Chapter 5
“Wow, Trevor, you’re so talented,” Mia gushed. "What is this – the twelfth game of Parcheesi you’ve beaten us at?”
Trevor giggled. “My second game,” he said with a bright smile. He looked between Mia and his dad. “And I know you two just let me win.”
“Us?” Mia said, looking across the table at Jake with a little smile. “Never.”
“Mia’s right, bud,” Jake said. “You’re just too good for us older folk with addled brains.”
“Hey!” Mia said. “I resemble that!”
The three of them burst out laughing. Trevor zipped from the table and began to run around excitedly. “Hey, bud, slow down or you’re going to pu-“ It was too late. Trevor had thrown up all over his clothes and feet.
“Oops,” Trevor said, rubbing his little tummy.
Jake immediately moved to him and felt his head. “You’re hot again. Let’s get you cleaned up and then I want you to take a good long nap.”
“Do I have to?”
“Yes, Trev, yes, you do,” Jake said.
Trevor looked to Mia for help, pleading in his eyes. She shrugged. “As much as I hate to admit it, I think your Dad is right here. He’s a doctor after all and your dad and knows what you need. Besides, I’ve learned myself that the fastest way to feel better is to get good rest.” She offered him a smile. “I’d better get going.”
“Do you really have to go?” Trevor asked.
Jake nodded and smiled. “Yeah, do you have to?”
“Yes,” Mia said. “I’m sorry but I really do have so much work to do today. I have a video conference, for starters.” The truth was that she could easily reschedule said conference but it gave her a good reason to get out of there and get away from the feelings beginning to stir inside of her – both for Trevor and for Jake. She couldn’t let her guard down though. Especially not with Jake; not after he had cheated on her with that skanky blonde what-was-her-name and then a few months later up and married Cara, taking off to parts unknown. She knew keeping him at a distance was for the best. Why had she even come down here at all?
“Okay,” Trevor said, looking disappointed.
Mia’s heart tugged painfully in her chest. She knew that she could fall in love with this kid as fast as she had his father all those years ago; she needed to keep her distance – her heart needed that - and yet she found herself saying, “I’ll come around to visit you again soon, I promise. Feel better okay?”
Trevor smiled. “Okay.”
Jake ruffled Trevor’s thick brown hair. “Hey, bud, why don’t you go get out of those barf-covered clothes while I walk Mia to the door?”
Trevor nodded and waved to Mia. “Bye!”
“Goodbye,” Mia said, waving back and feeling oddly disappointed at the thought of leaving that sweet little boy behind.
Jake walked Mia to the door. She felt his hand come to rest on the small of her back but she didn’t tug away, not right then, telling herself that Trevor did not need to see her make a scene. The truth was that Jake’s touch felt so natural and familiar that in that moment, she couldn’t pull away.
Jake opened the door for her and she turned to look at him. “Thanks for uh –“ She couldn’t find words for a moment there. The way Jake looked at her with those gorgeous eyes … Well, it was rendering speech quite difficult.
Finally finding her words, she gasped out, “For letting me play with you. I mean-“
He winked at her. “You can play with me any time. All you have to do is ask.”
She blushed. “Never mind that. I need to go.”
“Wait – you never did say why you came down here in the first place.”
“Well…”
“Why you went to the trouble of finding my room. Why-“
“Okay, I get it. You have questions.” She looked back inside of the room. Trevor was still standing there watching them with a curious smile. “I can’t answer them now.”
“Fine, I’ll come up to your room later. What’s the number?”
"Don't push it,” Mia said and then ran out of there before she could change her mind.
XoXoXo
Later that evening, Mia was lying on her bed in her nightie, trying to get comfortable when all she could do was think about how Jake was a mere two floors down. No doubt Trevor had gone home with his mother by now and Jake would be free for the taking. She wanted him so badly. She could admit that much to herself. But if she kept seeing him – or sleeping with him, as the case was - she was going to lose her head and her heart again. And Jake would just hurt her again and the whole vicious cycle would start anew.
Still, nothing was quelling the physical ache she had for Jake. She had fondled herself for twenty minutes and felt absolutely nothing. Jake had gone and ruined her again. She had half a mind to go tell him off for what he was doing to her but she didn’t want to admit that he still got to her.
But she could still tell him off, tell him to stay away, she reasoned. All she had to do was pick up the phone and dial his room number.
“Mia,” she told herself, “this is the kind of thing one should do in person.” She was rationalizing here but she realized that she had to see Jake, no matter what. Maybe if she just slept with him one more time, she could get him out of her system for good.
Yes! Yes, this would be a sexual cleansing. Or a sexual healing, or whatever.
