When they’d been in his car during the storm, she’d held onto his hair for all she was worth, and now it felt like a dear friend. He’d changed into dry clothes, but the back of his hair was still just a little damp, and somehow, Rainey found this immeasurablysweet.
He’d gotten soaked trying to helpher.
Everything he’d done in the last four days — ever since he’d arrived at her house the night she learned about Ray — he’d done to help her. Rainey struggled to order her thoughts, but tangled in his kiss, that was easier said thandone.
Yet she knew kissing him wasn’t enough. It wasn’t a matter of owing him a debt, though Rainey felt sure she’d be indebted to him for the rest of her life. No one outside of Holi and her mother had ever been so devoted toher.
No, she could never repay him for that, but she needed to make it clear how she felt, and her kiss would only tell him so much. She pulled back and looked up into his half-liddedeyes.
“I’m not very good at this,” sheconfessed.
She watched Jacques swallow as his eyes grew alert. He shook his head. “Idisagree.”
Rainey bit down on her laugh. “That’s not what I mean,” she whispered. Then she licked her lips, hoping the next words to leave her mouth would be enough. “I’ve been a tremendousfool.”
Jacques regarded her with skepticism, leaned in, and took her bottom lip between both of his. The maddening sensation of this gentle touch cascaded down her body like a waterfall. He released her flesh slowly but didn’t retreat when hespoke.
“Why do you think that?” he murmured, his deep voice rumbling throughher.
It felt as if each of her cells were trained to respond to his voice and his voice alone, and at the sound they all stood at attention. Rainey swallowed, looking up at him from beneath her eyelashes. “Because I pushed youaway.”
Surprised satisfaction lit his eyes. This time, he took her bottom lip between his teeth, and Rainey quivered from head to toe. “And this is something you regret?” he purred after releasingher.
She brought her gaze to his. Her hands moved from the back of his neck to the sides of his beautiful face. She let her thumbs run over the scrubby terrain of his stubble and let her eyes trace over his whole face. His dark brows that flared with such expression. His dear brown eyes. The strength and perfection of his nose. His tempting, hypnotizing lips. The masculine lines of his chin andjaw.
It was a face Rainey wanted to see every day for the rest of herlife.
She didn’t fool herself. No chance of that existed. None at all. They might stay together for a few weeks or even a few months, but eventually Jacques’s music would run away with him, and sooner or later, it would outrun heraltogether.
But she was done making her father’s mistakes. She’d be grateful for whatever time they had together. Starting rightnow.
“Yes,” she said, pressing her lips to his with tenderness. “Yes, it’s something I trulyregret.”
Jacques’s hand came up to her face and brushed away a tendril that had strayed from her bun. He smiled down at her as though he possessed the most covetedsecret.
“You know, that’s easily fixed,” he said, his eyes twinkling withconspiracy.
“Oh?” she asked, playingalong.
He noddedsagely.
She tilted her head and gazed up at him, anticipation and desire streaming into her veins like a drug. “And how so?” sheasked.
He pursed his lips as though puzzling out the answer. The playful, coy expression on such a masculine mouth made her tingle all over. “Well, what’s the opposite of pushing meaway?”
The room fell completely silent as though even the air awaited her answer. Without a word — and with sudden force — Rainey pulled Jacques down to her mouth. When their lips met, she did not merely kiss him. She claimed him. She devoured him. Her kiss, so urgent, bordered onviolence.
Rainey angled her body and stepped back until her legs hit the mattress, and with an unmistakable pull — not a push in sight — she fell backward, taking Jacques withher.
His weight on top of her felt like an answered prayer. His hard lines pressed into her soft curves with a cosmic sense of rightness. She felt, too, the undeniable evidence of his desire for her there against her thigh, yet she could scarcely believe it. Before she could think better of the question, Rainey’s shaking voice set itfree.
“Wh-why… why do you likeme?”
Above her Jacques’s body went rigid. Then he pushed up onto his elbows and frowned down at her. “You’vegotto bejoking.”
But she wasn’t joking. She shouldn’t have questioned it. She should have just accepted his affections as evidence of a benevolent universe, but in truth, his feelings for her, his passion for her humbled Rainey beyond anything she’d everknown.
“Oh, my God,” he murmured, his frown deepening. “You’renotjoking.”
