Phoenix Rising (11 page)

Chapter Twelve

Connor awoke with Jessa’s sweet naked ass pressed up against his groin. His head pounded a furious staccato beat and the light seeping through his blinds seemed like a nuclear explosion.

He only vaguely remembered carrying Jessa up the stairs to the bedroom. Though Connor couldn’t recall what time it had been, he could remember Alex crashing on the living room couch afterward. Connor didn’t know how Alex had siphoned off his sexual frustration. He didn’t care, either.

Alex should’ve never opened that can of worms. He’d known how Connor felt about sharing Jessa, knew how he’d react. Why would he push the issue?

Jessa stirred beside him. A pang of tenderness hit him hard as Connor watched her hazel eyes blink experimentally before sliding shut again. A smile lifted the corners of her perfect mouth. Unable to resist, Connor brushed his fingers softly over her cheek.

Connor eased Jessa carefully away from his body and settled her on the mattress. Jessa gave a little sigh and snuggled closer to his body even as Connor slid out of bed. He didn’t want to leave her, not then, not ever. But there was something he had to do.

Alex was sprawled on the sofa with his mouth hanging open. A grin tugged unbidden at Connor’s mouth. He’d lost track of how many times Alex had spent the night on the couch after one drink too many. If the apartment had been just a little larger Connor would’ve suggested Alex move in. They’d always been more brothers than friends.

But now there was Jessa. And Connor was faced with a reality he could no longer ignore. Something about Jessa Kincaid completed Connor in a way he’d never known was possible. And not even the threat to his friendship with Alex could deter him from pursuing this newfound wonder.

Connor nudged Alex with his foot. “Hey.”

One blue eye opened and focused blearily on Connor’s face. “Fuck you.”

“C’mon. Just give me a minute to explain.”

Alex sucked in a ragged breath. “There’s really not much to explain, Connor. I get it.”

“Then I’m glad one of us does,” Connor grumbled as he sank to the floor.

“She’s good for you, Connor.”

“That’s debatable.”

“No, she is,” Alex persisted. “I’ve seen you smile more in the last week than you have in the last six years.”

“I barely know her, Alex. How can I be so…”

“Attached?”

“Affected.”

Alex considered his words carefully before speaking. “Emotion isn’t predictable. And you can never guess how you’ll react when you meet someone.”

“But that’s now. What about later?”

“Sometimes you have to take a chance that there will be a later.”

Connor rubbed a hand down his face. “Why am I taking relationship advice from a guy who hasn’t had anything but a series of one night stands since high school?”

“You aren’t like me, Connor.”

“Thank God for small favors.”

Alex gave him a cheeky grin. “You’re absolutely right. The world is too small for more than one of me.”

“I’m sorry about last night. I never should have let things get so out of hand.”

“No, I’m the one who’s sorry, Connor.” Alex’s expression sobered. “I think I was trying to push you into reacting. But I was a little too drunk to do it nicely.”

They were silent for several minutes.

“How much of that do you think Jessa will remember?” Alex wanted to know.

“Enough to be angry at us?”

“I dunno. She seemed to like it pretty well.”

Connor made a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat.

“You’ve got to talk to her, Connor. She needs to know the truth.”

“Truth is never pretty.”

“I think you might be surprised. I think Jessa Kincaid has some truths up her sleeve, too.”

“You know I hate conversation.”

“You don’t hate conversing with Jessa.”

Connor had opened his mouth to argue when he realized Alex was right. He’d spoken more full sentences to Jessa in the short time he’d known her than he’d spoken to anybody but Alex in the last year.

“Go on, you big idiot. Go back to bed so I can get a little more sleep.”

Connor grunted and hefted himself up off the floor.

“And keep the noise down. Some of us need our beauty rest.”

* * *

A pair of warm hands caressing her naked curves pulled Jessa from her warm cocoon of sleep. Blinking in the bright light, she managed to focus on the familiar features of Connor’s lazy smile as he looked down at her.

“Where are we?”

Connor chuckled. “My bedroom.”

“Do I even want to know what happened last night?”

“You, Alex, and I had a good time.”

She put a hand over her eyes and gave a half-hearted laugh. “I think I’m starting to remember.”

“Don’t tell me you regret it.”

She seemed to consider this. “Not all of it.”

“You’d best not regret the parts with me in them.”

“Never.”

Connor ran his hand down her arm and grasped her hand in his. Lifting it toward the light, he fingered the pale circle where her wedding ring had once been. Jessa pulled away when she realized what he was staring at.

“Tell me what happened, Jessa.”

“Why, does it matter?”

“No. But I want to know why you’re the way you are. And I suspect he has a lot to do with it.”

