Chapter Nine #2
‘Did she ask for money to come?’
‘I made her an offer, otherwise I’m sure she would never have come here.’
‘She’s not good for you, Jago. You were lucky to escape her, believe me. You were becoming obsessed with her. That’s not something I want for you.’
Jago stared down at his grandfather. ‘Isn’t what I want for me more important than what you want for me? I’m no longer a child under your care—if you could call how you raised us as care , that is.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Maxwell sniped with a brooding scowl. ‘I provided for you. I took you boys under my own roof. I paid for your education, and you wanted for nothing.’
Except my parents…and unconditional love and acceptance.
The realisation had always been in his mind, but Jago had stored it at the back where he couldn’t think about it too much.
But he hadn’t been allowed to think about, much less vocalise, the trauma of losing his parents.
He and his brothers had been provided for generously in a financial sense but not in terms of love, especially not from their grandfather.
Their grandmother did her best while swamped in her own grief for her adored son and daughter-in-law.
Jago wondered if her memory loss now was somehow related to that unresolved grief.
Her mind was stuck on what was for her a rare happy time in her life: the impending marriage of her middle grandson to Mollie Cassidy.
Jago was starting to put the pieces of a complicated puzzle together, and he wasn’t sure he liked what he saw.
His grandfather’s set against Mollie was out of all proportion.
It didn’t make any sense. Yes, his grandfather was an appalling snob and looked down on those less fortunate than himself, but Maxwell’s treatment of Mollie begged further examination.
Jago had the power now to look deeper into his grandfather’s affairs to see if there was something Maxwell had over Mollie that she hadn’t revealed to him.
Was her continued silence because of that wretched NDA?
How could he get her to open up to him? To trust him?
She hadn’t trusted him two years ago; instead, she had bolted after being paid to leave by his grandfather.
Jago understood her commitment to her half-brother, although he wasn’t particularly close to his own brothers.
Their grandfather had made sure of that.
Jago looked down at his grandfather again, fighting the urge to tell him what he really thought of him. But Maxwell was old and frail and didn’t have half the power he thought he had over him now. ‘I’m going to Mollie. We will discuss this further at some other point.’
Maxwell gripped the arms of his chair, his bony knuckles showing white as the pebbles on the driveway outside the manor.
‘Don’t make a fool of yourself over that girl all over again,’ he barked, his rheumy eyes flashing with barely contained rage.
‘Your father was obsessed with your mother, and look how that played out.’
An echoing silence bounced off the walls of the library.
‘I’m not obsessed with Mollie, nor am I in love with her,’ Jago said, but something inside his chest prodded his heart like a long thin needle sending radiating pain throughout his body.
But out of habit, he ignored it.
Mollie was pacing the floor of their room upstairs, unable to settle to anything.
Her emotions were in turmoil, and yet she was proud of how she had stood up to Maxwell Wilde.
It would remain to be seen what he did next, but she reassured herself her brother was safe for now.
She had used her phone app to repay Maxwell every penny of his disgusting payout, and in doing so a load had come off her shoulders.
Jago entered the room just as she was doing another circuit, and she swung around to face him. His expression was apologetic, and it gave her hope that some of his walls were coming down.
‘I’m sorry about the way my grandfather spoke to you,’ he said, raking a hand through his hair in a manner she had come to recognise as a signal of distress. ‘It was unforgivable.’
‘You’ve called me the same,’ Mollie pointed out, not quite ready to let him off the hook.
‘I know, and I don’t expect you to forgive me, but I don’t think any such thing now.
’ He moved across to where she was standing, not reaching for her but close enough for her to be drawn into his magnetic field.
Her body craved his touch, longed for him to take her in his arms and provide the comfort and shelter she had been praying for her entire life.
Mollie couldn’t take her eyes off his bottomless blue ones.
They were so deep and dark like the sky on a moonless night.
She ran the tip of her tongue over her lips and watched as his gaze followed its movement.
The air tightened. Electric energy crackled in the atmosphere.
Her body tingled from head to foot, and she stepped closer at the same time he did.
Their bodies collided, his arms came around her, tightly, possessively, greedily, and his mouth came down on hers in a kiss that sent a rocket blast of lust through her flesh.
He groaned something unintelligible against her lips then deepened the kiss with a commanding thrust of his tongue that mimicked the primal act she knew was coming next.
She wanted him with a feverish hunger that pounded in her blood, and she could feel the same need in him as he crushed her against his thickened length.
‘I want you. Now.’ He said the words in an agonised way, his hands cupping her bottom to hold her even closer to his pulsing need, the same need she could feel thundering in her own body.
‘I want you too,’ Mollie said, tearing at his shirt like it was crepe paper. A button popped, and she heard it ping to the floor. ‘Sorry, I’m ruining your expensive shirt.’
‘I couldn’t care less about my freaking shirt,’ he growled and set to work on her clothes as she continued with his.
In a matter of seconds, they were both naked on the bed in a tangle of limbs.
Jago pushed back her hair from her forehead, looking deeply into her eyes.
‘When I decided to bring you here for Gran’s birthday, I didn’t expect this to happen between us.
’ He frowned and added, ‘I didn’t want you to feel any obligation to sleep with me. ’
Mollie lifted one of her hands to his face, stroking his lean jaw, delighting in the rasp of his stubble against her softer skin. ‘I told myself I wouldn’t allow you to lay a finger on me, but somehow I underestimated the way your touch would make me feel.’
He gave a crooked smile and leaned closer to press a light-as-air kiss to her lips. He lifted his mouth off hers and cupped one side of her face in his broad hand, his thumb stroking back and forth in a tender caress. ‘Same goes. Which brings me to the question of what we’re going to do about it.’
Mollie wasn’t confident enough to ask what he meant so stayed silent, watching him as he surveyed her face as if memorising every one of her features.
Jago took her chin between his thumb and index finger, holding her gaze intently. ‘Do you have any suggestions?’
Mollie disguised a swallow, not sure where he was going with their relationship but aching to know. ‘I’m not sure your grandfather would be happy to know we’re sleeping together.’
His brows came together in a savage frown. ‘Can we for once leave my grandfather out of it? He’s done enough damage as it is.’
And he can do so much more .
Mollie lifted her finger to his frown and tried to smooth it away. ‘Make love to me, Jago. Please?’
Jago let out a rough-edged sigh and gathered her close once more. ‘With the greatest of pleasure.’ And his mouth came back to hers in a kiss that sent hot shivers down her spine.
His lovemaking was fast, urgent, desperate as if he knew the clock was ticking on their relationship.
Mollie responded to him with the same urgency and desperation, not wanting to think too far ahead for there, surely, lay heartbreak.
Jago might say he wanted her, and he demonstrated it convincingly, but he had never told her his feelings about her.
He had never mentioned the word love , only lust .
Would it be enough for her to accept him on those terms, even if he only offered a temporary fling?
She couldn’t think about it now, not while his mouth was working its mind-blowing magic on hers.
Not while his hands were touching her, shaping her, caressing her until she was panting with need.
This was always what worked between them—the sexual energy that fired between them. The intensity of it had grown, not lessened, which gave breath to her hopes, making her fall under the sensual spell of his lovemaking all over again.