by York, Zoe
“What are you thinking?”
“You cook a lot.” She pointed to the tomato he’d just finished slicing. “You’ve got vegetables and muffins in your house. All the time.”
He laughed. “You don’t?”
“Well, sure, but my mom is a chef. If I lived on my own…” Well, there was a reason she didn’t. “In college, I lived on ramen noodles and cheese strings.”
“Me too.”
She frowned. Had she known that Jake had gone to college?
He gave her a pained look, as if he could read her mind. “I think you were ten when I left for school. I was only gone a year. It wasn’t for me.”
She blushed and changed the subject a bit. “So then you went to work for Mike?”
“Yeah. Just seasonally the first couple of years.”
Now her memories were sorting themselves out again. “And you went overseas.”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“Just the two tours?”
Another nod. “When I came back from the first one, Mike hired me on full-time. And then I bought the business, and things were flat-out for a year while I built this place and re-branded, got some new contracts.”
“But you’d always wanted to go back?”
He gave her a strange look. “Sure, I guess. I’m a soldier, even if it’s just part-time.”
“Why’d you go on that one?”
He frowned, his whole face changing in a split second. A guard went up and his gaze was hooded as he turned back to sausages he was turning in a frying pan.
She regretted asking. It had been an awful tour of duty for him, not date talk. Not even with her. “Can I help?”
“Grab the eggs from the fridge?” he asked without looking at her.
Damn. “Jake?”
He lifted his head, then slid a slow, guarded glance at her. “Eggs, Dani.” He smiled. “I promised to feed you.”
“Actually, I think I was invited here for some sort of construction meeting.”
He chuckled. “You can negotiate me down to a fifteen percent discount on your next renovation.”
“Fifteen percent? After I slept with you?” She shoved the eggs onto the counter beside him and planted her hands on her hips in mock outrage. “Give a guy an inch…jeez.”
Jake turned down the flame under the sausages and gave her his full attention. “An inch?”
She grinned. “Was it more than an inch?” She tipped her head back and tapped her chin, loving the way he was getting fired up. “I can’t remember.”
He crowded her against the counter and kissed the base of her neck. “Hell of a lot more. I’m pretty sure I rocked your world for an old guy.”
She sighed and wiggled against him as he nudged the hem of his shirt to the tops of her thighs. “You’re thirty-three. That’s not old. It’s hot, and you’ve just gotten better looking each year.”
He looked like he liked the sound of that. His lips twisted in a cocky half-smile that made her tummy flutter all over again. “Yeah?”
Oh, he had no idea just how much his maturing looks worked for her. Jake was the epitome of masculine virility, and she wanted to gobble him up with a spoon. “I’ve been watching. And imagining…”
His eyes turned dark as he stroked the front of her bare hips. “Want to tell me one of those Jake fantasies now?”
She bit her lip and spread her legs in invitation, her bare thighs brushing past his denim clad ones. The rasp of rough cotton on her skin felt good, so she did it again, enjoying the dark flare of heat in his eyes.
He cupped her mound as he angled his mouth across hers. “I’m pretty sure this is still my fantasy, Dani.”
She released her lip with a slow exhale, letting her hot breath brush against his mouth. Her heart was pounding a mile a minute, but he’d asked, so… “Is it still your fantasy if you’re on your knees?”
“You’re not a sweet little kitten anymore, are you?” Jake asked. He was close enough to her face that she couldn’t see much past his eyes, but the corners of his mouth curling into a wicked grin couldn’t be missed.
“Nope.” She breathed hard as he rocked the heel of his hand against her clit.
“I like it. You’re a damn tigress, Dani, and I like it a lot.” He finally covered her mouth with his, swallowing her first moan, but by the second one he was making his way down her body and on the third one he replaced his hand with his tongue.
