Authors: Karenna Colcroft
Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Erotica, #Contemporary
Seeds of Desire (2 page)
“Fuck yes, Cass,” he murmured against her mouth. His hand
found her breast and squeezed it gently.
Her nipples stiffened and moisture flooded her. She wanted
his hands on her everywhere, bare skin against bare skin. She ached for his
cock. If he wanted her here and now, she wouldn’t stop him from taking her.
She rubbed his cock harder and was rewarded by it twitching
against her hand. Their tongues swirled together, the kiss deepening as they
moved their hands over each other’s bodies. Jared slipped his fingers through
her hair then gripped tightly, tilting her head back. She cried out into the
kiss and grasped his arm, unsure whether she meant to stop or encourage him.
He broke the kiss and stared into her eyes, breathing
heavily. “Let me see you,” he said hoarsely. “Please, Cass.” He played with the
button at the top of her blouse. “Let me. I want to touch you. Taste you.
Please.”
Slowly, he undid the button. She held her breath, waiting
for his next move. Would he take her shirt off entirely? Suck her nipples,
knead her breasts as she’d fantasized?
How far would she let him go while they sat here?
Here. In the motel parking lot where anyone might see, with
the man she’d made up her mind she couldn’t stand. The realization hit her like
a bucket of cold water.
What the hell am I doing?
Abruptly, she shoved him
away and scooted back against her door. “No.”
Stunned, he shook his head. “I thought… God, Cassidy, I want
you. Look how hard I am.” He gestured at the appealing bulge in the front of
his slacks. Despite herself, Cassidy reached for it, then yanked her hand back.
“Touch me,” he urged. “Please. Cass, we can go inside, but please don’t make me
stop now. You want me too. You can’t tell me different.”
“No!” She opened her door. “I-I’m sorry. I shouldn’t…”
Uncertain how to finish her thought, she bolted, slamming the door behind her
and practically running for the safety of her room.
I shouldn’t lead him on.
She entered her room and
closed the door.
I shouldn’t let him touch me. I shouldn’t want to fuck him
so badly my pussy’s on fire.
She shouldn’t. But she had, and she did and she didn’t know
how much longer she’d be able to deny her desire for him.
Her clit pulsed as if angry at the loss of Jared’s touch.
Her lower belly tightened when she thought about the touch of Jared’s hand. She
still felt it on her skin and the sensation still sent tingles of fire through
her.
Next to her room, a door slammed. Jared, entering his room.
Probably planning to take a cold shower after the way she’d left him. She
needed one herself.
She stripped off her clothes, leaving only her bra and
panties on, and stared at herself in the mirror. Flushed face, chest heaving as
she tried to catch her breath. Somewhere along the line her hair had gotten
tousled, and she looked like she’d just risen from a nap.
No, not a nap. A fuck.
She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.
No more of that.
No
matter how much Jared’s hands and lips had aroused her, she couldn’t let it go
any further. She worked with the man. They had to travel like this to half a
dozen more towns before JaBro’s busiest construction season picked up and they
no longer had the manpower to plant trees.
Thank goodness they usually took only day trips. If she
could just get through tonight in this motel with him right on the other side
of the wall, she’d be fine.
She
didn’t
like him. She certainly wouldn’t fuck him.
Even if her libido disagreed.
Chapter Two
As soon as she caught her breath, she rummaged in her
suitcase for her normal T-shirt and jeans and put them on.
Much better.
Now she felt like herself again instead of some corporate bimbo.
Just as she finished changing, a tap sounded on her door.
Had to be Jared. No one else in the motel even knew her.
She confirmed her guess through the peephole and tensed.
Surely he didn’t expect to continue what they’d started in the car. She’d made
it clear—at least she hoped she had—that she didn’t want that kind of attention
from him. At least her rational brain didn’t, and she would force her body and
hormones to fall into line.
Her first instinct was to ignore him. Let him spend the
entire night out there banging on the door if he wanted. Seeing him after that
little makeout session would be far too awkward. Her face heated at the
thought.
“Cassidy, I know you’re in there,” he called. “Let me in. I
promise I won’t bite or anything else.”
