Her fingers clenched. “Jake….”
Poised to breach her body, he held back. “If I don’t stop now—” he growled against the sweet soft spot where her jaw met her neck. “I want to come inside you.”
“I’m on the pill. Please…I can’t wait anymore…I can’t stand it.”
He pushed in, shuddering at the cry rending the otherwise silent space. Too good. The snug hold of this girl who, before him, hadn’t been touched in so long—it was heaven and hell all at once. Gritting his teeth, he pulled back, retreating in measured increments, forcing self-control while she adjusted to his presence within her body. Then another thrust, deeper than before. Harder.
“Good…like that…more…please…please…please….”
Cali’s welcoming sighs and straining gasps built warm and wet against the skin of his chest as her body took him deep.
It was pleasure so exquisitely intense it bordered on pain, the breathtaking thrust and agonizing retreat so deliciously destructive her every last defense lay battered, in ruins around her unguarded heart.
“Don’t stop….” It was too good. Each kiss of flesh taking her higher and higher, until Jake jerked her standing leg to his other hip, opening her completely to the driving thrust of his body into hers.
Too good. Too much. And she was coming apart in his arms. Her body was seizing around his until she was caught breathless, suspended in pleasure, as his blue eyes bored into hers.
“Beautiful…so beautiful,” he gritted out, fingers digging into her thighs, branding her with his need as he drove deep one final time, roaring his release.
CHAPTER TEN
BROWS resting together, their breath came in ragged bursts between them, bathing already overheated skin in a humid caress. Jake’s fingers curled around the smooth curve of her hip, his thumb stroking over that sexy bone in front.
What was it about this woman that drained him of his every last sense?
And what about her?
Cali was supposed to be the conservative one. The woman with all the concerns and issues. And yet once her switch had flipped—she’d practically been climbing his body to get him inside her.
Damn, it was hot.
But now what he needed was to get her out of this hall. Out of that fantasy, porn-star-next-door bikini and into his bed.
A rivulet of sweat ran from his temple, trickling down his neck. Okay, the shower and then the bed.
Reaching for her hand, he scanned the vacant hallway, once again stunned by his own disregard for privacy and convention. They were making an unhealthy habit of this kind of thing.
Really, he shouldn’t be smiling, suddenly aching to crow.
Cali had already adjusted her bikini, and Jake’s trunks hung at a respectable level on his hips. “Come on, we’ll grab the elevator back here.”
She followed silently behind him, her steps dragging their pace until she drew to a stop. “I can’t believe that I—that we—” She broke off, searching his gaze as she waved her hand toward the alcove he’d never pass without smiling again.
“I know, another hallway. Sorry—”
Her lips pursed. “No, not that.” She glanced uneasily away and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. “Hey?” he said softly. “Cali, look at me.”
Her hands fell limp to her sides. Shaking her head, she stared up at him, looking suddenly lost. “I can’t stop. I tried, but I want you so much. I can’t not touch you.”
Okay, that was good. He would have been positive—except Cali didn’t seem very happy about it. His jaw set.
“Jake, I need to explain. I know you don’t see it, but what we just did…. God, I didn’t even think about what it might mean for you.”
What the hell? “Look, this hall’s seen enough action today.” He grasped her hand and led her toward the back. “We’ll talk on our way up.”
The utility car was open and waiting. Jake stepped in behind Cali and pushed seventeen. Then, arms crossing over his chest, he forced a neutral tone. “Explain.”
Cali’s anxious green eyes met his, and after a second she stepped into him. He didn’t know what was wrong with her, what her worry was, but with that single step everything fell into place. For once she wasn’t pulling away. Relaxing his stance to wrap an arm over her slender shoulders, he held her against him. “Just tell me,” he coaxed.
Her body tensed, and she burrowed so far beneath his arm he almost didn’t hear her when she squeaked, “Is there any way that Amanda might be in love with you?” Almost.
