Chapter 21
Around forty minutes after Jared ran off to comfort his ex, I heard his phone ringing in the kitchen. Seeing Georgie’s name on the screen, knowing from Jared how worried the farmhand was about the animal someone had cruelly killed, I’d picked up. I’d told him where Jared had gone, and Georgie had sounded surprised. And a little pissed off.
I was right there with him.
I asked Georgie if I could help with what he needed, but he told me to just get Jared to call him when he returned from running to the rescue of his ex-girlfriend. Or fuck buddy or whatever she was.
Friend.
That’s what he said.
So he was still in contact with Sorcha. This whole time.
I was such an idiot.
Hurt and jealousy and anger roiled in my gut, and I hated Jared for that. I’d never been a jealous girl. Honestly. Never. Not to sound like an arrogant asshole, but it was usually the other way around. I’d had a few boyfriends get all jealous and possessive, and guess what? It was a huge turnoff. So I would not be that person.
No way.
Not me.
I’d just seethe in my quiet fury.
A little over an hour after Jared left, his phone buzzed again, and thinking it might be an impatient Georgie, I’d picked it up. It was a text so the screen remained locked, but I could see enough of it.
Sorcha
Thnx for cmin. Srry if I crossed the li…
I couldn’t see the rest of the text, but hot indignation rushed through me as I dumped the phone on the coffee table in the sitting room. What the hell? Did the rest of the text say “crossed the line”? And what did she mean by that?
Furious, I cleaned the house. A huge part of me wanted to jump in my car and disappear to my studio. But the rational part of me knew that Jared had been through a lot today. Someone deliberately killed one of his flock, and his ex-fuck buddy/girlfriend/current friend had her apartment broken into.
I needed to be cool.
A good friend to him.
After all, he wasn’t my husband for real. He didn’t owe me fidelity.
It was another hot day, so I’d shoved open the windows and changed into shorts and a tank to scrub the house from top to bottom. We’d had housekeepers growing up, but as soon as I moved out, I’d discovered I enjoyed cleaning. In the same way I loved the way my canvas transformed over time with layers of material, I liked the opposite process of returning a physical space to order.
The only room I didn’t go in was Jared’s. By the time I heard the front door open, I’d just started scrubbing the kitchen.
“Allegra!” Jared called.
My heart pounded in my chest as I snapped off the rubber gloves and threw them into the sink. “In here!”
“I left my phone”—his voice traveled with him as he strode into the room—“so I couldn’t call you.”
“I know.” I shoved dishes into the sink because Jared didn’t have a dishwasher. It gave me an excuse not to look at him so he wouldn’t see the turmoil I wasn’t allowed to feel. “Georgie called. Because of what happened I picked up. He asked that you call him back.”
“Okay … what’s going on?”
“Sorcha texted too. I didn’t mean to look. I just thought it was Georgie calling.”
Jared sighed heavily. “Where’s my phone?”
“In the living room.”
“Is there a reason you won’t look at me?”
I glanced over my shoulder at him. He leaned against the kitchen doorframe, frowning at me. All sexy and handsome. He looked unruffled, his clothes in place, his hair untouched. Only a few hours ago, my fingers had been in his hair. But had hers been in his hair today too? The thought made me wrathful.
I turned back to the sink. “Is she okay?”
“Sorchais shaken up, but she’ll be fine. I left her with her friend.”
Honestly, what I said next I was fully intending not to say. But it was like someone else possessed me as I whirled on him. “Have you still been fucking her this whole time?”
Jared’s eyebrows rose as his jaw clenched with anger. He pushed off the doorjamb and took a step closer. “Excuse me?”
I flushed with embarrassment and scrambled to sound cooler and unaffected now that I’d blurted out my fear. “It’s just—it looks kind of bad. We agreed to two months fidelity to sell the lie.”
“Aye.” His voice was gruff as his eyes hardened. “We did. Are you telling me you think I broke my promise?”
