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“These are unbelievable,” Carly murmured, still chewing. “I must’ve hit twenty different farmer’s markets when I planned the menu at La Dolce Vita. I can’t believe I’ve never seen them before. They must be pretty unusual. Either that or difficult to grow.”
Damn it! She was turning around to look at him, and he needed to lose this hard-on, quick. Jackson hauled in a breath and sent one lastdown, boymessage to his metaphorical junkyard dog. Food, food. Right! Get her to focus on the food.
“So, uh, how would you prepare them? You know, if you were going to put them in a dish?”
The distraction worked. Carly’s eyes went soft, and she looked dreamily at the two remaining tomatoes in her hand. “Well, they’re kind of sweet, so I’d want something to offset that, but not overwhelm it. They’re complex enough to stand up to arugula in a salad, with some grilled balsamic chicken for the protein. Then I’d add some cucumber to cool it down and make it taste like summer, a little simple vinaigrette to keep it fresh and let the flavors sing, and I’d have myself a dinner salad. Simple, but still hearty. Just like the tomatoes. ”
Mercifully, the distraction went both ways, and most of theI want thatsensation migrated from Jackson’s pants to his stomach. “Wow. I’m not usually a salad guy, but that sounds pretty good. You just made that up after eating them once, huh?”
Jackson had only ever eaten these tomatoes out of hand, and while putting them in a salad made sense, the way she’d connected all the flavors to make the pieces form a whole just blew his mind. Not to mention leaving him hungry.
“Well, I’d have to find the tomatoes first, but it’s promising that your mother can grow them locally. I might be able to get a line on them from one of the growers in Riverside. Their farmer’s market is pretty big. Of course, then I’d have to play with everything to make sure it worked. They’d work on avocado toast, too. Or in a pasta dish.”
Carly popped the last two tomatoes in her mouth before continuing. “The flavors are great. Perfect for the season.” Her stomach sounded off with an echoing rumble as if to agree, and the ensuing laugh that spilled out of her made Jackson close the distance between them as if his feet were on auto-pilot.
“Are you hungry?” Looked like his hard-on wasn’t going to let go of him quite yet. In the back of his mind, Jackson knew that this should matter. But to his legs and his dick and the center of his chest, it simply didn’t.
“A little.” Carly lifted her chin to look him straight in the eye, even though he’d bent toward her enough to be definitely suggestive. Her teeth grazed her lower lip in a tiny nibble that did nothing to slow his pulse.
“I promised to feed you,” he said, unmoving. Funny how it sounded familiar even though he was sure he’d never said it to her before.
Feed her.
“You did.” But rather than break eye contact or move, Carly kept her face tilted up despite the fact that their mouths were close enough for him to feel the heated exhale shuddering from her body.
Jackson bent to erase the space between them just as she pressed up on her tiptoes to kiss him, a mad rush of urgency and wildflowers, and all thought went out the window. There was no tenderness, no holding back in this kiss, nothing but heat and raw desire in the way her lips opened and her tongue twined with his. Heat flooded him as he answered the kiss, cradling the back of her head and burying his fingers where her braid met her neck.
He broke away from Carly’s mouth to trail kisses across the curve of her jaw, pausing just under her ear. Her pulse hammered beneath his tongue, andfuck, he wanted so much more than a taste.
“Good. Oh, that’s so good.” All it took was the echo of the words she’d spoken mere minutes before to light Jackson up. He returned to her mouth, intending to kiss her again, but he found her bottom lip firmly trapped between her teeth. Carly released it with a throaty sigh, squeezing her arms around his shoulders with strength that both shocked him and turned him way the hell on.
Jackson pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?” She pushed her hot palms against his chest as she drew back to look at him. Uncertainty colored her features, but Jackson was quick to reassure her.
“Don’t hold back.” He dipped his face to hers again, running his teeth ever so gently across her bottom lip to coax her mouth open. After capturing her pleasured gasp, he moved down the column of her neck, nibbling, kissing, tasting.
It wasn’t going to be enough.
As if she could read his mind, Carly whispered, “Again. Kiss me again.”
With her words barely out in the open, Jackson’s instincts took over. His arms shot around the back of her ribcage, unstopping as his palms skimmed her hips, then spread around the back of her jeans. With a swift yank—did he pull, or did she jump?—
Jackson lifted her off the ground, holding her against his chest. She locked her legs around his waist, angling her hips against his, and his knees almost buckled from how good the friction felt.
“Well, if you insist,” he said, trying to hold onto what little control he had left. Part of him screamed to slow down, to take his time and savor the slide of denim between them in all the right places, the fall of her hair on his hands as he cupped the back of her neck then moved his hands lower over her body. But a deeper part of him broke free, demanding and pulsing with heat.
Gripping her hips with tight fists, Jackson moved to the small shed at the back corner by the fence line. No way would they both fit with all the tools crammed inside, so Jackson maneuvered Carly up against the rear outside wall of the structure, hiding them from sight. At least it would provide cover from anyone who might stumble through the garden, and he used his hips as leverage to keep the white-hot pressure of her body steady against his cock.
“Jackson.” Carly’s voice ripped through him, and his dick strained against the spot where her thighs met as she trailed greedy kisses below his ear. He thrust against her pussy, pushing her back into the shed even harder and cupping his hands beneath her bottom to hold her up.
She tugged his shirt upward from the waistband of his jeans in response, and suddenly nothing stood between her touch and his body except for a whole lot of bad intentions. He thrust harder, holding her fast against the wall. Christ, he’d never wanted anyone so much, rightnow. He reached around Carly’s arms to pull her closer still, to unbutton her jeans, then his, so he could fuck her senseless, but something wet and sticky snagged his attention just enough to make him look…
His hand was smeared with blood, and it wasn’t his.
“Jesus!” Jackson hissed, his thoughts clattering to a stop. He lowered her with quick efficiency, his heart slamming in his chest for an entirely different reason than just a moment before. “Carly, you’re bleeding.”
Holy hell, what had hedone?
