Take Me. Cherry Adair
Joshua smiled. “I missed that one.”
“They had pictures,” Jessie mumbled around a mouthful of pie.
“Yeah?”
“Uh-huh.” She swallowed. “No family resemblance. Talk.”
I could’ve used someone in my life just like you, Jessie Adams. Looking back, it seemed now to Joshua that he’d always been cold, physically and emotionally. “I was pretty much brought up by the servants before I was shipped off to boarding school,” he said shortly, less comfortable when he was the one in the hot seat.
“Poor little rich boy.”
Joshua stared at her for a moment before shaking his head. “Not at all. I had everything I wanted.”
“Not quite. I bet you missed your mother.”
“I missed her when I was home. She was always off somewhere. No, what I wanted was a Lionel train,” he said, annoyed by her misinterpretation of his childhood. “What I got was a track that ran the perimeter of our thousand-acre estate with a train that required an engine driver and a full-time staff to keep it running. Not quite what I had in mind to take up to my room.
“Naturally I wanted what I perceived the ‘normal’ kids had. A yo-yo, or a blue Swiss Army knife, or the brown leather bomber jacket owned by one of the servant’s kids. Stupid. I could’ve bought a hundred of each out of my allowance. But perversely it just wasn’t the same. I finally figured out that none of that was the least bit important. I was well taken care of, had an exceptional education and learned, eventually, to relish hard work and responsibility instead of growing into a dilettante.”
“Oh, Joshua…”
“On the other hand, what I’d really like, right now, is for you to come home with me.”
Jessie smiled almost sadly. “Sorry, Romeo. Bad timing.”
“Damn.”
“You can say that again. How about another slice of pie?”
“WHEN’S THE NEXT DATE?” Archie asked her.
“Tonight. Listen, guys. Don’t romanticize this. It’s sex. Plain and simple.” Except it was getting more complex every time she saw him. She shook her head as Archie started refilling her cup. “None for me, thanks.” Jessie withdrew her palm from the rim of her cup then rose and rinsed it at the sink. Drying her hands, she said over her shoulder, “We’re going to Noble’s in the city. He said he has something special to celebrate tonight.”
“Valentine’s Day,” Archie said cheerfully.
“He’s going to get you into bed,” Conrad said morosely, running his fingers through his blond hair.
“No, he’s not,” Jessie said grimly, hanging the towel she’d just used on the rack. “He can huff and puff, but he won’t blow my house down.” Then she smiled. “Not for two weeks, that is. Won’t need to dig out the good underwear until then.”
“Better run out and buy some bad underwear,” Archie advised mischievously, giving her a wink.
Conrad walked over to Jessie and tilted her chin up. “Don’t for a moment think The Glacier is going to make an honest woman of you. It isn’t going to happen. You know it, we know it, and you can bet your sweet patoot the thought hasn’t crossed his mind. I doubt the guy has ever eaten meat loaf in his life.”
“In this case, I am an honest woman. I’m his wife. At least I am until I hand him the divorce papers. I don’t want, or need either of us to fall in love,” Jessie reminded him. “I just want my baby.” And to get out of this with my heart intact.
“Then I’d suggest, love,” Conrad said softening his tone, “that instead of buying undies, you go back home and reread Falcon’s press clippings before you take your temperature.”
JOSHUA GAVE HER pink diamonds for Valentine’s Day. He watched her reaction as they sat in a dim, candlelit booth at Nobel’s.
“Thank you so much, Joshua. These are beautiful. But I don’t want you buying gifts for me.” That unfathomable look came and went in her eyes.
“You don’t like earrings?” he asked sardonically, it was clear she was delighted with the way the pendants brushed her neck.
He’d begun to realize that every gift he gave Jessie was a test. She couldn’t possibly pass every one. Couldn’t possibly be so genuinely pleased every time. No one was that good. He needed to bring what he was starting to feel when he was with her back down to a manageable level.
“I love earrings, the bigger, the better. And these are absolutely gorgeous.” She touched a finger to one large pink drop. “What are these stones?”
“Diamonds.”
Jessie flushed and he felt a need to taste the heat. He imagined warming his mouth against the fire in her cheeks.
“I mean the big pink stones.”
“Diamonds,” he repeated.
“Diamonds.” Jessie went pale. “Oh, my God. Joshua! They must be…they’re huge.”
“Five carats.” The receipt had been left in the bottom of the box, as he always instructed his secretary to do. He’d probably see them once more before they got “lost.”
“Please, I love them, but I can’t accept them.” She yanked one off her ear with enough force to bruise. “I adore big, flashy costume jewelry. I’d be paranoid I’d lose these.” She placed the earring on the table between them as if it would shatter.
Joshua picked it up and reinserted the post in her earlobe. After affixing the earring back, he stilled her other hand. “Keep them. They’re insured.” Conversation closed.
He felt the warmth of her thigh beside him on the banquet seat. She’d swept her hair up off her neck into a sexy chignon that defied gravity. The pink diamonds glinted in the soft lighting, casting rainbow prisms on her smooth cheeks. Candlelight danced in her eyes as she watched several couples moving slowly around the pocket-size dance floor. The pink jacket she wore rustled as she turned inquiring eyes up to his.
“Don’t even ask,” he murmured huskily, his breath making a curly tendril of hair dance against her cheek. He had no intention of dancing with her again until he had satiated himself with her body in bed. He was a ticking bomb as it was. “Hell, if I held you that close right now, I’d take you on the floor. Hard and fast.”
She smiled that annoying as hell little enigmatic smile of hers. The one that turned the neurons in his brain to live wires and prepared his muscles for action.
“I want you,” he murmured. “Right now.” He restrained her fingers as she tried to pull away. “You’ve been holding me off far longer than I’ve ever waited for a woman.”
The soft candlelight flickered on her face, bathing it in an apricot glow that made her dark eyes brilliant and drew his gaze to the sheen of wine on her mouth. She ran the tip of her tongue across her bottom lip and Joshua suppressed a groan. She leaned forward, her elbows on the table. The movement made the neckline of her jacket gape just enough to reveal the soft upper curve of her breasts. He dragged his eyes upward with reluctance and she made a small, low sound deep in her throat.
“I think you must put that stuff in my food when I’m with you.” Her voice was so low he could barely hear her. “I’ve never felt like this in my life.”
Joshua cleared his throat. “What stuff?”
Jessie’s eyes were liquidly slumberous, and she blushed a velvety pink. “Spanish fly.”
Joshua thought he would explode. “Spanish fly is actually cantharides made from the skeletons of beetles.”
She grimaced.
Joshua