In the Arms of a Stranger (12 page)

Brianne jerked her arms free.
  “What do you care?  You were so damn sure I was off having some sort of…of
sex-fest
with Chad that you couldn’t stop spouting your nasty accusations long enough to let me explain.”

Shame washed over in him waves.
  “Bri, I’m sorry.  What happened, are you okay?”

She wiped irritably at the tears that were spilling down her cheeks, idly wondering when she’d started to cry.
  “I’ll be able to finish my job here, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

He took a step towards her, the ache to hold her in his arms so strong it was almost impossible not to act on it.
  “I’m not concerned about the project, I’m concerned about you.”

“Right,” she said caustically, “I disappeared for three days
and you never even tried to find out where I was.  How stupid of me not to realize that meant you cared about me. ”

“I thought…”

“I know what you thought, Jake, you made that perfectly clear.”  She wrapped her arms around herself to still her shaky limbs.  “Let’s just get through this project and put it all behind us, okay?  I don’t know why you changed your mind about being with me and I don’t want to know.”

The fear that he might have been horribly wrong about what happened between her and Chad started threading its way through his head.
  “Maybe we should talk about it and…clear the air.”

Bri shook her head, suddenly so tired all she could think about was crawling into bed.
  “There’s nothing to talk about, not any more.  I need to lie down now,” she said wearily.  “You can fill me in on what I need to know about work in the morning.”

Jake watched her walk away, his heart wrenching at the listless shuffle of her steps.
  He didn’t know what to say or do that would make it right again and didn’t think she would welcome any further discussions on the matter tonight anyway.  He was upset to hear Bri had been in the hospital all this time, but there was also a part of him that had actually rejoiced to know she hadn’t spent her days and nights in Chad’s arms. 

He’d agonized over it every single minute that she’d been gone, and
had chastised himself incessantly for letting it tear him up inside, but he couldn’t help it.  Regardless of what he’d told her, he was still in love with Bri and didn’t foresee that changing in this lifetime.

 
                                                               ***

“You look
stunning, little girl,” Phillip beamed.

Bri didn’t feel stunning.
  She felt as if she had aged twenty years over that last two weeks but thanked him anyway.  The Charity Ball was a phenomenal success, but she’d expected that it would be with her mother at the helm.  Chad was unable to attend due to a bad cold and though she felt horribly alone even in the crowded ballroom, she couldn’t say she was sorry. 

She was miserable enough having to watch Jake dance with every eligible female in the room without having Chad by her side asking why she was so withdrawn.
  Bri managed to steer clear of her parents most of the evening, which wasn’t too difficult considering they were surrounded by friends and business associates; otherwise they would have picked up on her morose mood and plied her with questions.

The last two weeks had been
simply awful.  If she wasn’t so sure she was heading down a long, hard road full of heartache and sorrow, she’d almost be happy the tension filled days with Jake were over.  Oh, they’d been polite to each other, and managed an occasional smile over a particularly successful business move, but for the most part there was nothing but dead silence between them. 

Bri died a little more each day and the worst part was she didn’t have a single clue what she’d said or done that had caused him to turn on her so quickly.
  Maybe she would ask him tonight.  It wouldn’t repair the damage that had been done, but it might help her come to terms with why it had ended.

“Excuse me, Phillip, I’d like to steal your daughter for the last dance of the evening.”

Bri’s breath caught in her throat when Jake took her hand and led her out onto the dance floor.  He held her close, so close that she could feel the warmth of his breath just above her temple.  His scent was intoxicating enough, but the feel of his body pressed so intimately to hers had her trembling in his arms and wishing the dance could last forever.  He’d probably only asked her to dance so that her parents wouldn’t suspect there was any animosity between them, but Bri didn’t care.  The only thing that mattered was that she would have this one last chance to be close to him.

“I spoke with your mother a few minutes ago.”

Bri looked up at him, certain she’d mistaken that familiar huskiness in his voice out of wishful thinking.  But she hadn’t been mistaken, and her knees nearly buckled beneath her at the heated look he was giving her.  His mouth was so close she could almost taste him and had to fight the urge to pull his head down those last few inches. Then Jake smiled at her, a slow, lazy smile that made the muscles in her abdomen clench and her body temperature spike so intensely she could feel small beads of perspiration beginning to form on her forehead.  Bombarded with a million different sensations all at once, Bri could do nothing but stare at him inanely.

“She said they tallied up the proceeds from the Ball.
  It was quite an impressive total; twenty-eight million, nine hundred thousand, seven hundred and seventy dollars, give or take a few hundred.”

“That’s great,” she
murmured.

Jake’s arm tightened around her.
  “Great for me…not so great for you.”

Brianne blinked, not comprehending why it was bad for her.
  “But we almost met our goal, why wouldn’t I be happy about that?”

“Because,” he grinned, “you los
t the bet.”

“You…you’re not actually going to hold me to that, are you?”

“Of course I am.  Don’t tell me you want to welch on it!”

Her cheeks flamed
as she envisioned just what torture he planned on putting her through.  No wonder he looked like the cat that swallowed the canary; he probably intended to make her scrub his toilet with her toothbrush or something as equally distasteful.  She started to imagine all kinds of horrible things then forced herself to accept it.  She’d made the bet and she would pay the price for losing.

“I’ll honor it,” she told him.
  “I suppose my first chore will be to serve you breakfast in bed.”

Jake laughed softly, lowering his head so that his mouth was next to her ear.
  “Oh, no, sweetheart, your servitude begins at midnight and though your first task
does
involve a ravenous appetite and my bed, it has nothing whatsoever to do with food.”

