James: A College Girl Romance (27 page)

I raised an eyebrow.

“Can you
do
that?”

He smiled.

“Of course.”

I frowned and chewed my lip as it occurred to me how sidetracked my life had gotten lately.

“I don’t know if
I
can, though. I need to register for classes—and I need to fly down to see my mom, talk to her.”

“You could take off another year before finishing school,” James said, pulling me back into his chest and kissing my shoulder.

I shook my head.

“No. I already hate that I’m not going to finish until I’m nearly twenty-five. I need to go back now, or I might never do it. I can’t just live off your money.”

“That’s not entirely accurate, lovely. My money
is
your money.”

I shook my head again.

“But I can’t do
nothing
. I mean, we can’t spend
all
our waking hours having sex.”

“We can’t?” he asked before skimming his lips across my bare shoulders.

“Ha, ha. We’ve managed to fit in eating and assorted activities here and there. I need to
do
something.”

“Then promise me you’ll do something you want, not what anyone else tells you to do.”

I turned around and faced him.

“Thank you,” I said quietly as I reached up to touch his jaw.

He smiled.

“How would you feel about attending a wedding?”

“Whose wedding?”

“Ryan Thomas Bennett and Alexis Jolene Reed.”

My eyes widened.

“They’re still together? Wow. When’s the wedding?”

“Two weeks from now. I was just telling Bennett that I have a plus-one—
and
that I beat him to the punch. I think his head might have exploded when he found out I got married.” He smiled and nodded toward the water. “Time to cool off?”

James pulled me up with him, swinging me into his arms and carrying me to the crystalline water a few feet away. I wrapped my arms around him as he walked until he was waist-deep.

“Did you tell your friend Ryan how we met?” I asked.

“No. The only person who knows is Chris, and he signed a nondisclosure agreement. If he says anything, I’ll take him to court.”

“Your father knows, too,” I said quietly.

“He also knows I’ll destroy him if he comes after you.”

James let me slip down until my arms were around his neck and my legs were wrapped around his waist.

“Do you think you would have even noticed me if I hadn’t been wearing a naughty-schoolgirl outfit the first time you saw me?” I asked with a grin.

“You were the first person in my life I truly did notice.”

I felt his fingers deftly untie my bikini top before his hands fell to my hips to undo the strings at the sides of the bottoms.

“That being said,” he smiled, “I wouldn’t mind if you wanted to dress up now and again.”

A
few days after we returned to San Francisco from the Maldives, Cass left to spend a few days in Southern California to sort out things with her mother. I had offered to go with her, but I understood why she had wanted to do it alone.

However, I wasn’t stupid. I had sent Blake with her. There was no way I would leave her open to an attack from my father. Dear Old Dad now had ample motivation to stay as far away from Cass as possible, but he was a vindictive son of a bitch.

Then again, so was I.

He had stolen my mother from me, and if he threatened the woman I loved, I would take the only two things that had ever meant anything to my father—power and money. I had listened to every word of his recorded conversation with Cass, words that would haunt me for the rest of my life.

I think these jewels should be the only things you’re wearing when I join you in my suite tonight
.

His words had made me capable of murder, and it was ironic that the only reason I hadn’t put a bullet in my own father’s head was Cass. I wouldn’t let a lifetime in prison become my father’s enduring legacy. Nothing was worth missing a single moment with her.

As I did the last interval of my heavy bag training, I imagined my father’s face each time I delivered a crushing blow. After watching one of my workouts, Cass had claimed they scared her.

You look like you’re causing that punching bag physical pain—I can’t watch
, she had said with a shiver.

Still, later that night in bed, she had admitted that it turned her on to watch. I could honestly say that everything about her made me hard as stone. Hearing the security system chime, I grabbed a towel.

“Darling, I’m home!” she called before laughing hysterically. “James?”

I wiped my face and jogged toward the stairs. When I found her in the kitchen staring out at the view of the Golden Gate Bridge, I resisted the temptation to pull her into my arms. She turned away from the window, her eyes narrowing when she saw me watching her.

“Seriously?” she laughed. “You send me off to get groomed like a poodle—and you’re here working out. What’s with that? I spend all morning getting ready, and then you’re going to shower, put on a tux, and every woman within a five-mile radius is going to throw her panties at you.”

