“Did he ever please you, Paige?” Jack’s words were soft.
“No…” Paige licked her lips. “No. He…honestly, it was all about him.”
“Maybe it’s time it was all about you.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Paige kissed him.
Because what else was a girl supposed to do when a man she was attracted to said something like that to her? Maybe it was the rum punch. Maybe it was her adrenaline still humming from fending off Horatio.
And maybe it was just because she wanted to.
There was something about these late hours in the night, when the pulse of the island picked up, and the beat of the waves pounded in rhythm with the island. Paige could feel it in her core, this deep-rooted wanting, this knowing…that Jack would be hers tonight. When his arms came around her, heat throbbed thickly through her, lust fueling her veins, and she wound her arms around his neck.
He kissed her like a warrior staking claim to a castle.
Like anything Jack did, he put his full attention to it and saw the job through. Kissing was no different. Paige moaned against his mouth as Jack tilted his head, deepening the kiss, and his hands began to stroke lightly over her back, down her sides, and stopping just at her waist. They never wandered, only stroking lightly, never taking liberties that weren’t yet given. It was this restraint that made Paige want more from him. She wanted to see those careful threads of control snap; she wanted to see him come undone.
And she wanted to be the one to do it to him.
Paige dug her hands into Jack’s hair, pulling him closer, sighing as her body pressed to his. She rubbed herself against him, her softness and curves meeting a wall of rock-hard muscle. Jack teased her with his tongue, dipping in for a taste, kissing her like he had all the time in the world. His hands continued to stroke her back lightly – soothing her, slowing her down. Where she wanted to run, he wanted to stroll. It drove the heat that tugged low in her body to a frenzy, and Paige gasped against his lips, tugging him back toward the bed.
Jack broke the embrace and turned to the door, and Paige let out a little mewl of distress.
“Just making sure we don’t have any unwanted visitors.” Jack sent her a devastating smile as he locked the door and turned back to her. Lust pooled low in Paige’s stomach at the click of the lock, and she reached for the hem of her dress.
“Oh no. Please, allow me.” Jack stepped forward and Paige dropped her hands, smiling up at him. “Do you know I’ve been thinking about doing this since the day you landed at the hotel?”
“No?” Paige laughed, surprised that he’d been attracted to her from the beginning.
“Oh, yes,” Jack said, tracing his lips across her neck. “There you were. All these curves packed into uncomfortable clothes. Annoyed and uncertain. I wanted you to leave.”
“You were pretty clear on that.” Paige pulled back for a moment to meet his eyes. “You weren’t very welcoming. Why did you want me to leave?”
“Because I knew I wanted to do this…” Jack surprised her by kissing his way down her neck to her cleavage. He licked once at the side of her breast, causing Paige to gasp as his hands trailed up and down her sides. “And I knew that I shouldn’t.”
“Oh…” The power of speech had been robbed from Paige as his hands continued down to the hem of her dress. Jack continued to press soft kisses to the skin of her cleavage and she felt her body go loose, her nipples swelling at his touch, her mind screaming for release.
“May I?” Jack asked as he tugged at the fabric of her dress.
“Oh, please do.” Nope, her power of speech was still there. “Jack…I…”
“Yes, Paige?”
Jack stopped, tilting his head to look up at her. Blue eyes heated with lust speared her.
“Don’t stop.”
“Thank god.” Jack breathed and pulled the dress slowly up Paige’s body, tantalizing them both as he revealed her shape to him. Paige had only a skimpy lace thong on, as the halter style of the dress hadn’t allowed for a bra. Now, as the cool air hit her skin, Paige was grateful for one less piece of clothing between them. Speaking of…
“You, too,” Paige said and reached out to tug at Jack’s shirt. “I want to see you.”
“What the lady wants…” Jack tore his shirt off and tossed it across the room, causing Paige to chuckle. But then the laugh caught in her throat when Jack’s mouth found her skin again. Reaching out, Paige gripped his arms as her head fell back, and Jack began to worship her body. He continued to kiss her gently, not yet touching her breasts, only kissing soft circles around them, whispering decadent words of delight against her skin. The delay was driving her crazy.
