Next to You (9 page)

“Your partner comes from quite the family.”

Jared was quiet after that, helping himself to another slice of garlic toast.
Should have stuck to business.
The conversation had died when they left that topic.

“More wine?” she asked.

Jared shook his head. “Gotta work tomorrow.” He smiled at her.

She liked his smile, even on the side of his face that had been burned. It softened his appearance.

“Right. I should probably sneak some work in myself. Zee has restricted me to one phone call to the company per day. But we launched a new product a few months ago. I need to keep an eye on what people are saying online. One tweet goes viral and everything can go to hell in half an hour.”

“I try to stay away from those sites. Like my privacy, you know.” He stood and carried his plate and empty wine glass into the kitchen. He rinsed both and carefully put them in the dishwasher.

“Coffee?” Phlox suggested. Boy, the evening had gone south in a hurry. “I have decaf.”

She saw the hesitation on his face. “That would be great. Thanks.”

Phlox busied herself grinding beans and measuring water. Jared finished clearing the table for her. He had good manners. Not like some of the guys she had dated in the past.

“Let’s sit in here.” She carried two mugs of coffee into the front room. “I guess historically this would have been the parlor.” She handed Jared a mug and gestured at the big overstuffed sofa. “I use it more as just a place to read.” She swept aside the stack of paperbacks on the sofa. “I’m supposed to be reading a lot of trashy books up here this month.”

They drank the coffee silently, sitting side by side on the sofa. Jared looked around the room, taking in the furnishings, the oil paintings on the walls. The evening was ending, Phlox sensed, even as she was desperate for it not to. She was probably just lonely up here by herself. That had to be it. She wasn’t normally the sort of woman to throw herself at a man. In the past, that wouldn’t have worked anyway. Didn’t seem to be working now.

She carried their empty mugs to the kitchen. When she returned to the parlor, Jared was perched on the edge of the sofa, clearly on the verge of making his farewell.

“Would you like to go swimming?” she asked. “It’s supposed to be a little warmer tonight.”

He looked at her thoughtfully, like he was searching for the right words to let her down easy. “I should go. Thanks for dinner.”

But he didn’t stand up and a tiny ray of hope flared in her chest. He had wanted her last night out by the pool. She wasn’t just imagining that.

“You’re welcome,” she said, then took a deep breath and plunged in. “Why no swimming tonight?”

“I prefer to swim alone.”

“That’s not safe, especially after a big dinner. And wine.”

“Depends on your definition of safe.”

“You don’t want me to see the scars on your body again. That’s it, isn’t it?”

He didn’t answer but the look in his eyes was answer enough.

Before she could think better of it, Phlox reached around and unzipped the back of her eyelet blouse. Jared’s eyes grew big as saucers as she pulled it over her head and tossed it onto the floor. Then she unzipped her ankle jeans and slid them down over her legs until she was left wearing just her tiny thong and bra.

“Phlox. What the hell are you doing?”

The low grumble in his voice sent a shiver down her spine, and a small voice of her own—somewhere deep in the recesses of her brain—warned her that she should stop. But she couldn’t stop, not now—not and retain some semblance of dignity. Onward was where she had to go.

She traced the web of scars on her abdomen. “Here’s where they took the skin for the grafts on my shoulders and chest.” She turned around to show him the scars on her ass. He sucked in his breath loudly. “This is where they got the skin for the grafts on my face.” She traced the silvery lines with her finger.

She spun back around and pushed him back into the cushions of the sofa, then straddled his lap. “So this pretty face? Is covered with skin from my ass.” Her eyes burned into his wary, uncertain ones. “So when I tell someone to kiss my ass—"

Jared pulled her into him, his mouth crushing hers hot and fierce. He kissed her hard for several minutes, then slowly peeled his lips off hers. “You have a very pretty ass.” As if to punctuate what he was saying, his hands slid down onto her bare bottom. “So I’m not surprised they used skin from here.”

Phlox moaned as he squeezed her cheeks, kneading them beneath his strong fingers. Her moan grew louder when he dipped his head to her chest and ran his tongue over the swell of her breast. His hands left her ass and reappeared higher, unhooking her bra. He slid the pale blue lacy fabric off her shoulders and arms.

