The Billionaire's Caress Read online

  “Yeah, we used to date.”

  Jacob released me, my words ringing out loud and clear. His touch abandoned me, like an electric shock was sent through his body. Steam obscured most of his face, but his sky blue eyes flashed with emotion.

  For the first time ever, Jacob Whitmore voluntarily repeated himself.

  “Oh.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  “Start from the beginning.”

  Jacob wasn’t using his Dom voice. The flames of lust that he ignited in the shower were snuffed out as soon as I shared that Corbin and I had history. Jacob’s eyes had stopped flashing, so that was a good thing. The not-so-good thing was the fact that our couple’s shower was done and Jacob was standing in our bedroom, dripping wet, with no intention of drying off or doing anything until I told him all about the concert. All about Corbin.

  I shivered as I reached for the towel that was draped on the hook, then remembered the monitor. I ducked back in the bathroom, holding the device in my hands, making sure Hope was still asleep. Secretly hoping I’d see her doing her roly poly, about-to-grace-us-with-a-wail-or-two thing.

  No such luck.

  Daddy had worn her out but good.

  Jacob cleared his throat, just loud enough for me to know that he was waiting...and he wasn’t a patient man under normal circumstances. Considering I’d just shared that I’d attended my ex’s concert and little more, Jacob was on E in the patience department.

  I tucked the monitor in the crook of my arm, drying my hair with a sigh. “What were you and Hope doing while I was gone? Baby Crossfit?”

  “Lay.”

  It was just one word, but it smoldered. He smoldered, even dripping wet, trying to pretend he wasn’t as annoyed as he was. I knew him too well and our last argument was still too raw for me to buy that.

  I stopped buying time, perching the monitor on the bedside table. I wrapped my towel around my body, swatting wet ringlets from my eyes. “The beginning. Well, Megan was my date since you weren’t feeling up to it.” I didn’t really have any right to infuse any residual annoyance into my words, but I couldn’t help it. He should have been there. If he was, the minute Corbin looked my way, I could have thrown me and Jacob’s arm in the air and told my ex, and the whole world, that this was what real love looked like.

  Since Jacob’s dark brow was arched, telling me he didn’t appreciate me starting off the story with a dig at him, I let it go. “To be honest, I wasn’t really feeling up to it-”

  “I don’t mean start from the beginning and recount the events of tonight,” he interrupted, stopping my recap. Still standing there, dripping, muscled, like he’d just done laps in a pool and barely broke a sweat. The set of his jaw told me he was just getting started. “I want you to tell me about this ex of yours.”

  I let out an uncomfortable giggle. “He doesn’t mean anything.”

  Without a word, Jacob turned on his heels and marched to his side of the bed. He snatched his phone from the charging station. He held the screen a few inches from his face, peering at it like a scientist analyzed a specimen with a microscope.”Funny,” he grunted. “No text from you letting me know you were on the way home. Or some causal, ‘btw! you’ll never guess who I just saw. Some guy I used to date opened the show ha’.”

  I looked at the floor, at the toes that matched the heat in my cheeks. He had a point. When was the last time I just showed up at home without telling him I was on the way?

  “And I thought you were tiptoeing around because you didn’t want to wake us-”

  “That’s is why,” I butted in stubbornly. Ignoring the fact that he knew me, just like I knew him. When I first saw them, I was locked in the moment, not wanting to disturb them, then I remembered that I had some heavy news to share and decided to delay the inevitable as long as possible...by being as quiet as possible. “That’s not the only reason,” I backtracked. “But you’re right. It is one of the reasons.”

  “And the other?” he pressed. He wasn’t gonna let this go and all the symbolism around us wasn’t lost on me. The bed between us. Anger creeping into his voice. I was surprised I didn’t see steam rising off him. “For someone that requires complete and unrelenting transparency and honesty from me, at all times, at every turn, you seem to have problems sharing when it’s your turn to come clean.”