His chin pulled back as he stared down at the amber tumble of curls tickling his skin. She had to be kidding.
He barked out a stunned laugh. “Amanda? You’re freaking out about Amanda?”
Cali’s fragile green stare turned sharp as the elevator doors opened at their floor. “Yes. The reason I’m ‘freaking out’ is because I’m afraid my boss—the woman in control of my future and livelihood—is in love with you.”
The last thing she needed right now was to have Jake laugh in her face, and Cali was halfway down the hall, clutching her arms across her stomach, trying to still the nerves, before Jake’s hand wrapped around her arm. Warming skin chilled by dread, he drew her to a stop.
“Amanda in love with me? You’ll come up with just about anything to try and keep us from happening.” He was irritated, accusing, as if her concern was some trite whim.
“Don’t try to make it sound like nothing, Jake.”
“There’s no trying here. It is nothing. That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. Cali, I thought we’d be past this now, but you’re still creating problems, and what I can’t figure out is why. Do you get off on the drama?”
Cali took a step back, her eyes locked with Jake’s. “No.”
That was ridiculous. She loathed drama. Her every painstakingly selected action was taken in pursuit of security and calm. A life she could count on. But how could he know that, when her life had been nonstop chaos since the moment he’d walked into it?
Opening his apartment door, Jake tossed the keys she hadn’t even realized he’d retrieved into the dish atop the secretary table, then stalked past her. “So if that’s not it—” he turned on her, arms crossed over chest “—then why are you working so hard to keep this thing from happening?”
It wasn’t about keeping them from happening. They’d happened. Hard. It was done and…wonderful. But the fact that she’d stopped fighting Jake didn’t mean there wouldn’t be consequences. Her stomach sickened. Potentially for both of them.
“What part of ‘my boss is in love with you’ don’t you understand?”
“The part about it not being true,” he answered flatly. “Amanda isn’t in love with me.”
She stared at him, finding her grounding again with a few feet of space between them. “You’re a guy. Your kind is notorious for missing this sort of stuff.”
“And now she insults my intelligence, too.” He stalked across his living room, rested a palm against the wall and glared back at her over his shoulder. “Seriously, what is it about you that I can’t just—?” He shook his head and, looking frustrated, left the rest to hang, making her feel like a fool.
“You don’t hear what she says, the way she goes on about you,” she said, pleading for understanding. “The near threat in her voice when she talks about her Jackson. And it isn’t just me imagining it. I mean, there’s a part of me that’s maybe a little unreasonably jealous, but I knew she had it bad for you before we even met.”
Staring out the window, he asked, “Has she ever said anything even remotely close to ‘I’m in love with Jake’?”
“She says she loves you all the time, Jackson!”
“Don’t start with that,” he warned, before blowing a harsh breath out in a disgusted burst. “She loves me like a sister. We grew up together.”
Oh, please. Enough was enough. Cali stormed across the room and threw up her hands beside him. “Like you grew up with your ex-wife, her sister?”
<
br /> He shook his head, jammed his fingers into his hair and balled them at the base of his skull. “I’m telling you you’re wrong. And I swear you know it too. This is just another excuse. Like you not being able to handle a serious relationship. You know that’s not what I’m offering. Like you not having time. You’ve got time. I see you all the time—as unconventional as the hours may be. Like you not being interested.” He waved his hand at her. “I’d say we negated that point downstairs.”
Just the mention of it sent a skitter of chills across her skin, tightening her nipples into beaded points. As if lack of interest had ever been the issue. Couldn’t he understand her concern?
He moved on her then, his hands going to the two buttons securing the shirt he’d given her to wear. He unfastened them in short order.
“What are you doing?” she snapped nervously.
“Taking my shirt back.”
Ignoring his hands, she tried to make him see. “Everything—all my concerns, all my hesitation—has been about my job, but I wasn’t thinking about you.” Her voice was low but steady, even as he pushed the shirt off her shoulders to the floor, cursing under his breath as his gaze raked down the expanse of her very obviously interested body.
