Ivory Tower (3 page)

Jenna glanced at Josh several times throughout the course
of the evening. He’d been stoic during dinner, but she sensed some serious distraction
plagued him. His smile when he looked at her seemed genuine, but conversation with
him had to be prompted and his brow was furrowed more often than not. Her
fiancé was clearly preoccupied and Jenna needed to find out why.

After clearing the dessert dishes and ushering their guests
out the door, Josh nodded his head in the same direction. “Let’s get out of
here,” he said.

“Oh no, you two. We’ve got invitations to address.” Jenna’s
mother called out from the kitchen, her ears apparently on high alert.

“Come on, before it’s too late.” Josh grabbed Jenna’s hand
and they flew out the door.

They were two blocks away before they stopped, out of
breath and laughing so hard, Jenna’s side hurt. “Oh, my God,” she said,
gasping. “I am so going to pay for that later.”

Josh pulled her into his arms and tucked a loose strand of
hair behind her ear. “It’s worth it to hear you laugh, sweetheart.”

“How can I not when I’m around you?” She cupped his face. “God,
I’ve missed you.” On tiptoes, she touched her lips to his, offering, finally, a
real welcome. When he held her and deepened the kiss, it melted her insides
like spring snow into a river of seductive energy. There were no worries, only Josh
and the here and now.

He ran his tongue across her lower lip and it felt like
he’d stroked her intimately. It was always this way with Josh. Jenna vibrated
with longing as she dug her hands into his hair, needing to be closer, to feel
every part of him. He tasted like her coffee-flavored future, and it was a
heady mixture.

“I love you,” she said, when he broke the kiss.

Josh rested his forehead against hers. “You are my world.
You know that, right?”

Jenna remembered his preoccupation. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

His quick reassurance did nothing to ease her worry. “It’s
not nothing. You seemed distracted at dinner.”

Josh sighed. “I’m just...tired from the trip.”

“Didn’t the negotiations for the merger go well?”

Josh hugged her tightly. “The negotiations were difficult,
but not insurmountable.” He pulled away momentarily and Jenna saw his lips turn
up. “I haven’t seen you for days, so how about we save the shop talk for some
other time. Right now, I want to make sure you know just how badly I missed
you.” Josh lowered his head to hers, their breath mingling. At the touch of his
lips, Jenna forgot everything except how wonderful it felt to be in Josh’s arms
and how much she wanted to spend the rest of her life in that exact spot. She
felt treasured, loved, and lusted after. His tongue stroked her teeth, tasted
her. His stubble tickled her cheek as his hands tangled in her hair. And all of
these sensations wrapped her in arousal. She tingled from hair-tips to toes and
it felt great. Really great.

Darkness cloaked their kisses, but not well enough. When a
porch light came on behind them, they jumped apart like guilty teenagers, laughing.
“Oh, my
gawd
,” Jenna said, mimicking an adolescent
voice. “We’re twenty-five years old. It’s been a long time since we got caught
doing something we probably shouldn’t be doing in public.”

“We need more privacy,” Josh said. “Come to my place.”

Jenna pulled him down for a long, lingering, regretful kiss
that she didn’t want to break off. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Josh spent the next few minutes trying very hard to
convince her it was the perfect idea, but Jenna held her ground.

“You know why. If we go to your place, we’ll be tempted to
take it much further.”

He backed away from her,
adjusting his pants to make
more room for what had to be an uncomfortable hard-on
.
Jenna knew the feeling. She could feel her body’s response. The nipples
tightening, the dampness between her legs. She wanted nothing more than to rip Josh’s
clothes off, to feel him plunge into her, divesting her of the one thing that
was hers alone to give.

“It’s not like we haven’t done just about everything else,”
he said with a deep sigh, throwing his arm around her shoulders as they started
back to her mother’s house.

“We have certainly had some fun.” She flipped around to
walk backward in front of Josh. “It’s only a few weeks until the wedding. Let’s
leave this final act for that night. It’ll make it even more special.”

Josh looked to the heavens and groaned. “Virgins are
nothing but trouble.”

She stopped him with the palm of her hand, running it along
his zipper. “But we are oh, so worth it.”

His groan morphed into a growl as he pulled her hand to a
safer part of his body—his chest. “I’d feel better if I knew your reasoning was
your own, not your mother’s.”

Irritation pulled Jenna away from him. “I don’t think it’s
a bad idea to wait until we’re married. Do you?”

“Right now, yes.” He pulled her hand to his mouth and
kissed her fingers, spending the longest time on the one that wore his ring. Even
that simple act could make Jenna wet. It would be a hell of a lot easier to
just give in. She was so ready for this final act of lovemaking and had been
for such a long time. Josh made her that way. How many nights had she imagined
him above her, muscles barely holding him back, his eyes fierce with the need
to be inside her?

Too many.

“Speaking of weddings, how’s the fiasco going?”

Josh’s question yanked Jenna out of her hot-and-bothered
reverie. She blew out a deep breath and laid her head on his shoulder as they resumed
walking. “You mean Mom’s wedding?”

“You do remember it’s
our
wedding, right?”

“It’s supposed to be. I feel like it’s getting so out of
control. I just don’t know what to do about it.”

“Yes, you do. It’s pretty simple.”

Josh stopped and Jenna knew he waited for her answer. The
problem was, she couldn’t do what he wanted.

He ran a hand through his hair. “This is our wedding,
Jenna. I’d be happy on a beach somewhere, just the two of us. I’m going along
with all this hoopla because I want you to have the wedding you want.”

And he did, too. Jenna knew it in her heart. “It’s tough
with Mom. She never—”

“I know. She never got the wedding she deserved. Or thinks
she deserved.” He turned Jenna back toward him again, his frown clearly visible
in the moonlight.

