by J. H. Croix
The slightest hint of a grin kicked his mouth up at one corner, and butterflies took flight inside my belly, spinning and twirling madly.
“Yes, I’m trying to open it. I thought we could use the fresh air up here,” he finally said. “If you push on this corner, I’ll push up top.”
I watched as his hand curled over the edge of the window frame. Dear God, just looking at his hand made my channel clench. My panties were a lost cause. His hands looked rugged and strong, his fingers were long and thick. I vividly remembered the feel of them inside me.
I tried to force my thoughts from that. Dear God, I was helping him open a window, and I was so turned on I could hardly think straight. I doubted he was even remotely as bothered by me as I was by him.
After a moment, with both of us giving it a little push, the window nudged loose, sliding open and bringing a gust of fresh air into the hallway. The cool, late evening air hit my skin, and my nipples tightened even further.
Chapter Sixteen
Donovan
I kept my hand on the side of the window frame, gripping tightly. I needed something to hold onto, to keep me from reaching over and cupping the lush curve of Jasmine’s sweet ass. I wanted to taste her tight little nipples, pressed against the navy silk camisole she wore.
I hadn’t really needed her help to open the window. I just wanted her a lot closer to me. Now, no more than a foot separated us. Need cracked in the air, the lash of it stinging inside of me and sending a shot of blood straight to my already aching cock.
I was tired as hell after two weeks out in the backcountry. Most of the time when I came home, the last thing on my mind was sex. Usually I grabbed a beer and dinner at Wildlands, came home, and collapsed into bed.
Tonight, I’d been restless, so I picked up pizza and came straight here to shower. I tried to ignore my disappointment when I arrived to find no sign of Jasmine.
Yet, now she was here, right beside me. Her hair fell in messy waves around her shoulders. She wore her cowboy boots and flirty little skirt. All I could think about when I saw it was flipping it up and bending her over, so I could see her sweet ass.
As if her skirt wasn’t enough temptation, she wore an open blouse over her silky camisole, the fabric outlining the curves of her breasts. I’d watched her nipples pressed against the silk as she approached me in the hallway, hoping like hell she wanted me as much as I wanted her.
Because, crazy as it was, there was no way we were done with each other. Not even close.
I finally let go of the windowsill, angling to face her. I half-expected her to take a step back, but she didn’t. She stayed right there, her hip resting against the bottom frame of the window with her hand curled over it. I could see the flutter of her pulse in her neck and I beat back the urge to dip my head and drag my tongue over it. I hadn’t forgotten how she tasted. Hell, I hadn’t forgotten a single second of the last time I’d seen her.
It had been a long two weeks away. The only thing that kept my mind off Jasmine was working like a wild man. Fortunately, my job demanded it. I should’ve been too damn tired to want her this much.
Yet, with her nearby, my body was nearly on fire at the scent and heat of her. All the reasons why I told myself I shouldn’t let anything more happen with her went up in smoke.
With the cool air gusting through the window, I lifted a hand and brushed her hair away from her face. I had to touch her. Tucking a lock behind her ear, I trailed my fingertip down the side of her neck, savoring the hitch in her breath and the goose bumps rising in the wake of my touch.
I kept expecting her to step away. But she didn’t.
“How are you?” I asked.
I was caught in her gaze, so rich and so blue. I brushed my thumb across the wild beat of her pulse in her neck.
“I’m fine,” she whispered, her voice husky and rough around the edges. The sound of it alone was like flint to my stone.
Her tongue darted out, swiping across from bottom up. Her breath hitched again. “How are you?” she asked in return.
The scent of her had a hint of strawberry. It was like a drug, fuzzing my thoughts.
“I’m fine. Tired,” I added with a shrug.
“Oh, I didn’t mean to keep you. I bet you are. Two weeks in the backcountry is exhausting.”
She started to step back. It was then that I realized she was interpreting my comment as a lead in to end this moment between us.
Oh, hell no.
I wanted Jasmine. Now.
