Chapter Four #2
I know she’s pushing me to admit what we both feel. What can’t be denied. And I am through fighting the yearning for this woman. For as long as she needs my help and desires me, too, she is mine.
I slide my tongue into her mouth and know I’m lost. Arousal rips through me, hard and fast, the warmth of her mouth and the way she presses her body into mine turn me on.
I tug on her hair and she moans, the vibrations rippling through me.
She winds her arms around my neck and presses her lush body against me, stripping away my defenses.
With a groan, I tangle my tongue with hers, then press kisses and nibbles down the side of her neck, suckling on the sensitive spot behind her ear.
She grips my hair, holding on as I devour her, tasting her flesh and finding it as sweet as she is.
My cock throbs as desire consumes me, fast and furious, based on this one first kiss alone.
I could go on like this forever, just feasting on her mouth, learning what she likes, imprinting myself on her.
But without warning, the tinkle of the doorbell interrupts us and she jumps, backing away from me, fixing her hair, and swiping her hand over her mouth, her cheeks flushed as she faces the customer in front of her.
“Umm… hi. I just wanted to buy some candy,” a woman says, stepping toward the door, her own face flushed.
“No, wait. I’m sorry. What can I get you?” Faith rushes behind the counter, leaving me with a hard-on the likes of which I’ve never seen and the inability to speak. So I lower myself into the chair in front of my laptop, drawing in a deep breath and hoping I can get back to work.
Long after the customer leaves the shop, Faith busies herself in the back, clearly avoiding me, which I let her do, knowing we’ll be alone later tonight at my apartment.
In the afternoon, the shop becomes busy, the after-school crowd tumbling in.
Clearly word has gotten around, and teenagers come and go, keeping Faith hopping.
At no time do I catch sight of anyone looking remotely suspicious, although I realize I need a picture of her brother if I’m going to recognize anyone stalking the premises.
I checked in with the PI Gabe gave me and the man said he hasn’t found any hint of Colton in the city.
He’s tracked his movements in his hometown up to a week ago, after which he disappeared. But the man is still searching.
Finally, the end of the day comes, and since Faith closes up at six during the week, only staying open later on the weekends, we can go home.
I help her clean up and close the store in silence.
I understand she is still flustered by the kiss.
Clearly, she isn’t one of my more experienced women, and I both like and appreciate that about her.
She is unique, special, and gets under my skin.
And if her brother comes near her, he’ll have to answer to me.
We’re settled in my car when I turn to her. We haven’t eaten since lunch, and I’m starving. “How about Italian for dinner?” I ask.
Her eyes light up at the thought of food. “Sure.”
“I know a great little place we can go. The owner is a friend of my cousin’s. He introduced me to him when I moved to town and you’ll love the food.”
“Oh! You want to go out and not order in?” she asks, sounding surprised.
I chuckle. I want to talk to her in a setting where she can’t escape to her room, make sure she understands that our kiss meant something.
“You owe me a date, sweetness.”
Her face flushes, and she turns to me. “Did I ever actually agree to go out with you?”
I reach over, because we’re at a stoplight, and run my knuckles down her cheek. “By moving in with me, it was implied that we’d have dinner together.”
I drive us to a parking garage, leave the car with the attendant, and stroll, my hand on the small of her back, to an old-fashioned northern Italian restaurant.
The owner, Gino, greets me as we walk in the door. “Jason Dare, it’s been too long! Rosa! Jason is here!”
A robust woman comes out of the kitchen, rushing over to greet us. “Jason! Did you bring Gabriel?” she asks, giving me a kiss on the cheek.
“He’s home with his family,” I say. “But I did bring a friend. Faith, this is Rosa Bianci and her husband, Gino. She makes the best pasta in the city. This place is a hidden gem.”
Rosa, an attractive older woman with dark hair, smiles at Faith. “Oh, what a pretty young lady. You finally brought a girl here to meet us!” She grasps Faith’s cheeks and holds her face in her hands. “So nice to have you here.”
“It’s wonderful to meet you,” Faith says, finally getting a word in. She shoots me an amused glance, and I’m pleased she isn’t put off by Rosa’s friendliness.
