The ice cream was cold and sweet and the hot fudge was warm and gooey, the whipped cream melted away on her tongue and the bananas added the illusion of a healthy quotient, which alleviated her guilt, and gave her something to chew on. She swallowed and opened her eyes. Before she could go for another spoonful, Zach reached forward with his thumb and brushed it across her lower lip.
“You had some, uh, chocolate right there,” he said.
Jessie felt her lips part as she watched his thumb disappear behind his full lips. She didn’t think he was trying to be sexy, he was just being efficient, and yet as she watched his mouth pucker around his thumb she felt her heart rate kick up and a sheen of sweat cover her skin.
She glanced up and caught his velvet brown gaze watching her with an intensity that almost set her hair on fire. Scratch that earlier thought. He was being sexy on purpose!
He wagged his eyebrows at her as if he knew full well what he was doing. Jessie arched a brow back at him. Two could play this game.
She glanced at the girls, who were preoccupied with their own sundaes. Maddie was humming tonight’s song under her breath, and Gracie clutched the kitten, Chaos, on her lap while she tucked into her ice cream. Rufus had spent the evening here while they were out, and he was sacked out on the couch; Jessie was betting the kitten had given him no peace.
Jessie took advantage of the moment. She loaded up her spoon, stared at Zach with her best come-hither look, and then in the most seductive way she could manage she licked the ice cream off of the spoon. She felt utterly ridiculous but she refused to give in to the embarrassment, wanting to make him suffer just like she had. When Zach dropped his spoon, and stared at her mouth with his nostrils flaring, she knew she had him.
Victory was short-lived. Zach jabbed his index finger into the whipped cream and popped it into his mouth. Jessie’s breathing became uneven and wicked thoughts about what else he could lick whipped cream off flooded her brain in a flurry of mental porn that left her dizzy.
There was only one way to win this. She reached for the cherry with the long stem sitting on top of their sundae. She bit off the cherry, chewed and swallowed, and then took the stem into her mouth. She wedged one end in between her bottom teeth and used her tongue to tie the stem in a knot. She then delicately removed the knotted stem from her mouth and dropped it onto the table in front of Zach.
He glanced from it to her. Two red spots of color highlighted his cheeks and his gaze was so hot she was surprised it didn’t leave burn marks on her skin.
“That’s it! Time for bed!” he said.
Jessie started to laugh and glanced at the girls. They both looked droopy in their chairs, their spoons hanging from tired hands, their eyes at half-mast.
She glanced back at Zach and nodded. “You take Gracie and I’ll carry Maddie?”
He nodded. Together they circled the table, taking the spoons out of the girls’ hands. Zach lifted Gracie, while never dislodging Chaos, up into his arms and Jessie followed with Maddie.
Once in the girls’ room, Zach set Gracie down on her bed and lifted up Chaos, moving him to the fuzzy pink pillow that was his sleep spot on her bed. Chaos gave one cranky meow and settled into his pillow to sleep. Zach leaned forward and kissed Gracie’s head. She wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed him tight.
“Good night, Zach,” she said. “Thanks for teaching me to play the uke.”
“My pleasure, you were awesome,” he said. Gracie beamed at him as if his praise meant everything in the world to her.
Jessie went to grab Maddie’s pajamas while Zach stepped over to her bed and kissed her on the head.
“G’night, Maddie,” he said. “Your singing was brilliant.”
“I was so scared,” she said. Her little voice was slurred with sleepiness.
“But you did it anyway,” Zach said. “I’m so proud of you.”
“Me, too,” Maddie said. Her eyelids slammed shut and Zach chuckled.
He stood and turned to Jessie. “I’ll go clean up the dishes.” He paused and then asked, “Should I wait for you or are we done for tonight?”
Jessie studied his face. It was perfectly calm and cool, letting her know that no matter what she decided, he was good with it. There were no words for her to express how much she valued that. Controlling her own destiny, making her own choices and having them be respected—it was an incredibly empowering feeling.
She wanted to hug him, kiss him, squeeze him, and let him know just how much his kindness and patience meant to her, but that was for later; right now she had to get two sleepy girls tucked in. Still, she wanted him to know that she had plans for them.
She leaned close as she brushed past him, letting her free hand trail down his back, where the girls couldn’t see, and she gently squeezed his butt. Then in a low, throaty voice, she said, “Stay.”
Zach started and then his brown eyes darkened into a deeper shade of almost black. He gave her a close-lipped smile and nodded.
“See you . . . ahem”—he paused to clear his gravelly voice—“downstairs. I’ll be downstairs.”
He left and Jessie turned back to her daughters. This was going to be the fastest three chapters and lights-out in the history of their nighttime reading.
It only took one and a half chapters and the girls were done. Maddie zonked out first, while Gracie fought it, wanting to hear more about what happened to Ramona and Beezus. Sleep won this round, however, and when her breathing became steady and her eyes stayed shut, Jessie closed the book and waited.
