Rock Me Gently (19 page)

Jason took control and she was glad. He rubbed his thick hardness back and forth, sliding in and almost all the way out of her. Climax building with each thrust. Raspy cries of pleasure erupted from her parched throat every time he plunged forward. He dropped his hips and began to move up and into her in a circular motion. The sweet undulation began from a spot deep inside her and radiated out encompassing him surging behind her. Lainey moaned.

“Oh, yeah,” Jason wheezed in appreciation as he felt the delicate little flutters get stronger, clenching around him, driving him to his own massive explosion.

They stayed in the position as they struggled to recover their breath. Lainey was the first to move. She straightened from her bent position, and wrapped her arms backward around his neck. He encircled her waist.

“Wow, Mr Westlake, you really know how to…make an…entrance.”

He snorted, his cock jerked inside her and she trembled with latent desire.

“You are seriously driving me crazy, woman. I can’t even do my job. I’ve resorted to assigning all four classes with chapter after chapter of silent reading because I can’t seem so speak anymore without making some kind of sexual innuendo or naming some female body part.”

Lainey giggled, thinking he was kidding.

“And let me tell you, you have some fine body parts,” he said as she turned in his arms to face him. He wrapped his hands around her bare ass, holding her firmly against him. “And on our weekend, I intend to worship every one of them.”

“I can’t wait.” Standing on her tiptoes she gently kissed his chin. “I guess I should open the store back up.”

“Oh, Geez, yeah. Shit. Sorry. I wasn’t thinking,” he stammered in apology.

“Not like it really matters,” she said with a sigh. Grudgingly, she released him and shimmied her dress back down. “I’ll be right back,” she said collecting her undergarments and disappearing into the bathroom.

Jason had readjusted his own clothes by the time she reappeared.

“You look like you haven’t been ravished, Mr Westlake,” she grinned, jerking on his tie.

“I haven’t, Ms Clarkson, I believe I was the one doing the ravishing.”

“And a fine job you did,” she said, leaving their little room. He followed as she went to the door and unlocked it, turning the sign back around to ‘Open’.

“Only fifteen more minutes anyway, Lainey.”

“Yep, fifteen minutes and by the end of next week that ‘Closed’ sign just might be permanent.”

“Oh?” Jason asked frowning. “Did something else happen?” He didn’t know many details about the litigation concerning the shop or the house for that matter. They’d never really talked about it. The only information he had were little bits Lainey had dropped, what Henry had confided and the crap he’d read on the unreliable Internet.

With a wave of her hand she indicated a thick envelope sitting by the register. “Thad happened.”

Jason reached for the envelope then hesitated, waiting for permission. The last thing he wanted to do right now was overstep the boundaries.

“Go ‘head.”

Picking up the paperwork, he then began to scan the legal jargon.

“He wants you to buy him outright? Pay all the legal fees and pay off all the vendors who have also filed suit. And any other fees that may occur…”

“Blah, blah, blah. The long and the short of it is I don’t have it and he knows it. And even if the house sells, it won’t sell in time for me to do anything but shut the damn doors and then I am still on the hook for everything that is owed.”

“Why is he doing this?” Jason asked, not understanding.

“Because he can.”

“Lainey, who the hell is your lawyer?”

She looked at him, confused.

“I mean, I realize this is none of my business and I have only a vague idea of what caused your divorce, but any half decent lawyer would pull this apart in no time. Thad’s just pushing you around.”

She nodded. “Also, because he can. He’s the one with the million dollar signing. He has the money to hire the kind of lawyers who can chew mine apart. Actually, the lawyer we’ve had all along has been a friend of ours from school, Reg Pool, but when Thad made it big, he dropped both of us.”

“Your lawyer is a friend?”

“Reg is a good lawyer, Jason, he’s just small town good, not corporate conglomerate good.”

“Is this small town good barrister going after Thad for future earnings?”

Vaguely, she shook her head.

“You were with Thad when he wasn’t famous. You probably supported him and Jill while he ran off to training camps and stuff, right? You are entitled to his future prospects too, Lainey. You helped him get there. He owes you that. And you said something about him in talks with other teams? You can get in on that too. Or endorsement deals?”

“No. I don’t want anything from him anymore. I just want out. I want to sever all ties with him. But I feel like I will never be able to do that because of Jilly. I am always going to have to deal with him in some way or another.”

“So you’re just going to let him take everything from you? If he wants to fight dirty, we can too.”

Her gaze darted all around Jason’s face. “We?” she asked weakly.

“Yeah, we,” he answered, supportively. He wasn’t going anywhere. And if Thad wanted to throw his money around, Jason could match him, meet him and bury him in it.

“That’s really sweet of you to offer and all, but it’s practically over. And maybe it’s for the best. A new start all around is just what Jill and I need. A new job, a new house without the memories and perhaps even a new place. I don’t know where we’re going to end up. I just might follow Jill when she leaves for college.” She shrugged. “Who knows?”

Jason wasn’t about to get into that one right now. One step at a time here. Everything between them was happening so fast. He needed to take a step back for a minute. But he knew that he didn’t want her moving away.

He was deep in thought, dragging on his lower lip when she approached him. “Hey, this is my problem. Don’t worry about it. Okay?” She took his hand away from his mouth. He gave her a quick nod but knew that he was going to be giving his lawyer a call before the night ended.

Lainey closed up the register. Jason stuffed the paperwork into his suit coat pocket while she was distracted.

“Did you have any customers today?”

“No.”

“Do you even like this, Lainey? Is this shop even worth fighting for? You don’t seem like your heart is even in it?”