I deliberately never bring women here. Rosa, who took an instant liking to me in part due to the fact that I’m Gabe’s cousin, and she loves Gabe and his family, would assume there was more going on than just a dinner.
And I didn’t want any woman I was with making that assumption as well.
It speaks volumes that I don’t have a problem with Faith here now.
“Come,” Gino says. “I have your special table and nobody’s sitting there.” He leads us to a small corner in the back that I know well.
“Sometimes I come here and sit in the corner and work,” I explain. “This table is quiet.”
“And you never bring women here. Interesting,” Faith says under her breath.
I grin as I hold out her chair. She is going to grill me about my love life; I can see it coming.
And I don’t mind answering. She already knows my mother hasn’t met women in my life.
Faith has a strong inkling as to what I’m about.
She just doesn’t know why I keep my emotions bottled up tight.
If she asks, I’ll admit to some things, but not to all.
After ordering fried zucchini and a bottle of Pinot Grigio wine, I lean back in my seat and study Faith.
After a long day at work, she is still as pretty as I found her this morning when she walked out of her room, a smile on her face.
I love how she easily wears the Sweet Treats tee shirt, never worried about being dressed down, always comfortable in her own skin.
“So, how was your day?” I ask with an amused grin on my face.
She mock glares at me. “Are you looking to discuss that kiss?” she asks, surprising me that she broaches the subject first.
Score one for her, I think. Maybe I haven’t given her enough credit. “Only if you had issues with it.”
“Issues like what? It was so good I want to do it again?”
Her admission both shocks and arouses me.
Her eyes open wide at the words that escaped. “And I haven’t even had a glass of wine as an excuse for being so honest,” she mutters with a shake of her head.
“Good thing I want to do it again, too,” I say, deadly serious. I reach across the table and grasp her hand, my thumb running across her skin.
I let the silence surround us for a few moments before speaking again.
“I admit I didn’t plan for you, but you’re here, you’re in my life, and not only am I going to protect you, I’m going to have you,” I say, my words as serious as the growing feelings that keep taking me off-guard. “Any argument?” I ask.
She swallows hard. “No.”
“Good.” Satisfaction rushes through me. I felt the power in that kiss and know we are destined to do it again … and again. I want my mouth and tongue on other parts of her body, tasting the innate sweetness that is Faith.
“Wine!” Gino says, coming up to the table and uncorking the bottle. He pours some for me to taste.
I enjoy the flavor and nod. The older man fills each glass. The restaurant is starting to fill up, and I’m glad we made it here in time to snag my favorite, more isolated table.
“Would it be okay if I brought out the house special?” Gino asks. “My Rosa would love to treat you and she cooked it with love.”
Faith smiles at the older man. “That would be fine with me,” she says.
“Me, too.”
Gino strides off, and Faith meets my gaze.
“So tell me, Jason Dare, what is your situation with women? You haven’t wanted to introduce any to your mother, and these people are like close friends and they’ve never met one of your dates.
I know you’re not gay. What are you hiding?
” Faith tucks her hands beneath her chin, grinning as she puts me on the spot.
I was prepared for this question, and I choose the easiest issue in my past to admit. “My father’s a bigamist. Or as close to being a bigamist as one can get without marrying both women at the same time.”
I hate talking about Robert Dare. The man raised my siblings and me, was there for us, and I thought we had a great family … only to discover the truth.
“I’m sorry … what?” Faith asks, stunned as any rational person would be.
“My father had another family with a woman he was legally married to, and five kids, including me, while he had an affair with my mother and raised me and my siblings with her. She knew, or found out, and stayed with him anyway.” A pain throbs in my temple as it always does when this subject comes up.
But it is nothing compared to the pain of losing my best friend, so as much as it hurts, I’ll stick with this part of my past for now.
“Wow. That’s … awful. I’m sorry,” Faith murmurs.
I nod. “It’s complicated. He married Emma St. Claire as part of a merger of two families.
It wasn’t a love match, and instead of trying to create one, my father, Robert, met my mom and fell in love.
