Go knock on the door and ask to borrow something, Sam had texted.
Yes, Sam, the same idiot who’d been pining for Jillian while ignoring Gina, the girl who’d been pining for him for months. This was why nothing happened for Sam. He lived his life on the sidelines.
Send her a naked picture. That was Carly’s suggestion.
No, don’t! James, Carly’s fiancé, responded immediately.
Bring her food, Emma texted.
Whoopie pies! Jillian shamelessly self-promoted.
That only works on pregnant women, Brad wrote.
I disagree, Mac responded.
Just go tell her how you feel, Gavin, usually the voice of reason, texted. This suggestion did not seem at all reasonable to him.
Now that’s a bold maneuver, Gina texted, stating, Zach believed, what everyone was thinking. Then she put up an emoji of a knuckle bump.
Zach couldn’t do it. Jessie had already shot him down once. He didn’t think he would survive it again. And so, he stood in his kitchen, as these windows offered the best view of her house, looking out across the snowy lawn like a sad pitiful clown; he was just missing the bad face paint and the rainbow wig.
He watched the girls’ light go out in their room. He glanced at the clock. Bedtime. He missed their hugs. Their soft kisses on his cheek as he pulled the covers up to their chins. The smell of kids’ shampoo, drying in their post-bath hair.
And he missed the tingling anticipation he’d feel now that he’d get to be alone with Jessie, to sit by the fire and talk or watch a movie, which really meant him watching her watch a movie.
He liked the way she got lost in the story, with a furrowed brow, or a ghost of a smile, or when she belly laughed at a particularly funny part and looked at him to share the laugh. He had laughed but not because he thought the movie was funny—he usually had no idea what was going on—but because she made him happy.
And now that they’d spent the night together and he knew her more intimately, he missed the scent of her, the soft feel of her body against his, the sexy way she moaned when she was lost to the sensation of him fitting inside of her so perfectly.
He missed how she looked deeply into his eyes after they made love, as if looking to see how honest he was being. He knew it came from her past and he didn’t mind when she studied him like that because he liked having her full attention. He liked that she might see how he really felt about her without him having to tell her. Gawd, he was such a chickenshit. His friends were right. He needed to tell her.
He continued watching her house, knowing that she was likely upstairs getting ready for bed. That thought made him throb. Damn it.
But then he saw a silhouette move into the window across from his. It was a woman’s form and he knew from having loved on those curves that it was Jessie. It occurred to him that she could see him, too. Well, hell.
The lust rose up sharp inside of him, making his cock hard and his brain buzz. He wanted her. He wanted her naked in his arms, coming apart for him while he pumped into her. He wanted to hear her moan, and even more specifically, he wanted her to cry out his name. The vision was sweaty, it was carnal, it was like a fever raging through his body and he knew he wouldn’t get any peace until he made love to Jessie again.
He saw her pressing her hand to the window pane. If a silhouette could cry out in longing, hers was. He grabbed his jacket off of a nearby chair, and called out to Rufus, who was asleep on the couch, “Don’t wait up.”
In seconds, he was across the icy lawn and stepping onto her porch. She met him outside, throwing herself at him, almost knocking them both back into the snow. Zach caught her in his arms and hauled her up against him while his mouth sought hers in a kiss that staked a claim, his lips on hers, his tongue sweeping inside her mouth, tasting her and letting her taste him, too.
In three strides he had her jacked up against the wall, tucked into a dark corner of the porch. His thigh wedged in between her legs, holding her in place as his hands moved up from her hips to her breasts, shoving aside her sweater so he could cup her breasts and gently pinch her nipples between his fingertips.
“Zach, I need—” Jessie’s words were cut off with a gasp as she arched against him.
This. This was exactly what he’d needed. Her coming apart for him. Jessie pushed his clothes aside. She reached for the snap on his jeans but he brushed her hands away. He wanted to savor every bit of her. He didn’t want to be rushed.
“Tell me, my girl,” he said, his voice a gruff growl, his breath steaming out between them on the freezing air. “What do you need?”
He moved his mouth to one nipple and gently bit down. She moaned. She dug her fingers into his hair and rocked her hips on his thigh. His erection got so hard he thought it might break through his pants without assistance. To want someone this much felt amazing. He moved his mouth to her other breast. He licked, then sucked, then nipped. She practically melted right off his leg.
“Tell me,” he said. He ran his mouth up the side of her neck and she made a soft grunting noise, as if words were beyond her ability right now. Zach smiled into her hair.
He grabbed her hips, dragging her slowly up and down his thigh, causing the constant rubbing friction against her clitoris to work her into a mild frenzy. The soft cries coming from her throat were making him insane in the best possible way.
Still, he wanted to hear her say what she needed from him, just him, because he wanted to believe he was the only man who could ever make her feel this way.
He stopped dragging her across his thigh. He put her down on her feet and spun her away from him. He took both of her hands and braced them against the side of the house. He pressed his erection into her bottom and she arched back against him.
He moved his hands to the front of her pants and unfastened them, pulling them down just enough for him to slide his hand inside and cup her warmth. Holy fuck, she was wet for him.
