A Gentleman in the Street (35 page)

His hands moved over her skirt, shoving it to the floor, removing the remnants of her shirt and bra. The chilly air blowing in from the open door made goose bumps rise along her skin, but she couldn’t care when his hot chest pressed against hers.

Her fingers worked the fastening of his jeans. When they were both naked, he picked her up, her legs automatically winding around his narrow hips.

“Fuck me,” she murmured.

A slow, evil smile spread over Jacob’s face. “Oh no, my greedy girl. First we make love.”

“I hate making love,” Akira gasped.

Jacob chuckled, so happy he could burst. His heart hadn’t felt so light in weeks, not since he had woken up and discovered Akira missing from her massive bed.

Now she was back though, in
his
massive bed, and damn it, this time he meant to make her so damn blissful she stopped fretting over silly things like whether she was good enough for him.

He needed a sweet, kind, gentle woman? Maybe. Sometimes. But he had found that in Akira. He wanted her.

He wasn’t entirely certain she believed him yet. He would make her see. He would make her see they were perfect for each other.

Perfect in every way. His toes dug into the mattress. He was buried completely inside her, ass tight, sweat pouring off him, every muscle clenched. All of those were great things, but at some crazy point, he had decided that the best thing he could do was not move.

She thumped his shoulder. She didn’t have much upper-body strength, but her small fist was bony, so it did make him wince. Unwilling to give in so easily to his hungry woman—his woman, that was absurd and exciting all at once—Jacob only readjusted his palms on either side of her head and looked down at her, his lips curved. “I finished my contracted book, you know. The last couple of weeks, I’ve been working nonstop on my new series. Lidia’s shaping up nicely.”

“Great,” she gritted out between her teeth. “Can we talk about this later?”

“She’s lusty, my heroine,” he said brightly, deliberately ignoring her. “I was toying with this idea of a scene where she’s experimenting with tantric sex.”

“Does she love it?”

“Yes.”

She panted. “Well, I can already see she’s not modeled after me. Quit it now.”

“Patience,” he soothed. He ducked his head, capturing her lips, licking the seam and mimicking the thrusts she wanted him to replicate with his lower body.

She ripped her mouth away, her chest moving up and down with the force of her need. “I’m not patient.”

“I know.” He made his smile deliberately sweet. “But I am. I could stay like this forever.”

The words weren’t a lie. It might kill him, but he would die happy.

Her groan was tortured.

His head lowered. “I could be persuaded to move.”

“What do you want? A blowjob? A threesome? A foursome? So many sexual partners it would be absurd to count?” she asked hopefully.

“No.” Wait.
You idiot. Don’t turn down those things.
“I mean, yes. But what I really want, more than anything in the world…” his whisper was so soft, she had to strain up to hear it, “…is for you to tell me what an amazing person you are. Worthy of everything. Especially love.”

The lines around her mouth deepened. “Don’t be cheesy, Campbell. It doesn’t become you.”

“Okay. I suppose I could stay here and never move.”

She dropped her head to the pillow. “You patient, manipulative asshole.”

Smug satisfaction made him grin. “Yeah, I am.” He gave a subtle roll of his hips, and she gasped. “You made me admit I deserve a life of my own. You need to admit you deserve love.”

Akira swallowed hard, her throat working. “You make me come, and I’ll tell you.”

He raised his eyebrow. “You’re mistaken as to who’s in charge here.”

“Am I?” Cunning replaced some of the lust in her gaze, and his eyes almost rolled back in his head when she tightened her pussy on him. She clenched again, and again, pushing her hips up so he could sink a tiny bit deeper. “Maybe you’re mistaken.”

She worked her hand between them so she could fondle her breast. His eyes tracked her fingers on her nipple, the way she toyed with the brown nubbin. “Do you like that?” she crooned. “How hot and tight you’ve made me?”

He watched her through slitted eyes, aware his control was slipping right out of his fingers. “You know I do.”

“Only you can do that. I don’t get this wet for anyone else.”

A shudder ran through him, a shudder that made her smile triumphantly.

“Make me come, Jacob. I’ll give you anything you want.”