“What does that mean? The way I am? How am I?”

Connor ran one hand down the curve of her body until it rested lightly on her bare hip. “You keep a tight leash on your desires, Jessa. I want to know why.”

“Tight leash? You call last night a tight leash?”

Connor chuckled. “I’d say the liquor had something to do with last night.”

Jessa let the silence stretch long between them. She was curled into the curve of Connor’s big body. His heat both soothed and agitated her. How was it possible to feel this comfortable with a man she barely knew?

It hit her hard and fast. Connor wasn’t really a stranger.

He wasn’t. Connor was a kindred soul. He was a man who suffered from the same crippling emotional disassociation Jessa did. She wasn’t certain how she knew that, but the patterns of his behavior weren’t all that unlike hers. She’d stayed in a loveless marriage for nineteen years because it was a damn sight easier than setting out on her own.

Connor never spent more than half a dozen nights with a woman. He never let them see who he was. He didn’t let down his guard or confide anything. It was only logical to assume that at some point he’d decided, just as Jessa had, that it was much easier to turn inward than to reach outward.

Jessa finally took a quavering breath and answered him. “He ditched me for another woman. In fact, he’s living with her right now. She’s got kids already and she’s a helluva lot more good looking than I am.”

“Bullshit.”

She smiled and caressed the side of his face with her palm. The rough stubble was scratchy against her skin, but Jessa liked the contact anyway. “I hate to break it to you, big guy, but you’re the only one I’ve ever met who seems to prefer me to those waif-thin girls with no ass and fake tits.”

Connor growled and rolled to his back. Locked in his embrace, Jessa rolled with him. His big, warm hands squeezed the globes of her ass and pulled her tightly into his body. The thick ridge of his erect cock pressed into her tummy and Jessa’s breath hitched with excitement.

“That’s how fucking gorgeous you are to me, Jessa,” Connor said in his gravelly tone. “I can’t get rid of this hard on when you’re anywhere near.”

Jessa took a moment to study him while settled so comfortably on top of his massive frame. Connor was hard and brutal and male. He should’ve intimidated the hell out of her. But he didn’t. Not since the moment he’d offered her a job without question. Since then, he’d irritated her and shocked her in turns. But he’d never once scared her.

This man would never deliberately hurt her. Not physically, not emotionally and not even by proxy.

“I didn’t care that Will left me,” Jessa confided softly.

“Why not?”

“I didn’t love him. I don’t think I ever loved him.”

“Why marry him then?”

“I was young and didn’t think there was any other choice.”

Connor’s black eyes narrowed. “You were pregnant.”

“I was when we married. But I couldn’t carry full term.” Jessa’s voice broke on an unexpected sob. “I never carried full term.”

His hands left her ass, and he drew his arms around her in a comforting embrace that shattered the remnants of Jessa’s fragile emotional control. She laid her cheek flat against his rippling chest and cried until she had no more tears. Connor did nothing but rub her back and murmur nonsense words in his velvet voice until Jessa’s dry, wracking sobs began to subside.

“None of that matters now, Jessa.”

“Then why do I feel so defective?”

“You weren’t defective. He was. He’s the one who didn’t take the time to appreciate what he had. Now you’re free.”

“Am I really?”

The sensuous twist of Connor’s full lips pulled a deep response from Jessa’s womb. A shiver slid down her spine and her body temperature suddenly leapt ten degrees. “You’re getting there,” he rumbled. “And I’m going to love every second of teaching you how to let loose.”

“Like last night?” Jessa asked softly.

Connor’s black eyes shot sparks. “No, that was a onetime thing. Alex won’t touch you again.”

The question burned on her lips. She had to know.

“I thought you and Alex did that kind of thing all the time.”

“It didn’t matter when it was someone like Selena or Isabel. But I can’t watch someone else touch you, Jessa.”

Jessa knew how difficult it was for Connor to admit what he no doubt viewed as a huge chink in his personal armor. She’d already sensed that when she’d looked to him for confirmation before continuing to allow Alex’s slow assault on her body.

“I don’t want anyone else, Connor. I just want you.”

Chapter Thirteen

For the second time in a week, Jessa pushed open the door of
Accessories and More
. Somewhere inside the store, an electronic bleep signaled the arrival of a customer. Jessa looked around, wondering if she was losing her mind. But there was no way she could make it through another shift in her clothes from the night before. One hour waiting tables in the bar was enough to cover her in irregular splotches of beer and hard liquor. An entire night followed by endless hours playing drinking games with Connor and Alex had left her clothes looking like the morning after Mardi Gras.

“Can I help you with some…?” A wide smile crossed the Gothic Princess’ face when she saw Jessa. “Oh, it’s you.”

