Dating a Metro Man (16 page)

“Don’t iron out a single line or wrinkle for me ever,” Casey whispered fiercely. “They’re my favorite things about you. You’re as perfect as a woman can get, Alexa. Please don’t change anything.”

“Good lord,” Alexa said, heart swelling in her chest, her voice breathy and overwhelmed. “All this romance at midnight? I’m wide awake now. If you want to go another round, I’m game after all that sweet talk.”

Casey laughed against Alexa’s shoulder. “I just—I just wanted you to know how much I love you. I’m so damn glad I married you.”

Alexa snorted. “Really? Didn’t you slam the garage door as you left this morning, fuming about how I could make the coffee occasionally when you had to be somewhere so early in the day? I wasn’t completely awake yet, but I believe the slammed door was accompanied by a symphony of creative swearing and further banging noises as you peeled out of the garage like a bat out of hell in the truck.”

Casey’s groan vibrated in his chest. “Yeah, okay. Maybe I was a bit cranky at crawling out of bed at 5 a.m. and took it out on you. I know you can’t even see the coffee pot before seven.”

“Well, next time you throw a tantrum over coffee I’m going to remind you that you think I’m the perfect woman. I swear I’m going to put a tape recorder by the bed to catch things like this in the future,” Alexa said, giggling at his consternation. “And I’m buying a damn programmable coffee pot so you can have more control over the coffee situation. We will never repeat this morning. I almost took poor Allen’s head off because I was mad at you.”

“I’m sorry,” Casey said, his laughter making it somewhat less than sincere. Alexa had gone from holding a grudge to holding him accountable. It was healthier communication, but he ended up apologizing more and more. Evidently, he had some faults he hadn’t been totally aware of until her.

“Well, you should be sorry,” Alexa said firmly, closing her eyes at his stroking hand, which found its way to her backside for a stroke and a loving pinch.

“Don’t start,” she warned.

Casey sighed in contentment and pulled her tightly into his arms. “I love you so much, Alexa.”

“I love you too,” Alexa said. “Where’s all this humility coming from? What happened to you today?”

Casey ran a hand over her stomach and up to her breasts as he pondered how to best tell his story.

“Since I was in his neighborhood all day, I decided to go by Seth’s on the way home and pick up the cigar humidor. It was around ten thirty and still early on the Seth Carter clock, but I didn’t make it past the foyer. There was a line of discarded clothing down the hall and double moans coming out of his bedroom. I got the hell out before they heard me,” Casey said, grinning in the dark.

Alexa looked at the ceiling and sighed. “Well, it was inevitable. Seth’s a good-looking guy. Jenna is being stubborn about the attraction between them. Who could blame him for wanting some
companionship
?”

Alexa used the nicer term Casey had coined for sex because it helped her not be so disappointed in Seth for not waiting. Though Alexa would agree that the boy had waited longer than any other man would have to be with her daughter.

Casey chuckled at his wife’s misunderstanding of a situation he knew was secretly breaking her heart. She had been doing all she could to encourage Jenna to give Seth another chance.

“You’re being very pragmatic about this, Alexa. Where’s your romantic soul hiding these days?”

Alexa turned to him. “I’ve lived too long to be completely romantic about everything and everyone. What Ben did to woo Regina, admittedly that was romantic. What you and I did to work out our relationship was practically a war. What Lauren and Jim did torturing each other would make a best selling drama novel, complete with a horrible ex and insensitive mother-in-law. Romance—genuine romance—is damn hard to come by these days.”

“True enough,” Casey replied. “I doubt what I heard coming out of the bedroom was romance either, but it was definitely Jenna’s work boots, jeans, and other clothing strung with Seth’s down the hall.”

Alexa clutched his hand. “Casey—are you serious? You’re sure it was Jenna’s clothes?”

Casey nodded against her, feeling her excitement. “Those work boots look like they’re a hundred years old. She’s needs new ones. Yes. I’m pretty damn sure.”

“Oh, thank God,” Alexa said, breathing a sigh of relief about her daughter’s happiness at last. “That boy is all my daughter wants. She’s just so hard-headed—like her father.”

Casey laughed hard, shaking the bed and Alexa with it. “No, not really. Paul’s a great guy. Jenna’s hard-headed like
you
,” he corrected.

