Descended (The Red Blindfold Book 4) (7 page)

I showered, changed
into jeans and a button-down, and walked toward Jane’s
neighborhood. Thanks to the reporters on the sidewalk, I had no
problem finding her house. I stood across the quiet, tree-lined
street just long enough to notice that all of the curtains were
drawn. There was no way to know what I was walking into.

I slipped down a back
alleyway. Thank Christ it was clear of paparazzi. I could only
imagine the zoo it must have been a week ago. Man, these people got
bored quick, luckily for me. But that luck would change in a hurry if
I got spotted.

I could see the
headlines now:
Amnesiac’s
Lover Couldn’t Stay Away. Cougan and Blair Caught in Secret Tryst
.
I couldn’t let that happen. It would be like lighter fluid on a
story that just starting to die down.

I stopped outside a
tall, wrought-iron gate at the back of Jane’s house. I hoped to
hell she was home, and all by herself.

The latch was locked. I
couldn’t just go around knock on the front door, and throwing a
stone at her window would get me noticed in three seconds. Maybe this
whole thing was a bad idea. I’d come all the way to Boston just to
figure that out.

I was seriously
considering climbing the spear-topped fence when the back door
opened. I ducked out of sight and listened.

I heard a screen
shutting. Quick, light footsteps on the stairs. Silence, and then the
sound of stems being snipped.

This might be my only
chance. Please, let it be her.

I took a step forward
and peered through the gate. The second I saw her standing with her
back to me, my blood surged and my heart kicked into sixth gear.

She was wearing a short
white skirt and a sleeveless blouse. Her feet were bare. She was
cutting flowers with a small pair of shears, and she looked like a
fucking angel.

“Jane,” I said.

She stopped dead.
Slowly, she turned around. Our eyes locked with the same fiery,
cock-stiffening chemistry we’d always had. Nothing had changed.

“What are you doing
here?” she asked. Her beautiful face was etched with sadness. She
didn’t have to say a word for me to know everything. She’d been
through a lot in the time we’d been apart, and plenty more before
that.

“I came to see you.”

“Drex…” Her voice
caught and she shook her head.

I grabbed the bars of
the gate. “Are you alone?” I asked.

“Yes, but –” She
looked back toward the house. “You can’t – you can’t be
here.”

“Let me in,” I
said.

“No. I shouldn’t.”

“You shouldn’t,”
I said, keeping my voice low and soothing, “but you will.”

She closed her eyes as
if the words hurt. “Please,” she said. “Don’t.”

I tried the latch but
it wouldn’t budge. I’d force my way in if I had to. “I’m not
leaving until you talk to me.”

Her eyes glowed in the
afternoon light. So heartbreakingly blue. “What’s there to talk
about?”

Every second she seemed
to get a little prettier. And the prettier she looked, the crazier
she was making me. “You want me to rip this gate apart in front of
your neighbors? You want a nice, juicy segment on the evening news?
Open it. Now.”

Full bottom lip
trembling, she hesitated.

“Do it,” I said. “I
know it’s what you want.”

Big, scared eyes on me,
she took four reluctant steps toward the gate. “Just for a minute,”
she said, and slid the latch open.

I stepped through. She
was inches away. Just being next to her was battering my self-control
down to nothing.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hi?” She let out a
long, quivering sigh. “I don’t understand why you’re here.”

My body was on full
alert, my cock thickening by the second. “Because we need to talk.”

“About what?” The
breeze swept a lock of caramel-blonde hair behind her shoulder.

“Everything,” I
said. “How much I miss you.”

Her mouth tightened.
“Miss me? From what I’ve seen, you forgot me the day after I
left.”

Goddamn, fake news
traveled fast. Regret poured like poison through my veins. “It’s
not what it looks like.”

She crossed her arms.
Most people might buy her tough attitude, but I knew her better than
that. Emotion flashed across her face. “You look very happy
together. I’m not sure how you just put that on.”

Fuck me. I should have
nipped this in the bud by bringing it up myself. Actually, I never
should have done it in the first place. “Stop,” I said. “This
is hard enough.”

“Then why are we
doing it?”

“Come here,” I
said, stretching out a hand.

“I can’t. Someone
might be watching.”

“Then we’ll go
inside.” I crossed the garden and walked up the steps.