I cocked my head and raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t remember you throwing your panties at me.”

She leaned one hand on the countertop and reached under her pale-rose lace dress to pull down a matching thong. She lifted one foot and then the other and held up the panties before throwing them to me. I watched her blush as I brought them up to my face and took a deep breath.

“Remind me to tell Bennett that he has you to thank for his college roommate sporting a hard-on during his nuptials—unless you wanted to let me fuck you over this counter right now.”

She shook her head and pointed at my shorts.

“Oh, hell no. I take no responsibility for that insatiable monster. And I’m not letting you undo three excruciating hours of people über-grooming me.”

“Insatiable monster?”

“Get in the shower, McDevitt. I’ll take care of that monster after the wedding. We’re staying over at the winery?”

“That is the plan.”

“Go! I refuse to be the couple that shows up twenty minutes into the ceremony.”

Less than a half hour later, I was ready. As I walked her out to the car, she looked over at me.

“Why the hotel when you had a house in Sea Cliff? And the little house by the university—what was the point?”

I opened the passenger door and held her hand while she stepped in. When I stepped behind the wheel, I looked over at her.

“I was looking for something I didn’t have, but I didn’t know what it was.”

“Okay, but don’t say that something was me—because that would be pure cheese.”

I lifted her hand and kissed it.

“I love you, Cass.”

“I love you more, even if you did try to buy me for the summer.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me to fuck off?” I asked. “The money?”

She looked down.

“At first, it was because I really, really wanted to finish school—I still do. Then I started to see you as a real human being instead of just a really hot, fucked up rich guy. I realized that even if you tried not to, you actually cared, maybe even about me.”

I reached out and touched her hand.

“I care about you more than anything else.”

She looked up at me.

“When did you start to see me as anything more than a cocktail waitress in pigtails and a schoolgirl outfit?”

“I knew you were different the moment you asked me if I fondled the servers at all the clubs I patronized.”

She laughed and shook her head as I started driving.

“I can’t believe I said that.”

“You were quite the saucy schoolgirl.”

“Aren’t you afraid of what people would think if they knew you married a cocktail waitress from a club off the freeway?”

“Cass, have I ever struck you as the sort of man who worries about what anyone thinks?”

She laughed even harder.

“Definitely not. How long does it take to get to the winery?”

“Less than an hour.”

“Is Jasper going to be at the wedding?”

“No. Why do you ask?”

“Mostly because you’ve been having him or someone else shadow my every move since we got back.”

“He’s sending a protection detail he’s already vetted.”

“Do you still think it’s necessary to have people follow me around?” Cass asked cautiously.

“Absolutely. I won’t leave something like your safety to chance.”

She nodded.

“So, you do know that Jasper can lose his accent whenever he wants, right? Like he doesn’t sound British, at all.”

That cagey fucken bastard
. My jaw tightened, and Cass laughed.

“You
didn’t
know? How long have you been friends?”

“We met on the East Coast while I was in law school and he was doing a master’s in criminology—which would make it almost ten years,” I told her. “He’s been doing security for me for two.”

“Wow.”

I drove in silence for several minutes before reaching out and touching her hand.

“You never said much after you got back from the visit with your mother.”

Cass frowned and looked out the window.

“She and Michael are going to counseling. She said she was sorry for cutting me off at the last second, but Michael does all their finances—and he told her they just couldn’t afford to support me another year until I graduated.”

My grip on the steering wheel tightened.

“And what did she say when you told her we were married?”

Cass looked down at her lap and fidgeted with her purse.

“Well, she couldn’t believe the size of my ring. Like couldn’t believe it. And she cried. A lot.”

“Are you okay?” I asked, glancing over at her when she didn’t say anything.

“Yeah, I guess. It’s a little easier not to be bitter about it now that I’m not contemplating stripping in front of a club full of men.”

An image of Cass on stage with men shoving bills in her G-string flashed in my head, causing the road to blur in front of me.

“Did you really think about it?” I asked evenly.

When I looked at her, she was staring out the window again.

