A Gentleman in the Street (33 page)

Akira knew immediately the necklace Kati was referring to. Once Akira had become an adult, she rarely saw Mei outside of parties or gatherings, where she wore flashier though still tasteful jewelry.

But when Akira had been a child, Mei had often worn that simple piece.

“I know it,” Akira replied. “I’ll put it aside for you.”

“Thanks. I’d really like that.”

The suppressed emotion had Akira glancing sharply at the girl. “You loved her.”

“Yeah.” Kati’s lips twisted. “I mean, I don’t think she loved me like a daughter or anything. I don’t think I even loved her like my mother. But she taught me how to put on makeup one day, and we would watch soaps together, and…I don’t know. She could be really awesome. We were kind of close by the end there.”

Akira stopped at the front door. She studied the heavy frames that had been arranged on the walls. No original Monets in them, but the prints were serene watercolors that urged her to curl up in the comfortable home.

“At the end…” Akira said, hating herself for asking, but something within her desperately needing to know. “She was a little softer? Less guarded?”

“She was.”

“Did she talk about me at all?”

Kati flushed to the roots of her hair. This time, it was her turn to study the walls. “Ah, she did but—”

It was nothing Akira would want to hear. Probably things Akira had heard for years when the woman was alive.

There would be no deathbed declaration of love for her. “Never mind. Forget I asked.” The polished brass doorknob turned easily in her hand.

“I called you a slut, you know.”

That brought her to a halt. She cast a glance over her shoulder at the teenager. “Excuse me?”

The girl’s fair skin must have been scalding hot, she was blushing so hard. “I still feel bad. That’s what I owe you for. Don’t worry,” she said hurriedly. “Jacob punished me. I didn’t know you two were involved, so maybe he was extra mad.”

Warmth chased through her, singeing away the cold. That day, in her library, when she had questioned Jacob as to why he and Kati were on the outs, he hadn’t been able to look her in the eye. No wonder.
She was unkind to someone I care about.

Akira turned to face the younger girl. “That was before we were…involved.”

“Oh.”

“I’m sorry you were punished. I don’t much mind being called a bitch, or a whore, or a slut,” she informed Kati gently. “Those words usually mean the person saying them thinks I’m too rich or too smart or I’m having too much fun. But I think your brother has a moral streak that doesn’t allow him to see things the way I do sometimes.”

“Yeah.” Kati looked down at her feet. “Whether you mind or not, I think he’d like me to apologize to you. I shouldn’t have said it. I guess I was with Mei so much, and—”

“Apology accepted,” Akira cut her off, not eager to dwell on all the names her parent called her.

Still staring at her feet, Kati mumbled, “He’s like my dad, you know. Those other two idiots, they’re my brothers. But Jacob’s basically my dad. I hate that he’s hurting.”

Akira wasn’t adept at handling children. She could safely say there wasn’t a maternal bone in her svelte body.

But even she couldn’t remain unaffected by that pronouncement. She cleared her throat, filing the moment away so she could recount it for Jacob. If and when he took her back. “Yeah. I know.”

“So if you guys get together and he’s happy…” Kati shrugged. “I don’t think we’ll be best friends, probably, but I’ll try not to be jealous and mean. Because you’re right. He deserves more than taking care of us for the rest of his life.”

The lukewarm acceptance was more than she could have expected, especially since Mei had most likely poisoned the girl for years against her. Akira opened the door. “Thanks. I appreciate that.”

Kati bit her lip, suddenly looking very young. “Jacob calls me every night. But when you see him, could you maybe remind him opening night for my school play is this Friday? I didn’t want to pressure him, but I want him to be there.”

Akira murmured her agreement. She had made it down the stairs to the street when she heard her name behind her.

She turned, her hand on the railing. “Yes?”

Kati’s smile was bright, the first genuine grin Akira had seen out of the girl since she was a child. “I remembered something. You asked if Mei mentioned you at the end.”

Akira immediately shook her head. The last thing she needed to take with her to Jacob was the demoralizing memory of her mother telling Kati she was a slut.

