Home For The Holidays

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JARED

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Whoa, hell, she’s the real fucking deal. If I didn’t know better, if I hadn’t been the one to hack her and see with my own two eyes what she was before coming here today, I would’ve sworn that someone had tapped into my inner thoughts and pulled my ideal woman out of the ether. My ideal doesn’t have much to do with looks, though she has those in spades.

Instead, my ideal woman has a certain moral standard that resonates with me in all ways. It’s about the only thing I ask for, in fact, when I’m thinking about the kind of woman I want by my side. A man in my position can’t afford to play Russian roulette with his love life; that’s why I don’t have a string of lovers in my wake. Okay, I have more than a few, but most of those are from my earlier days when my dick did most of the talking and thinking for me.

Here in the last few years, especially since I started adding zeroes to my bank account, I’ve slowed down a hell of a lot. No matter, though, not one of them has ever made me feel like I’d hit the jackpot, not the way I do now. She makes me feel like a high school kid with his first crush, and that’s not easy with my jaded ass. Now I’m way more interested in helping her just to keep her close.

I wasn’t sure until she walked into my office that I wanted to get involved in her scheme. I just wanted to see this person that was willing to go all out to right a wrong done against the woman she calls her sister and her nieces. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of such a thing before, and the fact that my ex, the only woman I’d come close to marrying, was involved only upped my interest.

Now in the last half an hour or so, I’d all but forgotten her reason for seeking me out in the first place. That feeling of ennui that has been dogging my steps the last few weeks was all but gone, and I didn’t have to jump out of a plane or climb the face of a cliff to do it. I wasn’t worried that the feeling would ebb in a day or two; I got the feeling I could spend the rest of my life with her and still not get enough of her brand of crazy.

I never imagined that I’d proposition the future mother of my children like this, though, but there was no way to go back and change what was already done. Besides, isn’t it a good thing that I wanted to fuck her within an inch of her life, or that my dick has been on hard since I got her scent?

“Listen, Hannibal Lecter; your secretary saw me come up here, and more than a few people know that I came here to meet you.” What’s she talking about now with that look on her face? “What’re you talking about now, beauty?”

“You’ve been staring at me for the last few minutes like you’re trying to figure out which hunk of meat to eat first. If you were going to cannibalize someone, you should’ve started with Tessa and done the world a favor.”

She mumbled something under her breath that I didn’t catch, but does it matter? I’ve decided I’m keeping her, now how do I tell her without coming off like a creep? Not that I care, but she’s a virgin for cripes sake, and there’s a six-year age gap between us. I wish now that I’d have dug deeper into her background, I have no idea what kind of man she’s into.

The very thought got my back up. She’d better be into me or else. While I was mind torquing myself, she was giving me looks like she expected me to pounce any second. Just to tease her, I leaned down and put my hands on both arms of the chair she was seated in, making her lean all the way back as if trying to escape through the back of the damn thing.

I was close enough to see the little specks in her amazingly sea-colored eyes. Her eyes remind me of a certain part of the Mediterranean sea in high summer, a place where the waters meet between Turkey and Greece, and is a beautiful blue-green, like her eyes. I’ve always been partial to that particular spot, and the sense of relaxation I always get there; now, I won’t have to go that far to get my fix.

“What? What are you looking at me like that for?” I like the fact that there was no real fear in her voice like she knew that I wouldn’t hurt her. Plus, she probably thinks she could kick my ass with her skills since not many know that I’m a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and could give her instructions in Krav Maga. “I love your eyes. Can I keep them for the rest of my life?” Real smooth, Jared. Now she’s looking at me like I’m really going to dissect her body in the bathroom.