The Fight for Us (19 page)

The door was rattled as the unknown interrupter tried to open the locked door, and as she shook off the shock, she slid from the ledge, fixed her underwear, which were practically on sideways, and pulled her skirt down. He was struggling to get himself re-clothed as well, and they ignored one another as they panicked.

“Hmm… Well, it’s locked. That’s unusual. Don’t usually keep this door locked. Regardless, there’ll be a key in the maintenance office, so we can just pop on over there…” The voices trailed off, and the quiet sound of footsteps retreated from the room.

“Shit,” Isaiah muttered. He took a deep and calming breath, and then reached for her hand, pulling her toward the door and out into the corridor. He said nothing to her as they walked quickly back toward the ballroom, and within moments, they were weaving in and out of the small groups of people milling about in the corridor just outside the ballroom doors. He glanced down at her then, and he shook his head as a small smile crept over his lips. She could feel her cheeks burning, and as they did, he reached for her chin, letting his thumb brush over the scar.

“Dad! There you are!”

Isaiah’s hand dropped from Joss’s chin as he turned to Nat.

“Where’ve you been? Harp and I were looking all over for you both.”

“Oh, nowhere. Just walking around.” He didn’t remove his hand from Joss’s as they followed Nat back into the ballroom, and before long they were back with Nat and Harper.

It didn’t take long for Steph to find her either, and when Steph stepped up beside her, she instantly reached for her hair, straightening something that must have fallen apart in her boardroom foray. “You’re hair looks like shit. I thought you said you needed to cool down. You look like you’re overheating. And why is your face red?” Steph muttered as Isaiah’s eyes flashed to her.

“I don’t know,” Joss muttered defensively.

“Can we blow this popsicle stand yet? Harper said she was going with Natalie and Isaiah, so I say, we hit the road, and since I drove you, you can’t turn me down.”

“Yeah…yeah, we can go.” She glanced at Isaiah quickly but then looked away. She was freaking out.

Isaiah wasn’t missing a thing, and when he turned to Steph, he chuckled nervously for a moment. “It’s not a problem. I’m taking the girls home soon anyway.” He glanced down to Joss, and then his attention flitted away. He seemed about as nervous as she felt, and his inability to stop shaking his head in consternation every few seconds or so, not to mention his constant failure to hold eye contact with her for longer than a moment, was very telling. Of course, she was struggling with the same thing, so she wasn’t judging.

“Excuse me! Can I have your attention?” Fillmore’s boisterous voice rang out over the crowd, and everyone hushed. “Isaiah, come up here, son. I want to introduce the town to our newest resident while so many of us are here.”

“Somebody’s got a fan club,” Steph commented wryly. “We’re going, Isaiah. Enjoy your time in the limelight.” Steph reached around Joss’s back, patting Isaiah on the shoulder.

Isaiah glanced at Joss once more before he walked toward the stage. Joss didn’t want to leave yet, but with Steph pulling on her arm, she hugged both Harper and Nat quickly and said her goodbyes.

“Isaiah comes to us from Chicago with his daughter Natalie. He’s a former FBI Agent, and he just bought the Easterly house we’re all so fond of. I want everyone to make them feel at home here in Bristol, so we can keep him around for a while.” Fillmore clapped a hand on Isaiah’s shoulder as he stepped up on to the stage. Joss looked back at Isaiah, pulling against Steph slightly to hold her ground. “At least now I know who to call when my jack-o-lantern ends up on top of Mrs. Grover’s weathervane next Halloween, since Chief Jeffries has decided he’s too old to care about my award winning jack-o-lanterns anymore.” The crowd erupted into laughter, and Joss bit her lip as Isaiah’s eyes found her. He smiled politely at the joke, but his attention was on her, and his lips pursed as he watched her.

She lifted a casual hand to him, and he did the same. Steph pulled on her arm again, and she finally turned away from him. She managed to look back once just as they were exiting the room, and his eyes were still following her. It sent a rush of need through her body, and her still aching sex flooded with heat and warmth. She could feel his cum, and it was a damn good thing she was leaving when she was, because before long her thighs would be wet with what he’d left inside her. She took a final deep breath before turning and walking away.

