Authors: Michelle Love
‘That I know,’ Jess muttered. ‘God, Ollie, that’s so sad, so – why didn’t he tell me?’
‘Theo blamed himself for not seeing the signs – we all did but Theo took it the hardest.’ Ollie looked at her. ‘Should I be telling you this?’
Jess shrugged. ‘I don’t know, honestly. I won’t say anything to Theo if you don’t want me to. If
he
and I go the distance, I’m sure he’ll tell me himself eventually.’
She wasn’t sure of that at all and
later
when Ollie had gone, she thought about what he’d said. It made her wonder how much they really knew about each other. Theo knew loss as much she had. It made her sad that he hadn’t shared that with her yet. Her thoughts drifted to Camilla and the heavy feeling in her chest came back. Fucking Jules…she wanted to rip him limb from limb for what he’d done. In the days after the murder, she’d considered going to the police but the cops who had visited Theo’s apartment had obviously looked back in their files and their attitude to her had been colored by Jules’ remarks all those years ago.
‘They don’t take me seriously,’ she’d said bleakly to Theo who couldn’t help agree with her. She saw the anger in his eyes and he’d begged her to let him tell them about the attacks on her. She couldn’t face it though and there was something else. She wanted to make Jules pay. She wanted him to lose everything. She wanted him to hurt.
She wanted revenge.
He was waiting in the shadow of the alleyway when Jules Gachet walked out of the restaurant. With one hand, he clamped down on the other man’s shoulder and pulled him backwards. Max slammed the smaller man against the brick wall of the building, getting in his face, and was gratified to see a flicker of fear in his eyes.
‘Get your homo arms off of me,’ Jules puffed himself up, a sneer on his face, Max smiled grimly.
‘
Oh,
so you’ve done your homework, Gachet? Good. Then you know who you’re dealing with.’ Max searched the other man’s face. ‘You enjoy hurting women, Gachet?’
The other man chuckled darkly. ‘Where’d you get that idea?’
Max looked at him in disgust. ‘I won’t wait forever, Gachet. Draw up the papers to transfer Jess’s inheritance to her by the end of the week.’
Jules nodded once and walked towards his car. Max watched him as he opened the door and then turned, smirking.
‘Shame about Camilla,’ his smile widened, ‘tell Jess to take extra care, won’t you?’
Jess opened the door to the cabin and flew into his arms. Theo, laughing, picked her up and twirled her around joyfully. He pressed his lips to hers. ‘It’s been a very long week, Miss Wood.’
Jess kissed him, her hands on his face. ‘Agreed, way too long. Come inside and say hello properly.’
She opened a bottle of wine she’d bought at the Farmer’s Market as she cooked pasta for them and Theo filled her in on his week. When he brought up the idea of the charity again, she smiled at him.
‘I’ve been thinking about that too. I have a proposal for you, something I’ve been thinking about all week.’
Theo nodded. ‘Go on.’
She sipped her wine before speaking. ‘We rushed into everything so fast, you and I. We’re living together, you want me to go into business with you and as for sex…I’ve done things with
you,
I never imagined I would. But I don’t know your mom’s name. I don’t know why you went into property. Hell, I don’t know your shirt size. The minutiae of a person’s life – surely these are the things we need to know about each other. You don’t know that I can play the piano or that I once went on a date with a man who swore he could ‘make me a movie star’.
She pulled a face at that and he laughed. ‘Second date?’ Theo raised his eyebrows in amusement.
‘God no. But do you see what I mean? Your generosity in giving me a home, offering me a huge promotion in terms of my career – don’t think I’m not grateful because I am. But all I want is you. If you want me to run this charity, I will, but I don’t want any special favors just because we sleep together. I’ll take them if we mean something more than that.’
Theo chewed his lip, pondering her words and frowned. ‘Jess, surely you know by now…you are the love of my life. Hands down. If what you want to is to know me, then I’ll tell you everything you want to know.’
