More Than Physical (The Physical Series Book Book 2) (10 page)

His lids narrowed, his fingers coming up to grasp the back of Sasha’s head. She resisted, holding her ground.

“I don’t know what’s going through that brain of yours right now, Mr. Lawyer. Maybe it’s just the after-glow, but let me set the record straight. You might be able to make me come, but that doesn’t mean we’re
right
together. So don’t go getting all gushy on me.”

Jackson let out a scoffing laugh, flipping his legs off the side of the bed to head to the bathroom. Sasha watched in awe as his long, lean legs carried him through the door, his full, perfectly sculpted ass cheeks distracting her from her rant.

Laying her head back down on the pillow, she stared up at the popcorn-spackled ceiling, trying to figure out how she’d gotten herself in this situation, and how the hell she was going to get out of it. Yes, the sex was amazing with Jackson. The man took her to places she’d never been before.

But there was no need to further this dalliance or complicate matters with an overnight cuddle-session. Her decision to come up to his hotel room did not include a sleep-over. She never did overnights with a man. It made things awkward the next morning and annoyingly sentimental.

Jackson’s low voice brought her back to their current unresolved predicament.

“So, which side of the bed do you sleep on?”

He gave her a little shove to the side as he crawled into bed, yanking the covers from her hips. She growled and snatched the sheet back as he propped himself up on his elbow to face her.

“And if getting you to come as loudly as you did just now is considered getting
gushy
, than fuck yeah, that’s definitely in the plans for tonight.”

Sasha groaned like a petulant child, wanting to stomp her foot for emphasis if she could, and rolled over on her side to face the opposite direction. The choice to leave now or to snuggle for just a little bit longer laid out before her like a fork in the road.

With a tug of his arm, her body was hurled into the curve of his warm flesh, his hard length pressing at the small of her back and his manly scent enveloping her in a cocoon of delirium. Holy hell, this man smelled and felt so good. It had been less than ten minutes and he was already hard and wanting more. The niggling flutter of something floating around her belly, the tickling sensation of an unearthed emotion, began to take shape. That was not good. God, he was just so…so annoyingly yummy.

She smiled a secret appreciative smile into her pillow, allowing herself to experience the quiet joy of feeling cherished and wanted. At least for the moment. She could give herself that, just this once.

Closing her eyes in surrender, Sasha silently gave up her rigid inflexibility and let Jackson have his way with her one last time before succumbing to the overwhelming urge to fall asleep in his arms. Wrapped up in the warm embrace of her lover, who was doing his damnedest to make her forget about her rule of not sleeping all night with a man, Sasha fell into a deep slumber.

The best sleep she’d had in years.

Jackson rummaged through the stack of papers on his office desk, frantically searching for the contract that he and Mitch would be meeting about in less than an hour.

Frustrated with his lack of concentration, a highly unusual Monday morning occurrence, Jackson cursed loudly when he knocked over his nearly empty coffee cup, the remaining drops of the dark liquid streaming over the surface.

“Fuck,” he muttered, grabbing the papers to move them out of the way. “Casey! Get in here and bring a towel. Quick.” Jesus, what had gotten into him?

Jackson’s executive assistant, Casey Carver, came flying into his office doorway, a look of bewilderment sketched out across her freckled face. She stood at the edge of his desk, the towel dangling from her hands, her wide, blue eyes scanning the room, possibly looking for the fire to put out.

“Give me the goddamn towel now, Case.”

Jackson felt a tinge of guilt as Casey’s mouth dropped open in shock, his harsh request sounding a lot like the frustration he’d been feeling over the last forty-eight hours, which was now being unfairly heaped on her. And it certainly wasn’t Casey’s fault that he hadn’t slept well the night before, and now couldn’t focus for shit.

All his thoughts were wrapped up in the night he spent with Sasha and how it seemed he couldn’t get her out of his mind.

Jackson whipped the cotton material from Casey’s hands more forcibly then he meant to, and began dabbing at the spilled mess, kicking himself for being such a dumb klutz.

Goddammit, this was not like him. He never let a woman get the best of him or get under his skin. Jackson had always been comfortable with casual relationships and he’d always kept a level head when it came to the opposite sex. It wasn’t as if this thing with Sasha, whatever it was, was something new to him. He’d had one-night stands and never got his undies in a bunch when he and his bed partner went their separate ways the next day.

But then why did this continued longing for Sasha still exist? He fucked it. It was great. They were both satisfied. So what was the issue? Why did he feel like he was left with a gaping hole? It was a holy foreign feeling. Like he was a stranger in a strange land, trying to converse in a language he’d never heard before and didn’t know how to speak.