She counted to thirty to see if the girls were good and truly out. No one moved. She marked their place and put the book on the table between their beds and snapped off the light. She switched on the baby monitor she had moved into the girls’ room after the storm, knowing with Zach’s “project” happening that an early warning was now needed for children on the move. The girls slumbered on and Chaos snored softly from his perch on the pillow.
Jessie backed slowly out of the room. There was a night-light in the hallway, which glowed in case the girls called out to her, but otherwise their room was a safe dark cocoon against the cold winter outside.
Jessie ran her fingers through her hair and then fluffed it. She straightened out her clothes, smoothing the creases at her hips, because, yeah, Zach was really going to notice those when she jumped his bones. Holy bananas, was she really going to do that?
She started down the stairs on wobbly knees. Yes, yes, she was. Because something had changed tonight. The feelings between them had shifted and twisted and reformed themselves into something new. And it wasn’t just because he had looked so right up there with her girls. Oh, sure, that was a huge part of it; finding a man who understood girls, who knew how to care for them and support them and teach them to be fearless, was an amazing thing.
But it was more than that. When the judge had tried to cast Zach as a bad guy, every instinct in Jessie had risen up to protect him. He was a good man, he deserved respect and kindness and trust. So, she was determined that after all of these days of flirting and playing and making each other crazy, she was going to go for it. She was going to trust Zach with everything she had to give him.
She knew from what the Maine crew had told her that he wasn’t a relationship type of guy. She was okay with that. If all she could have with Zach was temporary, she’d take it. She just wanted to be with him. And, hey, maybe if they didn’t achieve their project goal of getting her to have an orgasm right away, maybe he’d stay around a little longer. A girl could hope, but right now she really didn’t care because in this very moment she just wanted to be with him in the way that only two lovers could be, naked, with nothing between them but total trust and understanding.
She’d never had that before and she wanted it with Zach with everything she had. Now she just had to screw up the courage to go and get it.
Chapter 21
Zach wasn’t going to stay. He knew Jessie was feeling overly emotional because of the show tonight. Heck, seeing the girls stand up onstage and singing their hearts out had even him overly emotional. Zach was so damn proud of them, he thought he might bust. Gracie for being there for her sister and then for kicking it on her ukulele, and Maddie for punching back her stage fright and singing with all of the earnestness in her sweet five-year-old heart. Man, he was crazy about those two kids. And he was even more crazy about their momma.
He had seen Jessie watch her daughters onstage. He had watched first her terror, her desire to run to her girls and protect them from failure, and then her even greater love in trusting her girls to figure it out for themselves.
When he’d seen her crying during the girls’ performance, he knew it was because the love in her heart was too great to be contained and had to be released through her smiling tears. He’d wanted to kiss her senseless ever since.
In fact, he wanted to kiss her so badly right now that he knew he should probably leave before he pushed for something she wasn’t ready to give. When Jessie came to him, he wanted her to do it because she was ready, because she wanted him the same way he wanted her, not because she was grateful to him for giving her girls a father figure.
The dishes were done, the kitchen wiped down. He went through the downstairs, checking that everything was off and locked. He gave a low whistle to Rufus to wake the lazy dog up. Rufus was sleeping with his belly and legs in the air. He ignored Zach, opening one eye to look at him before he rolled over, away from Zach, as if that would make him go away.
“Come on, boy, we need to go,” Zach said. He patted his thigh as he walked toward the foyer, where he’d hung his coat and kicked off his boots.
“You’re leaving? You’re leaving me?”
Zach turned back around to see Jessie standing at the bottom of the stairs. With the lights mostly off, she stood in the ambient glow of a single low-watt lamp. Her heart-shaped face with its prominent cheekbones looked so fragile. Her lips quivered and her blue eyes shimmered with nerves. Zach felt his heart give a lurch.
“It’s been an emotional night,” he said. “I don’t want you to do something you’re not ready for, it would ruin all of our progress.”
“Progress?” she asked. She tipped her chin up and began to walk toward him. “Is that what we’re calling it? The all-consuming I can’t stop thinking about you, naked you, and all of the things I want to do with you twenty-four seven even when I sleep? That progress?”
Zach swallowed. It went down hard. He’d been wrong; the look in her eye hadn’t been nerves. It was excitement. She looked like she was on the precipice of taking a huge leap off a very high cliff, throwing herself into the abyss and hoping for the best. Oh, crap, now he was nervous.
What if he couldn’t make this good for her? What if he failed? He watched as Jessie grabbed the hem of her sweater and pulled it up over her head, tossing it carelessly aside, leaving her upper body bare except for the bra she wore that pushed her breasts up high and tight. His entire body clenched in response, and he thought, And what if I don’t?
In three steps, he was on her. His hands skimming around her waist as he pulled her up against him. Then he was kissing her. It wasn’t like the kisses of the past few days that wooed and teased, taunted and tormented, oh, no, this one was clearly full of wicked intent.
She tasted of chocolate ice cream and maraschino cherry. He felt himself get even harder as he remembered what she had done to that cherry stem. Jessie had unexplored gifts and it was all Zach could do not to throw her over his shoulder and storm upstairs to her big bed to discover just what other talents lay dormant inside his girl.