Chapter Sixteen

“What are you girls going to do tonight when we get home?” Isaiah glanced in the rearview mirror to the two fourteen year olds he was chauffeuring home with him.

Really, he was just trying like hell to distract himself from what he’d done. He hadn’t been ready to be pulled away from Joss when the mayor had called him up on stage. As he watched Steph pull her in the other direction, his dick had instantly decided it wasn’t done with her either, and he’d spent the next couple minutes with his hands crossed in front of his groin in fear his cock would misbehave again.

Had he seriously just fucked her in the boardroom with not so much as having seen her naked first? It was poor form to say the least, but there was nothing to regret about it. She’d felt incredible. It was that breathy panting and moaning that had pushed him over the edge. He didn’t give a shit that he couldn’t see her. He just needed to consume her, and so, he had. It might have been impetuous and unexpected, but it was damn perfect the way her body clenched around him, strangling his arousal until he’d fallen apart.

“Just watching movies.”

“What?” He glanced in the mirror again, suddenly confused.

“You asked what we were doing tonight.” The girls looked quizzically back at him.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry,” he mumbled.

When they got home, the girls disappeared upstairs, and he instantly walked to the kitchen, opened a beer, and picked up his cell phone. He started dialing, got halfway through her number, and then ended the call, setting his phone back down. He did it three times in a row before he abandoned his beer in the sink and ran upstairs.

“Hey, guys. I’m going to run to the store.” He started to turn from them.

“It’s nearly ten o’clock, Dad.” They were staring at him confused again.

“Yeah, yeah. I know. I just need…” He mumbled something incoherent as he turned and headed back down the hall. They were more than old enough to be on their own for a while, and he was more than old enough to need to talk to the woman he’d just fucked.

He had no intention of going to the store at all, and he’d likely not even be able to find one open at this hour. As he drove toward Joss’s home, he let his mind wander back to the damn boardroom. Ten minutes later, two missed turns thanks to not being able to concentrate on driving, and one hard-on that just wouldn’t go away, and he was pulling into her driveway.

His pulse was racing as he mounted her steps, and when he knocked, an electric flush of adrenalin ran through his body. She opened the door, and her lips parted as she took in the sight of him. He must look deranged at this point, but she bit her lip, so he must also look normal enough to be wriggling his way under skin. She always bit her lip when they were alone together, and he knew perfectly well what she was thinking of when she did.

“What are you doing here? Are the girls all right?”

“No. Listen—”

“No?” Her face looked shocked, and he had to replay his last comment to figure out what he’d said wrong.

“Oh, God, no, I mean, they’re fine. Fine. Sorry. I’ve just been having a hard time paying attention to anything anyone has said to me since… Sorry. It’s okay, isn’t it? Harper is allowed to stay alone?” He was just rambling, and he couldn’t seem to stop for the life of him.

“Yes. Of course. I just wasn’t expecting to see you.” She glanced back toward the inside of her house, but her attention returned to him quickly.

“Oh. Okay. Listen…”

“Listen? Really?” She smirked, and he finally relaxed and chuckled.

She wasn’t wearing the dress anymore, but she looked just as incredible in the sweatshirt and yoga pants she was in now with her hair up in a high pony tail. The thick fleece socks on her feet were rather adorable too.

“So…that wasn’t supposed to happen.”

She suddenly looked shocked, and she shook her head, dumfounded at what he’d said, maybe even offended.

“I mean, it wasn’t supposed to happen
like that
.”

She smiled then.

“Fucking you on the window ledge in the boardroom isn’t exactly my idea of—”

Suddenly the kitchen door flew open at the end of the hallway behind her, and Steph’s shocked face poked out not caring in the least that it was a private conversation. When he glanced to Joss in front of him her face was scrunched up and her eyes closed as she shook her head from side to side.

“Umm… Yeah, I’m not alone.”

“Shit. I didn’t know.”

“Well, her car’s right there in the driveway.” Joss said under her breath as her eyes finally opened.

“Yeah. I was having a hard time concentrating on the way over too. Sorry.”

She laughed quietly. “Go back to the kitchen, eavesdropper,” she hollered over her shoulder. When the kitchen door closed again, she took a deep breath. “But, hey, you’ve given us topic of conversation to last a week. I’m sure Steph thanks you for that.”

