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Shona’s upper body moved in, and Lili sensed the whole crowd cant forward by degrees, proxies for the TV-viewing public.
She paused long enough to work it. “… a singer.”
Somewhere behind her, Cara’s singular laugh, that naughty, girly gush, tinkled above the swelling murmurs of the throng.
“Oh.” Shona looked puzzled, like she’d just missed the punch line to a joke. Jack rubbed his mouth just then, and Lili knew he was concealing a smile. A seed of hope took root in her heart.
“Something else you might not believe, but in high school, I was overweight.” Shona’s expression changed to the phony sympathetic one she used when interviewing people about their missing cats. “I was bullied, physically and mentally, and while I eventually got comfortable with my body, it wasn’t so easy to change the mindset that stays with being a victim. I guess I’ve always aimed low because I wondered how any gorgeous guy could really be attracted to me. All of me. And even when there were no doubts on that score where Jack was concerned, I found other reasons to doubt him. To find fault with him—and with me.”
Shone looked like she was in media hog heaven, visions of sugar plums and local news Emmys dancing in her head. “And now?” she prompted hopefully because this was the good stuff. The hearts-and-flowers, give-‘em-what-they-paid-for, where’s-my-promotion-to-E! gold dust that the public demanded of its celebrities, even transient ones like Lili. Besides, the segment probably couldn’t go longer than three minutes and Shona, like the good little reporter she was, needed to get to the bottom line.
Lili’s heart thumped a rabbit’s beat in her chest. Holding her breath, she spoke over Shona’s shoulder to the one person who needed to hear this.
“Jack is the smartest, funniest, most challenging and demanding guy I know. From the moment we met, he supported and pushed me to be better and then, he risked everything to defend me. I didn’t think I had the coglioni to deserve someone as awesome as him. I’m still not sure I do, but I need him to know that he rocks my world and I love him.”
Jack’s broad shoulders lifted on an inhale. Shona’s mouth dropped open. A collective sigh of relief swished through the room.
“Well.” Shona fanned herself with the microphone before realizing it needed to be stationary to pick up the audio properly. “I think after tonight, he’ll definitely know.”
“Not sure I can wait that long, Shona.” Lili sidestepped her and stole her way to the bar, dimly aware of a platoon of indulgent DeLuca smiles flanking her journey. Others too, but the gauntlet was a blur, like a Vaseline-edged lens with a single point of clarity in the viewfinder.
Jack.
It took forever to get there and he made no effort to meet her half-way. That was okay because she owed him the trip. Behind her, she heard Burt Reynolds shuffling into position at Shona’s blatant urging.
On reaching Jack, he turned in his seat to face her with legs apart, almost in invitation, his gaze viciously hot. Just like the man. Only sheer willpower prevented her from slotting in between those mouthwatering thighs and snaking her arms around his strong body.
“You get all that?” she pushed past a lump the size of a ham hock wedged in her throat.
He paused long enough to irritate. “Well, I’ve never been known for my brains.” His voice rumbled too low to be picked up by Shona’s microphone or the easily scandalized ears of her older relatives. “Are you telling me you love me so I’ll sleep with you?”
She gave a half-shrug. “Thought crossed my mind. Would it work?”
“Maybe. I’m sort of superficial that way.”
She moved as close as she could without touching him. Not yet. Please, soon. “You going to make me beg?”
He shook his head, but with it, gifted her a contrary smile, one of those smiles that lit him from within and coated all her nerve endings. She couldn’t think or speak but that didn’t matter. All she had to do was rip a leaf from the Book of Jack, and take.
She took what belonged to her, moving her mouth softly over his until the hunger overtook them both and their cores imprinted on each other. She fit just right, but then it had always been that way. Her body registered a throaty Jack sound and her ears registered the cheers and if her eyes had been open, she would have been rolling them because it was just so cheesy and gosh-darn-romantic.
“You never had to beg, sweetheart,” he murmured against her lips. “I was yours from the start.”
Somewhere deep inside, that knowledge had resided and of course, she hadn’t trusted it.
It wasn’t every day a commoner receives the favor of royalty. Tears stung the backs of her eyelids and she didn’t even have a Jack-made orgasm to blame. At least, not yet.
“I always suspected brain damage,” she rasped while the tears made good on their threat and rolled down her cheeks.
He shaped her jaw, stretching his thumbs to catch her saltwater leak. “Sure, how else could you land a catch like me?”
“Arrogant, conceited, impossible—” Gorgeous, perfect, my, “Man.”
His hands fanned her hips, levering her body flush though it wasn’t really possible to get any closer. Not all that advisable either, judging by how his hardness was making her damp, and she was about to burst into an inferno. She so wanted him to cup her, to squeeze her booty, and worship it like he used to in private but he kept it clean. When it came to lewd groping in public, he’d always been the one with more self-control.
She couldn’t move, and not just because his thighs had scissored her in their muscular grip, but she thought that maybe she could live here for a while. Safe in the cradle of Jack’s body. Great for her work commute, too.
Seemed he had other ideas. He could be so difficult.
