When We Fall (Take the Fall, #2)(28)

Fixing my hair, I give myself one last look in the rearview mirror before reapplying lip gloss. Satisfied that I’ve perked up enough to get past Jase’s knowing gaze, I get out of the car and go inside the tattoo shop.

One day, I hope they change the name. It’s literally Tattoo Shop. I guess Emmett’s dad wasn’t original when it came to naming his business.

As soon as I spy Jase, I want to run to him, but he’s with a client and I can’t interrupt. Instead, I walk to the office and sit down at the desk, opening up the file that Emmett had downloaded to the desktop computer. I grab their bank statements to try to make heads or tails of all of it.

Logic returns to my brain, soothing me with irrefutable facts that two plus two equals four. That deposits are written in black ink and withdrawals are written in red. The computer program takes everything I input and makes it orderly.

Hands rub at my shoulders and I start, but then I relax when I see the familiar tattoos on the knuckles. The phrase HOLD FAST is inked in a faded blue, and I think of us, of our relationship. In the days, weeks…maybe even months to come, I know we’ll have to hold fast to each other so that no one comes between us.

“How was your first day?” Jase asks, kissing the top of my head.

“I love numbers,” I mumble. Yet another rule of Mother’s broken. Speak clearly so that others may hear you. Privately, I think that is one of her more practical rules, but a rule that I need to break just the same.

“That good, huh?”

“You have no idea.”

He spins the office chair around and kneels in front of me. “Tell me about it?”

Tilting my head to one side, I sigh. “Can’t. It’s confidential.”

“Anything else I can do?” He runs his palms up the back of my legs, causing sensations of pleasure to spark to life. I can’t help but moan a little.

“That. You can do that.”

“Anything for you.” He rubs my calves until I’m a useless blob of a human. My eyes are shut and I’m half slumped into my chair. How did I ever go this long without this man touching me?

I crack open one eye. “Is it bad that all I want to do is go home and sleep?”

Leaning up, he presses a kiss to my cheek and stands, waving his hands as he does. “Magic hands. You can’t help that you’ve succumbed to them.”

I snort so hard that I cough. “If you weren’t so good at relaxing me, I’d never talk to you again.”

“Yeah, you would,” he says smugly.

He’s right. I would, but still, it never hurts to tease him. “I don’t know…that line was super-cheesy.”

He cocks a brow. “Really?”

“Yeah, really.” I cross my legs primly and clasp my hands together, settling them in my lap. At the moment, I am the very picture of my mother’s version of what a southern belle should look like. “In fact, I’m very particular about who I talk to.”

He rubs his thumb across his lower lip and I watch, fascinated by his movements. “Are you very particular about who you kiss?” he asks.

I nod, feeling more powerful and turned on by the second.

“Who you allow in your bed?”

I find my voice. “Only the suavest of men.”

“Suavest?” He rolls his eyes. “I was hoping for a little more than that.”

With a giggle, I stand and grab the hem of his shirt, pulling him to me. I have to crane my neck back to look into his sexy blue eyes. “I only allow you to kiss me and to be in my bed.”

“Give you orgasms.” His voice is husky with desire. “Suck on your nipples.”

My nipples harden and desire pulses between my thighs. “Make me wet.”

“Is that a request, Ms. Particular”—he dips his head and nips at my bottom lip—“or an order?”

“Would you take an order from me?” I peer up at him from under my lashes.

“Depends on the order.”

“Then I’ll have to say both.” I lean up on my tiptoes and kiss him with all the passion I feel for him. “I order you to make me wet…please.” His hand curves around my neck, cupping the back of my head. I fist my hands into his shirt even tighter.

“Fuck, yes. I’ll do whatever you want.”

“Get a room,” Emmett catcalls.

I can feel my face heat, but I only pause for a second or two before I get lost in Jase’s kiss again.

“My girl,” he says, breathing heavily. “No one else has ever gotten me going from a kiss like you do.”

“Is that a good thing?” I smile coyly. I want to be flattered. I want to know that I’m treating him right, that I don’t suck when it comes to flirting or kissing or…anything that requires intimacy.

He caresses my cheek. “A very good thing, kitten.”





Jase


I let Piper get back to work before I take action on the temptation to lock the office door and get my face between her thighs. The thought of her coming on my tongue again makes me grip the doorknob hard.

“Jase?”

“Yeah, baby?”

“Is there any place around here that does delivery cheap? I forgot to eat today.”

That takes me by surprise. “Not even breakfast?”