  I flinched like he struck me. One step forward and two steps back. I knew that even though we’d called a truce, made amends from our earlier argument, the ripples of it still rocked through us both. Made it way too easy to pile on, turn this new rough spot into another opportunity to remind each other that we weren’t perfect. That we both could do more to give each other the benefit of the doubt. Be more gentle with each other.

  I drew a sobering breath and tried to not get defensive. Tried to hear the truth beneath the hurt that edged his words. He just wanted me to tell him I loved him. That there was no one else.

  I opened my mouth to say just that, but he wasn’t done.

  “If this were reversed, at least your accusations of cheating would make some sort of sense.”

  “That’s not really fair,” I fired back, nostrils flaring. My vision swam when I met his gaze head on. I expected to find no mercy, then realized that I wasn’t really being fair. Couples argued. Buttons were pushed. Toes were stepped on. I knew I wouldn’t be able to just tell him Corbin existed and we’d glaze right over it. He had questions, just like I’d have questions if he had gone to the concert and it was an ex of his that stepped up to the microphone. Went bug eyed and called out his name.

  But something changed in Jacob when he saw me. He tossed aside his phone, the battle lines that turned his handsome face into something fierce and not to be trifled with softening. He reached for the towel that was on the bed and dried himself off, his eyes lost to me, but his voice surrounded me. Told me that it would be okay.

  “You’re right. I’m sorry. I know that I probably don’t make it very easy to come to me about things. And considering we were hardly talking to each other, it’s absurd for me to suggest that you’d just send me a text like it’s been smooth sailing in the Whitmore household.”

  At some point, I’d crossed my arms against my chest. Just as defensive, drawing battle lines of my own. I released my arms to my side. “It’s not like either of us have a roadmap for this thing. The only thing that matters, that I’m trying to let guide me, is that I love you. And I know you love me.”

  He could’ve easily scoffed. Let out a snort to remind me that if that had been standard operating procedure from the start, maybe our last little showdown could have been avoided altogether. He did neither. And he didn’t rub my nose in it. In fact, he did the last thing I expected. He stretched out on the bed and patted the space beside him. I climbed on the bed to join him, not caring when my towel went loose. Grateful that it did when his eye wandered, then shot back to my face, a sly grin tweaking his lips.

  He propped his chin on his palm. “Instead of interrogating you, I want you to know that there’s very little that you can say to upset me. I’m not worried about some guy taking what is mine. And you are mine, Leila.” He paused, letting that sink in. He was probably expecting me to roll my eyes, annoyed by the alpha tone of his declaration. He’d all but beat his chest and said, ‘Me, Jacob—you, Leila’.

  I raced my fingertips through his brown locks, smiling because I found it sweet. Hot as fuck, if I was being completely honest. And Dom or not, I knew that my husband wasn’t trying to subjugate me, collar me so the world knew I was his property. I was his in a spiritual sense of the word. Our souls bound together. Like every other person who came before was merely practice for the real thing.

  “This is the kind of convo I wanted to have the other day,” I quipped, getting comfortable. Trying to infuse some humor before we ventured into un-funny territory.

  He leaned in, brushing his lips against mine. “Then let’s do what we should have done. Let’s talk to each other.” The nerve in his forehead ticked, a physical reminder that while he was rising above and all sunshine and sharing (I guess his therapist was finally rubbing off on him), we were still human. “So, who is this fool who had the most amazing women in existence at his side and discarded her?”

  CORBIN WOLFE.

  Even saying his name out loud was like I was headed to some far corner of my closet. Dusting off some old book. Gathering knick knacks, forced to remember why I kept that old thing around in the first place.

  The last time I’d pointed a flash light on that uncomfortable part of my past, I’d ugly cried for two hours straight. I wanted to just shrug and give all of it—the past, him, that weak, heartbroken girl who didn’t think she could do better—and just strike it from the record altogether.

  But if I couldn’t just tell him about Corbin, wasn’t I lying about how little he meant? If I couldn’t talk to my husband about my asshole ex, that I was so over, then how could I truly close the door on him? How could I expect him to come to me if I couldn’t come to him?