“Jack…please…” Paige moaned, wanting him to touch her fully.
“Please what?” Jack asked, blowing softly on one nipple and causing every nerve ending in Paige’s body to scream for attention.
“Touch me.” It was a whisper. It was a plea. It was a benediction.
When Jack’s mouth closed over Paige’s nipple, she bowed back. When she would have fallen onto the bed, Jack’s arm caught her, pulling her tight against him as he worshipped her breasts with his mouth. Over and over, Jack kissed her, his lips trailing a damp path across her skin, her body heating to his touch. She squirmed, wanting him more than ever, and gasped as he brought his head up to find her lips once more.
“I want you,” Paige panted against his mouth, pulling him until she tumbled back onto the bed and he followed, anchoring himself on his arms over her.
“You’re so beautiful, Paige,” Jack said, his expression soft as he kneeled and ran one hand down the side of her body and over her thighs. Paige automatically widened her legs, craving his touch. “Your body is a dream. All these hills and curves. I could touch you for days.”
“Please, don’t stop.” Paige trembled as he traced his hands down the soft skin of her inner thigh, finding a sensitive spot behind her knee, and surprising her when he scraped his teeth lightly over that spot. Her hips bracketed off the bed at that, and Jack chuckled, continuing to work his way down her legs, trailing his hands down to her ankles, his touch whisper soft.
She’d never had a man take this much time with her before, Paige realized, and was shocked to find herself all but panting in need. What was he doing down at her ankles when she wanted him inside her…now? The heat that had built low in her body threatened to burst, and Paige whimpered as Jack’s mouth found the delicate skin of her inner thigh.
“Do you like when I kiss you here?” Jack said, his breath soft against her skin, making her shiver because his mouth was so close to where she wanted him most.
“Yes,” Paige gasped and tried to pull him closer with her legs. Jack smiled, pushing her legs wider, before capturing her wrist with one hand and pinning it to the bed. He kissed his way higher on her thigh, before hovering over where she ached for him. Her hips jerked as he blew on her, his laughter at her response only deepening her need.
“What about here?” Jack asked, finding her most tender spot and sucking gently. Paige bowed back as lust exploded, waves of pleasure and years of pent-up anxiety rocketing through her, and Jack caught her hips, pulling her to his mouth, deftly riding the storm as she convulsed around him.
“Wait…wait…” Paige moaned, her nerve endings over-sensitized. Jack pulled back, blowing lightly on her, giving her a moment to collect herself.
“Now?” Jack asked, sending her a devasting smile, before bending his head and finding her once more with his tongue. Paige moaned as liquid heat washed through her, his tongue swirling over her, tasting, testing, and pushing her over the edge once more in such delicious heat that Paige sat up and grabbed Jack’s shoulders, dragging him to her.
“I need…I need…” Paige said, finding his mouth, tasting herself on him, and kissing him deeply as he settled over her. “I want to touch you.”
“One second, beautiful.” Jack pulled back and rummaged in his shorts. Her mouth dropped open as he took the
rest of his clothes off, and she saw another reason why he carried himself with such confidence. After he protected himself with a condom, Jack leaned back over her, bracketing his arms on either side of her shoulders. “Now…what was this about touching me?”
“I want to…” Paige threw her head back as his hard length found her, rubbing itself against her heat, teasing her most sensitive spot. “Touch. You. Too.”
“You are.” Jack grinned as he captured her mouth and in one long thrust he entered her, filling her to the core, his kisses capturing her cries.
He didn’t just take. He demanded. Matching him thrust for thrust, Paige lifted her hips to his, his hardness filling her – soothing her – taking her like nothing had before. Desire careened through her as she clenched around him, drawing him deeper, liquid heat meeting hard steel.
They arrived at the same place together, both crying out as they fell over the edge into bliss, their bodies moving in harmony. When it was over, Jack stayed where he was, pinning her with his weight as he trailed soft kisses over her face and down her neck. Despite having just been very thoroughly satisfied, Paige found her need for him had not yet abated.