Zach sucked in a breath and locked his knees to keep them from buckling. He lazily circled her opening with his fingers, teasing and taunting her. He pressed one finger to her hyper sensitive clit and then he pressed his body the length of hers and whispered in her ear.
“Tell me what you want, Jessie,” he demanded.
She was shivering but judging by the heat coming off of her skin, it wasn’t from the cold. Her breath was sewing in and out in harsh pants, her entire body was tight. He circled her opening with his fingers again and again. He teased the nub at the center of her, flicking over it again and again. Incoherent moans poured out of her mouth, while she pushed her hips against his hand. She was close, so close, but Zach wanted the words.
“Tell me, my girl, what do you want?” he asked. He removed his hand and she let out a small cry of distress.
“You, Zach, I want you,” she said. She turned her head and found his mouth with hers. She kissed him hard then slid her tongue against the seam of his lips until he opened his mouth and she thrust inside, showing him with her lips and tongue exactly what she wanted from him.
It was Zach’s turn to groan and he returned his hands to her pants, pushing them down so he could have access to all of her. With one hand, he worked her over, sliding his fingers inside her, while with his other hand, he unfastened his jeans, letting his cock spring free and press up against the cleft in her backside.
Jessie made a deliciously sexy noise in the back of her throat and pressed against him. Zach was pretty sure he was going to come right there. When she would have turned to face him, he put his hands over hers, still braced against the wall, and held her in place while he continued to kiss her, gently biting her lower lip.
Knowing his strength of will was slipping with his need to be inside her, he swiftly found the condom in his wallet and moved away from her, just for seconds, so he could slip it on. He thought the freezing cold air would hip check his desire to the curb or at the ve
ry least bring him back from the brink. Nope. If anything the contrast between her heat and the cold made him even crazier.
“Jessie, I can’t wait,” he said.
“Then don’t,” she said.
She had barely uttered the words when he grabbed her hip with one hand and his cock with the other and slid into her with one smooth push. He locked an arm around her hips and held her still, her back to his front, the intoxicating smell of her filling his senses.
He could feel his cock pulsing inside of her. She was hot and wet and he was completely surrounded by her. It was perfect.
When he felt her clench around him, he had to force himself not to move for fear that he would take her hard, right up against the side of the house with no more finesse than a dog humping a person’s leg.
“Ah, Jessie, you feel so amazing,” he said. “I’m trying to slow it down.”
She pressed back against him, sinking him even deeper into her heat as she whispered, “Why? Take me hard, Zach, make me yours.”
Fuck. All reason was lost. Zach grabbed her hips and pounded into her. Harder, faster, hotter, in and out, again and again. The exquisite tightening of her muscles contracting around him when she released ratcheted his entire body into one scorching pulse point of possession, but as he heard her moan and felt her buck against him, her body clenching him so hard he wanted to shout, he wasn’t sure who was possessing whom.
All he knew as he felt himself pour into her welcoming warmth with one fierce thrust was that she was his and he was hers and nothing was going to change that. Not now, not ever, no matter how this played out.
He hated leaving her but the winter air made the sweat on their skin icy cold. Zach tied off the condom and dumped it in his pocket to throw out at home, then he zipped and fastened Jessie back into her clothes and pulled up his own pants.
She still had her hands braced on the wall and her head was hanging down in between her arms as if she’d forgotten how to move. Zach hugged her back against him and turned her toward the house.
“It’s cold,” he said. “You need to get inside.”
She turned in his arms and hugged him close. Zach opened his coat and pulled her into his warmth. She fit so perfectly against him. He could have stayed there all night, except the temperature was supposed to drop into the teens and even with the heat they produced, he didn’t think they’d survive it. Pity.
He loosened his hold and spun her toward the door. He needed to get her inside where she was safe and warm. Where he could kiss her again and look into her pretty blue eyes to try and figure out what she was thinking or feeling.
They stepped quietly into the house. Only one lamp was on downstairs, its soft light bleeding into the foyer where they stood. Zach wasn’t sure what to do. He didn’t know what Jessie was looking for from him and he didn’t want to scare her off or let her mistakenly think he was retreating. Maybe Gavin was right. Maybe he should tell her how he felt.
Jessie took his hand and started to lead him into the house. He took this as a good sign. She paused in the living room, to turn in his arms and kiss him. As erotic as making love in the freezing cold had been, Zach was just as happy to make out with her in the warm, cozy house. At least here he didn’t have to worry about any body parts freezing off.
“I wasn’t sure how you felt about us after this afternoon,” she said. “I hope I didn’t hurt you when I said I couldn’t marry you.”
“Nah,” Zach said. Really, her refusal hadn’t been much worse than a hard shot to the man junk. “I’m good.”
Jessie leaned back and studied his face. She narrowed her eyes at him. “Is that the equivalent of a woman saying, ‘I’m fine’?”
“I have no idea what you mean,” he said. Yeah, a guy saying he was “good” was totally the equivalent of a woman saying she was “fine,” but he was not about to admit it. Not when he’d just gotten her back in his arms.
“I really do appreciate that you want to help me,” she said. “More than you know.”
