Not Quite Dating

by Catherine Bybee

  “No way.”

  Danny’s words made everyone laugh.

  Within minutes, Danny held a steaming plastic pipe in his mouth and was inhaling the medicine deep into his lungs.

  The tension in Jack’s shoulders eased, and Jessie’s frown and the lines of worry on her face faded.

  Soon Danny wanted to sit on the gurney without his mom holding him. Jessie sat him down and took a seat next to Jack. Poor Danny, Jack thought. He must have felt like he was under a microscope with the two of them staring at him, waiting for his next move. Once Danny finished inhaling the medicine in the plastic pipe, the nurse returned and turned off the oxygen.

  One of the clerks stepped into the room and gathered insurance information from Jessie, which she handed over quickly. The whole process of documenting her state-funded insurance and the billing for her part of Danny’s expenses was quickly finished up and pushed aside.

  By now, Danny had curled up on his side and closed his eyes.

  “Thanks for coming, Jack,” Jessie said, sitting beside him.

  He glanced down at Jessie’s tired face and put an arm around her. “I’m glad you called me.”

  She settled into his arms, much to his surprise.

  “Monica is away and I still haven’t got my car back.”

  “When did it break down again?” He should have had Max take care of all the issues with her car.

  “Remember my date from hell?”

  Like he would ever forget it. “Saturday?”

  “Car died on the way home. I walked the last three miles.”

  Dammit. He shuddered, thinking of her walking at night by herself. Jack squeezed her closer to him, trying to take away all her misery. “You should have told me.”

  She yawned. “So you could come to my rescue again? It has to be getting old by now. I’m not usually so darn helpless.”

  “Are you kidding? You feed my ego, lady. There’s nothing better for me to do than to take away all the bad things that happen.”

  Danny had fallen asleep, and for the first time since he walked through the door to Jessie’s apartment, the boy didn’t look like he was struggling.

  “You do. Take away the bad. Tonight I started to panic. If you hadn’t answered…”

  “Hey, I did. We’re good. Danny looks better already.”

  Jack settled in and stroked up and down Jessie’s arm until both mother and son were nodding off and falling asleep.

  Jack placed Danny into his bed and pulled a sheet over him. Jessie kissed her son and stepped out of the room.

  It was three in the morning.

  “I don’t know how I’m going to make all this up to you.”

  “You already have, Jessie.” Jack glanced around the living room. “I’ll just rest up here on the couch.”

  “You don’t have to do that. I’m sure Danny is going to be fine now. The doctor thought he’d sleep till morning without any problems.”

  Jack sat on the sofa and toed off his shoes. “If it’s all the same to you, I’m staying. Save me the trouble of turning around and coming back should there be a need.”

  Jessie looked as if she wanted to argue, then shook her head. “OK. The sofa pulls out into a bed.”

  “I’m fine on the sofa.”

  Jessie disappeared for a few minutes and returned with a pillow and a blanket. “You sure?”

  He took his jacket off and winked. “Positive.”

  “OK,” she said. “G’night.”

  “Good night, sweetheart.”

  Jessie smiled before turning and walking to her bedroom.

  Jack tossed the pillow on the side of the sofa and unfolded the blanket. Too keyed up to lie down, he sat there for a few minutes and listened to Jessie walking around in her room.

  The dark Christmas tree was nearly as bare as it had been a week ago. It was wrong. The lush one that sat in his penthouse suite at The Morrison was what Jessie and Danny deserved. He was starting to forget why he kept his disguise as a poor dreamer. All his half truths and bald-faced lies were getting too carried away.

  Tonight while Jessie slept in his arms and Danny snoozed on the gurney, Jack realized how much he’d fallen for her. For both of them.

  All of the signs of falling in love were there. For some strange reason, the “L” word didn’t worry him in the least. Perhaps with a different woman he’d feel closed in, trapped, but not with Jessie. The way she looked at him, called him when she needed him. She laughed at his jokes and listened when he needed to talk. The gentle sway of her hips and toss of her hair fired his blood with want.