Phlox quickly cupped her own hands over her breasts. A frown creased Jared’s mouth and forehead. She wanted to slow things down for a minute. Slowly she slid her hands along the underside of her breasts, revealing a long thin scar on each.

“I had the best medical care money could buy,” she said as she ran her thumb along one scar. “But that doesn’t get rid of all of the scars.” She reached out and caressed his cheek. “I know we don’t know each other that well, Jared, but I’m guessing these aren’t your worst scars.”

He closed his eyes and leaned into her palm. Phlox felt the release of tension rolling off his body.

“Please don’t stop,” he groaned. “That feels so … damn … amazing. No one ever touches me.”

She took his hand and placed it on her breast. Her nipple hardened as he rolled it beneath his finger and thumb. Without opening his eyes, he leaned in and kissed the nipple. Phlox arched her back, pressing herself against his mouth.

“Let’s go upstairs.” His words vibrated hot against her skin.

In her bedroom, she stood a few steps away from him while he undressed. She wanted to do nothing that would spook him and send him running away from her. When he got down to just his boxer briefs, he looked over at her. She realized she was still wearing her thong. She hooked her fingers in the elastic and stripped it off. His underwear quickly joined hers on the floor.

His eyes ran up and down her body.

“I want to touch you everywhere,” he said. “I hardly know where to start.”

She touched her lips. “Start here. Kiss me.”

Before she could even register the movement, he closed the distance between them and scooped her up in his arms—effortlessly, the way he had the day she fell off the porch. He lowered her onto the bed, his body following right behind. She pulled his head down to hers and looked deep into his blazing eyes. Whatever doubts he’d had the night before were gone now. They had passed some invisible rubicon, leaving them with no graceful way out of her bed.

Jared kissed her, hard and searching, a confirmation of what Phlox felt. There was no way back at this point. He might have been resisting his attraction to her before, but he was too much of a gentleman to stop now. She didn’t know much about Jared Connor, but she was certain of that much. He was a good man.

His breath tasted of smoky coffee and spicy wine. She could barely breathe as she felt his hands dig into her hair and his hips settle tantalizingly over hers. She was so ready for him. He wanted to touch her everywhere and she wanted to just skip over all the preludes and pull him inside her. The last time she’d had sex was before the accident, and the feel of his skin on hers was awakening old memories.

His lips nuzzled her neck, making everything inside her go smooth and liquidy. “You are so beautiful,” he murmured as he trailed hot kisses over her sternum on the way to her breasts. His hands cupped her breasts and he pressed a gentle kiss on each one. “Please don’t get implants. These are perfect just the way they are.”

Then he covered one with his mouth, licking and sucking while his fingers teased the other nipple until her hips were rolling beneath him. She worried she was going to come just from this, and it would all be over too soon.

As if he were reading her thoughts, he ran his tongue one last time over her nipple and then headed further south. He slipped his hand between her legs and groaned when he felt how wet she was.

“Jared. I want you.”

Her brain shut down after that, as his fingers teased her open. Up and down he stroked, lightly, then faster as Phlox’s breath became ragged and shallow. When he circled his thumb around her clitoris, she broke apart with shuddering waves of ecstasy rolling from her shoulders to her hips.

He took her lips in a long, deep kiss. She tugged at his hips, pulling his hard length against her wet core.

“I didn’t bring any condoms,” he whispered. “It’s just been me up here, you know.”

“In the nightstand.” She could barely get the words out. “Should be some there.”

He gave her a look that was half surprise and half gratitude as he leaned across the bed and pulled open the nightstand drawer. Inside lay a box of condoms, unopened. He tore at the cardboard and fumbled a moment with a package before finally resorting to his teeth to rip it open. She spread her legs wider as he rolled the condom on over his straining cock. Just watching as he touched himself had her right on the very edge of another orgasm.

