Jena pushed back from the table, shaking her head. “I may be tipsy, but I’m not stupid. I’m the worst player here. I’d be sitting here naked in—” she mentally counted clothing items “—five hands, if shoes count as two. I’ll just get some fresh air.” Ignoring the catcalls, Jena stepped out onto the balcony and looked out at the lights of the city.
She smiled when she felt a warm body behind her, and Nick’s hand gripped the rail next to her. “Let’s see,” Nicholas murmured, “what I learned about Jena today. She looks deadly hot in a swimsuit, is damn strong for a girl, can drink like a fish, and there are semi-naked pictures of her floating around that I would kill for. All in all, not a bad haul of information.”
Jena felt his lips ghost down one side of her neck as his good hand whispered down the other side, coming to rest at her shoulder. She groaned and shuddered as his thumb rubbed gently across the bone at the base of her neck. Nick’s breath tickled her skin as he smiled.
“Found a spot, didn’t I?” He adjusted his position until his mouth was over Jena’s personal Bermuda Triangle, and his tongue swirled against the sensitive spot. Jena had to hold on to the rail to keep upright as her knees buckled.
“This is such a bad idea. And totally unfair, Cooper,” she said.
Nicholas trailed his lips up to whisper in her ear. “No, unfair is five clothing items. Shoes counting as two.” His hand ran down Jena’s hip and across her bottom. “No panty lines. Do I have to ask?”
Jena shrugged. “Laundry didn’t get done.”
Nicholas leaned his forehead against Jena’s shoulder and chuckled. He ran his hand down her back and stopped to rub the sueded texture of her old khakis. “Is everything about you soft, Jena?” he whispered, running his hand around the front of her hip to rest it on her thigh.
Jena trailed her hand over Nick’s forearm, feeling the sinew and muscle. “Is everything about you hard, Nicholas?”
They both caught their breath at that one. “Yes,” Nick growled, using his hand on Jena’s thigh to pull her flush against him.
He wasn’t kidding.
Nicholas laughed shakily after a second. “Never, never, never get that verbal filter fixed, Jena. Seriously.”
His hand had traveled high on Jena’s thigh when he pulled her back, his fingers slipping under the hem of her shorts. He took a step backward, until he could collapse back on one of the loungers with Jena on his lap. His hand moved higher still, sliding back and forth on the moist, silky skin where her leg joined her body.
“An unfortunate side effect of being too lazy to wash panties yesterday,” Jena said breathlessly, plunging her hand into Nicholas’s hair as he ran his tongue and lips over her neck. “No absorbency.”
“Okay. It’s official. You’ve killed me,” Nick muttered, trailing his hand over Jena’s stomach until he was brushing the underside of her breast. She felt him shift uncomfortably, and was suddenly aware that she was leaning on his injured arm.
Jena leapt up and ran a shaky hand over her hair. “Crap. I’m sorry, Nicholas. I totally forgot—your arm, I mean.” She rubbed a spot between her eyebrows as she tended to do when stressed. “Shit, shit, shit,” Jena muttered. Plan Let’s-Just-Be-Friends didn’t seem to be working out.
Nicholas laughed, finally managing to lurch out of the Adirondack chair when Jena grabbed his hand and helped him up. He held on to her hand and tugged her closer. “You didn’t hurt my arm, but I’m pretty uncomfortable somewhere else.” He released her hand to run a finger down her cheek. “You should blush for what you do to me. I can’t resist you at all.” He leaned down and nibbled at Jena’s jaw line. She sighed, tilting her head so Nick could reach more territory.
Fuck self-control. It’s overrated, Jena decided.
Running her hands up from where they were resting on his hips and pushing the fabric of his shirt aside until she could brush the taut muscles of his stomach, Jena played with the slight mist of wiry hair that covered them. Nicholas gasped when Jena drew her nails lightly down the skin of his lower back, and she felt his erection twitch underneath his loose shorts as he pressed against her. Jena chuckled deep in her throat.
She was dragged back to the present by Conor’s voice as he passed the glass doors on his way to the kitchen. “Remember what I said…”
“What the hell?” Nicholas asked, exasperated, as Jena stumbled backward. “What’s he talking about?”
