Beg, Borrow, or Steal (When in Rome, #3)(97)
Need nearly chokes me as Jack lowers himself between my legs, his necklace brushing my chest as he lets me have his full weight. His mouth takes mine in a kiss so deep and exploring that my legs move with a mind of their own to wind firmly around his hips, spurring the moment into a frenzy of wanting. My nerves are electric, sharpening that delicious pressure building in my core. We’re both taking and taking and giving and giving. It’s a tangle of limbs and moonlight. It’s hot skin and sweat-slicked bodies. It’s the crinkle of a foil wrapper and then groans and gasps of pleasure as Jack finally rocks inside me.
“God,” he says, head falling to the side of mine, hand gripping the bunched-up blanket beneath us as I raise my hips and meet him movement for movement. He can’t decide where to touch me so he’s everywhere—savoring me inch by inch. I want to sink my teeth into the curve of his shoulder and then kiss it like the sweet breeze blowing over our bodies. I do both of these things and it sends Jack spiraling closer to his release.
His hand moves between us once again to touch me exactly where I need so that I can fall with him. Jack goes first, and the sound he makes sweeps me away too. We grip each other tightly as our bodies pulse and flex, and the first thought that strikes me when my soul reenters my body is not one I’ve ever thought before. I’d really like to snuggle with this man.
Jack goes up onto his forearms, his candy necklace dangling between us as he looks down at me with that ridiculously sexy, lazy smile of his. He presses his mouth to my throat again. “This is the best night of my life.”
June 23
Jack (12:07 AM): Did you get scared and leave your house? I can go back to my own bed if you’re uncomfortable with this. I swear it’s fine if you need more time to adjust.
Emily (12:08 AM): Settle down there, Ranger. I’m just getting us waters and a snack.
Jack (12:08 AM): Oh. Thank you.
Jack (12:08 AM): But also . . . you’re not actually going to start calling me that, right?
Emily (12:09 AM): Oh, Ranger, it’s like you don’t even know me.
Jack (12:09 AM): Fine, but not in bed.
Emily (12:09 AM): ESPECIALLY in bed.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Emily
I wake up in my perfect bed next to Jackson’s perfect body and I breathe the same perfect air he’s breathing and for the first time in a long time, it goes right into my lungs and zips into my bloodstream. It doesn’t have to get through the elephant that’s usually blocking my airways. I don’t know what the future holds, and maybe I’m starting to sort-of-kind-of be okay with that concept. Because I’m okay with the idea that for today, I’m happy.
I open my eyes and breathe him in. That glorious man-skin smell. It’s salty like a kettle chip and warm like a dinner roll. Am I hungry? I’m hungry for more of Jack.
He must feel me stir because we’re facing each other, and his eyes open slowly like mine. I smile at him, and he smiles at me, and we’re both obviously contemplating making what happened last night a double feature. That is, until a throat clears at the end of my bed.
I jolt upright, pulling my sheets to my collarbone while I glare at my sister, who is standing at the foot of my bed like an absolute creep. “Madison, what the hell?”
Madison’s smile looks like she should be holding a bloody pitchfork. “Are you my new brother?” she says to Jackson, delighting a little too much in being a menace.
I hurl my pillow at her and then rip Jack’s out from under him and catapult that one next. Maddie is cackling like a witch brewing something extra special in her cauldron as she scuttles out of the room. “I need you to take me to the airport in thirty minutes, though!” I’m out of bed and slamming the door behind her. Locking it. “Don’t dawdle, Emmy! I have a plane to catch and a big city to conquer. Also, nice to see you again, Jack!”
“Nice seeing you too, Madison!” he calls out from the bed, where I turn to find him looking like a sleepy, studious model. He’s clothed only in his tattoos and the drape of my sheet across his waist, propped lazily on his elbow, muscular shoulder sagging toward the mattress. He put on his glasses too. Good lord, this man. All loose-limbed with his hooded eyes and scruffy angles. This looks like a man who knows his way around a woman’s body—and let me tell you, I can confirm that he does.
Apparently while I’ve been standing here, he’s been having a moment about me too. “Shit, look at you.”
“Who, me?” I say with false modesty as I stand here in a sexy pink-and-white gingham-patterned sleep set. Right after we—ahem—finished up in the truck, Jack looked unsure of how things would go. Or more like willing to step back and let me set the pace for our new relationship. I’m so used to Jack fighting with me on who will call the shots that I nearly busted out laughing when I slid off the truck’s tailgate and he just sat there with his legs dangling off the back, his crooked, self-deprecating smile stealing my heart.
“Good night?” he asked, the question mark a strong punctuation.
I took his hand and guided him toward the front door. “You know what I think it’s time for, Jack?”
“I can think of several great options actually.”
“It’s time for you to be the first man to try out my incredible mattress.”