He rubbed himself against her wet heat, then thrust into her. He closed his eyes as he began to stroke in and out of her, slowly at first then falling into a faster, deeper rhythm. Phlox lost herself in the sight. His face was relaxed and peaceful as he absorbed the sensations flowing between their bodies. Even his scars were softer, paler.

He opened his eyes to look down at her. “You okay?”

She smiled at his concern. “Perfect. Just perfect.”

He brushed his lips against hers as he rocked into her. Phlox felt the small tremblings of another orgasm begin to build. “Harder, Jared. I need—”

His strokes were precise and controlled, each surge touching her deeper and pushing her closer to release. He grabbed her hands and pushed them into the mattress over her head.

“Let go for me.”

She surrendered to his body in tiny gasps and cries, her body bucking and arching desperately beneath him. With a low, savage moan, he thrust once, twice more, then released all his energy into her.

“Beautiful … that was … beautiful,” she heard him say as he rolled onto the bed, pulling her still trembling body into his arms.
Yes. It was beautiful.
The sight of Jared Connor taking such exquisite pleasure from her body was the most beautiful thing she had seen in ages. Maybe ever.

A
t this early hour
, the local diner was nearly empty. Jared sat on a vinyl-covered stool at the counter and stared into a cup of coffee. Phlox had looked so peaceful, so fucking adorable asleep in her bed that he hadn’t had the heart to wake her. Her skin was warm and flushed a pale pink, her blonde hair strewn every which way—the pillow, her cheek, her shoulders. She’d looked like a painting.

They kept each other up way too late last night, but Jared had awakened at the first rays of dawn. He wasn’t used to sharing a bed. The last time he had dated was during the Accendo years, and what those women had wanted from him was just money. They were willing to spend a few hours in his bed if he flew them to exotic locations for the weekend or took them to champagne-flooded parties or bought them diamonds and platinum. But they never wanted to spend the night—nor had he ever really wanted them to. He stopped dating when he found out that people thought
he
was the whore—buying off beautiful women to be his escorts.

He had dressed quietly in Phlox’s room and tiptoed down her creaky antique stairs. She fixed him a delicious dinner last night. The least he could do was provide breakfast. He was waiting for his order—two of the diner’s huge Belgian waffles, strawberries and whipped cream on the side so they would survive the ride home, a side of bacon and two coffees to go.

The waitress was working hard not to look at him, even with the baseball cap he always kept in his truck pulled down as low on his head as it could go. People often acted like he was a serial killer or something. He glanced at the waitress out of the corner of his eye. She was all the way down at the far end of the counter, intently wiping and straightening. Honey, he thought, in real life serial killers look like Ted Bundy, not Michael Myers. They look like the man Jared would have grown up to resemble had half his face not been burned off.

Ah, he had no desire to make the poor woman uncomfortable. Bored, he took out his phone and checked for messages. There was a text from his brother.

Atty called. Appeal denied. Be ready for the call.

Fuck. Fuckfuckfuck. He shouldn’t be surprised. He stared at the tiny words glowing on the screen. This moment had been hanging over their heads their entire lives. And he should be glad, shouldn’t he? The bastard ruined their lives. Killed their mother and left Jared with a hideously wrecked face.

Instead, his heart felt like a lead weight in his chest. Maybe it was just a child’s hopeful fantasy—that somehow everything would turn out to be different, that some new piece of evidence would turn up and reveal that someone else had done it, that Jackson Connor would turn out to be innocent after all, that he really had loved his wife and sons too much to kill them.

Or maybe it was time for Jared to grow up and accept the hand he had been dealt in life. By any standards, he had been immensely successful in business. Jake and his family were taken care of. Jared paid Jake to manage his money. Jake’s children would inherit it eventually. That should be enough, really. Jake, Mina and their kids were his family and they were a damn fine family. No point in wishing for what couldn’t ever be.

A large white bag was shoved into his line of vision, jostling his coffee mug. Good thing it was nearly empty or the waitress would have had more counter space to wipe up. Jared tugged his wallet from the back pocket of his jeans and left her a good tip anyway. It wasn’t her fault his father had tried to kill him.