“No, Drex,” she
said, but I opened the screen door and went inside anyway.

Inside it was cool and
dim, the curtains drawn as if Jane were in mourning. I looked at the
brick walls and floors covered with dark Persian rugs, and couldn’t
picture her spending her days in such a gloomy place.

She followed me inside
and shut the door. “It isn’t right for you to be here,” she
said.

“Well, it isn’t
wrong,” I said, turning to face her. “I know that for damn sure.”

We stared at each other
in silence. She bit her bottom lip just like a little girl, making my
now-complete erection diamond-hard.

“So this is where you
live,” I said.

“That’s what they
tell me.” She laughed joylessly.

“Does any of it look
familiar?”

She shook her head.
“Not even my clothes or wedding pictures.”

“How about your
mother?”

“She feels like
somebody I met last week.”

“Jane,” I said.
“Jesus. That’s tough.”

She blew out a hard
breath. “All I can do is deal with it. I’ve been studying a lot.
I’m remembering most of what I learned in law school, so I have
that.”

Her face in shadow
looked so beautiful, it made my chest ache. I’d never find another
woman like her, no matter how long I looked. “You’re going back
to work?” I asked, trying to sound upbeat.

“Eventually. I have a
lot to catch up on. I spend half my time in occupational therapy.”

She blinked at me. She
was way too tempting, and way too close. “How’s that going?”

“It’s a battle, but
they tell me it’ll be worth it.” She smiled, but it was a cool,
distant smile. For a second, she looked nothing like the Jane I knew.
“So…you and Brooke are back together?”

I ran a hand through my
hair, wishing I could rip it out instead. “No, Jane. There is no me
and Brooke.”

“Really?” she said,
twisting her pretty lips into a skeptical pout. “All of those
reporters are wrong?”

I took a step toward
her. “The story was planted, okay? I needed to distract the local
press with another story about me, and they bit.” My guts twisted.
I’d give everything I owned and a lot more to take it back. “I’m
sorry. I assumed it wasn’t news outside Houston.”

She laughed. “Oh,
I’ve seen plenty about it here. Your dates, your dinners out, your
appearances at openings. It’s been quite the social whirlwind for
you two.”

“Stop it,” I said,
locking my hands around her upper arms. Touching her made my cock
throb. I wanted her so bad I could hardly see straight. When it came
to how I felt about Jane, there was a thin line between control and
crazy.

She struggled under my
grip. “It’s true, isn’t it?” she snapped. “As soon as I was
gone, you went back to something familiar. I can’t blame you after
what I put you through.”

She had this whole
thing so fucking wrong. “What you put me through meant a lot to
me.”

Her eyes brimmed with
tears. “It was an illusion, Drex. This is reality. I can’t walk
away from it.”

I held her so tight my
fingers burned. “I’m not asking you to.”

“You’re not asking
me to because of Brooke,” she spat out.

She knew exactly how to
get to me. “Bullshit. I can’t stay away from you, all right? You
think I
want
to be
here? I mean…fuck. Haven’t you missed me at all?”

She shook her head.
“No,” she whispered.

I pressed my pelvis
against hers. I was ready to back her against a wall, lift her skirt,
and thrust myself inside her. It took everything I had to hold myself
back. “Liar,” I said.

“It’s the truth.”

“The hell it is. The
fact is, you can’t stand to have another man touch you. And he’s
touched you, hasn’t he?”

She swallowed. “Maybe.”

“Maybe means yes. Did
you enjoy it?”

“Does it matter?”

I tightened my fists.
“Yeah, it matters. A lot.”

Cheeks blazing, she
looked at the floor. “No, I didn’t enjoy it.”

I leaned close to her
ear. “Why not? He’s your husband, isn’t he?”

“Yes, but he’s
not…”

“He’s not what?
Tell me. I want an answer.”

Her breath was hot
against my cheek. “He’s not you.”

I pulled her hard
against me. Eyes wide, she gasped. She clutched my wrists and pulled,
but I wasn’t letting go. “You’ve missed this,” I said. “You
know you have.”

“Drex, I can’t…”

My heart banged so hard
it hurt. I had to have her. “Admit that you want me. I see it all
over your skin. You’re flushed.”

“It’s warm in
here.”

