Prove Me Wrong Page 3

  Clara froze for a moment before gathering herself and clearing her throat. I had to hand it to her. Of all the women I had teased and flirted with, Clara had the quickest rebound time. Nothing threw her off for too long.

  She turned her head and looked up at me. “Hope you have a pencil and pad. You should be taking notes.” And with that she hopped off towards an aisle.

  Why that little....I huffed a laugh. Oh that little brat was full of smart ass replies. I felt my body tighten as I wondered what else she was full of.

  I followed her to the aisle where she waited for me. She held up a screw driver in one hand. “This,” she said with a professorial air, “is a Phillips head. It is a very helpful tool for a number of projects. The benefits of such a tool are avoiding cam out and damage, precision in driving, and low torque.” She raised a winged brow at me. “Got that?”

  I grinned, enjoying the byplay. “Yes, ma’am,” I said.

  She nodded regally and then headed to the next small bin, pulling out a Frearson head.

  “Although quite similar to a Phillips, this is known as a Frearson,” she continued.

  Those sweet lips. I wanted to suck on them before biting down, so I could hear her gasp against my own lips. I took a step towards her as she talked. I wanted to wrap my arms around her, trapping her completely against me, feeling her body slide against mine.

  I hardly knew the girl and yet I felt a distinct connection with her. Whether it was just a connection of mind or of body, I didn’t care. I just knew I was ready to explore it regardless. And when it came to exploring, the body was far more fun to start with.

  Clara eyed me warily, noticing a distinct change in my attitude. She took a step back to compensate for my step forward but that didn’t discourage me. I kept moving forward.

  “This is a good…err—a good head for jobs like—ahh!!” Clara cried out as she tripped against a small stool that was in the middle of the aisle. Walking backwards, she hadn’t seen it and was soon freefalling with her arms flailing out.

  Immediately, I reached for her, grabbing her by the arm and yanking her towards me. She gave a soft sigh as she hit my chest, my arm instinctively tightening around her.

  I could feel her breasts pressing against me, making my body tighten. My arm gripped her harder. I found myself unwilling to let her go.

  A soft hand touched my chest. I looked down in surprise.

  She looked up at me, her hazel eyes warm and bright. “Thanks,” she said in a soft breathless voice. Her eyes searched me. I wondered if she could tell just what I was thinking.

  Perhaps she could because she then nodded with certainty. “Beer,” she said suddenly.

  I furrowed my brows in confusion. “What?”

  “We need some beer,” she said nodding with confidence. “Definitely. Let’s get some on the way back home.”

  And with that she pulled her way out of my arms, leaving me feeling surprisingly empty.

  Chapter Four

  Clara

  The cool night breeze swished past us on the back porch. I leaned back in my chair and breathed it in, pulling the flannel blanket a little closer to me.

  Jonah sat next to me, taking a deep pull from his beer, looking out into the darkness before us. There was no fencing behind my house so all that greeted my back door was the Vermont forests.

  “What about your family?” I asked, breaking our comfortable silence.

  Jonah looked over at me. Despite my earlier comments at the store, there was nothing unmanly on Jonah Lawrence. I had borrowed an old flannel shirt from Alex and Jonah had bought a pair of work boots from the store. With the sleeves rolled up, I could see the thick forearms that were veined with muscle. This man clearly knew how to use his body with brute strength.

  “What about them?” he replied.

  “Well,” I said, wondering why he seemed so reluctant to talk about himself. “You know my dad liked to make furniture. What does your dad like to do?”

  Jonah looked down at his beer before taking another deep pull. He then sighed and leaned back in his seat, his long legs stretched out before him.

  “My dad’s dead as well,” he said in a flat voice.

  “Oh,” I said. Something in his tone told me that he did not mourn his father like I mourned mine. “I’m sorry.”

  He shook his head, snorting. “Don’t be. I didn’t even know the man. He died when I was barely one. It was just me and my mom until I was twelve.”

