My mind flashes back to a soggy version of myself, splashing around a fountain, trying to find a ring I didn’t care for, and rambling at a man who always made my pulse race at dangerous speeds.What can I say? I have a thing for reformed rakes?
“They’re a weakness of mine.”
He cocks his head to the side. “Why do you think that is?”
I’ve pondered this question plenty. I think there’s safety in the reformed rake. People who were supposed to be the pillars of my support system have left me my entire life, but with a rake, the promise that they’re going to leave is in the premise. Fictional or not, that’s what they’resupposed to do.The fictional reformation is an added treat I don’t expect to happen in reality.
I’m not tempting enough to convince anyone to stay, especially someone with numerous alternatives.
But that’s not the answer Jack is searching for, if the deep smolder pinned to my face is any indication.
Rising on my tiptoes, I slowly drag his glasses off, glancing at him beneath lowered lashes. This close, our breaths synchronize. “Well, for one, they know what they’re doing, and they take care of their—” My cheeks heat. How can I expect to do anything with Jack when I can’t even talk about this stuff in a fictional sense? “I’ve just never—” Oh god, am I going to tell him that—”I’ve never had an orgasm.”
Jack’s left eyebrow rises a fraction. “Even by yourself?”
“Uhm, no. That’s why, uhm. That was why Emy bought me the…vibrator.”
“And the magazine of me.” Jack smirks far too smugly. It’s maddening how arrogant his face looks in this light. The friend side of me wants to put his ego in place, but the other part, the one that’s grown far stronger, wants to kiss him senselessly until he forgets his name, and all he can think about is mine.
I roll my eyes. “And that.”
“And that’s all you like about these rakes? That they know what they’re doing?”
“Maybe not theonlyreason. I think it might also have to do with the princess effect. Everyone around me thinks I’m this soft, dainty petal of a woman, and I probably am. But there’s something alluring about being the woman can bring a man without scruples to his knees.”
His hand wraps around the small of my back and brings me tight against his chest. He drops his mouth to my ear, sending my stomach into a freefall. “Do you want me on my knees for you, kitten? Because I can show you how badly you’ve brought me there.”
Lingering wisps of electricity lick my nerve endings to life at the desperate tone in Jack’s voice, like I really could be the type of woman to bring someone like him to his knees, however ridiculous that reality would have been to me a few days ago.
“I don’t want to be a kitten,” I whisper, stuck in a spell that only being this close to his lips can cast. “I feel powerless and silly most of the time, and I don’t want that here.”
He traces my jawline with his thumb. “How do you want to feel? Because fuck, Aulie, I want to give you whatever you want.”
It’s silly, really, what I want, and verbalizing it will only make it sound more pathetic, but there’s a certain sincerity about the way Jack is looking at me that suggests however I want to feel in here, he’s going to do his best to make it so. “I want to feel like a goddess.”
“Then come here and let me worship you.”
Rough stubble dusting Jack’s cheeks scratches against my skin as his mouth crashes into mine with a sense of urgency. I gasp at the hungry, fiery possession he takes.
“Where did you put Emy’s gift?” he asks.
I laugh against his lips. “I know you have a massive ego, but I’m not having a threesome with a magazine. No matter how hot that picture makes me.” I lift my leg, and Jack picks me up, walking me toward the bed.
“Good to know you like the picture, but I meant the vibrator, smartass.”
“Oh!” I pull away, studying his face. Jack’s hair is standing on end like he was caught out in a storm. His lips are swollen, his eyelids hanging heavy with desire. “Why would you want that?”
He cups my cheek. “Just tell me where it is.”
I nod to the drawer by my nightstand, and he walks over with me still latched to him like a monkey and pulls out a discreet case.
He groans as my tongue teases his earlobe, and I drag my teeth along the base.
With a gentleness that defies the fiery possession Jack’s had on me, he places me on the bed. Leaning over, he continues pressing a series of small kisses along my jawline. My whole being is filled with waiting for his soft caresses to explode into something more. I hungrily grab at his pajama pants.
“Patience, love,” he laughs. “Let me take care of you. Can I take your shirt off?”
I nod, and he slowly peels it off over my head.