What was it about Sasha Lee that had him pushing to get near her, even when she resisted and pulled back at every turn? Chasing a woman wasn’t something he had experience with. Truth be told, they normally came on to him. Jackson didn’t view himself as a womanizer or player, looking for more notches on his bedpost, but he wouldn’t refuse an offer to hook-up with a beautiful woman.

And if they had a connection, then by all means, he’d make an effort to see where it led. He loved women, enjoyed their company. Their scent. Their fragility. Their strength. When something felt right with a woman, he’d continue to nurture the connection, and he wasn’t a stranger to relationships, although he wasn’t eager to jump in like he’d done with Abigail - his last committed, monogamous relationship that ended several years before.

Abigail was a flight attendant, whom he’d met on a flight from Boston to New York City on one of his frequent trips to the Big Apple. She was based in Boston, but had grown up in Georgia, which is where she had been working to get back to when they met.

By all accounts, they were good together, and Jackson was good to Abigail. If there was one thing that Jackson Koda was known for, it was giving 110 percent in everything he did – and that included his love life. He never did anything half-assed. He’d treated Abigail like a queen, lavishing her with gifts, fancy dinners, trips to exotic destinations. He’d even fallen in love with her, or thought he had, at least, and was ready to propose when the bottom dropped out.

She’d fallen in love with someone else. Someone she worked with. Someone whom she slept with during her many overnight trips to NYC and DC. Someone whom he had no hopes of competing with – because Abigail’s new love was another woman. Yes, that’s right. It’s hard enough on a man’s ego when he’s jilted by a lover for another man. But to be dumped for a chick? Yeah, that shit stinks. That’s like a kick in the balls with a steel-toed boot.

It wasn’t like he had given up on finding someone new, but he was definitely gun-shy after that experience. So over the last few years, Jackson found himself casually dating and hooking-up here and there, but not looking for anything serious. He just hadn’t found that spark – you know, the one required to know that it’s something special. The one that blows away all semblance of casual and reeks of forever. The type of spark that gets under your skin and lays the groundwork for a slow, incendiary burn that can’t be put out by a couple of quick, blow-your-mind encounters.

And that’s exactly what he felt with Sasha. He couldn’t get her out of his head. The way she spoke. Her scent. Her silky ebony hair. The manner in which she took everything in stride, letting the water fall off her back when things got dicey. She was the complete package. The perfect woman.

But for some reason, Sasha chose to deny him the luxury of really getting to know her on a personal level. She was a tough nut to crack.

Oh, he knew her intimately, all right. Every inch of her body he’d become very acquainted with during their bump-and-grind sessions. And those images replayed in his head every second of the day. On repeat.

Yet, even though Sasha gave freely of her body to him, she closed up like a clam the minute the fucking was over and the clothes were back on. As if an invisible shield went up around her, deflecting all of his advances in establishing something more. Something deeper.

Jackson had always been good at solving problems and putting together puzzles. He enjoyed challenges. The strategy it took and the patience that had to be employed in order to identify the right solutions to the equation were exactly what he loved to do in his professional career. And truth be told, he’d never had to use those same skills when dealing with a woman. They had all been pretty standard “
what you see is what you get
”.

But Sasha? She was an enigma. It was as if there were missing pieces of that puzzle that were so well hidden –locked away in a deep, dark place– so that no one could ever truly get a glimpse at the full picture of who she really was. Did she do that on purpose? Was she scared to get too close to others?

Jackson finished mopping up the liquid from his desk and handed back the towel to Casey, who was still looking a bit befuddled and slightly nervous. The poor sweet girl had never really been exposed to this side of him before. Jackson had always prided himself on being a good boss. Patient. Kind. Generous. And he felt guilty as shit for taking out his frustration on her.

Reaching out to lightly grasp her wrist, her head shifting to look up at him as he said, “Casey, I apologize for snapping at you just now. I didn’t mean it.”

Her small smile and trembling lips continued to drive the knife in his gut, the worry etched over her apple-face. God, he was such a dickhead to make this young woman nervous around him.

“
It
…it’s okay, Mr. Koda,” she muttered softly. “I’m sorry that you’re having a bad day. Do you want me to order you some lunch from that Thai restaurant you love so much? Maybe that will help improve your…I mean, make things better.”

Jackson nearly threw his head back in laughter, but seeing as how Casey stood there looking like a doe-eyed Cindy Lou from Whoville, he held it in and nodded his head.

“Yeah, that would be really nice. Thank you, Casey. And please make sure to get whatever you want, too. In the meantime, do you know where I can find the Phillips and Dodd contract files? I thought they were here somewhere, but I can’t seem to locate them.”

