"I'm honored," she claimed with a laugh.
"We probably should have stayed down there rather than dredging up those old home movies."
Since Jace had made reference to what had sobered the men at the end of the day, Clair said, "How are you doing with that?"
"With seeing Billy on the tape?"
"Mmm-hmm. It seemed upsetting to everyone, and I'd think that would be more so for you."
Jace's expression was somber enough to let her know that watching his late best friend on tape had struck a nerve in him.
“Yeah, it was kind of tough," he admitted. "I guess nobody thought ahead and remembered that Billy showed up on those later portions of tape. I know there’ll be a day when it will be okay to see him again, but it's too soon for that yet."
“The rest of the tape was good, though," she said in an attempt to lighten the tone and ease him out of thoughts of his late friend.
Jace seemed all too willing to put some effort into that himself because he managed a small smile and a glance at her with those denim-blue eyes that seemed to shine with life even in the barely lit truck cab. "My brothers were just tryin' to get to me by letting you me as a kid and at my worst growin' up."
“I didn't see anything too bad," she teased. "Well, except for that cheesy mustache phase."
Jace pretended affront. "That was a great mustache.”-
“Then whiskers and a shadow do not make a great mustache And I’ll bet a cracking voice went along with it, a and that's why no one could convince you to say anything through that part of the film."
“Actually the voice wasn't cracking much yet and I still sounded like a girl. A girl with a mustache," he informed her, laughing at himself. "And this is just what I needed – another witness to my puberty."
“It turned out pretty well so I don't think you have anything to be embarrassed about."
Clair wasn't sure where that had come from. Especially in the flirtatious, seductive tone that certainly hadn't been premeditated.
But Jace didn't seem to mind. He just glanced at her out of the corner of his eye this time and said, "Thanks. I've been admiring the results of yours all week, too."
That made her laugh again despite the fact that he'd used the same tone of voice she had, and she knew they were venturing again into territory that was off-limits.
"Besides," she said, "you were such a cute baby I hardly noticed the awkward stage."
"The bath scene," he guessed as he drove into Elk Creek. "I'm just grateful that they didn't catch me standin' up in the tub."
"Great chest action, though," she joked again even as she told herself to stop, that nothing good could come of bantering like this. Then, in an attempt to amend the tone of things, she said, "I also liked the birthday party with the pointy hat."
That made him flinch. "And the elastic strap that held it on and made me look like I had three double chins?"
"Very attractive," she deadpanned.
They arrived home then and Jace pulled into the driveway, coming to a stop and cutting the engine as he said, "Now don't be makin' fun. Even two-year-olds need their dignity."
"I think you have your parents to blame for bruising that," she said with another laugh at the memory of how silly he'd looked.
Even though the truck was turned off and he should have gotten out, he didn't. Instead he turned toward her and let his blue eyes scan her face. The expression on his didn't have anything to do with the joking they’d just been doing. It was more contemplative now.
“Guess I could walk you to your door tonight, culdn't I?" he said, again with that sensual undertone to his voice.
“I guess you could. If you wanted to," she added, trying to keep a lock on the disappointment she felt at thought that her time with him was going to end so soon.
“We don't have the excuse of tuckin' Willy in to get you into the house."
“No, we don't."
“I could invite you in just for me, though," he said as if he were thinking out loud. Or maybe as if he were fishing a little for what her response to that idea might be.
“You could," Clair answered, leaving him wondering.
“What would you say if I did?"
She shrugged, trying to hold her racing pulse in check. “I’d say what about it not being smart?"
His supple lips eased into a grin. “Hoisting me with my own petard?"
Clair’s only response was a questioning arch of her eyebrows.
“Today I've done a lot of thinkin' about just how dumb it might be to deny what's goin' on between us.”
“And what would that be?"
"What's goin' on between us? Hell if I know," he answered with a wry laugh. "But somethin' has my blood boil in' all the time. Somethin' that's stronger than I am. Or am I the only one of us feelin’ it?"
It crossed Clair's mind to pretend he was, that she didn't have any idea what he was talking about. Certainly it would put a damper on things and be safer in the long run if she did.
But it would also destroy this moment with Jace. This moment that it seemed she'd been yearning for almost since the day they'd met. And she couldn't make herself do it any more than she could make herself tell him to take out the car seat earlier and rob herself of any closeness with him. This man awakened things in her she didn't fully understand, "but she wanted to...so much.
"I know there's something happening he re, too. Something strong," she confirmed in a quiet voice. "I just don't know what it is, either."
Jace leaned in to rub the tip of his nose to the tip of hers. "I do know that I don't want to fight it anymore. Whether that's smart or not."
Clair nodded her understanding of that, her confirmation that she felt the same way in that, too. And on the upward nod Jace caught her mouth with his in a kiss that melted even the faintest hint of willpower in Clair.
"Do you want to come in?" he asked when that kiss ended, his forehead resting on hers.
"Yes," she whispered as if she were tempting fate to say it out loud, ignoring every internal voice that wondered if she really should.
