Favorite Places (A TroubleMaker Novel, #2) (17 page)

“Chase,” she
whispered. The soft sound rippled through him.

Alerted by that
tender voice and the passionate gleam in her eyes, Chase’s body turned rigid.
Her hand reached up and slithered around his nape. She pressed herself against
him. He gazed down at her and waited.

He hadn’t expected
her to kiss him gently on the lips. It was over in a heartbeat, but that second
was packed with desire and profound anticipation. Still, he didn’t respond. He
didn’t kiss her back. When she withdrew, it took everything in him not to slam
her against the bathroom door, rip her clothes off, and sink his hands into her
body. It was almost impossible to hold back from sinking his cock deep inside
of her from giving her everything, including his heart.

“What do you
want, Jess?” He glanced down at her mouth, and then looked up. She innocently gazed
back at him. He wasn’t fooled. The gold-digging feline was hiding somewhere behind
that sweet, angelic façade. To save himself, he needed to turn on heartless
right then. If he didn’t, he’d be powerless against Jess and all her sweet wholesomeness.
Maybe he should just fuck her and get her out of his system. Fuck that false
sweetness right out of her. Yeah, that’s exactly what he needed to do.

“I’ll tell ya
what. When Hannah leaves, we’ll renegotiate, but until then, you need to keep
your claws to yourself.”

Her hand slipped
from his nape. “Renegotiate?”

He rolled his
shoulders, already missing the warm touch on his neck. “About the sex.”

“Oh.” She slowly
comprehended, and her eyebrows slanted inward. “There’s no need to. I’ve
decided that without the presence of your heart, I don’t want to have sex with
you. And seeing it’s out of here the minute Hannah leaves, there’s no need to
renegotiate anything.”

“Jess,” he said,
pinning her with his eyes, “what are you doing? We had an agreement, and it didn’t
include getting involved.”

“I know, but
unlike you, I can’t just turn my heart on and off.”

“What are you
saying?”

“It doesn’t
matter, Chase. I just want to get through this week for Hannah.”

“And the money,”
he reminded her.

“Yes, and the
money. Now, if you don’t mind, can you get out of my way? I’d like to go to my
room and change.”

“This
is
your room.” He took a step back. “I already put your luggage in the closet,” he
said, and then left before either of them had a chance to say or do anything
else they might regret.  

“You were right. I do like her,” Hannah said as Chase
leaned into the truck to check her seatbelt. She gave him a chastising look,
but this time she didn’t argue that she wasn’t a child and could manage her seatbelt
on her own. She was growing up so fast, and Chase knew Dylan would have been
very proud of her.  

“There.” He gave it one
last tug.
“Did you hear me, Uncle Chase? I said I really like Jessina.”

“Yeah.” He
kissed her on the cheek, ignoring the comment. He was well aware of how well
his niece and Jess had gotten along, but that only made him want Jess all the
more. “Have fun at camp, kiddo, and don’t worry. We’ll charm the socks off Caplin
and close the deal while you’re gone.”

“You like her
too?”

“Sure.” He
shrugged and smiled at his niece. “She’ll work out just fine as a business
partner. Like I said, we’ll get Caplin.”

“A
business
partner? Really, Uncle Chase. It’s my legs that don’t work. My eyes are fine,
and I see the way you look at her. You
like
her, like her.”

Chase caught on to
what she was getting at, but he wanted to squash it right away, before his
little niece got any crazy ideas. “That’s not gonna happen, kid.”

“Why not? I like
her and you like her, and she’s real pretty. Isn’t that enough?”

He couldn’t possibly
shatter the girl’s naïve hope and tell her that Jess’s willingness to help came
with a $300,000 price tag. Even if Jess had been somewhat convincing about
doing it for free for Hannah, Chase knew better than to trust a woman. As much
as he wanted to believe her, he simply couldn’t. He closed the truck door and
then came back to the window.  

“Not all women
are jerks, Uncle Chase,” Hannah scolded. Before he could explain why he and
Jess could never be, she cleverly reasoned, “You trust her enough to help with
Caplin. That’s somethin’, ain’t it?”

