His head drops back, and he closes his eyes with a laugh. “Just my pride.”
Brushing a bit of cake from his brow to keep it from falling into his eye, I smile and ask softly, “That bad? Ouch.”
I’m expecting him to let me go or make some move to extract us from this mess, but he drapes an arm across my back, holding me against him.
The craziest part? I don’t try to get up either. Taking a beat, I let myself sink into the hard planes of his muscular torso and the spongy disaster beneath us. Jason wears his clothes well but lying on top of him gives me a new appreciation of what ripples beneath his Tom Ford suits.
“I’m throwing in the towel on this day,” I sigh, wondering how long before I’ll have to move.
“I don’t know,” he hums, sounding more relaxed than I’ve heard him all day. “I’ve got a beautiful woman in my arms… seems like maybe things are starting to turn around.”
Only Jason.
“A ladies’ man to the end.” I press my forehead against his shoulder, giving in to a giggle too light for everything that’s happened. But how can I resist when he says things like that. And he’s kind of right, because it’s not terrible being held like this. Just for a minute or two.
It’s soothing and yet… not. Because with each breath that passes, the defenses I’ve spent months building against Jason Henley crumble just a little more. When he holds me like this, I wish we were still the friends we’d been a year ago. I wish things had gone differently that night in the bar.
I wish I didn’t have to keep reminding myself not to wish for certain things.
Which is my cue to get up and start dealing with the train wreck this contract has become. Only when I try to push up, Jason’s powerful arms tighten around me, pulling me back down. Holding me closer.
“Not yet,” he says gruffly, his eyes meeting mine. Holding long enough I can’t miss the dark heat shining in them.
His hand is resting at my hip and my breath catches when his fingers flex, holding me closer. I should pull back. Look away. But instead, I melt closer.
In a blink, we roll, and I end up beneath him, squished into a pillow of dessert for 250. Heat pools in my belly, and every nerve dances with an electric charge across the surface of my skin. Because Jason is on top of me, our bodies aligned like lovers. Somehow my fingers have found their way into his hair and one of my legs is hooked over his.
My lips part, shallow breaths mingling between us. “What are you doing?”
My hushed words seem to absorb all other sound around us.
Jason’s eyes search mine, the corner of his mouth hitching just the slightest degree. “Trying the cake.”
It’s the perfect answer. Teasing and light. About this one moment and nothing more.
It’s exactly what I need in order to let go.
Jason closes the distance between us, bowing his head toward my neck. I can feel his breath along my skin, the tease of his lips, and the slow, decadent, swirling lick of his tongue followed by an approving groan I barely hear over the hammering of my heart. And when our eyes meet again, I find a burning desire that matches my own.
And then it happens. He kisses me. Contact so light it might be considered sweet if it wasn’t for the way his breath rushes out to meet mine on a groan and the needy response of my body. Another barely there brush of his lips, followed by the slow, sinking press of hard against soft. A measured rub of tender skin caressed back and forth with increasing pressure until the tip of his tongue touches the corner of my mouth and traces across the seam of my lips in a devastating assault. Desire grips my center as I wrestle with the possibilities and repercussions.
But this kiss, all coercion and confidence, demands I open to him. It’s an exercise in restraint I can’t endure. My lips part on a gasp, and Jason’s tongue delves between, thrusting deep and then retreating in a rhythmic promise that sends shuddering need racing through me.
The hungry, wet velvet rub of his tongue against my own pushes me over the edge, sweeping away all thoughts of consequence. I need this.
Our heads angle, deepening the kiss. Making it hotter. Wetter. More desperate.
I can feel the steely ridge of his cock between us. It’s thick and long, and when my hips tilt into the contact, we moan.
My hands splay wide across his chest, stroking over the hard muscles, the heels of my palms testing the unyielding resistance. He feels too good, far beyond my wildest, most forbidden fantasies.
Jason presses a slow kiss against the side of my neck below my ear. “You taste so fucking good, Laine.”
Catching my chin, he tilts my face toward his. Jason looks into my eyes and, easing the straps of my dress aside, runs his hand down the line of my arm to my fist. He kisses my knuckles, lapping at the frosting between them until my balled fingers flex open and wet heat floods between my legs.
“Want to taste you everywhere,” he rasps against my skin, licking and kissing his way to the soft flesh of my breast. The warmth of his hands melts the frosting between us into a slippery gloss covering my skin, and his fingers slide from the wide base of my breast toward the tip in one seamless caress that stops just shy of the nipple. He lowers his head and licks a slow circle, pausing to nip at the fleshy mound before suckling the sting away. “Laine.”
The sound of my name on his lips, rough and desperate, pushes me beyond my senses, and all restraint breaks. Clinging to his shoulders, I rock up against him, my knee skimming up the side of his thigh to ease the throbbing ache in my sex. His hips press down, shifting with a steady pressure that has me writhing with need.
I grab at his shoulders, fumble down his back, and settle against his butt. Gripping the base of muscle, I pull him against me before following the line of his belt around to the front.
Breath coming in steady pants, I struggle with the buckle wedged between us.
I want this. I want him.
“Jason, please.”