  I scooted a little closer, my body snuggled up to Jacob. His arm draped around me. Shampoo, soap and that pine, masculine smell of him filled my nostrils. “We met a couple of days after graduation,” I began. “I was in a rush and driving home and not paying attention and I t-boned this car.”

  Jacob’s arm tightened, like he was trying to protect me. Like he wished he could turn back the hands of time and spare me from one iota of pain.

  I nuzzled his arm. “It was totally my fault and I was in this state of shock after it happened. With the airbag in my lap and the guy I hit just outside my window, calling me everything but a child of God.”

  Jacob was stroking my hair and his fingers tightened. Would have probably made a fist if he wasn’t worried his reaction to my story woul
d deter me from sharing further.

  It didn’t escape me that he and Corbin had the same reaction to that man. Both ready to bust some heads in the name of protecting me.

  I shook off the thought and kept going. I wanted to get it all out. Get this over with so we could get on with our evening.

  “Corbin showed up to check on us and saw what was going on. Realized that the other dude was threatening me. He...” I trailed off with a shrug. “I guess he saved the day.”

  I expected some sort of physical response from Jacob. A twitch. A grunt. Even for him to pull away, all alpha and incapable of letting another man be my hero.

  He didn’t budge.

  He just waited for me to continue.

  I looked up at the ceiling. At the crown molding. I could almost see the whole scene, like the memories were being projected in living color.

  “We dated for almost two months before he told me that he didn’t believe in monogamy. That he was destined for greatness and a relationship would only be a distraction.”

  This wasn’t a movie. That was me on the screen, feeling like my heart was being split in two. Like he used me for inspiration, for stupid songs that he’d sing in coffee shops, finding other stupid girls like me who’d fall for him. Girls he’d toss aside for his next conquest.

  All the buried resentment, the hurt that I boxed up and buried as deep and far away as possible came rushing back to the surface. I didn’t tear up, I’d already wasted too many tears on that man. The man who was beside me, who was burning with an anger of his own, he was worth everything.

  He was my everything.

  “I’d state the obvious, that he is a fucking asshole who didn’t and doesn’t deserve you, but I think you know that.” Jacob took a moment, lifting my chin so I could see him. See the love radiating from him. The safety. The forever that was in his arms. “He fucked up.”

  That was enough to bring a smile to my face. “Damn right.”

  Jacob’s anger waned, replaced by a rare, full-on smile as he scooped my curls from my eyes and let his fingertips linger on my neck. “I guess love works in mysterious way. If that schmuck hadn’t blown his chance, maybe our paths never would have crossed. You wouldn’t have crashed into me in the lobby of Whitmore and Creighton-”

  “Hey!” I playfully jabbed him with my elbow. “I think you’re rewriting history, Mr. Whitmore. If memory serves, I was just minding my business when some rude billionaire crashed into me.” I flashed him every tooth in my mouth. “Then, he had the nerve to molest me in the stairwell.”

  “Molest?” he gasped. “If I recall, he did something like...” He didn’t finish with his words, he used his hands. Worked his way over my shoulders. Rounded my hip. Kept his eyes on me, daring me to stop him, like he had that day.

  I didn’t say a word.

  We put aside the past as his hand swept over my abdomen. He’d teased my breasts in the shower, but he had other plans. Other destinations in mind.

  His palm gripped my secret place, fingers so close to my slit that I almost helped him out, adjusted so he’d sink inside me.

  “Jacob...” I whispered hotly, my body slick with need. Just the thought of him was enough to make my core come alive for my Dom.

  My husband.

  Mine.

  He leaned in, mouth hovering above mine as his fingers teased me. Stroked the opening of me like a musician strumming the strings of his instrument. Making music with the slightest of touches.

  Jacob’s fingers dipped inside, swirling in my warmth. Making all the questions I thought I’d have to answer fade to black. Who was this Corbin? Why is he important? Is it really a coincidence that your ex just happened to play in the band at a concert that we had front row tickets to?

