The Best Man (18 page)

She chose to ignore that. This was
their last night, at least for a while. But neither did she want to discuss his
possessive look.

Instead she knelt and reached for
his cock. “I’m sorry. I left this guy out. Sometimes I have difficulty doing
two things at once.”

“No problem,” Jared said, reaching
down to help her guide his penis up and down her wet crevice. “He knew you
wouldn’t forget him.”

“He won’t be easy to forget.” Kitty
rose on her knees and fell back quickly, impaling him. She smiled when she saw
his rounding eyes.

“He’s home now,” Jared said,
thrusting his hips and seating himself even deeper.

She moved to glide up his cock, but
his large hands gripped her hips, holding her in place. She tilted her head to
the side. “What now?”

“Are we going to remain exclusive?”

“What?” She scowled and settled back,
resting on his hips. “This is a hell of moment to bring that up, isn’t?”

He smiled devilishly and waggled his
hips. She tried to ignore his cock. “Maybe, maybe not.” He wiggled again and
she squirmed, not wanting him to see the effect he was having on her. “Well?”

“A month is a very long time.” She
tossed her head and leaned back. Two could play this game. He must have a
perfect view of their joining. He didn’t stop her from sliding along his hips,
playing with his penis. “I can’t remember when I last went an entire month
without a cock.”

She dropped her hand to her belly
ring and then lower. Jared’s gaze was fixed on her pussy and his cock. She
nudged her clit with her fingers and giggled when he flinched. He freed her
hips from his grasp. Had he given up? “Is my clit erect enough for you?”

Jared nodded and tugged at his
mustache. “So you’re not going to make that commitment.”

She watched him swallow hard as she
inched up his length and lowered just as slowly. “I don’t want to make promises
I might not be able to keep.”

“But you’ll try?”

She rose and fell, driving his cock
deeper into her vagina. She raised her hands above her head and twisted around.
She settled quickly and squinted at him. “But I refuse to feel like a failure
if I can’t do without.”

“Hey,” Kitty squealed. One moment
she’d been sitting riding him, and the next she was on her back with Jared
glaring down at her.

He drove into her, pushing her up
the mattress.

She saw his dark expression and
grinned. “You’re going to fuck me real good, aren’t you?”

His only response was a growl and a
shake of the head. Then he reared back and slammed into her harder, with his
mouth only inches from hers.

She clawed his back. “More,” she
mouthed.

She spread her knees as wide as she
could and he pummeled her with long, smooth strokes. His palms pressed the
mattress next to her head. His hard biceps loomed before her. He had her
gulping for more air and space. He wasn’t giving her enough of either.

She pounded his back with her fists
and bucked beneath him. His eyes glazed, but he still raged on. She was no
longer convinced he was even in his body. His mouth opened and closed quickly. And
then his strokes became short and rapid-fire.

She sank her fingernails into his
back and pummeled his ass with her heels.

“Good God,” he bellowed, arching
away from her without slowing his pace.

“That’s right,” she squealed. “Fill
me. Don’t let me forget you.”

And then Jared began jerking. His
spasms gave her pause. He’d lost control. She watched him with awe as he pumped
and pumped until at last he collapsed against her breasts. Still his rump rose
and fell sporadically.

Kitty hugged him close, smoothed out
his hair and rubbed his tight straining back muscles. She blinked away tears. She
must’ve come several times in the last few minutes, but she couldn’t remember
for sure. She’d been so focused on Jared she’d lost track of her own responses.

Oh my. He hadn’t tried to love her
with his gentleness. He probably hadn’t had much control over what he was doing
when he went primitive on her. He snored softly and she smiled. Could a man
declare his love for a woman in that way?

She didn’t know about that, but it
did make him more loveable. She should probably wake him up and make sure he
hadn’t misunderstood what they’d shared.

But she didn’t have the strength or
the will to do that. Not now. Later, maybe.

Kitty yawned and stretched and then
snuggled as close as she could with Jared. His weight didn’t bother her at all.

Two weeks later, Kitty felt the
weight of the world on her shoulders. She missed him. Dammit.

She still wasn’t back to her normal
self. He’d called once. They’d both been incredibly tentative.

She’d wanted to whip out a vibrator
and regale him with phone sex, but she hadn’t. He must be waiting for her to
call. She’d started to punch his numbers but something stopped her. And now she’d
waited too long. Or had she?

And why did she even want to keep
him in her life at all? She shook her head at her own stupidity. She’d never
met a man who so completely turned her on, was willing to play all her games
and who stimulated her even outside the bedroom. Jared had a mind to go along
with a superb body and a ribald sense of humor.

Damn. She wasn’t ready to walk away
from him. There were too many possibilities yet for them to explore.

Kitty held her breath and looked at
the ticket on the counter. She’d use it at least to visit her daughter and
husband in Seattle. There was still time to decide whether she’d use the leg
she’d reserved from Seattle to San Diego.

What would Jared say if she called
him from the San Diego airport? Even she didn’t have the nerve to arrive on his
doorstep without some warning. He might need an hour or two to get rid of the
girls he was currently entertaining. After all, he’d given her that same
courtesy when he’d arrived unannounced in Chicago.

So why did she think he’d been
entertaining hordes of women since his return to the ranch? She hadn’t had the
energy or the interest to take on another man since he’d left.

- o -

“Jared, I don’t like to pry,” Serena
said, standing between him and his office doorway.

“No, but you will.” Jared sighed,
recognizing the mixture of concern, seductiveness, and curiosity. She’d dressed
for seduction. Often she’d come to the office in jeans and a discreet top,
appropriate for the informality of his office and for being the mother of a
five year old.