“I didn’t get to touch you as much as I wanted to.”
“Oh, by all means then…be my guest,” Jack said with a devastating smile.
And Paige did just that.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Paige stretched as the first light of morning filtered softly into her bedroom. The only sounds that greeted her were the soft hum of the air conditioning and the chorus of the island birds as they began to greet the day. Rolling, Paige reached across the bed and was met with…blankets. Pushing herself up on one elbow, she stared blearily at the empty space next to her. Certain they’d fallen asleep entwined together, Paige plopped back to her pillow and stared at the white-washed planks of the ceiling.
He’d left without saying goodbye.
Misgivings slipped through her stomach, and she grabbed the other pillow, pulling it over her face and breathing his scent in. Everything was fine, Paige told herself. While they had both been drinking, Paige was certain she’d had her wits about her as had Jack. The decisions they made were their own, and something they would both have to live with. Paige only hoped that it wouldn’t be awkward…this…well, whatever the two of them were.
Maybe it was best to take it slow. Paige laughed into the pillow as she thought about all the ways Jack had pleasured her the night before. Okay, so they hadn’t taken that part slow. But she wasn’t ready to move in and be a partner to somebody again like she had been with Horatio. Granted, she was already living at Tranquila Inn, but this wasn’t the same situation.
It wasn’t, she scolded herself and rolled from the bed. This was…it was just for fun. That was it. That was all it could or would be. Just fun and easy and nothing more. Paige forced her giddy mind away from imagining what a future with Jack would look like. Nope, not going there. Paige stretched again as she stood next to the bed and glanced at the clock. It was still terribly early. Knowing that most of the guests wouldn’t be up for hours yet – what with all the mad partying from the night before – Paige decided she would try for a little self-care and do a yoga practice on her own. It had been weeks since she’d done any sort of yoga, and while she didn’t miss Horatio, she could tell her body missed the daily movements of the yoga stretches.
Paige pulled on a sports bra, yoga shorts, and tucked a rolled yoga mat under her arm. Deciding she wanted the fresh air and the ocean this morning, she left her cottage and veered away from the main beach, wandering through the other cottages and toward the outskirts of the property. She rarely came this way, as it was where CeCe and Whit lived in their double-room cottage. Paige paused when she saw the front door to the cottage open and heard voices. The hair on the back of her neck rose, and she ducked behind a bush, peering between the leaves at the front of clapboard white cottage.
Jack stood in the doorway, naked to the waist, his shirt in hand.
Paige’s stomach dropped when CeCe wrapped an arm around his waist and leaned in, pressing her head against his shoulder.
“I love you,” CeCe sighed.
Paige didn’t wait to see any more. Instead, she dashed back the way she had come, her stomach roiling. When she saw Luis waving to her from where he knelt by a hedge, Paige waved back and veered to the right, all but running for the beach. Once there, she picked up her pace into a light jog, her feet slamming into the hard-packed sand on the water’s edge, and she ran until Tranquila Inn was just a speck in the distance. Finally, with sweat pouring down her back, she dropped her yoga mat on the sand and plopped down onto it.
She blinked at the tears that made her vision fuzzy and dug her toes into the sand, and forced herself to work on repetitive breaths until she could bring her heartrate down. It did nothing for the panic that laced her stomach, but eventually, her pulse settled and her eyes cleared. A little bird, picking its way along the sand, paused in front of her and tilted its head to study her as if it wondered what this strange creature was doing in its breakfast spot.
“I don’t know what I’m doing here either.”
She’d done it again, Paige realized. Jumped too fast. Made impulsive decisions. And here she was, having been played for a fool. It all made sense now – the constant annoyance that Jack had with CeCe. The broody looks and the familiarity. Though they were decades apart, they were clearly an item. No wonder Mariposa had told Paige not to comment on Whit’s nightly disappearances with the ladies. Clearly, there was some sort of weird arrangement that everyone had an understanding of but her. Once again, Paige had been left in the dark.