He laughed then too. She was peering up at him, and he couldn’t help himself. He leaned down to her mouth, kissing her. She had to be freezing, standing there in her doorway, but she still leaned into the kiss, perpetuating it just that much longer, and when he finally pulled his lips from hers, she exhaled a deep breath.

“Just doesn’t seem right that I’ve been inside your body, and yet, I’ve never even seen it,” he muttered. It was the truth. It was insane that the first time he made love to this woman they were both completely clothed, and it was too dark to see much of anything at all. “And I’m really sorry about not using anything, but I’m, well, you know…”

“Neutered?”

“It’s actually called a vasectomy, but for all intents and purposes, yes. And I’ve not been with anyone but my wife for well over fifteen years. Just so you know.” This was turning into an awkward conversation if nothing else, but he was still happy just to be near her.

“Well, I haven’t been with anyone but my ex-husband for just as long too.” She said it almost jokingly, regretting it instantly given the look on her face. “I mean… Fuck. Well, that doesn’t mean much, but I’ve always made him use protection since we divorced.” Now she just looked humiliated that she had to say it out loud.

He couldn’t say he was shocked. It was all just an ugly reminder of the odd, if not downright inappropriate, relationship she’d carried on with her ex.

He smiled at her, trying to reassure her, but she was shaking her head in her embarrassment. Regardless of her humiliation, he finally felt marginally human now that he was talking to her. But as she shivered and hugged her arms around her, he sighed. “You’re freezing. I’m just keeping you—”

“No, it’s fine. I’m glad you came. I’ve been going a little crazy. Listen…”

He chuckled, and she groaned.

“I really don’t want you to go, but I should probably get back to Steph. It truly will be an epic session of twenty questions tonight, thanks to your mouth.”

“Can I see you tomorrow?”

“Yes. How about I bring over lunch, and we’ll help you pack for a while? Will Harp be okay there until lunch time?”

“Definitely.” They both stood there awkwardly waiting for the other to move, and when he finally kissed her again, it ended with his tongue filling her mouth, her hands digging harshly into the skin at his lower back, and her body backed up and flattened against the door frame. “Okay. I have to go, or I’m going to end up figuring out a way to fuck you here as well.”

He shook his head as he stepped back from her, and she said goodnight, slowly closing the door as he turned away.

* * * *

By the time Joss arrived at noon the next day, Isaiah had already put in nearly eight hours of work. He’d not been able to sleep, and come four in the morning, he decided he was sick and tired of staring at his ceiling. He couldn’t really say he’d spent that entire time packing though.

He’d made coffee, and then he’d spent a ridiculous amount of time just staring out the kitchen window. He could honestly say there wasn’t an ounce of guilt when he was with Joss—no guilt about any of it, not even making love to her. He could also logically say he was allowed to move on and, in fact, was supposed to. But none of that meant anything when he was alone, staring out the window at the moonlight bouncing off the snow.

When he was alone and Joss wasn’t with him, things got…muddled in his mind. He remembered a time in his life when he’d loved Delia. She’d been his life, and it was at those times that he became so overcome by grief and sadness that pulling himself back to the now became hard. He didn’t like it. Joss deserved more of him than that, and he wanted to give her more, hell, all of himself. He knew with no doubt in his mind that were his past with Delia not mucking up his head, he could give Joss every ounce of himself. He wasn’t sure why he knew at this point that she meant that much to him, but he did. And he wanted it…

He wanted her so much it hurt. He wanted her just as much as he’d ever wanted his wife. They were completely different, everything about them—their look, their personalities, their needs. He couldn’t even say he valued either of them less than the other, and that’s where the guilt set in. He’d been married to one for fifteen years; the other, he barely knew, and yet, he felt so attached, so close, so…in love. That wasn’t possible in his mind, but he didn’t know how else to describe it.

He knew full well the moment she walked through his door and he could be near her again, he’d wonder how and why he’d ever feel guilty about wanting her. He’d been paying attention to his moods since he realized how attached he was getting to her, and it was as simple as that. He forgot about the guilt and pain when she was near. In fact, the very concepts made no sense to him. But when he was apart from her, he wondered how he could so easily forget fifteen years with another woman, and then the concept of letting go of his past was what he couldn’t grasp. It was no wonder he was going crazy.