Bri’s heart thumped wildly in her chest.
  After barely speaking for two weeks, surely he wasn’t suggesting that she sleep with him!  But as the dance ended, Jake kept his arm firmly around her waist and whisked her outside and down a dimly lit path of the flower garden.  After informing her in a gravelly voice that it was half past midnight, he began a very thorough investigation of her mouth.  Somewhere in the back of her mind was a frantic protest, but that was as far as it got. 

What did it matter that it was only for one night when it made her feel so alive?
  She didn’t even care that he was doing this as some sort of punishment for whatever transgression she’d committed.  She would belong to him one last time, and he belonged to her.

After he released her, they walked in silence back to the ballroom to say good-night to her parents.
  They didn’t even talk on the drive back to the mansion or when Jake led her to his room and slowly undressed her.  And once he’d taken off his own clothes, conversation was the last thing on either of their minds.  The ache inside of her was so great that when he finally lowered himself over her, Bri cried out from the sheer pleasure of it. 

She was supposed to be the one catering to him, but it was Jake who was doing all the torturous touching and caressing while Bri lay helpless beneath him in a mindless state of euphoria.
  He kissed her for what seemed like forever, his mouth enticing her into a climax before he’d even penetrated her.  Then he moved on to her breasts, lingering for quite some time before dipping his head between her thighs.

Her fingers curled around the rumpled sheets, her head moving from side to side as he sent her soaring higher and higher
.  Then with one magical flick of his tongue, he threw her over the edge.  The feral moan that tore from her throat must have broken the rigid control he’d maintained over his own body because Jake all but pounced on her.  His first thrust was hard and heavy and he ground out an oath, managing only a few more strokes before climaxing himself. 

His breath was harsh and ragged as he fell over her
while Bri clung to him as if her life depended on it.  She longed to hear him say he loved her and that everything was going to work out, but the only whispered words from his mouth came after he’d rolled off of her then gathered her close by his side.

“Go to sleep, sweetheart,” Jake told her, and with tears in her eyes, she did.

It was like that first night they’d spent together; sleeping for a while then waking to make love again, only to fall asleep and start over again a few hours later.  She was drowning in a sea of sensuality from which she had no desire to be rescued, and yet there was still something missing because he hadn’t spoken a word of love or building a life together.  The sad conclusion then, was that there wouldn’t be either of those elements in Bri’s future.  It was a bitter pill to swallow so she pushed it to the back of her mind and concentrated on soaking up the memories of these last few hours with Jake.

In the late morning, he made love to her again then ordered her to go make his breakfast and serve it to him in bed
.  Bri was amazed herself at just how happy she was to do it.  She would, gladly serve him breakfast in bed every day, and lunch and dinner too if it meant they would be together, but he didn’t offer anything more than what the day would bring and she didn’t ask.  When she brought their food up on a tray along with two steaming cups of coffee, he devoured his breakfast then laughed as he stole a piece of her bacon.

“I’m not above snitching your bacon, but you need to eat the rest of your eggs and toast,” he admonished.

“My stomach feels a little unsettled this morning, maybe it was the shrimp I over indulged in last night.”

“Well, eat what you can because you’ll need your strength.”

Again she thought of him making her scrub his toilet with her toothbrush and giggled.  “I’m at your service.  What honorable task will you have me perform next?” 

Jake’s smile curled her toes.

“You’ll join me in a shower, I think.  Yes, that sounds nice.  Afterwards, I think a full body massage would be satisfying.”

Cleansed by the shower and aroused by the foreplay of soaping each other up, Bri was a bundle of tingling nerves by the time they emerged
.  Jake dropped his towel beside the bed then stretched out, lying face down so she could start the massage with his back.  Once she finished, she told Jake to turn over and began an extremely comprehensive massage of his front side.  Working his arms and chest was an exercise in eroticism all its own because she was completely turned on by the way his hard, corded muscles felt beneath her fingertips.  Then she kissed her way down his flat belly while he let out a series of low groans that ended in a look of sheer agony when her lips migrated lower and skimmed over his hip. 

“Oh dear,” she feign
ed a look of consternation.  “I seemed to have relaxed all your muscles but this one.”  Curling her fingers around the rigid flesh, Bri studiously attended the task of massaging, exclaiming that she seemed to be making matters worse when he only grew harder.

“
Witch,” he growled, rolling over and pinning Bri beneath him.

There was fire in his veins
and, thanks to her ministrations, that same intense heat radiating off of his body.  He didn’t hold back, couldn’t have even if he’d wanted to, and the stark hunger in Bri’s eyes told him she was just as impatient as he was.  Jake plunged deep inside her, holding himself immobile for several minutes while he basked in the warm, tight sheathing.  It felt so good, so right, and he regretted more than ever the distance they’d kept over the past two weeks.

Unwelcomed and uninvited, a stab of jealousy twisted his gut when he recalled the reason there had been a rift between them to begin with.
  He didn’t want to think of Chad making love to her, but the unpleasant thought ruthlessly nagged at him regardless.  Jake drew back his hips and drove into her, jarring her delicate body and   ignoring the startled look in Bri’s eyes as he continued to impale her with one brutal thrust after another.

He couldn’t erase the pain of knowing she
had slept with another man, but he could sure as hell erase the memory of that man from her mind.  He wanted to brand her with his body, make her forget that any other man had been inside of her.  And, yes, perhaps he wanted to punish her a little too.  To that end, he ground himself into her over and over, each powerful thrust delivered in a mindless fury that took him deeper and deeper until she was gasping and begging him to stop.