She nodded. ‘So I propose…we start over. Now, today. We tell each other everything, we get to know the other as well as possibly could. You are the only person in the world I trust implicitly. I hope I’m right to do so.’
She waited, willing him to tell her about Kelly, about that wound in his past. When he was silent, she felt a little pull in her chest but brushed it aside. There was time.
She leaned over to kiss him and he pulled her into his arms.
‘Anything you want, you just have to ask,’ he murmured as he kissed her. She kissed him back, melting at his touch then as she pulled back, she gave him a wicked grin.
‘Maybe…we should just go to first base, you
know
if we’re starting over.’
Theo chuckled. ‘
Yeah,
good luck with that.’
He slid his hands under her t-shirt, stroking her belly, cupping her breasts and she grinned.
‘I missed your hands.’ She kissed him. Theo smiled lazily at her.
‘Oh yeah? Let me show you what they can do.’ He slipped his fingers into the back of her jeans and stroked her buttocks. She sighed.
‘Yeah, that’s the stuff.’ She kissed his neck.
Theo grinned. ‘You know what else they can do?’
He cradled her in his arms and rolled her onto the floor. She giggled. He undid her jeans and pulled them off.
‘I’m quite sure this goes against our new rule.’ But she wriggled with pleasure. Theo shook his head, a mock serious expression on his face.
‘No, no. We’re just making out, that’s
all
like you said. But I should tell
you
since we last did this,’ he kissed her, ‘times have changed. There’s a new definition
of
‘making out’.’
‘Is there….oh lordy…’ She gasped as his mouth found her sex, his tongue curling around her clit and lashing against the deep cleft of her. Theo looked up at her.
‘Man, you taste so good…’
She sucked in a deep breath as her body began to quiver until Theo brought her to a pitch of excitement she could not hold back and moaned as her orgasm shuddered through her. Theo propped himself up on his
elbow
and let his fingers drift gently down her body as she caught her breath. He smiled at her shining eyes, so deep and warm and full of love for him.
Jess chuckled at his satisfied smile.. ‘Wow. Theo, I think I like your new definition of making out.’ She pushed him onto his back and stroked his face. ‘I think maybe it’s my turn to add a new definition.’
‘You do, huh?’
‘Oh yeah.’ And grinning, she moved down his body.
Jules watched Theo bring her to orgasm and the rage he felt was all consuming. He waited outside Theo’s apartment
the entire
week in the hope he would lead him to wherever Jess had gone but now he wished he hadn’t seen them together like this. Defiling her, defiling his Jessica.
He stood at the side of the window, watching them, watching her as she repaid her lover’s generosity. Theo had pulled her t-shirt off and Jules admired the smooth skin, the way her back curved. Jules felt in his pocket. The gun. He had never used a gun before, not to deal with any of his…problems. But Jess was special. And having that rich asshole around had presented a whole new set of complications. A gun was necessary.
He felt the cold steel with his fingers. He imagined putting a bullet into that beautiful curve in the small of her back. The thought excited him. Jules grunted and froze. Theo had looked towards the window. He could see him sit up, looking concerned. Jules ducked down and darted back into the trees.
‘What is it?’ Jess looked scared.
‘Thought I heard something.’ Theo got up and headed towards the door. He looked back at her and smiled. ‘Don’t worry, I’m just going to check around the house.’ He winked at her. ‘If you hear anything, lock the door. Don’t be scared, baby.’ He went out into the night. Jess felt a cold fear settle around her. But seconds later, Theo came back. He grinned wryly. ‘Sorry sweetheart, I didn’t mean to scare you. Guess I’m just jumpy after everything that’s happened.’
He locked the door behind him and took her in his arms. ‘I want you to know I heard what you said earlier and I’m on board. Completely. Except for the first base business…I don’t think we should deprive ourselves…’ He grinned wickedly and she chuckled.
‘You may have a point,’ and she slid her hand down his groin, cupped the long shape of his cock through the denim of his jeans. She glanced around and then grinned up at him. ‘Wanna fuck me on the stairs, soldier?’