She scaled off the bed and started to hunt around for something to pull over her nightie when there were suddenly three resounding knocks at the door. She instinctively knew who had come to call.
“Jake,” she murmured as the knocking started up again.
She squared her shoulders and walked as confidently as she could to the door. She opened the door, grabbing him by the lapels of his jacket, and yanked him inside the room.
“Mia-“ he started but she quickly silenced him with a smoldering, punishing kiss. She then reached for the buckle on his jeans.
“Mia,” he tried again when they came up for air.
“Don’t talk, Jake,” she said. “Don’t ruin the moment.” She tugged his belt free and latched her fingers into the loops of his jeans, tugging him over to the bed. She shoved him down onto the mattress as he looked up at her with bewilderment but also naked desire in his eyes.
“I don’t know what’s gotten into you but –“
“Are you complaining?” She asked as she cupped him through his pants.
He shook his head, his breathing ragged. “No,” he panted.
“Good, then let’s do this shall we?” She said and began to devour his neck with fevered kisses.
XoXoXo
Woman, thou art loosed, Jake mused as Mia tugged desperately at the shoulders of her nightie, pulling the straps down as quickly as she could.
She slipped out of the sheer nightie she wore and Jake’s breath hitched in his throat. She was sitting atop him now, her pert breasts at his eye level, tempting him to action. All he wanted to do was draw those dusky nipples into his mouth and mark her as his again and yet …
He sighed loudly as he found himself saying, “Mia, we need to talk.”
Chapter 4
Jake knew he had to give Mia some time to cool off but he didn’t relish the idea. He wanted to see her so badly – she was in his blood all over again, just like she used to be – but he ultimately decided to give her a day to unwind before he approached her again. He thought of her a lot though - somewhere in a room in this very hotel. He imagined her right above him, maybe sleeping nude, touching herself because she couldn’t be touched by him...
He did feel guilty. The way she had said that he had broken her, still made his chest ache. He wanted to make it up to her somehow but he wasn’t sure she would give him that chance. Still, he had to try because from the moment he had seen her standing in the hospital – after all these years - he had known one thing. He wanted her. He had actually never stopped wanting her.
He spent a sleepless night in his too-quiet room and then at six a.m. got up and showered. He had a long day of surgeries ahead of him and he wanted to see her – he needed to. Soon enough, he told himself.
By seven a.m., he was ready to go – after thoroughly lathering every inch of his body and dressing and spraying on that old, familiar cologne of his. He grabbed his keys off the dresser and was heading to the door when suddenly there was a knock. He smiled. Maybe Mia was coming to her senses and wanted to be with him. Maybe she could even one day forgive him for hurting her the way he had.
He hurried to the door and threw it open. “Mi-“ he started to say and broke off when he saw who was standing there.
“Trevor!” He said with a grin as his son launched at his legs. He picked Trevor up and swung him around.
“Watch out. He might throw up on you,” Amanda said. “He did that to me twice during the night.”
Jake immediately stilled and pressed a hand to Trevor’s forehead. “Whoa, buddy, you are definitely warm.”
“Yeah he’s sick. Too sick to go to school,” Amanda said. “And I have an important meeting at Fusion so it’s your turn for vomit-duty.”
Jake could have protested. After all, he had back-to-back surgeries today but he also knew that Angie Hubbard was more than capable of handling them herself and now that she was back from her four-month-long maternity leave, she was raring to go on new cases.
Jake nodded. “Alright. I’ll take good care of you, Bud,” he said to Trevor. The little boy smiled widely and nodded. Amanda set a bag of snacks, and all manner of syrups and drops of medicine inside the door.
Trevor spotted his favorite stuffed giraffe and wriggled down to the floor so he could pick it up. He hugged to him and then took off towards the room’s huge TV.
“Everything will be fine right, Jake?” Amanda said.
“Of course. I’ve babysat plenty of times, remember?”
“I know. It’s just never easy to pawn my sick kid off on someone else.”
“I’m not someone else, Amanda. I’m his father. It’ll be fine. Now you’d better get going.”
“Yes,” Amanda agreed and she waved to Trevor and blew him kisses. “Bye, son!” She then turned and started down the hall. Halfway to the elevators, she paused in her tracks and turned back to look at him.
“So you and Mia Saunders are at it again, huh?”
“Wait. How did-“
“You said ‘Mi’ when you opened the door. I assume you were expecting her. She’s back in town; it’s not hard to put two and two together, you know.”
Jake nodded. “I don’t know if there will be anything lasting between us, to be honest.”
