Favorite Places (A TroubleMaker Novel, #2) (10 page)

“Well, it’s a real
good start.” He stopped a few inches away. “But don’t think I’ll be going back
on my word. Your insubordinate behavior will be addressed, but it’s gonna take
me longer than a five-minute break to teach you a lesson, to give that hurt
between your legs a real good reason to ache.”

She gasped when
he leaned in toward her.

“I bet, just thinking
about it,” his gaze lowered to her plump, pink lips and then flashed back up to
her wide eyes, “well, it’s already startin’ to ache, isn’t it, sweetheart?”

“No!”

“No?” He chuckled.
“Okay,” he said, unconvinced. “Go back upstairs, Jess. I’ll be up there to discuss
this further as soon as I’m through here.”

There was no way
in hell she was going to discuss anything further with Chase Lennox. Jessina had
to get the hell out of there, and quick. He’d been absolutely right. Hearing
him say her name, the way he gazed at her like some caged animal about to break
loose, and the promise in those hooded dark eyes… Yeah, it had definitely
sparked an ache between her legs. If she stuck around, she’d surrender to it. Do
the unthinkable. She’d consummate the damn marriage.

A few more
minutes, a couple more eye strokes, or another husky taunt from that delectable
mouth, and she’d throw herself at the sinfully sexy man. She’d be begging him
to screw her brains out, to soothe the constant ache she’d felt between her
thighs since she’d first laid eyes on him. There was no way she could forbid
herself those pleasures any longer. Her willpower was waning. It’d been months
since she’d gotten laid. She was horny as hell. And her fake husband was the
ultimate remedy, the only antidote to cure the ache he’d so easily given to her.

She’d made it
out of the building, went unseen into the cab, and had gotten on the bus
without a hitch. She’d looked over her shoulder every five minutes, but saw no
sign of Chase. So eventually, she relaxed into the uncomfortable seat and
closed her eyes.

Three hours
later, Jessina was driving home in her Corolla. Ten minutes from home, her tire
blew out. All still would have been fine, had Mother Nature not decided to literally
rain on her parade. Thankfully, while her father had still been alive, he’d
made sure to show his little girl a thing or two about cars.

And she knew how
to change a tire.  

She managed to
get the car jacked up and put the tire iron to good use. Just as she was about
to loosen the fourth lug nut, headlights came into view. It was the first car she’d
seen, and was glad about that. The last thing she needed was some creepy
lunatic in a windowless van offering to stop and give her a hand. It was dark, she
was stranded on a deserted road, and now the passerby was pulling over.
Shit!
Jessina hurried about her business and freed the last lug nut.  But when
she tried to pull the tire off, she couldn’t. Thinking it was rusted on, she
picked up the cross-wrench and gave it a few hard whacks. When the banging
stopped, she heard a car door slam. She jumped up, cross-wrench tight in her
grip. Her fear swung it up in the air. Ready to attack, Jessina met fuming,
intense blue eyes.

“Give me that.”
Chase reached out and yanked the would-be weapon out of her hand. “What the
hell are you doing?”

“What does it
look like I’m doing?” She placed her hands on her hips, and tried to get over
the fact that he was there.

Dressed just as
she’d left him, his white shirt was getting wet. Chase apparently didn’t wear any
kind of undershirt. She could make out every curve and fold of his muscular
body. When her eyes met his, she saw that he was in no mood for her sarcasm. He
snarled at her to prove it. Still, that wasn’t going to stop Jessina from
harassing the hell out of him.

“Oh wait!” She
put her hand over mouth. “That’s right. You might not know what I’m doing. I’m
sure you have people who do this for you too. Oh, don’t tell me Katie changes
your tires for you? Or, doesn’t that fall under the ‘anything’ job description?”
She tried to stifle her laughter when his snarl grew louder. “Well, what you’re
holding in your hand that’s called a cross-wrench.  And what you do is place it
on the tire lug nuts—”

“All right,
smart-ass,” he dryly said as he tossed the wrench to the ground. “I know
how
to change a damn tire, even if I don’t have to anymore. Now, I’m through
playing with you. Get your ass in my car.” He bent down to meet her at eye
level. “I’ll have my people take care of your tire. If you haven’t noticed, it’s
pouring out, and you’re starting to resemble a drowned rat.”

