Cherish Me (The Protected Love Series) (9 page)

Bliss. This was pure. Fucking. Bliss. Every nerve in her body ignited as his tongue licked circles around her clit. She could hear as his lips devoured her, sucking hard against her as he slid two fingers inside her entrance. Every
other sense was on alert. The soft fabric of her nightgown rubbed against her nipples as she strained against the straps holding her down.

“Cum for me. Let me taste you.” Her ears took in Jace’s command. She tried to hold back, to make it last, but with every stroke of his tongue she felt herself falling off spiraling into her climax. She could feel the waves begin to slowly crash into her core as her muscles clenched. The sweet warm feeling traveled up through her body as she found her release.

Slowly Jace pulled out from her and kissed his way back up her body reaching up to un-bind her wrists and eyes. She blinked as Jace’s handsome smile came back into view. “You are fucking perfect you know that?” He said as his lips met her. She could taste her sweetness on his lips.

“Make love to me
, Jace.”

Softly he brought his body up against hers, breathing in her hair, her skin. She brought her legs up and wrapped them around his hips as his erection pushed against her. His hand traveled down to his length and guided himself inside of her. She could feel every inch of his cock spreading and filling her. Her muscles clenched around him as he pushed all the way inside of her and pulled back out achingly slow.

He continued to grind in and out of her as his lips made love to her own. She could feel her bodies molding together as Jace made love to her; passion igniting through the air engulfing them both as they found their release together.

“I love you
, Judy.” His voice was soft against her neck.

“I love you too
. More than you will ever know.” She answered smiling up at him.

After they had showered,
and made love again, they finally went into their own closets. Judy reemerged in the light pink dress she had picked out for Abbi’s baby reveal party. While Jace and Mason went into the office for a few hours she would be getting their apartment in order for the baby shower. Since they didn’t have a huge number of friends, Judy had planned around the attendance of Ryan’s parents, the girl’s bodyguards along with their spouses, Ryan and Abbi’s slightly eccentric housekeeper Trish, and of course Ryan, Jace, and now Mason.

“Ok, you’re going to be back here by one o
’ clock right?” She came up taking Jace’s tie into her hands and trying it for him.

“Yes. I will make s
ure that Mason, Ryan, and I are in attendance. We are just going in for a few hours. I won’t be late.” Jace placed his hands at her hips. “You look beautiful as always, Babe.”

“Well thank you. I
am hoping the pink will send Mother Nature a hint that we want it to be a girl. Abbi said that she has already dropped the envelope off at the bakery, I just need to pick up the cake.”

“So how does this whole thing work? Abbi and Ryan still don’t know what they are having?” She could see Jace trying to logically figure out how a gender reveal party worked.

“No, they don’t know. When they had the sonogram done the doctor didn’t tell them. Instead she placed the gender on a note inside of a sealed envelope. The bakery gets the envelope and they make a cake. The inside of the cake is the gender of the baby.” She laughed as the puzzled look on his face only grew deeper. “Pink if it’s a girl, blue if it’s a boy. Once they cut the cake it will be revealed what the baby is. Until then it’s a secret.”

“Oh, ok. I think I get it now.” He said taking her hand as they walked towards the front of the apartment.

“Good morning, Mase.” Judy said as Mason hopped off the couch.

“Morning you two. I feel like I am getting ready for my first day at school.” He laughed as he pulled at his tie.

“You look great. Remember if you get scared or anyone bullies you just tell them you’re my brother. She winked up at him.

“Yeah, tell them that and they might go running and screaming in the opposite direction.” Jace laughed. “Don’t worry about a thing. We are only going in for a few hours
before the party. I just want to introduce you to the guys and show you around the office.”

“Ok, well you guys have fun. Mark and I will be plan
ning a party.” She said looking enthusiastically over at Mark who was desperately trying to assemble the diaper cake.

