Page 84 of The Other Half

“Thanks, Jo.”

“Goodnight, Cassie. Don’t forget to lock the door behind me.”

“I won’t. Goodnight, Jo.”

With a wave, she headed out the door. I walked around the bar, stopping to pick up a bottle off the floor. Another one by the pool table caught my eye. Grumbling over how inconsiderate customers were, then laughing since I was an inconsiderate customer not long ago, I headed over to grab it. The sound of the door swinging shut startled me.

“Did you forget your keys?” I asked, expecting Jo. When I turned around, I saw Jake standing in the doorway.

“Jake,” I breathed, struggling to form words with my breath trapped in my lungs.

The neon lights above the bar illuminated his blue eyes boring into mine. We stood locked in a magnetic stare.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, still struggling to speak.

Without a word, he walked to the jukebox. I watched while he slid in his bill and pressed the buttons on the screen. He turned around and started toward me. Still clutching my beer bottles, I stood trapped like a prisoner in his intense gaze. Before he reached me, the familiar notes from a song I’d now heard twice floated out of the speakers.

Let Me Down Easy. The song he’d played for me before. My heart soared when he stopped in front of me, reaching out a hand.

“Dance with me,” he said, and I glanced at his outstretched hand.

Setting down the two bottles, I reached out and took it. Electricity crackled in our touch as he closed his hand around mine. With a gentle pull, I was in his arms again. Exhaling the breath I never thought I could release, I dissolved into his embrace. Strong arms wrapped around me as I clung to him, fighting the tears that begged to fall.

We rocked together in the glowing lights, every sway of our bodies pressing us closer together. His chin settled on my head, and I disappeared inside him. That safety I’d felt in his arms flooded back. My world spun once again, turning on its axis and sliding me back into his life. Into his arms. Back where I belonged.

A soft kiss brushed through my hair and I sighed. Slowly raising my eyes, I found his waiting for me, my own longing reflecting inside them.

“Jake,” I breathed.

He slid a hand underneath my chin. “I love you, Cassie.”

Those words moved over me. They crept into every wound, every crack, filling the emptiness inside me and erasing all the pain that consumed me. Rising on my toes, I wrapped my arms around his neck. “I love you, too.”

Before I breathed out the last word, his lips sought mine, capturing my confession with his kiss. Our mouths melted together, his tongue demanding entrance I granted him without hesitation. The passion in his kiss sent my world spinning, and I clung to him for balance. Like a hurricane of emotions, I felt his ripping through me and fusing with mine.

His powerful kiss pushed me backward when he deepened it. I felt the pool table bump against my legs. Towering over me, he pressed me back with his kiss. Lingering lips ghosted mine while his fingers moved to my hips and slid beneath my shirt. Rough hands grazed my sides as he inched it up, the cool air licking my heated skin as he slowly exposed it. Our kiss broke when he pulled my shirt over my head. When I reemerged, I pulled off his shirt, tossing it on the pool table beside mine. Desperate to taste him again, my hands cupped his strong jaw and pulled him back into me.

“I love you, Cassie,” he murmured into my mouth.

My answer was another kiss. He leaned into me and I scraped my fingers down the muscles rippling the width of his back. His fingers fumbled with my jeans until I felt the sweet release that meant another type of release would soon follow. Inching my pants over my hips, I wiggled to get free. Releasing my grip on his back, I let my hands roam around his torso until they settled at the front of his jeans, now the only thing keeping us apart.

Feeling his button relinquish its fight, I pulled down his zipper and pushed his pants over his hips. Before he dropped them to the floor, he pulled a condom out of his pocket, and I panted with desire while he slid it on. With a passionate groan, he pressed me back until I sprawled across the pool table. Waiting. Wanting.

Needing.

When he entered me, our ragged breaths mingled into one. Desperate kisses met mine while he moved inside me. With every thrust of his hips and swirl of his tongue, I felt the connection between us deepen. The need to be with him, to make him mine for always, increased with the rhythm as we moved together. When my pleasure reached unbearable heights, I clung to his back and cried out his name as he moaned out mine.

Collapsing on top of me, he sighed into my hair. Hot breath brushed my neck as I closed my arms around him.

“I love you, too,” I whispered into his ear.

Turning his head, he locked his gaze with mine. That soft smile I loved so much lifted his lips before they pressed into mine.

The feeling of her naked body pressed against mine soothed away the last of my aches. Long legs wrapped around mine as I held her in a cocoon of safety, pressing soft kisses to her forehead as we lay together on the pool table.

“I can’t believe you came back,” she whispered, nuzzling in closer.

“I almost didn’t. You can thank Matt.”