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Authors: Anna Valentine

BOOK: Love Torn
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The main event began and much to Jackie’s
horror
they were all expected to give the CEO a standing ovation.  She hated this kind of ego-stroking nonsense.  She fought the desire to run out of there
,
and shot Jason a dirty look – he laughed at her.
 

It was painful and got worse as the day wore on, Jason she could tell
,
was enjoying
her discomfort.  She
,
however
, was enjoying one thing, seeing Marcia flirt outrageously with him.  He had miscalculated
that
;
Marcia wanted him and she was making no effort to hide the fact.

Jackie was glad when lunchtime rolled around.  She took the earliest opportunity to slip out of the building and head to the road, her intention to hail a taxi to eat some place quiet.
  She exited the car park and stood by the side of the road looking for a cab when she heard a car horn toot beside her.  She waved the car away – hoping the guy in the car wasn’t trying to pick her up.  The horn tooted again.  Jackie turned angrily to give the driver a piece of her mind and saw it was Jason. 

“Come on, get in!”
H
e
called.

Jackie almost ran round to the other side of the car.  She got in and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Where to?”

“Anywhere but here,” she laughed.

Jason put his foot down and pulled out into the traffic.  He seemed to know exactly where he was going
,
and
before
long,
he pulled up outside a Chinese restaurant.

“Do y
ou like Chinese
food
?”

Jackie nodded,
eagerly climbed out of the
car
and headed towards the doors.  Jason was close behind her
.  H
e pressed his key fob remote lock, and the car bleeped. 

“Hey wait,” he called after her.  “Allow me miss,” he winked at her as he opened the door for her.
  Jackie smiled at him
;
he was definitely laying on the charm today, and she was enjoying every minute of it.

They were shown to a seat in the corner of the room.  They quickly selected what they wanted to eat from the menu.  Each time that Jason spoke to her, he stared into her deep blue eyes.  She was glad that the waiter returned swiftly with their drinks
.  S
he was uncomfortable and was embarrassed to admit she was getting turned on.
  Jackie had worked with Jason for a little over a year now.  The flirting had been light and was nothing serious.  Until
then
.  It was obvious that he wanted her
,
and her body was reacting to him
;
she wanted him too.  She knew that if they did go out for dinner that night, that there would be more than food on the menu.
 
Jackie
wasn’t sure that
she was prepared for
more
.
  Her mind screamed that it was foolish to become romant
ically involved with the boss,
but
she was beginning
not
to care.
 

“I feel guilty,” Jason smirked.  “Perhaps we should have invited Marcia out for lunch with us.”

Jackie laughed, “Yeah, she’d have liked that
,
but
I wouldn’t have.”

Jason seemed to enjoy seeing her uncomfortable.  “Why not?  Marcia’s a lovely girl, isn’t she?”

Jackie refused to be baited and kept her mouth shut. 
Jason held her gaze.  Why did her stomach lurch when he did that?  She felt the familiar ti
ngling in her panties – if her Chow M
ein didn’t arrive soon she’d have him here in the restaurant.  The
glint
in Jason’s eyes and the way his breathing had changed told her that he
felt
the same way.

The meal arrived
,
and
Jackie was
acutely
aware of every mouthful she took.  She felt as though Jason’s eyes were on her
lips
the whole time.  She knew what he was imaging and it made her more agitated; she lost her appetite.  His eyes strayed to her breasts.
  Now she couldn’t breathe – she wanted his hands on her.  Dam
n it
, she’d have to sit through an unbearable afternoon before she could enjoy that.

It seemed that Jason echoed that thought, “I wish we didn’t have to go back to the function Jackie.”  His voice was low and husky, his
mouth
inviting.
Their eyes locked for what felt like an eternity; both of them knew what they wanted
,
but
this was neither the time nor the place for that.  A smile crept across Jason’s face, “Tonight should be interesting.”  The anticipation was almost too much to bear and she giggled at the thought of sitting through the rest of the boring function in such a state of arousal.

The tension in the air between them wa
s tangible, and
before
long
the waiter had picked up on it and grinned knowingly at them each time he passed.

“Come on, we should get out of here.  I don’t like being the entertainment.”
Jason’s face had suddenly become serious.  Jackie had tried to insist on going
D
utch
, but Jason firmly refused and paid while she went to the bathroom to fix her lipstick.

Jackie
met Jason
back
at the car.  He had regained his good humour and smiled suggestively at her as she approached.  Jackie could feel his eyes on her curves; she felt as though she
was
naked under his gaze. 
His eyes caressed her, and as he licked his lips, Jackie
involuntarily gasped.  He
held the car door open for her
,
and
she climbed in on unsteady legs
.  She was going crazy with
desire
for him,
and
she didn’t care.  All she wanted was to make love with him and to hell with the fact that he was her boss.

