I threw her onto the mattress, laughing as she screamed.
The air thrummed with electricity. My hands burned to touch her. She slid back, gaze deepening into dark shades of molten desire.
I couldn’t move. Couldn’t think. I was hard just looking at her. How long had it been since I felt inside of her? Since I made her cry out for me?
Slowly, I dropped down on top of her. Settled in between her legs, elbows framing her face. “Hey.” My skin trembled with want. Control slipping.
“Hi.” Her eyes were so open and giving.
I was a goner. I was weak.
“It’s okay.” She nudged her nose against mine. “I want you, Jack. So badly.”
I let my lips press against hers. Lost my fucking mind when she moaned against my mouth, spreading my lips with her tongue, a lover’s invitation, determined to have me. We built like a fire, slow at first, our kisses like oxygen, feeding the moment.
And then her legs wrapped around me.
Right there, between her legs, that was heaven. That was where I wanted to spend the rest of my days, gazing into those beautiful eyes of hers. Tasting her mouth. Feeling her skin. She tasted like warm nights and wrinkled sheets. Like sunny notes of laughter and a vanilla sweetness I could never get enough of.
“I’ve fucking missed this,” I said against her neck as her hands slid through my hair. “It’s torture, staying away from you.” My words had a serrated edge to them. A longing that hacked away at my discipline
“Me too.” She pulled on my skin. Pulling me closer, welding me to her bones.
My body thawed from a long, hard winter.
Sliding my hands over her waist, I moved them around the swell of her ass, squeezing, crushing her against me, giving her every steely inch of me.
She moaned when I pulled the edge of her bra down, a finger playing with her nipple. Slowly, building the ache in the pit of her stomach. She reached for me, moving her hand inside my pajama pants, wrapping it around my dick. I throbbed for her.
We were driven by madness. By the thousands of imprisoned minutes we could finally set free.
I slid her panties over the curve of her luscious thighs, my fingers tracing the trail. Scooting down, I smoothed my lips over her knees, taking my time, smiling against the goose bumps raised along her skin. Tongue swirling over the inside of her thighs.
I wouldn’t fuck her. Not yet. God, I fucking needed to give her this.
“Please.” Her words dripped with ache. Her fingers in my hair, trying to pull me closer.
I licked a trail along the edges of her. Kissed softly. Slowly. Everywhere except where she wanted me.
Her body writhed underneath mine as I slid a hand along her slender stomach, gripping her breast, thumb twirling in slow circles.
When I sucked her clit into my mouth, she cried out, her hips raising, pressing her closer. My tongue went crazy against her, pressing firm, and then turning soft. Lips pulling her into my mouth. Fingers sliding inside her, driving her over an edge that had me throbbing in pain.
Her hips bucked against me as she came, whimpering with ecstasy. Moaning.
Fuck.
When she stilled, her body sinking into the mattress, I squeezed my eyes shut.
Don’t fuck her, I told myself. Don’t rush this.
“Jack.” The lone syllable was lazy and sated. “Come here.” Jess was trying to pull me on top of her. She wanted me inside her. I could still feel her pulsing around my fingers.
I slid them out. Leaned back on my heels, cursing under my breath.
“Jack?” She propped up on her elbows. “Come here.”
I forced my gaze onto the carpet. She was so fucking beautiful it hurt.
“I can’t, Jess. I want to. So fucking bad it hurts, but I won’t screw this up.”
“Screw what up?”
“This, Jess. You and me. What we’re creating here.” The smallest of smiles tugged at the corners of my mouth. “I want this… us. I want you. All of you. I’ve never stopped wanting you.” I ruffled a hand through the back of my hair. “You showed me something different about myself. You made me see that it’s okay to make mistakes. And I’ve made many, which is why I want to take things slow this time.”
I took her hand in mine. Laced our fingers together.
“I want to be a normal couple, Jess. Let me ask you out on a date. Let me ask for your number and fret over when’s the right time to call.”
She giggled. “Jack…”
“I know, Jess. I just… I want this to be done right. We started off so complicated. So messy. You deserve to go out on a real date. I want to win you the right way. Okay?”
She sighed. Leaned into my shoulder. “Okay.”
A second later, my lips crushed against hers, woven together in a feral dance. Her heart curved around mine, expanding, relaxing with a soft sigh. Her hands found my back, pulling me closer, pressing my heart against hers. She was home. She was good.
I leaned my forehead against hers as I tried to catch my breath. “Does that answer your question?”
Her tongue rolled over her lips.
I swatted her ass. “Good. Now put your clothes back on before I fuck you senseless.”
Chapter 16
Jessica
“Roll over,” Jack said, his hands never leaving my body as I heeded his command.
He nipped the back of my thighs, his fingers squeezing over the swell of my ass. Kissed his way up my back, his fingers looping through the strands of my hair, pulling tight, exposing my throat.
“Spread your legs.”
I did.
His weight pressed against me. His dick throbbing against my entrance before he plunged in.
I cried out as his hand cupped my throat. As his teeth sank into the sensitive flesh of my shoulder. Bliss. Pure and hot. Sexy and sweet.
