He brushed a hand over his hair. “Right.”
“Sit.” She patted the bed beside her.
He sat. Not because he necessarily wanted to, but it was becoming clear he had no power around her.
His hand crept toward hers. The damn thing seemed to have a mind of its own.
She placed her palm over his knuckles. “Jase. I feel like where we’re going with this could be a really bad idea.”
“Where exactly are we going with this?” He set his mug beside hers. Communication sucked.
“Hooking up. Climbing each other in elevators.”
He swallowed so hard his Adam’s apple practically bobbed right out of his throat. Communication definitely sucked. They weren’t even officially together, and she was giving him the brush-off. He slipped his hand away from hers. His dick pouted.
“I mean, I do want that. I just want the rest of it, too,” she finished.
He cleared his throat. “What’s the rest of it?”
“The idea that it could actually lead somewhere. I get it, you want to hook up and move on. I want the chance it might lead to more.”
“Picket fence? Dog? Kids?” he asked.
She threaded her fingertips through the edge of the bedspread. “Well, yeah.”
“Heather, I’ve done the forever shit. It’s a lie. Had the picket fence. Had the dog. Wanted the kids. It doesn’t work out.” Because a wife eventually leaves and takes the dog with her. He couldn’t open himself up to that. Not again.
Heather continued to look at him as though they were discussing the cumulus clouds in the sky and not his failed marriage. “Did it ever occur to you that maybe it didn’t work out because you were with the wrong person?”
Every goddamned day.
He smashed his lips together. He did not want to talk about this.
“I like you, Jase. Maybe we should try this thing? Be open to us not ending. To us seeing where it goes. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. But maybe we could try. Maybe it’d be good for both of us…”
“Maybe we could try.” He echoed her words, but his were filled with frustration. How the hell was he supposed to try?
Elbows on his knees, he dropped his head to his hands.
Her hand came to his back and rubbed a particularly tense spot between his shoulder blades. “We don’t have to. I won’t be mad.”
He glanced to her then. The loneliness in her eyes took his breath. No, she wouldn’t be mad, just disappointed—and that was worse.
“Heather, I’m not good at the long-term gig. I’m just not.” She had to understand that.
“I’m not asking you to be. I’m just asking that we both go into this without expecting it to end quickly. Or at all.” She studied his blue bedspread.
“It’s better to go into a hookup with your eyes wide open,” he said.
“That’s what we’re doing, then? Just hooking up?”
“And hanging out.”
“Exclusively?” she asked.
“Well, yeah.”
“Jase?” she said. “That’s called a relationship.”
Noooooooo. Nope. It sure as hell wasn’t. Relationships meant dinners with family and waking up together. Two things he did not partake in. Although, he wouldn’t mind waking up next to Heather. If they spent any amount of time together, his family would be involved. Which meant…
Shit.
They were in the relationship zone.
“We could try,” she whispered.
This time her words weren’t frustrated. They were hopeful. God, how long had it been since he’d felt any kind of hope?
“Only if you’re ready.” She leaned into him, her tits pressed into his back.
Fuck, no, he wasn’t ready.
But she wasn’t asking for promises, just hope.
His dick twitched, ready to come out and try. The disloyal bastard.
He could go into this thing they had going without looking toward an ending. It’d be hard as all fuck, but he could manage. His blood pressure skipped. He was going to do this. Really going to give it the effort.
With an exaggerated, resigned breath, he turned to her, caught her mouth with his. She wrapped her arms around his neck.
“You,” he practically growled. “Make. Me. Crazy.” He punctuated each word with a kiss against the skin of her neck.
“Ditto.” Her chest pressed against his.
“We’ll try this your way,” he conceded, waiving his white flag in defeat.
Her breath caught, and her breasts heaved. “Really?”
He pulled his shirt off of her in one quick motion. “Really. I just have one request.”
She gripped his arms and wrapped her legs around his torso, the heated core of her center rubbing against him. “Yeah?”
“Don’t tell my family.”
She paused, inhaled deep. Frown lines creased around the edges of her mouth. “What?”
“Just…let’s have this for us. Just us. For a while.” Because once his family got involved, it’d be a fucking free-for-all.
“Jase…” She started to pull away. “Babushka is going to know what’s going on.”
And that’s what he worried about most. He’d like to put that off as long as possible.
“Just for now,” he assured. Until the time was right.
She let out a deep breath. “Just for now?”
“I want this.” He pressed himself against her. “Don’t get me wrong.”
“Okay.” She kissed him, a light brush of her mouth against his.
“Can we have sex yet?” he asked.
“Yes, please.” She pressed a deeper kiss to his lips.
He pushed her back onto the bed, pinned her arms over her head, holding them there with one hand while he kissed his way down her face. Her neck. Her chest.
She ground against him. The power had somehow shifted, but he couldn’t be sure if she held it now, or if he did. All he knew for certain was that he wanted her.
For now, maybe that was enough.
“I’d tell you you’re beautiful, but you should already know that.”
“Something like that is always worth saying,” she replied.