He hooked one of her legs over his shoulder and licked his way deeper into her folds. She was soaking wet and already close, if he couldn’t tell from the way she was grinding against him, but she didn’t want this to be over, either. Leaning back, she braced her hands on the counter and arched her hips into his hands. His tigress. That turned her on more than anything, that he truly saw her as the equal she’d wanted to be for so long.
“Oh, Jake,” she whispered as he licked up and around her clit, then dove deep inside her. “Your tongue…”
He did it again and again, following that path with a wide lick that wound her tighter with each swipe. And when she grabbed his head, almost without thinking about it, curling her body forward as she held him at her swollen nub…he pulled it into his mouth and sucked, perfectly, carrying her over the edge.
Instead of getting up, he slowly lowered her into his lap, and after settling her within the circle of his steely arms, he stroked her back and legs and whispered all sorts of wonderful things that made her want him all over again. Ridiculously, hot tears threatened to flood her eyes, so she pressed her eyelids shut and kissed him instead. He tasted like sex—like her—and the intimacy of it all could have made her more emotional. But it didn’t. Kissing Jake made everything okay.
Better than okay.
“Now can I feed you?” he asked gruffly, and she pulled back, surprised at the emotion in his voice.
“Thank you,” she said quietly. “And yes.”
He helped her up, then splashed some water on his face before grabbing a tea towel from a drawer. She blushed as he wiped his mouth with it, but he just blithely walked across the room and pitched it into what she remembered was the laundry nook behind the butler’s pantry.
She tugged his shirt down over her hips, wishing she had some bottoms of her own. But then Jake didn’t have a top on. They were equally undressed…but only one of them was still weak-kneed from an orgasm.
Jake strutted past like a freaking rooster.
“You look proud of yourself,” she murmured.
He smiled as he resumed his cooking duties, sliding a new pan onto the range for the eggs. “Make toast, woman.”
Dani had a good life, but she’d never had this uninhibited intimacy with a lover, and it filled her with an unfamiliar warmth. Two hours into a relationship with Jake—and she had no doubt that’s what he intended this to be—and she was happier than she’d ever been before.
So she made toast. A great big pile of it. She poured orange juice into two glasses that Jake set out, then realized he hadn’t made coffee. “No caffeine this morning?”
He set the plates on the table, one at the end and the other right beside it, then pulled out a chair for her. “You said you need to sleep this afternoon.”
Dani pressed her hand to her chest, touched that he’d thought of that. “If you want coffee, I’d have half a cup. I can sleep no matter what.”
Jake took her hand and pulled her close. She rested her cheek against his shoulder, savouring the warm heat of his skin for a second before he nudged her chin, lifting it so he could kiss her softly. “I can’t sleep after coffee, though, and I fully intend to nap with you.”
“Are you for real?”
“Warts and all.”
“You don’t have any warts.”
He shrugged. “Maybe a few callouses.”
“I like those. They feel good…” She rubbed her face against his hand to prove her point.
Jake laughed, then skimmed his thumb over her lower lip, a more serious look settling on his face. “It’s still kind of hard to
believe you’re here. I don’t want to miss a minute of it, even while you’re sleeping.”
“I’m really here.” She kissed his fingertips.
“You’re really here.” She was starting to recognize that look in his eyes, the one that said brace yourself for intensity. He took her mouth again, kiss #546 for the morning, and she lost herself in it. While they kissed, he moved her into the open chair, then slowly licked his way out of her mouth. “I feel like the luckiest man in the world, Dani Minelli.”
She pressed her fingers to her mouth as he took his own seat, feeling like the luck was all hers.
After breakfast they cleaned up together, shoulders brushing from time to time. Jake kept looking at her, like he was just confirming she was actually in his kitchen, wearing his shirt, and she knew how he felt.