The words were so seductive, he couldn’t resist any longer. With a low groan, he succumbed, thrusting into her hard, until her cries echoed throughout the cabin.

He collapsed on top of her. Ragged nails scratched up his back, the gauze on her hands tickling him. Her lips pressed against his ear. “I guess… I’m worthy of love.”

He closed his eyes, exultation shooting through him. He felt only a twinge of guilt over the small lie he’d told in that note.

I could love you.

Such a tiny lie. One extra, unnecessary word he’d forced himself to write because he was worried he’d scare her off otherwise.

Soon, he assured himself, he would come clean soon.

He brushed a kiss against her lips. “Thank you,” he whispered.

“We’re going to be late.”

Jacob smiled and leaned his head against the railing of the porch, not taking his eyes off the sun setting over the treetops. “We won’t be late. Why don’t you come sit here for a minute?”

Akira gave a sigh and came to stand next to him. “I will not have your sister hate me because you don’t get to her play on time. Well. Hate me more than she already hates me.”

“She doesn’t hate you. She told you where I was.”

“Let’s not read too much into that.”

“We’ll be on time. These are our last few minutes before we have to go back to civilization. Enjoy them.”

Just like that, she softened. They’d been spoiled by the last three days of total isolation, and neither of them was particularly looking forward to returning to the city. Too bad they both had unavoidable obligations there.

She stared at him meaningfully until he glanced up and rolled his eyes. “It’s my last clean shirt, Akira.”

She folded her arms over her chest. His lips twisted, and he grasped his white T-shirt, pulling it over his head in a smooth motion. He arranged the cotton material on the stoop next to him.

Instead of plopping herself down, she gingerly placed her Birkin bag on the makeshift blanket. His exasperated sigh turned into an amused laugh when she landed in his lap. His arms automatically encircled her and tugged her closer.

She pressed her head against his strong shoulder. A part of her realized she ought to be a little concerned over how second nature hugging Jacob had become.
Where’s the steel in your spine? The ice in your veins?

Eh. It was still there. Ready to be used when she needed it.

She didn’t need it when Jacob had his arms wrapped around her. When it was clear he was as mushy for her as she was for him.

“It’s probably a good thing we have to go back to the city tonight for Kati’s show,” he said drowsily. “We’re running out of food. Then we’d really be roughing it.”

“The food I brought with me would have lasted two normal people over a week.”

“You know better than that.”

That she did. Akira ran her hand over his flat belly. The fact that it was flat was a miracle. “Glutton.”

“The only reason it lasted this long is because we had other things to occupy us.”

Many glorious things. Akira had only pushed Jacob off her occasionally, to check in with her office and make sure her business was functioning without her. Anderson had sent her multiple apologetic emails, and according to Tammy, had been calling nonstop, ready to finalize their deal.

Akira suspected someone had sent the pompous asshole a fat dossier of her father’s greatest moments, aside from his notorious sex tape. A hard smile crossed her face. On a related note, Tammy deserved a bonus.

However, Anderson, that old bastard, could sweat it out until Monday. She was busy. Delightfully busy.

Jacob was her match in bed, maybe more insatiable than she was, but it was their conversations that made her realize they were perfect for one another. Like last night, when she had announced that she would pay for Kati’s outstanding tuition as recompense for her grandmother’s box.

“The hell you will,” Jacob had calmly responded.

“I will.” Akira licked a stray crumb off his chest. The dangers of eating in bed, but they hadn’t managed to leave the lumpy king-sized mattress much.

“I told you I’m not taking your money, and you said—”

“I promised not to write you a check.”

“You’re splitting hairs.”

“If it makes you feel better, I’m also establishing a need-based scholarship in my grandmother’s name to go to another incoming freshman. That one will be a full ride.”

His lips had pursed. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. If and only if you let me pay for Kati.” She batted her eyes at him, loving the irritation on his face. “How do you feel about yanking a scholarship away from someone who might not be able to go to college otherwise, Mr. Softy?”

“You wouldn’t do that to some poor kid.”

“Of course I would. Like I care about some stranger I don’t even know.”