He was in no
mood to talk about adult relationships with Hannah, and he intended to tell her
so. “Yeah, but—”

“No buts!” his
niece cut in again. “You need to give Jessina a chance! You told me I’d like
her, and that’s because you know she’s a good person. Stop being a chicken and—”

“Hey! A chicken?
Wow. Look, honey, the only reason I’ll let you get away with that is because
you’re sixteen and you’re my niece.”

“And because you
know I’m right,” she challenged with an overconfident Lennox smile that
mirrored his own.

He shook his
head.

“I’m just sayin’
you oughtta give it a try. Let her in a little, Uncle Chase. You never woulda
let her anywhere near me if you thought she would hurt me. I’m sure the same is
true for you.”

A short chuckle
rumbled in his chest. Hannah had no idea just how bad Jess could hurt him if he
let her in. He glanced over at Mamie, the six-foot German woman who had raised
him. She sat silently in the driver side with a smug grin on her face, as if
she wholeheartedly agreed with everything the girl said. The wink she laid on
him was all it took for Chase to know that Mamie was on Hannah’s side, at least
where Jess was concerned.
Great. She’s got them all hoodwinked.
He
tapped the side of the truck door. “Have a safe trip, ladies,” he said to the
only females he would ever allow into his heart.

Jessina pressed all of
her weight onto the suitcase that was on top of the bed, trying to close it
enough to successfully zip the top. She’d had a wonderful weekend at the ranch,
and Hannah was a great kid, more mature and confident than half the adults
Jessina knew. With all that was against her, she still had a positive outlook
on life, and she had a sense of humor in spite of it all.  

Had Jessina not
needed Chase’s money, she would have told him where he could shove that big old
wad of cash. In fact, she might have shoved it there for him. It frustrated the
hell out of her that he thought she would only help Hannah because of the money.
And she hated the way he looked at her because of it. It absolutely broke her
heart to be accused of being a gold-digger, which she most certainly wasn’t. Although
he’d been pleasant to her for the past two days, she knew he thought she was
like his mother and Hannah’s, just another woman out for herself. She also knew
she had to get away from him.

Caplin wasn’t
due in town until Thursday, and she had to be in California on Tuesday. Being
that it was Sunday, she decided the best thing would be to just go home and
prepare for the trip. The court appearance had her stomach in knots already, and
her feelings for Chase were just twisting her up worse. Jessina needed a break
from it all.

She just wanted to
go to her small apartment, crawl into her humble but comfortable twin-sized
bed, and pull the covers over her head for the next two days. The second the
thought entered her mind, she realized that she was acting just like her mother.
But her mother was depressed, and Jessina always believed she wasn’t anything
like her mother. For the most part, Jessina didn’t have a depressive bone in
her body. Chase just had too much control over her emotions, far more than
Lance had ever had, so she blamed her sadness on him. Still, she wouldn’t let
herself fall that far, not for Chase or anyone else.

If she was ever
going to slide down that slippery slope to depression, it definitely would have
happened after she realized what Lance had done to her co-workers, back when he
had embezzled all that money, including their pensions, and had hidden behind
Jessina to do it. The head-under-the-sheets thought was a symptom of an aching
heart, not depression, and the slope she was sliding down was the kind that would
have her falling right into the palm of Chase Lennox’s hand.

With more
aggression than necessary, she trounced on the suitcase and gave the zipper
another tug. “Come on!”

“I see the
little troublemaker is back at it again.”

Lying across the
suitcase with her ass up in the air, Jessina glanced over her shoulder and saw Chase
standing in the doorway, with his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes rolling
down her body. She felt the heat of the look as it ran along her bare thighs, left
uncovered by her summer dress, the place just below her suspended ass.

“Need some help?”
He smiled with that irresistibly sexy little grin, the one she needed to get
the hell away from.