Perhaps I should have been more careful, considering he was clearly angered by my questioning, but I pushed, “I just think it’s odd that of all the people your supposed ex could call, she called you to come running to her rescue.”
“We’re friends,” he bit out.
Friends. Right. Something like crushing disappointment cut through my hurt. Why would I think Jared was any different from any other man? Of course he couldn’t keep it in his pants. “Look, you’re a grown-ass adult, you can do what you want. But while we’re in this together”—I gestured between us—“a heads-up would be nice, that’s all.”
“A heads-up?”
“That you’re fucking other women!” I spat it out with the hurt and fury I felt, and immediately cursed myself for the lack of control.
Jared froze, his expression blanking. “Fucking other women?” he asked so calmly, I probably should have heeded it as a warning.
I shrugged, crossing my arms over my chest as if I didn’t care either way.
“Fucking other women!” he yelled suddenly and I startled, my arms dropping to my sides as Jared glowered at me. “When would I be fucking other women, Allegra? We had an agreement.” He took a step toward me. “No fucking anyone for two months, right? So no, I didn’t fuck Sorcha. I haven’t fucked her since we made our deal! I haven’t wanted to fuck her or any woman since we married because all I can think about is how much I want to fuck my wife!”
I sucked in a breath at his angry confession, my chest heaving, mirroring his own sudden breathlessness.
My skin flushed hot at the dark, hungry look he threw my way. No one had ever stared at me with such abject longing and desire.
I whispered his name.
His nostrils flared. “Fuck it,” he snarled as he charged me. He hauled me against his body as his lips crashed down over mine.
Gasping in shock, already aroused by our anger, I returned his hungry, biting kiss. I moaned into Jared’s mouth, licking at his tongue. One hand squeezed my hip, while his other tightened around my nape as he groaned with a need that rumbled down my throat and hardened my nipples. Then we were moving until the kitchen table hit my ass.
He kissed me so hard, so deep, I was panting for breath by the time he released me. The expression on his face wasn’t soft or tender. Every feature was taut with need and he looked almost menacing with it. My clit throbbed in reaction as he grabbed the hem of my tank and yanked it up and over my head. Then my bra was unclipped and off, thrown over his shoulder. Jared’s green eyes turned molten as he took my breasts in his big, calloused palms and caressed me.
“Jared,” I moaned, arching into his touch.
He released me but only to lift me with ease onto the kitchen table.
“Jared?”
Eyes holding mine, he tugged down my shorts and underwear in one sweep. I gasped at the sensation of the wooden table beneath my naked ass as Jared gripped my thighs, spread them, and hooked my legs over his shoulders. “Jared!”
His head disappeared between my thighs.
His beard bristled deliciously against my skin as his tongue touched me.
“Oh my God!”
Jared lifted his head just enough to growl, “The first night you sat at this table with me, this is what I wanted to do. You’re going to come on my tongue, Mrs. McCulloch. Then you’re going to come around my cock.”
My belly flooded with lust, the wet rushing between my legs. “Yes, yes.” I nodded frantically, wanting all of that.
Triumph hardened Jared’s features before he bowed his head again. As he licked his way up to my clit, I groaned as sensation spiked down all four limbs. Arousal tightened in exquisite need low in my belly and my heart pounded in my ears. “Don’t stop,” I pleaded.
His fingers dug into my thighs as he licked and sucked at my clit. Then he tortured me by leaving the bundle of nerves to scatter tickly kisses along my inner thigh. Just when I was about to scream for mercy, he pushed his tongue inside me, fucking me with it.
“Jared, Jared,” I panted, my chest heaving as the tension spiraled tight inside of me. “Please!”
He stopped tormenting me long enough to return to where I needed him at my throbbing clit. My body tightened, my thighs closing in on him, my chest heaving and shuddering as the tension spiraled tighter and tighter toward explosion. Until the asshole stopped and playfully kissed my thighs again.