Theo growled and scooped her up roughly, and then they were clawing at the remains of the other’s clothes. Theo tugged her legs around him, his cock so ramrod hard he had no trouble thrusting deep into her ready sex. He clamped her hands above her head as they fucked, brutally, desperately, their mouths hungry for the others.
They made it to the bedroom and much, much later they fell asleep in the other’s arms. Neither of them woke when the door to the cabin creaked open. Jules moved silently through the house, up the stairs.
Jess lay on her back, naked, Theo’s arm across her stomach, his face buried in the curve of her neck. Her long dark lashes swept down onto the smooth skin of her cheeks, the flush of lovemaking still pink. Christ, she was beautiful. Jules pulled the gun from his jacket and aimed it at her belly. An inch away, just one inch. His finger twitched on the trigger as he imagined the bullet smashing into the soft silky flesh, her gasp of shock and agony, Theo Storm’s horror as she bled out in his arms. He’d let him watch her die before he shot him too. Jules smirked to himself. It was a nice fantasy but no…not yet. He pocketed the gun and slipped back down the stairs, through the woods to where he’d left his car. He downed a bottle of water before starting the engine, lost in thought. It was good to know that they had no idea the lengths he would go to – stupid fuckers. Hadn’t Camilla been enough to terrify them?
What he’d done to Camilla was nothing to what he would do to Jess. Nothing at all.
The sky was heavy with snow a week later and Seattle was gearing up for a bad winter storm. Camilla was laid to rest in a small cemetery just outside the city and afterwards, Theo held Jess’s hand tightly in the car back home. Her head rested on his shoulder but he was surprised she hadn’t cried.
Instead,
he saw a slow burning anger behind her eyes. Good, he thought, that would keep her vigilant, keep her safe. He hadn’t told he that he’d found footprints and evidence of an intruder at the cabin that day.
He kissed her temple. ‘Hey, what say we grab some lunch then go over the paperwork Max sent over? Get a jump start on your new job?’
Max
had gotten
together a bunch of information – in record time, Theo grinned to himself – and if Jess was up for it, then the Stormfront Foundation would soon be a reality.
Jess looked up and smiled gratefully. ‘That sounds good to me, I could do with a new focus…apart from you, that is.’
Jess looked around the wide spacious office with views across the city and her jaw dropped. Max smirked at Theo, who put a hand on Jess’s shoulder. ‘Don’t get freaked out. We have a ton of advisors ready to help you. We just thought you could get up to speed at your own pace.’
‘And in one of the best offices in the city,’ she managed to choke out. Theo laughed and opened his hands in apology.
‘I can’t help it, I want you to have the best.’
Jess nodded but chewed on her lip. Max cleared his throat. ‘We have a press conference coming up – no, don’t panic…’ He shook his head at the panic on Jess’s face. Theo wrapped his arms around her. ‘It’s just to announce the Foundation’s formation – we need to get the word out if we’re going to be helping people. I’ll be there to do most of the talking, Max too. We’ll introduce you as the president of the foundation…’
‘Much to the amusement of the local art world,’ Jess said. She looked at him evenly. ‘Do you honestly think people won’t say it’s you finding a job for your feckless girlfriend?’
Theo took a deep breath. ‘To begin with, maybe. We have to be realistic, they’re gonna have their opinions. But when the foundation – when you - start making a real difference to young and exciting artists, they’ll change their minds. We just have to ride the wave of skepticism.’
‘Including yours,’ Max said with a grin and Jess couldn’t help but laugh.
‘In that case…I think I can handle it.’
The press conference went off without a hitch and suddenly the realization that she was the head of a charity made Jess more determined than ever to prove herself. In the weeks that followed, she worked late into the night with Theo’s advisors and even some picks of her own to source the most suitable projects to fund. She called up her old boss Gerry who was delighted to hear from her and she took him to lunch to pick his brains.