Love Hard

by Nalini Singh

  Leaving her pants pooled around her legs, he leaned in to press a kiss to the top part of her panties, the spot right below her navel. A tremor ran through her. For a moment, she was afraid, confused. Sex had never been like this for her. Not even the first time with Jake.

  But when he looked up at her as if she was his every fantasy come to life, nothing but Esme running in could’ve stopped her from going forward. She lifted a foot and he tugged one leg of her sweatpants off, then waited for her to lift the other foot.

  Two seconds later, her pants were gone.

  Instead of getting to his feet and taking her to the bed afterward, he stayed where he was and ran his hands up her calves and to the backs of her knees, her lower thighs.

  A look up out of dark eyes that ate her up. “Take off the camisole.”

  Her hesitation was instinctive but minute. This was Jake, and Jake had already seen her naked—and come back. Not only that, he’d just told her he loved her body. Raising her arms, she tugged the whisper of satin and lace off over her head and threw it aside. His eyes heated as he took in the bare mounds of her breasts, her nipples chocolate brown and large against the generous weight.

  She’d have been fine if he’d stayed there—her breasts were sexy even if they were never going to be perky. That ship had sailed three cup sizes ago. But he moved his gaze down over her abdomen; Juliet colored, battling the instinct to suck in her stomach. She jogged and she did yoga, but she was never going to have washboard abs like him.

  Her abdomen held a soft outward curve, and it was the one part of her body that she always tried to downplay or obscure with the cut of her clothes.

  But the heat in Jake’s eyes didn’t dim.

  “I love how soft you are, and I love all these dangerous curves,” he said, his voice like gravel as he laved kisses over her abdomen and down to her navel. “I want to take you from behind one day so I can stroke your ass while I thrust inside you.”

  Juliet soaked her panties.

  Never had she thought Jake could talk so dirty.

  Shoving her critical inner voice to the side in favor of Jake’s much sexier one, she wove her fingers in his hair and, when he rose to his knees to press another kiss to her navel, she didn’t make a self-deprecating comment about the softness there. Instead, she closed her eyes and drank in the sensation of his gorgeous body so close to her, his hands on her skin, his breath whispering over her.

  “I just remembered I have to prove my expertise with my tongue.”

  Juliet looked down, her heart thudding double time. “Practice makes perfect.”

  A wicked grin as he hooked his fingers in the sides of her panties.

  Throat dry but a smile on her lips, she didn’t protest, just silently raised one foot, then the other. His next kiss was to the curls at the apex of her thighs. One big hand spread against her left inner thigh, a gentle push.

  Taking the hint, she spread her legs, and he hooked one up over his shoulder. Juliet dug her heel into his bare back. She couldn’t look down, was certain she’d explode. But it was almost worse, not being able to see what he’d do next.

  He didn’t tease.

  He just spread her open with the fingers of one hand and ate her up. Stifling her cry against her forearm, she gripped his hair tighter. In response, he pushed her other leg out wider and settled in for a deeper taste. A suck of her clitoris had everything in her clenching and tiny white lights bursting in front of her eyes—she wanted him so much and he was doing the most delicious, decadent thing to her.

  The first time she’d been shocked into pleasure. It was even better now that she and Jake weren’t just lovers for a single night. He stroked and kissed her through the first orgasm, then set his mind to tenderly, determinedly, pushing her up over a second peak. Her knees buckled during it, but Jake caught her. A very smug Jake. She’d never before seen that particular look on his face. It suited him.

  “What’s my grade?” he asked, his lips slick with her.

  Cradled naked in his arms, her body trembling with aftershocks, she pressed a kiss to his neck. “B plus.” She patted his rumbling chest. “Gotta keep you keen to improve.” Though she’d be deceased if he improved any further.

  A masculine chuckle. “I think you like my tongue, Jules.”

  Boneless, she just kissed his throat.