  “Did your mom remarry then?” I asked, wanting to know more about this mysterious stranger who somehow seemed to call to me.

  He nodded. “She did. To a man who loved her very much,” he said shortly.

  I was confused why he sounded so angry. “Well that’s good,” I said. “That’s very lucky for anyone to find.”

  Jonah pressed his lips and nodded. “It is. But the man was very disappointed to find that my mother already had a child. He didn’t seem too interested in children and certainly had no interest in me.”

  Before I could say anything in response, Jonah continued, “It shouldn’t matter. I know he loved my mother and he took good care of her. She had worked her ass off when it was just the two of us. She deserved to be taken care of.”

  I heard the unspoken words hang in the air: It’s just too bad we couldn’t both be loved.

  “Didn’t your mother…” I started but hesitated, not wanting to speak ill of someone he clearly loved.

  Jonah shook his head. “I didn’t really make a show of it for her. Plus, it wasn’t like most mother-son relationships between the two of us. We were more like partners than parent and child and once she remarried, she figured we were both well off enough not to worry too much over each other. So I hid it. I hid any of the bruises or marks he gave me. And my stepfather made sure I was sent to private schools for most of the year, so that made it easier to hide all of this as well. The best schools, obviously. But far away.”

  My heart ached for him. I could see the loving and lonesome boy in him that had wanted just a scrap of affection. Behind the brawn and power, there was a man whose heart ached for love.

  “Are things better now?” I asked, hopeful. “Between your mother and your stepfather and you? Sometimes, the older we get, the softer our hearts become—”

  “They’re dead,” he interrupted me, his eyes focused on some distant spot in the woods ahead. “Both of them.”

  “Oh,” I said softly, unsure what else I could say.

  “My mother from cancer. My stepfather from a heart attack,” he continued. He shook his head. “Now all I have of either of them is that fucking company—”

  “Company?”

  Jonah threw me a quick glance before clearing his throat. “My stepdad had a business. It was very successful. But when he married my mother, they worked together on it. She hadn’t been formally trained in business but she was very smart and he trusted her opinions. They created something bigger and better together.” Jonah paused, looking out in the forest as if he could see images of his past play right before him.

  “When I was growing up, when it was just the two of us, time were really hard. We were on every kind of government hand out you could imagine. Sometimes the free school lunch was all I got to eat the whole day. My mom had it worse since she had no steady meal to depend on. We both worked every day to try to bring home as much money as we could. I was working odd jobs from the age of six. Like I said, we were partners.”

  My chest wrenched in pain, imagining a little boy and his mother both working hard to keep food in their bellies. It was clear they had had a different kind of relationship but regardless of whether there was a lot of maternal love, Jonah clearly respected her to some degree.

  “Oh Jonah,” I said softly.

  He didn’t seem to hear me. “So when she met my stepfather, my mom was very conscious of how quickly things can go right but more importantly, how quickly things could go wrong. She kept working even after marrying him. She worked on their company
to make sure that she would never have to go hungry again. She told me time and again how important the company was to her. And she saw it as my chance as well to forever get out of danger.” He looked down at his beer. “She saw it as my protection. She might not have loved me. But she had watched out for me. And now, it’s all I have of her.”

  He grimaced as he took another sip of his beer.

  I reached over and placed my hand over one of his. He looked up and I gave him a soft smile.

  “And I bet you’re kicking butt and taking names at it,” I said, trying to infuse some gentle humor.

  It worked.

  Jonah gave a little snort, his lips twitching. “And how would you know that?”

  I gave a confident nod. “You’re not the kind of man to just stand by,” I said, surprised by my own sure tone. But I knew I wasn’t mistaken. It was true. “You’re your mother’s son. You’d work your ass off till you reached success and then work some more.” I shook my head, smiling to myself. “I don’t think you’d know what failure was if it bit you on the face.”

  I looked up and saw Jonah staring at me in surprise. His dark blue eyes, almost black in the evening light, stared at me with mingled shock and something else…pleasure? He looked a little pleased, as if touched by my words.