Rolling her eyes, she opened the door. “What do you want?”
she snapped. Maybe anger would cover her embarrassment.
“Gosh, it’s nice to see you too.” He studied her outfit.
“You know, that’s a good look for you. In that suit of yours you looked like
someone jammed something up your ass and you didn’t know how to take it out.”
Not just a jerk. A crude jerk. Even if he did look good in
the soft, faded jeans and tight T-shirt he’d changed into. The shirt
accentuated his muscular arms. Cassidy clenched her fists to keep from
caressing his chest. If she touched him, could she take him back to the boiling
point? Make him even harder than he had been? The bed sat only a few feet away,
practically begging for use. And not for sleeping.
She shook the thought out of her head and gave him her best
long-suffering glare. “You’re so charming. What do you want?”
He leaned against the doorjamb. “I thought I’d be nice and
ask you out to dinner to celebrate having anyone at all sign on for planting.
Maybe nice doesn’t work with you.” He frowned. “Seriously, Cassidy, if I didn’t
know better, I’d say you were a were-porcupine or something. All prickly and
spiny.”
Were-porcupine?
She stifled a laugh. If Jared knew
he’d amused her, it would just encourage him. “Only to certain people,” she
said coolly.
“Prickle, prickle.” He grinned. “So, dinner? I promise not
to make you think I’m a jerk if you promise not to act like I am one.” He
hesitated. “What happened earlier? Didn’t happen. Don’t worry. I’ll never
mention it again.”
She barely stifled a sigh of relief. As long as they were in
agreement, she’d at least be able to sit in the same room with him—and the same
car—without feeling so awkward she couldn’t even look at the man.
Her stomach growled, reminding her that she’d been too
nervous to eat before the town meeting. She wouldn’t turn down a free meal,
even if it did mean having to spend time with Jared.
At least the view would be good. Spending enough time for a
meal with him might be uncomfortable, but her imagination would keep her
company. When she looked at him in that T-shirt, her fingers itched to creep
under its hem, to stroke the bare skin above the waistband of those jeans.
Fantasizing about that would definitely make the meal tolerable, if she just
managed to keep her thoughts hidden from him.
Hell, she didn’t even want to admit to herself that she lusted
for him. She damn sure didn’t want him to catch on. It would only make him more
insufferably cocky. And would practically guarantee another grope session when
they returned to the motel. No matter how horny he made her, she wouldn’t let
that happen.
Even though her nipples and clit perked up at the thought.
She picked up her cardigan in case the weather turned cold,
always a possibility in spring in this area, and trailed him out to the car.
Even in the middle of nowhere, apparently, people liked going
out to eat. Maybe because there was nothing else to do. Within a few miles of
the hotel, they found three restaurants, including one that billed itself as
“family-friendly”. That apparently meant that, unlike the other two, it didn’t
have a bar, according to the sign out front. Jared chose it, which surprised
her. He seemed like the kind who’d want to chug down a few after a day of
rallying the locals.
He pulled into the parking lot and said, “This looks as good
as anywhere.”
“No alcohol,” she pointed out.
He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Do you drink? I
didn’t think you did. If you want, I can find somewhere else.”
She didn’t drink. The stuff tasted horrible to her. Not to
mention the whole thing about alcohol lowering inhibitions, something she couldn’t
afford around him right now. She hadn’t expected him to know that, though. “No,
this is fine,” she said. “You’re right, I don’t drink.”
He nodded. “Me neither. Not for the past five years, anyway.
Let’s see if they have a table available.” He snorted at his own joke. Only one
other car sat in the lot.
Inside, one family sat at a table near the door. A mother,
father and two kids in the toddler range, one of whom was throwing a minor fit
about being confined to a highchair.
“Ah, domestic bliss,” Jared muttered. He led Cassidy to a
table on the other side of the restaurant.
So he didn’t like kids. Cassidy made a note of the fact,
even though it would never be an issue for her. As soon as the tree-planting
ended, she would probably never even see him again.