I didn’t give a damn about the depth of my response to her and the way she slipped through my defenses like smoke through the crack of a window. I had to have her.
Stepping even closer as she began to move away, I slid my free hand around her waist, dragging it down to cup her ass.
“Where are you going?”
I murmured my question as I dusted kisses along the soft skin of her neck.
She gasped. “I thought you were tired.”
“I am, but I want you.”
When I shifted my knee between her thighs, she moaned.
I drew back because I might be crazy and half out of my mind with raw lust for her, but I needed to make sure we were on the same page.
“If you don’t want this, it’s okay. Maybe …”
I started to say that maybe I was reading her wrong. But she shook her head, so I let my words trail off.
“I want this,” she said, her words almost forceful.
“Okay then,” I murmured.
I tightened my grip on her ass, savoring the soft give of her flesh as I rocked my hips into hers. Her breath hissed, and she caught her bottom lip with her teeth, the sight of them digging into that plump pink sent a hot jolt of lust through me.
I was usually in control, but when it came to Jasmine, I was always hanging onto the thinnest thread.
Dipping my head, I caught her sweet, fucking sexy-as-hell mouth in a kiss. The moment our lips met, it was like a bolt of lightning struck right between us, electrifying my entire body. Our kiss became hot, wet, and deep, almost instantly. I dove into the warm sweetness of her mouth and her tongue met mine stroke for stroke. When she moaned into my mouth as I rocked my arousal to the cradle of her hips, it was all I could do not to take her right there in the hallway. Her hips rocked over my knee, and I knew she was chasing her own pleasure.
The next few minutes were a tumbling blur. Her hands were as greedy as mine. She mapped my chest and back, her nails scoring my skin. Tearing my lips free, I tugged at her camisole. The stretchy, silky fabric had just enough give I could pull it down underneath her breasts.
I drew back to see them plumping over it in a black lacy bra. Her nipples were taut against the lace. Flicking my eyes up, I found hers wide, hazy and unfocused. Her head rolled against the wall. She was practically climbing my body as I held her in the cage of my arms, pinning her to the wall.
We stared at each other, the air heavy around us, thick with desire. I wasn’t thinking, not at all. Later, this moment would be seared into my brain. The force of my need for her was so ferocious, I couldn’t stop. Tangling with the need was the tightening in my heart when I looked into her eyes. The vulnerability flickering in their depths made me feel like a fucking caveman.
Trailing my hand up over the soft curve of her belly, I cupped one of her breasts, its weight heavy in my palm. I dragged my thumb back and forth across the lace, over the tight bead of her nipple, watching as her eyelids drooped and her breath came out on a low moan.
With Jasmine, I experienced something I’d never experienced before. A collision of this driving, fierce need that made me want to claim her and take her so hard and fast we both got lost in it. That need was a wave crashing into another—the need to absolutely soak up her response, to drag everything out as long as I could because it could never be better than this. Not that I’d ever imagined.
I dipped my head and dragged my tongue over the lace, smiling against her skin when she groaned and arched into me. Rolling
a nipple between my fingers and teasing the other with my lips, teeth, and tongue, I savored the sounds of her gasps as she murmured my name on a little cry.
I needed more. Now.
Reluctantly lifting my head, I curled my hands under her hips and lifted her high against me. Her skirt pooled around her hips as she curled her legs around my waist, arching and flexing.
I could feel the damp heat of her core as she rocked her hips against my arousal.
“Fuck, Jasmine,” I murmured as I spun away from the wall, holding her tight against me. Her lips were nibbling their way down my neck, teasing and sending a searing jolt of lust through me, the flame catching hold.
Walking swiftly down the hall, I fumbled with my door. In a few seconds, we were inside. I headed straight for my bedroom at the back. Easing her down on the bed, I straightened and looked at her.
Her skirt was in a rumple around her hips, the black silk between her thighs teasing me. Her hair was a wild mess and her lips were swollen from our kisses. My stubble had scraped along the sensitive skin at the tops of her breasts, leaving it reddened.