When he led her upstairs again, and into his spacious master shower, she dropped to her knees and took him in her mouth, intent on returning the favour he’d given her before breakfast. His salty taste on her tongue and his hands in her hair was perfect, but then he hauled her up and pressed her against the tile wall. He ripped open a condom wrapper with his teeth and covered himself in the split second before he slid deep inside her. She squeezed her legs around his hips, but wrapped in his arms of steel, it felt almost unnecessary, like he had her, no matter what. And when he started moving inside her, the fingers that were cupping one of her ass cheeks flexed into her flesh, the pressure an anchor in a rapidly approaching storm.
They didn’t talk. Heavy breaths and the fall of water all around them were the only sounds as Jake thrust, harder and faster, and as quickly as they’d started, she was done—magically done, with tingling toes and lightheaded wonder at what he did to her body. Jake squeezed her bottom hard as he finished with her, pinning her against the wall as all of his muscles twitched in release.
After their breathing returned to normal, Jake solemnly washed her all over. They wrapped themselves in towels, drying off as he guided her to his bed. An armoire on the opposite wall held a TV, and he snagged the remote before tucking them in.
“It’s a bit early for my nap,” she said teasingly, cuddling close. And she was probably too sore for anymore sex, although she probably wouldn’t remember that if he slid his hand between her legs again. Each time they came together just made her hungrier for him. Spending the next few days apart as she worked and fulfilled her maid of honour duties was going to kill her.
As if he’d just had the same thought, he put down the remote and stroked her cheek. “What are your next few days like?”
“Is that a polite way to ask when we can have sex again?”
He frowned. “Just when I can see you again. In and out of clothes.”
She blushed. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. I’ve been a bit of a sex-mad lunatic this morning, but that’s not all I want here. Maybe we could go out for dinner or something.”
“Should we talk about that? What all we want?” They were naked together, in a bed, and all sexed out. Maybe it was finally time to talk.
“I want you,” he said, his voice rough. “All of you.”
“You’ve got me.”
“I can’t share you, Dani.”
She was shocked that he’d even need to say that, but it made her think of his friend who’d been waiting for him the night of the funeral. And the fact that he’d admitted sleeping with her. But not that night. An icky, cold feeling slithered into her gut. “I don’t share either,” she whispered. “There’s no one else, right?”
He shook his head. “No one.”
“That woman…the night of Lynn’s funeral.”
“Tash. She’s…” He made a pained face. “She’s a friend that I slept with once. Not that night.”
He’d already told her that, and she believed him. “Okay.”
He held her tighter than before as he flipped through the Netflix screens. Two episodes of Supernatural later, she decided it was time to go to sleep.
“Need to grab my phone,” she said, tapping his arm.
Jake was already out of bed, and out the door before she could protest. He was back less than a minute later with her bag.
She rolled her eyes at him. “I could have—”
“But I wanted to.”
She grabbed his hand. “Hey. Whatever you did, it was before we got together. Let it go.”
He gave her a startled look. “What do you mean?”
“It’s starting to feel like you’re trying to be perfect to make up for something.”
He crawled into bed and lay next to her again. “Maybe.”
“Well, stop it. I mean, don’t stop being perfect.” She kissed him. “But this is the start of us. All that happened before… that was before.”
A frown formed between his eye brows, and his lips drew into an even more serious line. “That’s not really how I feel about us, I gotta say.”
She gave a helpless little shrug. “I know. Same for me. But I can’t get burned up with jealousy about something you did before today. That’s not a healthy way to go forward.”
His lips twisted together, turning white with the effort to hold back his thoughts.
“What?”
He laughed. “No way can I be that mature about anyone you’ve slept with.”
“It’s been a while for me, don’t worry.” Like, before her last physical. She cleared her throat. “Long enough that I’ve had a clean bill of health from the doctor. And I religiously take the pill.”
He stared at her, a wide grin splitting his handsome face in two. “I’ll go see the doctor tomorrow.”
“I don’t mind the condoms. There’s no rush. I just thought… it would be nice. If we’re exclusive, I mean.”
“Tomorrow. First thing. I’ll be waiting at the clinic, wearing a placard that says, this guy wants to screw his girlfriend without any barriers.”
