Jace: The Pride of the Double Deuce (11 page)

He fucked her mouth hard, never hurting her but certainly making her aware of how thick he was, and how long. As he touched the back of her throat over and over, she learned to swallow him down and knew that he liked it. He jerked from her when she slid her fingers to her pussy to help her come while she was sucking him.

“I need you.” Nodding, she lay back down, but he jerked her up and nearly tossed her to the bed. When she bounced once, he caught her up and turned her over, her ass up in the air. His cock filled her to the root, stretching her pussy wider for him, and she cried out with it.

“Come for me.” No sooner than the words left his mouth, she was coming, and he roared out his own release while pounding her hard enough that the bed moved. His hand wrapped in her hair, and he jerked her body back to his, his chest at her back. The bite he gave her, tearing hard into her shoulder and throat, brought her again as he came inside of her for the second time.

When the pilot announced they had ten minutes, they took a quick shower together. She was wearing a towel around her waist, trying to figure out if she wanted to dress in the same underwear or not, when he came in with a garment bag.

“I had help with tonight. Sharon said she had this put on here for you. And she said to tell you not to mess it up with lines. I’m assuming you know what that means.” Holly nodded, almost afraid to take the bag. “You’ll have to wear it, love. It’s part of the surprise I have for you.”

Taking the bag into the bathroom, she hung it on the shower rod and unzipped it. She stared at the dress hanging there until the pilot announced they had to take their seats. She hurried through pulling it on, and even took the time to read the note attached.

Wear your hair down for him. He’s really wanting to make this work. And just so you know, I like this guy. A lot.
She did too, and did just what she said, then put on the long cape that covered the top of it…or in this case, what little top there was. As soon as she was seated he joined her, and she wanted to tell the pilot to make another round so she could ravage Jace. No man should look that good in a tux. Even his hat, the stained cowboy hat that he had on all the time, made her wet with the need to strip him out of it all. It was in his hands now, but the thought of seeing him in it and all dressed up made her think that his plans for the night were going to be shot to hell when he did.

“Does it look all right?” She nodded, sure that there was drool on her chin. “I’ve never worn one before. But she said it would match my hat. I’ll see how it—”

“Not yet.” If he put his cowboy hat on, that really would be all. “Just wait until we land or I won’t be responsible for how messy you become.”

His cocky grin didn’t take away from his looks, but made her wet. She was never going to make it through the night if he looked as good with the tux on as she thought he would when he added the hat. She was going to be in so much trouble. More than she was right now.

The limo was at the end of the carpet for them. Jace even held her hand while she came off the ramp, and helped her into the waiting car. There were a dozen blue roses lying on the seat that matched her dress and shoes perfectly. Jace opened the champagne that was on ice and handed her a glass.

“What are we celebrating?” She took a sip and waited on him to do the same. When he didn’t answer, she asked him again.

“I love you.” She started to tell him that she loved him as well, but he continued. “I think that…I more than love you, Holly. I can’t live without you. Don’t even want to try. I love the way you look when you get up in the morning, and your rush to the bathroom to comb your hair so I won’t see it. I love the way you drink your tea, slurping it at first, then humming as it gets cool enough to drink faster. The way you sneak cookies when you think no one is looking, the way you dance when you hear something you like on the radio. I love every morsel of your skin, every cell in your body, and even the lashes on your beautiful eyes. We’re celebrating the fact that I want the world to know that I’m in love with you.”

“Oh, Jace.” The tears were falling now, and she leaned over to kiss him. But he pulled her back and handed her a slim, long box. “What’s this?”

“Sharon helped me with the tickets and stuff, but this I got on my own. I called Aunt Georgie and told her which one I wanted. I’d been thinking of a reason to get it for you for days. Then I realized I love you. I don’t need a reason to buy you something. So she picked it up for me and had it put in my bags.”

Trembling, she took the ribbon off the blue box. No one had ever just gotten her a gift because they wanted to. She didn’t count her dad because he was her dad, but this was something very special. As soon as she opened the box, she looked at Jace, who took it from her.

“I know that we were going to use our money from the barn siding to furnish the house, but this called to me.” He pulled it free of the box and trappings and asked her for her wrist. “It’s sort of like the ring your dad gave me to propose to you. And you really liked that, so I had to get you something else to propose. This was it.”