  None of that mattered.

  This was about me and Jacob. My man. My forever—staking his claim. Reminding me that there was no one who could touch me like he touched me. No one else who could make me melt like he made me melt.

  And he was just getting started.

  He retracted his thick fingers, bringing them to his lips. Eyes closed as he tasted me on his skin. Licked my honey desire.

  Just watching him, lost in my essence, drunk off me, was enough to make the fluttering in my groin whip into a cyclone, ready to sweep us both up and leave us panting.

  When he opened his eyes to look at me, I knew whatever would come next would be an order, not a request.

  He didn’t disappoint.

  “Sit on my face.”

  His hunger rippled through his voice, rocked me into motion. I didn’t make a joke or blush or contemplate just how I’d comply without floundering and being a highly unsexy mess. I didn’t think about my dimpled thighs.

  I climbed up his muscled torso, steadying myself as I positioned a knee on each side of his head.

  I gazed down at him, just in time to catch him licking his lips, like he was about to go to town and there wouldn’t be a crumb of me left.

  Using the headboard so I had something to grip, something to tether me so I didn’t drift into madness, was pointless.

  His tongue was on a mission: to drive me insane with lust—and Jacob would be damned if he wouldn’t accomplish that goal...and then some.

  His tongue slipped inside my heat, drawing erotic lines up and down my slick flesh. He moaned into me, sending vibrations that rocked me from the inside out. By the time I just let go, grinding my body against his mouth, I’d created a new language. It consisted of two words: shit and fuck.

  I wasn’t big on cursing, but desperate times called for desperate measures. His hands reached up to grip me, to pull me closer. He reached parts of me that made me add a few extra syllables to each word.

  “F-f-fuck,” I groaned as his tongue lapped at me. Plunged in and out of my channel like he was possessed and loving every minute of it. He surrounded my knot of passion and sucked, just as his fingers were added to the mix. Pumping and sucking, building a rhythm that I couldn’t keep up with, even if I tried. All I could do was hold on for dear life. Sink my teeth into my bottom lip to keep from screaming with pleasure. “Sh-sh-sh-shit!”

  I let go of the headboard and dropped my hands to him. Gripped tufts of ebony hair and swirled my hips.

  Climbing up to the peak of pleasure. Flowing like a river—and all I wanted was to drown in this. To live in this place that was filled with ecstasy.

  His words were muffled, but I decided to go rogue and fill in the blanks. I had a feeling from the way his grip tightened, like he was battening down the hatches, he was telling me to come for him.

  I let out a single, guttural cry, like a gunshot in the darkness that tore a hole through any silly illusions that some guy from years ago, who walked away from us without looking back, could ever hold a candle to the man I’d built a life with.

  A man who never ceased to amaze me.

  Who never ran out of ways to make me shatter into a million pieces.

  Just as the world righted itself and I climbed off so I didn’t smother the love of my life, another sound echoed around the room. Hope let out a wail that made us both cringe, like we’d been caught redhanded.

  “I’ve got her,” Jacob winked, his mouth still glistening with my honey. Hair a wild and delicious mess.

  I pecked him on the lip, deciding it was my turn. After the things he just did with his mouth, he earned some major rest and relaxation.

  “You rest.” I unhooked my nightgown from the hook near the bed. The silky fabric sighed over my body. I felt his eyes on me, his love flowing in waves. I lingered at the door, casting a heated gaze over my shoulder. “You’re gonna need it.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “Everything okay?”

  The smile on my face, which felt like pulling on my favorite t-shirt or opening a window to let the sunshine in, stalled on my face.

  My assistant, Simone, was a lot of things; literally a Jill of all Trades. She graduated with a degree in public relations and journalism, combined with a host of extracurriculars that made her stand out from all the other applicants. Things like creating a pop culture blog that rivaled anything coming out of the entertainment sector, volunteering at a nursing home, managing a local coffee shop, and kicking ass on a roller derby team that almost won nationals.