  Rising as if she weighed nothing—and no, that was never not going to make her swoon—he walked over to the bed and dropped her on the mattress. She might’ve felt self-conscious lying naked on the crisp white sheets, all skin and curves, except that he’d already done something excruciatingly intimate to her—and she’d loved it.

  Holding her gaze with the glittering dark of his, he dropped his hands to the top of his jeans and undid the button. She found herself biting down on her bottom lip as she watched his hands move.

  He undid the zipper, waited.

  She made a sound in the back of her throat and looked up… to see a slow smile light up his face.

  Instead of flushing, she felt her lips curve too. “Tease.”

  He leaned over to kiss her, arms braced on the bed beside her. She could taste herself on him, and it was the most intimate thing she’d ever done with another person. Raising one hand, she petted his chest as they kissed and there was an innocent, bright happiness inside her that terrified.

  Nothing had ever felt this good. This right.

  When he pushed back off the bed this time, he took off his jeans. His boxer briefs were a simple white. The head of his erection pushed out from the top, the tip rounded and slick. Stripping off his briefs, he dropped them on the carpet and put one knee on the bed.

  Feeling wild, Juliet spread her legs.

  A deep sound in his throat before he wrenched open a bedside drawer and pulled out a box he must’ve put in there at some stage. He swore as he fought to tear off the plastic. Removing one flat packet soon afterward, he sheathed himself with quick, efficient hands. Hands that shook slightly.

  If she’d had any defenses left, they would’ve collapsed into dust at that moment.

  She wrapped her arms around him as he came over her, and lifted her head to kiss his jaw. He looked down, cupped one hip with his hand, and began to work himself into her. He clearly knew he was of a size to make things difficult if he wasn’t careful, but she was so wet from what he’d done to her that her body stretched with languorous ease.

  Ripples of pleasure washing over her, she buried her face in his neck. He thrust home. It shocked a small cry out of her.

  “Jules?” Taut, rigid muscle above and around her.

  “Good,” she gasped out. “So good, Jake.” She felt full to the limit but in a way that made every nerve ending quiver. As she pressed kisses to whatever part of his body she could reach, he began to move, slow and easy at first, then into a rolling motion that had her back arching under him and her body spasming uncontrollably in an orgasm that seemed to stretch into eternity.

  “Fuck!” Shoving one hand under her ass, he gripped the curve of her cheek and held her as he thrust in and out in a hard and fast rhythm that made her pleasure-drunk bones shudder on another erotic wave.

  Quivering in the aftermath, she held his sweat-filmed body as he found his own pleasure. The affection she felt for him right then wasn’t affection at all. It was deeper, far more dangerous.

  He came with a deep groan before collapsing on her. She gave a small “oof” because he was heavy, but she wrapped herself around him too. Because it was Jake.

  * * *

  Jake’s mind was addled. He’d lost all control there at the end, and now he was crushing Juliet, but he couldn’t seem to gather together the strength to move. His muscles trembled, his entire body in a kind of shock.

  The first time with Juliet had been good, really good, but this was…

  He had no words.

  Nuzzling at her throat, he managed to make himself functional enough to roll them both over so he was lying on his back with her sprawled on top of
him. He kept his arm around her, his hand possessive on the curve of her hip. His chest heaved, his heart pounding so hard that, had he been on the field, his coach would’ve ripped into him for being out of condition—but there was no training for this.

  For Juliet.

  “Whoa.”

  She snorted out a giggle at his statement, a funny and adorable sound. It made him want to laugh, and he’d never laughed in bed.

  “Was that normal?” he asked in a deliberate echo of their first time together.

  “No,” Juliet confirmed with a kiss to his pectoral. “Can I ask a question? You don’t have to answer.”

  He stroked her hip. “I have no secrets from you, Jules. Ask.”

  “How did you and Calypso manage? I mean, you were both virgins at the time and you’re not exactly small—but Callie told me it was good, and she was blushing and smiling at the time, so I believed her.”

  “Jeez, do girls really talk about everything?”

  “Pretty much. Also, I was a virgin and wanted intel from my best friend.”

