Sweet Obsession (Men of Whiskey Row Book 1) by D. A. Young Page B

five-year-old. There was no way someone as sophisticated as Jack would ever be interested in someone as gauche as me, Noelle thought despondently as she tried to listen valiantly to whatever the hell Charles and her mother were talking about. From that moment on, she made it a point to avoid being alone with Jack Sullivan lest she embarrass herself.
     
    Chapter Seven
     
      Noelle was laughing and clutching her stomach as the tears rolled down her cheeks, because she just couldn’t stop…laughing. Jack watched in silent bemusement as it went on and on. Out of all the reactions he’d expected her to have, this wasn’t one of them; and it left him feeling slightly offended. Typically, women fell all over him and laughed with him- not at him. Finally, she stopped and wiped her big gray eyes with the backs of her hands.  
    “Thanks; I needed that, Jack,” Noelle sighed in relaxation. “So what are we really going to do?”  
    “We are going to get married, Noelle. I wasn’t joking.” Jack restated firmly. She opened her mouth in protest, but he continued on. “The kind of people your ex is mixed up with are the worst kind of greedy lowlifes. If you give in to Dumont’s blackmail, they will eventually come after you and everyone you love, ruining your family’s good name in the process. Are you willing to risk that?” Jack asked sharply, prompting her to slowly shake her head in the negative.   
    “I didn’t think so. In his culture, there is a mafia-like syndicate that ensures everyone falls in line and doesn’t bring dishonor or attention to them. I know a guy that can make all of the shit he has on you disappear, but I have to show him that we are legally married. It’s disrespectful to make advances on another man’s wife in general; but from where his family is from, they take it to the umpteenth power. All your problems will disappear. Unless you’ve told anyone other than your closest friends about this, no one needs to know,” Jack finished smoothly watching her pensive expression as his words sunk in.  
    Jack knew it was a long shot that Noelle would tie herself to him, because frankly he wasn’t even sure if she liked him. She avoided him and was always careful to make sure they weren’t alone. He felt like a pathetic fool as she digested the information. There was a long moment of silence before she finally spoke. “Would you like some pie?”   
    Pie. The hell?? And because he’d been raised to be a gentleman, he replied politely, “Yes please; I would love some.”
     Noelle beamed at him and took off towards the kitchen leaving him alone in the living room. Pie. Jack shook his head in bewilderment. Why couldn’t pie be code for sex? He sure as hell would love a big helping of sex with her. He stood up and watched as she walked down the long hallway to the kitchen. Again her ass teased him from underneath the long shirt she wore. The urge to bury his hardness in her balls deep was unbearable. He wanted to fuck her like an animal marking its territory so that everyone would know whom she belonged to. And that was the part of him that scared him the most. Noelle brought feelings out in him that, until they met, Jack didn’t know he possessed.
    Women passed through his bed, but he was always cool and detached. It was like a business deal where each party walked away mutually satisfied-until he was alone and his thoughts turned to the insanely gorgeous girl in the kitchen. He longed to make her his and felt the need to kill any man that looked her way. As he was older than her, Jack knew he had no right to want her like he did. An image of his father flashed before his eyes, and he rubbed his face trying to clear it. You’re nothing like that psychotic bastard, he told himself firmly.  
    Jack wandered around her living room, attempting to clear his head. Taking in all the framed pictures of friends and family she had; one frame in particular was hidden behind all the others and