Chapter Six

 

 

 

The next day, Cara reached her limit for being coddled. She wasn’t feeling much better but she couldn’t handle being treated as if she was going to shatter at any second. One day was more than enough of that.

When Jason brought in breakfast, she was ready for him. Making sure her hair was tousled just so and her nightshirt was hitched just a tad too high, she greeted him with a small smile. “Morning.”

It was hard to stop from smiling more when his step hitched and the tray tipped dangerously. “Uh, hey.”

His gaze burned a trail down her legs before he cleared his throat and brought his attention back to her face. “Feeling better?”

The pleading look in his eyes told her that he desperately hoped that she was—and just like she’d hoped.

Cara shifted so that the shirt rode just a tiny bit higher. “What do you think?”

He carefully put the tray down and cleared the space between them with two steps. His mouth was on hers, and just a quickly, it was gone again. “You still have a fever.” Groaning, he immediately started covering her up again and took two deliberate steps away from the bed.

“I’m fine. Don’t you trust me?”

His gaze held hers. “Not right now, I don’t. What are you up to?”

“What makes you think I’m up to anything?” Cara stretched her arms upward and from the look on his face, Jason was perilously close to swallowing his tongue.

“Because you’re trying to kill me and I don’t understand why you’d be so cruel.” He scrubbed a hand over his face and took a couple of deep breaths. “Besides, didn’t you make me promise to stay away so I didn’t get sick too?”

She smiled as sweetly as she could. “I think that plan went out the window when you got in the bath with me. Besides, I’m all better now.”

Jason stayed stubbornly on the other side of the room, clenching and unclenching his hands. Then a small smirk crooked the corner of his mouth. It was slight but she caught it.

He moved to the chair in the corner of the room and sat. “Why don’t you convince me?”

Cara pouted. “Convince you?”

“That you’re not sick.” He leaned back and waggled his brows.

Catching onto the game, she smiled. “And how would I do that?”

“Close your eyes. Pretend your hand is mine. What do you wish I was doing to you right now?”

That was easy enough to answer. But Cara knew that he wanted to be teased and she was more than willing to play along.

Watching him with heavily lidded eyes, she sank back into the mound of pillows. Stretching out, she ran one hand down the side of her neck, skimming the side of her breast to slide teasingly over her stomach. His attention was riveted to every movement of her fingers as she wound patterns over her skin instead of moving lower. Cara dipped the index finger of her other hand into her mouth, sucking on it briefly before trailing it down and around the budded peak of her breast.

After a harsh breath, Jason’s breathing quickened so she knew she was achieving the desired result. He shifted in his seat and she fought back a smile. Getting uncomfortable, was he? Cara planned to push him to the limits of his self-control.

With a moan, she caressed her way up to cup her breasts with both hands. Plucking at the peaks, she sighed and let a smile curve her lips as she imagined his hands squeezing and stroking her skin. It was his fingers parting her thighs and delving between. She slipped one finger then another inside her pussy. It didn’t take long before she arched her hips off the bed. As she built toward a shattering orgasm, he pulled her hand away only to replace it with his tongue.

He hooked his arms around her thighs so she couldn’t wriggle away. Within seconds, she writhed under his mouth, her moans and sighs echoing off the walls. They quickly turned into cries of pleasure when an orgasm slammed into her. But Jason wouldn’t let up, and just as the waves of bliss started to ebb, he brought her back to the brink and took her over again.

Still coming down from her high, she opened her eyes to catch Jason’s piercing gaze. His legs rasped against hers, his breath hot on her cheek. Cara figured she must have been more out of it than she’d thought to have missed that. She didn’t have much time to muse. He captured her mouth in a biting kiss as he drove into her. She let her eyes drift close as he set a relentless pace until they both lay gasping and shuddering against each other.

Her breathing still off kilter, she stretched against him. “Now this is more like the weekend I had planned.”

His husky laugh rumbled through her drawing her gaze to his.

What she saw there hitched her breath for a split second. The way he looked into her eyes was different. It was subtle, but it was there and it threatened to stop her heart from beating. She could see his love for her there, completely unmasked.

Jason broke eye contact and rolled onto his back. “That’s one way to work up an appetite.”