  Jake grinned at the idea of shy Calypso whispering said intel to Juliet. “I have two older brothers,” he told her. “They sat me down when I began to notice girls that way and gave me “the talk”—and they gave me the best advice anyone can give a teenage boy.”

  Raising herself up on her elbow, Juliet pushed the tangled mass of her hair off her face. “What?” She put her hand back down on his chest, spread her fingers.

  “That if I could make it feel good for my girl, chances were much higher she’d let me see her naked again.” Jake shrugged. “I mean, most teenage boys are all about doing anything to increase chances of female nakedness, so I took serious note.”

  Juliet’s shoulders shook. “Did they give you pointers too?”

  “A few,” Jake admitted, thinking back to that day when Sailor and Gabe had taken him out for a drive. He hadn’t been of drinking age, but when they’d brought the vehicle to a stop by a black sand beach, the waves crashing to shore in the distance, the three of them had sat on the tailgate and Gabe had let him have half a beer while they talked.

  It had made him feel like an adult, and the resulting conversation hadn’t been embarrassing, rather a rite of passage he remembered warmly. He knew they’d done the same for Danny, too, when their youngest brother got to that age.

  “I still messed up with Calypso,” he said, then looked at Juliet. “Is this weird? Me and you talking about that?”

  “No, Jake.” A soft smile. “She was part of your life. Part of my life. It’s okay to remember her—if you don’t, you’re shutting off a whole important chunk of your life.”

  Reid, he thought, was a fucking moron. He’d given up Juliet. But better for Jake. “I was so excited that I busted my nut in a matter of seconds.” He’d been painfully embarrassed in the aftermath. “She was really sweet about it though. Later, she said she liked all the other stuff, and could we do more of that, so we did, and we somehow figured things out.”

  He smiled at the memory of that long-ago experience.

  Her lips curving, Juliet put her head down on his shoulder. “Did she ever tell you that I stole the pregnancy test for her?”

  Jake’s hand tightened on her hip. “No. Why did you have to steal it?” Calypso’s parents had given her a good allowance.

  “We were both so paranoid that it’d spread all over the school if we got caught. My aunt would’ve assumed it was for me, and the shit would’ve hit the fan.”

  Yet she’d done it anyway because Juliet was loyal, stood by her people. “What happened?” They’d obviously gotten away with it.

  “We took the bus to another suburb, then went into a supermarket and bought a whole bunch of stuff—cookies and things—while I pocketed the test. I checked to see if it had a strip to set off the detectors but couldn’t find one. But the detectors went off when we went through—I swear, I almost sweated through my cardigan. Calypso went sheet-white.”

  A gentle laugh. “We froze while the security guard came over, and he said, ‘Girls, let’s see what you have there,’ and we showed him the bag of stuff we’d bought and he checked the receipt and said, ‘Looks all good. Off you go then.’”

  More laughter. “We didn’t say a word until we were around the corner from the supermarket, then we collapsed onto the curb and had a hyperventilating session. God, we were so young.” She blew out a breath. “The next week, we went back and put the money for the test in a charity box at the supermarket because we felt so guilty about stealing.”

  Jake listened, learning of a part of Calypso’s pregnancy experience that he’d never before known. The nerves she must’ve suffered, the worry. Made a little better because of a friend who’d kept all her secrets, no matter how big or small. “When did she do the test?”

  “That day. We found a public toilet in a nice mall—all clean and shiny. Calypso wouldn’t go into any of the public toilets in the parks or anywhere else.”

  “Yeah, she never would.”

  “I had to stand outside and guard the door just in case someone barged in while she did it. She came out with the finished test hidden in the box and stashed in her backpack, but I could tell the answer from the look on her face.” Juliet’s voice grew thick. “I gave her this big hug and told her that you wouldn’t abandon her.”

  Jake went motionless at the echo of confidence in her voice. “Yeah?”

  “You might’ve been a gearhead jock, but you took your responsibilities seriously.”