That seemed to be all Jace needed to hear. He got out of the truck and reached in a hand for her to take.
All hesitancy in Clair – what little there had been – fled and she slipped her hand into his, feeling a shiver of anticipatory delight when the thought flashed through her mind that soon his body could be slipping lifts in much the same way.
It sent her heart into a trip-hammer beat and brought every ending, every sense, alive as it seemed hi was about to be granted what she'd wanted u even more than she'd let herself realize. And that was saying something.
He took her up onto the porch and into the house without another word. Inside he didn't turn on a light as he closed the door behind them.
Staying there in the entryway, he shrugged off his coat and slipped hers off, too, with a stroke of hands that were careful only to brush her shoulders, tossing both coats away letting them fall wherever they might as he seemed intent on studying her features even in the dark, on dunking in the sight of her with his eyes.
Then he put his hands on either side of her waist and pulled her in close enough to capture her mouth with his.
It was a test kiss. Light. Barely there. Until one of his hands left her waist to rise to her cheek, and he broke off that kiss only to tilt his head in the opposite direction and kiss her again.
That kiss was more serious and the hand that was still at her waist circled around to the base of her spine to bring her in even closer.
Clair's hands went up to his neck, to his head where his short hair bristled beneath her palm as he began to ease her away from the door. Backward. Deepening the kiss more with each step, parting his lips, sending his tongue to tease its way inside to hers.
She felt the wall come up against her back, and when it did Jace dropped his hand to her rear end and lifted her off her feet, till she was taller than he was and he could rain kisses along her jawbone to her neck and downward.
Down even more to her breast where it strained for his attention through bra and blouse alike.
His arms were a sling for her to sit in by then and it seemed perfectly natural for her to wrap her legs around his waist, clamping them behind him and letting intimate portions of their bodies meet, jeans to jeans.
Clair did some teasing of her own then, kissing the thick column of his neck, touching only the tip of her tongue to the smooth satin of his skin until he came back to take her mouth with his again, open and hungry for her.
And with their mouths still attached, with lips and tongue still playing, Jace cupped her derričre in one hand and the back of her head in the other and carried her from the entryway into the living room. He dropped onto his knees on the sofa, the same site where they'd sat for hours together before, when what was now blossoming between them had only been simmering beneath the surface.
But tonight they weren't sitting side by side. Tonight he laid her flat on her back, keeping himself between her thighs while his mouth still possessed hers.
He found her breast with one hand. An adept hand that pulled her shirt free of her waistband and slipped underneath. A masterful hand that knew just how to tease her nipple into a tight little knot of desire that poked against the sheer lace of her bra. And she wanted, so much, to free herself of the fabric and feel his touch there.
But before that happened, out went his hand from under her shirt and he pushed himself up and away from her to stand suddenly next to the couch.
What flashed through Clair's mind was that he'd had second thoughts. That he was stopping this the way he'd stopped short the night before. That he'd decided yet again that this wasn't smart after all.
But then he leaned over and took her hand, gently yanking her to her feet, too.
"Not here," he said in a passion-raw voice that echoed with the sexual tension that had been building between them long before tonight, that was now coursing unchecked through their veins. "I want this to be right."
Relief washed through her that the only thing he'd had second thoughts about was the place, and Clair was only too happy to let him lead her by the hand then, through the entryway again and up the stairs, where he paused to slough off first his boots and socks and then hers, leaving them in a trail behind them.
When they reached his bedroom Jace closed the door and stopped to take another long, heated look at Clair.
"You are so beautiful," he breathed as he slowly pulled his shirttails free and unbuttoned the front, leaving the ends to dangle around his hips, his chest tantalizing her from the narrow opening.
Then he caught her hand and took her to the side of the bed where he pulled the quilt and blanket down before he took her into his arms again.
His eyes seemed darker as he looked down into hers. His gaze was a caress in itself, of her hair, her eyes, her nose, her lips. A caress that slipped down to her neck, her shoulders.
Both hands moved up along her arms then. Up farther to her shoulders, to the back of her head and into her hair as he again took her mouth with his. But this time it was a slow, thoughtful kiss and a waltz of tongues that seemed to be getting acquainted with each other all over again.
Jace began to unfasten her blouse at a snail's pace, increasing her craving to be out of it with each button that slid through each hole. And when they were all undone he slipped the blouse off and let it fall to the floor at their feet.
Clair did him the same srvice only too happy, only too eager to press her palms to the mounds of his pectorals, to slide her hands up to his shoulders – learning the smooth, flawlessness of his skin stretched over hard, hard muscle as she followed a course down his arms to rid him of his shirt.
Jace stopped kissing her again as he unsnapped her bra, leaning far enough back to watch as he took the straps from her shoulders by index fingers hooked through them, letting them fall down her arms until the little lace nothing floated to the floor, too.
He stood there looking at her – at her breasts in the room lit only by moonglow – with a heated approval that left her unashamed, uninhibited, proud, even, to have him see her.
