When You Were Mine [Second Chances 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (20 page)

Cora opened the door to her office lobby and gave Jamie one last wave. She didn’t have a headache, thankfully, but she was tired. Today was going to be a long day.

She would have been more than willing to go back to bed for another few hours. It would have been totally unfair to her patients. So, instead she wandered back and started a pot of coffee. A really strong pot of coffee.

By the time she sat down at her desk with the first cup, she was starting to feel more human. Between this and her morning bagel, she might just make it through the day. Since Celia hadn’t arrived yet, she suspected that maybe she hadn’t fared as well in the hangover department.

As if her thoughts had summoned her, Cora heard the key in the door lock. She took another sip of coffee and waited for Celia to come into view. “I made coffee if you want some,” Cora said.

She heard a muffled thanks, the opening and closing of drawers, and then saw Celia’s head pop around the corner. She moaned, “I am so glad the asshole has Sasha this week. It was so hard to get out of bed.”

“Agreed,” Cora said, nursing her coffee. “Jamie almost had to drag me. It was bad.”

Celia smirked at her and said, “I’d have a hard time getting out of bed when he was around too.”

As Cora laughed, Celia moved back to her respective desk. At least she wasn’t the only one that felt like shit today. God knows, misery loved company.

A few minutes later, Celia called out, “Two heavy breathing hangups. My man never disappoints me.”

Cora snorted and asked, “Any real messages?”

“Your 5:00 p.m. canceled on you and Bryce called,” Celia said. “He asked you to call him back. He said it was about the restraining order.”

Cora sighed deeply and asked, “Did he leave a number?”

“Yeah,” she said, from Cora’s office door.

Cora watched as she walked over to her desk and set it down.

“I wish I could have screened the call for you, sweetie. He really is a dirtbag.”

“Agreed. But I need to call him back about this. It could be important,” Cora said, sighing.

Celia grinned and said, “Your sister called, too.”

“Why didn’t she call my cell?” Cora asked aloud as she checked her phone.

“She called me,” Celia said, correcting her assumption, “to thank me.”

Cora’s eyes widened for a moment and then they both burst into laughter. At least, she thought, someone’s day was starting off well.

Her laughter dying down, Cora picked up the message and said, “I need to call him back.”

“I’ll just shut the door. Your first patient will be here in,” Celia checked her watch and then continued, “fourteen minutes.”

She nodded and said, “Thanks, Celia.”

When the door closed, she took a deep breath and reminded herself that he had done her a favor. She was still tempted to throw away the messages like the countless others that he’d left her. Eventually she’d asked Celia to stop taking them, and to no longer tell her if he called.

Cora picked up the phone and dialed the number he’d left her.

After two rings, he picked up the phone. “Wallace.”

Cora rolled her eyes at the greeting and said, “Bryce. It’s Cora.”

“Oh, hey. I, uh, wanted to let you know that we weren’t able to serve the protection order. I talked to my contacts on the street and no one has seen anything. Since he skipped on parole about the time he was at your office, I’m hoping that means he skipped town.”

Cora let out a disappointed sigh and said, “Well, thank you for trying. I really do appreciate it.”

“If he comes back, please call the police. I checked his record and he’s a piece of work. Assault, DUI, weapons charges, domestic violence charges. I have no idea how this guy managed to make parole.”

A shudder of fear ran through her, but all she said was, “I will.”

“Take care of yourself.”

“You too,” Cora said. “Bye.”

Cora hung up the phone and said, “Well shit.”

She quickly texted Jamie and then put her phone in her drawer. She suspected that he would be more disappointed than she was. She really hated to convey that news. Especially now, when he was needing to focus on Shinobi.

Cora quickly chugged the rest of her coffee and put her game face on. She tried to focus on the positives. Excellent boyfriend. Awesome family. Fantastic job. Beach vacation coming up.

She felt some of the tension leave her shoulders and nodded, satisfied. Today wasn’t going to suck. She wouldn’t let it. She took the last swig of her coffee just as Celia tapped on the door to let her first patient in. Time to start the day.

“Cora,” Jamie whined. “This blindfold is ridiculous. How long are you going to make me wear this? Just tell me where we’re going.”

He heard her laugh and sighed deeply. They’d been in the car for what felt like a couple of hours. They had hit stop and go traffic, so it was hard to tell how far they had actually traveled. His legs were cramped and the blindfold was annoying him.

“C’mon, baby,” Cora pleaded, giving his thigh a squeeze. “Just a few more minutes. I promise. And uh, you can use the blindfold on me later if you want.”

Jamie immediately felt his cock twitch at the prospect. He grinned and said, “Holding you to that, Cora.”

Her voice was soft when she responded, “I hope you do.”

He shook his head. She was seriously going to kill him. The other night, when he had looked up from his laptop, she had been dressed like a school teacher. She had this snug white shirt, unbuttoned to show quite a bit of cleavage. Her hair had been pulled tightly into a bun. She had gotten these little plastic-framed glasses from somewhere.

When she’d crooked her finger at him and addressed him as Mr. Connolly it had sent a signal straight to his dick. He’d followed her into her home office, and sat down when she’d gestured to the seat she had put in front of the desk. After he’d settled, she had reprimanded him for staring in class and making her feel uncomfortable. She had lamented his bad behavior.

He grinned when he remembered how quickly he’d turned that around on her, citing the tight pencil skirt and tight, unbuttoned top. When she’d moved to his side of the desk and perched herself in front of him, the skirt slid up far enough to see that she wasn’t wearing any panties.

