Life in a Rut, Love not Included (Love Not Included series Book 1) (15 page)

“What is all this?” I ask.

“Your raise,” he says, pushing me forward.

“How do you know I deserve it?” I ask almost in a whisper.

“I’m going to take a leap of faith on you. And if it’s bad, then I will make you repay me.” He leans in and stops with his lips next to my ear. “And by repayment, I mean you finishing what you started earlier by replaying for me that dream you had in complete, vivid detail.”

Reminder to self: Breathe.

Jack leaves me to gape at his setup while he walks toward the counter and pours two glasses of wine. He returns and hands me a glass.

“Now, let’s see what you’re made of.” He takes my hand and guides me down a hallway leading off the kitchen to what seems like a work area. In the back of the house he has another office which consists of a huge desk and a lit table, one would assume to illuminate blueprints. He takes my work and lays it all on the table and examines my notes and drawings. He is quiet for such a long time that I am starting to get a bit nervous that I got in over my head and I wasn’t as good as I thought I was—or that he thinks I am. I’m about to start lying and just say this was my rough draft and how I must have left the finished project at home, when he speaks.

“This is simply amazing.”

Insert finally breathing and a towel for the sweat that has formed on my forehead.

“You think so?” I ask casually. “‘Cause if it’s not I can always start—”

“You are amazing,” he says. “This is perfect. In fact, this is more than perfect. It’s like I had this vision and idea of how I wanted my architecture layout to be, and this was it. It’s like you took exactly what I had formed in my head and put it on paper. The signs—” he pauses, “—everything.”

Suddenly, Jack takes his phone from his back pocket, opens it and starts dialing a number. I’m a bit curious about who he needs to call at a time like this, but figure I will give him some privacy and turn to walk into the other room. He catches my arm and signals for me to stay.

“Hello, is William Frazier available, please? Yes, thank you. Yes, I’ll hold.”

He points to me and mouths, “Don’t even think about moving.”

“ . . . Hello, Mayor Frazier . . . great, thanks for asking.”

Holy basket case, he is talking to the mayor right now?

“ . . . I’m sorry for the odd hour to be calling. I wanted to let you know that I have finished the City Park layout and would like to set up a meeting with you and my associate to review the plans . . . Yes, and her work is impressive . . . I believe it will render you as speechless as it did me, Mayor . . . Great! We look forward to it. Have a nice evening.” Jack hangs up and throws his phone on the desk. He looks at me and smiles. “Who
are
you?” he asks.

“Hey, that’s my line!” I giggle a little. Feeling a bit self-conscious after all the attention, I try to turn to pay note to his office, but he grabs my arm and turns me around to face him again.

“What I want to know is . . . where is this pathetic asshole of an ex of yours and how can I thank him for letting you go so I could get a chance?”

What?
“What?”

“Sarah . . .” My name glides off his tongue like smooth silk. His stare heats up my face. I decide that it’s a great time to try out the fancy wine and bring it to my lips. I take a huge gulp.

Realizing my plan for escape by wine, he takes my glass and sets it down on the table. “I will not deny you your favorite hobby, but right now, I want to talk.”

Oh boy.
“Okay.”

“What you just did here is incredible. This is going to make a lot of people very happy. If this is approved, and I cannot imagine why it wouldn’t be, you just helped get a city park approved. Providing four surrounding towns with a communal play area for kids. These plans had to be perfect so the city council would approve it to be paid
pro bono
by the city. And there is no doubt you just made that happen.”

Wow.
“Wow.”

“Wow is correct.”

“Does this mean I get that raise?” I say, having to back up because Jack is slowly eliminating the space between our bodies.

“This means you get a raise . . .” he says in a low voice.

He gazes into my eyes and I can see the fire burning in his thoughts. He is so close now that I feel his breath hit my face. It is intoxicating. “Beautiful . . .” he whispers, raising his hand to my face and using his thumb to caress my cheek.

“Is this the part where I get to see that hand-built bedroom of yours?”

