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“Indulge me. I don’t get to see you still very often. You’ve sure gotten jumpy, Doctor Graves.”
Arguing took too much effort, so I decided to keep my thoughts to myself. The door to my room was open—the lights off—and he pulled back the covers and laid me gently on the soft sheets.
“G’night, Jack,” I said, curling around my pillow. And when I felt him get into bed beside me and pull close, I drifted off to sleep. And for the first time in months, I didn’t worry about the darkness chasing me.
Chapter Sixteen
Watery light filtered through the trees and into the room, and when my eyes opened, the first thing I noticed was Jack, big and solid in the bed next to me, his arms holding me close much like they had the night before. His eyes were open and staring at me intently, and it was then I realized I’d slept through the entire night. Without night terrors or cold sweats. Without memories.
It was one of those lazy Sunday mornings where the storm from the night before had turned into a soft spring shower. We didn’t speak for a long time. There didn’t seem to be a need for words. My brain was clear and my body rested for the first time in as long as I could remember, so when he pulled me closer and his lips touched mine, it was with complete clarity that I made my decision.
This wasthekiss. The first kiss we’d missed out on the day before in front of my house. All I could think was—soft. His lips were so soft against mine. So right. And it seemed I’d waited so long, even though I hadn’t known what could really be between us until recently.
My fingers clutched at his shoulders, and I pressed closer as he deepened the kiss and his tongue rubbed against mine. And then thoughts ofsoftwent out the window. Because there wasn’t anything soft about Jack.
“The sweats are supposed to be sexless,” I panted, my mind half gone with lust.
“It didn’t work,” he said, biting my lower lip. “All I’ve been able to think about is if you’re wearing underwear beneath them. Then all I could think about was getting you out of them so I could find out.”
“I’ll remember that for next time.”
“Just so you know,” he said, rolling me to my back. “I’m making my move now.” He kissed his way down the side of my neck, his tongue doing something magical that made my eyes cross.
“God, I hope so.”
He laughed and then his hands found their way under my sweatshirt, and my hands tugged at the t-shirt he wore. The laughter stopped. My brain and my body were like two separate entities. Part of me was mortified that Jack was about to see every part of me. That he was about to be as close to me as anyone ever had been, and I wasn’t perfect for him. The other part wanted him with a fierceness that was almost terrifying, and it was screaming at me, asking me why I’d waited so long to claim what was mine.
I pulled his shirt over his head, and goggled at the sight of him. His chest was hard, the muscles defined and taut as I touched him. My fingers traced the scars from the bullets he’d taken a couple of years before, and I was thankful that our pasts had both led us to this present. He worked at the button of his jeans, and it made me feel better to see his hands tremble ever so slightly. I trailed my fingers down his chest until they rested just above his waistband.
“You’re not helping,” he gritted out between his teeth as his stomach muscles jumped beneath my fingers.
And then he got them unbuttoned and my fingers wandered lower until I held the hard heat of him in my hands, touching him so intimately it almost made me dizzy with the years of love and longing we’d wasted.
Somewhere along the way my shirt got tossed across the room, and he stripped off my sweatpants. And then we were both skin to skin, our breaths coming faster and faster and our hearts thumping in perfect accord in our chests.
I’d remember this moment for the rest of my life—the rain pelting the window and the almost watercolor effect of the room cast in hazy morning light. The way Jack pulled the thick down comforter over us, so we were cocooned in our own little world. The way his body touched mine and turned it molten with a need I’d never experienced.
His mouth was a work of art, trailing down to my breasts and taking a turgid nipple into his mouth, suckling gently until my body was rising and falling against him, searching for completion.
“God, Jack. Please.”
His hands dipped between my legs and colors exploded behind my eyelids. And then he shifted and my legs wrapped around his waist, and I felt him, hot and hard, against me—waiting.
“Look at me, Jaye,” he said, his voice strained.
My eyes fluttered open and I fell into the blackness of his eyes—so intense—so full of emotion that the right words would never be enough.
“I love you,” he said.
It was so simple. So right.
His hands grasped mine, and I clung tight as he slid into me, inch by inch, until we were closer than any two people could ever be. Tears came to my eyes and my breath hitched at the feeling of him so full inside of me.
And then he began to move and my hips came up to meet him automatically. We moved together as if we’d been doing it for years, and I broke my hold against his hands to grasp at his back, searching for an anchor in the storm.
“Please—please,” I chanted over and over again, my nails digging into his shoulders.
He rocked high into me, hitting a place inside of me that had me shrieking in ecstasy. And then something powerful exploded, and I screamed out his name, even as he grasped my hips and surged against me faster—faster—until he stiffened in my arms and called my name in return.
