“It doesn’t usually look like this, if I’m honest. I mentioned to Nan that I wanted to clean the place before you got here, and before I knew it, Nan and Auntie Pat were over here working me and Alex like they were in charge of a Gulag. I swear to God, I had no idea those curtains were actually beige until Auntie Pat sent them through a warm wash.”
Cerys began to laugh. “Remember the day we said goodbye and I started to tell you all about my laundry plans?”
Jase grinned. “No fucking clue why I’m rambling like an idiot. Nervous, I guess.”
“Why are you nervous?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” He threaded a finger through one of her curls.
She shook her head.
“Being with you in Detroit was a slice of heaven. I want it to be the same here.”
Cerys let out a sigh and smiled. “Come here,” she said, throwing her arms around him. “I had similar thoughts on the plane. What if it’s not the same? What if he realises in the cold light of day that I’m not . . .?”
Jase stepped back enough to look at her. “Not what?”
“You know. Enough. Enough enough. Me. What we are. You’ve come back to this crazy level of success, and all the interviews and . . . everything else.”
“Why did your voice go up on everything else?”
“Don’t make me spell it out, Jase.”
“Women. Is that what you’re saying?” He reached for the hem of her hoodie and pulled it up over her head.
“Yes. But all of it.”
Jase raised an eyebrow. “I told Little Jase he had to wait. I told him you’d be tired. Might be hungry. I got food and shit in case you were. But I can see you need reassuring just how much he’s missed you. How much I’ve missed you. Let’s start there. Let’s rebuild that connection and talk when we’ve reminded ourselves just how much we mean to each other. And I’ve got to be honest. He might not last very long because the only action he’s seen in the last month is my palm and your sexy as fuck Welsh accent.”
He yanked his own sweater over his head, then cupped her cheeks. “I think we need to get reacquainted and start from there.” He didn’t just kiss her, he owned her. His hands slid to her neck, holding her in place while his tongue duelled hers. “You think I need anybody else?” he gasped. “When I’ve got you? And this?”
The way her insides quickened for him, the feelings he stirred up inside, rode over the words her father had placed in her head. Later, she’d tell Jase why she’d worried, but for now, it was impossible to think.
She reached for the hem of his T-shirt, and he helped her as she tugged it off. Then he helped with her T-shirt and bra until they stood, topless, in the middle of Jase’s living room.
Thank God for net curtains.
When their skin pressed together, they both gasped, their lips pressed in an open-mouthed kiss.
“I’d carry you upstairs, but the hallway is so fucking narrow I’d injure you, or me, or both of us.” He took her hand and led her up the stairs to the first door off the hall.
Jase fell to his knees in front of her and slipped off her Converse and socks. With gentle fingers, he unfastened her jeans and shimmied them down her legs with her underwear.
“I should shower,” she said, knowing full well it was nearly twenty-four hours since she had.
Jase pressed a kiss to the seam of her hip, running his nose along her. “No. You shouldn’t. You should stop fucking worrying about shit that doesn’t matter and focus on us being back together.”
She placed her hand on his head, letting her fingernails scratch gently along his scalp, as he eased her clothes over her feet until she was naked.
“Unless you feel uncomfortable. I mean, I don’t want you to do something you don’t—”
“Jase. I’m fine. You want me as I am. You’ve got me.”
When he stood, he lifted her into his arms and placed her on the bed. He grinned as he stepped back and removed the rest of his clothes. “Just as I thought.”
“What is just as you thought?” she asked.
“You. In my bed. Fucking perfect.”
She turned her head to the side and blushed, only to catch sight of the photo frame she’d given him right there on the bedside table. “You really missed me. As much as I missed you.”
“I hope that’s a statement and not a question, or I did something very wrong in the last five weeks.”
“It’s nothing you did, I promise you.”
Jase crawled over her on the bed, and she ran her finger over a new tattoo on his chest. Foamy blue and white waves rose into the sky in front a stylised sunshine with flames licking out around it. “I like this,” she said.
“Yeah. I’ll tell you about it later. But first, I need to feel you.” Jase settled between her thighs, his erection pressing exactly where she needed pressure. “And fair warning. I’m pretty certain this is going to go from ‘babe, I missed you’ to ‘fuck, I need it dirty’ in about ten seconds.”
Cerys bit the lobe of his ear. “I like the sound of dirty.”
Jase rolled his hips against hers. “Say dirty again and I might come.”
“Diiiirrtty.”
“Shit.” He lifted onto his forearms and wiggled down the bed, sucking one of her nipples into his mouth. As he let it slide out, he dragged his teeth along her skin. Her entire body tightened, and she gasped. “Miss me, babe?”
“More than you know.”
Jase barely waited for an answer before he started to do all the things he’d thought about while they’d been apart. He ran his palms along her ribs.
Yeah, she might feel self-conscious, but he didn’t give a fuck about the way she smelled or tasted.
She was perfect.
And he wanted all of her.
He parked his worries about the fears she’d had about him. She was right, in one respect, there had been opportunity. But he’d not been tempted once.
Because he had her.
He ran his tongue between the seam of her lips, savouring the way she was already wet for him. When she gasped and arched as he slid one and then a second finger deep inside, he could feel his balls tighten.
Christ, he was going to come rubbing his dick against the new quilt cover he’d bought. He climbed back up her body and reached into the drawer for a condom. He knelt up to slide it on as she watched him hungrily. “I promise I’ll make it up to you if you don’t get there before I do, but I need this. I need you.”
He reached between them and guided the head of his dick into her.
“Jase,” Cerys gasped against his ear.
“Yeah. Damn. I feel it. Can I just take it, Cerys? Let me.”
“I’m yours,” she whispered before she bit gently on his lower lip.
With a growl, he pushed into her, feeling her stretch and clench around him. The muscles in his legs tightened, his toes curled, at the sensation of it. “Oh, fuck.” He withdrew and slammed fully home. His head spun, the feeling of an orgasm tightening his core after just two pumps.
Jase stopped and breathed. Settled into her body, surrounding himself with the scent of her. The warmth of her porcelain skin against his roughness. The rise of her chest as she breathed, and the way her breasts crushed up against him.