“Stop it.” His movements were slow and forceful.
“Stop what?”
“That sound you’re making.”
“What sound?”
I glanced over my shoulder at him. His face was blurry, his mouth slack.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
I heard it then, the incessant buzzing. Felt his weight disappear. The clock… it was…
I woke with a groan, hands covering my face. The heat was still there between my legs, pulsing and unsatisfied. The feeling of his body so real and close.
Not only was it Monday, but it was the Monday after he made me cry out his name.
“Good morning, Momma,” Nic said after I was dressed and heading into the kitchen.
I ruffled his hair. “Good morning, bud. You ready for school?”
It was a reflexive question. He was fully dressed, his backpack already on his shoulders. That was a certainty with Nic. He loved being prompt. Ciana, on the other hand…
I knocked on her door. Waited a moment, then knocked again. “Ciana?”
Nothing.
I pried the door open. “Ciana? It’s time for school.”
She was sleeping sideways, the blanket half on the floor. Her mouth hung open with sleep drooling out. Laughing, I crossed her room, rubbing her back.
“Ciana, you have to wake up.”
She groaned.
“I know,” I said with a smile. “It stinks.” I glanced at her clock. “You’ve got about ten minutes before it’s time to head out.”
She shot straight up. “Ten minutes?” she cried, fingers pulling on her hair. “I can’t shower and get my hair done in ten minutes!”
“That’s why they invented dry shampoo and hair ties. Welcome to womanhood.”
I watched from the coffee pot in the kitchen as she rushed around the apartment, muttering to herself the entire time about all the ways she would be picked on.
“Can you braid my hair?” she asked as she sat at the table with a compact in her hand.
“Of course.”
Once her hair was done, they were out the door. I locked the ice cream shop behind me and turned. There he was
… Jack. A coffee in hand and a smile on his face.
“Morning.” He offered me a cup, and then a kiss.
I licked my lips when he pulled away. “Morning.”
“Mondays,” he said with a groan. “Got to love them.”
“Yeah.”
We started in the direction of the shelter. The morning wind whistled against our backs, a slight chill biting our cheeks.
“So… about that date. How about Friday night? If you’re not busy?”
I laced my fingers through his. “Hank will have the kids so that’s perfect.”
“Good. How does eight sound? I can pick you up.”
“Eight sounds good.” A foreign giddiness tapped behind my breastbone. I’d never been asked on a date before. Never even put much thought to it.
“Good.” He squeezed my hand. “Good.”
By the time Friday rolled around, I was a fluttering mess. My chest was tight. My jaw clenched as I counted down the hours, waiting for eight to roll around.
Jack was kept busy with preparing charity events, so I didn’t get to see him much, which made the wait that much harder. I didn’t know why I was freaking out. I’d been with Jack hundreds of times. But this… it felt different. New.
As promised, he was on my doorstep waiting for me by eight.
My heart thrummed with excitement when I asked, “Where to?”
“It’s a surprise.” He was dressed casually. I liked casual on him. Before, he was always in suits. Always well-pressed and formal. But seeing him as an average Jack, I decided that was my favorite.
“A surprise?” I hopped a little. “You… surprises?”
“I know. I’m trying something new,” he said with an earthy chuckle. He opened the door to the cab he hailed, and then gave the driver a Brooklyn address.
The drive was smoother than usual. We sat hand in hand, talking about little things as we passed under the city lights, listening to the sultry sounds coming from the radio.
“Escape the Bomb?” I asked the moment the driver pulled up to the curb.
I wished I could have taken a picture of his smile. “Just you wait and see.”
Once we entered the building, I turned back, questioning. The lobby was small, dark, and crammed with bodies. Excited chatter skipped in time with my heart beat.
Jack slid beside me, leaning close to my ear. “It’s a paint bomb. We have to do a series of trials to try to beat the clock before the bomb explodes.”
My pulse raced as my smile lifted. “Really?”
“I thought it would be fun.”
“More than fun.”
Once we were checked in, we were suited up in hazmat suits and placed inside the beginners’ room. As the clock counted down, I started bouncing on my toes, ready to win.
“Ready? Go,” the electronic voice called out as the timer started on the far wall.
We shouted numbers to each other, trying to hack into the system before our time ran out. There were multiple screens, all with different questions needing a series of numbers to unlock the code.
After a few moments of worming around each other, we found a rhythm, then unlocked the code. I was laughing so hard when we entered the next room, which was filled with red lasers we had to weave through.
“Oh shit.” His breaths were jagged, sweat beading along his forehead. “How the hell am I supposed to weasel my way through that?”
The lasers were tightly knit together. He bent, peering through the beams, trying to find gaps where he could fit.
“Watch and learn.” I cracked my knuckles. My neck. Grinned as I lowered myself to the ground, using my flexibility to roll and bend through each small gap.
“Fuck… That’s sexy as hell,” he said when I dropped into a split, then rolled, living out my dream as Cat Woman.
When I made it to the other side, I popped up, laughing. “Your turn. Hurry!”
He bent, his back hitting the first laser. “Fuck,” he said, laughing.
“Keep trying.” My giggles filled the small room as he army crawled under the next two.