  Without warning, he grabbed hold of my wrist and pulled, pulling me out of my seat. I was yanked towards him and without giving me a chance to regain my bearing, he wrapped an arm around me, pulled me into his lap and pressed his lips hard against mine.

  I gasped but had no time for any other reaction. Pure fire burned between us as our mouths touched. His tongue insistently pressed against my lips, opening my mouth. He explored me with no hesitation, taking in my taste, my very breath with complete confidence.

  A slow burning heat curled through my body from my toes to my hair. His arms, like iron bands, tightened around me, holding me close. In his lap, I felt small and fragile. He held me easily as his tongue explored my mouth. One of his large hands was wrapped around the nape of my neck, holding me to him. His touch, his hold, made me feel so secure, so protected.

  I broke away just long enough to gasp, “Bed.” I touched my lips against his once more. “Let’s go to bed.”

  With incredible ease, he stood up, lifting me in his arms with no apparent difficulty. He kissed me hard again. “You got it, boss,” he murmured, his hot breath against my cheek. I could hear rather than see his smile.

  In my small bedroom, Jonah almost took up the entire space. Laying me down on the bed, he followed me down, leaning over me.

  His entire hardened body pressed me down, pinning me at his mercy. With quick efficiency that showed his skill, he quickly removed my clothes and his, leaving us both naked and heated with anticipation.

  Cupping my breast in one large hand, he pulled my nipple into his mouth, sucking on it gently. I sighed in pleasure but then arched my back as he suddenly sucked hard, using his other hand to pinch my other nipple.

  A twist of pain and pleasure shot down my spine, immediately making my pussy clench in reflex. I cried out a little as the waves of pleasure pulsed right beneath my skin.

  We hardly knew each other. It had barely been two days we had been in each other’s company and yet it felt as if our bodies were finally reuniting after a long separation. A hot cord of connection pulled at us, keeping our bodies writhing and pressed against each other.

  “From the minute I saw you,” Jonah breathed hotly against my skin, “I’ve wanted to taste you.”

  “Wha—” I said, barely able to pull myself out of the hazy spiral of pleasure he was methodically sending me towards.

  But before I could say more, I felt Jonah wedge himself between my legs and soon a hot tongue was pressed against my central core of arousal. My entire body shuddered and then tightened as his tongue intimately stroked against my swollen folds, edging me closer to the cliff’s edge.

  I reached down and ran my hand through his thick hair, luxuriating in his touch. As his tongue swiped over my sensitive and swollen clit, I squealed as pleasure shrieked across me. I arched up and almost tried to scoot away, the sensation too much to take. But Jonah immediately wrapped his arms around my thighs, keeping me trapped.

  He meant to get his fill of me and I was going nowhere. The knowledge of being trapped oddly made my body relax. It was as if my body knew it had no choice so it might as well enjoy itself.

  Jonah ran his tongue around my clit, flicking it occasionally to get a muffled cry from me. I could hear a deep rumble of satisfaction and pleasure from him as he tasted me.

  I blushed to know that he seemed to like what he tasted.

  I was soon sent into a spiraling world of just nebulous bubbles of ecstasy that seemed to float all across my body. My entire skin was as sensitive as a live wire and I felt energy crackle through me. God, I wanted him. I wanted him badly.

  Jonah rose up between my legs. He leaned over me, his dark eyes peering into me. They looked like heated coals that burned with a desire that nearly melted me. His gaze ripped away every pretense, every cover, leaving me raw and bare and totally at his mercy.

  He took my lips again. “So sweet,” he murmured against my cheek. “You’re too sweet, baby.”

  And with that, he plunged the entirety of his thick length into me, making me gasp as I arched against him.

  Above me, Jonah groaned deeply in bone shaking pleasure. He wrapped a hard arm around my back, pressing me even closer to him. It was like we couldn’t get close enough to each other. He tucked me close to him as he plunged in again, letting me feel every hard inch of him.