Jena drew a shuddery breath. “Nothing. Just…I need to think for a minute. That’s my problem. I never think when I drink.” She turned and moved shakily through the door, the ache in her lower stomach making it uncomfortable to walk.
“Hey, Jen! Ready to play yet?” Leisa asked brightly. Jena had to laugh reluctantly at the crew assembled at the table. Samantha only seemed to be missing a shoe, and Conor looked comfortable in jeans, while Travis was down to socks and boxers and Leisa was clinging desperately to her thong. The Jäger bottle appeared to be empty, so that item of clothing could be expected to be lost at any moment, Jena thought.
“Not right now, Leis. Potty break.” Jena kept her eyes turned away from the patio doors as she walked down the hall to the bathroom, though she could feel Nicholas watching her.
Once the door was closed behind her, Jena leaned against the cool wall, willing her heart to stop thwanging and her breathing to slow down, waiting for her self-control to reassert itself. This was Nicholas, the guy who slept with her and promptly forgot all about her. Was she actually considering going down that road again? As loud as her brain was shouting No, her body was crying Yes.
“Oh, fuck,” she muttered, staring at herself in the mirror. “What am I doing?”
There was a soft knock on the door. “Jena?” Nicholas’s voice was quiet and husky. “Come out, please?”
Jena took a deep breath and splashed some water on her face before opening the door. Nick was leaning on the wall a few steps down the hall, looking at the floor, and his face in profile took her breath away again.
He looked up from under his lashes and smiled, holding his hand out to her. Of course, Jena took it, abandoning herself to feelings of idiocy as Nicholas pulled her into a darkened room. The door closed with a soft click as he pressed their bodies against it.
“Don’t think anymore, Jena,” he said, nuzzling his face in the crook of her neck and running his nose and lips slowly upward to kiss the side of her face. “Feel.” He ran his palm from Jena’s shoulder to her hand, bringing it under his shirt to stroke his stomach. “Do you like the way I feel?”
“God, yes!” Jena whispered, and Nicholas chuckled. “Can I unbutton this shirt, Nicholas?”
He nodded against Jena’s shoulder, and she heard his raggedly indrawn breath when she could push some of the fabric aside and run her fingers lightly over his skin. Not enough. The shirt had to come off.
Jena unbuckled the chest strap of Nicholas’s sling and slid one side of his shirt off the shoulder of his good arm, touching and kissing and nipping each inch of skin as it was exposed. Nicholas groaned, dropping his face into her hair and then leaning down so Jena could pull the shoulder strap over his head and slide the shirt off entirely. When she moved to swing the strap back over his head, Nicholas caught her hand.
“Please, can I keep it off for a while?” His voice was a low rumble. “I want to be able to feel you against me. I promise to be careful. I just need to touch you with both hands.”
Well, when you put it that way…Jena thought.
She dropped the sling on the floor. Nicholas’s hands slid up her sides, pushing her shirt up until he could tug it over her head. She shuddered when he pushed her bra aside and she felt the warm wetness of his tongue.
“Truth in advertising at last,” he said in a low voice. “I’ve wanted to do this since you walked in the door tonight and I saw your damned teasing shirt.”
A quiet knock on the door startled Jena.
Travis sounded apologetic. “Jen? Leisa passed out. No one is safe to drive, so Conor offe
red us the use of the couch. You need some blankets and a spot to sleep in?”
Jena hesitated. This was going much too fast. Maybe it was time to shut it down and move out in the living room with Travis and Leisa.
Nicholas seemed to read her mind. “Stay,” he whispered, rubbing his stubbly cheek on Jena’s neck as he nibbled at her collarbone.
Trav knocked again. “Jen?”
“Stay. I promise, no further than you want to go, Jena. Please.” Nicholas’s warm breath in her ear as he pulled her close and ran his hands down her back made Jena moan.
“Gettin’ worried out here, Jen.” Travis’s voice held a warning.
“Just…stay with me. I thought I could let you go, but…” Nicholas made a sound deep in his chest and dropped his mouth onto Jena’s with a grunt, drawing her tongue with his and holding her against the door with his weight. Jena could feel every inch of him against her and gave up her internal struggle, wrapping her arms around Nick’s neck and twisting her fingers in his hair as she returned his kiss with passion.