  They lay in silence for several moments, the past weaving with the present. He thought if Calypso was up there, she’d be pleased to see them this way—she’d always wanted them to be friends. And if she wasn’t here to raise her daughter, then who better than the best friend who’d never let her down?

  Such a leap from nemesis to lover to his woman, the one he’d trust to help him raise his child. It seemed too fast. But he and Juliet, they already knew each other in ways many couples never did. As Times Square blazed outside, he tightened his hold on her.

  30

  A Kiss in Times Square

  The next day followed much the same pattern as the first, though he had fewer work commitments. After those were complete, they returned to the hotel for a rest. While Esme napped, he and Juliet turned on the music and danced together as they hadn’t at the wedding.

  All slow and sexy and pasted together.

  He left her only long enough to put on the sailor cap he’d bought from a novelty shop back home. “Couldn’t find the full suit,” he said, walking out of the bedroom. “How’s this?”

  Laughing in open delight, she held up a hand as she backed to the door of the suite. “Five minutes.”

  She returned in under that time wearing a knockout dress in dark pink, her feet in those skyscraper black heels he adored.

  Bending her over his arm to re-create the famous kiss, Jake said, “You are the sexiest, most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

  Her lips parted.

  He kissed her, tender at first, then all tongue and sex.

  Since she was wearing a dress, he also got his hand on the bare skin of her thigh. She retaliated by cupping his growing erection. Drawing her back into a standing position, he glanced at the room where Esme slept before tugging her into his bedroom.

  “Quickie?”

  She shimmied out of her panties in response.

  That was how Jake got to live out his fantasy of taking her pinned against a wall, her long legs wrapped around him. She came quick and hard around him, setting him off. They were still entangled when he heard Esme call out his name.

  Groaning, he disengaged and went to get rid of the condom.

  Juliet was in the living room cuddling Esme by the time he came out.

  His heart didn’t stand a chance.

  Then, a day later, his angelic little girl threw two uncharacteristic tantrums out of nowhere. Except he knew those tantrums weren’t out of nowhere. She was picking up on the growing
emotional connection between him and Juliet.

  Jake wondered if Juliet would react with dismay, but she took it in stride. Jake was so fascinated by her reaction that he mentioned it while Esme was stomping around in her room, refusing to talk to them.

  She burst out laughing. “Jake, honey, have you forgotten who you’re talking to? I was the resident bad girl in high school. Esme can’t do anything I haven’t done a hundred times worse.”

  As a result of Juliet’s calm and unfazed response—all of it backed up by hugs and affection when Esme came out of her room at last—his baby girl began to settle around Juliet in a way she’d never before done around someone who wasn’t a member of the family. She was starting to learn that whether she threw a tantrum or threw up over Juliet or refused to eat the food that she’d especially asked for, Juliet wouldn’t respond by rejecting her.

  That night and the next, their final one in New York, Esme asked for good-night hugs from both of them. The three of them had spent that night out in the lights of the city—and though he had no sailor hat, Jake got to kiss Juliet in Times Square. He did it while Esme was momentarily distracted by watching fireworks high above. It felt as if they were inside him, tiny bursts of light and happiness.

  “Be mine?” he whispered, then glanced down at the little hand she held in hers. “Be ours?”

  Wide eyes, fear in them yet, but she nodded, her eyes colored in all the hues of Times Square. This time Jake kissed her while Esme was looking. His daughter cried out in glee, and they both had to go down and kiss her on the cheek, one on either side of her.

  His girls. His heart.

  * * *

  Things went to shit the instant they landed in New Zealand. Jake took his phone off airplane mode as they walked along the air bridge, then tucked it into his back pocket. It began to vibrate over and over within seconds.

  Frowning at the deluge of messages, he retrieved the phone while Juliet and Esme walked on ahead hand in hand, the two of them chatting animatedly. Esme had entrusted Juliet with Mr. Mouse but pulled her princess carry-on. Jake was pulling Juliet’s so she had an arm free for the stuffed toy, his own carry-on a team duffel he had over one shoulder.