“Yes, I suppose it is.”

The Gothic Princess stared down at Jessa’s jumbled ensemble of Connor and Alex’s clothes. “Wow, that’s an interesting outfit.”

“It’s okay, you can say it.”

“You look like the morning after really great sex.”

“Something like that,” Jessa admitted with a blush.

“So you need clothes?”

“I work at the bar just down there.”

“Phoenix Rising?”

“That’s the place.”

“Rough night?”

“Long night actually, and Connor suggested I might find some clothes here since there’s not a clothing store anywhere around.”

One elegant black eyebrow arched high. “Connor Archuleta sent you here for clothes?”

The name left Jessa at a momentary loss. Connor Archuleta? Of course Connor would have a last name. It was just stunning to realize she’d been screwing the man without even knowing his last name. What was the matter with her? When had she completely lost touch with reality?

Jessa abruptly realized how bizarre the entire situation was. Not just because she needed clothes after a wild night of body shots with the two hottest males she’d ever seen. But because she’d come so far from the tight-assed society wife she’d been only a week before.

How had she ever been happy with her and Will’s uptight way of life?

“You know, I think I might have just the thing.”

The Gothic Princess’s voice drew her back to the moment and Jessa realized how ridiculous it was not to know the poor girl’s name. “I’m Jessa Kincaid. I don’t think we’ve ever been officially introduced.”

“I’m Morgan Talley.”

Jessa hadn’t noticed the wide, friendly smile before. But Morgan’s infectious grin chased the remainder of Jessa’s shyness away. “I’m really glad to meet you.”

“I didn’t realize Connor had hired a new waitress.”

“I kind of fell into the job that other day I was here, actually.”

Morgan nodded, her dyed black ponytail bobbing wildly, bangs swinging free around her pixie face. “I’m glad. They needed someone decent after that bitch Selena quit.”

“You knew Selena?”

“Downtown is kind of a small town, really. We all pretty much know what’s going on with everyone else. You’ll catch on quick.”

“So you know Connor and Alex then?”

Morgan’s face took on an impish look. “Well enough. Alex used to come in here a lot.”

Morgan grabbed a box of new merchandise and dragged in into the middle of the floor. Tossing several items aside, she dug toward the bottom.

Jessa leaned back against a counter and crossed her arms. “Used to, hmm?”

“Yeah, things ran their course. You know how it goes.”

“With Alex,” Jessa nodded emphatically. “I can imagine.”

“But man, he was good.”

A sudden thought made Jessa’s blood run cold. “So does Connor send girls over here for extra clothes a lot?”

Something in Jessa’s tone caused Morgan to emerge from the box. She assessed Jessa with a pair of frank blue eyes. “Connor Archuleta hasn’t ever spent enough time around anyone for them to need extra clothes. He’s more of the wham, bam, thank you ma’am type. Or, I guess I should say he has been until now.”

“What makes you say that?”

Morgan rolled her eyes. “Oh come on. You can stand there and discuss Alex’s innumerable flings without batting an eyelash. But toss Connor into the mix and you clam up.”

“Am I that transparent?” Jessa moaned.

Morgan pulled a black and white mini skirt from the box and stood up. Though she was casing the store for more items, Jessa noticed a frown wrinkling the bridge of her nose that didn’t seem to have anything to do with Jessa’s need for an outfit.

“I never expected to see you back here,” Morgan said quietly as she pulled a red satin thong off a rack and added it to the growing pile in her arms.

“Why not?”

“Because when I mentioned our frequent buyer program you had no idea what I was talking about.”

Jessa’s cheeks flamed red hot. How had she managed to forget that little eye-opener in such a short time? “I was never naive enough to think my husband knew how to keep his pecker in his pants.”

Morgan sent the heaping pile on the countertop next to Jessa. “I’m glad.”

“He’d left me that day, just a couple of hours before I came in here.”

A slow smile spread over Morgan’s face. “Bet you never realized what a good thing that was going to be, huh?”

“No, at the time it felt like the world was ending.”

Morgan picked up the plain red satin thong and twirled it around her finger. “Sweetie, things are just picking up.”

Jessa eyed the pile of daring clothing on the counter and her smile slowly died. “I can’t wear this stuff, Morgan.”

“Why not?”

“Look at me! I’m not you.”

“Good, because that would be creepy.”

Jessa rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean. I’m not twenty anymore. Truth be told, I’m pushing forty.”

Now it was Morgan’s turn to roll her eyes. “I never realized Connor was blind.”

“Huh?”

“Well, he’s either blind and can’t see you, or you’re crazy and he thinks you’re attractive.”