He swept his hand up her back, over her silky soft skin and up into her hair where he cradled her head as he pulled back to look her in the eye. He had to be sure. Before they hit the place of no return, he had to be certain she was ready.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
His voice was low and gruff and Jessie shivered, but her gaze met his directly and her hands moved over his shoulders and down his chest to flutter at his waist before she moved one hand lower. She moved her hand over the front of his jeans and Zach hissed a breath.
“Yes,” she said. She cupped him and gave him a gentle squeeze. “Please.”
It was the please that did it. Zach went from trying to be a nice guy who didn’t push for more than she was willing to give to a lust-crazed man who could not get his woman naked fast enough. He stepped back from her and spun her around, then he propelled her toward the stairs with his hands on her hips, nuzzling the back of her neck as they went.
“So beautiful,” he said. He trailed kisses up the side of her neck as they walked, making her shiver as her skin rippled with goose bumps. “So soft. God, I just want to be lost in you.”
Jessie stopped walking, as if she couldn’t remember how, and she arched her back, thrusting her breasts into his palms. Zach squeezed them as he held her in place, up against him, and let his mouth move over her incredibly soft skin. She gave the quietest, sexiest moan he’d ever heard and it about killed him. Playtime was over.
He turned her around, hoisted her up into his arms, locking her legs around his waist, and then he took the stairs two at a time, pausing on the stairs twice. Once to kiss her mouth so thoroughly he left her lips red and swollen and the other to lower his head and nuzzle her pretty breasts.
“Zach, I really don’t think I can take much more,” she said.
She was panting and Zach pulled back to look at her. Her hair was a tangle, her chest was heaving, making her breasts bounce in the most delicious way, the heat coming from between her legs rivaled that of any flame, and her eyes were half closed as if her desire for him was weighing them down. She was the sexiest woman he had ever seen and he craved her with every cell in his body.
“Ah, but there is so much more,” he said.
He grinned at her and she melted against him, pulling his mouth back down to hers. Her kiss was fierce, as if she was trying to imprint herself upon him. It made Zach’s knees buckle, something that had never happened to him before.
Sex for Zach was not usually this intense. It was fun, he made sure everyone had a good time, but he always kept it one and done, no repeat performances, no emotional investment. He was all about fun and frolic, but this, this was so much more. He didn’t want to look at it too closely on the chance it would freak him out and send him running out into the night, but there was no question: The stakes were higher with Jessie and he simply did not care. He ended the kiss and pressed his forehead against hers.
“Easy, my girl,” he said. “Or I’ll end up taking you right against the wall.”
Jessie gasped but not in a bad way. The heat in her blue eyes let him know that if he tried it, she’d let him.
“Okay, so the dirty talk is a go,” he said.
He tried to tease to keep it light, but it wasn’t working. He shook his head to loosen the thought of her against the wall, with her legs wrapped around his waist, letting him plow into her. That would be for another time. Tonight he was determined to do it right.
He hauled her up tighter against him and finished dashing up the stairs two at a time. Jessie was laughing when they entered her room. Her eyes sparkled and her contagious chuckle broke forth. Zach grinned then he kissed her, letting her slide down his body until her feet hit the floor.
He put a finger over his lips and tiptoed out into the hallway. He peeked in on the girls just to be sure they were still asleep. The light from the hallway combined with the light of the moon shining into their bedroom window gave him just enough illumination to see that they were out cold.
Zach was again filled with pride for these two amazing girls. Like their mom, they were something special. He then closed the door so it was open only a few inches and he snuck back across the hall to Jessie.
H
e closed and locked the door, having already noted that the monitor on Jessie’s nightstand was on. When he turned around, he almost tripped over a pile of clothes on the floor. He glanced up and saw Jessie mostly hidden under the covers, peeking out at him. With her hair tumbled about her shoulders and the blanket drawn up to her neck, she was that devastating blend of innocent and sexy that Zach always found so irresistible.
Normally in his dating life this was when a woman waved him in, calling to him in a sexy voice to join her in bed. Not Jessie. She took one look at him and her face turned a hot shade of embarrassed pink. Then she pulled the covers over her head and disappeared from view.
It took everything Zach had not to laugh. Oh, he liked this girl. He figured she was trying to be sexy, trying to be what she thought he wanted, and failing miserably because she was also shy. The ridiculous part of this was that she already was everything he wanted. He figured it was time for him to show her just how much.
He assessed the lump under the covers, where specific body parts were and where he wanted them to be and then he took a flying leap onto the bed, pinning the delicious woman under the covers beneath him.
“Hey!” a laughing voice cried, muffled beneath the thick blanket.
Zach stretched out as if he weren’t lying on top of someone. He wriggled, he wiggled, he pressed his hands all along the body beneath his.
“Huh, this mattress sure is lumpy,” he said. He moved one hand to the curve of her rear end and the other to her breast. He let his fingers caress the dead sexy curves, mentally cursing the thick blanket between them. “But in the nicest possible way.”
A hiss of breath sounded from beneath the blanket and Jessie’s head popped up from under the edge. Her gaze was hot when she looked at him.
Every Dog Has His Day Page 19