“No!” She
snapped her head back to the suitcase. With new anger instilled by the arrogant
man standing behind her, she yanked the zipper closed. She slid off the
suitcase and pulled her dress down in a huff.

He was still
watching her, but he’d stopped smiling. His eyes had hooded and darkened. Compelled
by the quiet seduction of his gaze, she froze. Seconds ticked by. Heat
assembled behind her neck. She rubbed it, and then slipped her hand downward.
Chase’s gaze followed the movement. She paused at the top of her dress. The sensitive
swell of her breasts lifted beneath her fingers. Under heavy lids, Chase met
her eyes. The rise and fall of her chest quickened. Heat collected not only at
her nape, but it also engorged her breasts and scorched between her legs that
had turned to Jell-O from Chase’s sex-charged stare. Her mouth watered as
anticipation grew, but all the hotness, the watering, and liquid building
inside and out came to a complete stop when Chase broke the silence.

"Finish
getting ready. We're outta here in a few minutes.” He turned his back to her.

Jessina
struggled to recover from the total body meltdown he’d so easily triggered.
"Are we heading back to your apartment?"

"Yes,"
he responded just as he disappeared from the doorway.

"Good."
She raised her voice. "You can drop me off at the bus stop then."

Chase's head
swayed back in the doorway. "Come again?"

"I'm going
home, but I'll be back in time for Caplin's arrival on Thursday."

He stepped back
into the room. "Why do you want to go home?"

The question
caught her off guard. She'd assumed he'd be pleased to be rid of her.
Nonetheless, telling him the truth wasn't an option. "As you said, the
only reason we needed to spend time together was so I could get to know you, so
we can convince Caplin we're married."

His forehead
wrinkled. "And you feel like you know me?"

"Well
enough to pull off a bullshit marriage, yes."

"Hmm."
He rubbed his chin. The intensity of his stare held her captive. She clung to
those dark eyes, waiting for him to say something. He dropped his hand and took
a step toward her.

"I don't
want you to go." His low, husky words resonated in her ears.

Her body hesitated,
heart skipped, and nerves stammered. All of her senses failed her. She couldn’t
have heard him right. "What?"

"There are
a few more things you need to know about me in order to successfully pull this
off, Jessina."

Every single one
of her senses came back to life as he moved closer.

"Will you
stay just one more night?" He stopped in front of her. "So I can show
them to you?"

"What?"
Heat flushed through her body once more. "What sort of things?"

Dark, ravishing eyes
dropped to her mouth as he drew a finger down the side of her cheek. It trailed
along her neck, gently grazing her shoulder and caressing the length of her
arm. "The sort of things I would do with my real wife." He looked
back up at her, his hand now settled on her hip. The weight of his touch caused
her stomach to clench with desire. His hand shifted to the small of her back,
and her next breath got caught in her throat. "I want to show you how my
wife would make me feel when I'm this close to her." He applied light
pressure with his hand to her back, and the space between them descended. Their
bodies became one.

"Chase…" His name fell from her lips in a near
whisper when his hardness pressed into her tight-with-desire belly.

"Jessina…" he
hissed back in a throaty murmur just before his mouth landed upon hers. His
warm, moist tongue found hers, and without a hint of hesitation, he pulled her
leg up and around his hip. His hand slithered beneath her dress. He tugged her
panties to the side and thrust a thick finger deep inside of her.

A cry rolled
deep in her chest from the blissful intrusion.

He broke from
the intoxicating kiss long enough to growl, “Fuck, I want you.” He dropped
heated touches of his lips down her neck. “From the first moment I saw you on
that damn trolley, I’ve wanted you.”

His finger
withdrew, and then speared back inside. Her back arched for more of his
touches, more of his honest words. Taking advantage of her wanton action, he pulled
the front of her dress down, and latched his mouth around her nipple. Excitement
consumed her, and the room started to spin, but Chase held her upright as he
penetrated her pussy and devoured her engorged nipple. On fire, Jessina
squirmed beneath his skillful touch. She wanted to wrap her legs around him and
rub every inch of her body against his.