“No!” I reached for his head, my fingers threading through his silky, thick hair and curling tight. He growled at the tug and sucked my clit into his mouth at the same time he thrust his fingers inside me. That was it. The tension shattered and I screamed as the most explosive orgasm of my life rippled through me in shuddering waves.
Jared drank up every goddamn drop.
Tension bristled through him as he stood and drew a thumb over his lips. I lay splayed on the kitchen table, tremors still shaking through me from my climax.
His ravenous gaze touched every inch of me as he whipped off his T-shirt and threw it behind him. As he unzipped his jeans, his gaze returned to mine. “I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you.”
I sucked in a breath as I nodded. “Me too.”
He reached into his back pocket, yanking a condom out of his wallet, before throwing the wallet to the floor. I shook with need as he tore the wrapper off the condom and shoved his jeans and boxer briefs down. Rolling the condom on his impressive cock, he warned, “This won’t be gentle.”
I shivered, my nipples peaking into tight pebbles. “I don’t want it gentle.” I reached for him, fisting him with a hard tug that elicited a deep, masculine groan. “Fuck me, Jared. Fuck me how you’ve wanted to fuck me since the night we first met.”
Chest heaving, he gripped my wrist and pulled my hand from his. “Brace your hands behind you on the table.”
Anticipation sizzled in my belly as I did as he asked.
Jared gripped my ass to lift me just long enough to spread my thighs until they were tight to his hips. Eyes locked to mine, he took his cock in hand and guided it until he nudged hot against me. Then he surged into me with a fierce grunt, teeth gritted with the sensation.
I wondered if it was as overwhelming for him as it was for me. My back bowed as I cried out at the unbelievable thickness. It was such an encompassing feeling, it was like he was inside every inch of me.
Jared rested his cheek against my temple, his breathing shallow, tight. “Are you … are you ready?”
I nodded with a whimper of need.
“You feel so fucking good,” he muttered in my ear. “Never felt better.”
Then he pulled back and powered into me.
“Ahh!” I braced my hands behind me, arching into his thrusts. Jared’s lips pressed tight together as his fiery eyes roved over my body.
“You want this?” he gritted out.
“I do. Hard!” I panted, my head falling back as the table screeched against the floor with his powerful drives. My pleasured cries filled the kitchen, probably the whole freaking house, and I could tell it was spurring him on.
His lips parted and he began to groan with every thrust.
My thighs trembled against his hips as the tension coiled and coiled inside. I wasn’t thinking about anything, if this was a good idea, a bad idea. All I cared about was the indescribable pleasure scoring through my entire being at the drag and thrust of him inside me and how I wanted it to last forever.
“Are you close?” Jared asked hoarsely.
“Yes, yes!”
“Thank fuck.” His hips snapped faster, harder, his own deep sounds of pleasure mingling with mine. “Come, come, baby, come around my cock.”
My orgasm exploded through me. White lightning licked up my spine and flared behind my eyelids. The shock of the intensity had my eyes flying open in surprise. My inner muscles clamped down hard on Jared, throbbing around him in voluptuous tugs that caused his own expression to falter with shock.
“F-fuck. Allegra!” he roared my name as his hips suddenly juddered, and he pulsed and released inside me. Jared’s head fell to my shoulder and I wrapped my arms and legs around him as he continued to shake against me.
Finally, his climax eased and I couldn’t help but smile in smugness at how goddamn hard he’d just come.
“Ah.” I trembled around him. “Jared.”
He lifted his head, our eyes meeting as he stared as if he’d never seen me before.
I tensed, feeling something like dread.
This was the part where he told me it was a mistake.
Jared reached up to cup my cheek, his thumb brushing my lower lip. “We’ll talk about this later … for now … I want more.”
I relaxed, tightening my thighs around him. “More?”
“More,” he growled and then kissed me with just as much hunger as when we’d started.