She ran her fingers through his hair, combing it back from his forehead while scoring his scalp and making him want to thump his foot on the ground like Rufus when Zach found his tickle spot.
“It’s more than that,” Zach said.
He shook his head, shaking off the spell she was putting him under and sending his hair every which way. He needed to tell her this. He needed her to know. “I care about—”
“Momma!” Maddie cried from upstairs. “Momma!”
Jessie gave him a rueful look. She turned her head and called, “I’ll be right there, baby.” Then she turned back to Zach. “Go ahead, what were you going to say?”
“Momma, I’m thirsty,” Maddie cried. She sounded as desperate as if she were stranded in the Sahara and her camel had just died.
“Coming,” Jessie called back.
“You’d better go before she wakes up Gracie,” Zach said. He leaned forward and kissed her swiftly but with meaning. “Tomorrow after work, let’s talk, yes?”
“Yes.” Jessie nodded. “I’d like that.”
Her eyes moved over him and Zach felt his blood run thick again. How it was possible after they’d just banged each other stupid, he had no idea, but there it was.
On the off chance she was just using him for his body, he said, “Clothed.”
Jessie’s grin burst across her face like the sun burning away a cloud and she said, “For starters.”
Then she scampered away from him, up the stairs with a giggle, and it took everything he had not to run her to the ground.
“Momma!” Maddie now sounded on the brink of expiring.
Well, that helped. He blew Jessie a kiss and headed out the door, locking it behind him.
• • •
In the average nine-to-five workday, there were four hundred and eighty minutes, or twenty-eight thousand eight hundred seconds, every one of which felt like eternity. E-T-E-R-N-I-T-Y. At about two in the afternoon, Zach was sure the clock had started moving backwards. Never had he felt this way about seeing someone.
All day long he took out his phone to text her, but he didn’t. He even debated taking Rufus into the animal clinic for a checkup just because he really didn’t think he could take it anymore. At fifteen minutes to five, he cracked.
He shut off his computer, forwarded his phone to voice mail, grabbed his coat, and headed for the door. The brewery was less than a mile from Zach’s house. In an old factory building that they had bought cheap and renovated, it was surrounded by the small industrial houses that had been built for the original factory workers, which was one of the reasons Zach had bought into the neighborhood; he couldn’t beat the commute to work.
Now it would get him to his girl. Would it be bad form to be sitting on her porch when she got home? He didn’t care. He jogged down the hallway of offices toward the exit.
“Hold up there, Flash.” Sam stepped out of his office, blocking Zach’s way. “Where are you rushing off to?”
“I have to see a man about a dog,” he said, hoping Sam would take the hint.
“You’re going to see Jessie, am I right?” Sam asked. He pretended to stretch, effectively blocking the hall with his extended arms.
“Maybe,” Zach said. God, did his face just get hot?
“Oh, my god, you’re blushing,” Sam said. He said it like an accusation, as if a crime had been committed.
“Sorry,” Zach said. He made a shooing motion with his hand. Sam didn’t budge.
“Hey, Brad, Zach’s blushing!” Sam called over his shoulder. Zach’s shoulders slumped. He was never going to get out of here.
Brad’s head popped out of his office door. He looked like a gopher. He squinted at Zach. “If you have the flu, keep it to yourself.”
“It’s not the flu, he’s in lo-o-o-ove,” Sam said. “So, did you tell her?”
�
�Not yet,” he said. “I’m working up to it.”
“After the proposal?” Brad asked. “I’m kind of thinking you’re working backwards here.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Zach said. He glanced at Brad. “How did you know with Emma? How did you know she was the one?”
Brad shrugged. “I don’t know. I liked the look of her, her personality was a plus, I enjoyed being with her, and then one day, I realized that I never wanted to be with anyone else.”
“So, unlike this sloppy rush job Zach is doing it took you what, a couple of months, a year, to know this about Emma?”
“Yeah, no, I figured it out pretty much by the end of our first date,” Brad said. “Which I told her that very night.”
He grinned at Zach, who laughed in relief. Thank god it wasn’t just him suffering from this all-consuming-ass-over-ears-crazy-which-way-is-up-dizzy sort of madness called love.
When Sam glanced between them, shaking his head as if they were pitiful, Brad leapt on him, pinning his arms behind his back.
“Run, Zach, run! Don’t let this sad single boy stop you,” Brad yelled.
Zach laughed at his two idiot best friends and raced from the building. He drove straight to his house where he collected Rufus, knowing that the dog was happiest when he was with the girls and the kitten, much like Zach.
Then he and the dog hiked through the snow to Jessie’s. Last night had been beyond a doubt the most singular sexual experience of his life, but tonight they needed to talk. He needed to tell her how he felt. For real.
Chapter 30
He noticed a small white van parked in Jessie’s driveway. He glanced at the emblem on the side. It looked like it belonged to the local animal control office. He felt his stomach drop. Had the judge really sent someone to take Chaos away? That prick. This would destroy Maddie and Gracie.
He hurried to the front door. He knocked. No one answered. He tried the door. It was unlocked so he strode into the house. The girls were seated at the kitchen table, working on some sort of craft that involved gobs of yarn and toilet paper tubes.
Every Dog Has His Day Page 26
