Don't Lie to Me (6 page)

Either way, the cupcakes were sure to be delicious, but now I wasn’t sure if I wanted them. I thought about telling Shane to take them back, but that would raise questions and it certainly wasn’t in line with our agreement of forgetting everything, so I thanked him and told him I would see him tomorrow.

“Hey Logan!” I called to my son who was still in his room, probably trying to teach himself how to tie his own shoes. “Mr. Jack brought you cupcakes!”

The easiest solution was to let Logan have both. He loved it when Jack spoiled him silly with delicious cupcakes and brownies from the gourmet bakery and he wouldn’t look at them wondering what receiving them meant, much like I was still doing.

Logan ran out of his room, shoes untied and on the wrong feet. It didn’t seem to slow him down any as he ran right up to me and took the bag from my hands before digging into it at the table.

“These are your favorite, mom.” He voice came out muffled, his mouth full of yummy goodness.

“I know. But you can have them both today.”

“You’re sharing with me?” He asked in between bites, a large smile on his small little face.

“Yup. But just this once.” I pointed a finger at him and winked. “Don’t expect it to happen again, okay?”

Within five minutes, he had inhaled both cupcakes, I had fixed and tied his shoes, and we were in my car on the way to the zoo. Maybe watching Logan enamored with the monkeys would take my mind off my weekend.

FOUR

I was a complete moron to think it would be easy to ignore Jack and the kiss that never should have happened. After I dropped off Logan at preschool on Monday, I hurried over to Jack’s condo to start cleaning and do the grocery shopping for the week.

When I arrived, he stayed in the doorway of the kitchen the entire time while he dictated to me everything he needed done for the week. He showed absolutely no sign of the friendliness we had always exchanged. Instead, he sounded frustrated the entire time, with his shortly clipped demands and one word answers to my questions.

I’m not even sure he looked at me…just sort of, through me. Or at a blank spot on the wall just to the left of me.

Monday night and the rest of the week weren’t any different. I bit my lip to keep from snapping at him and answered every request with the same simple “Sure, Jack” or “Yes, Jack” that I always did.

Every conversation left me tenser than the one before, wondering when one of us would crack and just bring up the stupid kiss so we could move on, or worse, wondering if he would decide he could no longer work with me.

Thursday rolled around and I was cleaning his master bathroom, which was always surprisingly clean considering a male bachelor lived there. Jack was meticulous with everything he did in his life. Surely his grooming habits would be no different. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I always was.

I finished scrubbing the toilet and removed my yellow plastic gloves, when my phone pinged alerting me to a text message. It was Macy.

FYI; Jack left work in a rotten mood. Said he was going home. Thought you’d want the heads up.

I typed back a thanks for the warning message, snapped my phone shut and put it back in my pocket before picking up the cleaning supplies, wondering what he could possibly be in such a rotten mood about now.

It wasn’t long before the front door slammed open. I jumped in the kitchen when I heard it crash into the wall behind it and then jumped again when it slammed shut. Choosing to do what I had done every night for the last four nights, I kept my back to the doorway, my focus solely on making the dinner salad in front of me. I knew when Jack stepped into the doorway without even looking. It had been like that for me for years, like there was a shift in the air current whenever he was around.

I ignored him and kept my focus on the salad, not wanting to turn around and see the frustrated face that had become so familiar that week.

His deep voice jolted me. “When are you going to yell at me?”

I turned around slowly, crossing my arms protectively in front of me and leaned back against the counter.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I replied, hoping my voice sounded much smoother and calmer to his ears than it did mine. My heart jumped at the mere sight of him and lodged a lump in my throat so large it made swallowing difficult.

He shifted uncomfortably in the doorway but didn’t make a move to enter the large room. This was getting ridiculous.

“I have nothing to yell at you for, Jack.”

“I took advantage of you. You should hate me.”

I scoffed. I didn’t remember it happening that way at all. “You didn’t take advantage of me. I wanted…” I felt heat creep to my cheeks and I shut my mouth. The last thing I wanted was to let him know how much I actually wanted him. I closed my eyes and shook my head a few times to clear my thoughts. “You told me to forget it ever happened. I’ve been acting normally, just like we agreed.”

He growled and took two steps forward into the kitchen for the first time in four days. I didn’t bother trying to stop my eyes from wandering from his short messy hair, to his square jaw that was set like he was getting ready to demolish a competitor, down to his light blue button up shirt that had the top button un-done. He was missing his tie. I don’t know why I noticed, but I did. He always wore a tie. But two things shocked me most of all, while my eyes travelled slowly down his body, appreciating every single inch of it. The first, was that he didn’t make a move to stop me even though I was being completely obvious; and two, based on the tightness I saw along the zipper on his dark grey dress pants, he was clearly aroused.

I tried to swallow past the lump in my throat, but I couldn’t. I tore my gaze away and took a sip of my glass of water that was sitting next to me on the granite counter.

“Did you forget?” he asked with a voice that sounded much rougher than it did earlier.

I rubbed my tongue across the front of my teeth. “Did you? You’re the one that told me we should.”

A frown line appeared in between his eyes as he narrowed his gaze at me. I had no idea why this was making him so angry. I could understand the regret if he thought he was taking advantage of an employee, but anger?

He moved his hands to his hips, never once taking his eyes off mine. He still looked angry when he said, “No. I didn’t.”

In all my fantasies I had had that week, and all the dreams I envisioned of this moment, I always pictured Jack looking lustfully at me, admitting he made a mistake before carrying me off to his bedroom and making love to me for hours. My stomach dropped to the floor as I saw a fire in his eyes like he hated me for not being able to forget one simple kiss. I instantly had the sinking feeling that nothing about my relationship with Jack would be the same again, and not in the good way it played out in my fantasies.