The tennis bracelet was blue diamonds in a neat row. The clasp was of a paw, and he told her that when he asked about it, the guy at the store said he’d found it and decided that he liked the way it looked. To her it was a part of Jace. As he wrapped it around her arm she felt warmth, not the cold usually associated with a diamond, and looked at Jace.

“I love you.” He pulled her to him and kissed her gently. “I love you so very much. And I don’t want to be without you. Ever.”

He held her until the limo came to a smooth stop. When the door was opened, she waited until he reached inside for her. Taking his hand, she felt as if it were a symbol of her love for him, like she was giving him her all. And he was saying that he’d take it. When she saw where they were, she looked at him and smiled.

“We have reservations here, then an opera to attend.” He finally pulled his hat on and cocked it just enough that she could see his eyes. “Ma’am? Are you ready for this?”

Tossing off the cape and putting it back in the limo, she turned once for him. She could see that he was as pleased with her dress as she was with his tux. When he asked her to turn again, she did so and smiled at him.

“Well, big boy, are you ready for this?” His laughter sang along her skin like he’d touched her. When he put out his elbow for her, she took it and held on. “I have a feeling that we might not make it home tonight.”

“We’re not. I have a place where we can go and play that we’re going to tomorrow before we return.” Her body heated as the maître d' showed them to their table. “And while we’re there, we’re going to find out which games you like to play so we can have our own playroom.”

Oh my, she thought, she was never going to forget this trip. As they were seated, he pulled her hand to his mouth and licked it. Holly felt it all the way to her toes and back up again. Yeah, she was so fucked. And she was going to enjoy every minute of it.

Chapter 11

Jeff listened to his mother go on and on. He knew that he had messed up, but he’d been thinking that the papers might have gotten it wrong. Or worse yet, that they were right, which was what had happened and he’d been left behind.

“I want you to marry that girl. Do you hear me, Jeffery? Marry her and bring her to me. I’ll show her how to be a proper wife to you.” Jeff shivered, thinking of the two of them ganging up on him. “I’ll expect to be there for the wedding as well. You make sure that you send a car for me, as well as a day at a spa. I’ve heard those are nice.”

“Mother, I don’t think I can afford something like that. I send you what I can each week and that takes—”

“Are you saying that I’m taking all your money? Is that what you’re saying, Jeffery? That you’d begrudge your poor mother a week’s stipend, a small amount compared to all the years that I suffered to raise you? Not to mention bringing you into this world?” Her sob, loud even through the phone, was enough to make him cringe. “Oh, Jeffery. I just wanted to make a good impression on your new wife. Is that so much to ask?”

He had no idea how men could turn their mothers down. Jeff had been trying…not hard really, but trying…to break it off with his mother for years and years. She was all he had. He knew this, but she made it very difficult to even have a life, much less things to make his life easier.

“I’ll get the money somehow, Mother. Don’t fret, I’ll get it.” She told him not to forget to send her the money too. And not to take the limo and spa out of that. “I won’t. I’ll make sure you have them both.”

He hung up the phone and eyed the key still on his desk. Yesterday he’d taken two hundred dollars out, and there was only about twenty of that left. He had no idea how much a spa day cost, but it sounded expensive. He pulled up a search on the spa places in his mother’s area.

Yes, they were very expensive. They ran anywhere from two hundred dollars to over a thousand for a whole day. He wasn’t sure what his mother would require, but knowing her, she’d want the best. A thousand dollars was a lot of money. And if he couldn’t marry Holly soon, he’d have to pay it back by not sending his mother any money. And he would pay it back. But he already owed the till over twenty-five hundred dollars, and he was terrified of losing his job and having to pay it back all at once.

Jeff pulled out his list. He actually had two of them. One was what he’d need to do. The other was what his mother expected him to do. He wasn’t sure what to think about her living with them once he and Holly were married. But he could see her point. There was no reason for him to pay two mortgages. But if Holly wanted a house like the one that was being built for her and the Douglas guy, there was no way he could afford that. Not even with a better paying job like he was expecting once they were wed.

As his list grew on things he needed to do, his list of money he’d need to borrow was growing as well. There was the spa for his mother at a thousand dollars. Then there was the limo service to pick her up. He had no idea what that would cost because they would want a deposit that was almost as much as the day spa. The total for this was well over what he could afford to have taken out of his check weekly, send money to his mother and pay the rent on his place, as well as the mortgage on his mother’s home.

Jeff wanted to cry. He did his work as he tried to think how to make this work. He had to convince Holly to marry him first and foremost. How to do that wasn’t any easier to figure out than it was to come up with money he didn’t have.