Jace laughed as he and Mason headed for the door. “Take away his gun and he doesn’t
know what to do with himself.”

“Ha. Very funny.” Mark chimed in from the corner of the room. “No, but Judy seriously if I stab myself with another straight pin I am taking this thing out back and putting it out of its misery with my Glock.”

“Oh come on, Mark. It’s not that complicated.” Judy rolled her eyes and made her way across the room. “You just take the diapers and roll them like this.” She said taking the diaper from his hand and rolling it up and pinning it together. “Ow, shit!” She shouted as the end of the straight pin stabbed through to her finger. “Ok, yeah. Fuck that. We will just give her a box of diapers and write congrats on it.”

Mark laughed as he continued his pursuit of the diaper cake. Judy made her way back into the guest bath in search of a band aid for her freshly wounded finger. As she stood in front of the mirror wrapping the small band aid around her finger her mind drifted to Ashley. Judy wondered where her friend was, what she was doing. Was she ok? Hurt? It amazed her that in just a few days she was learning more about her friends than she had in all of their years of friendship.

Not only had she lost Ashley, but she was also losing Alexis too. Her chest tightened thinking back to Alexis and what Mason had said the night before.
Yeah, Trent. Man, he was a prick. Pretty boy who cared about nothing but himself. He used to get her to do all kinds of dumb shit for him.
There was no way that Alexis would participate in tormenting her own friend if Trent wasn’t holding something over her head. Even if she hadn’t seen or heard from Alexis in a long time, there had to be a reason why she hadn’t reached out sooner. If only there was a way she could find out what was going on with Alexis; a way to get a glimpse inside of what had happened between her and Trent.

She stood unthinking in silence for a brief moment as the thought came into her head. She tried to push it out, act as if she hadn’t thought of it but she couldn’t, it stood out prominently at the front of her mind. Quietly she slipped out of the bathroom and walked down the hall to Jace’s office opening the top drawer of his desk and writing down the address from the piece of paper folded on the top of the stack. She took a deep breath and brushed her hands down the front of her dress as she walked back out into the front room. She looked up at the clock sitting on the mantel. She had two solid hours to get this done if she was going to do it.

“Mark, I need you to take me somewhere.” Judy smiled manipulatively down at him.

“Oh yeah? Where would that be? To go get another box of diapers? You didn’t go look on Pinterest again did you?” He said eyeing her suspiciously.

“No. But there is something I nee
d to do and I will tell you now; you either go with me on this or I will pop you in the knee cap and go by myself. Your call.” Picking up her purse she flashed the handle of the small pistol she had been carrying after Jace had gotten her a concealed weapons permit.

“Well, I assume this is something you probably shouldn’t be doing, along with something that
is really going to piss Jace off. Am I right?”

“Don’t be a pussy
, Mark. You let me handle Jace.”

“Judy, it’s not happening. I see the wheels turning in your mind. They are going a hundred miles an hour but it’s not happening.” He stood looking at her sternly.

She turned making her way to the front closet and sliding on her nude colored heels. “Are you coming with me or not?”

“Jesus, Judy. You’re not kidding about this are you? What the fuck am I supposed to tell Jace if something happens to you?”

“Nothing is going to happen.” Judy said confidently. “We are just gonna go in and get right back out.”

“I can’t believe I am actually considering this.” Mark ran his hand through his hair letting out a deep sigh. “You’re really gonna go even if I say no aren’t you?”

“You bet your ass. After everything the guys have done for me through this whole thing, I owe it to them to do this. I don’t have Special Forces skills, Mark, just a smart ass mouth and a decent rack.”

“God, please don’t say that again. If you promise to never say that again we will go.”

“Scouts honor.” She said holding up two fingers.

“Let me call Aaron and tell him we are running out, he will be wondering where we are when he gets back from the store with the cake.” He ushered her towards the door. “I will call him from the elevator. Let’s go.”