With her cheeks flushed and her eyes dark, her breasts plumped over the top of her bra and her clothes in disarray, she was the sexiest woman I’d ever seen. She pushed up on her elbows, reaching for my fly.
“Too many clothes,” she muttered.
“Same goes for you,” I bit out.
She rose, standing from the bed. Kicking her boots free, she shimmied out of her skirt and flung her blouse and camisole aside. Then, she stood before me in nothing but her black silk panties and black lace bra.
All I could do was stare. Hell, I could’ve come just looking at her. She circled her hand in the air before resting it on her hip and cocking her head to the side.
“Get on with it, Donovan,” she teased, her eyes glittering.
I chucked my jeans off and snagged a condom from the nightstand. When I turned back, she was bare naked. One look stole my breath. She put a knee on the bed and crawled onto it. Moving swiftly, I was behind her, gripping her hips before she turned over.
“Not just yet,” I murmured. “I need to taste you, and I fucking love your ass.”
She giggled, the sound of it like a ribbon of silk spinning around my heart.
I trailed my palm down her spine, watching as her body reacted—her waist dipping on a gasp when I delved between her thighs. She was drenched, slick with desire.
I sank two fingers into her, knuckle deep, my eyes locked to hers as her hips arched back into my touch. She gasped my name when I drew my fingers out and buried them inside again, her channel clenching around me.
I needed to see her face. Spinning her over, I roughly pushed her knees apart before burying my face at her core. She tasted salty and sweet, pure heaven. Teasing her, I fucked her slowly with my fingers as I tasted and explored her. With her cries raining down around me and as her body began to tighten, I sucked her clit between my teeth, looking up as I stroked my fingers inside of her once more.
She gasped my name in a ragged shout, her entire body going taut as she clamped down tightly around my fingers. I was at the end of a frayed thread of control. It snapped loose, and I drew back swiftly, rolling a condom on like lightning and positioning myself between her thighs.
“Jasmine.”
Her hair was a tangle on my pillows, her eyes a rich sapphire when she dragged them open. I held still, the tip of my cock at her entrance.
“Donovan, please,” she murmured.
The thread snapped, and I surged into her slick heat, watching as her eyes went wide.
Chapter Seventeen
Jasmine
“Jasmine,” Donovan murmured, his voice deep and gruff.
Dragging my eyes open, I looked up at him. He was above me, one hand fisting his cock and the other curled over the side of my hip.
My body was still quaking from the intense orgasm that had just crashed over me. But I already needed more. I needed the feel of him filling me.
“Donovan, please.”
I heard the pleading in my voice. But I was beyond caring, beyond shame. I was caught in this web of madness. All I knew was what my body needed. His body was a work of art—all hard planes with a few scars scattered over him. There was no polish to Donovan—he was all raw, rugged man, a pure masculinity so intense he encompassed me with his mere existence.
My hips arched toward him, and he finally sank inside of me. It felt so good, so intense, that I was barely conscious at this point, spinning in a haze of need and vibration. He filled me completely—every thick inch of him.
He held still for a beat as my body adjusted to him. I didn’t want this to be slow. I wanted it hard and fast. I almost wanted it to be painful because I didn’t know what else would slake the wild need inside of me. Opening my eyes, I flexed into him, curling my legs around his hips, my heels spurring the hard muscles of his ass.
Then he was moving, drawing back and sinking in. He started slow as he stretched over me. His hardness pressed against my softness with his lips on my neck as I went wild underneath him—crying out, my nails scoring his skin as he began to drum his hips into me, every stroke deeper. He murmured hot, dirty words while I spun tighter and tighter inside, chasing after another sweet release.
He rose slightly, reaching between us, his fingers teasing over my clit. I flew apart again, my sex pulsing and throbbing as I shattered from head to toe, this orgasm more intense than the last. With one last deep stroke, he shuddered, a rough cry raining down over me.
As I slowly came to, I felt him spin over, bringing me on top of him. I collapsed against him, boneless and sated.