Outside, he set the bag on the passenger seat of the truck and turned the ignition.
I know we don’t know each other that well, Jared, but I’m guessing these aren’t your worst scars.
Phlox’s words came back to him as his pickup truck rolled over the country roads back to her house. Guilt flared in his chest. He knew far more about her than she did about him. To her, he was just a caretaker. Her employee. She seemed to be okay with that, or as okay as she needed to be in order to fuck him. But sure as shit she wouldn’t be okay with him having a father on death row. People never were. It made them nervous, especially when they found out that Jackson Connor had stabbed his wife in her bed, poured gasoline around the house and left his sons to die in the flames. It was that family angle that creeped people out. That was the part no one liked to think about too hard.

Jackson Connor was a monster, everyone acknowledged that. But they looked at Jared and Jake like they were monsters, too. Apples don’t fall far from the tree … blood is thicker than water … doesn’t the older one look just like …

Jacob was lucky in that regard. He had always favored their mother more in appearance. But the older Jared got, the more the left side of his face had grown into his father’s. In another year, Jared would be the same age as his father had been that day. It was a birthday he had no intention of celebrating.

That was the thing Jake didn’t understand when he nagged Jared about being able to afford plastic surgery. If he had the surgery, he would want to fix the left side of his face too. Obliterate it, make it look like someone else, anyone but Jackson Connor. But who? Jared had never been able to figure that out. If you could choose any face, what would you choose?

Phlox Miller had done it, chosen a new face. He wondered what process she had gone through. Was there a catalog of facial features one perused and ordered from? Or did you cut out pictures from magazines and take them in?
I’d like so-and-so’s nose and those lips and how about a pair of those cheekbones.
Well, it was hardly a question he was going to ask her. She was clearly a little unstable if she wanted to spend time with him.

He wasn’t used to having women throw themselves at him, much less strip naked and sit on his lap. The dormant gentleman in him had tried to refuse the offer but since she was persisting, he would take what she wanted to give. But he wasn’t going to encourage any unnecessary emotional intimacy. The last thing he needed was to fall for a woman.

Back at her house, it took him a few minutes to find a tray, plates and flatware in the kitchen. It was quiet upstairs so he was surprised to find Phlox awake and sitting up in bed when he walked through her bedroom door with the waffles and coffee. Her eyes widened in surprise and she clutched the sheet a little tighter to her chest.

“I went and got us breakfast,” he said, setting the tray onto the bed.

She said nothing.

“Hope you like waffles.”

When she still said nothing, he began to doubt this course of action. Maybe she didn’t like waffles? Maybe she was on a diet, like ninety percent of the world’s female population? He glanced up at her. She couldn’t be on a diet, he thought, she looked perfectly … tearful? Her eyes were wet and shining, rimmed in pink.

He moved closer to her. “Phlox? What’s the matter?”

She just shook her head.

“Did I hurt you last night?” Oh god, he’d let all those years of pent up lust take over, hadn’t he? He had tried to be careful but maybe he hadn’t been careful enough.

She shook her head again, and swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand.

“I thought you …” She bit down on her quivering bottom lip.

“Thought I what?”

She let go of the sheet with one hand and waved at the door.

“You thought I left?”

She nodded. “Guys do. You know, sneak out in the morning.”

They do? Who sneaks out after getting lucky enough to spend the night in a beautiful woman’s bed?

“I just went to get breakfast. I would never … I didn’t want to wake you … you made me such an amazing dinner last night and I wanted to reciprocate …” He sighed and climbed over the blankets to straddle her thighs. “Phlox, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you would think that. I—”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m just … I had no right to expect you to stay.”

He clasped her face in his hands. “Phlox.” He leaned his forehead against hers. “I want to stay. It might make me a little late for work, but I think the boss isn’t going to mind.”

He felt her cheeks lift into a smile. He gave her a quick kiss, then pulled the breakfast tray closer. He picked up a strawberry and held it to her lips. She closed her eyes and moaned softly with pleasure as she bit into the luscious, ripe fruit.

“I would have to be out of my mind not to come back for this,” he said, hoping she couldn’t feel through the layers of sheets how hard he was already. It was taking all his self control not to shove the breakfast tray onto the floor, rip off his clothes and plunge himself deep inside her.