“You’re making me insane.” His eyes, dark like turbulent waters, shot to hers. “Do you have any idea?”
“My career, Jake. I don’t date because I put everything I have into doing my job better than anyone else. I fight for every promotion. I nail every deadline. I’m driven to the point that I don’t even notice men.” She licked her lips, nervous and frustrated. Determined. “Until you. It wasn’t a lie or an excuse. It’s what I was trying to do. Only when I’m with you…none of the rules apply. Even knowing how Amanda feels about you, I can’t resist.”
He let out a snort. “Hell, the way Amanda talks about you, I pegged you as having more sense.”
“Wha—?”
She squealed as his hands locked over her hips and he tossed her over his shoulder. “Jake! What are you doing?”
His shoulder digging into her belly with each step, one large hand gripping her bare thigh dangerously close to the juncture between her legs, Jake strode down the hall of his apartment, passing several doors before turning into what had to be his bedroom.
Cali arched up, her hands bracing above his butt to see the room he slept in. Slate walls contrasted with tobacco-finished furniture. A charcoal rug stretched across the majority of the floor, and geometric-based lamps sat atop the various surfaces. The room, as she took it in in one dizzying spin from her perched position, was all clean lines and organization. Different from the rest of his living space, but somehow equally fitting.
“We’re talking! This—this is crazy.”
“I’m done trying to talk sense to you,” he answered without slowing. “I’m resorting to alternative means of communication.”
Within a few steps they’d entered the master bathroom. Distracted by the fixtures and decadence, she didn’t register that the water hadn’t been brought to temperature before she was deposited in the shower stall—not until Jake wrenched the dial and an icy deluge rained down from the overhead fixture. Cali danced on her toes, spinning for the door, but Jake caught her shoulders and held her in place as the cool water chilled them both.
“Now, that’s better,” he belted out, shucking his trunks beside her.
“What are you? Crazy?” she demanded, her lungs tight from the cold. She pushed her hair back, blinking the water from her eyes as she tracked over the hard, bare lines of Jake’s naked body. Surely by now she should have been prepared. She’d touched and sampled so much of him, but never all at once. Not like this.
“Aiming for a cooler head,” he replied, inordinately pleased with himself. “Thought we both might benefit from one.”
She noted his heated gaze and crossed her arms over her breasts, trying to hide the evidence of nipples that had puckered impossibly tighter. But Jake merely grinned, brushing her arms away, and then let his focus drop lower still on her body. “Though maybe we ought to clear this up fast, because I’m not sure how long it’s going to last.”
He was right. Already the temperature of the water had begun to rise, and with it the heat building steadily within her core.
“Amanda is not in love with me,” he said, cutting to the chase.
How could he even know? “But—”
“No, let me just get this out, so we don’t have any more misunderstandings or confusion. You need to stop looking for excuses and start using that sharp intellect of yours to put it together. Amanda is not in love with me. She’s been setting us up from the start. Trust me on this. I’ve been through it before. Though I have to give her credit for more subtlety than she usually manages, this is definitely a set-up.”
Cali stared up at him, wanting so badly for it to be true. So simple a solution. No one would get hurt. No risk to her career. “Prove it,” she challenged, praying he could.
Arching a brow, he gave a thoughtful nod. “Okay. Reason one: she has never asked me to do even one thing for any of the employees she’s had coming through Chicago before. But you I’ve got living next door— Time for these to go.”
His fingers flicked at her hips and the string ties at the sides of her bikini bottoms were loose and falling open. Her knees snapped shut, but Jake wasn’t deterred, his hands already moving to her breasts, thumbs beneath the fabric, pulling the scant cups to the sides so they trapped her bare breasts between them.
He groaned, catching the turgid peaks between his fingers briefly before moving to untie the strings of her top. As if on cue the three tiny panels of Lycra fell away, leaving her naked beneath the shower spray. Jake followed the streams of water sluicing down her shoulders, breasts and belly with a gaze so intent she could swear she felt his touch. “God, that’s nice.”