  Even now, Jack heard her tossing in her bed in the other room. He should just go in there and tell her the truth.

  Jessie, he’d say. All my life all I ever wanted was for a woman to want me for me. For who I am and not my name or the money I make. Then I walked into your diner, and you took my breath away. I had to know that you would love me for me. I can’t let you go on thinking I’m some dreamer who couldn’t make you happy if you gave me half a chance.

  How hard could those words be? They sounded good to him, and he’d been fantasizing about saying them for weeks.

  Jack heard the coils in her bedspring squeak and he stood.

  Get it over with.

  Yet the closer he moved to the door of her room, the more his stomach twisted.

  The door was open. Probably so she could hear Danny if he called out.

  She shifted on the bed and punched her pillow.

  Jack watched her do this a couple of times and smiled. At least he wasn’t the only one having trouble getting to sleep. Jessie shifted again and then tossed her covers off. “Dammit,” she whispered.

  “Trouble sleeping?” he asked, his voice low.

  She turned and noticed him standing in the doorway. She clicked on a bedside lamp and illuminated the room with a soft glow.

  “This is crazy,” she whispered.

  She tossed back the covers, revealing a long T-shirt with a snowman eating his nose. The image shouldn’t have been sexy, but it was. Then again, the way Jessie lifted her frame from her bed, and the sultry look in her eyes when she approached him, knocked his brain clear away from his head. Cognitive thoughts fled as his pulse lunged into high gear.

  Standing toe-to-toe, Jessie pulled him into her room and closed the door behind him. He’d come in there to tell her something, but he couldn’t remember what.

  Her perky breasts pushed against the snowman; her nipples poked against the thin fabric. Jessie ran a hand up his arm and back down.

  “What are you doing, Jessie?”

  “If you have to ask, I’m losing my touch,” she said with a smile. Hadn’t he used a similar line on her not so very long ago?

  “But you don’t—”

  She silenced him by placing her finger over his lips. “No more talking. I’ve talked until I’m blue. I want to feel, Jack.” She stepped back, crossed her arms over her shoulders, and tugged her nightshirt away from her body.

  She stood in pink lace panties and nothing else. The heat in her stare shot straight to his groin, and his heart started to sing hallelujah.

  Her porcelain skin dipped and swelled in all the right spots. Jack actually felt in awe of being next to her like this. Reaching a hand out, Jack gently touched her shoulder before letting his hand slide over her arm. He watched his fingers trace over her skin and noticed when Jessie visibly trembled at his touch.

  Jack felt as if he’d waited a lifetime to touch her, to taste her. Their two kisses had sated nothing and fueled everything. His fingers lingered on her elbow before reaching for her waist. He fanned his fingers and touched as much of her skin as possible but still didn’t have enough. Jack allowed his other hand to follow the curve of her soft, welcoming hip. Real gooseflesh rose on his arms. When Jessie sucked in a tight gasp of pleasure, Jack glanced into her hazel eyes, eyes that darkened when she was aroused as she was now. She stood there, enjoying his touch and demanding nothing.

  Her lips par
ted when he followed up the curve of her waist and touched the underside of her generous breast with his knuckles. Her nipples hardened into aching pebbles of flesh asking to be touched.

  “I want to be everything for you,” he found himself saying.

  Jessie reached up to his shirt and undid the buttons, slowly. With shaky hands, she managed to push the last piece of round plastic through its hole and brush his shirt off his chest until it pooled at their feet.

  Her fingers spread over his chest and buried into the light dusting of hair she found. One tantalizing thumb rubbed over his nipple and provoked multiple firings of nerve endings that had sat dormant for a very long time.

  They hadn’t even kissed and already his erection strained against his pants.

  No matter how much he wanted her, he wouldn’t rush this moment.

  No, this moment was meant to explore, feel, touch, taste, and experience with his whole being.

  Bending his head, Jack pressed his lips against her neck and found her pulse beating hard. He nibbled, licked, and kissed a path to her collarbone until he felt Jessie mold her body to his.

