ROMANCING THE BULLDOG (2 page)

his throat. “I said,” Jason repeated, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Fritz heeded his warning this time and allowed him to take Liz, kicking and screaming,

away with him.

“Isn’t anybody going to help her?” Amber implored to the quickly disinterested crowd, but

everybody went back to their own business as if nothing had just transpired. When Amber

looked to Sean for help, Sean, to his dismay, had his head lobbed backwards and was now

asleep. “You are such a loser!” she yelled at him.

Liz was yelling too, only her angst was not at the disinterested crowd, or at Fritz and Sean,

but at her rescuer, who was merciless in dragging her out of the club. “Let me go!” she

yelled. “I told you I wasn’t going anywhere with you! This is my going-away celebration and

it doesn’t have anything to do with you!” Before they could clear the exit, she had managed to

escape Jason’s hold.

Jason looked at her. To most observers she was nothing more than an obnoxious, spoiled

brat. But Jason knew better. Hamp didn’t spoil his kids. She was an individual who did what

she wanted to do and didn’t take crap from anybody, a trait Jason liked about her. But not

tonight.

He grabbed her by the arm again and began dragging her once more, still kicking and

screaming, out of the club. When they were outside and was standing beside his car, he slung

her around to make sure she saw his face.

“You listen to me, young lady, and you listen good,” he made clear. “I’m not your Daddy,

I’m not your brother, I’m not those flunky little friends of yours that bow to your every

command. I will kick your natural ass if you don’t get in this car and get in it now. And if you

don’t believe me, try me.
Please
try me.” He opened the car door. “Now get in!” he

ordered.

Liz still had fight in her, still had that serious ‘tude going strong, but she’d heard about

Bulldog Rascone. He was a lawyer, an officer of the court, but he had gangster written all

over him. And was known to give any thug as good as he got. That was why she didn’t go

too far with her umbrage. That was why she got into his car and allowed him to drive her, in

silence and in blinding speed, to his place of residence, a place that was far away from where

she had planned to spend her night of reckless abandon.

***

beautiful condominium complex on the banks of the Saint John’s River. Once inside the

parking garage, he got her out of the car and once again took control of her, placing her hand

firmly in his.

“You don’t have to hold my hand like I’m going to run away or something,” she insisted.

“Now why would I ever think that a sweet little innocent child such as yourself would ever

dream of running away from me?” He said this sarcastically as he slung her along, into the

elevator, all the way up to the penthouse apartment he called home. He was still holding her

hand when he entered that home, slammed the door, and headed for the bedroom.

“Are you always this insufferable?” Liz asked as he all but dragged her along. “
Well
?” she

asked him again as he continued to walk and said nothing. It wasn’t that she was repulsed by

him. She wasn’t. He wasn’t tall, but he was compact, muscular, with a head full of brownish-

blonde hair that swept to the nape of his neck, a thick, brown mustache that made him look

older than his years, wide, bright eyes as blue as the ocean was deep. She’d always found

Jason Rascone attractive whenever she’d see him around Big D’s or sometimes at their home

for dinner. But he was her father’s attorney, his right hand man, which rendered him, in Liz’s

eyes, as cuddly as a cactus.

“I know you heard me,” she said when he still wouldn’t respond. “I said, are you always

this insufferable?” When Jason continued to ignore her, she demurred. “I’ll bet this is exactly

why they call you Bulldog. You’re bull-headed!”

When they arrived in his bedroom, a massive master suite, he slung her away from him.

“Get out of those clothes,” he said, “and get into bed.”

Liz’s already big eyes stretched. “Excuse me?” When Jason wouldn’t, she placed her hand

on her hip. “And where do you plan to sleep?”

“At the White House,” Jason replied snidely. “Where do you think? And before you

mention any guest room, forget about it because I don’t have one. This is a one bedroom

apartment.”

“Then I’ll sleep in the living room.”

“No, you won’t. I don’t trust you in my living room.”

This surprised Liz. She looked at him sidelong. “Like why not? Because you think I’ll

steal something?”

“Yes,” Jason admitted, taking off his jacket. “I think you’ll steal away to be with your loser

friends, and I’m not taking that chance. When you get on that plane for Harvard and you’re

out of my hair, do whatever you please. Party hardy and steal away to the ends of the earth

for all I care. But until that moment arrives, you are staying in my eye sight and at my side. I

was in bed asleep when Wilkes called me, trying to get some rest after a grueling day of work.

I don’t need this shit. And I want no more surprises and no more interruptions.”

“But what about me?” Liz wanted to know. “What makes you think I can trust you? I

don’t know you like that.”

“Oh, come off it, Elizabeth. Your father trusts me with his life.”

“That’s my father. I don’t know you like that. And besides, you’re still a man.”

Jason grinned. “No, am I? Really?”

Liz was amazed at how gorgeous he looked when he smiled. But he still irritated her. “Yes,

really.”

“So what’s your deal? You don’t like men?”

“That’s not what I’m saying.”

“Well, whatever you’re saying, get out of those clothes and say it in bed.”

Liz could not believe the nerve of this guy. “I’m not sleeping in here with you!” she

decried. “Why can’t you take me home? Why can’t I sleep in my own bed?”