Staring back at him, she couldn’t agree more. Every part of her body was wound tight. Her pulse throbbed in time with the ache between her legs. She was already exposed. Already hot. But resolving this was imperative. “You said there was an issue with the temporary housing.”
“Fine.” Back on task, he pulled the shower gel dispenser from a built-in shelf in the tile and squirted a handful into his palm. “Fair enough. But, for the record, whatever emergency there was, she didn’t mention it until after I’d told her about the vacancy opening up next door to me.”
She liked it, but as proof went it wasn’t exactly rock-solid. If she was going to put this behind her once and for all, she wanted something concrete.
Jake pulled her closer and, wrapping his arms around her, began lathering in slow lazy strokes over her shoulders, neck and back. “Reason two: when I told her I hadn’t been able to get much time to talk with you this week, she suggested I hit the beach today. Even going so far as to speculate on what kind of suit you might be wearing. She thought white bikini. I went with pink. Just goes to show how fun being wrong can be.”
Cali swallowed. That was something. But still….
Jake’s hands slipped down her arms to where her hands had come to rest against the muscles of his stomach. She hadn’t even realized. She’d gone to rot.
Taking one hand in his, he squeezed a dollop more gel into her palm and pressed it back into his flesh, letting her skim up his chest to that mind-blowing spot that had led to the demise of her control down in the hall. It was even better with soap.
“And Reason three: she’s got a picture of me on her desk from when I was a year old. Droopy diaper hanging half off my butt, full-on snaggletooth smile, and saliva covering three-quarters of my face. It’s not the kind of love you’re talking about.”
Cali pulled back, her heart soaring. “Oh, my word! That’s you?”
Jake closed his eyes, his mouth setting into a hard line. “You’ve seen it.”
Had she ever? This man who ranked Greek god status in front of her had not been a beautiful baby. That picture, so prominently displayed in a frame that said “Luv Bug”, had be
en discussed using words and phrases like “unfortunate” and “maybe he’ll be smart” by everyone who’d ever crossed the threshold of Amanda’s New York office. No one had a clue that the juicy blue-eyed babe in that snap was actually one of the leading cardiac surgeons in Chicago and, as far as Cali was concerned, the all-time sexiest man alive.
Which brought her back to the sexy man himself, staring down at her with those endless blue eyes, a half-smile fixed on his lips. “You realize what I’ve sacrificed by admitting that picture is me?”
“I do.” What she also realized was that, as of that moment, Jake Tyler was hers, free and clear. Tension loosened from around her chest, freeing her for her first unfettered breath in weeks.
Her hands skimmed over the planes of his chest, his washboard stomach, his trim hips and then inward, to stroke the smooth-steel length of him.
His jaw clenched even as he gritted out the words. “So, you believe me about Amanda now?”
“I believe,” she murmured, giving in to the seemingly magnetic pull of his body as the water rinsed the last of the suds from their skin. Her mouth opened over his chest, slid across to cover the disk of his tight male nipple. She flicked at it with her tongue, groaning at the sensation of Jake’s hands weaving through the wet mass of her hair.
Silky heat pooled within her as the seductive image of making Jake tighten his hold flooded her mind. Hungrily, she kissed down the contours of his torso, licking and sucking a greedy path south.
Jake’s gruff warning sounded above her. “Cali….”
But she couldn’t stop—wouldn’t. “I want….” she whispered, breathing the steam rising off his skin, the clean scent of him. Then she was melting to her knees between his legs, taking what she wanted.
She’d given in, and it felt so good, so free, she wanted Jake’s surrender as well.
Licking, tasting, gorging on the erotic fantasy come to life, she moaned around him, her own arousal building exponentially with the masculine sound of restrained pleasure.
Wild Fling or a Wedding Ring? Page 9