“If you don’t say something right now, I’m coming in.”
Jena broke away from Nick’s kiss, breathing roughly. She knew that tone. Travis was not screwing around.
Pushing Nicholas back, Jena cracked the door open. Travis was back in his shorts and looked dangerously ready to break the door down. When she poked her head out, he relaxed. “I’m fine, Trav. I’ll see you in the morning,” Jena whispered.
“Sure you will.” Travis smirked, taking in Jena’s disheveled appearance and lingering on her naked shoulder. Are you sure? he mouthed, raising an eyebrow.
Fuck, yes, Jena mouthed back, echoing their interchange from New Year’s Eve.
Travis shook his head and laughed, heading back down the hall. “G’night, Nick,” he tossed over his shoulder.
Nicholas’s answering laugh came from deeper in the room. Jena turned to see him sitting at the foot of his bed, lounging back on his uninjured arm. He sat up to beckon her forward with his finger.
Jena’s face twisted into a smile of embarrassment as she moved slowly forward until she was standing between his legs. His hands caressed her waist and hips as he pressed soft kisses on her belly.
“God, you’re beautiful, Jena,” he murmured, tracing the skin above the waistband of her pants with his tongue. “You’re so soft…” His hands ran over Jena’s bottom to squeeze gently before trailing down the backs of her thighs. “And you smell so good…”
His nose tickled the skin around Jena’s belly button as he inhaled. He sighed and rested his forehead on her stomach for a moment before lying back and drawing Jena with him. Jena could feel his erection pushing insistently against her as she straddled him, and instinctively shifted to find a better position. Nicholas held her still for an instant, his breathing shallow, before shifting her to lie down beside him. He settled next to her and Jena felt his hand gliding over her skin, tracing the shapes of her breasts and throat and waist; she sighed and moved closer to him.
“You’re making it very hard—” he stopped as Jena chuckled “—very difficult to be good, Jena.” His hands slipped lower, until they were stroking the soft skin of her inner thighs as his tongue teased her nipples again. Jena gasped, grasping at his shoulders, her hips raising instinctively toward the friction his arm offered against the crotch of her shorts.
“Fuck being good,” Nicholas muttered, slightly out of breath. His eyes rose to capture hers. “Jena, can I do something?”
Jena nodded, wide-eyed.
Nicholas shifted again, and Jena felt his fingers at the button of her shorts. He pulled the zipper down slowly, and tugged the fabric down as she lifted her hips slightly. She heard the shorts drop on the floor.
“Skootch up a bit.” Nicholas’s voice came from the foot of the bed.
Jena’s heart was slamming so hard that she thought it might crash through her ribs and run away, but she complied, pushing herself up until her head could rest on the pillow. Nicholas’s hands ran up over her calves and under her knees, pulling them up until her feet rested on the bed. The slight scratching of his stubble as he kissed Jena’s thighs made her gasp.
“Another thing you like. Excellent.” Nicholas laughed quietly, running his cheek up and down Jena’s inner thigh a couple of more times.
Holy fucking crap, Jena thought, her mind losing coherency rapidly as she felt her stomach twist and her hips buck. Can you come from stubble scratching? she wondered, somewhat incoherently.
Turned out she didn’t have to find out, because Nicholas’s tongue took over where his stubble left off.
Then, of course, she returned the favor.
As they eventually settled, and her breathing evened out, Jena laughed weakly.
“What?” Nicholas asked, playing idly with her hair and watching her face relax.
“Holy Mother of God,” Jena murmured, opening one eye and looking over at him. “I think that’s the best sex I’ve ever had without actually having sex. If I had any energy left at all, I’d be up for the real thing.”
Nicholas laughed, seeming surprised by her bluntness, before reaching over the edge of the bed and grabbing a shirt for clean-up as Jena yawned hugely. “If you want me, you get all of me, Nick. The good and the bad.”
“Oh, I want all of you. The good and especially the bad. She’s a lot of fun.” Nicholas’s teasing look turned serious as his eyes locked with Jena’s.