She’d told Kati the truth—the names generally didn’t bother her much. Her mother simply had a unique ability to be the exception to that rule, always. Her opinion, Akira had cared about. Hers and Jacob’s. “That’s—”

“Once Mei was talking about your dad, and she said there was nothing more wonderful then the fact that you were more successful than he was.”

Something clenched in her chest, making it difficult to breathe. “Really?”

“Yup.”

It wasn’t a deathbed declaration of love.

But it was something.

By the time Akira pulled her car to a stop at the cabin, she sorely wished that it hadn’t been her driver who had betrayed her. This second leg of Operation Find the Brooding Author had been particularly tiring. The sun was starting to set, and her emotional and physical exhaustion was making itself known.

She turned the car off and stared at the small house, half-fearing the Campbell siblings had lied or alerted Jacob to her imminent arrival. Jacob’s car wasn’t anywhere to be seen. The clearing was quiet and abandoned.

He could have parked around the side of the place, she told herself, and clambered out of the car. Her heels sank immediately into the earth, which was damp from recent rain. She glanced down, idly noting they were the same pair she’d tossed to Jacob when they were ducking paparazzi and escaping from her second-story office window.

Not even her favorite shoes were safe from the memory of the man.

Dismissing the mud clinging to the narrow heel with a never-before-seen blithe disregard for her precious footwear, she reached into the backseat to grab the paper bag she’d stowed there. Shifting the weight to one arm, she took a deep breath before making her way to the front door, her shoes sticking in the dirt.

Akira opened the screen door and tapped lightly on the wood.

Nothing. She rapped harder.

Nope.

Akira hesitated, torn between returning to the relatively safe haven of her car and barging in.

Barging in was her M.O., right? No reason to stop now, when she’d come so far.

The knob turned easily in her hand when she tried it. She stepped inside cautiously. “Hello?” she called out, hating the note of uncertainty in her voice. “Jacob?”

The cabin was silent.

Gaining confidence, Akira stepped inside the home, balancing the bag in her arms, and closed the door behind her. “Jacob? It’s me.” The open door meant he was home, right? Or was he so trusting he left the damn thing unlocked all the time?

If so, they really would need to have a serious talk about his lack of security.

She stepped into the tiny kitchen and dropped the bulging bag filled with food on the chipped countertop, casting a glance at the coffeepot, which was filled with black, sludge-like liquid. She placed her hand against the pot. Still warm. He couldn’t have gotten far.

A noise reached her ears, muted by the thickness of the cabin walls, and she briefly closed her eyes. Well, why wouldn’t he be chopping wood? Full circle. Maybe it was her fate to always be forced to face him when she was fatigued and he was dripping sweat and engaging in an appropriately sexy activity.

After she stowed her purse carefully in the cabinet next to the bookshelves—she adored the expensive handbag itself to pieces, but between her grandmother’s treasures and Jacob’s note, it now contained her most precious possessions—she followed the noise to the clearing she had found Jacob in the first time she had come to this place.

Sweaty palms were not a regular experience for her. Neither was uncertainty. Yet Akira had to battle both as she caught sight of the man she was seeking. Stripped to the waist, his bronzed skin glistening, he brought the ax down ferociously on a helpless log. Hastily, she wiped her hands on her hopelessly wrinkled skirt.

Her heart pounded, her breath coming faster. Thirty feet separated them, then twenty. Then fifteen. She halted, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, her shoes ruined beyond all repair.
Say something.

Fear strangled her, stealing her voice.

Another faltering foot and he looked her way. Dark hair fell into his eyes, and he gave an impatient shake of his head, as if to both clear his eyes and express disbelief at what he was seeing.

They stared at each other across the distance separating them for a long minute.

Akira wasn’t sure how expensive Jacob’s ax was, but she bet he was a man who took care of his tools. He barely paid attention to where he dropped the thing on the ground. In the cool air, steam rose from his sweaty shoulders. His hands opened and closed at his sides, his chest pumping with the force of his breaths.

His first step was slow, as was his second, but his stride increased with every move, until he was standing directly in front of her, close enough she could trace the individual lashes on his eyes.

“What the hell,” he shouted, startling both her and probably every bird within earshot, “took you so fucking long?”

