by Lisa Wells
Her words snipped the thin thread of his sanity. The sanity that had allowed him to maintain those last couple of inches between them. He groaned and lowered his mouth to hers.
Her arms came up, and she cupped his face.
He wrapped his hands in her hair and pulled, forcing her to arch her neck. His lips touched the bare, creamy expanse, and he nipped a trail from her collarbone to her lips.
Jack slid one hand down the wall to her hips. He bunched her skirt up her thighs until his hand could slip underneath the hem. He felt for panties. There were none. She hadn’t been lying. The other hand slid in between the wall and her bare ass. He’d wanted to touch her ass all day. It was firm and round and smooth. Perfection. He stood up straight, grabbing her ass with both hands and squeezing. “Wrap your legs around me,” he ordered. They stared into each other’s eyes.
She clutched fistfuls of his shirt. “Remember, no complications.”
He hissed. “Whatever. You’re the boss.”
She smirked. A very satisfied womanly smirk and then ever so slowly wrapped her legs around him. All the way around him. Hooking her ankles and pulling him close.
He groaned. Her bare sex was now pressed into his shirt, and she was grinding into him. He could feel the heat and the dampness. “Wrap your arms around my neck.”
She did, which allowed him to let go of her long enough to unzip his pants. He pulled out his hard cock. Somehow managed to dress it in a condom. Adeline wiggled in his arms until the head of his shaft nudged her. She leaned against the wall.
An onslaught of raw physical desire hit him, and he pushed into her. She was wet, so wet, and it was for him. He paused. Willing himself not to lose his seed already. It took everything in him to win that battle of the wills. God, she was tight and slowly pulsing her muscles around his cock. Stroking his fire, taunting his control. “Adie—”
“Fuck me,” she growled against his neck, cutting off any declaration he wanted to make.
He laughed. Leave it to him to fall in love with an independent woman who didn’t need love, or love phrases, or his heart.
She raised her hands above her head, her head resting against the wall. A pose of total abandonment. As if to say, do with me what you will. I’m temporarily yours.
He picked up his rhythm, thrusting in and out of her; his movements quick and deliberate, completely lost in the moment. In how tight she was. In the feel of her warmth and desire surrounding him. He pulled back a little. “Adie?”
She opened her eyes and stared into his. “What?”
He kissed her hard. Then pulled back. “Fucking you has been on my brain all day,” he growled.
She leaned forward and bit his ear. “Me, too.” She closed her eyes. “Now get on with it. Enough with the commentary.”
He chuckled. “Like I said—sharp edges.” He reached between them and thumbed her as he continued his pattern of quick, deep thrusts. Nearly melting in his Armani loafers when she made low, sultry incoherent mews.
He didn’t stop when the scent of her rose to torment him, and her hips spasmed against him as a sound of devilish satisfaction escaped her luscious lips. He didn’t stop although the sound alone was enough to send him over the edge to his own release. Instead of stopping, he pinched her hard kernel of swollen flesh. Her nails dug into his shoulders and a wild keening noise was her response. Her body shook and her muscles clenched over-and-over around his cock, giving him his own release. One so powerful he nearly dropped her when his knees threatened to buckle.
Once he regained his equilibrium, he kissed the pulse at her throat. Tasted the salt. “We’re going to need to do this more than once tonight.”
She leaned her head against the wall. Breathing fast. “I agree.” Her eyes were heavy with satisfaction. Her lashes fluttered against her cheeks.
He pulled her up and off of him, holding her as she lowered her legs to the floor and gained her balance. “Is that your way of saying you’re up for a sleepover?”
“It’s my way of saying I’m a naughty girl, and sometimes my assets need auditing twice by the bad-ass accountant.”
He placed his hand under her chin and lifted so he could see into her eyes. He leaned down and kissed her slowly. “Baby, I’m here to audit your body or your heart anytime you feel the need.”