She laughed so hard she hiccuped. “As far as placards go, it’s a bit wordy.”
He wiped the tears away from her eyes, then kissed her. “Time for that nap?”
— —
He’d had Dani in his arms for ten hours.
Ten hours, two days ago. And since then, she’d either been working or sleeping or planning a godforsaken bachelorette party.
And now she was at Rafe and Olivia’s house, getting delightfully drunk on what looked like an entire wine store from the photo she texted him.
Meanwhile, he was throwing an impromptu poker night for all of her brothers. And his brothers. Plus Ryan Howard, who’d very reluctantly left his kids with their grandparents. But Gloria Fenich had refused to take no for an answer, and she was leaving soon to head south for the rest of winter. Ryan wasn’t so lost in his grief that he couldn’t see the logic in letting his kids have a sleepover with Poppa and Nana. It wasn’t the first time, and it wouldn’t be the last.
Jake had offered him a room to crash in. That turned into Rafe announcing he’d sleep over instead of heading back to his parents’ place, so Zander and Tom decided to stay as well. Matt and Sean bellied up to the scotch, and while Dean promised he’d take them back to his place, Jake knew it wasn’t likely. He was the only one who’d given Rafe a send-off last time, and now that the party was underway, it probably wouldn’t end until the last man passed out.
The guys had arrived with cases of beer, but the bags of nachos and jars of salsa he had in the pantry would only go so far. After placing a quick call to Pine Harbour Pizza, he took his seat and anted in.
Forty-five minutes later, he’d busted out on all his hands and he was damn hungry. When the delivery guy knocked at the door, he has glad for the break. They ate standing up around the breakfast bar. Rafe leaned in the exact same spot Dani had when Jake went down on her, and he tried like hell not to look as awkward as he felt on the inside.
Sooner than later, it would be all out in the open. He’d stop feeling guilty, and he and Dani could go about building a relationship.
But right now it felt like
he was branded with a giant P for pervert.
He wasn’t. There wasn’t anything wrong about what they did. God, nothing had felt more right in his entire life. But he’d grown up with these men. Spent the last twenty years hearing them curse and threaten anyone who came within ten feet of her.
They hadn’t liked any of her boyfriends. Had actively chased off more than one.
And Dani had never fought them on that. A sick part of Jake’s soul wanted to believe that’s because she was his all along, but life didn’t work like that.
But she was his now. And he’d fight them for her. There’d be no running him off.
“Lost in thought, man?” Zander bumped shoulders with him.
“Don’t you have a war to go fight or something?” Jake asked before stuffing his face with pizza again. Eating seemed like a better idea than saying anything.
Zander just laughed. “Fly back in a few days, yep. It’s been nice to be home, though. Spend some time with this asshole while spends his rehab time getting hitched.” He kicked at Rafe, who flipped him the finger. “I missed his first wedding.”
Jake tipped back his bottle of beer. “I’ll miss this one, fair is fair.”
Rafe gave him a surprised look. “You wanted to come tomorrow night?”
“Of course.” Jake’s answer surprised himself, but apparently not his brothers, who all guffawed. “What?”
“You’re such a fucking girl, Jake.” Sean shook his head. “I bet you’ve got a wedding fantasy book of your own somewhere.”
He did not have a book. He had thought of his wedding once or twice, but that’s all they were. Thoughts. Masculine thoughts of taking a wife and starting a family. He didn’t give a shit about place settings or flowers.
“You do, don’t you. Holy shit. Where is it?” His youngest brother hooted and hollered as he ran into Jake’s office at the front of the house, calling out in a falsetto something about wedding bells and confetti.
Jake just rolled his eyes and grabbed another slice.
“You can come if you want.” Rafe held up his hand. “Not your brothers. Just you.”
Dean protested lamely, then shrugged. “Nah, that’s okay. I’m working anyway. Plus Jake’s special.”