“I don’t know. I heard stories about how much people were making, and I guess I thought about it, but I couldn’t get past the practical aspects of not having a spray tan and fake tits. Plus, I can’t dance.”

“
Those
were the reasons you didn’t get on stage?”

“Pretty much. If I had thought I’d be good at it, I might have tried it, if it meant I would have made enough to finish my last year of school and pay rent. But honestly, I don’t know if I would have been able to go through with it. The thought of being naked—in front of that many people …”

She shook her head, and I lifted her hand and brought it to my lips.

“I’m glad you didn’t.”

“Would you have thought less of me?” she asked quietly.

“Of course not. But I would have had recurring dreams of killing every man who saw you in that club.”

“Am I supposed to feel that way about every woman
you’ve
ever
slept
with?”

“Lovely, who said love was rational or fair?”

She gave me a crooked smile and then laughed.

“Yeah, okay. That would be no one.”

“What do you think of stopping over in London and then Italy before going back to the island?”

She shook her head.

“I can’t. I’m already registered for classes.”

“London over winter break, and then Tuscany and the Maldives after you finish spring term?”

“I’m not going to say no to that.”

“Good. Are you excited to go back to school?”

“Are you kidding?” she laughed. “I’m so excited I can almost taste it!”

I smiled.

“And what about a real wedding when you’re finished with school?”

Cass made a sound of disgust.

“No way! The last thing I want is a big event.”

“Are you sure? You weren’t exactly
present
for our wedding.”

“No shit! Well, you’d have to get me that drunk again if we had a big wedding. That would just make me nervous as hell. Forget it.”

“You might change your mind after Bennett’s wedding.”

“No way.”

“You are a wonderfully strange woman.”

She grinned.

“Thank you.”

I glanced down at her bare knees and thought about the pink thong sitting in my pocket.

“This is going to be a long wedding. I wonder if Bennett would mind if I skipped the ceremony and fucked my wife in the vineyard.”

Cass smirked and took out her phone.

“I keep meaning to text Vicki, but it just seems too weird to tell anyone I got married. Plus, I asked Jasper, and he said she got back together with—what did you call him?
Justin the Juicer
? I’m sure if I go over to her place, he’ll be there.”

Then you won’t be going to see her by yourself
, I thought as she turned to look out the window again.

“This area is gorgeous,” she murmured as the rolling hills and vineyards streaked by.

She would love Tuscany, and I couldn’t wait to take her there. The rest of the trip passed in silence, and I didn’t bother pointing out that there was a car following us—the protection detail Blake had assigned in his absence.

Cass looked up at the wrought-iron sign for Bennett Family Cellars as we passed under it. The last time I had been here, I had been none too well behaved. Actually, I had been a flat-out dick. All things considered, I was surprised Bennett and I were still on speaking terms after the shit I had pulled more than three years ago.

I looked over at Cass. A lot had changed since then. I was still a bastard, but I had good reason to be better, at least where she was concerned.

When we reached the top of the hill where the estate was perched, a valet opened Cass’s door and walked around to hand me the ticket. I tipped him, crossed behind the car to where Cass was, and took her hand as she looked around at the Mediterranean-inspired grounds, which were covered in white roses. She whistled.

“This place is impressive.”

“I haven’t been here in a long time,” I told her. “It looks like Bennett’s been doing a lot of work.”

From out of nowhere, Bennett’s German Shepherd bounded up to us and immediately buried his nose between Cass’s legs.

“Now,
he’s
got the right idea,” I said under my breath.

Cass looked up and smirked at me as she scratched behind his ears.

“He’s wearing a bowtie. This is just about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. I love him! Where’d he come from?”

“This dog was Bennett’s surefire method for picking up on women.”

“This is your friend’s dog?”

“He is. Would that make him the best dog? Or dog of honor?”

“He’s adorable,” Cass cooed.

“You like dogs?” I asked carefully.

“Who doesn’t? I love them! We never had one when I was growing up—apartments, you know?”

Fuck. I could see it now. Within the month, I was going to be the reluctant caretaker of a barking, pissing, shitting, furniture-chewing ball of fur. Anything and everything to make this woman happy.

“
Finn
!”

Turning, I saw Bennett jogging toward us from the entrance to the winery.