By the end of the scene she set, she was leaning over the desk as he spanked her with the ruler that had somehow magically ended up on her desk and finger fucking her. Later, with her skirt still hiked up around her waist, she had gotten down on her knees to give him a blow job to apologize for her tempting clothes. He had come so hard he almost blacked out from it.

After that he had laid her back on the desk and ate her out until his fucking jaw ached from it. He couldn’t help himself. She had been so wet that the moisture had started to coat her inner thighs.

He never would have considered role play. Honestly, he was a little bit surprised she had. He was still learning so much about Cora. She was a dirty girl. No, correction. She was
his
dirty girl. And god, did he love that.

He was startled out of his reverie when they turned and then abruptly stopped. He braced himself against the dash with his palm.

“Sorry,” she said. “Almost done. I just have to open the gate.”

“The gate?” he asked, trying to ignore the raging erection he had given himself with that little trip down memory lane.

Cora opened her door and said, “One second and all will be revealed.”

He grinned and then frowned when the door closed quickly behind her. He wanted to take off the damned blindfold so badly. She had clearly put a lot of thought into this though, so the last thing he wanted to do was disappoint her.

Seconds later, she opened the door and slid back in. He heard her move the shifter and then drive forward slowly. When she pulled to a stop, she finally said, “Okay. We’re here. You can take the blindfold off.

He tugged off the blindfold and blinked rapidly as his eyes adjusted to the fading light of the sun. They were parked in front of a large house. He looked at her curiously and asked, “Where are we?”

“Somewhere just north of Malibu,” she said, eagerly. “Don’t just sit in the car.”

He grinned and opened the door. As he stretched his legs, he took a deep breath. As the salt air filled his lungs, he felt his tense muscles start to relax. He turned to her and asked, “Is that the ocean, I hear?”

Cora nodded, a hopeful look in her eyes.

Jamie realized that she was waiting for some sort of reaction from him, so he circled the car, pulled her into his arms and said, “Thank you, baby. Best present ever.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely,” he said, seconds before he brushed his lips against hers. “I didn’t even realize how tense I was until I got out of the car. Three days at the beach. Awesome!”

Her arms tightened around him as she said, “Good. There’s no internet connection here, by the way. I’ll confiscate your cell phone if I have to, Jamie. No work this weekend.”

“You won’t have to, baby. No work this weekend. I’ve gotta check my e-mail once a day to make sure nothing implodes. That’s all.”

Cora studied him and then, lips twitching, said, “Fine. I’ll allow it. Let’s grab the stuff out of the car and go inside.”

He considered the contents of his bag and realized that he’d packed perfectly. Cora had told him to pack as if he intended to spend some time outdoors. He’d thrown in swim trunks just in case. He was sincerely hoping the water would be warm enough to use them.

As they walked up the sidewalk to the front door, Cora asked, “Are you hungry?”

“Yeah, baby. Starved. Did you wanna drop this stuff off and go get something to eat? This may be a bad time to grocery shop.”

Cora laughed as she set her bag down and fished the keys out of her pocket. “No worries there,” she said. “I went shopping earlier and stocked everything. I’ve got the fixings for seafood linguine tonight and I picked up steaks for tomorrow night. Sound good?”

“God, yeah,” he said. He had passed hungry about two hours ago and was bordering on starving.

She gave him a little push once the door was open, then said, “Go have a look around. I’m going to start dinner. I’m starved and I skipped out on lunch to stock the fridge.”

He watched as she walked toward the back of the house. Following the sway of her hips, he found himself in a large kitchen that overlooked the beach. Butted up against the house was a Jacuzzi, grill, some outdoor seating, and a few deck chairs.

He glanced at the Jacuzzi and then back at Cora. An idea already forming in his mind, he asked, “So what are the odds that I could convince you to get into that after dinner?”

When Cora looked up at him, he gestured toward the hot tub.

“Really good,” she said, as she salted the large pot of water on the stove. “Really, really good.”

“Excellent,” he said, a grin on his face. “I’ll go put our stuff in the bedroom.”

“There’s a small one downstairs. The master is upstairs,” Cora said, as she started to pull ingredients from the refrigerator.

He watched her for a moment as she competently moved around the kitchen. God, she was amazing. She hadn’t even asked him what he’d wanted for his birthday. She’d just told him to free up this weekend and given him a general idea of what to pack.

She’d gotten really good at taking care of him lately. She could tell when he’d been working for too long and she’d move the laptop from his hands and crawl into his lap. However sexy the whole school teacher thing had been for both of them, he realized that it was just one of the many tactics that she’d used to get him to disconnect.

He left the kitchen and explored the lower part of the house. As she’d told him, the guest bedroom was small. He had no intention of inviting anyone else along. He would absolutely take this time to tune the world out and spend some time relaxing with Cora.

For the past few weeks he had been incredibly focused on work. She had been more than understanding. She’d taken care of him when he’d needed it. He wanted to return the favor, but she had a damned difficult time letting herself be vulnerable.

When Taryn had dropped her off at his place the night she’d gone out drinking, she seemed almost confused when he made her eat something and take some aspirin. She thanked him in the morning but had seemed almost embarrassed by it.

Cora had appointed herself as a caretaker for those who she valued. Jamie hoped one he’d be able to return the favor. God knows, she’d fight him.

He wandered upstairs and realized that Cora hadn’t been kidding when she said the master bedroom was upstairs. It was the
entire
upstairs of the house.

There was a small sitting area off to the side of the stairs that led into the sleeping area. The whole room was decorated in a wash of sea-colored hues. A pair of French doors led out to what looked like a balcony.

He set the bags down on the small couch and took in the whole space. There was a huge garden tub in the master bath and a shower stall that could easily fit five people. By his count there had to be at least three showerheads and a few wall-mounted sprayers.