What an idiot she was.
No matter how much Jack claimed he hated Horatio, Jack was just the same. Sleeping with women to get what he wanted. Hadn’t CeCe bankrolled him in other jobs through the years? He was clearly her boytoy, and Paige had chosen to look past the deep-rooted familiarity with those two.
Grinding her teeth, Paige tried to stop the next wave of tears that threatened. Damn it. She’d liked Jack. As in, really liked him. How could she have been so stupid?
“Because you saw what you wanted to see,” Paige said out loud and the bird bounced a few feet away from her, startled by her voice. Paige hugged her arms around her knees and looked out at the water.
The ocean was calm today, almost eerily so. Paige wondered if the water was always this still this early in the morning or if it was just today. The water moved gently, almost like glass, and no big waves rolled into the shoreline. There was no wind, and Paige brushed at the occasional bug that landed on her legs. The sky reflected Paige’s mood – a gloomy gray with just a faint tinge of pink where the horizon met the water.
“Okay,” Paige said, “Okay, okay, okay. So this happened. It happened. You wanted to jump him – so you did. It is not your fault he was involved with someone else. That’s on him. You didn’t do anything wrong. Other than jump your boss, of course. Which you’d promised you wouldn’t do because things were going to be different this time. So what have we learned? You have impulse problems. And you’re likely working out your anger with Horatio by looking to Jack to save you. To redeem you. But the only person that can do that is you. So from this point on, you stop looking elsewhere for the love that only you can give yourself.”
Self-reflection was a bitch sometimes.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t wrong. Paige realized that nobody was going to solve her problems or fill any gaping holes of unworthiness inside her but herself. And that would likely be a long-term job. In the meantime, if she could just manage to not jump into any other impulsive situations, maybe she could take a year off and focus on her own personal growth. Starting with getting off this island. There was no way she’d be able to stay on with what she’d discovered this morning. Though it made her sad – gutted her, really – it felt like the right decision. It burned though, as she’d come to like her weird little island family and Jack most of all. Blinking back the tears that
threatened again, Paige shuddered in a deep breath.
Decided, Paige nodded to herself and stood. Since she was here, she might as well do some of her practice. The sky had moved from moody gray to shell pink, and Paige moved through a series of Sun Salutations. By the time she was finished, the sun was just cresting the horizon at her back and Paige knew it was time to return to Tranquila Inn. Holding her head high, she walked back instead of running, following the path of her footprints in the sand. The water hadn’t rolled up to wash her prints away, and Paige wondered if this was the lowest point of low tide. She hadn’t been out to the ocean in the mornings yet – perhaps it was always low tide at this time. A flock of birds startled her as they squawked past her, careening in a frenzied mass, and darted inland.
Sweat still dripped down her back. Without the wind, the heat was almost oppressive. Paige was glad to finally reach Tranquila Inn. She needed a shower, a juice, and a coffee – as in yesterday. Paige didn’t care if it made her a coward – she walked the long way around the cottages to avoid running into anyone. Personal growth came in small steps, after all. Ducking into her cottage, she took a long, cold, and invigorating shower before towel-drying her hair, pulling a loose maxi dress over her head, and grabbing her tote bag with her laptop. Heading into the reception hall, she immediately veered away from where Jack huddled with Mariposa, CeCe, and Whit. It was early for CeCe and Whit to be up, Paige thought, but perhaps they were hitting the mimosas for Sunday brunch.
Martin was nowhere to be found in the kitchen, and no food had been left out. That was odd, Paige thought, but dug into the fridge for a carafe of iced coffee he had started brewing regularly for her and a bottle of orange juice. Pouring glasses for herself, Paige then walked into the pantry and retrieved a bag of muffins. She didn’t care about carbs today, she thought. All but jamming one blueberry muffin in her mouth, she washed it down with the orange juice before grabbing another and her glass of iced coffee. Knowing there was really no way to avoid the group in the reception hall if she wanted to get to her office, Paige took a steadying breath before leaving the kitchen.
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