He gapes. “What? Jesus, Laine, no.”
“What was I supposed to think?” I snap, my emotions starting to spiral with the realization of what’s happening here. What Jason actually wants. “You pushed me away for months after that night. Made me doubt everything I thought I knew. And then suddenly you’re all over me about Connie. About keeping me at the Henley. Suddenly, you’re—we’re—” I shake my head and fling my hand at him. “And then that text! What was I supposed to think?”
Turning toward the wall of glass, I stare out at the glittering lights of the city beyond.
Warm hands close around my arms, pulling me back into the solid strength of Jason’s body. “You’re supposed to think that I’m an idiot. I tried to tell you before, but that text was a mistake. Believe it or not, I was fucking nervous because as amazing as being with you last weekend was, it wasn’t what I’d expected. I thought I would be able win back more of your trust before it happened, that you might even consider me a friend first. But then everything went nuts and—”
“We had a moment?” I quietly supply, trying to wrap my head around the idea of Jason being anything but confident and sure.
“I was so worried about blowing this second chance with you, I wrote and deleted that text twelve times before finally settling on keeping it simple and straightforward. It wasn’t until this afternoon it even occurred to me how it read.”
I swallow and bow my head. “What should it have said?”
His slow breath washes over the back of my neck. “That I wished you’d stayed last weekend. That all I want is you. That there’s nothing casual about how I feel and that we should talk about this thing between us, because I’m praying it feels as right to you as it does to me. And probably a hundred other things too, starting with I’m sorry. For six months ago. For this week. Hell, for not seeing what was right in front of my face that night eighteen months ago when that asshole put his hands on you, and I lost my mind. I’m sorry, Laine.”
“Jason.” Turning within the circle of his arms, I find his eyes waiting for me, searching and sincere. Pulling me deeper with every breath until my hands are sliding into his hair and I’m pushing to my toes.
My kiss is met with the tightening of his arms around me and a low groan that sounds like relief and hunger and affects me in ways I’m not expecting. Because that hold, it feels safe. It feels like relief. It feels like that one off-fitting puzzle piece finally sliding into place.
It feels so right that I gasp against his lips, surprised by the sting of tears in my eyes. By how much I want this. Him.
This isn’t our first kiss, but somehow it feels like it is. Like this is the kiss we came so close to that night six months ago. It’s sweet and hot and tender, deepening by degrees until we’re clinging to each other, sharing our breath. The shirt he wrapped me in hanging open low on my arms.
“You won’t regret this, Laine,” he says, resting his forehead against mine.
God, I hope not. Because suddenly I want this with an intensity that scares me.
From the across the living room, the intercom sounds with two sharp trills.
Jason pulls back with a half-smile. “Food’s here.”
We stare at each other, catching our breath, and then after one last kiss, he crosses to the intercom to allow the delivery guy entry.
I’ve rebuttoned Jason’s shirt nearly to the top and tucked myself into a couch facing away from the elevator to ensure my bare legs aren’t visible.
The elevator doors swish open behind me and the spicy, sweet aroma of steaming-hot food tickles my nose and makes my mouth water.
“Big order tonight, Jay.” The delivery guy glances in and flashes me a smile. “Hey, this your wedding planner?”
My eyes widen in surprise. He’s talked to the delivery guy about me?
Jason grins like a goof and, shoving a few bills into the guy’s hand, takes the three bags into his own. “Yeah, Jimmy. Finally got her up here for a date.”
Jimmy chuckles and backs into the elevator. “Nice. Don’t blow it, man. See you tomorrow.”
The doors close, and Jason carries the food to the floor in front of the fireplace. “This okay?”
“Absolutely.” He’s tearing into the bags, setting up one box after another, opening each to display the bounty within as I kneel beside him. “You’ve been talking about me?”
He doesn’t quite meet my eyes, but there’s a dark tinge to his cheekbones when he answers, “Not to everyone. Just Jimmy… and Dil, but neither of those guys talk.”
“So the entire staff hasn’t been staring after us, placing bets on whether we’ll get together?”
I didn’t think it was possible, but his cheekbones get even darker. “Dil says there’s a pool, but he didn’t start it.”
When my mouth gapes, he gives me a crooked grin. “I guess they got ideas.” Then before I can do more than sputter, he hands me his phone. “Pick something to listen to.”
Trying not to think about the way my friends—his staff—have been waiting and watching, I scan his playlists. I find a mix of old and new, familiar and not, and end up with Sam Smith. We lean back into the base of the couch as the music pours out of the speakers hidden throughout the penthouse.
“I love this one.”
“I know, you were humming it for weeks,” he admits. “I had to ask Karen at the front desk what it was.”
How had I missed this?
Plucking up the chopsticks, Jason delves into one of the white boxes and then extends his offering. “The first cashew.”
“Wow, for me?” I part my lips, accepting the glossy nut and moaning as the sweet toasted flavor coats my tongue. It’s spectacularly good. “You’re pulling out all the stops tonight.”
Jason smiles, leaning back on one arm as he fishes out another spicy morsel. “What can I say? I’m all in.”