Mr. Snow was working from home, so he had to make sure that all of his things were set up for first thing tomorrow. He was then going out of town to a meeting in France and would be gone for several days to a week. Then when he returned, the wedding was taking place. Jeff just hoped it was his wedding with Holly, and not the Douglas man.

At lunch his mother called him again. He was eating at his desk again because he couldn’t afford to go out with the rest of the staff, and dreaded talking to her. He nearly didn’t answer the phone, but knew that she’d make him feel ten times worse if he didn’t when she did ring him back later.

“I’ve found this lovely woman that will do my hair and makeup for the wedding. She’s just so pleased to know that you’re marrying so well.” Jeff closed his eyes. He’d asked her not to tell anyone what he was doing. “I will need for you to send me extra money this week to pay her. And a tip. Two hundred should cover it.”

“Mother, I don’t have that right now.” She tisked at him, and Jeff wanted to scream at her to stop making him feel ten, but he didn’t. “I will have it in a few weeks, but not right now. I have bills to pay here. My rent is due soon, and—”

“Jeffery Parker Hardgrave.” His name. His full name said in that tone made his flesh crawl and his back ache with the long ago phantom pain of the belt. She’d say his name, just like that, over and over as she beat him for anything, minor or not, when he messed up. Several times, and that was even as young as five, she’d whipped him because he’d flinched when she’d walked by him. She told him as she beat him that he must have done something wrong or he wouldn’t have been so nervous. “I have gone to a great deal of trouble for you and this wedding. The very least you can do is pay for me to look nice. Unless, of course, you’re not planning to have me invited. Is that it? You’re so ashamed of me that you’re not going to have me there?”

“No, Mother, that’s not it. I want you there. But I have to make the arrangements with Holly first. And I did ask you not to tell anyone.” As soon as he said it, Jeff realized that he’d just given her more to yell at him about. More things on her long list of things to make him feel badly about. She would go on for hours with his talking back to her. Even though he hadn’t, she would claim that he had. “Mother, can’t you see that I’m trying here?”

“Are you? Are you really, Jeffery? Because all I can see is that you’re denying me what I need to live. Not wanting me there for your wedding, my only son’s wedding, and then on top of that…on top of that, you’ve made me cry.” The sobbing was loud this time. And it was punctuated with her blowing her nose into the receiver, as well as his name being said over and over in a chant that would rival that of a choir. “You just don’t love me.”

She hung up before he could tell her that wasn’t true. And when he tried to call her back, the line was busy. Jeff started to call a second time, but his lunch was over and he really needed to get back to work. He’d been told lately that he’d been taking a longer than necessary lunch break. Every one of them had been on days that his mother had kept him talking well past his time. Jeff left his desk to get the rest of his things done for Mr. Snow.

It was nearly five-thirty when he sat back at his desk. He’d had to go to the filing area and find two files for Mr. Snow’s upcoming trip, as well as sign for several pieces of mail that had come special delivery. All of them were put into the box that Mr. Snow was picking up today.

Jeff’s phone was ringing as he picked up his coat to leave.

“Ah, I’m glad I caught you.” Jeff picked up a pencil and a sheet of paper to write down whatever else Mr. Snow needed. “Can you bring that file to me, along with the things that I asked you to find? I’m running a little behind today. Had to oversee something at the site and time got away from me.”

“Of course.” Jeff would have to walk there, as he had no funds to get a cab to take him. “I’ll be about an hour. I have to run some things to the post office as well.”

He was sending his mother the money for her hair to be done. He had no idea why it needed to be done now and not before the wedding, but he felt horrible for making her cry so hard. But Mr. Snow told him to have the car bring him out. He wanted to get an earlier start in the morning.

So Jeff was waiting out front when the car pulled up. The driver, a man he’d seen a thousand times while working here, got out and opened the door for him. Jeff felt special, because he’d seen the man do that for Mr. Snow and he liked the way he felt about it. Marrying Holly would certainly come with some nice perks, he thought as he ran into the post office, then on to the house.

It was nearly seven when he got back to his apartment. Jeff was sort of glad now that he couldn’t afford a cell phone. He’d had one with minutes when he first moved out of his mother’s home, but she would call him and use them all up in one day. It was better, he told her, for her to call him at work when he wasn’t busy. Not that him being busy ever factored into his mother’s calls, but it was certainly more affordable for him. Money and his mother never seemed to be on the same page. He would make it and she would…well, take it. More than he could afford, too.