She turned her head away from him. “Damn it. Why do you always have to ruin the moment by saying the perfect thing?”
He laughed. “Forget I said that. Pretend I said, ‘wench, get thyself into my bed. Now! Or there’s going to be hell to pay.’”
“That’s what I’m talking about,” she said, sashaying toward his bedroom and dropping her dress on the floor at the halfway point.
…
Two hours later, Adeline sunk down in the claw-foot tub, allowing all of the bubbles to cover her body.
I’ve always wanted a guy I could have no-complications sex with. Who knew it would end up being with Kinley’s big brother.
She ignored the little voice in her head that warned her she was lying to herself about no complications. Reminded herself she had plans that didn’t include love. Told herself it was no big deal that she’d been so wrapped up in him she’d forgotten to sanitize her hands when they’d come home tonight. That didn’t mean anything.
There was a knock at the bathroom door. “Can I come in?” asked Jack.
“You may not come in. I’m quite naked,” she said primly, laughing when he cursed in French.
A few seconds later he said, “I was wondering if you’d like to do a sleepover tonight?”
She wrestled with her desire to say yes. A sleepover had complications written all over it. “This wench sleeps alone. Good night, amoureux.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Honey, I’m home,” Jack called out, stepping over Dexter. He smiled. When he was little, he remembered his dad saying the same thing when he’d come home from work. His mom would hurry into the living room to kiss him hello, and then his dad would rub Jack on the top of the head and ask him how his day had gone.
Adeline didn’t respond.
Maybe she didn’t think it was funny that he was acting like an old married man. “Adie?” He glanced at Dexter. “Where is she, boy?”
Dexter laid his head on the floor and covered his nose with his paws.
Jack walked into the kitchen, expecting to see her there with her headphones on. She wasn’t in there.
He walked down the hall toward his bedroom and saw the light on in her room. He stopped at the door. There she was, wearing the pink headphones. Packing. He was glad she was so excited about the trip. “Adie,” he said loud enough to get her attention.
She spun around and took her headphones off. “Hey, you. I didn’t hear you come home.”
“Are you excited to fly on the company jet tomorrow?” He had plans for them tonight. Plans that would make the six a.m. departure time seem early even for his pre-dawn riser.
“Debbie called. There’s a storm in the forecast tomorrow morning. Mrs. C doesn’t like to fly in storms, so we’re going to the island tonight.”
Hell. “You talked to Debbie?”
Adie nodded. Grinned wickedly at him as if she knew the turmoil he felt at the idea of her and Debbie talking alone. “She said you gave her my number.” Adie turned back to her packing.
“Only because she called and said she needed it for the paperwork. She didn’t mention calling you, sending you off with Mrs. C early.”
“How was your mom?”
He’d texted Adie and told her he was dropping by his mom’s before coming home. He’d needed a little motherly advice.
He grinned. “She wants to meet you.”
Adie dropped the shorts she was folding. She leaned down and picked them up. “That sounds like a complication.”
“Would that be a bad thing?” He walked over to the bed and sat on the end where he could see her face. “If we had a complication?”
She shook out the shirt she’d just folded
and started folding it again. “We have lots of complications. I don’t think we need to add to them. On a different note, I’m afraid I’ve completely confused Debbie where you and I are concerned.”
“What do you mean?”
Adie went to the closet and pulled out more clothes. “Your rebound mate took great pleasure in telling me what you’re looking for in a wife and pointing out that I’m none of those things. According to her, you want a little woman that stays at home. That it used to be a nonnegotiable clause which is why the two of you didn’t work out.”
He sighed. “And how did you handle her?”
“Quite nicely…I think. But in case she mentions the conversation, you are now one-hundred percent behind the idea of having a working wife. Behind the idea of me opening a bakery.”
He had a sensation of heartburn. “Did she believe you?”
“Of course she did,” Adie said. “It’s not like we’re a couple from the fifties where the man goes off to work and the little lady stays at home.” She turned to look at him. “You don’t really expect your wife to stay at home unless she wants to stay at home—do you?”