“It’s warm between
your legs. Warm and wet. Isn’t it?”

She stared at me
defiantly. “I’m a married woman and you need to go. Right now.”

“You’re a married
woman who doesn’t want her husband anymore and I need to lick your
pretty pussy until you come.”

She bit her lower lip.
“How dare you.”

I slid my hands over
her breasts and began unbuttoning her blouse. “You know how I am,
Jane. When I want something, I take it.”

“Karina.”

“Jane. Put your hands
behind your back.”

Shaking her head, she
clawed at my arms.

“Do it or I’ll do
it for you. You know I will.”

“Bastard,” she
said, but she followed my orders.

I unbuttoned the last
button and opened her blouse. “Since when do you wear bras?” I
asked, unhooking the front clasp. “You know I don’t like them.”

“What you like
doesn’t matter anymore,” she said, her eyes steely.

“What I like always
matters.” I cupped her naked breasts and saw her defiance shatter.
One touch was all it took. That was all it had ever taken with her.
“Your nipples are very hard. Why? Do you like this?”

“Yes,” she
whispered. Her eyelids were heavy and her breath labored.

“Even though you’re
a married woman?”

Lips parted, all she
could do was nod. My stiff cock threatened to break the zipper of my
jeans. I wasn’t going anywhere, not for a while. I knew myself. I
wouldn’t walk out of here until I’d branded her as my own in the
house she shared with another man.

Leaving one hand on her
breast, I slid the other down to the hem of her skirt. “It’s like
you knew I was coming today,” I whispered. “Silk blouse, short
skirt – you’re dressed just like a sexy little slut, aren’t
you?”

“I’m not a slut,”
she said acidly.

“The hell you’re
not. You’re my slut. You don’t want anyone else to fuck you but
me.”

She was panting, light,
soft breaths that felt like velvet on my face. “You’re wrong.”

“Am I? You want
someone else to fuck you?”

I spun her around and
pushed her against the wall. After pulling off her blouse and bra, I
unzipped her skirt and yanked it to her ankles. All she wore were
pale blue lace panties that showed every inch of skin underneath.
“Put your hands on the wall. Stay that way. Don’t move.”

I threw off my blazer
and shirt and pressed my chest against her back. At the feel of skin
on skin, she moaned. “It feels good, doesn’t it?” I said. “It
makes your pussy dripping wet.”

“There are reporters
outside,” she said. “My husband could come home.”

“But he won’t, will
he? And to hell with the reporters. To hell with everybody but us.”

I kissed the back of
her neck and practically felt an electric shock she was so blazing
hot. “Karina, Jane, it doesn’t matter,” I said. “You still
respond to me. You haven’t changed. You never will.”

She tried to turn
around but I pressed my hands over hers. “Keep them on the wall
until I give you permission to move.”

As if I had all
afternoon, I kissed my way slowly down her spine. She let her head
fall, sending her hair cascading to her waist.

I knelt to kiss the
hollow of her lower back. “No matter what your name is, you’re
just as beautiful. Did you know that?”

“No,” she
whispered.

“Now you do.”
Pulling her hips toward me, I made her give me her ass. “Just like
that,” I said. “I’m going to take you like you’ve never been
taken before.”

Adrenaline spiked in my
blood as she whimpered softly. It was the sound of surrender, and it
was music to my ears. I didn’t know what would happen two hours
from now, but at this moment, I had her. And I was going to make the
most of it.

Using my teeth, I
peeled her panties over her hips to her thighs. The cotton gusset was
streaked with clear, sticky wetness. I pulled it to my face and
smelled her delicious arousal, savoring how excited she was for me.
The professor didn’t make her respond this way. No one could but
me.

I lifted each of her
feet and pulled the panties off. She was completely naked now except
for a long strand of pearls circling the back of neck and draping
between her breasts.

“Feet apart,” I
ordered. “Keep your hands on the wall.”

I tapped the inside of
her knee and she took a step to the side. Kneeling behind her, I
could appreciate everything I’d never really noticed before. The
slope of her calves. Her delicate ankles and high arches. She didn’t
need heels to accentuate what was already incredibly feminine. I
stroked the backs of her thighs, sliding one hand up until my fingers
were poised just below her smooth, shaved pussy.