Pausing, he took me in. “Why did I sign up for this again?”
“Because it’s fun.” I grabbed his hand, pulling him through the last one. “Now, hurry! You’re running up our clock.”
“Fun.” He pulled me against him once he appeared. “Remind me of that when we leave covered in paint.
I lifted a brow. “Says who? I plan on decoding this thing.”
His ensuing words were quieted when the door to the next room opened. It was a series of puzzles we had to work through. I stalled, frozen in panic. Puzzles were never my forte.
“Hell yeah,” Jack said, stepping up to the computer. “Bring it.”
I watched in awe as he blazed through puzzle after puzzle, adding much-needed seconds to our final time.
And then came the last room. We were fully suited with masks, standing in front of the bomb, holding each other’s hands as the countdown began. We had to work together to get through the last screen. He had a controller that only enabled left and forward, and mine was right and back.
“A slight right,” he said, guiding us as the clock on the wall counted down, getting dangerously low.
“Left?” My knees bobbed in and out.
Fifteen seconds
“Shit. Right,” he said. “Forward. Forward. Left.”
Ten seconds.
“We aren’t going to make it.” Every muscle went tight as I prepared myself for the blow. Hysterical giggles fluttered out, nervous even though it was only paint.
“We are! Right again. No… no… back up a little. There!”
Five.
Four.
“Jack!”
“Right!” he called out, his bottom lip sucked into his mouth. “Almost there.”
Three.
Two.
“Jack!”
One.
Blue paint exploded throughout the room, covering us from head to toe as I screamed and laughed.
Jack turned on me, picking me up, throwing me over his shoulder. He playfully swatted my behind. “I said right, woman!” He exhaled happiness when he sat me down.
I flipped his mask up and rubbed my blue hand all over his face, collapsing in fits when his mouth dropped open.
“Oh, no you didn’t.” He reached for me.
I dodged his hands, slipping out from under him because of the paint. A second later, he was reaching, pulling me against him as we both slipped and fell into more paint. He grabbed a big blob of it, then smeared it across the top of my head.
When I squealed, he pressed his lips against mine. I melted, feeling his smirk against my lips, and then he was rubbing his face all over me, covering me in more paint.
“Jack!” I cried, laughing as a bright light filled the room.
It was one of the workers coming to relieve us.
We both looked over at him, bursting out in laughter. We were two grown adults rolling around in paint.
“Your time is up,” the worker said as Jack helped me to my feet. “I’ll… uh… I’ll get you some towels.”
After we were cleaned off as best we could and got in a cab, I turned to Jack, losing myself in his eyes. Trying not to laugh at the blue stained in his cheeks.
“Thank you,” I said. “I don’t remember the last time I had that much fun.”
“I should be thanking you. I’ve never done anything like that. It was… awesome.”
We stopped by a small pizza place not far from where I lived to grab a few slices for the walk back. The chilly air competing with the excited heat rolling off our bodies.
“So,” he said, standing within a shadow by the front of my shop.
“So.”
“Can I call you?”
I laughed. This was crazy. It was insane. It was fun.
I stepped closer. “Yes. I had a good time.”
He brushed a strand of blue hair from my face. “Me too.”
One more step. “We should d
o it again.”
We were a breath apart. “We should.”
I leaned up. “Do you want to kiss me?”
“Abso-fucking-lutely.”
His hands cupped my face when his lips crashed against mine. He tasted like sweat and heat, and my leg lifted a little as I fell into his kiss.
I wanted to ask him up. So bad. But I liked this newness. This fresh take on us.
“I’ll see you in the morning.” He stepped back, a grin as wide as the ocean plastered on his lips.
“Until then,” I said, and then I headed up the stairs.
Chapter 17
Jessica
Fall was my favorite time of year.
The way the leaves turned crisp colors. Cardigans. Warm cups of coffee.
I’d been trying out a new idea for a cider recipe to use at the ice cream shop. Jack was able to get us a booth at a local fall festival representing the shop, so I thought it would be fun to create something with a fall vibe to tie both the shelter and the shop together. If they bought a cider, the proceeds would go to the shelter.
Days before the festival, Jack and I were sitting across from each other, working on some of the decorations for our booth. I had my feet up, in between his legs. He had an easy smile on his lips.
For the past few weeks, we’d been going on dates, each one bringing us closer. Laser tag. Pottery. The movies. Unknowingly, Jack was expanding the way I felt about love. It was this elusive figure I never thought I’d meet.
“I’ve been thinking,” I said, my stomach doing small dips. His stance on children in the past had been clear. How he didn’t have time for them. But I was a package deal. I had to know if Jack could ever be a permanent thing.
“About?” He was cutting out leaves we printed onto cardstock.
I sat the glue gun down. Swallowed, tucking away my pestering nerves. “My kids. I want you to meet them.”
He stilled.
“Jack?”
“Are you sure?” His voice wavered.
I laughed. “Of course I’m sure. They don’t bite, you know.”
Finally, he gazed up at me. The fear in his eyes was endearing. “I just… Do you think they’ll be okay knowing you’re with me? I mean, you and Hank…”
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