I think that’s how he justified what he did.
” I shake my head. “Although we didn’t know it at the time, he told his other family that he was traveling on business for his hotels when he was really with us.
” I swallow hard. “He missed major events in their lives like graduations and birthdays but came to ours. Again, justifying it because he was in love with my mother and not theirs.”
“What a pig,” Faith mutters honestly and I manage a laugh.
“Truer words were never spoken,” I say.
“How did you find out?”
I take a long sip of wine, and she does the same.
“Well, that’s where Sienna’s illness comes in.
She had been diagnosed with leukemia. Chemo and treatments didn’t work, so they wanted to do a bone marrow transplant.
None of us were matches, so Robert decided to go to his other family and ask them to be tested. ”
Faith leans in, utterly engrossed in the story, and I don’t blame her.
“He dropped the bomb on his legitimate family, destroyed them, and yet his wife … Emma … was gracious enough to test her kids. Avery, the youngest, was a match, and she donated her bone marrow to my sister.”
I recall those difficult days and sigh. “I guess you could say I was left with a bad taste in my mouth for relationships and issues with trust.” I also have a problem fearing that the people I love will leave me, which stems from my father’s behavior as well.
“All the siblings have made their peace with each other. The girls are the closest, but we’re all a family.”
“And your parents? What’s their story now?” Faith asks.
I scowl. “My father is currently in love with another woman and in the process of divorcing my mother. It’s been difficult,” I say, swirling the wine around in the glass.
“My mother knew about his first wife. She got my father by cheating, not that she knew it when the relationship began. But now she’s losing him the same way. ”
Faith glances at me. “You really haven’t had the best example of a stable marriage or family, have you?” she murmurs.
I shake my head. Although if I had to dig deep, I’d say that Levi’s death impacted me far more as an adult than my father’s betrayal. “There’s so much more,” I admit. “But I’m not really up to talking about it now,” I say, bracing myself for her to push harder for more information.
“I respect that,” she says gently. “Everything in its time.”
I blink, shocked that she doesn’t ask for more answers when I know how curious she must be. Yet she respects my barriers, and for that I am grateful.
“Dinner!” Gino says, showing up just in time as far as I’m concerned.
We enjoy a delicious gnocchi along with our fried zucchini and homemade cannoli for dessert. By the time we finished eating, Faith finally looks like she’s drooping where she sits, exhaustion beginning to catch up with her.
“Are you ready to go home and get some sleep?” I ask.
She nods. “But I was wondering if we could stop by my apartment? I forgot to pick up some extra work shirts, and I’m too tired to wash and dry this one tonight.”
“Of course.” I’ll get her in and out of there quickly, so she can go back to my place and get some sleep.
But when we arrive at her building and walk up the darkened stairway, we discover her door has been taped up because someone has clearly kicked it open. The wood has splintered, and there is yellow tape across the door.
“Oh my God!” Faith reaches for one of the strips, obviously determined to get inside, but I grab her around the waist and pull her back.
“Hang on. We have no idea what happened. Do you have a landlord?”
Before I can answer, a bald man with a large beer belly comes striding toward us from the other side of the hall. “It’s about time you came back,” he says, scowling and clearly pissed off.
“Mr. Donovan, what happened?” Faith asks.
“The neighbors said they heard a noise in the middle of the night, and the next day your door was shattered.”
“Nobody came out to check on the unusual sound?” I ask in disbelief. My gut instincts about this neighborhood were spot on.
The heavyset man shakes his head. “You’re going to pay to fix the door, young lady.”
I step into the man’s personal space. “That’s Ms. Lancaster to you. And how about you back off. Did you call the cops?”
“Not my job, not my problem.”
“It’ll be your problem if any of her things are missing and no one reported it. She’s not fixing your door, either. That’s your goddamn job.” I push past the other man and gingerly remove the tape put up over her door.
“Jason, it’s fine. I’ll deal with it later,” Faith says.
Donovan shakes his head and, grumbling, walks back the way he came.
I hold her hand and lead the way into an apartment whose contents were turned upside down and ripped to shreds.