Jason slung his t-shirt over his head, revealing tight, ribbed abs, then balled it up and tossed

it in a nearby chair. “Elizabeth,” he said in a voice she could tell meant a snide remark was

about to roll out, “I trust you about as far as I can spit you. And I don’t spit. I want you

naked and in this bed beside me so I can keep an eye on your club hopping butt. You will not

get out of my sight again until I have you on that plane for Cambridge, Mass. That’s what

your father asked me to do, and that’s what I’m going to do. If you don’t like it, tough. I

don’t give a damn. But you will get in this bed and you will get in it now.”

“But what if I wish to take a shower?”

“You showered before you left home tonight, didn’t you?”

“Of course I showered!”

“You haven’t done anything to need another one. Now take off those clothes or I’ll take

them off for you.”

“Why I got to take off my clothes? I’m not taking off my clothes.”

“Yes, I’m afraid you are.”

“But
why
? I’m not going anywhere! You already spoiled the fun.”

This angered Jason more. “Fun? What the hell kind of fun was that, letting some lowlife

like that yahoo slobber all over you?”

“It was my last night before I have to go away and. . .”

A sadness came over her that stumped Jason. He shook his head. “I don’t get you. You

make it sound like you’re going away on a tour to Iraq somewhere. You’re going to Harvard,

lady. Harvard! Do you know how many kids would die to get into that school? And you’re

acting like it’s a prison sentence you’ve got to serve!”

“It is,” she said with a frown. “But whatever.”

Jason continued to stare at her. He never understood people like her. They have everything

they need, but it’s never what they want. “Whatever is right,” he said, unbuttoning his pants.

“Get in bed.”

Liz rolled her eyes, but began removing clothes too, her halter top first. “When Daddy

hears about this--”

“He’ll thank me for my sacrifices.”

“You are such an asshole!” Liz yelled.

Jason grinned. “No, am I really?”

Liz slung off her shirt and then stepped out of her mini-skirt. What remained were her

panties and bra.

Jason had to feign disinterest when he saw her lithe, beautiful brown body, although his loins

began to throb. “All of it, kido,” he said, unzipping his pants. “The full monty.”

“But this doesn’t make any sense. Why do I have to take off everything?”

“It’ll be that much harder for you to slip out of here.”

“But where am I going like this, in my bra and my panties, just tell me that?”

“Okay, that’s it,” Jason said, moving toward Liz. “You’ve interfered with my sleep long

enoItugh, young lady.” He rammed her against him.

“What are you doing?” she protested as he turned her around, unclasped her bra in the

back, removed it, and then turned her back around to face him, her large breasts dangling as he

swung her around. Liz smiled when his eyes moved down and lingered on her chest.

But she didn’t have time to lap it up because Jason kept going, slinging down her panties and

then lifting her, causing her panties to drop to the floor, as he tossed her onto his bed.

“You are such a brute!” she yelled, her small, naked body wiggling. “I don’t know how

Daddy can stand you!”

“Because he’s a brute, too,” Jason said, looking at her nakedness. “Because me and your

old man understand each other.”

When Liz saw that he was staring at her body, admiringly so, she pulled the covers over her

and turned her back to him. He laughed. When she turned back around, lying on her back,

and saw that Jason was unzipping his jeans, she wondered why did he have to undress, too.

But she immediately forgot about the why and focused on the wow when he stepped out of his

jeans and revealed the fullness of his own lithe body.

Everything she’d imagined about him in the few times she’d see him was true, but so much

more. And his supersized manhood, to her shock, just hung there like a dangling participle,

getting stiffer and thicker the harder she looked at it. It wasn’t until she looked up and realized

that Jason was looking at her, and grinning at her, did she angrily turn her back to him and lay

on her side.

Jason continued to grin as he got into bed. At least now she knew that she wasn’t dealing

with any of those losers she hung out with. At least now she understood that he was a big boy,

in
every
way, and she’d do well to stay on guard and forget about any plans she may have had

to tip back out to meet up with that crowd. He was given an order, and he aimed to fulfill it.

That was why he relaxed. With her lying here, naked beside him, gave him the control. Her

plane was scheduled to leave at eleven in the morning. He’d already told Wilkes to be at his

place by seven to pick her up, take her home to get her luggage, and then personally escort her

to her plane. “And don’t leave,” he’d warned Wilkes, “until she’s safely in the sky and far

away from us.” That would be the end of his promise to Hamp. And one thing about Bulldog

Rascone: he always kept his promises.

He lay quietly on his back, with the beautiful Elizabeth Morgan within reach of him. He

couldn’t help but smile at the way she stared at his jonnie, as if she’d never seen the sight of a

man with a hard-on before. Which, he knew, given her wildness, given the company she kept,

was ridiculous. And equally ridiculous, he realized, was the fact that he did have a hard-on,

and it got harder and harder the longer she stared at it. He liked the way she looked at him, the

way her gorgeous, smoky eyes seemed to drink up every inch of him. He wondered how her

perfectly puckered lips would feel around his thick . . .

Nonsense
! he said to himself. This was Hamp’s daughter, not some street corner whore!

Hamp catch him even thinking about his daughter’s mouth on any part of his manhood and

he’d be done for. Him and his career. Hamp was an old dinosaur whose influence was more

on the wane than blazing hot, but a bad word from him still could bring an up-and-comer

down.

So both Liz and Jason tried to sleep, but neither could fully pull it off. Liz kept thinking

about her father, which, she realized, was becoming more and more common after she had

turned eighteen. Sometimes her father behaved as if he hated her. But what she couldn’t

understand was why? What had she ever done to him? She did almost everything he ever

wanted her to do, she just did it her way. He told her to hang out with rich kids, because they