Oh, she’d
noticed it was raining all right. His hair was wet and darker, and his eyes
seemed to be somehow bluer too. His shirt was drenched, and she could see the
impression of his hard nipples. She had a sudden compulsion to lick them,
something she’d never wanted to do to any man before.

“The car,” he
growled, “now.”

“No! I’m not—”
she tried to protest.

He grabbed her
hand, pulled her over to her Corolla, opened the door, reached in, and picked
up her bag. A least he was considerate enough to lock her car up before he directed
her over to his vehicle. He yanked open the passenger door, tossed her bag in
and came back up with a black trench coat clenched in his hand. “Here. Put this
on.”

She glanced down
at the jacket, noting the seats inside the BMW. “Sure. I wouldn’t want to ruin
your leather interior or anything.” She put the coat on and slipped into the
car.

Chase bent in,
grabbed the seatbelt, and snapped her in as though she didn’t know how to do it
herself. At first, she was insulted, but then, as crazy as it seemed, she was
touched by the gesture. Almost as if he wanted to be sure, she was safe and
secure.

He got in on the
driver side. The car was warm and smelled like him. And, except for the faint
hum
of the motor and the rain pelting the roof, it was quiet too. He pushed up his
sleeves, brushed the wet hair off his forehead, leaned back against the
headrest, and closed his eyes, releasing a heavy sigh that seemed more from relief
than from aggravation.  

Pulling the
trench coat tighter around her, she watched him. Nature’s wetness glistened on
his tanned skin. Angry with him or not, he had to be the most beautiful man she’d
ever seen. And it went beyond looks. There was something about the way he
moved. He always took his time. Slow and deliberate. The way he looked at her.
And then there was that mouth, those lips and what they could do to her.

Her eyes rolled
downward, to his neck. He’d forgone the tie, and a few buttons were undone. She
wanted to slip her hand into the small opening of his shirt and touch the tan, naked
flesh. Press her lips against it and taste him while she undid the remainder of
his buttons. Her gaze dropped to just below his waist. She closed her eyes,
remembering the impression of him beneath his lounge pants the other morning.
God
…
She silently moaned deep inside, all the way down to her deprived pussy.

She wanted him, and
that was the only reason he’d gotten her into his car without a struggle. She
had thought about it for only a split second, but it was a no-brainer. Fight
him and stay out in the cold rain to wrestle with the tire alone or get in the
warm BMW with the hottest horny elixir on the planet. A girl would have had to
be a fool not to choose the latter, and Jessina was no fool.  

Her eyes trailed
back up his body, still imagining the things she could to it when she fell upon
hooded near black eyes. They stared at her, unblinking. The dim light from
outside cast shadows that moved upon Chase’s somber face. And the intensity of
the silence made her nervous.

“I really am
sorry about getting your seats wet,” she stammered, needing to fracture the
deafening awkwardness.

“Don’t worry
about it,” he said in a deep, almost inaudible tone.

“Oh yeah. What
am I thinking?” She smiled. “You can just go out and buy new ones, or maybe
even a new BMW, now that this one’s ruined,” she said in an attempt to tease
the somberness out of him.

“Yes, I suppose
I could.” He sighed, this time clearly out of aggravation. “But money isn’t everything,
Jess. It can’t buy me my brother back, and it obviously can’t buy me Arthur
Caplin.”

“Right,” she
said, unable to look away from him. “It’s like that old song. Money can’t buy
you love—not real love anyway—and there are a lot of other things it can’t give
to you either.”