Jack laughs. “Not so fast. I’m going to feed you first. Energy is a must in that bedroom.” I think my mouth drops open, but I am too busy concentrating on my breathing to notice.

He leads me back into the kitchen and sits me down on one of the bar stools. Then he refills my wine like a true hero would and begins laying out more assortments of cheeses, meats and fruits.

“I’m not sure what you like so I just threw some stuff together,” he tells me. “I have steaks marinating, if you’re OK with that.”

I’m OK with anything you offer me.
“Yeah,” I say. “Sounds great.”

G
ROWING SOME LIQUID COURAGE
, I open my mouth. “I’m sorry, but I have to ask. In front of me is this really great guy and I have to wonder, why are you even single? Or is it that I just haven’t found evidence of the secret wife yet . . . or possibly girlfriend in another town?”

“Ha!” Jack laughs. “No. No secret wife or stashed away girlfriend. Nothing exciting really to tell. Had a serious girlfriend in college. We had plans after college, but then Dad died, and I moved back home to take over his business permanently. She was from money, so her idea of ‘plans’ was not to live in the suburbs as a laborer’s wife. When things were not going great, she was debating moving on. Little did I know she was replacing me before that even happened. I’m not a fan of cheaters, or men who think they can just step in where they are not welcome. Before we split, I could tell she was fishing for someone else. There would be times when we were out that she would flirt with other guys, just to see if she had a shot or, who knows, just to get a rise out of me. Eventually we went our separate ways. End of story. Haven’t found the time to find a replacement since.”

Holy wow. Poor Jack!

“Oh, I’m sorry that happened to you, Jack. It sounds like you sacrificed a lot. With the company and your dreams and everything.”

“I chose this road. I had the choice to let it go or take it. I knew what I was risking and letting go when I chose this. It’s better in the end anyway. I wouldn’t want to be with someone who resented me later for the choices that I made. So it was for the better. She loved money, and to be honest it means nothing to me. I’m sure in time that would have sent both of us packing in opposite directions.”

We both sit in silence sipping our wine—well, Jack is sipping. I am more like gulping. I feel so sad for Jack. Here I was always sulking on the ‘poor me’ card I was handed when he had lost everything himself. He gave up his dream and his future to continue his dad’s legacy.

“How about this . . .” He breaks my thoughts. “How about I don’t feel sorry for you if you do not feel sorry for me?”

“Deal,” I say a bit embarrassed that he was able to read my thoughts.

Jack raises his glass, and I follow suit. “Cheers to the most remarkable person I have ever met. For accomplishing a goal off her list and completing a task, one I could not do without her.”

We raise our glasses to meet and clink.

“Cheers to you for inspiring me.”

“I do believe, Sarah, that is two that we can cross off,” he says with a twinkle in his eye.

“You stand correct.”

We smile and laugh and toast so much that I lose count. We talk about how the project that took me twelve hours to complete had been waiting to be started for almost a year. How the town’s members have been sending letters to push the project for years but it kept getting denied because it ‘just wasn’t what the city had in mind.’ I learn that Jack is actually three years older than me, at thirty-four. We finish off the bottle of wine and Jack opens another. We sit and talk while he grills the steaks and we eat on his back patio, so I can admire the view. It’s crazy how, when you take away a neighborhood of crammed houses and pollution, the sky is so beautiful at night. After helping with the dishes, Jack puts some music on and the sultry sounds fill the room.

He grabs me by the waist and swings me into his body to dance with him. I follow suit by wrapping one arm around his waist and one arm over his shoulder. He leads me into a slow dance while the music plays through the speakers.

“Have I thanked you yet for hitting my car?” He slows his movements and spins me. “There is something about you that I can’t stop thinking about. Ever since I spotted you in my rearview mirror that day. I haven’t thought of anything since. Your smile, your laugh, your addiction to vermouth, which I’m still trying to understand—”

“Hey,” I say defensively. “The vermouth is Aunt Raines’ addiction. I’m just trying to keep up. Aren’t we supposed to take a page out from our elders?”