Chapter 6
Sunday, June 13th
Laine
I wake up with my head on Jason’s shoulder, my arm flung across his chest and my legs tangled with his. He greets me with a sleepy half smile that sets my heart racing.
I didn’t think it was possible, but Jason is even more gorgeous in the morning with his hair standing up in an epic display of bed head, his jaw dark and deliciously stubble rough.
Hot. I blink twice to make sure I’m not just having another dirty Jason dream.
“Something in your eye?”
Definitely not dreaming.
“I’m good.” Better than good as I feel the light brush of his fingers across the bare skin of my back.
“Me too. I like waking up with you in my bed. Way better than waking up and realizing I’d only been dreaming about you being there.”
There go the butterflies. “You’ve been dreaming about me?”
“Yeah, but only for about two years,” he says casually, like it’s no big deal. Like he doesn’t have a second thought about making himself vulnerable in front of me.
“That all?”
This time he laughs, tightening his arms around me to pull me across his body.
There are way worse places to be. My knees fall to either side of his ribs as he pulls me in for a kiss that feels as easy and right as I’ve ever imagined. It’s comfortable in a way I wasn’t totally expecting this morning to be. And then it’s more than just that, because kissing Jason feels so good that neither of us want to stop. One hand smooths down my back and closes over my hip as the other shifts to my neck, holding me as he deepens the kiss until we’re both breathless and panting. His tongue slides against mine, teasing until I’m whimpering around him, my hips starting to rock against the steely length of his cock.
The grip on my hip tightens, urging me to move with him. “Fuck, Laine, if you keep that up, I’m never letting you out of this bed.”
I am one hundred percent behind that idea and immediately start squirming to get to the drawer with the box of condoms we opened last night. I want him inside me. I want the decadent stretch of my
body taking his, the pressure of him meeting that spot deep inside me that says he can’t go any further, and then the bliss when he gives me just that much more.
Reaching for the drawer, my eyes are on the prize and I don’t notice Jason shifting with me until his mouth closes hot and wet over my nipple.
My breath catches as he takes a sharp draw and then sweeps his tongue around and around and around, until I’m not sure what I was doing at all. Until all I can concentrate on is the sweet suction at my breast alternating with wet velvet strokes that have my center clenching with needy spasms.
Spasms that remind me of my goal.
Get Jason inside me.
Condoms.
With a renewed determination, I pull away from the bliss of his mouth.
“Got it,” I gasp, like I’ve just scored the winning shot.
“Good, hang on to it.” I don’t have a chance to wonder what he’s talking about before he’s guiding my knees higher, so I’m straddling his face. “Perfect.”
His tongue licks through the spread of my sex, and then he’s kissing me there, softly, tenderly… deeply.
Oh. My. God. “Jason!”
His big hands cup my ass, guiding me to meet his kiss, holding me firm when he hits that spot that makes me buck. Pulling me closer when he sinks his tongue inside, licking and thrusting until the cardboard collapses in my grip and the condoms fall around us.
He licks through my center and moans, bringing the flat of his tongue across my clit as he slides one finger inside and then two.
“Taste so fucking good, Laine.” He pumps inside and teases me with another flick of his tongue. “Can’t get enough.”
“I need you. Inside me, please.”
His lips close around my clit and he sucks, pumping in and out. Stroking against my inner walls with the kind of precision that has me teetering on the brink.
“You come for me like this,” he growls against me, teasing me closer and closer. “Then I’ll give you my cock.”
I don’t know if it’s the promise of what’s to come, or the way his mouth closes around my clit when he sucks just that much harder, or the pressure of his fingers rubbing right against the spot I need him most, but suddenly I’m there—tumbling into freefall, coming apart at this sexy man’s command, no fear of how easily he can dismantle me because something inside me knows he’ll put me back together again.
The moment my body eases, he flips us so he’s between my legs. He rolls on one of the condoms from the bed and meets my eyes before thrusting in to the hilt.
I’m so full of him, for a moment I’m not sure there’s enough room to breathe. But then he leans over me, bringing his mouth to mine. I can taste myself on his lips, his tongue. Just like that I’m on the brink again.
“Feel good, gorgeous?”
My body grips and pulls at his as he thrusts hard and deep, giving me the stretch and pressure I can’t get enough of. Hitting that perfect spot on every stroke.
“Yes,” I whisper, my fingers sifting through his hair. It’s so good, I’m afraid to trust that I’ll be able to keep it. But for now, I’ll take everything I can.
* * *
Two hours later, there are a couple empty coffee mugs on the nightstand and Jason is stretched out on his side wearing the track pants from last night, head propped on his hand. I’m wearing his shirt again with only a single button around my belly button keeping me decent as I lean into a pile of pillows at the headboard.
“So, yes, I’ve worked every job in the hotel,” he says, answering my question, though he seems somewhat distracted running his fingers over the bare skin of my cocked knee, brushing his shirt further aside with each pass. “And also, yes, there was a time when I didn’t want the hotel.”
I offer a dramatic gasp. “What did you want to do?”
That boyish grin is back. “Fly a rocket ship.”