His hand, slow
and deliberate, as always, brushed away the droplets of water on her neck. He
cradled the spot his gentle touch had wiped dry. His thumb stroked her cheek,
and she found herself leaning in toward his touch.

“Like that look,
Jess, the one on your face just before you came, or the sound of your sweet
cries and the way you tightened around my fingers. That was priceless, a damn
good example of something money can’t buy me.” His eyes remained fixed on hers.

Her nerves
stirred to her cheek, where he was tenderly touching her with his flaming
fingertips that threatened to incinerate her. She wanted to rip every last stitch
of clothing from his body and from hers and straddle him right then and there.
And she didn’t care if she dampened his leather seats with something far more
passionate than rain water.

“Take me home,”
she whispered, even though she wasn’t sure whether it was to get him into her
bed or slam the door in his face when she finally stepped into the sanctuary of
her own home.

“Sweetheart, I
plan to,” he smiled, “but before we go, I want to discuss why you felt the need
to leave.”

“I…” She was
unable to admit the truth, and another “I…” tumbled out of her mouth before he stopped
her.

“Don’t.” His
thumb slid down the length of her cheek just before he pulled away with another
frustrated sigh. “I get it. You were embarrassed. I should have stopped you
when you were going off like that in front of my employees, but you don’t
understand how sexy you are when you’re angry. I know it’s a piss-poor excuse,
but it’s the only one I have. You really are adorable when you’re pissed off.” As
his eyes softened, Jessina tried but couldn’t find it in her to stay mad at
him. “But, I did warn you.”

His vigorous,
husky voice roused Jessina from falling for the millisecond of sweetness that
was coming out of Chase Lennox’s mouth.

“I told you what
would happen if you continued to call me anything other than ‘Chase,’ but
despite my caution, you continued to defy me.”

Wow.
Okay!
Jessina kicked forgiveness to the floor mat. “Defy
you? Really?”

“I’m not finished,”
he intervened in that chafed, dominant tone. “It was wrong of me. I never should
have demanded that you go back up to my apartment and—”

“You’re damn
right it was wrong of you!” Now she remembered why she’d run from him. Not only
was she fearful of giving in and having sex with him, but the arrogant bastard
had
ordered her to do his bidding. Even though playing the whimsical girl falling
for the bad boy was fun, she was a mature woman. And Chase was definitely an
all grown up, overconfident man who didn’t play nice when he wasn’t getting his
way.  

No man,
including Chase Lennox, was ever going to tell her what to do. No puppet master
disguised in dapper clothing was going to pull on this girl’s strings ever again.
She crossed her arms over her chest, annoyed and confused. Even though he had
technically apologized, it was still painfully obvious Chase thought he could
have whatever and whoever he wanted.

So, was he really
there out of concern for her, or was it still all about him?
Had he only
come after her because he hadn’t yet gotten what he wanted? Jessina wasn’t sure
what to do. Trusting him was out of the question, but a small part of her
wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. “Just take me home,” she finally
said.

The apartment was small,
only two rooms, a living-kitchen area and a bedroom lurking behind an open
door. Chase assumed the bathroom was off her bedroom, because the only other
place for it to be was out in that ridiculously small hallway. Unless there was
a community bathroom, like the kind he’d seen when he was younger. Chase’s life
had been a bit uncomfortable, until he’d reached his late teens, when his father’s
business started making really good money. While he’d never lived in an
apartment where the tenants had to share a restroom, he’d sure had friends in
the neighborhood who did.

His left eye twitched
just before the anger struck him hard in the gut. Although the place was
bright, clean, and furnished with a used sofa and a nicked-up, small table set nestled
in the corner, it appeared as though Jessina Landi was broke. A thought punched
him again in the gut. Had she waited in the lobby that day at his office
because she had no money to go out for lunch?

“Let me get you
a towel,” she said as she closed the door. She pulled his trench coat off and dropped
it on one of the scarred chairs before she started toward the bedroom.

Needing to check
out the bathroom situation for himself, Chase followed her right into the
bedroom.