“Not for your lack of trying, I’m sure,” Amanda said. “I know you. You’re just as tenacious as I am when it comes to getting what you want.” She splayed her small hands. “Good luck with her.”
“Is that your way of giving me your blessing?”
“Yeah, I suppose so. We’ve been divorced for a long time now, Jake. I want you to be happy as long as it’s not with Cara,” she said with a little laugh and a half-smile.
Jake smiled. “Thanks for the support.”
Amanda nodded and then turned and walked off. She climbed onto the elevator and was gone. Jake sighed and walked back into his room. Trevor was lounging on the sofa, watching Sponge Bob on the huge TV. Jake watched his son and smiled. Even with a pasty pallor, mussed hair, and wearing wrinkly blue pajamas, he was a darn cute kid. He favored Amanda in a lot of ways. He thought of Amanda. They hadn’t had the most amicable divorce and he’d been angry when she upped and married that rat JR Chandler but for the first time in a long time, he felt things were going to be okay – at least on that front. He still had to make things right with Mia.
XoXoXo
Almost two hours had passed and Jake had checked Trevor’s temperature three times. He had puked twice but his fever was starting to go down and he was asking for animal crackers. That was a good sign.
Jake was rifling through the bag Amanda had brought along for him and found the little baggie of animal crackers. He brought them to Trevor who was still on the sofa, but looking a little less sickly than before. “Hey, Bud,” Jake said. “After this episode of Doc McStuffins is over, what do you say we play Parcheesi?”
“What’s Par-cheese?” Trevor asked, cocking his head.
“Parcheesi. It’s an adult game but it’s never too early to learn how to play it. Plus , it’s the only game I could find in the cabinet here. You can’t watch TV all day.”
“I can’t?”
“Nope. It will rot your brain,” Jake said with a teasing smile.
Trevor shrugged. “Okay.” He then turned back to watching the rest of the show.
Jake smiled as he eyed his cell phone on the end table. He wanted to call Mia but then he didn’t know her phone number, or hell, even her room number. They had never actually made it to her room here at The Valley Inn.
He sighed and was just about to set out the Parcheesi box when there was a knock at the door. He wondered who it could be. Amanda wouldn’t be back so soon. Again, he had the hope that it was Mia but he wasn’t counting on it this time.
He opened the door and his eyes practically bugged out. Mia really was standing there this time. “Hey,” he greeted her with a big smile. “How’d you find me?”
Mia crossed her slender arms. She was looking particularly luscious in a chartreuse dress. “I asked around,” she said. “Anyway, I just came to tell you that –“ She broke off as she spotted Trevor walking over to them.
“Hey,” Trevor said. “Who are you?”
“I’m – I’m… My name is Mia,” she sputtered out. “And you must be Trevor.”
Trevor nodded. “Yep. Are you Daddy’s friend?”
Mia obviously didn’t know how to respond so Jake stepped in. “We’ve known each other for a really long time so yes, I like to think we’re friends.” He flicked his eyes to Mia’s. Her doe eyes were stormy.
“Mia,” Trevor said. “We’re about to play Par-Cheese!”
“Par-cheese?” Mia asked, looking at Jake for an explanation.
“Parcheesi,” Jake said.
“That’s great.” She started to back up. “Jake, I’ll come by later. Have fun playing Parcheesi.”
“Mia,” Trevor called to her. “Do you like Par-cheese?”
“Well… It’s been a long time since I played it. Why?”
“Stay and play with us!” Trevor said. “Please!”
Mia’s eyes darted to Jake. “Jake…”
“You don’t have to stay,” Jake said, thought disappointment tinged his words. “Trevor is ill anyway. I wouldn’t want you to catch anything.”
Trevor’s bottom lip trembled. “I won’t get you sick, Mia, I promise. Stay!”
Mia offered Trevor a little smile. “Okay… I guess I can I say ‘no’ to that, can I?”
Trevor grabbed for her hand, pulling her inside the room. Jake just grinned. Who knew his own son would end up being the perfect matchmaker?
Chapter 3
The next time he caught her in the elevator heading up to her suite. “You are stalking me,” she said crossly though her heart was hammering almost painfully in her chest.
“Why would I do a thing like that?” Jake asked with a smirk. As the elevator climbed the floors his hand hovered over the emergency stop button. She spotted him and reached for his hand but it was too late – he was stabbing his fingers down onto the red button. The elevator came to a forceful stop and she literally fell on top of him.
He smirked. “You really are eager for my touch aren’t you?” Jake said. “I bet you’re not wearing any panties - again.”