“I do want a stay-at-home wife.”
“Why?”
“My mom had to work two jobs to pay the bills. My children will have a mom home with them.”
“But you and Kinley turned out great.”
“Yes, but my mom missed all of our school events. And she was always tired, and always sad because we were growing up, and she was missing our moments.”
“That’s really sweet. Let me give you some advice. When you do meet a woman you want to spend your life with, be sure and clue her in on that need on the first date. Way before you have a chance to fall in love with one another and then learn you’re not compatible on such a monumental issue.”
“Point taken.” He ignored the pain her words produced in his heart.
Adie jammed an empty hanger back on the bar and grabbed another hanger with a shirt on it. “Debbie believes you love me so much you are okay with me working as long as that is what I want.”
He walked up behind Adie, took the hanger from her, and wrapped his arms around her waist. She was stiff in his arms. “So you want to open a bakery… Is that negotiable?” He kissed the top of her head. He should have brought her roses. Why hadn’t he brought her home flowers yet?
She shrugged against his chest. “I’m afraid it’s not.”
She managed to toss his heart back at him without even knowing she’d been briefly holding it in her hands. “That’s okay. The deal is we stick together until the ink dries on my partner papers at the firm.” He said the words as much for her benefit as for his own. He knew falling in love with her was a long shot at happiness. It took magic for two people to fall in love with each other. Most of the time one fell and the other didn’t. That’s why relationships broke up and couples moved on to their next love interest.
She walked back over to her suitcase. “Do you think that will happen at the retreat?” she asked with her back to him.
“It could.” Part of him hoped it did. Part of him… “I would be okay if it dragged on for another year.” Even if she wasn’t going to fall in love with him, he wasn’t ready to stop spending time with her. Face it, his heart was going to be a bloody mess whether they ended things now or six months from now. If they waited for six months, he’d have more memories to cling to.
She made a strangled noise. “You know what, we’re wasting time with all of this talk. I’d much prefer an orgasm before the car comes to pick me up and whisks me away to the airport.”
All of his thoughts evaporated. “You want to have sex?” It was just sex, so why did he feel like a teenager about to get lucky for the first time?
He’d worry about his heart tomorrow. Or next year.
…
Adeline inhaled his scent. Something manly that she could never quite put a name to. The heat coming off of him made her think of the beach they’d soon be spending time together on.
He captured her mouth in a kiss so hot, so intense, that Adeline felt forever melded to him. Why had she ever tried to limit him to a handful of kisses?
Jack bit softly at her lips as his hands hiked her dress up around her waist.
Thank God she’d changed into a dress to fly to the islands.
He ran his fingers up the naked flesh of her inner thighs.
He pulled one of her legs up.
Hot anticipation caused her hips to jerk toward him.
His fingers slid under the soft silk of her panties, and he groaned against her lips as he palmed her.
Adeline pushed into his hand.
His lips lefts hers and trailed light kisses down the side of her neck while he ground the heel of his hand against her.
Adeline tilted her head back, giving him full access to her neck.
He shifted his stance, and his huge, hard cock pressed against her leg. Anticipation sent shivers through her. She reached out and cupped him. Wanted to get naked against him. Now. Before she exploded from need. She whimpered.
His lips found hers. She thrust her tongue into his mouth, fighting for dominance.
She pulled back. “Naked,” she panted.
He pushed her backward until the back of her legs met the edge of the bed and forced her to sit. “Raise your arms.”
She did as he demanded, and he lifted her dress over her head. He took his jacket off and dropped it to the floor. She made quick work of his shirt’s buttons; she pushed while he shrugged out of it. All that was left were his trousers.
He stepped back. “Not yet. First this.” He removed her bra and then captured one breast with his lips. He licked and sucked at the peaks until she cried out in frustration.
She lay back on the bed with her knees bent and her legs open. Still wearing her panties. “More,” she begged.