He fed her the waffle, leaning in to lick the whipped cream from her lips after each bite. Feeding her was incredibly arousing. Every time her soft pink lips closed around the fork, it was like they were closing around his cock.

“My turn now,” she said with a smile when the first waffle was gone.

As she sat up, the sheet fell away from her body and he found himself staring at her breasts, her nipples pink and tight. He stripped the sheet off her and gazed at her fully naked body. God, the things they had done last night. All night. He’d been like a starving man eating for the first time in months. And he was still hungry.

She reached for the tray but he caught her hand and pressed her palm to his lips.

“I want to feed you, Jared.”

He took a deep breath. “You will.”

He ran a finger through the mound of whipped cream atop the second waffle, then dabbed it onto her nipple. She gasped as he closed his mouth over her breast and sucked off the whipped cream.

“That’s not what I meant.” She struggled to get the words out as he daubed whipped cream onto her other breast and licked that off, too. Her spine arched beneath him, a slow rolling curve that was sexy as fuck.

He responded in kind, drawing slow lazy squiggles of cream down her stomach, then following it with his tongue. Her hips squirmed beneath him, as if they knew exactly where he was headed.

Oh yeah. Going there right now.

“Jared,” she pleaded as he scooped up a big helping of whipped cream.

Her blue eyes were dark as the sea as she watched him spread the whipped cream between her legs. Then he dove in.

Her taste overwhelmed him, just as it had last night, and all thoughts of anything else were dashed from his mind. He was in a place where there were no waitresses who couldn’t bear to look at him or women who pretended they didn’t see him. There was just this women, this exceedingly lovely woman he was giving pleasure to.

Who had he been kidding all these years? He wanted a woman as much as the next guy. He wanted a woman he could take care of, a woman to wake up next to, a woman he could give pleasure to. If he could find such a woman, he would cherish her forever.

Phlox’s hips were rocking back and forth, wildly. He pressed his hands on the points of her hipbones and pressed her body into the mattress, holding her still.

“Jared … Jared … Jared,” she panted.

He thrust his tongue inside her and was rewarded with the sound of her screaming his name as she came hard all over his face. He slid up her body, enjoying the tiny aftershocks that convulsed her. She looked happy in a desperate, wild sort of way. Her blonde hair was still mussed from sleep, her cheeks flushed from the orgasm, her lips rosy from the strawberries. He dipped in and kissed her.

“Did I forget to say ‘good morning?’”

She smiled against his lips. “I think you just did.”

Maybe if he could just give Phlox Miller enough pleasure, she would stay with him. Or, failing that, let him stay with her. He would settle for that. He didn’t need her to love him. He just wanted her to let him hang around. Be her caretaker forever.

“But I don’t think I did,” she added and pushed up at his chest.

He let himself be pushed onto his back. The sight of her crawling over him was a fine one but it wasn’t until he saw the wicked gleam in her eyes that he realized what she was up to. She unbuttoned his shirt and unzipped his jeans, dragging them down his legs. Then she scooped up the rest of the whipped cream and deftly applied it to his raging hard on. The coolness of the whipped cream was immediately replaced by her soft, warm tongue running along the underside of his cock. When she circled the tip, he nearly came right then.

It had been years since he’d had a woman’s mouth on him there. Now he remembered what he was missing. He didn’t know how long he was going to last though. He was too close already.

When she slid her warm, wet mouth over him and began pulling him in and out, he thought he was going to black out completely. He felt a tightness building in the base of his spine and he reached down to touch her hair.

“Phlox. I’m going to come if you don’t stop.”

She batted away his hand and continued to suck on him, dragging him closer and closer to the edge. Her hand tightened around the base of his cock, and then it was all over. He felt her mouth fill with surge after surge of his orgasm. She held him there with her lips and her soft hands until he was done. He unclenched the fistful of bed sheet he hadn’t realized he was clenching. At that moment, he wanted to hold on to Phlox for dear life, kiss her, care for her, never let her go.