Washing his shirt in the kitchen sink, he hung it on a hanger to dry. Jeff could tell what day of the week it was because of the number of shirts hanging. Today was Wednesday because there were three shirts hanging. And tomorrow he’d wear his black pin-striped suit to work and let the blue one air out. He could only let them be cleaned once a month, and that was the second Saturday of the month.

Jeff lay on his sofa to think about the day. He’d gotten very little done with his actual job except the stuff Mr. Snow wanted, and he supposed that was more than enough. But his list was nearly complete. He was going to put it to work tomorrow by going to see Holly at her office.

~~~

Jace watched Holly as she sat in her seat and buckled in as the pilot told them they were next to take off. She was sore, he knew that, but she’d really enjoyed herself. So had he, as a matter of fact. But using the small whip on her body had made him so hard and come even harder that he wanted to take her back there and do it all again. When she looked at him with a cocked brow, he knew he’d missed something.

“I asked you what you have planned when we get back. I know that Mason talked to you this morning. I hope everything is all right at the house.” Mason had told him a great many things, but not a lot he’d share with Holly just yet. “I won’t get to see Dad before he leaves. Not very much anyway. He’s taking the plane out when they refuel.”

“He told me there was something going on that needed his attention. Next time, he told me, he’d like for me to go with him. I don’t know crap about running the kind of business he does.” Holly told him he’d do fine. “I don’t know. It’s like I’m still the rancher and you’re the sweet rich girl.”

“I’m not sweet and when we get married, you’ll be a rich rancher too.” He tried to shy away from her and her money, but she smiled at him. “Do you have any idea how much we’re going to be worth? Or how much my dad is worth?”

“No. And I really don’t care. I just…he gave me enough to get things up and running again, and as soon as we turn a profit, I’m paying him back. Every penny. I didn’t want your money and you know that.”

“I know. But you have it. And there is no pre-nup either. We’re mated for life, and if you screw me, it will be the end of your life.” She laughed, and he had to smile. There was something magical about her laughter that simply made him feel better. “Anyway, we are worth just over seventy billion dollars. I have some of that tied up in the other ranches we’re helping, but a lot of it is…are you all right?”

“Seventy thousand, you mean?” She shook her head. “Holly, did you really just say billion, as in with a ‘b’ and not an ‘m’?”

“I did. And you’re green.” He felt green too. Like right out of the corral green. He even had to lean forward and put his head between his knees. When he saw her in front of him, he lifted his head just a little. “You’re looking better. Is it the money?”

“Yes. I had no idea.” She grinned. “This isn’t funny. People will think I married you for your money.”

“I don’t care what anyone else thinks. So long as you’re happy. And we will be.” He nodded and pulled her to him for a quick kiss. “Jace, do you suppose that when we get back to the house you can have your cat eat me again?”

“Christ, woman.” He leaned back when she pushed him. “What do you think you’re going to do now? You’ve got me as hard as stone, and we don’t have time to play.”

“I have something in mind.” She unbuckled his pants and pulled the zipper down. It caught twice because he was so hard, but she finally got it down. “Will you come in my mouth, Jace? Will you let me ride you a little so that I can come too?”

He pulled her up and jerked her panties off from under her skirt. When she giggled, he spanked her ass and heard her harsh intake of breath. He’d forgotten how badly he’d hurt her last night.

“Again.” He looked at her, not sure he’d heard her right when she sank down over his cock and told him to hit her again. His hand came down harder than before, and she held onto his shoulders.

She rode him quickly, her body jerking over his in no rhythm whatsoever. But he was enjoying himself because she was. When she told him she was close, that she was going to come all over him, he stood up and took her to the couch. The chair wasn’t big enough for him to fuck her the way he wanted.

As soon as he sat down, he spread his legs and felt her juices roll over his balls. He held her hips, slowing her down, but she wasn’t having it. When she came, crying out, he slapped her ass again and then reached between them and squeezed her clit. This time she cried out loudly and leaned into his throat.

As soon as she bit him, sinking her teeth into him deep enough to draw blood, he felt his balls tighten and his spine tingle. Her breath was hot, her tongue hotter, when she licked a path from his throat to his mouth. Kissing her harshly, he fucked her hard by rolling them both to the sofa and pounding her. Jace came and bit her this time, sucking hard on the wound as he emptied himself inside of her.