He filled each hand with one of them. Tentative at first, his touch grew more firm, more bold, more enticing as he let his mouth return to hers, this time wide open and plundering hers with his hot, insistent tongue.
Oh, but the man had miraculous hands! Kid leather against her bare breasts. Kneading, squeezing, molding, shaping them like a master sculptor working in his best medium. Knowing just the right amount of pressure, the right amount of tenderness, the right amount of teasing and tormenting until she was brought so alive with what he was doing to her that it was as if he were setting her on fire, and, all on its own, Clair's spine arched in answer, insinuating those engorged globes even deeper into his palms.
And then his hands were gone and all she could do was groan at the loss.
Jace chuckled, a low, primitive sound as he reached for the button on the waistband of her jeans, opened it, spread the zipper and smoothed the jeans, along with her panties, off her hips and down to be kicked out of the way.
In the time it took her to do that he’d dropped his, too, leaving them both totally, gloriously naked.
He laid her gently on the mattress then, lying with his body partially covering her side as he kissed her again more softly, letting little pauses lapse between each open-mouthed kiss so his tongue could trail along her lips instead, or so his teeth could tug at them.
Then he turned to nibbling her. Her chin, the line of her jaw, down the side of her neck to her collarbone and lower still until he reached her breast with his mouth.
At first only his teeth took her, oh, so carefully clasping her nipple and then flicking the crest with the tip of his tongue.
Clair couldn't help the second moan that escaped her throat as her whole body screamed for more.
And again Jace chuckled just before he released her nipple to take her breast into the warm, moist cavern of his magnificent mouth. Sucking, flicking, circling, it was a symphony of delights, each one tightening the silver cord that stretched down the center of her to that spot between her legs that craved him so badly she wasn't sure she could stand much more time without him.
She let her hands travel over his back, her fingers digging into his muscles, hailing the valley of his spine to its base and lower still, finding the taut curve of his derričre.
But that wasn't enough for her, either, and so she let one hand do a little more exploring. To his hip. To his thigh. Until she found him. Until she found the long, thick, steel shaft of his desire for her.
Jace was the one to groan that time. And writhe slightly, too, as she got to know him, got to know what he liked, what drove him wild.
He abandoned her breast and came fully above her, between her thighs, his big body fitting there as if it was meant to be there, as he kissed her yet again and eased himself into her by careful increments that only prolonged the pleasure of his body joining with hers.
He pulsed within her. Once. Twice. Merely flexing his hips, not really moving more than that at first.
But Clair wanted more. She was ready for more than that, so she pushed up into him in an initial thrust of her own.
Jace countered with a full thrust back, and so it began, still at his pace, though, as he raised himself up enough to lower his head to her breasts, flicking one nipple and then the other with the tip of his tongue as his lower half pressed deeply into her and withdrew with infinite deliberation.
But even he couldn't contain himself for too long before he increased his speed, before he was plunging ever deeper into her with a rhythm and pace that grew and grew until it was as if they were together in a race. A race up a steep, steep mountain of the purest delight. A race to the top of that mountain where a thunderstorm was building. A thunderstorm that erupted wi
thin Clair, complete with lightning so blinding she lost herself in the white-hot ecstasy that held her suspended, weightless and soaring all ;ii once as she clung to him, as she arched her hips into him, as she took him so totally within her that they seemed melded together, his body to hers.
And then he, too, reached that peak and exploded to life, rigid and tensed above her, diving to the core of her and staying there, frozen, as his climax rippled through him and reverberated a second time through Clair, too, until each of them was spent and could do nothing but tumble from that high mountain to sink back to earth again.
But to an earth of cushioned, cloud-soft satiety that left Jace pressing her into the mattress as each of them worked to catch their breaths.
When they had, Jace pushed himself up and kissed her again, a kiss that sealed what they'd just shared.
Then he rolled to his back, taking her with him to lie against his side, her head on his chest, his kidskin hands rubbing her arms in a loving massage that lulled her and left her unable to resist the exhausted sleep that beckoned to her.
But as Clair succumbed to that sleep, she could hear the beat of Jace's heart, the pulse of life through his veins, and she couldn't help wondering how she'd lived so long without him, without what he could do to her.
Because every minute of her life before she'd met him suddenly somehow seemed so incomplete.
Chapter Ten
The sun was just coming up the next morning when a sleeping Clair rolled away from Jace's arms. It woke him up, just as her rolling away from him at 2:00 a.m. had. At 2:00 a.m. he'd pulled her back to him, kissing her bare shoulder. One thing had led to another, and they'd tired each other out again with a second round of lovemaking before they'd fallen asleep once more, arms and legs entwined and bodies so close together they were nearly one.
This time Jace didn't wake her. He remained lying beside her and propped his head on his hand so he could look at her.
From behind her he had a view of a sweet little spot right at the base of her neck where two tiny knobs of bone jutted out and seemed to beg to be nuzzled with his nose. But he refrained, still not wanting to disturb her so he could have this moment of studying her.
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