“That doesn’t count! What were you, six?”
“Yeah, what of it? Still counts.”
I love the idea of Jason as a kid wanting to go to space. It’s so normal, when everything about him now seems extraordinary.
“Okay, I answered three of your questions. Now you answer one of mine.”
I nod. “Shoot.”
“What’s the story with your family? I know you’ve got a big one back in Milwaukee, but whenever I’ve asked about them, you’re pretty tight-lipped. Even before I screwed everything up with us, it was like pulling teeth to get anything out of you about them. Are you not close?”
This is a tough subject for me, but after what he shared with me last night, it seems wrong to keep it from him.
“With some, I’m very close. But there’s a rift, and as much as I hate to admit it, I’m in the middle of it.”
A furrow digs between his brows, and the hand that’s been playing at my leg flattens like a source of comfort. “What happened?
“It’s a little like your story, actually.” At his questioning look of surprise, I quickly add, “It wasn’t me getting married. It was my sister. But she wasn’t the one to discover the infidelity.”
“Oh hell. You?”
Bile rises in my throat as I recount what happened that day. The weird vibe I’d been getting. The look in Gerry’s eyes as he pulled me into the spare room in my mother’s house. How I didn’t believe it when my sister’s fiancé kissed me mere hours before his wedding.
Jason stiffens, sitting straighter. “Did you tell her?”
“I couldn’t let her go through with something that monumental without knowing the truth about the man she was marrying.”
Jason relaxes beside me. “She’s lucky to have you.”
I laugh but there’s no humor to it.
“She hasn’t spoken to me in ten years.”
“What?” he coughs out.
“But she did marry the guy. They’re still together. They have a couple of girls I haven’t met.”
“Jesus, she blames you? That’s crazy. You were trying to help her.”
“I was.” I can still see the tears streaming down her face as she demanded to know why I couldn’t give her that one day to be happy. “I can’t help but wonder if I really should have known better. She knew who he was and wanted him anyway.” I meet his eyes. “You remember what Melinda said to Ed? ‘You couldn’t keep it in your pants for one day.’ She knew the kind of man he was. What upset her was that he’d ruined her day. All those years ago, it just seemed cut and dry. Tell the truth, but—”
“No. Listen to me. You can’t second-guess your decision. I know what it’s like to be the last to know. To find out my so-called friends were trying to protect me from the truth. In some ways it hurts worse than discovering Sophia’s infidelity itself. Laine, I have never felt so alone in my whole life as I did when I realized my friends had been willing to let me walk down the aisle with a woman who’d been betraying me the whole time we were together. I only wish I’d had someone like you in my corner. And I can’t tell you how sorry I am that your sister didn’t appreciate what you did.”
Stroking my thumb across his cheekbone, I smile. “Thank you for telling me that.”
“You know you did the right thing, though, don’t you?”
Maybe. “I know that I’m starving,” I tease, wanting to lighten the mood and leave those dark shadows from our pasts behind. “What do you think the chances are of getting some room service up here? Or delivery? Or you can cook for me?”
He laughs and it’s a balm for my soul. “Oh, I can, can I?”
“You’re wooing me, right? Totally.”
“You saying I need to work for it, hmm?”
No. Not even a little. But if he’s offering, I’d love to see what that looks like. So I shrug, batting my lashes at him.
Chapter 7
Saturday, July 4th
Laine
It’s been three weeks since I fell in into Jason’s bed—four since we fell into that cake together, but that didn’t really count—and last night was the first I’ve
spent alone.
It sucked.
My meeting with Connie was supposed to be at two yesterday, but got pushed to four, and then to seven. She didn’t actually free up to sit down with me until closer to nine. When we were still tied up at eleven and I knew Jason had a six thirty meeting this morning, I texted not to wait up.
It was one night. No big deal, right?
Wrong.
I spent half the night awake, frustrated and thrashing in the sheets, kicking at the cold emptiness around me. Which is crazy, because I’ve never been the type to sleep better with another body in the bed. But with Jason, it’s different. When he pulls me into his arms, all the buzzing in my head goes quiet. My muscles ease and I sink into this contentment like I’ve never known.
It’s bliss.
And last night, I didn’t get it.
But now, relief is only a penthouse away.
I’ve made my calls confirming the band, the baker, the florist, the officiant and about a dozen others as well. The bride and bridesmaids have been in hair and makeup for the last ninety minutes and the limo will be picking them up in another forty. Which means the next hour and a half is free and clear to make up for last night.
Heels clicking as I cross the lobby subtly decorated for the fourth with red, white, and blue accents, I wave at Jackie and Bev behind the desk, and head straight for the penthouse elevator where I swipe the card Jason gave me over the sensor.
The doors swish shut and the display flashes to “Private car.”
No security…
Jason
The elevator doors open, and I lose all conscious thought.
Draped provocatively against the rail of the car, Laine is stripped down to a lacy lingerie set and matching heels.
“Morning, baby,” she purrs, making me hard as a spike. Eyes flashing mischief from beneath lowered lids, she teases her fingers along the waist of her tiny panties. “I’ve been thinking about you all night long.”
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