“I don’t know anymore. It was fun for me in the beginning. It gave me something to do when he was out of town all the time and Jilly was in school full-time. But now it’s just something else that he ruined for me, you know? It was something of my own and now he claims it was all his.”

“Then change it up. Get some new and different things in here. Something that every other boutique on the block doesn’t have. You’ll bring in new people.”

“And what would that be?”

They don’t have Jase West,
he thought briefly, then discarded that idea. Another thing he had to deal with. Lainey wasn’t even aware that she had Jase West at her disposal. And he was sure that was only a matter of time. And in the end, wasn’t that what Thad had done? Shown up on opening day lending his name and his celebrity to get the press then never came back.

“So, what are your plans for tonight?” Lainey asked.

“Um, I don’t know. Do you need to get home?”

“No, Jill’s with Henry again.”

“Then let’s go to my place,” he suggested, following her out of the door. He took the key from her and locked it.

“I should go home…and shower.”

“I have a shower at my house. Follow me.” He didn’t give her a chance to refuse but stalked off across the street to his Porsche.

* * * *

And a fine shower he had. Just like everything else in Jason’s house, the shower was massive and open, built for two or more. They’d barely made it in the door when he picked her up and ran up the stairs with her. They’d shared a very hot and steamy, soapy and slippery shower that had ended in another fabulous orgasm.

Lainey sat at Jason’s kitchen island in one of his T-shirts, her hair damp, watching him putter around making supper.

“What are you thinking about?” Jason asked, as he threw two steaks onto the grill.

“Mmm,” she stretched. “I was thinking about the shower.”

He grinned. “I could turn these babies off and we could go for another one,” he said leaning across the counter and laying a kiss on the end of her nose. “You feel good all slippery and wet.”

“Ditto!” She leaned into him and kissed him thoroughly. “The steaks, Jase.”

“Oh shit!” He rushed back to the grill, sticking in a fork to turn the meat over. “Jesus, woman, the day that I can— Ouch!” he yelped as he singed the end of his finger. “Fuck! The day I can do menial freakin’ tasks again without falling on my ass, blurting something inappropriate in front of my students or burning myself, I will be a happy man.”

“But I won’t be,” she sulked. “That will mean that we’ve lost our magic.”

He worked his way back over and took her face into his hands. “No, it won’t. By then the magic will be even better.”

“Do you think so? I like this. I like feeling this way. Everything is so new and perfect. I can’t wait to see you or hear your voice or simply get a text. I like learning all these new things about you. It’s exciting.”

The soft way she was looking at him while she spoke made his heart pound so loud that he could hear it in his own ears.

“I don’t want all that to go away,” she continued. “Ever. I like that maybe I might have the same effect on you as you do on me. I always want to feel for you what I feel right now.”

What was she saying?

“What are you feeling?” he asked.

“The steaks,” she reminded, avoiding the question.

“What?”

“You need to take the steaks off, they’re burning.”

Turning, he took the steaks off and tossed them on a plate. “Maybe you should cook until I can control myself.”

She laughed and hopped off the stool. Coming around the counter, she encircled his waist. “You’re just lucky I don’t mind mine well done.”

They sat down and ate steak and tossed salad.

Just as they were finishing up the phone rang. Jason reached to grab it. “Talk ta me. Oh, hey, Mom. No, it’s always a good time.”

Lainey disappeared while he talked to his mother and when she came back to his disappointment she was dressed.

“I’m gonna go,” Lainey whispered, thumbing toward the door.

“No wait…Lainey…” Jason said. “Just a sec, Mom,” he said into the phone before setting it down.

“You don’t have to go,” he appealed, pulling Lainey into his arms when he caught up to her by the door.

“Yeah, I do. I should get home before Jill does,” she responded, tucking her head under his chin and holding him close.

“And you said yourself that you’ve been neglecting your work because of me. So I’ll get out of your way and you can do some work. I’ll see you tomorrow?” she asked hopefully, looking up at him.

He chuckled. She still didn’t get how into her he was. “Try to keep me away,” he said before he took her lips.

He remained at the door until she drove down the street before he went back to the phone.

“Hey, Ma, sorry, I’m back now.”

“Who is Lainey, son?”

“Oh, Ma, who is Lainey? Now that’s a question and a half.”

“
Oh?
” She sounded too interested.

“Ma, you’re not going to believe this but I think she’s the one.” There. He’d said it. Not only out loud but to another person—his mom no less. It was real and it was out there. “Mom? Mom? You still there?”

“I’m still here, Jase, I just can’t believe what I just heard. You think she’s the one? Why is it this is the first that we’ve heard about her? Have you been keeping her a secret?”

“No. It’s a really new thing. I just met her last week—”

“Last week! You met her last week and you’re telling me she’s the one. You mean she’s the one
this
week. Let’s get it straight, Jason. Another one will catch your interest and you’ll be off chasing the next
one
. How could you do that to me? Get my hopes up for nothing.”

“It’s not like that. I’ve never felt like this before. I don’t even wanna look at other women right now. She’s all I can think about. I can’t even teach for fuck’s sake—”

“Jason!”

“Sorry, Mom. I can’t teach. I wanna be with her all the time.”

“Hmmm. That does sound different. For you, at least. So tell me about her. Her name is Lainey and what else?”

“She’s gorgeous. She owns a boutique downtown. She’s beautiful. She’s a mom—”

“She has a child? Oh, Jason, she’s a gold digger—”

“Don’t ever say that again!” he yelled, thinking of the headlines that he’d seen on the Internet. He tried to soften it with, “She doesn’t even know who I am. So you can get that out of your head right now. Her daughter is a student of mine. That’s how we met. Last week during parent-teacher interviews.”