Chapter 3
Jason
Fuck, just hearing her say my name is enough to have me fighting for control.
This wasn’t the plan. Not when I asked her to dinner, not when I found her in this room, and not when I dotted the end of her pretty nose with frosting.
I wanted to talk.
Take it slow.
See if it was even possible to get us on the same page.
But then one thing led to another, and Christ, I’ve wanted her forever.
I could play with her tits for hours, they’re so perfect, but the fact that she’s pulling at my fly with shaking hands says it’s time to get serious.
Her dress is already bunched between us, but not enough. I rock back and flip it up the rest of the way, groaning when I see her pretty pink panties dark where she’s wet for me.
For me.
How the hell did I fight this so long?
My cock is throbbing, pressed against the front of my slacks, but the man downstairs is going to have to wait, because I wasn’t kidding about wanting to taste her everywhere. I start behind her knee, lapping at the sugary sweet frosting and then working higher up her inner thigh to the hollow beside her pussy. With one hand stroking lightly over the damp patch of fabric, I follow with my mouth, breathing warmth through the soaked silk. Grinning when she tips her hips into me and whimpers.
Damn, I could almost come from that greedy little plea alone. My hands slip up to the top of her panties, and I push my tongue against her opening through the fabric. My fists twist, snapping the band and earning a spasm against my mouth that sends waves of pulsing heat down to my cock. I’m never going to last. Not when it’s been nearly eighteen months since I’ve had sex—since the night that asshole put his hands on Laine and I nearly lost my mind. I wasn’t supposed to look at her that way, but within a blink, I couldn’t deny that she meant more to me than business. And even if I never intended to act on those feelings, other women completely lost their appeal.
I shouldn’t have fought it. I never had a chance. And now I�
��ve wasted so much time.
Christ, I almost lost her.
But this, here—this is my second chance.
I pull the fabric from between us, revealing her smooth sex, shiny and glistening with need. Teasing between her plump lips with my tongue, I taste the residual sweetness of cake mingling with the tang of her essence. It’s heaven. Greedy for more, I delve into her pussy, reveling in her every gasp and buck as she pulls my hair and whimpers my name.
There have been women before, but never have they affected me like this.
Slipping a finger inside, I circle her clit with the tip of my tongue. And that sound is definitely approval. A second finger, and her tight walls hug and suck at them, making me desperate to feel her hugging my cock.
But first I need her to come against my mouth. She’s almost there. I can feel the tension rising in body, hear it in her soft cries. I circle faster, lapping with the flat of my tongue.
“Like that,” Laine gasps moving in symphony with the suction of my mouth and stroking of my tongue.
And then she’s there. Coming in a chorus of cries and pleas against my face that have my cock pulsing and dripping with need.
I stay with her through the end, until the fingers in my hair spiral free in search of my shirt. She yanks and tugs, showing me what she wants. I’m a man willing to accommodate. Anxious to feel the rasp of her hard nipples against my flesh, I reach back and jerk my shirt over my head, tossing it aside. Once I handle my fly and shove down my boxers, my cock springs free.
Laine sits up, her legs spread, sex slick from my attention, and eyes still hazed as she tracks down to my cock and licks her lips.
I’ve got a condom out in record time. I need to be inside her. My throat tightens. “I want you so bad.”
She lies back, her arms twined loosely above her head, and whispers, “Have me.”
It’s almost more than I can stand to keep from thrusting deep and hard into her right then. Muscles tense, I lean over her and press against her opening. She’s tight and wet, and her eyes search mine as I push inside. Deep. Deeper. Pull back and then sink deep again, savoring her quiet gasp as I bottom out inside her.
I can’t look away. Can’t stop watching the way her lashes flutter and her lips part as I thrust, taking her again and again, working her back toward another release. I’m on the edge, but this isn’t done until she is. Running my hand down her leg, I catch her knee and bring it higher up my side.
“Jason!”
That’s the spot. I slide against it again and Laine cries out, her inner walls constricting with hard rhythmic pulses around my cock, as she begs me to take her harder, faster. She spasms wildly around me, and I’m with her. My balls contract, and I tense in pleasured agony, coming harder than I have in my whole life.
Laine
We made love in a cake. I have no idea how much time has passed since Jason pulled me on top of him and closed his eyes. I lost track of my place in the universe the instant his mouth grazed mine. When we touched, every part of my body and mind blurred into one driving need to merge with the man who makes me insane.
But now that the haze of lust has lifted and my brain is back online, I’m starting to freak the fuck out. Because I’m half naked, sprawled atop the sleeping form of Jason Henley, in what could only be described as a ruined prep room at the Henley Hotel.
The only consolation in this literal mess is that I don’t have to wonder what it means. I already know. Nothing. It was a moment. They happen.
My phone rings. The muffled digital trill of “Here Comes the Bride” sounding from somewhere beneath the mush of cake and cream, indicating that Connie is the caller.
Shit!
Pushing up on hands and knees astride Jason’s prone form, I try to crawl off him but my knees slide out and my elbow nails his ribs.
“Umph…”
“Sorry, sorry!” I squeak, trying again to extract myself.