He pulled back and looked at her. “You have the most beautiful breasts. Beautiful nipples.” He ran tiny kisses along her rib cage and licked the undersides of her breasts. “I’ve never seen a more perfect body on a woman.”
Adeline raised her hips, a signal for him to climb up on the bed and get naked with her.
He palmed at the apex between her legs.
She keened from the pleasure.
He grabbed one side of her string panties and yanked. The material snapped. Before she could protest, his head was between her legs. His tongue tracing patterns around her folds…tasting her.
She inched back on the bed, and he crawled up with her. His tongue never leaving its position.
She bucked into his mouth. His teeth gently scraped her sex. Her whimpers grew louder.
He leaned back to reposition himself, and she tried to follow with her hips, but he held her in place. He brought his head back to her mound. His tongue caressed her. Between caresses, he would blow on her engorged sex, sending paths of bliss straight to her brain. “Come up here,” she begged him.
He stood.
She sat up on her elbows and watched him as he pulled his billfold out of his back pocket, took out a condom, dropped it on the bed beside her, and tossed the billfold on the night stand. Then he unbuckled his belt and stepped out of his pants. His black boxers did nothing to cover him. And he quickly shed them.
“Jack, please,” she pleaded, falling back on the bed.
“I never thought I’d hear Adeline Rigby beg for anything,” he growled, his hand squeezing her thigh.
She opened her eyes and gave him a saucy grin. “I never thought Jack Foster would have something worth begging for.”
“I bet you didn’t,” he said with a chuckle. “What do you want me to do to you?”
“Everything.”
“Tell me one thing.”
“Lick me again.”
“Say please.”
“Please.”
He licked her nipples, blowing on them between strokes. Then her rib cage. Lower still to the flat of her stomach. Down farther to the top of her vee. “Should I stop?”
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Oh, hell no. “On my clit,” she begged, pushing at his head with her hands.
He mumbled something, and his mouth found her sweet spot. Adeline moaned, the buildup too intense. His tongue hot and insistent as his fingers slipped inside of her. Her heart beat so hard she thought it might pound right out of her chest. She bucked insistently against him, craving release.
His fingers pumped hard and rough as his tongue put pressure in all the right places. Tremors wracked her body. Adeline pulled at his hair. She wanted him closer. She needed him to finish her off. She hung on to his shoulders, her nails digging in. Her body ignited into a surge of ecstasy as she called out, “Jack.”
…
Jack had never heard his name sound more beautiful coming from a woman’s mouth. He couldn’t believe how good it was with Adie.
His hard-on begged for attention. He kissed his way back up Adie’s body. Raising her hands above her head, he grabbed the condom, ripped it open, slid it on, and placed himself at her apex. He waited for her to recover from her orgasm before entering her. He wanted to hear his name on her lips again.
She opened her eyes. Gone was the snark that normally lived in them. In its place, a shyness. She licked her bottom lip, drawing a groan from him. When he looked back into her eyes, desire had replaced the shyness. She was ready for another orgasm.
He pushed into her.
“Kiss me,” she demanded.
“Are you sure?” Wasn’t he supposed to rinse his mouth or something?
“I’ve never been more sure.”
He seized her lips the way she kept seizing his heart with every other word.
He wanted Adeline Rigby’s heart. Wasn’t ready to admit defeat. Hell, she didn’t even know he loved her. Maybe knowing would free her to fall in love with him. Or not. She held all of the power.
The knowledge should have scared him. Who was he kidding? It did scare him. It scared the hell out of him. And then again, it didn’t. He slid in and out of her, and she bucked against him. When her muscles tightened in orgasmic ripples, all coherent thoughts ceased. He pounded hard. Listened for his name on her lips. As she screamed his name, her nails dug into his back, and he threw back his head as he came. “Adie.” Her name slipped from his lips as he experienced the longest, hardest orgasm of his life.