Judy could tell the entire ride that Mark was conflicted. He was so loyal to both her and Jace. She knew that he didn’t want anything to do with this. He knew Jace was going to be livid and she could feel his worry for her safety as well. His job was to protect her from harm when Jace couldn’t be there and here he was leading her right into the mouth of the dragon. A sobering feeling washed over her as they pulled into the parking lot of the drabby apartment complex.
Alexis had lived here?

She took in the
outdated and dingy buildings with screens ripped out and hanging from the windows as small kids kicked a half deflated soccer ball around in the patch of dirt between the two main buildings. She looked over at Mark who was observing every person within a three hundred yard radius. He looked over at her with a somber look.

“So what’s your plan here Inspector Gadget?” She could tell
by his voice that he was trying to cover his worry.

“Ok, I say we hope and pray that there is a man at the front desk.
If there is I will waltz in there and do a little flirting and hopefully get the box containing whatever items she may have left behind. If it’s a lady, well then you’re up hot pants.” She flashed a smile over at him.

“What apartment number?” He said seriously.

“Apartment 210, building C.”

Mark put the car in park and shut off the ignition. They made their way down the uneven sidewalk to the building marked “Main Office”. Judy made her way down the side of the building as a series of whistles came from the far end of one of the buildings where a group of Hispanic men sat around a table playing cards. As she round the corner she peeked in, a man in his late forties sat behind the counter watching a small TV.

“Showtime. You wait out here and I will go in and work my magic.” Judy brushed her hands down straightening the wrinkles in her dress as she bent over slightly and perked up her tits.

“I swear, Judy;
I am going to murder you myself if you don’t stop playing with those.” Mark said exhaustively.

“Oh shut it. Just be glad yo
u don’t have to go in and bang some hood rat behind the counter.” She smiled before heading into the office, swinging her hips so hard she was sure she almost threw one out of place.

Walking up to the desk she leaned slightly over exaggerating her
cleavage. “Hi. Sir, I need to speak to a manager. Would that by chance be you?” She batted her eyelashes as she gave him an award winning smile.

The man behind the desk turned slightly until he got a view of Judy standing at the counter. He stumbled up off of his stool and briskly walked over to the counter. “Uh, hi. I’m Bob. I am not a manager but I can try and help however I can.” His face lit up as he looked her up and down.

“That would be great, Bob. See I am in a little bit of a situation. I would hate to have to involve a manager if I didn’t need to. I know you are all probably so busy.”

“Well, yeah. I usually get a lot done during the day.” He said lying. “S
o, what kind of situation are you in ma’am? Do you need an apartment? We have plenty available.”

She tried to contain her laugh at the hope in his eyes. “No, I actually used to have an apartment here a few years ago. Unfortunately I left a few things after I moved out and I have been so busy with my modeling schedule that I haven’t had a chance to pick them up.”

“You used to live here? No way. I have worked here for ten years and I have never seen anyone as hot as you here.” He let out a disbelieving chuckle.

“Oh, well. I used to be a lot uglier. I had a lot of plastic surgery done. So, do you think you could grab that box for me, Bob?” She leaned over the counter emphasizing his name as she spoke.

“Uh.” He stuttered and fumbled with the note card box before spilling the cards out on the desk. “Shoot. Um. What is your name and the apartment number?”

“It’s Alexis Reynold, Apartment 210 building C.”

“Um, I am really not supposed to release any boxes without a manager here to sign off on it.” For a moment she thought she was losing him.

She took a few steps around the counter, time to pull out the big guns. Reaching up she pulled her hair to her side showing her neck as she slowly slid herself up onto the counter top right next to his arm. “You know Bob, I don’t understand why they wouldn’t t
rust you to take care of that yourself. You seem like you’re more than capable of taking care of that for me.” She bared a pouty smile up at him as she ran a finger down his arm. “There isn’t anything in that box anyways, just an old receipt for a camera I bought. I just need to return it to the store that’s all.”