She was aware her mouth had fallen half open. Jacob was capable of yelling? Automatic defensiveness made her stand up straight. “It hasn’t been that long.”

“Not that long?” The muscle in his jaw jumped. “One more day, Akira. One more day, and I would have hunted you down.”

Hunting didn’t sound terrible. She had a feeling Jacob could have made it a sexy hunt. “You said you wouldn’t chase me.”

“I lied, okay?” He raked his hands through his disheveled hair and took a deep breath, making a visible effort to bring himself under control. “I fucking lied. Of course I would chase you. Of course I would beg you to give us a chance. How am I…what am I supposed to do when I can’t
function
without you?”

Like butter, she melted. He couldn’t function without her? “I—”

“I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. My dick is raw from my stroking it, thinking of you.”

Her belly tightened. How on earth did he make that last sentence sound so damn romantic? “I had to figure some stuff out…”

His lips firmed. “And did you figure it out?”

“Yes. Jacob…” That was all she managed to say before huge hands closed over her upper arms, and she was yanked forward for a soul-searing kiss. His palms slid down her back as his tongue fucked her mouth, his fingers tracing the individual bumps of her spine and settling over her ass. His fingers squeezed, pulling her closer to him.

He growled when she ripped her mouth away. His eyes were hot, dark with need. His hand wrapped around her neck, his thumb settling at the vulnerable hollow of her throat. “I need to fuck you,” he said, distinct and deliberate. “That clear?”

Oookay. Her knees weakened, both at the words and the hint of pleading in them. She gave him a slow smile, designed to maintain his impressive level of lust. “Then do it already.”

He made a rough noise and took her mouth again, ferocious in his hunger. It took him seconds to shred her shirt and her bra, his hands running over her breasts and stomach. Her back came up against something hard, and he released her long enough to flip her around. Her hands automatically rose to protect her face from the tree bark. Calloused fingertips caught on the fine fabric of her skirt as he worked it over her ass.

She closed her eyes tight, listening to the sound of foil wrinkling as he donned a condom. “Been carrying a condom with me all the time,” he said, his voice almost soundless. “I knew I’d need to be inside you the second I saw you.”

What could she say to that? Bless his practical brain.

His body layered over hers, his sweat binding their flesh together. His first thrust made her teeth rattle. She dug her fingers into the tree, uncaring about the hell she was putting her manicure through.

She wasn’t wet enough to take him easily, but the bite of pain was delicious. He worked his thick cock inside her cunt, forcing her open, followed by the drag of flesh on flesh as he withdrew.

Jacob wrapped one hand in her hair, twisting the strands around his fist until he had a solid grip. He tilted her head back, his breath tickling her ear. “What do you want?”

She whimpered as he flexed his hips, sinking back into her. “More.”

“More of this?” He thrust hard and fast a number of times, making her body tremble and her hands scramble against the tree for purchase before he returned to his slow, shallow thrusts. “Or this?”

“Yes. Harder,” she breathed.

“Want to tie you up to this tree. Come out and fuck you whenever I want,” he panted. “Would you like that?”

Her pussy clenched over the cock shafting her. “Yes.”

“You’d be my fuck-toy.”

Shameless.
That’s what she’d made him. “God, Jacob.” She reached behind her to grab his hip, her fingers glancing over his slick skin before her wrist was grasped. He slammed her hand over her head, against the tree, and manacled both of her wrists in his unforgiving hold
.

“I give it to you,” he growled. “You take it. Understand?”

“I’m sorry,” she babbled. “Give it to me, please.”

He shoved himself deep, the fat head of his cock bumping a sweet spot inside her. When she cried out, he kept himself there, grinding his hips in slow circles. “Have you ever fucked a man bare?”

She couldn’t respond. Not when he was working her G-spot as if his cock had been made for her pussy. She shook her head.

“I’ve only gone without that one time, when I was a kid. I don’t even remember it, too much bad shit came after.” His breath came in gusts against her shoulder. “Will you let me, one day? Fuck you without anything between us?”

How was he capable of speaking? She arched back against him, but he was already as deep as he could go. If only he would thrust…