“You’ll never find out!” Mia said backing away from him until her back smacked into the wall. She held up a hand to stop him but he was advancing on her with a decidedly heated and predatory look in his eyes. “Stay away from me.”
“Is that what you really want, babe?”
“Don’t call me that!” Her knees knocked together a bit as he closed the rest of the distance between them. He grasped her outstretched hand and intertwined their fingers.
“I want you, Mia.”
“Sure you do. You’re rebounding and you’re lonely and you’re –“ She broke off as he was kissing her forcefully and passionately then. She sagged into his body as his tongue plunged deep into her mouth. She found herself moaning and she was ashamed but she couldn’t help herself. Around him, she lost control. Little had changed in the years she’d been gone, apparently. Sometimes her body ached for his so much that she had to touch herself for hours until she got some relief.
When they broke the kiss, she disentangled their fingers and gave him a shove backwards. “I hate you!”
“You love me. I don’t blame you either. I’m pretty –“
“Damn cocky!” Mia interrupted him. She shoved him aside and went to jam down the button to get the elevator going again. But he was coming up behind her and sliding his arms around her waist pulling her back into him so she could feel his rock-hard arousal against the back of her thigh. He lifted her hair and began making love to her neck with his mouth. All the while his hands were inching up to her breasts. They were all puckered and protruding when his hands found them. She arched into his touch.
“Hmmmmm,” she murmured deep in her throat as he massaged her nipples beyond what she could handle. She was a puddle of desire now.
He whispered in her hair, “Let me rock your world.”
“Fine. One – one more time. But this is the last time!”
“Right…” Jake let go of her briefly to unbuckle his pants and slide them down to his ankles with his underwear. He then grabbed the hem of her skirt and yanked it up. Her pink ass was exposed to him and he gave it a little smack. She yelped but relaxed into his touch as he licked his index finger and began to part the folds of her ass.
Her breath was coming hard and fast as he slipped his finger into her tight hole. He began to thrust it in and out, in and out, and she jutted her hips forward so her ass was raised in the air now. She clenched tightly around his finger and whimpered as she came.
She then turned around and reached out, grasping his engorged cock and giving it two fierce pumps with her closed fist. He growled and kissed her fiercely. She released her hold on him and he rammed himself deep into her tight heat. She cried out in wanton pleasure as their bodies joined. She felt him push her against the wall and he fucked her over good and thoroughly. She was literally crying with the pleasure of it. The pleasure and the pain because she was sure that this was all she was good for in his eyes.
He looked at her, genuinely perplexed at her emotional undoing. He tried to wipe her away tears but she slapped his hand away. “Fuck you, Jake.”
“I believe you just did.”
She shook her head at him as she adjusted her skirt around her knees again. She straightened her blouse and ran a hand through her hair, shaking out the soft dark blonde locks. “You’re a pig.”
“You love me.”
“But you never loved me,” she said. “I was only ever good for this.” She then smacked her hand down on the red button and the elevator returned to climbing.
Jake hurriedly yanked up his boxers and pants as he looked at her. “Who broke you?” He asked seriously.
“You did,” she said and then the doors were sliding open.
She was gone before he could attempt to follow her.
Chapter 2
“Are we going to ever talk about what happened yesterday in the stairwell at the hospital?” He asked her as he spotted her coming out of the elevator at The Valley Inn.
She shook her head and avoided looking at him as she kept walking towards the exit. He caught up to her, grasping her arm as he had done the day before, pulling her to a halt. “Are you stalking me?” she demanded to know.
“Hardly. I came to rent a room –“
“What?!” Mia snapped out. “You know I am staying here. You are stalking me.”
“Oh please, I am not. I just needed space and the Martin house is being overrun with kids right now.”
“Aren’t one or two of them yours?” She said pointedly.
“Yes. I have a son named Trevor. You should meet him sometime. He’s really quite cute. But he stays with his mom more often than not these days.”
She realized his hand was still on her arm so she shook him loose. “I have things to do and places to be, so if you’ll excuse me –“
“You never did tell me why you came back,” he said. “I can only assume it’s because you want me back. After yesterday-“
She shot up a hand to stop him. “Can we not talk about yesterday? What kind of man wants to analyze a spur-of-the-moment sexcapade anyway? No straight man that I know of…”
He shook his head. “Very funny.”
“Of course I am kidding because we both know you’re nothing but an unrepentant, womanizing ass. How many women have you had since I left town? Ten, twenty… fifty? I bet you even lost count. So many women, so little time right?”
“There’s only one woman I want right now,” Jake said and before she could stop him he was picking her up and slinging her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She screamed and kicked him with the toes of her high heels but he wouldn’t put her down.
