Page 63 of Hired Husband

Apparently, he was going back to Chicago soon and I didn’t know when or for how long. After that, or maybe even before, he’d be in Sharm El-Sheikh again while I’d be here, in Cairo, metaphorically fighting for my life.

Right now, there was every possibility that by the time I saw him again, I would be married to someone I would never love, and Isaac would move on. The mere thought of any of that was so unbearable that tears stung the backs of my eyes, but I only kissed him harder, determined to make the most of the time we had.

I tugged his shirt out of his pants, and he let out a low groan and reached for the sleeves of the sundress I’d put on after the shoot, caressing my shoulders before sliding his fingers under the straps. He pushed them down slowly, like he didn’t want this moment to end either, then broke away from my mouth to bend his head to the crook of my neck.

We were both breathing hard, our moans and sighs mingling as he brushed his lips across my throat and shoulders, peppering kisses to every part of my skin he could reach. I dropped my head back to give him better access, my fingers fumbling with the buttons on his shirt.

At the same time, I pulled him back toward my bedroom, not bothering to look where we were going. He’d been here before and I trusted him, so I focused on the buttons standing between me and getting him naked.

He laughed when we crashed into something, but it wasn’t long before his mouth was back on mine and we were tumbling onto my bed. My sundress was caught around my hips, one of my breasts spilled out of my bra, and most of his buttons were undone, but for a second after we crashed down on the mattress, I just caught his face in my hands and looked up at him.

“I’m really going to miss you,” I whispered into the dark, the only light in the room the glow coming through the sheer curtains from outside. “I’m serious, Isaac.”

“Yeah, me too.” He stared back at me, raking his fingers through my hair before he kissed me again, but it was much gentler this time, a deep, slow build toward something that felt so much bigger than both of us. “Shit, Jasmine. I’ve wanted this for so long.”

“I know,” I whispered between kisses. “I feel the same way.”

“I know.” He smiled against my mouth, then groaned when I finally pushed his shirt off his shoulders. “You’re going to have to take it easy on me, okay? It won’t last long otherwise.”

“Oh, but it will. It will last forever, Isaac.” Of course, I knew what he’d meant, but that didn’t matter to me. All I wanted was this, him, tonight, and just one memory of being with someone I actually cared about to hang onto. “We’ll make sure of it.”

He took my face in his hands, holding his weight up on his elbows as he looked back into my eyes. “Yeah, we will.”

As he said it, he gave me a smile filled with sadness, desire, and so much more, but I couldn’t bear to let any of the ugly outside stuff into this moment. I lifted my head to seal my lips over his once more. When he kissed me back, I felt him tremble a little on top of me and I wrapped my legs around his hips, tightening my muscles until he was as close as I could get him with so many layers between us.

The hard bulge under his jeans ground against my core. I moaned, flickers of pleasure shooting through me that made wet heat pool between my legs. My panties had already been damp, but they were soaked now. My heartbeat was out of control and an ache for him started up deep inside.

Isaac sucked in a breath when I rolled my hips against him, cursing. Then he kissed me harder and released my face to run one hand along my side. “What happened to taking it easy on me?”

“That’s for later,” I murmured between ragged breaths. “This has been coming for too long and you know it.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m not doing it right.”

When he broke away from me again, he sat up on his knees between my legs and reached for the sundress. His eyes burned into mine as he tugged it down over my hips. I lifted my butt, and the next thing I knew, the dress was gone and Isaac’s gaze raked slowly across the length of my body.

Since he was sitting between my legs, I couldn’t exactly squeeze them together to ease the tension thrumming through me or hide the way he affected me. His eyes lingered on the wet front panel of my panties for a few beats too long before he groaned. He slowly moved his eyes up to trace across my hips, my stomach, and my chest before bringing them back to my gaze.

“You have got to be the most beautiful woman in the world,” he murmured. “Inside and out.”

“But mostly out?” I joked breathlessly, sliding my hand behind my back to unhook my bra. “It’s okay. You can be honest.”

“Then, actually, it’s mostly in.” Somehow, he managed to look like he meant it too, even if those eyes seemed positively hungry when he tracked my movements as I tossed the bra away. “Don’t get me wrong. On the outside, you’re pretty fucking stunning, but everyone knows that. Even you. On the inside, though…”

He swallowed hard, running the flat of his palm up over the center of my stomach. My back arched, my nipples aching for his touch, but he didn’t go for the boob. Instead, his hand slid carefully between them and very deliberately came to a stop right over my heart without touching anything else.

“Inside is where you really shine,” he murmured, and for a beat, the moment grew so heavy that I almost started crying, but then he laughed and finally dropped his gaze to my breasts. “These are going to kill me, though.”

I smiled through the tears that had already been pressing at the backs of my eyes and reached for him again, pulling him down and kissing him until I’d forgotten that he was about to leave. As his lips crashed into mine, I worked my hands between us and unbuttoned his jeans, grateful that the rest of his fly zipped open once I’d taken care of just one more annoying button in my way.

He slid his wallet out of the pocket, then kicked the jeans off without much care for trying to look elegant while doing it. When I reached for the band of his underwear, he slowed our kiss and brought his forehead to mine. “We don’t have to do this, Jasmine.”

I raked my fingers into his thick hair, almost sighing with relief about finally getting to do it. “I want to.”

“Last week, I carried you the long way around over a dune to avoid our tent.” He gave me a pointed look. “To avoid ending up exactly where we are right now.”

“That was last week,” I said honestly. “This is now.”

“Nothing has changed,” he whispered. “If anything, we’re worse off now than we were then.”