He eased down and kissed her slowly, appearing to savor it for the first time. “This is how our first kiss should have gone,” he sighed, resting his forehead on Jena’s when he finally pulled away.
“Too much pent up frustration,” Jena teased, smoothing his hair and running her fingers along his neck. “We have a lot of time for sweet now.” I hope, she thought.
Jena sighed in contentment as she slipped between the cool sheets and Nicholas pulled her back against his chest. She felt his lips brush against her hair as he inhaled slowly and rumbled deep in his chest, relaxing against her.
Jena was just on the cusp of sleep when Nick’s whisper against her ear pulled her back a little. “You taste familiar, Jena. Is there something you want to tell me?”
“I’m sleeping, Nicholas. Good night.”
She felt him smile against her hair. “Good night, Jena.”
Chapter Eight
THE SOUND OF A SOFT CHUCKLE woke Nicholas. After a second of disorientation, the events of the night before came rushing back. The scents of Jena and sex subtly filled his room; he smiled, reaching out to pull Jena’s warmth and softness back into his embrace. “Next time” sounded good right about then.
But she was gone.
Nick’s eyes flew open, and he lifted his head to search the room, relaxing when he spotted Jena. She had somehow pulled his chair closer to the window without waking him, and was using the scant light that crept in around the blinds to read. Nicholas rolled quietly to his side and pillowed his head on his arm, content in this moment just to look at her.
Jena had pulled on Nick’s hastily discarded shirt and was sitting sideways in the chair with one leg hanging over the arm while the other foot rested on the floor. Nick’s eyes moved slowly up her legs, remembering how the smooth muscles of her calves and thighs had felt under his hands the night before. How soft her skin was. Another chuckle drew his attention to her face. Jena held a book in one hand and was idly twisting a strand of hair between the fingers of the other, occasionally pulling it over to brush her cheek or her lips. She shifted a little, and it became obvious that she had only buttoned the bottom of the shirt. A glimpse of the curve of her breast in the open front of his shirt sent a rush of blood to his groin. Christ, she was so sexy, and she had no idea.
“Jena,” he whispered.
Her head jerked up, startled. “Hey, you. Sleep well?” Jena swung her leg off the arm of the chair, the movement pushing the shirt up for a brief instant as she turned, and Nick closed his eyes and shook his head.
“What?”
<
br /> “Just enjoying the view.”
She quickly moved to button the shirt.
“Don’t, Jena. Please? I promise not to tease anymore if you stay just like that, okay?” She nodded hesitantly, and Nicholas patted the pillow next to him. “Please?”
He saw a war going on behind her eyes and smiled, pretty sure which side was going to win when her eyes trailed from his face to his waist where the sheet was loosely pooled. Jena made a sound between a sigh and a whimper and drifted over to the bed, climbing in and resting her cheek on her hand as she curled up next to him.
“So, you never answered my question. How did you sleep?” Her eyes searched Nick’s, and he smiled again, reaching out to trace her lips with his finger.
“Better than I have in months.” Nick watched his finger as he ran it lightly down Jena’s neck and over the curve of her shoulder, pushing the collar of the shirt aside so he could nip softly at her throat. “No dreams,” he murmured, rubbing his face lightly from side to side on the silky skin of her chest.
Jena sighed, and Nick felt her bury her face in his hair. “Do you have bad dreams, Nicholas?” she asked, straining to keep a conversational tone.
He chuckled. “Far from it. They’re good dreams. Very vivid. Starring a certain woman I spent altogether too little time with on New Year’s Eve.”
The muscles of her stomach trembled as Nicholas unfastened the last button of her shirt and ran his hand up from her navel to the hollow of her throat, letting his lips follow his hand. Nudging her over onto her back, he tongued the slight curve of breast that showed in the opening of the shirt, and she shuddered.
“Oh. Well,” Jena murmured.
Nick raised his eyes to look at her face as he dropped slow kisses all over her upper body. She moaned, covering her eyes with one hand. “Don’t look at me like that. You make me crazy when you look at me from under your lashes. It’s too fucking sexy. I feel my brains leaking out, I swear.”
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