  Jack wrapped his arms around her. His lips lifted from her sweet skin and found her mouth. She groaned into their kiss but made no move to rush the moment. It was as if they had an agreement not to hurry, to make love slowly, thoroughly.

  Her lips were soft, savory. Jack’s mouth lingered on hers, exploring first with his lips, learning every curve, every motion that made Jessie moan, then he offered something deeper and mated his tongue to hers. Nails, hers, dug into his back as she pressed closer. Her breasts flattened against him as she gave in to sensation and let him ravish her with his needy mouth. Heat built and Jessie started to melt in his arms.

  Jack backed her up to the bed and followed her down to the mattress. Jessie’s hands were free to roam over his flesh, and she did so with bold, long strokes, down his back and over his jeans-clad ass and thighs. If he wasn’t clothed, he’d be inside of her already; best to keep his pants on as long as he could stand the wicked torture of her touch.

  Jessie was on fire. The weight of Jack pressing her into her bed was just as pleasurable as his hands roaming over her hip, past her panties, and down her thigh. His lips were lethal weapons; his tongue, ammunition that threatened to undo every restraint she possessed.

  He kissed her until she was breathless, and then left her mouth to kiss her neck, her shoulder. His hands cupped her taut breasts, and waves of desire shot to her belly and settled between her legs.

  Jessie lifted one leg and laid it over one of his until his knee settled firmly against her core. It was so delicious having him in her arms. Thoughts of stopping didn’t penetrate her brain. Only the desire to feel him touch her everywhere ruled her thoughts.

  When Jack’s mouth touched her nipple, she lifted off the bed and pushed her hips up and against his thigh. That tiny motion and friction, that connection, needed repeating.

  She wanted him so desperately but wouldn’t speed them up any more than he would.

  Jessie slid her hand down his thigh and pulled it up between her legs. Jack laughed over her breast. “You laugh now,” she said as she shamelessly tilted her hips against his leg. “I know what you’re doing.”

  “Do you?”

  “Holding me off, making me pay for all the times I’ve denied you.” He pinched her breast, tossing the words from her mouth and brain.

  “Holding you off, but not for payment…for pleasure.” His hand snaked down her taut stomach and teased the edge of her panties.

  She held her breath, waiting.

  When he hesitated, Jessie opened her eyes and found him staring at her. The smoky flecks in his eyes glistened in the dim light of the room. He moved his fingers between the lace and her skin and slowly sought her wet, throbbing core. There was no way to keep her eyes open when he opened her to pleasure. It had been so long since anyone had touched her, and if she was honest with herself, no one had ever taken such care of her needs.

  His hand moved with her hips. Her breath grew shallow as her body started to tighten and strain. Slowly, Jack backed her down from the growing tidal wave of ecstasy, leaving frustration. “You are a brat, Jack Moore.”

  “Good things come to those who wait,” he quoted.

  Wait? Hadn’t they waited long enough?

  I’ll show you wait.

  Smiling, Jessie ran a hand up Jack’s thigh. Her fingers grazed the inside of his waistband until she felt the button snap free.

  “Oh no,” Jack moaned when she grazed the outline of his arousal through his jeans. “I’m in trouble, aren’t I?”

  Jessie pushed him off her and leaned over him for a change. “Big, heaping mounds of trouble, cowboy.”

  Those sexy dimples of his poked through his smile as his hand lifted to her face and stroked her cheek. “I can take it,” he said.

  We’ll see about that.

  Jessie took her time undoing the series of buttons holding his pants together. She purposely stayed away from the hottest part of his body when she inched his jeans down his hips.

  Jack lifted and helped in taking off his jeans. Once they were kicked free of his body, Jack settled back with a grin and wide-open eyes.

  He wears boxers, Jessie thought as she stroked his hip and butt before coming around and purposely avoiding his impressive length. Leaning in, she set her lips to his and opened for his questing tongue instantly.

  Jack’s hand returned to her waist and pulled her closer. Her leg settled between his, and now it was Jack’s turn to ride her thigh. Moving quicker, Jessie smiled under his kiss and reached between their bodies to cup him through the cotton of his boxer shorts.