They pressed against each other, the barrier of her lace underwear and his boxers the only thing keeping them apart. He kissed down to her belly button, to the edge of her panties, and yanked them off. He skimmed his hands up her thighs, over the skin that had driven him crazy. Her knees fell apart.
He kissed her wet center. Diving in with his mouth, his tongue.
She bent her knees and lifted herself to him.
Sweetness. Her. He poured everything he had into her pleasure. Gripping her ass. Pulling her to him.
His dick literally wept at the beauty of all that was Heather.
He should probably say something, but his tongue was presently busy, and given the moaning coming from his pillow, she wasn’t going to be talking for a while. Not if he had anything to say about it.
Her knees began to tremble as her orgasm took over. He continued to work as it wracked through her. He should’ve known she’d come fast and with her whole body. Heather Reese didn’t do anything halfway.
“Jase.” Her head lulled to the side as she came down. But he wasn’t done with her yet.
A quick kiss to the inside of her thigh before he lifted himself to his knees and reached for the little wooden box he kept on his nightstand. “I’m not done.”
Holding the condom in his hand, she pressed a kiss to his mouth and started humming something against his lips. A song he vaguely recognized. From a game show.
Wait, what the hell was she doing? He pulled back.
“Well, don’t stop.” She gripped his back, pulled him to her, and started humming again.
“Are you humming the theme song to Jeopardy during foreplay?” Women had done a lot of shit in bed with him, but he’d never had one do that.
“Uh-huh,” she muttered, catching his mouth with hers in a kiss that defied all rea
son.
She pressed herself against him so there was nothing he wanted more than to be inside her.
She rolled him so she was on top and ran her palms over his bare abs, working her way down the muscles to his boxers. With a little help from him, she tugged his boxers off and tossed them on the floor beside the bed.
That was more like it.
She trailed little kisses along Jase’s waist, down the little line of hair leading to his—she started humming again. The laugh that burst from his mouth was totally unexpected.
This time he hauled her up his chest, flipped her on her back, and fell on top of her, holding himself up on his forearms, effectively halting progress on his own orgasm as he laughed into the sheet beside her head. “What the hell are you doing?” he finally asked.
She lifted his head with her palms, catching his gaze with her own. “You don’t like television. I figured I’d start conditioning you to enjoy it by humming theme songs while you do something enjoyable.”
Serious? She was totally serious. Her expression was one of total sincerity. For the first time since his first time, he had a woman nearly naked in his bed and he had no idea what to do with her.
Then she burst out giggling. “Sorry. I’ll be serious. Look, this is me being serious.”
“I have no idea what to do with you, sugar.” He pressed a kiss to her mouth, both of them chuckling against each other. She ran her hands down his back, and it took less than two seconds for things to heat back up. The laughter turned into a moan, and he made sure Alex Trebek was the furthest thing from her mind.
Condom still in hand, he slipped the latex over his ready-to-get-in-on-the-action dick.
Then he was inside her. And it was amazing, her body wrapped around him.
And screw it all…trying was fucking fun.
15
Chapter Fifteen
Heather burrowed under the covers of Jase’s bed, his thigh between her legs, his arm draped across her belly. They’d spent the day together, and the night, and now Monday had arrived. She had to get home, showered, and to the shop before it opened.
She started to roll away from Jase, but his arm tightened.
“Stay.” The word was muffled by his pillow.
“Work,” she replied, brushing the hair from his forehead.
“Stay.” His thigh began to rub against her core, the sparks between them burning bright. “Please,” he muttered before turning his body along the length of hers.
“Cookies don’t bake themselves.” She pecked a kiss against his lips. “And I’ve got to meet with the retirement-home director in a few hours about prom logistics.”
“You want to talk about prom decorations?” His hand trailed over her belly, and, oh, screw it. Talking about prom was basically like going to work while staying in bed.
She led his hand lower past the waistband of her panties. “Sure.”
That was basically work, anyway. They could multitask.
He smiled and proceeded to move his fingers to the spot that would definitely have her calling in for a personal day. “I was thinking about our garden theme. Drew some sketches of what I’m thinking for the event.”
He withdrew his hand to grab a sketch pad from the crate nightstand.
The drawing was a basic sketch with the general layout of the room she’d provided. He’d marked where he’d put trellises and pillars and a crap load of flowers.
The idea was really good, but not the Jungle Safari theme she’d built up in her head. She did her best to let that go. “I like it.”
He studied her, then the drawing. “What’s wrong with it?”
“I said I like it.”
“See, you said that, but your whole body tensed when you looked. And you got all distant.”
“I did not. I said I like it, and I do.” She did.
He rolled and raised himself over her, his forearms on either side of her shoulders. “Tell the truth. You hate the idea?”
“No.” She didn’t hate it. “I just had the jungle theme in my head. I need to adjust. That’s all.”
“Where’d the jungle theme idea come from, anyway?” he asked.
She lifted her head to kiss him. “It’s not important. I like your idea. Let’s do it.”
Heather let out a moan as his mouth met hers, and his hand moved to where he’d had it before, and seriously, shouldn’t every day start with a solid finger bang?