Resting against Donovan’s muscled chest, I listened to the sound of his heartbeat against my ear—hard and fast at first and then gradually slowing, mirroring my own.
Eventually, I lifted my head, resting my chin on my fist. As though he felt my gaze on him, his eyes opened—his green and gold gaze colliding with mine. Even though he was still inside of me, and I’d just had two explosive orgasms, at the look in his eyes, the languid heat contained there, my belly was a flutter again, a mix of heat and electricity spinning through my body.
I wasn’t quite sure what to say. He saved me from worrying about my words, his palm sliding down my back in a soothing stroke. “Well, that was a nice way to come home,” he said, his voice raspy.
When his mouth hitched at the corner in a slow smile, a giggle bubbled up. I wasn’t shy when it came to sex, but I also wasn’t accustomed to this intensity, this rushing feeling inside. I didn’t want to think too hard about it because I didn’t know what the hell to think. He rose and easily lifted me with him as he stood from the bed. I giggled—again—feeling light and bubbly inside.
“Well, that was easy,” I murmured.
His low chuckle by my ear sent a hot shiver through me.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Shower,” he said simply.
Within a few steps, we were inside the bathroom off the side of the bedroom. His suite was a mirror of mine. The bathroom was almost precisely the same with everything in reverse. He set me down once we were in there, quickly disposing of his condom with one hand and turning on the shower with the other. Then, we were in the shower with steam billowing around us. Before I knew it, he was wrapping me in a towel and we were tumbling into bed.
It didn’t even occur to me to leave and go across the hallway to my own bed. Because, you see, it felt so damn good to be wrapped in his strength. He tucked me against his hard muscled body where I rested my head against his shoulder and fell sound asleep, too sated, too relaxed to do anything else.
Sometime during the night, I woke to the feel of Donovan’s hands mapping my body, his breath teasing my skin, and his fingers sliding into my slick channel. He was curled around me from behind, and I could feel the hard, hot velvety skin of his cock against my bottom.
I dimly heard the sound of him tearing a condom open before he lifted my thigh, his thick
head nudging my entrance. His teeth nipped my neck as I gasped, crying out when he sheathed himself inside of me.
In a sleepy, sensual haze, he fucked me slowly from behind. I flew apart, pleasure fracturing me from the inside out. I savored the feel of him going taut and the low growl of my name murmured in my ear as he found his own release.
I was caged in his arms, content in his embrace. I felt sensual, sleepy, and so connected to him, my heart stuttered for a few beats before finding its rhythm again. I remembered nothing other than falling back asleep held tight in his arms. I had no idea how much time passed.
I awoke sometime later, muddled. After a beat, I felt the mattress shift as his weight left it. “Is everything okay?” I asked.
“Call out to a fire,” he replied, his voice gravelly with sleep.
I was completely awake then, and sat up. “You mean you have to go back out?”
Donovan turned toward me. In the wispy light of dawn, he was so handsome, my breath caught. He stood there with the early morning sunlight cast through the shades, shadows and light playing over his muscled form. Unabashedly naked, his eyes met mine, darkening as his eyes flicked down.
I hadn’t even paid attention to the fact that I was naked and the sheet had fallen to my waist. My nipples perked up, practically waving to him the moment his eyes drifted across them, his hot gaze a flame.
“No, it’s not that kind of fire,” he said. His eyes made their way back to my face. “It’s a fire in a town nearby. Our crew’s on call for backup.”
He stepped back toward the bed, his hand threading into my hair. He caught my lips in a fierce, swift kiss, his tongue diving in, as if to lay claim, before he drew away.
“I’d love to stay, but I have to go,” he said as he turned and strode quickly into the bathroom.
As the sound of the shower running filtered in, I sat there on the bed, my pussy throbbing and my nipples tight. I knew now was absolutely not the time to be coy. I swung my legs out of the bed, glancing around for my clothes. I didn’t even bother getting dressed, just scooped up my clothes from the floor, and hurried across the hallway, grabbing my forgotten purse on the way.