“You know I’ve tried to stay out of this relationship
between you and your mother.”

Jenna nodded.

“I tolerate your mother because of you, but I will not do
that for long. You need to design your own life, Jenna. Apart from her and of
your own making.”

“I know. And I will. I promise. I just have to wait for the
right time.”

By now, they were only a couple houses away from Jenna’s.
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I love you. I hope you know you’re the
most important person in my life.” She kissed him, making sure he knew with
each stroke of her lips, each caress of her hands along his back, how much he
meant to her.

****

When she let him up for air, Josh gulped. “You know how
nuts you’re driving me, right?”

“Um hmm,” she mumbled, nuzzling his neck like a kitten searching
for warmth.

“Really? We’re going to get hot and heavy again here on the
sidewalk?”

Jenna looked around as if dazed and Josh, fully aware he
was taking advantage of the situation, but unable to stop the raging hard-on
that was making his decisions at the moment, said “my place?”

Jenna’s silence was all the encouragement Josh needed and
he nudged them toward his car, until Jenna stopped and stared at the car, which
sat in front of her house. The same house they’d run out of moments ago,
leaving one pissed off mother, for certain.

Jenna groaned. “We’ll never slip out of here. I guess
there’s nothing to be done but go back and face the music.”

He pulled her against him, letting her feel how hard he was
for her. They both saw the living room curtains twitch in the house and Jenna
jumped back.

With a grunt that could not ease the pain in his cock, Josh
tried to comprehend the hold Jenna’s mother had over her. He really did. But it
was fucking hard. And as painful as his dick was at the moment, his mood didn't
lend well to patience. “Why do you let her run your life like this?”

“You know why.”

“Because of that promise to your father, right?” He pulled around,
turning her away from the home she’d grown up in and forcing her to look at
him. “Your father would not want you to be unhappy.”

“I know. I just...well, she’s going to be all alone after
we’re married. I feel like I’ve put up with her crap for this long, so what’s a
little while longer?”

She scanned the house and yard, then turned to him with an
evil leer. “I have an idea.” Jenna grinned and grabbed his hand. “Come on. But you
have
to be quiet.”

Chapter Three

With as much stealth as possible, Jenna and Josh edged onto
the property, following the perimeter fence. Once behind the house, they slipped
across open yard to the cottage that some would call a mother-in-law house.
Jenna’s mother had, in fact, dropped several pointed hints in Josh’s presence
that she would enjoy calling it the new home of her daughter and son-in-law.

No fucking way.

He stood guard as Jenna dug beneath the fake plant for the
key to the little two-room, one-bathroom house. “I cannot believe we’re doing
this. We’re adults, not teenagers,” he said. “Consenting adults. We don’t need
to sneak around like this.”

When the kitchen lights came on in the big house, his
warning came in the form of a verbalized “ah, shit.”

Jenna stood triumphant, key dangling in her hand, and he
urged her to hurry. It took her two interminable tries to get the door
unlocked. The main house’s back porch light came on just as they slipped
inside.

Josh stilled the swinging window curtains with his hand as
he crushed Jenna against the door, his free hand smothering her laughter. “
Shhh
. You’ll out us.”

With both his hands busy, he couldn’t stop Jenna as she slid
down the doorframe and unbuckled, as well as unzipped his pants. Not that he
wanted her to stop. It was sweet relief to have his cock freed. He just wanted
to be certain they wouldn’t be interrupted.

He poked his head around the curtain and saw Jenna’s mother
standing on the back porch, then almost yelped as Jenna slid his slacks and
boxers to the floor and took him deep in her mouth.

“Holy fuck.” He bit the harsh whisper off and stood there sweating,
trying hard to protect their secrecy while Jenna sucked and licked his dick.
The old-fashioned wall clock ticked the seconds away as she wrapped her tongue
around him like soft silk, then Josh stifled a groan as she pulled him in deep
again. When she licked him from balls to head, his hands clutched the curtains
in a death grip. Jenna's tongue played him for a full two minutes as he waited
for her mother to stop scanning the yard. He knew exactly how much time had
passed because the sweat dripped off him in perfect second-time to that damn
ticking clock.

The main-house door shut at the same moment Jenna cupped
his balls and took him even deeper, sucking hard.

“Oh, God, baby. You need to stop or I'm going to explode.”

“Go right ahead,” she mumbled without stopping. The hum of
her voice on his cock drained any reserve staying power he had left and Josh,
wracked with tremors, came in an explosion of semen and relief. He stood there,
arms against the door, panting. Holy shit, his woman had some mouth on her. As
he turned and sagged against the wall, Jenna went to the small sink to wet a
towel.

“Jesus. Where the hell did you learn that?”

She grinned at him, arching an eyebrow. “I may be a virgin,
but that doesn’t make me naïve. I read. A lot. And you know very well what I
write. It’s research.” Her grin widened. “At least, that’s what I’m calling it.
Been wanting to try that last trick for a while.”

Josh pulled his slacks up and put an arm around her
shoulder. “I am officially a believer. Anytime you want to test your research,
I’m your man.”

The little house sported two rooms, one a poor-man’s great
room, consisting of a couch, end table, TV, and mini-kitchen, all almost within
reaching distance of each other.

Josh led Jenna to the bedroom, which felt roomier even with
the double-size bed and dresser it held. He shook his head. “Your mother really
thought we could live here?”

Jenna pulled his head down. “I don’t want to talk about Mother
at the moment.” She licked her lips and he forgot all about anything except how
talented that mouth of hers was and his already hardening cock. He sucked her
tongue into his mouth, tasting the mingled scent of both of them. She nudged
his tongue and he pushed back, his mouth moving over hers, capturing her,
telling her she was his for now and for always.