Jake’s lips quirked up into a crooked smile, as though he couldn’t help finding her anger amusing. “Well, firstly, I came here to ask you out on a date. And secondly, I called the caterers and they gave me your home address.”
Mallory gaped at him. He thought she was going to go out with him after what he had done? And after revealing that second little nugget of information? “Isn’t that against the law or something for them to give out my personal details?”
His smile turned sly. “I can be very persuasive.”
Mallory hated him in that moment. He was far too conceited, too smug about his own power and charm. “Well, there is no way I’m going out with you, so you can leave now,” she said coldly.
But that charming smile stayed firmly in place, his eyes twinkling. “Are you sure? I know the best little authentic Italian restaurant.”
“I don’t know what you’re not getting here,” she snapped, exasperated. “I said, no. Unequivocally no.”
His face fell, but there was something so dramatic about his expression that she knew he was being disingenuous. “Well, at least let me apologize for getting you fired. Can I come in and we can talk?”
She stared at him flatly. “No.”
Then something in his eyes softened, the lines around his mouth betraying true anxiety. It was the first trace of true vulnerability that he had exhibited. It clearly did bother him that he had lost her her job. “Please?” He asked humbly.
Moved by his display of contrition, she stepped aside so that he could enter. “Okay,” she said, somewhat reluctantly. “You can come in.”
A grin lit up his face. “Excellent.” There was a glint in his eye as he stepped over the threshold, a glint that Mallory didn’t trust at all. She was already beginning to regret letting him in. Nonetheless, her parents had raised her to be a polite hostess, so she led him into her modest living room and sat down on her couch.
“You can sit wherever you want,” she said, but she gestured to the armchair opposite her.
Disregarding her indication, Jake sat down on the couch directly beside her, so close that she could smell his heady, masculine scent. She had to restrain herself from leaning into him and breathing him in. God, he really was sexy. Now that he was so close, she could see that his eyes had taken on a greenish hue, turning them an almost aqua color. He took both of her hands in his, and heat flared between them. Discomfited by her intense reaction to his proximity, Mallory tried to tug her hands away, but he held them fast. She couldn’t deny that the feeling of being captured by him was arousing; her breathing hitched and her sex throbbed. A small, knowing smile played around Jake’s lips. She had to restrain herself from squirming under his amused scrutiny.
Mallory forced herself to gather her wits about her, struggling to put up walls against his relentless seductive onslaught. “So,” she began, a bit shakily, “I think you were going to apologize?”
“Oh yes,” he said, that same hint of anxiety returning to his expression. “I don’t do this often, but here goes: Mallory Williams,” he speared her with his blue-green gaze, “I am truly sorry for the grief I so callously caused you. I promise to do everything I can to make it up to you. Will you please forgive me?”
Although his apology was flowery and clearly rehearsed, it was genuine. Mallory found that she was moved by this softer side of him, like she was seeing the man under the usually-cocky mask.
“Yes,” she heard herself whisper, “I forgive you.”
The lines of worry around his eyes eased, and his face fell into his relaxed, conceited smile once again. The sincere man might have disappeared behind the arrogant mask, but it sure was a sexy mask. Mallory couldn’t help licking her lips as she felt the power radiating off of him, enveloping her. Jake leaned into her, and she found herself moving unconsciously to meet him. But she stopped herself at the last minute, pulling back slightly.
“What are you doing?” She asked weakly, although she had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen.
“Making it up to you,” he breathed, his voice low and seductive. And then his lips were on hers. There was no gentleness this time, only a rough, fierce plundering of her mouth. Then his hands were at the hem of her dress, tugging it upwards. Mallory compliantly lifted herself slightly off the couch so that he could pull it over her head. He sat back for a moment, admiring her. She shivered as he traced a gentle finger along the top edge of her lacy pink bra, and her nerve endings there jumped to life. As though he couldn’t hold himself back any longer, he swiftly reached around behind her and snapped open the clasp on her bra in one fluid movement. Mallory shrugged out of it, leaving herself completely bare to him except for her lacy pink panties.
“God, you’re sexy, Mallory,” he said, the hint of a growl in his gravelly tone. His strong fingers tangled in her hair at the base of her scalp, grasping a handful of it and sharply tugging her head back. He again took her lips with his, his tongue thrusting against hers. The sensation made her sex swell and throb, her cl*t aching to be touched.
At the same time, she was desperate to touch him, to feel his hard muscles. Her fingers fumbled blindly at his shirt buttons, somehow managing to get them all undone. She pressed the fabric back off his shoulders and down his upper arms, caressing his corded muscles as she did so. She couldn’t suppress a shiver as she felt overwhelmed by his masculinity, by his powerful physique; he could do anything he wanted to her, and there would be nothing she could do to stop it. Taking his hands from her body, Jake finished pulling off his shirt. Mallory took a moment to marvel at him, tracing her fingernails gently down his well-defined abs, lingering at the trail of dark hair that disappeared into his trousers.
Jake hissed in a breath as she touched him, tugging at the hair there. He unbuckled his belt and pulled it from his belt loops. There was a soft, rustling sound as the leather brushed against the sleek material of his pants. Mallory shivered delightedly at the sound, anticipating that he would unbutton his pants next, revealing his hard c**k that she so desperately wanted. But instead he grabbed her slender wrists in one large hand, pressing them together with her palms facing one another. With his other hand, he looped the belt over them, pulling the tongue through the buckle until her wrists were trapped. He then wrapped the length of it around and around, until he finally tucked the end of it into the cuff that he had created.