Jason’s warm hand presses against my back as he pulls me down to leave a wet kiss over my nipple before sucking the tip into his mouth.
“Shi—mmm…” I arch back to escape the suction. “Jason, damn it, I need that phone. It’s Connie calling. I have to explain.”
“Okay, okay. Find your phone. Talk to Connie.” Jason sits up and helps me get off him. “Sounds like it’s coming from that pile next to the cart.”
I crawl through the soggy mess, feeling my way as I go until—jackpot. The slim device is covered in sugary sludge, and I thank my stars for the case and removable screen protector. “Connie, I’m here.”
“I’m not happy, Laine.” My boss’s smoke-worn voice snaps through the line with more force than her two-pack a day Virginia Slims habit should have allowed. “This is a fuck-up. The second in as many months.”
She doesn’t need to remind me she’s got a strict policy of three strikes and you’re out.
I swallow hard and find my voice. “Connie, you are absolutely right, and I fully understand the repercussions of what this does to our reputation.”
She barks out some nonsense about how this wouldn’t have happened on her watch and asks when I’ll be back in the office.
I peer down at my body and the tendrils of hair smeared with frosting. “Tomorrow… Yes, it’s going to take me a while to clean up a few details here… Okay, see you then.”
Looking back over my shoulder, I find Jason sitting up. He’s shirtless, his arms propped on his bent knees—his chiseled body streaked with soggy cake and frosting. How could a man with a glob of buttercream above his ear be this damn sexy? And how am I ever going to be able to look at him again without seeing him like this?
Problem for another day. Today’s quota has been met.
Or rather it will be once I figure out how to get out of here without things getting weird. Clearly, the most important thing is making sure he knows I’m on the same page about this being a casual, one-time thing.
So, I smile and wink at him. “Thanks, I needed that.”
His brows furrow, but then he shrugs. “Welcome. How about a shower and something in a size six, maybe, from the boutique?”
“Wow, you really are full service. Don’t suppose you have any idea how I might get to a shower without any witnesses?”
“Wish I could help you.” He gives me an apologetic smile—or mostly apologetic. This is Jason. “But the space we’re occupying right now is one of the few in the hotel without a security feed. We’ll be on camera the second we step two feet past the door.”
Pretty much what I expected. “No biggie. Wanna call and get me a room? Maybe have someone meet us with a key?”
Going to his feet, he barks out a laugh. “Don’t be ridiculous.” Holding out a hand to pull me up, he adds, “You can use the shower in my place.”
Chapter 4
Sunday, June 6th
Laine
“Sex. Actual. Sex?” my friend Nikki asks, blue eyes wide and completely delighted as we pick up our coffee orders from the cute little independent place halfway between our apartments. I wait until we make it outside and start walking up the block to answer.
“Yes. But nothing is going to change. And before you ask, I don’t even want it to.”
Letting out a snort, she shoots me a disbelieving look. “I call bullshit. For like a year you were completely breathless every time you talked about this guy. You were into him in a way I don’t see you get about anyone. And then—”
“And then I realized I was seeing potential where there wasn’t any. Jason is a businessman first, and while there’s no overriding that hardwired need to flirt, when it came down to it, he wasn’t willing to cross that line.”
Her eyes narrow and she leans closer. “Except… sex. Actual—”
“Sex. Yes. But not meaningful sex.” At first, I was confused too. But Jason cleared that up. “It was a moment. A thing.”
She doesn’t look convinced. Whatever. I’m the only one who really needs to be.
“Okay, but I mean… did you at l
east talk about it? Lay down some ground rules before getting down and dirty?”
“No and no.” I sigh and bump her shoulder with mine. “Honestly, I really just wanted to get out of there.” Yes, Jason had invited me to stay while he jumped in the shower, but I was so nervous, I made a quick excuse and left.
And after this morning’s text, thank goodness I did.
“So, are you worried about what it’s going to be like when you see him again? Because sex changes things. Even when you’re sure it won’t.”
Nikki is speaking from experience there, but I’m not worried about what happened with her and Matt happening with me and Jason. First, we aren’t roommates who’ve been best friends for half our lives. And second, I haven’t been carrying a secret crush for him for that same time. So it’s different.
“No. I’m pretty sure it won’t take more than a few days of laying low, and it will be like yesterday never happened.” Jason won’t see me shooting him moony-eyed looks or hanging around like I’m hoping for an encore. He’ll know I know exactly what this was and what it wasn’t. “Work will be fine. We’re professionals.”
Saturday, June 12th
Laine
“You’re an asshole,” I state blandly, straightening the white silk guest book and accompanying plumed pen on the table by the main doors. No way he’s going to get a rise out of me today.
“So you tell me. Keep it up, and I might develop a complex.” Jason follows me to the supply cart loaded with favors.
It’s bad enough I was still stewing over his latest stunt this morning while I worked with the florist, checked in with the band, and stopped by to see the groom—who was surrounded by his buddies, as nervous and excited as his bride-to-be. I don’t need Jason distracting me as I triple-check every detail.
Especially after what he did. “I can’t believe you partnered with Connie and had me assigned exclusively to your hotel.” I cut him a sharp look. “Without even speaking to me about it first.”
All In Page 3