Alexa snorted at his laughter. “I thought you said I was perfect.”

Casey rolled over on Alexa and raised himself up on his hands to look down into her laughing gaze.

“You are. You’re the perfect woman for me, but I’m sure those other twenty-five guys or so before me caught hell in their day. Of course, you are pretty addictive. Look at Paul—he just went out and found another person exactly like you in Sydney. Still, I kind of feel sorry for Seth having to contend with his version of Ranger perfection. It’s great, but it ain’t easy,” Casey declared, grinning at the fire in her gaze.

Alexa reached around and slapped Casey hard on his rear, the sting lighting his eyes as he called out in pain, the slap echoing in the room.

“Well, that’s new,” Casey commented. “If we’re going to play that way, I want a turn.”

“That’s was punishment, fool, not foreplay,” Alexa said, laughing. “I’m not into pain.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t foreplay? Because I’m turned on now,” Casey told her, sliding down between her legs, and then back up inside her. Her moan of pleasure washed over him.

My woman and my fire
, Casey thought.
All mine.

“Yep, that sounds exactly like the female moan I heard coming out of the bedroom. Had to be Jenna. She sounds just like you,” Casey confirmed.

“Stop thinking about Seth and Jenna. Damn it. I can’t believe I let a pervert like you inside me. Get out,” Alexa ordered, even as she pressed all ten fingernails into Casey’s backside to hold him in place, the pain making him hiss.

He laughed harshly. “Shut up, woman, and make love with me. I have leverage now. If you don’t do everything I want, I’ll call a reality show and tell them to come interview us. The headlines will announce to the masses how the Carter men bedded the Ranger women. Or I’ll get Kaiser to have it announced on TV. That anchor woman still calls him.”

“Oh dear. Does Regina know the anchor woman is calling Ben?” Alexa said, laughing but biting her lip.

Casey laughed and had to stop moving. He was pressing deeper into the woman he adored, trying to get her attention back on him. It was his own damn fault for talking too much in bed, and now he’d ratted out Kaiser.

“No, she doesn’t know. Ben’s afraid Regina would be convicted for murder if she gets wind of it. He handles it well. Besides, you know there’s no one else for him but one woman. Kaiser’s just like the rest of us.”

“Yes, but you and Seth take that one woman thing to a whole new level,” Alexa said. “It’s very inspiring to be the only one for a Carter man.”

Casey pressed hard and held himself still inside his wife to ask his question. “How inspiring?”

Alexa rolled them over and showed her husband just how inspiring he was.

The Vanguard fundraiser was black tie formal, so Jenna dressed in a sleek fitting black dress that hugged all curves and donned a pair of strappy black sandals that lifted her several inches to almost Lauren’s height. She was a little worried about towering over Cristo’s head, but the alternative was black ballet flats, and this was just not that kind of dress. Even she knew that much about clothes.

Jenna drew on a heavy gold jacket that brought out the highlights in her blonde brown hair that was many shades lighter than her mother’s, but just as lush. She looked at the clock on the wall and headed to the entry of her building.

The taxi she’d called was just pulling up as she got outside.

“Where to, miss?” the driver asked.

Jenna gave him the address and settled in for the ride. Her mind drifted to wondering what Seth was doing tonight, but she refused to dwell on it. She’d gotten her fix last night, several times in fact. It had been two in the morning before she’d gotten home, and nine before she’d made it to the job site. Seth had been in a strange mood, and she’d actually snuck out after he’d fallen asleep wrapped around her.

No more thinking about Seth
, she told herself.

Tonight she was having a real date. The good-looking, very polite Cristo would be waiting for her at the end of her taxi ride. She’d dance and smile and enjoy his attention as she always did. The man had a way of looking at her like she was the only person in the world. It was flattering and soothed her ego. And he kissed well too—not that she’d be doing much of that tonight. It wasn’t fair to kiss a man when your mind was on kissing someone else.

Jenna paid the taxi driver and thanked him, and then walked quickly up the steps of the majestic building where the dance was being held. With the fundraiser fully underway, the crowd of people was thick and the music loud. Jenna scanned the room and spotted her boss and his wife dancing intimately.