She spotted an elderly couple walking by them and she called out, “Hello? Hey, can you get security? I am being kidnapped against my will here.”
The couple just chuckled and the old woman said, “Courting rituals are so bizarre these days, dear, but what a cute couple they are!”
“You hear that, Mia?” Jake crowed. “We’re a cute couple.”
Mia kicked him hard in the sternum for that as he carried her to the women’s bathroom and deposited her on her feet, closing the door with the heel of his boot. He immediately grabbed her and pulled her into a hot kiss that left her knees quaking.
Still she pulled away and slapped him across the face. “Ow!” he hissed. But he was reaching for her again immediately, kissing her hungrily and passionately and this time she didn’t pull away or try to stop him. She slid her hands up his rock-hard chest to his neck, touching the skin there and then replacing her fingers with her eager lips.
His hands were busy hiking up her skirt to the tops of her hips. He smirked as he saw she had no panties on this time. “Expecting company?” He joked and she went to slap him again but he dodged it and instead kissed her again, sluicing his tongue inside her mouth.
Her hands raked up his back as his own hands cupped her bare ass and then slid around to her front. Like the day before, he found her moist and ready for him. His pants were pooling around his ankles in the next minute along with his boxers and he was driving into her, pressing her up against a stall door as he rammed inside of her again and again and she panted out his name.
“Jakkkeeee,” she cried as he hit that place that was most sensitive repeatedly until her vision was swimming before her eyes.
“Cum for me, Mia. Don’t hold back.”
And she didn’t. She released her sweet juices, coating his cock before he was exploding inside of her with powerful force. She sagged against him for a minute before she was pulling away and yanking her mauve-colored skirt pointedly down to her knees.
“We can’t keep doing this,” Mia said.
“Why not? Are you afraid you’ll fall in love with me all over again?”
“That’s the easy part,” she muttered under her breath. She then grabbed her purse off the ground where it had dropped and once again she commanded him to leave her alone before she was slipping off.
Chapter 1
January 2014
“I didn’t come back for you,” she insisted as he cornered her in the stairwell at the hospital. She started to turn away but he reached out and grasped her wrist, pulling her back towards him. His familiar cologne – he still used the same kind after all these years; she would know it anywhere – was filling up her nostrils, making her feel dizzy and weak-kneed, as was the look in his big brown eyes.
“Why did you come back then? It’s a fair question.”
“My sister …”
“You don’t get along with her. She acts like you are gum on her shoe.”
She shrugged. “My niece …”
“Colby doesn’t even really know who you are.”
“My friends from Fusion…”
“They’re mostly scattered all around the globe or are just dead… Can you try again?”
“I don’t owe you any explanations.”
“I am just wondering why you can’t look me in the eye when you say you’re not interested in me anymore.”
“I can look in you in the eye and say… that,” she insisted and glanced up at him. Defiantly she said, “See?” She then looked away because he was just so gorgeous. Just too gorgeous and he had hurt her so much and all she wanted right then was to forget that and just enjoy this moment.
“Mia –“
“Shut up and kiss me,” she snapped out and then grabbed him by the lapels of lab coat, yanking him to her. Their lips crashed together as did their bodies and soon he was backing her up against the wall. His hands snaked underneath her shirt to explore her taut body. His fingers found her nipples and he began to knead them gently through her bra as she let out a ridiculously loud moan and she sagged against the wall in weak-limbed ecstasy. His lips were on her neck and finally when she could take the sweet, erotic torture no longer she was reaching for the belt on his pants.
She undid the belt in two seconds flat as he pushed up her skirt and smiled as he saw she was wearing only a little slip of material down there. He pushed aside the fabric and ran his fingers over her moist slit. “Oh god,” she said as she finished wrenching off his belt and reached for his zipper. She yanked it down along with his boxer-briefs and soon she was guiding his penis to her entrance. He thrust deep into her and moved his large hands around to her backside, using her bottom cheeks as leverage to push her up onto him. She wrapped her shapely legs around his waist and they began to rock in time.
Finally she came powerfully and screamed out her release into his broad shoulder. “Oh fuck,” she said as she came slowly down from her orgasmic wave. She disentangled herself from him and looked at him crossly.
“You shouldn’t have done that.”
“What?! You wanted me to kiss you!”
“Yeah but still. You’re seeing Carolyn or whatever she’s calling herself these days -“
“Actually we split up two days ago.”
“Then you’re rebounding. Just like you did with me after Greenlee.”
“Mia –“
She held up a hand to stop him. “No, don’t. Don’t spoil the moment.”
She then straightened her clothes and turned and hurried down the stairs.