 

 

 

Chapter 3

 

 

 

They drove back
t
o
the hotel
that the function was being held
in
.  The silence and tension in the car was
tangible
.  Jackie felt oblivious to all those around her.  There must have been at least three hundred people from the company there at the function, but she hardly noticed any of them as they walked across the foyer and into the function room.  They reached their table again just as Marcia did.

“Where did you guys sneak off to?”  She practically screeched at them.  “Naughty,
naughty
.”  She pretended to chide them.

“Naughty Marcia?  What do you mean?  Going for lunch is hardly naughty.”  Jackie knew she was being curt but didn’t care.

Marcia pouted.  “I just hoped that you’d want to have lunch with me.”

Jackie felt like a rat.  “You should have said something.”  Why did she feel guilty?  She didn’t even like Marcia, and there was no way she wanted her around now that things with Jason had taken such an interesting turn.

Jason pulled out his chair and sat, “Jackie and I had some things to discuss.  This function has given us some great ideas we’d like to implement in the office.”

Nicely deflected,
Jackie thought. 

Marcia was spurred on by his comment and chatted away happily, giving them her opinions of the function too.  Neither of them listened very well
;
they were trying to look at each other without being too obvious.

The afternoon dragged on and boring executive after boring executive
droned on about what, Jackie knew not.  She was so focussed on Jason that it came as some surprise when everyone stood
to applaud the CEO once more as he
ended the proceedings
.  Jason caught her eye and nodded towards Marcia.  She knew what he meant. 
How were they to slip away without Marcia following them?
  Jackie turned to the person behind her, thanking her lucky stars that he’d just dropped his paperwork on the floor. 
She bent down and helped to pick them up
.
 
As she looked sideways,
she saw Marcia had attached herself to Jason.  Damn, now what were they going to do?

Jackie pretended to be interested in what the man, she had helped, was saying to her, and walked towards the doors with him and his colleagues.
  At least she was managing to exit the function room without Marcia following her. 
If, her need for Jason
weren’t
so intense and urgent, then she would have found it amusing, that he
couldn’t escape from Marcia.

She made it out to the car
park and nervously walked towards Jason’s car. 
Am I too obvious?
She asked herself.  Footsteps behind her made her jump, but she was pleased to see it was Jason.

“How did you escape?”
She asked open mouthed.

“Her sister arrived to take her to dinner!”  H
e
grinned and turned his face heavenward, “Thank you!”

He ran to the car, “Come on,
let’s
get out of here.”  He called back to her.

Giggling, Jack
ie climbed into the car; she
felt heady from the excitement.  Jason watched at her as she fastened her seat belt.  She could see that he was just as excited and was straining to break free from his trousers already.

Jason put the car into reverse and then joined the queue of other vehicles waiting to exit.  Jackie could see that he was trying to concentrate on something other than her.  She had no idea where they were going.  They turned left towards the city as they exited the
car park
and then drove for about half a mile before Jason turned abruptly into the small
car park
of an edge-of-town convenience store.

“Wait
here;
I’ll just be a second.”  He called to her as he slammed the door and ran off into the store.

While she waited for him to return, she played with the radio.
  She found something she liked and sat back to listen and wait.  Jason was taking his time
in the store
,
and
she started to fidget, but what could she do?
She started to flick through the radio stations, but none could keep her interest.  What she wanted was still in the store.

He then suddenly appeared through the automatic doors carrying two shopping bags in each hand.  She looked at him quizzically.  He placed his purchases in the boot and then climbed back into the driver’s seat.

“Provisions!”
He exclaimed by way of an explanation.  “Oh and somebody needs a toothbrush if I am not mistaken.”  He gave her that grin again, that made her insides turn to jelly.
  Jackie laughed but still blushed slightly at the insinuation.
  She
shook
her head.  Wasn’t it obvious where this was heading?  Were they no
t
going back to his place?  So, why was she blushing, when it was what she wanted?

“What did you get?”

“Apart from the toothbrush, you mean?”

She giggled again.  “Yes, apart from the toothbrush.”

“I told you; provisions.  I expect we will be pretty hungry.”  He glanced sideways at her and her breath caught in her throat.  “I got some
wine
, and I thought I’d cook you something.”

“You can cook?”

“Hey cheeky!”

She laughed, “I’m sorry.  I don’t know many men that can cook.”

He smiled back at her.  “I know what you mean. 
My
dad
couldn’t cook and didn’t have time either.  My m
um
had five kids to deal with, so I asked her to teach me.
  I think she was grateful for the help around the house to be honest.”

Jackie knew very little about Jason outside of the office and was intrigued.  “Five kids – that’s a lot!”

“Yeah.  I’m the eldest.  I have three sisters; Amy, Louise and Jennifer
,
and then Luke
is
the youngest.  He’s their only natural child.  In fact, he was a bit of a surprise.  In twenty years of marriage, they’d had no luck.  Then, along came Luke.”
He grinned at her.  It was clear how much he loved his family.

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