She whimpered in response, riding his hand as he took her higher, pausing and starting over, making it last. Drawing it out.
He kissed along the line of her lips, across her cheek, down the column of her throat, stopping to give attention to her breasts before moving down her belly. He moved his thumb, pulled her panties to her thighs, and dropped his mouth to her. Sucking, licking, and basically giving her the best morning she’d ever had.
He stopped for a moment. “Where’d the theme come from, Heather?”
What? “Jase?”
“The jungle theme, where’d it come from?”
“Are you holding my orgasm hostage until I tell you?”
He lowered his mouth in reply, bringing her just to the edge before stopping again. “Where’d the idea come from?” he asked again.
“This is torture, you know that, right?” She glared at him.
“Where’d the idea come from?”
Now it was a game. A game she absolutely didn’t mind playing.
He started again. This time he took her closer, bringing her nearly to the edge before stopping. Again.
“High school.” There, she’d said it. “That was the theme of the prom I didn’t get to go to.”
She swore he dropped an f-bomb, but then it didn’t matter because he was doing his thing again. He made a come-here motion with the two fingers inside her and that was that. The orgasm took her. Noises were made. She pressed her head against the pillow, but his hand didn’t stop, his mouth continued, until she rode the wave back down.
Jase made waking up the kind of experience a girl could really appreciate.
He reached for the box on the nightstand, but she got there first, grabbing a plastic-wrapped condom and tearing it open. She pulled her panties off and neither of them spoke. Jase, on his knees, his erection ready and waiting for her. She rolled the condom over his solid length, watching as his eyes dropped closed. He sucked in a breath. She squeezed the root and met him chest to chest, her hand still gripping him.
“Jase?” She kissed him, his mouth meeting hers, hungry.
“Hmm.” He didn’t stop the kiss, continued it as her hand stroked him over the latex.
“We don’t have to keep doing it this way. We’re exclusive. I’m clean. I’m on the pill,” she said against the side of his mouth.
Something changed in his eyes when she mentioned the pill—she’d swear it was fear. But that wasn’t right. This was Jase.
“As long as you’re clean and all that,” she continued.
He pulled back, his hands framing her face. “Yeah, I’m clean.”
And then it didn’t matter because he was kissing her again, rolling to his back so she could ride him like the cowgirl she was not.
Knees on both sides of his hips, he filled her, and she took him. Hard. Hard because he pushed her to. Head tossed back, she let him have everything. She pressed down, he pressed up. It was like all weekend he’d treated her like she was made of glass. But now? Maybe he realized she wasn’t so fragile.
She brought herself to the edge, the orgasm tightening, ready to spring. Hands gripping her ass, he moved with her. Gripped her hard.
A groan fell from her as the coil inside cinched.
Midthrust, he sat up, still inside her, and shifted her to her back, him to his knees, never stopping. This was some kind of challenge. She scraped her fingernails over his chest, across his nipples. This time, he groaned, and she released.
Ankles around his shoulders, she arched her back as the orgasm started. He didn’t pause as she clenched around him, t
he biggest orgasm she’d ever had consuming her as he continued pushing them both forward and over together.
This wasn’t the gentle guy she’d been having sex with all weekend. This was a morning fuck, pure and simple.
And she loved it. Her body responded in a way she’d never thought possible, clenching and pulsing around his erection.
Then he pressed inside her, stilled, and… Jase was a gorgeous man, but when he came? He wasn’t just gorgeous, he was transcendent. She couldn’t pull her gaze from him.
Yeah, being a partner to that was pretty exhilarating.
Both of them breathing hard, he dropped his forehead to hers. She kissed him and trailed her palms up the sides of his chest.
He’d just given her one of the best orgasms of her life.
“Catch up for dinner?” she asked.
“I can’t.” He brushed her hair behind her ear and pushed up off of her. Not even a kiss.
“How about tomorrow?”
He headed for the bathroom. “Tomorrow’s out, too.”
Her heart fell to her stomach.
“Ohh-kay,” she said to the empty room, her voice shaky. It hit her what had just happened. He’d said what he needed to say to have a sex-filled weekend, and now it was time for him to scrap her from his life.
She pushed up and off the bed in an incredibly ungraceful dismount, digging through the sheets for her underwear.
“Tonight, the guys are coming to hang drywall,” he said to her back. “I promised pizza.”
Right. Drywall.
“We’re behind schedule, and Eli’s on my ass to get in his new kitchen,” Jase continued.
He said it, but something was off. He was pulling away. Which made sense. This was Jase. She’d let herself forget this was Jase. He gave her the goodbye fuck and he’d send her on her way. This was the game.
“Okay,” she repeated. “I have to catch up at the shop, anyway. I get it. Maybe the day after tomorrow?”
She didn’t get it. But she’d opened up, she’d spent a weekend in bed with him, and now it was Monday and he’d just said goodbye in the only way he knew how.
“I’m working on the renovation tomorrow, too,” he continued.
Blow Me Away: A sexy, friends to lovers rom com! (A Mile High Matched Novel Book 2) Page 12