  “Oh my god,” I whispered breathlessly. “Oh god.”

  “Just feel it, sweetheart,” he murmured against my ear, nipping at my lobe, adding another shiver of pleasure to my hurricane of sensation.

  He gave another hard thrust. And then another. “Just feel me in you,” he said, his breath harsh with his own deepening pleasure.

  I lifted my head, wanting to feel his lips again. He immediately captured my mouth. Completely connected, we rode each wave together, his hips moving in perfect rhythm with my body. Each thrust of his cock drove home another undeniable crash of ecstasy.

  Soon, he was speeding up his rhythm. My breath came quicker as I felt my body tightening for its ultimate release.

  “Come with me,” I gasped, reaching out to hold him close to me. I felt the hard arm around me tighten.

  I looked up at those glowing blue eyes that burned at my words. “Come with me,” I said again before moaning in pleasure as his cock thrust hard into me.

  His rhythm sped up and both us panted as we edged closer and closer to our release. Then with a sudden heart-stopping burst, my body erupted in total and consuming ecstasy. I threw my head back and cried out as I shuddered over and over again, my release clutching me prisoner.

  My pussy clenched reflexively from my release and it milked against the hard, throbbing cock it held. Soon Jonah roared above me as he found his release. He groaned as he fell on top of me, barely holding his weight with his elbows.

  Together we breathed quietly, letting the aftermath of our pleasures bring our heart rate back down to a more normal pulse.

  Without words, Jonah rolled off to the side. He wrapped an arm around me and tucked me securely into his arms. I fit perfectly inside his embrace like a caterpillar in its cocoon. My arms folded against my chest, he kept a good hold on me. I felt his lips press against the top of my head.

  “Too sweet,” I heard him murmur.

  But that was the last thing I had conscious memory of before post-sex sleep captured both of us, dragging us down into the hazy darkness.

  Chapter Five

  Jonah

  Remember how cocky I had been about making my way into Clara’s bed? Describing her as the perfect distraction from the fuckfest of New York? Remember how I had thought of the fun and casualness a night of pleasure with her could be?

  Well, fuck me, I couldn’t have been more
stupid or wrong.

  Yes, the night with Clara had been the most ball-busting night of pleasure I’d had in a long, long time. She was everything that I had suspected her to be—sweet, giving, playful, and soft like a sunset.

  But I had been completely wrong in thinking that I could walk away from her bed as cool and casual as I had in every other previous instance with countless other women.

  In the past, the moment my cock had reached its release, my body immediately cooled, along with my attitude. Some women were offended by my aloofness. Others saw it as a challenge.

  Vanessa had definitely seen it as one, I knew.

  But with Clara, even after coming so hard I nearly went blind, I found myself exhausted yet still hungry for more. It was as if I couldn’t get enough of her scent, her taste. I wanted to consume her whole and then consume her once more.

  I had cockily thought that I could easily have a night or two of fun with her and then walk away, head clearer and body a little less tense.

  But now I felt even more in need. I was hooked. I was hooked on Clara Daniels and goddammit, I liked it.

  And when one night together turned into several nights together, then two weeks, I began to really question myself.

  I knew I was being irresponsible. Regardless of how self-sufficient DXC Global was, I knew it still needed its President to be available for work. I still had my phone and kept in contact with Mrs. Drune regularly. But with each call, I could hear the sniffing in her voice as she quietly judged her errant employer.

  But I wasn’t ready to go back. Every time I held Clara, I felt like a whole new man. There was something in her that brought out a side of me that I had never known existed.

  And holy hell, was she some kind of woman.

  Not only sweet but talented as hell. Her work was beautiful. She had shown me the photographs she had taken of her pieces.

  “I made this set so that you don’t really have to buy all of the pieces to make it look good. Just having the table and a bench can work. Or a couple chairs. Which ever the customer prefers,” she said, pointing to the photo of a sleekly crafted dining table with a long bleached wood bench and matching chairs.