He was lowering his walls for me. Letting me into his broken heart, opening himself for me in a way he didn’t think he was ready for. I felt his confusion fading as he kissed me like a man losing his mind…
…but finding himself.
A moan. His or mine, I couldn’t be sure, but it set the room ablaze and I burned for him. For us.
He was lost and I was found and together we were exactly where we needed to be.
His hands on my body.
His lips on mine.
“Fuck, Amelia.” His voice rasped past my ear as he nibbled and sucked along my jaw. “What is this? Why do you feel so good?”
His words were a torment. An invitation I was afraid to take because what if…
…what if…
…what if he wasn’t ready and we gave in and he ran away from whatever this was that felt so, so good?
“Jack…” I pressed a hand to his chest, feeling the thundering of his heart against my palm and knowing it was for me.
“I love it when you say my name. I want this, Amelia. I want you.” His voice was a promise, but his eyes were clouded and when his lips closed over mine, I stopped caring. Stopped thinking.
This wasn’t the time for what ifs. No shoulds or coulds existed while his mouth grazed mine.
My body rioted as his big hands slipped under my shirt, kneading my breasts, blazing his heat across my skin. I crashed into him, gripping his shoulders, begging him for more, more, more…
Jack hefted me into his arms and wrapped my legs around his waist, his tongue still darting and dancing as he walked us to his bedroom and locked the door. He broke the kiss and I smiled into his handsome face, delirious.
Drunk.
Intoxicated with the possibilities of us.
The bed bounced as he lowered me to it, scooting my ass to the edge, hefting my skirt up and my panties down. He kneeled, his dark curls lowering to my cleft and I loosed a shuddering breath as he brought his face to me.
Licking.
Sucking.
Claiming and teasing.
I quivered and shook as he hooked my legs over his shoulders, gripping my ass with his fingers as his mouth did unspeakable things. I breathed his name to the ceiling. My hips bucked. My heart opened. I tumbled through sensation, awash in feeling, rooted in place by his tongue. I threaded my hands into his hair, not sure if I wanted to bring him closer or push him away.
I was open.
Alive.
There with him in every sense of the word. His name stuck on repeat in my head and it wasn’t until he lifted his face to shush me that I realized I was saying it out loud.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“I liked it. But the kids…” He drew the back of his palm across his lips and stood. I pushed up on my elbows to appreciate the view as he yanked his shirt over his head, then went to work on his pants.
As Jack rolled on a condom, my clothes joined his on the floor. He crawled onto the bed, his eyes on mine. The hunter and the hunted, though I couldn’t say who was who. I shifted backwards, finding the headboard as he caged me with his arms, his head dipping as his mouth nuzzled my breasts.
“Fucking perfect,” he rasped, his breath pebbling my nipples as I arched my back, pressing myself into his touch. My nerves raw. Fluid. Eager.
I reached between us and grasped his cock, guiding it toward me. Jack groaned, lifting his head to meet my eyes as he pressed forward. One hand went to my hair as he entered me, my lips parting with a gasp.
He filled me. He opened me. He owned me.
“You are so fucking perfect.” His voice grated past my ear as his name emblazoned itself on my soul. “This is so fucking perfect.”
Jack thrust his hips into mine, jolting my eyes open. I fell into his blues as his body writhed, my fingers digging into his skin as I urged him deeper, deeper…so far inside there was no telling where he ended and I began.
We were an epiphany.
We reveled in each other. He was joy and I was rapture and together we were more than I ever thought possible. Pleasure and perfection that would forever change the way I saw the world. We moved together, chasing something I didn’t have words for, our breath panting and hitching and filling the room with a meaning I couldn’t yet grasp.
This was real.
This was raw.
This was everything.
My body succumbed to his, clenching, bucking.
Ecstasy blinded me as I swam through a thousand shades of blue.
Jack finished with a groan, his fingers scraping the skin at my hips as he lifted his face to the ceiling, then collapsing over me, kissing my throat. We lay like that for several moments as I came back to myself.
Finally, I pressed up on my elbow, grinning. “That was…nice.”
He drew back to meet my gaze. “Nice? I’m over here having a mind-blowing experience and all you have is ‘nice?’” Even as the words left his lips, he caught the joke, laughing as he pulled me close. “I guess that’s what I get for my comment on the porch.”
I searched for something funny to say. Something to keep the mood light. Something to reignite his smile. Instead, I tumbled into his gaze, falling into him, my heart swelling with emotion and my body languid from his touch.
Jack Cooper was everything I thought he’d be and more.
And if he wanted to keep it casual, I was in trouble.
Chapter Twenty
Jack
I pulled Amelia out of bed and tossed my shirt her way. She tugged it on while I hunted down a pair of sweats in my dresser and stepped into them. Her hair was mussed, her lips still swollen from our kisses, and my shirt reached halfway down her thighs.
She was fucking beautiful and she was looking at me like I was a hero.
“Are you thirsty?” I asked as I ran my gaze along her face, her body, that smile. “I’m thirsty.”
“I could go for something to drink.” She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to tame the mess.
I captured her wrists and pulled her close. “Don’t. I like you with ‘just been fucked’ hair.”
Especially knowing I was the reason she looked that way.
The entire house was dark, and we crept down the hallway like kids sneaking out for a midnight snack. When I turned on the light in the kitchen, her eyes trailed lustfully down my bare chest. She bit her bottom lip and let out a long sigh.
“What?” I checked my sweats to make sure I hadn’t picked a pair with stains or holes.
“I like what I see.” Amelia leaned on the counter. “Is that a crime?”
“No. But you wearing my shirt should be.” I was sure it was riding up in the back, showing off her shapely legs and maybe even a hint of her ass. I opened the fridge. “I’ve got water. Some juice. Or there’s a bottle of pinot grigio, if you’re into that kind of thing.”
“I’d love some of that wine.”
I pulled down two glasses, then extricated the bottle of pinot grigio hiding in the back of the fridge. As I started closing the door, Amelia leaned in beside me, grabbing a block of gruyere cheese and a bag of grapes.
“Guess I’m hungry too,” she said with a grin.
While I poured, she sliced the cheese. We ate right off the cutting board, sipping wine and popping grapes into each other’s mouth.
“When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?” Her eyes sparkled with curiosity as she spun her glass on the counter.