  Tearing his lips away, he hissed out, “Damn, darlin’, this is going to be over too fast if you continue that.”

  Jessie eased her hand into the fly of his shorts and took him in her firm grip. “Good things come to those who wait,” she mimicked, teasing him.

  Something inside Jack snapped, and Jessie was pinned beneath him in the space of one breath. Jack had her wrists in his hands as he held her away. He kissed her hard, and Jessie had never felt more aware of a man before in her life.

  Shaking with desire, Jack lifted his hands from hers, leaned down her body, and removed the scrap of material between her legs.

  Lifting from the bed, he tossed his shorts with her panties and reached for his jeans. From his wallet, he produced a condom and quickly covered himself with it. Even that was sexy as hell.

  When he returned, Jessie opened for him, cradling him amid her thighs. He leaned in and kissed her softly, the tip of his erection sliding against her, intimately, teasing.

  Neither of them could stand the wait any longer.

  Jessie ran her hand down his torso, his hip, and rounded in front to position him.

  They stared into each other’s wide-open eyes as he took her in slow, satisfying degrees.

  Her body fluttered awake; dormant for so long, she knew her body gripped him tight.

  “Lord,” he gasped once he was fully seated.

  Full and still hungry, Jessie waited for Jack to catch his breath before she rocked up against him.

  Jack found her lips and kissed her as they began to move and her body tightened around him. Both of them fought to breathe, an effort in their goal of pleasure. Jessie gloried in the feel of him sliding against her, bringing her higher with every pass.

  She lifted her legs around his waist, and he stroked her perfectly over and over.

  “Yes,” she said in a rough whisper. So close to exploding, so close, and then she was there, stifling her moan into Jack’s shoulder and feeling her body spasm around him, draining every nerve ending that had held back for so long.

  Jack rode her, prolonging her orgasm, until his breath caught and he moved faster.

  “Jessie,” he cried as he found his release and his strokes became slower, longer, until he collapsed on top of her.

  Glorious. There was no other way to describe w
hat the two of them were together. She hugged him close and pushed away rational thought.

  There was only now. The afterglow of their loving.

  Jack shifted to her side and pulled her back up against him, holding her close.

  Jessie weaved her fingers with his and closed her eyes. She wanted to say something, but words escaped her, so she settled on silence and Jack’s warmth as they fell asleep in each other’s arms.

  Chapter Twelve

  The smell of coffee woke her. Jessie’s eyes fluttered open to find the space next to her in bed empty. Surprisingly, the clock on the dresser told her it was after eight in the morning. Danny usually bounded from bed by seven, but either the lil’ guy was still sleeping or he was doing a superior job of keeping quiet.

  The previous night brought an immediate smile to her face. She stretched and felt a slight ache in the muscles she’d used. Oh, but the pain was a very good thing.

  She rolled off the bed, tucked her feet into her slippers, and slipped on her bathrobe.

  Walking out of her room, she heard the sound of the television running some type of cartoon. In the living room, Danny lay on the couch with a blanket tossed on his lap. In his hands was a bowl of cereal. She didn’t usually let him eat while on the sofa, but he looked so comfortable. After the night he’d had, Jessie didn’t have the heart to encourage him to move to the table.

  “You’re up.” Jack smiled as he walked toward her, greeting her with a cup of coffee. The expression on his face told her he wanted to kiss her, but he glanced over at Danny.

  The fact that he was worried about Danny, or at least that’s what it appeared to be to Jessie, expressed how very much Jack understood her. “Thank you,” she said as she brought the coffee to her lips. He’d even put cream and sugar in the cup.

  Thoughtful. Always thoughtful.

  “Good morning, Mommy.”

  Jessie stepped to the couch and placed her cup on the table before touching Danny’s forehead. “How are you feeling this morning, buddy?”

  His cheeks and nose were still rosy, and his eyes were droopy. But his skin wasn’t nearly as hot as it had been the night before.