It took only a couple of minutes for a waitress to bring
menus and within a surprisingly short amount of time, hot meals sat on the
table in front of them. The food tasted decent.
To Cassidy’s surprise, the company wasn’t bad either. Away
from his role as the public face of JaBro, Jared was surprisingly funny and
charming, and he entertained her with stories about his father and other
relatives who worked for JaBro. They’d never had a social conversation before,
she realized. Only chatter and banter during drives and while preparing
presentations for the various towns they’d visited. Those conversations usually
ended with some snide, sarcastic comment from him.
Here, with no pressure and no one but her to impress, he
actually seemed human.
But despite his casual chatter, Jared kept his smooth façade
in place. She had no way to judge whether he enjoyed her company or wanted the
meal to end so he could get away from her. Even when he told a humorous tale
about the time he’d nearly crashed the entire JaBro computer system, he showed
no emotion other than a restrained smile.
She wondered whether that surface would crack if she reached
under the table and stroked his thigh. The tablecloth hung low enough that no
one would see her hand inching up. By the time she reached his cock, it would
be so hard he’d gasp when she touched it through his jeans.
Massaging his shaft, she would look into his eyes to see his
arousal. As wet as she became just being near him, she would make him want her
twice as badly. Make him ache for her.
Maybe he would even return the courtesy and fondle her while
she played with him. And then they would leave in a hurry, Jared walking
stiffly to hide his hard-on, and run to the backseat of the car, where they—
“Cassidy?” Jared said impatiently.
Startled out of her fantasy, she shook her head. Her face
heated and she stared at her plate. “Sorry. My mind must have wandered.”
“And here I thought for a change you were actually enjoying
listening to me.” He gave her a rueful smile. “I asked whether you want
dessert. The waitress keeps looking this way, so she’ll probably be asking
whether we’re all set.”
“No, no, I’m fine.” The only dessert she wanted was Jared’s
cock in her mouth. Her clit throbbed in response to her thought.
As if that would ever happen.
At the end of the meal, Jared picked up the check. “I can
pay for my own,” Cassidy protested. A token protest—she wouldn’t argue much,
but she didn’t want him to think she couldn’t pay her own way. Or that she owed
him something for paying.
He held the check above his head, out of her reach.
“Consider it a gift from JaBro for your hard work,” he said cheerfully. “Have
to make use of the corporate credit card somehow.”
“Yes, because I’m sure Daddy will appreciate you spending
his company’s money on me,” she said sarcastically.
He studied her. “You really resent that, don’t you?”
“Resent what?”
He stood and pushed in his chair. “That I work for my
father. That he and my uncles own JaBro. That bugs the hell out of you, right?”
Like she cared where his money came from. If his father
wanted to spoil him rotten, it didn’t concern her in the least. She only had an
issue with Jared’s evident sense of entitlement.
She shook her head and tried not to let her irritation seep
into her tone. “No, not at all. Why would it bother me that you’ve always had
all the money in the world and don’t seem to realize that not everyone does?
You talk about the recession like it’s something that’s happened to other
people, not like it’s something that affects you, and you act like you should
be given everything you want just because you want it.”
She took a breath. Damn it, she hadn’t meant to spill all
that out to him. Of course she resented him. He didn’t need to know how much,
though. They still had to work together, after all. She’d just made that damn
awkward.
“Yeah, I figured you felt that way.” He sounded sad rather
than angry as she would have expected. “I don’t think I deserve everything. You
don’t know me nearly as well as you’ve convinced yourself you do.”
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled from under a mountain of guilt. She
shouldn’t have acted like such a bitch. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“No, no, I’m glad you did,” he said. He sounded sincere.
“It’s good to know what you really think about me.” The server came over and he
handed her the check and the credit card. She walked away. “I’d rather have you
honestly hate me than pretend to like me, Cassidy.”
If you only knew what I’ve been thinking about you
lately.
“I don’t hate you.” It was hard to completely hate a man who wandered
in and out of her imagination in various positions and stages of dress. He was
too damn sexy to really hate. She had to admit she wanted him. She didn’t even
dislike him quite as much as she had, though she wasn’t ready to actually like
him.