“But I’m so…” Jessa gestured irritably to her ample hips, soft backside, and heavy breasts. “Big!”

“Contrary to what pop culture would have us believe,” Morgan said, “men like a few curves on their women. And a guy like Connor would break a girl in two if she had one of those stick figures.”

The mental image Morgan painted was outrageous. Jessa was helpless to stop her giggles. Eyebrows wiggling suggestively, Morgan dragged her to the dressing room and began to throw clothing over the door.

Jessa wriggled into a short skirt before picking up something shaped as though it was meant to be worn on the top. She was at a loss as to how the garment actually worked.

“I’ve got no idea how this goes on, Morgan. What if I end up wearing it upside down?”

Morgan heaved a gigantic sigh and threw open the door. “Girlfriend, you need some adventure in your life.”

Jessa yelped in surprise as Morgan stepped inside the room and began giving her the critical once over. The miniskirt had been a surprise, mostly because Jessa actually liked it. The black-and-white striped hounds-tooth pattern flattered her ample hips, and the wide, double-button waist made Jessa’s belly feel flatter.

“Wear that thong, Jessa.”

“It feels strange.”

“You’ll like it if you give it half a chance.” Morgan slid Jessa a sly smile. “And I guarantee Connor will like it.”

That decided Jessa instantly. Just thinking about Connor pulling up the hem of her short skirt and seeing the tiny scrap of satin resting between the cheeks of her ass was enough to get Jessa’s juices flowing.

Morgan frowned and picked up the black garter belt. “Is this what you’re freaking about?”

“Yes. You think I ran around in one of those at the country club?”

They burst into peals of laughter at the picture of Jessa and her society bitch friends hiding daring lingerie beneath their IZOD cardigans and knit pants. Cinching the little contraption around Jessa’s hips, Morgan secured the stockings before arranging the miniskirt back into place.

“Wow, do you have to take a class before you get a job here?”

“No silly, I’ve loved this kind of clothing since middle school.”

“That’s a scary thought.”

“Well, I was never a very good girl.”

“I think I envy you, Morgan. I can say from experience that being good can be worse than boring.”

Morgan pulled Connor’s baggy T-shirt over Jessa’s head. “Dare I ask what happened to your bra?”

Jessa frowned at the blotches left behind by uncounted shots of Tequila and orange Liqueur. “Connor and Alex happened.”

“Body shots, huh?”

The blush staining Jessa’s cheeks wasn’t as intense as before. Maybe she was finally getting used to all of this freethinking hedonism. That thought lasted long enough for Morgan to lovingly jiggle Jessa’s breasts into a better position inside her new black corset top. Heat streamed from her skin as Morgan made a few final adjustments to the straps over Jessa’s shoulders.

“You’ve got great breasts, Jessa. Don’t squish them down there so nobody can see them.”

Jessa blinked several times while trying to come up with something to say. Did she thank Morgan for the compliment or pretend it never happened?

“Oh don’t look at me like that!” Morgan chided. “I don’t bat for the other team, if that’s what you’re wondering. But I’d never say no to a little bit of fun between friends, if you know what I mean.”

“Really?” The word popped out of Jessa’s mouth before she could think twice about the way it would sound.

Morgan only shrugged. “I like to feel good. Have you never experimented with your girlfriends?”

“Um, let me think,” Jessa chuckled. “No.”

“What a waste. I thought we all went through that phase at some point.”

Jessa shook her head and lifted an eyebrow. She had been far too busy shoving herself into the perfect Stepford wife mold to experience anything like what Morgan described.

“If you ever get the urge to experiment, Jessa, let me know.” Morgan leaned over and punctuated her offer with a lingering kiss on Jessa’s lips.

The sensation was wild and Morgan tasted both sweet and strange. But the intense arousal whipping through Jessa’s body was completely foreign. It was an instant throb in her taut nipples that translated to her pussy and resulted in a hot gush of creamy juice to Jessa’s crotch.

“You’d better get to work honey,” Morgan said, nipping Jessa’s lower lip as she withdrew. “You should wear those boots over there.”

“Combat boots? You can’t be serious.”

“You have to give them half a chance before you tell me no. They’re very comfortable.”

Jessa had anticipated a pair of thigh high black heeled boots. But though a pair like that would’ve been sexy as hell, her feet would’ve been DOA by the end of the night. Instead, Morgan had set aside a pair of something that looked like combat boots with chrome accents.

Jessa pulled them on and laced them up. Standing and bouncing her ankles up a down a few times, she was pleasantly surprised by the comfort. “Thanks, Morgan. I owe you big time.”

Morgan grinned. “Want to put all this on that same Platinum MasterCard ma’am?”

“Oh yes, definitely.”