Irritation was replaced by craftiness, which should have warned her. “I’ll accept this deal, but I want you to pay for two additional incoming freshmen, not one.”

She snorted. “What do I look like, I’m made of money? We’re talking a private school.”

“I realize your shoe budget might take a hit, but you’ll manage,” he said ruthlessly. “One more thing. That second scholarship is offered under
your
name.”

She recoiled. Her name on a scholarship? She donated plenty to charity, but never in ways that traced back to her. It would utterly ruin her image. “Ew. No.”

“Mmm-hmm.” He stacked his hands under his head. “Or no deal.”

She fumed for a brief moment. “I was a little too cartoon villainy, wasn’t I?”

“Yeah. Plus there’s the fact that you really, obviously want to pay my sister back. And you would never start negotiations at the number you were actually going to settle on. How many kid’s educations were you planning on funding?”

“At least three,” she admitted grudgingly.

“Hmm. Three it is, then. Two will be under your name.”

When she opened her mouth to protest—the name part, not the number—he raised a single eyebrow. “Or the deal’s off the table.”

She smiled now. Never would she have imagined she’d have to negotiate to get someone to
take
her money.

Her phone buzzed in her purse. Akira ignored it. When they returned to the real world, they would have to deal with their work and families, but not now. Akira ran her finger over Jacob’s nipple, which was tight from the chill in the spring air. He pressed an absentminded kiss on top of her head. Right now, in this moment, the world was theirs.

“Where are you going to take me for dinner when we get back?” he asked, his mind obviously still on food.

“Dinner?” Akira tugged at his chest hair. “It’s your job to bring me dinner, peasant.”

“Nope. You have to take me to dinner. That was the deal.”

“What deal?”

“I open the box in the allotted time, you take me out on a date.”

“I bought all the groceries that have kept us fed for days,” she pointed out.

“What do I look, cheap? I want a real dinner, woman.”

“Ugh. Fine. I’ll take you somewhere fancy. With big portions.”

His smile was sleepy. He rubbed his cheek against her hair. “I never asked. What was inside of it, anyway? Your grandmother’s puzzle box.”

“Oh.” She leaned back so she could see his face better. “I thought you knew. After all that work you did, you didn’t peek?”

“No. What was inside wasn’t as important as the chance that puzzle gave me to spend time with you. Plus, I couldn’t look before you did.” He gave her a look as if he was surprised she would even think he would be sneaky. That honor of his.

She wriggled her finger at him. “This. It’s much easier to lug around than the box.”

He took her hand to touch the ring she had donned after her shower. “Wow. I can see how this would be worth a couple of college tuitions.”

While the gold setting was real, the sparkling pink and clear jewels were paste, something she had noticed right away. Then again, not everyone grew up learning skills like jewelry valuation. She opened her mouth to correct him, but stopped when she replayed his words in her head.

Huh. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt him to think the stones were real. It wasn’t lying, Akira reassured herself. She was merely delaying providing clarification. Like, after she’d cut the check for Kati. Then she could point out he had made a deal, damn it, and the sentimental value of the box was definitely worth a few scholarships even if the ring was a fake.

She was already looking forward to the argument.

“Only the ring was inside?”

“No. There was also this.” Loath to move from her comfortable seat, she stretched to reach into her bag, her hand brushing against his note. It wasn’t necessary since she now had the real thing, but she would keep it. Maybe she would tuck it into her grandmother’s box, since she had so few sentimental items to fill it with.

Then when she wanted to get to it, she would push the puzzle into Jacob’s hands, sit back, and watch his capable, patient fingers manipulate every panel. Foreplay.

Akira pulled out a small card case from her purse, flipping the engraved silver lid open to reveal a photo of her grandmother, young and beautiful, her arms thrown around a man who was staring down at her with undisguised adoration.

He took the case and studied the photo, his face softening. “You look like her.”

Delight filled her. “Really?”

“Don’t you see it?”

“I thought there was a slight resemblance, but…” Akira lifted a shoulder. “People say I take after my father.”

“You’re tall like him, but that’s about it. Look. The eyes, the chin. Her mouth. Her hands. Her legs, except yours are longer.”