To her surprise, she also saw Jim and Lauren. They were standing at the food table, which was not a surprise, given Lauren’s appetite. Seeing them laughing and talking brought a smile to Jenna’s face, which faded into need curling in her belly when she smelled the distinct and alluring cologne that had become part of her recent addiction. She turned and saw the man she craved most in the world standing two feet away from her.

“Seth—what—what are you doing here?” Jenna asked, stammering out the question.

Seth shrugged. “Helping to sponsor a good cause. My company’s on the list with yours.”

“Oh, I—I didn’t know that,” Jenna said, her breath catching.

“Where’s your date?” Seth asked softly, keeping his voice as neutral as possible, not giving away his true feelings on the matter.

“I don’t know. I just got here,” Jenna said. “Working late on the house again. I finally made everyone go home early. I didn’t want them there without me.”

Seth laughed. “Well, at least you’re a beautiful control freak. I’m sure no one minded going home early after all the late hours they’ve been putting in on that job.”

“Yeah, I’m sure. I’ve become so possessive about the house. It’s awful. When I have to turn it over the owner, it’s going to hurt a lot. I’m hoping he’ll let me come visit now and again,” she said, laughing softly. “I can’t seem to help my attachment.”

“Understandable I think, given the amount of sweat equity you’re putting into it,” Seth told her. “Want to dance while you wait on your date?”

Jenna looked around the room again, but saw no Spanish weight-lifter. Cristo was distinctively handsome. He would have stood out in this crowd.

“Sure. I guess so,” she said, letting Seth lead her to the dance floor by the hand.

*** *** ***

“Lauren. I think Seth and Jenna are here together. Are they dating?” Jim asked.

Lauren narrowed her eyes and sought out the couple weaving close together on the dance floor. Seth’s hand slid smoothly down the back of Jenna’s dress and then even further to pull her hips closer to his. Lauren gasped in surprise and pleasure. That was a practiced move if she ever saw one.

“It sure looks that way. I’m also getting turned on just watching them,” she said.

“Don’t get too carried away. We are
not
sneaking off to a broom closet tonight. You’re just going to have to wait until we get home,” Jim told her, laughing.

“If I did something I needed to apologize for, would it change your mind about the broom closet?” Lauren asked.

“Not even then,” Jim told her. “But I like how you’re thinking.”

“I knew something was happening. I just knew it. I wonder why they haven’t said anything,” Lauren said, picking up a canapé to pop it into her mouth.

“Oh—well we might be wrong. Look,” Jim said, motioning discreetly with his shoulder.

Lauren’s heart fell as she watched a very good-looking man butt in and Seth walk off with his hands in his pockets.
Probably keeping them there to keep from strangling the man who had broken in on his dance with Jenna
, Lauren thought.

“Jenna needs her head examined,” Lauren said fiercely. “Sure the dark muscle guy looks great, but Seth is the one for her. It’s so obvious.”

Jim laughed. “So you think the new guy looks great?”

Lauren shrugged. “I suppose. Jenna doesn’t date ugly men. I mean—with a father like hers, she’s going to be drawn to the good-looking men every time.”

“She didn’t keep that Stedman fellow. Isn’t he the ultimate female fantasy? Muscles, permanent tan, even white teeth, and lots of charm?” Jim asked.

Lauren looked at Jim in his new SydneyB suit, every inch the successful business man he was. Her husband was smiling at her and her growing body with enough pride to satisfy the most demanding female ego.

“Stedman never did much for me,” Lauren told him sincerely. “I married my fantasy. I don’t know what other women want.”

Jim put his plate down and pulled his wife into his arms for a kiss.

“Stay here by the food while I look for a broom closet. I need to apologize for turning you down earlier,” Jim whispered seductively to his laughing wife.

*** *** ***

Jenna swung around the floor in the arms of a handsome man who drew the admiring gazes of most of the women passing by them. She had lost sight of Seth after he’d surrendered her to Cristo.

Seth had certainly not looked happy when he walked away. His reaction made perfect sense to her because Jenna was not happy now either. She couldn’t even enjoy the company of her date.

It was the dancing, Jenna thought. She’d let Seth touch her, stroke her, and now she could think only of him and what she knew he could do to her.

Misinterpreting the frown on her face, Cristo assumed Jenna was tired and suggested they get something to eat and drink. She was more than happy to get off the dance floor and out of Cristo’s arms, so Jenna meekly let him lead her away.