“Do you want my two weeks’ notice then?” I choked the words out softly, barely audible and turned back to his salad, not able to bare another minute of seeing the anger in his stare.

I gasped when his hand grabbed my elbow, spinning me around and pinning me against the cold countertop. His arms blocked me in on the sides and the fire in his eyes burned brighter than before.

“I don’t want you to quit, Emma.” I cringed as he spit the words out vehemently. I felt his hot breath on my cheek from him standing so close. I wanted to tear my eyes away from him, but I couldn’t. My heart was pounding in my chest with so much force I was sure it was loud enough for him to hear.

I was almost afraid at his forcefulness, but that feeling was tempered by the desire I had for him as soon as he had walked into the kitchen and allowed me to gaze on his arousal.

“Then tell me what you want because I don’t want to keep seeing the regret in your eyes every time you look at me.”

“I want…” He started and stopped. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes again, they were softer than before; his voice gentler, much like they had been last Saturday. “I want to know what it is about you that suddenly makes me feel completely out of control. I want to know why, when I saw you lean in to kiss Dean on the cheek last week I wanted to pummel him for having his hands on you.”

“I told you about Dean.” I interrupted him, but he just scowled at me and continued.

“I don’t get emotional, Emma, you know that. But ever since I touched your lips last week I feel like I’m a volcano ready to explode and I don’t know how to handle all this shit I’m dealing with.”

I made a face. He didn’t make that sound like a good thing; at all. I didn’t bother hiding my disappointment.

“Oh.”

“That came out wrong.” Slowly, one of his hands gently cupped the back of my neck. His hips leaned in just a little bit, just enough for me to know he was still aroused. Goosebumps flooded my body at the mere touch he gave me, making me crave more.

His thumb gently rubbed my bottom lip and he sighed. “I’m not good enough for you.”

“You’re intelligent, successful, and handsome. What else could I want?”

“I’m too old for you.”

“Seven years isn’t too big of a difference.”

“I’m dark and scary and incapable of caring about people.”

I scoffed. “You take care of Logan and me all the time. Quit cataloging your faults and tell me what you want Jack.” My hand slowly moved up the planes of his stomach, gently feeling his abdomen tighten as I travelled farther up across his pectoral muscles and around to his neck, much like how he held mine. They moved on their own volition and the only thing I could think about was how I desperately didn’t want him to push me away again. Not now. Not anymore.

He leaned down and rested his forehead on mine, then inhaled softly, and rubbed his nose into my hair. “You smell like peaches and cream and I haven’t been able to get this smell, or the taste of your lips, or the feel of your hips out of my head. I feel like I’m losing complete control but I can’t stop thinking about you, or wanting you.”

“You make that sound like a bad thing.”

“It has the potential to ruin me.” With his head on mine, I couldn’t look up and see the torment in his eyes that I heard in his wavering voice. I don’t know what he meant by that, but I knew he wasn’t talking professionally. Maybe he felt the same way I did about him.

Taking a risk and being with Jack McMillan would most definitely ruin me for all other men, and open the door to have my heart shattered into a million pieces all over again.

I should have been afraid. A part of me was. This was all coming from a man who had a three date limit. I didn’t know if our drinks counted as one, or if this did, but regardless, I knew our time together was limited.

I moved my hands and slowly undid the first button on his shirt, and then the second. Taking that as a sign of my acceptance, which it most surely was, Jack’s hands gripped my waist, picked me up and set me roughly down on top of the countertop. I immediately spread my legs, allowing him to move right up against me, his erection evident when he pressed into me. His mouth attacked mine like a dying man in search of water and I had no other choice but to take everything he had to give me.

He groaned deep in his throat and fanned the flame already building in my belly for him. I shifted closer to him, needing to rub myself against him and find relief from the pressure that was building faster than I had ever experienced before.

He tore my shirt and bra off of me before I could blink and then stepped back, just fractionally, and gazed down on my full breasts with almost completely blackened eyes. He was hungry for them and I leaned back on the counter, giving him a better look. His mouth moved to one, licking it teasingly. I moaned and shifted my hips again into his erection.

I wanted to remove his pants and feel him deep inside and let him devour me until I was fully sated. I lost all patience when his mouth covered a nipple, hardening it into a tight little bud. His other hand worked feverishly on my other nipple.

“Jack….I need….” I was seconds away from completely falling apart and he was still fully clothed. I didn’t even know what I needed exactly. More pressure, more of him, faster, harder… I couldn’t finish the thought.

He removed his mouth from my nipple and began torturing my stomach with light feathery kisses.

“I know what you need,” he whispered into my stomach. The light vibrations sent shockwaves throughout my entire body. I tried to buck my hips toward him, showing him what I needed most of all but his large, and surprisingly soft hand clamped down on my hip holding me firmly in place. The more I wiggled, the firmer the pressure became.

“I’ll take care of it, Emma. Stay still.” He was mad if he thought I could stay still through this torture of his tongue teasing my lower stomach. He swirled his tongue deep inside my belly button and I arched my back into him, groaning his name loudly. I threw my hands into his hair pulling him closer, or pushing him down, I wasn’t sure. I just needed him to move.

“You taste so good, Emma. I can’t wait to bury my cock into you. Tell me you want me.”

I moaned again, louder than before as his hands went to the waist of my pants. He began pulling them down but stopped, and looked me directly in the eyes. “I need to hear you say it.”

His hungry voice was commanding. I had never heard him sound so absolute in what he needed before. This was much different from the professional tone he used with me during work hours or the friendly banter we exchanged with Logan. It left no room for me to back out or argue with him. Not that I wanted to. I wanted him desperately.