The moment over, Cara sighed and tugged the blanket over them. “Or burn off a fever.”

Her gave her a withering glance and slid from the bed to retrieve the tray. “Is that what you were trying to do?” When she opened her mouth to answer, he shoved half a blueberry muffin into it.

Cara bit off a mouthful and chewed. “Actually, I was trying to prove that I don’t need you to coddle me. I’m all better.” Even as she said it, she fought the urge to sneeze.

“Another day in bed and I’ll believe it.” When she started to argue, he put up a hand. “Can’t you just humor me? One more day won’t hurt you. And it would make me feel a lot better.” He ate the other half of the muffin in two bites and washed it down with a mouthful of her lukewarm coffee before handing her the rest of the cup for her to finish.

She swigged the rest and shrugged. “Fine. One more day. But that’s it.” And she definitely wasn’t going to make it easy for him.

“Unless you relapse or something.”

“Fine.”

He picked at the fruit and popped a couple of grapes into her mouth. He took a strawberry for himself and gathered up the tray again. “I’ll put this away and leave you to rest while I get some work done.”

“Can I at least rest out in the living room so I can watch TV and not die of boredom?” It wasn’t a question. Regardless of his answer, she would have made her way out there and he knew it.

“Allow me.” He put the tray back down and held out hand.

As far as getting out of bed went, it wasn’t exactly graceful. Cara caught her foot in the sheets and she tumbled into Jason, knocking him into her dresser. He saved her and the mirror from crashing to the floor. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

He made sure she was steady against the wall as he replaced the mirror. “You want to tell me again that you’re feeling better?”

“Shut up.”

“Come on, sniffles. Let’s get you out of here.” He deftly cradled her in his arms.

“I can walk, you know.”

“I think we just had definitive proof that you can’t.” He snuggled her closer as he rounded a corner. “Besides, I don’t mind. It’s not like you weigh anything.”

Cara just enjoyed the ride. He settled her on the couch, but before she could get comfortable, he waved a hand at her. “Hang on.”

He disappeared down the hall and came back with her comforter and a couple of pillows. Jason cocooned her in the blanket and fluffed the pillows on one end of the couch. “There.”

“I’m not going back to sleep, if that’s what you’re thinking.” Cara loosened the fabric wound around her so that she could free her arms. “You know what? I’ve never actually seen you do your thing.” She wiggled her fingers at his laptop.

He chuckled. “You want to watch me work? Just to warn you, it might ruin your non-sleep plans.”

“Just let me do my thing while I watch you do yours.”

Jason put up his hands, abandoning the argument. “Hey, it’s your snoozefest.”

Cara watched him prepare for whatever it was he did. Jason had made a command center at her dining table, his laptop already turned on. She could see message windows flashing and several faces in a video chat waiting for him.

And still he found time to make her a cup of coffee and find her a croissant before settling into his work.

She blamed her bleary head for not really understanding what was going on—that and the fact that Jason seemed to work at a blistering speed. At one point, it sounded like he was doing an interview while sorting out a labor dispute.

It wasn’t as if she didn’t know what his work entailed. She did. Mostly. After university, he and his roommate, Sebastian, had started flipping houses as a way of making cash. He had a good eye for a project and nearly always came out the better. It was his share of the money from their first few jobs that had gotten her restaurant on its feet. From there, they’d taken on bigger and better projects until they were now renovating multiple developments worth hundreds of millions of dollars all over the world.

She was proud of them both.

He caught her watching and smirked. “What?”

“Just enjoying the view.”

“Yeah? What’s so good about it?”

She took a bite of the croissant and cocked her head, taking in his long, lean form. “Everything.”

Jason laughed. “You’ve caught me on a good day. Watch me on a bad day and see if you come to the same conclusion.”

“I would.”

The look he gave her told her he didn’t believe it. “Well, get ready for more of it. I have a few more calls to make. It could take a while.”

“I’m ready as I’ll ever be.” She bit her tongue when he smiled. Cara hoped he didn’t take it to mean she was ready for the other ‘thing’. Although after the past few days, the thought of spending forever with Jason didn’t seem quite so daunting.