her pussy throbbed and burned with need for Jake, and she couldn’t stop him any more than she could have picked up that big SUV of his and tossed it. The admiration in his eyes as his gaze moved over her warmed her even more. He looked down her bare legs, trailed his fingertips over the edge of her panties and down one thigh, then slid his gaze up over her torso lingering again on her breasts.

“So pretty,” he said hoarsely. He stood, wrenched open his own jeans and dragged them off, kicked them aside. In his underwear, soft cotton stretched to bursting by what was inside, he fell down half beside her, half on top of her and started kissing her again.

His bare skin was hot against hers and her hands went to the satiny skin of his shoulders, fingers digging into the big muscles there, then her palms slid over hard bones. He was big, so big, and she loved it, loved the strength, the weight of him pinning her to the mattress, the heat emanating from him as he licked her mouth, his hand cupping her cheek.

“This is crazy,” she murmured, sliding her hands into his short hair, tipping her chin so he could kiss her neck.

“Hoo yeah. Crazy. You’re so sweet, Shelby Rose. So damn sweet.” He licked her neck with a long drag of his tongue and she melted into the mattress. Her breath soughed out of her and she closed her eyes, drifting away on a wave of sensual pleasure.

He moved over her, finding the clasp of her bra at her back, dragging it off her, down her arms. Her nipples tightened and tingled almost painfully.

“Sweet Jesus,” he whispered as he filled his hands with her now bare breasts.

Her nerve endings jumped and sensation sizzled across her skin. She arched into his touch, eyes closed, reveling in the drag of his palms over her nipples, the jolt of pleasure when he squeezed the soft flesh. So good, it felt soooooo good.

She whimpered, and oh dear lord, he kissed one nipple, licked it then sucked it into his mouth. Her whole body twitched as a streamer of sensation unfurled from nipple to pussy. He spent a long time suckling at her breasts, moving from one to the other, plumping them up with one hand as he tasted the tender tips, until she was a writhing mass of ecstasy, making soft, little pleading noises.

“Not this first time,” he muttered, his voice low and raspy. “But some time, I wanna fuck your breasts.”

Lust sliced through her at his incendiary words. Geez, no one had ever done that to her, but it sounded hot. So hot. She was already burning up from his words, his touch. He pressed his face between her breasts, inhaled deeply, then licked his way down her stomach, pausing at her belly button to flick the piercing there. “Nice,” he murmured.

He moved lower down the bed, and then his lips grazed the lacy edge of her panties. Oh, she was so wet, she knew it, and he was so close to where she needed his touch, but this was so intimate for their very first time. When he hooked his fingers into the strings at her hips, she wanted to stop him…but she didn’t. As if giving in to the inevitable, she lifted her butt so he could tug the panties down her legs.

He pushed her thighs apart and knelt between them, hand still resting on her quivering legs. He looked down at her and her pussy spasmed at the urgent lust on his face.

“You’re so wet,” he said. “So pretty and wet, Shelby Rose.”

He’d been calling her that all evening but at that moment, in this intensely intimate pose, it pulled at her heart. He slid a hand sideways and cupped her pussy gently, just holding her. She bit her bottom lip, tried to keep her eyes open and focused on him because he was so beautiful, his face tightened into lines of desire, his dark eyes glittering, a flush coloring his high cheekbones. She wanted to press up into his touch, to take what she needed, but she tried to lie still, gazing up at him, taking in his broad, powerfully muscled chest. Wow. Just…wow.