She moved around to the other side of his desk, efficiently flipping through a stack of legal briefs that she’d likely piled there earlier that morning, stopping to pull one out when she landed on it.

“Here you go. I added the tabs where you had me make the corrections last Friday. It’s all there for your review.”

“You’re a superstar, Casey,” he said, giving her a broad smile to ease his guilty mind and with hope that she’d forgive him. “Thanks for putting up with me and taking such good care of things around here. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

His smile nearly faltered when he turned his head to look at Casey. He expected to see a shy smile from the compliment he’d given her and maybe a bright blush across her sweet apple face. Instead, what he found was that she had taken a step closer, her hand landing on top of his, which was still clutching the file, her fingers seductively skimming over his knuckles.

“I’d do anything for you, Mr. Koda.
Anything
.” She purred, her perky breasts brushing the side of his arm, pushing against the tight confines of her sweater. Jackson swallowed and blinked as the flick of her tongue along her bottom lip sent alarm bells blaring in his head.

Jackson dislodged his hand from her, slowly – ever so slowly - like she was a Cobra poised to strike.

“Uh…well, thanks again, Casey. That’ll be all.”

What the actual fuck?

When the hell did this happen? Casey had worked for him over six months and never once had she shown any sexual interest in him – or at least he didn’t think she had. Maybe he had been oblivious to it until now. Perhaps he just had sex on the brain after this weekend with Sasha and he was misinterpreting Casey’s behavior.

He tracked Casey’s half-lidded violet eyes as they raked over his body, her fingertip rubbing a spot at her collarbone, her chest rising and falling with every breath. His dick perked up involuntarily when she moved the fingertip down further, exposing the creamy flesh of her breasts under her parted blouse.

Willing his dick to stand down with images of Fatal Attraction running through his brain, he pressed himself further into the back of his chair, still catching the light apple scent of her shampoo.

Ah shit. Nope, he was definitely not equipped to handle a schoolgirl-like crush from his twenty-two year old assistant.

As young and pretty as she was, and he had noted to himself on several occasions in the past that she did hold a sweet appeal, Jackson was not going to touch that with a ten-foot pole. You don’t shit where you eat. Or fuck your administrative assistants. Or do anything that could get your ass sued in a second by a potentially destructive office relationship.

Mitch chose that exact moment to come barreling through Jackson’s office door, his cell phone pinned to his ear as his eyes scanned what was happening before him. His friend’s face registered shock, and then curiosity, before returning to his usual indiscernible expression. Jackson knew what it looked like. Casey was practically in the process of giving him a lap dance.

Jackson couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle, shrugging his shoulders in his defense.

You and me both, bro
.

Seeing Mitch in the doorway, Casey must have come to her senses and jumped back, allowing Jackson an opportunity to exhale the breath he’d been holding. Wanting to save Casey from any further embarrassment, he thanked her again, waving the file in her direction as she slinked toward the door with her head down, briefly saying good-bye to Mitch as she passed him, shutting the door behind her as she walked out.

Mitch ended his call and sat down, the look on his face a mixture of surprise, censure and disapproval.

“What the fuck, man? Casey? Since when?”

Jackson sat back into his chair and closed his eyes, one hand scrubbing down his face, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Since never,” he huffed emphatically. “I have no idea what that was about. One minute she’s handing me a file I was searching for and the next thing I know she’s like a cat in heat and rubbing up against me like I’m catnip. Fuck me.”

Mitch tapped his chin with his phone, seemingly contemplating the situation, his eyes assessing Jackson in a discerning glare.

Giving a half-hearted chuckle, he said, “Apparently that’s exactly what she wants to do, man. But it’s good to know you’re smart enough not to fuck around in the office.”

When Jackson gave him a scowl and the middle finger, Mitch just laughed and continued.

“Hell man, I know you wouldn’t. Don’t get your titties in a twist. But shit, you’re single.
Apparently
handsome by some standards,” he joked, rolling his eyes and curling his lip into a smirk. “Of course a young hottie like Casey would be interested. She sees you every day and you treat her well. Why wouldn’t she develop a crush on you?”

“Because I have never given her any indication that I was interested, is why. Fuck you very much.”

Mitch crossed a leg, picking invisible lint from his well-tailored pant leg, considering the situation. “Perhaps you need to prove that a little more adamantly by getting a social life and start actively dating someone. Maybe if you weren’t so
available
, she’d get the hint.”

Jackson thought back over the weekend, spending alone time with Sasha. He didn’t want to keep the secret rendezvous from his best friend, but was well aware of Sasha’s need to keep their affair undercover. He didn’t like it, but respected it.

“I have a fucking social life, you douche. And I date.”