He spins me again and pulls me closer against his body.

“I just can’t fathom how anyone would let you go. If you were mine, I would cherish you, spoil you rotten and never let you out of my sight . . .”

At the last word to leave his mouth I am already slamming my mouth on his. I can’t get to him fast enough. All the words he is speaking are floating in my head and almost cutting off the air supply to my brain. I just want to hold on, almost afraid that if I let go he will disappear. His mouth is too inviting. I pull back and find his eyes. “You’re real, right?” I have to ask. This is not my reality. Someone like this doesn’t just come into my life and turn everything upside-down, but in a good way. I feel it to the core of my heart that he is something I should have found a long time ago. He hasn’t been in my life for that long, but I feel it. I feel the beginning stages of something powerful.

“I’m as real as you are, baby,” he whispers then dips forward where I want him most, his lips touching mine.

And then we explode. All four hands don’t even know what to do with themselves. We are both clawing at each other to get closer. I can feel my lips bruising from the intense pressure of our kiss. The need in both of us is unbearable.

Without thought, Jack picks me up and throws me over his shoulder. Breathing heavily, he walks down the hallway and then through a double-framed doorway. He pushes through the doors and leads me into the room.

The bedroom.

I can tell by the gigantic four-poster framed king-sized bed, dark wood covered with a light grey duvet. The bed is unreal. From what I can see without losing focus on Jack, it is a bed made for never leaving. And I’m hoping my theory is correct.

Jack sets me down on the plush mattress and pulls my legs towards the edge of the bed. He stops me once the back of my legs hang over the bed. I can tell he is struggling to keep control. His hands are pressed into my thighs. He leans forward and begins to kiss me again but at a much slower pace than before.

He hurriedly moves his hands upward and inside my shirt, where he latches onto the hem of the shirt and pushes upward while caressing my skin with every move. Knowing where this is going, I lift my arms. He carefully slides my shirt up and over my head.

My shirt drops to the floor next to my feet. He continues his inspection of my body by moving his hands up my stomach and grazing his thumbs across my covered nipples. That move earns a moan from both our mouths.

With ease, Jack then drops to his knees. He presses his thumbs into the sides of my hips and brushes soft kisses along my stomach, traveling downward towards my navel, and ending just above the top line of my jeans.

The way he touches me is so tender, my body is reacting in waves of pleasure. I lift my hands and glide my fingers through his hair. The simple gesture delivers another moan from Jack.

With every kiss that he brushes along my skin, he looks up to lock eyes with me. I can literally see the passion radiating off of him. Gazing into Jack’s eyes is like looking into a portal. Seeing a man who is warm and inviting. One who can make me content for a lifetime. I can’t wrap my thoughts around how I went from being so stricken to so lucky.

He breaks my thoughts by softly biting my thigh through my jeans.

Oh holy burning hunk of foreplay,
I am so turned on. I want him to take his time and touch me all over my body, but then again, I also want to help him rip my pants off and just head straight for home base.

He must be reading my thoughts because I feel the buttons being snapped open as my jeans, along with my panties, go south. He tosses more clothes into the growing pile on the floor.

Jack stands up in an animal prowl sort of way and starts to move forward. I let him guide me back so my legs still hang over the bed but my back is now lying flat on the plush mattress. He stops to take in my naked lower body with his eyes. He groans.

“You are so fucking beautiful,” Jack says in a raspy growl. Then he places his hands on my hips and gently pulls me forward so my girly parts are sitting right at the edge. He leans over me and presses his lips to mine. I can feel the urge in his kiss. He breaks away and slowly drops to his knees again. “You smell so good. I want to smell all of you.”
Oh god, he is going to . . .
Just as I try to finish my thought, Jack lowers his head and places his mouth in-between my legs. I can feel the heat of his breath hitting my inner thighs, tiny little breaths away from my lips. He takes his hands from my waist and moves down to press them into my thighs. Every kiss he places on my inner thigh sends a jolting tingle to my center. I think this guy is going to make me explode before he actually even touches me.