This morning she’d dressed with a
different sort of mission on her mind. Her nipples puckered against a thin pink
top. A beige mini hardly covered much of her thighs, and she’d worn open-toed
high heel sandals she knew screamed sex for him.

She closed the distance between them
and laced her fingers around his neck, crushing her bosom against his chest. She
kissed him full on the mouth.

Serena leaned away from him when he
didn’t return the kiss. “I’ve never seen you in such doldrums. You haven’t come
to visit me since you returned from Chicago.”

“I see you most every day,” he said,
ignoring her jibe.

“That’s not what I mean, and you
know it,” she huffed, pulling his hand up under her skirt until his palm
covered her damp, bare pussy. “We’ve missed you.”

He gasped when her hand dipped
between them to fondle his rapidly growing cock. “I can’t,” he said, jerking
away from her.

She stood before him with her balled
fists on her hips. “You mean you won’t.” She exhaled slowly and Jared relaxed a
little when he saw a smile work its way across her lips. “At least I know you’re
not brain dead. You still have strong vital signs.” Serena stepped back and
leaned against the front of her desk. “So what are you going to do about her?”

“Who?”

“Don’t try to be coy with me. We’ve
known each other too long for that. Kitty Paige—the woman who sent you the gifts.
The woman who seems intent on claiming your cock for herself.”

Jared shook his head. He shrugged. He
sighed. Serena was right—they’d known each other for too long and been through
too much for him to hide. “I called her once. She hasn’t called me.”

“Oh,” Serena giggled. “That explains
everything. It’s the old male-female stare down.”

Jared shrugged, seeing no need to
volunteer information.

“So maybe you ought to fly back to Chicago and throw her over your shoulder and haul her ass back here.”

Jared couldn’t help but laugh at
that image. “Kitty’s not the sort of woman who’d allow a guy to cart her off
like that. If there’s going to be any carting off, she’ll likely as not do the
carting.”

Serena’s mouth turned up in a smile.
“Sounds like my kind of woman.” She folded her hands at her waist. “So what are
you going to do about her?”

“I don’t know. She’s a hard one to
figure. She may be too high maintenance for me.”

“But you’ll call her again.”

“I might.”

“She sounds pretty important to you.”

He gave his petulant assistant a
half smile. “She may be. Sometimes I think she’s more important to me than she
wants to be.”

“Umm. So when are you going to bring
her to the ranch for Seth and me to meet her—you do intend for us to meet her?”

He nodded. “If I can keep her from
running away from me, you’ll have an opportunity to meet her.”

“Good,” Serena said, softly moving
around to sit at her desk. “I know you don’t need our approval, but it would be
nice to meet your lady before she becomes too territorial.”

“We’ll see,” Jared said squaring his
shoulders. “I doubt Kitty is very territorial.”

Serena flashed him an eyebrow. “She’s
a woman, isn’t she?”

He nodded.

“It takes a very strong woman—or a
very strong man, for that matter—not to get hung up on territoriality. Now if
you’d stop bothering me, I’ve got lots of work to do.”

Bemused, Jared shut his office door
behind him and glanced around his office. Serena was right. He should bring
Kitty to the ranch, and soon.

He might be motivated to move
mountains for her, but some things wouldn’t change—even for her. When Serena
had given birth to Savannah, the three of them—Serena, Seth and he—had agreed
to raise the girl as their own. They could’ve done a DNA test to determine who
the father was, but none of them wanted to do that. Given all of his travels
and his age it had made good sense for Serena and Seth to marry. Seth could
provide their family with more stability. The girl would never want for
anything material, and the three of them had agreed she wouldn’t want for
anything emotional either.

Jared looked at the recent photo of
the three of them on the wall. His lungs filled with pride. Yes, he’d climb Mount Everest for Kitty, but he wouldn’t give his family up—not even for her.

CHAPTER TEN

“You’re going
where
?”

Kitty stared at her daughter, who
was quickly soaking up spilled coffee with a napkin.

Susan’s cheeks were turning fire
engine red. She glanced around her Seattle kitchen like she wanted to escape a
ghost.

“I said,” Kitty reiterated calmly, “I’m
flying down to San Diego from here to see Jared Jacobs. You remember him?” She
narrowed her eyes at her flustered daughter. Surely, Jared hadn’t lied to her
about not fucking Susan.

Susan scowled but remained silent.

“You’d better tell me,” Kitty
coaxed. “You’ve never been good at keeping secrets from me. I’m aware you know
Jared through Brad. Just how well do you know him?”

Susan bit her lower lip. “Are you
and Jared…lovers?”

“You’re dodging the question,” Kitty
said impatiently. “Depends on how you define the word lovers, I imagine. Yes,
we’ve fucked a few times.” She examined her fingernails before eyeing her
daughter. “How about you?”

“No, no, not that,” Susan blurted
out. “He rejected me.”

“What?”

Susan shrank back in her chair.

Kitty smacked her lips. “You better
tell me about it.”

“Why did you have to get hooked up
with Jared Jacobs?” Susan shifted uncomfortably. “Okay. It happened before Brad
and I were engaged. Jared was visiting Jackson when Jackson received a call about
a job interview in Denver. He was only going to be gone one night, so Brad and
I invited Jared over for dinner. Brad had to run some work over to a professor’s
house.”

Kitty watched Susan pause. “And…”

“I don’t know why I did it.” Susan’s
brows narrowed as if she were remembering. “It was his mustache, I think.” Her
eyes widened. “Don’t you think his mustache is like Clark Gable’s?”

“I’ve noted the resemblance,” Kitty
replied dryly. “So Jared’s mustache seduced you.”