Oh, he remembered that, too.
Her gaze moved from the tie in her hand to his face, and then she reached to cup his cheek, her thumb stroking his jaw. “Did you buy this for a reason, Nicholas?” she softly asked.
Nicholas. She used to call him that whenever she spoke to him back then, leaving him nearly tongue-tied, and damned if he didn’t feel the same way right now.
He shook his head.
“You sure?” She slipped the tie around his neck. “Because it seems to me—” twisting the ends, eyes blazing, she took a step back “—that it was more than you just liking a nice tie.”
Jannie kept walking backward, tugging him by the tie until her knees hit the bed, then she lay down, bringing him with her.
Even fully dressed, the way she looked at him made him feel exposed, as if she’d stolen the secrets of his soul and uncovered all of them. Just as she had the night he’d had his nightmare, when she made him feel like he could open up and tell her what he’d never revealed to anyone.
He held himself up on his elbows, hovering over her, the ends of the tie resting on her chest, right where her tank top revealed the tops of her breasts.
“Show me, Nicholas. Show me what you wanted to do to me when you bought this tie.”
For a few moments, he just looked down at her, allowing the years to fade away, fantasy meshing with reality, and as he slowly, reverently, bent his head to take her lips, he realized he was shaking.
“Jannie,” he murmured.
God … I love you.
The declaration went unspoken, turning into a deep groan that he breathed into the sweet bliss of her mouth. With infinite care, he kissed her, just as he would have all those years ago if he’d had the unbelievably good fortune to do so.
She sighed under his lips, her fingers gliding up his neck to thread into his hair, pulling gently, and Nick deepened the kiss, slowly turning up the heat until he thought he’d combust.
She broke away with a gasp, raising her chin to offer her neck, and he began raining kisses there, along her jaw, then just below her earlobe, where he paused to blow hotly, as he knew she liked.
She shuddered. “Undo my top, Nicholas.”
Jesus.
With trembling fingers, he worked the three buttons of her tank top, exposing the tantalizing cleft between her breasts. He bent to tongue there, his entire body hardening at the first feel of the softness and taste of her skin. He sucked her sweet flesh into his mouth, alternating withflutters of his tongue.
Jannie moaned. “Touch them,” she whispered. “I want your hands on me.”
He pulled up on his knees, carefully keeping his weight off her, and ran his hands along her ribcage, caressing her waist.
He took his time, tracing her curves, the undersides of her soft, soft breasts, before finally cupping them, gently squeezing. She perfectly filled his palms, and he closed his eyes, sensation and emotion clashing inside him, bringing him to near-overload.
This woman … he would never want another. “Raise your arms for me, beautiful girl.”
She did.
Her eyes were so very, very blue … an unusual sapphire shade, one he had never seen on anyone except her brothers. And right now, those beautiful eyes of hers were watching him with an expression he couldn’t define.
He eased the tank top off, then looked down on her. Her lavender demi bra was sheer lace, and he could make out the outline of perfect pink nipples he desperately wanted to lick and suck.
“I want to take this off,” he said, his voice thick.
“Yes.”
He started to reach underneath her, but she shook her head. “Front close.”
Indeed, the butterfly between the cups was a closure, which he tried, and failed, to undo.
“Here, let me do it.”
