The dots were still dancing around, but I left my phone on my nightstand and walked away. I chose not to knock and just walked into her room.
She seemed to be still typing but stopped when she saw me. Clearing her throat, she got up to her knees to get out of bed, but I made it to her before she could.
“How do you want to do thi—”
I didn’t give her time to finish her sentence. In the next breath, I was holding her head in my hands after having pushed her hair back. Her cheeks were warm and slightly wet.
“I don’t want you to cry anymore,” I muttered with a tinge of anger coloring my voice. That was the last thing I wanted for her. “I’ll kiss you, but only if you promise not to cry anymore. I can’t take it, Rose.”
She nodded.
I lowered my head down to hers, parted her lips with mine, and watched her eyes as they closed the second our lips touched. She placed her hands over mine on her cheeks and tilted her head up, deepening the kiss. I slowly dropped to my knees on the bed, tightened my hands around her face, plunging my fingers into her hair as her arms moved between us to wrap around my neck. I pulled her tongue into my mouth and happily swallowed her quiet groan.
If I had to describe our kiss, I would say it was a gentle violence. I couldn’t get enough of her, couldn’t get close enough. I let one of my hands travel down her back, memorizing every inch and how her body dipped at her waist. When I had a good grip on her shirt, I pulled her flush against me. She grunted but didn’t stop, didn’t ask me to stop.
I could feel her chest rising and falling against mine, her heat burning me up already. I fisted her shirt in my hand and deepened the kiss, forcing her to arch her back at the same time, gripping her waist tightly with my other hand. Her head dipped back with the force of my kiss, her tongue playing with mine.
Then her hands were braced on my chest and I felt a slight push.
I managed to wrench myself away, and she quickly jumped out of my arms and the bed, running straight to the bathroom.
My whole body was wound up tight. I sat down on the edge of the bed and dropped my head into my hands. My breathing was heavy, my heart beating in my throat like a teenager making out with his girlfriend in her house.
While I was contemplating getting up and leaving or staying, Rose re-emerged from the bathroom, her face flushed, lips red and swollen, hair all messed up.
She looked perfect.
She slowly made her way back, stopping in front of me when her knees were almost touching mine.
I didn’t want to apologize for pouncing on her like a beast, but I had completely forgotten she was ill.
“Sorry,” she muttered, her voice thick. Her index finger tapped the side of her nose. “It was starting up again so I had to…”
I sighed a breath of relief and nodded. I swallowed down the lump in my throat and was about to get up to leave, but Rose put both her hands on my shoulders and climbed into my lap, not sitting, but she had put one of her legs between mine and was standing on her knees. My hands found purchase on her hips and I held her still.
“What are you doing?” I asked in a harsh whisper as I stared into her alluring eyes.
She smiled down at me. “I’m getting the rest of my pity kiss,” she whispered back in a low and steady voice, much steadier than mine, to my surprise. “I’m not done with you yet.” Her hands smoothed my hair back as her eyes closed on their own and her head descended.
I met her halfway and took her mouth in a deep and scalding kiss, giving her needy laps of my tongue as her fingers combed through my hair and she gripped my neck to hold me up to herself. I kissed her like that for a long time, trying to be gentler and more considerate than I was feeling, but she disarmed me. Her taste, her little moans, her hands tightening on my neck, her body moving restlessly against mine—everything about her disarmed me.
When she moved her lips to the right and tried to breathe against my cheek, I watched all the emotions playing on her face. Knowing I couldn’t stop, I held her waist and gave her a tug so she would sit down. Her eyes opened and found mine. Moving her leg to straddle me, she wordlessly followed my lead, sitting right on my dick. My eyes closed and a groan escaped my lips. When I looked back at her, she was biting her lip, staring at me intently. I rounded my arms around her, letting one of my hands slowly slide up her back to hold her neck, and dove in for another kiss. I kissed her once then pulled back, then again and again and again. It was maddening, the way her lips fit mine.
With my other hand, I gripped her waist. She tilted her head and pushed her tongue into my mouth. I could barely think as it was, but I met her exploring tongue with my own and leaned forward, forcing her to arch, going deeper, trying to take more and more.
The pain and pleasure that seared through me when I felt her heat slide across my cock through her thin pajama bottoms only tripled with the way she was kissing me, so out of control and hungry.
We pulled and pushed as if we were starving for each other. I grabbed her thighs and tried to somehow pull her even closer. When she rocked against me, some sense started to trickle back in. My hands still hard bands around her, she managed to pull back and, in an instant, took off her shirt. Her eyes glazed and her breaths coming out as shallow pants, she leaned toward me again, but when my eyes dropped to her full tits enclosed in a pale blue bra, I leaned back and gently deposited her on her back.
“Jack?” she gasped, surprised.
I made sure I wasn’t looking at her, because if I did get another look, I would forget myself, forget that she was sick, forget everything. I reached for her t-shirt and handed it back to her. She held it up against her chest, covering herself.
“The doctor said no sex. You can’t have too much pressure in your head.” I heard my own voice, hoarse and raw. I dared to meet her eyes. They were still dazed, but she was coming back to herself. She licked her lips and my stomach dropped because it wasn’t my own tongue on them.
“But Jack, I—”
“You have surgery in a few hours, Rose. I’ll wake you up when it’s time to leave.”
She sobered and quickly put her shirt back on, getting under the covers. “You don’t need to do that. I’ll wake up when it’s time.”
“Rose—”
“Good night, Jack. Thank you for the kiss.”
I gritted my teeth and backed away. Before I could close her door, she’d already turned off her bedside lamp, and I could barely make out her form in the bed. The door clicked shut and I let go of the handle, leaving something very important to me behind.
Chapter Nineteen
Rose
The next morning, I woke up on my own, just as I’d said I would, and I met Jack downstairs. Maybe because of the nerves that came with the surgery or because of what had happened just the night before, neither one of us said a word to each other.
When Steve, the doorman, wished me good luck and told me he couldn’t wait to see me again with all good news, I was ashamed to admit I got a little teary-eyed and only managed to give him a small smile and a nod. He understood I wasn’t trying to be rude, though; I could see it in his own smile. The car ride was similarly quiet. When Raymond pulled the car up in front of the hospital, Jack got out and held the door open for me. I followed after him, but before I could step out, Raymond’s voice stopped me with one foot in the car and the other one out on the pavement.