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“Seriously, though,” he said. “I can’t remember it ever being this good.”
“Abstinence makes the penis grow fonder.”
“It’s not a line.”
She lifted her chin to study him. No, it wasn’t a line. He was more honest than anyone she knew but she refused to get caught up in his post-coital hype. Someone had to keep a clear head.
“You must have slept with—” Lots? Best to stop there. “Lots of women. You can’t possibly think that.”
“You’re the hottest, sexiest woman I’ve ever seen, and I love how you make me feel.” He swept her hair from her eyes and gifted her a wicked burn of a smile. “I’m not saying it to drag some matching confession out of you. It is what it is.”
Stunned, she laid her cheek against his chest and listened to his heart, the ultimate lie-detector. It clacked along like a galloping horse, finding a rhythm with the hammering pulse all over her body. She felt the same way, though she didn’t have to dig deep for comparisons. No one had ever wrung this much pleasure from her. No one had ever made her feel this special. No one had ever cared enough to.
She traced a finger around his nipple and kissed it when it popped up to say hello, then she kissed lower. Over the most open heart she had ever known.
“Have I freaked you out?” he asked.
She nodded, but it turned into a sensuous cat rub against his delicious fur. Laying bare was so not her forte and years of avoiding attention had produced coping mechanisms Freud would have a hard time unraveling. In spite of those guardrails, her heart rolled over, revealing its underbelly.
When she looked up, his burning gaze met her head on, all artifice stripped. Only Jack and those eyes that held no secrets.
“Lili, when I want something… well, you’ve probably noticed I can be a bit intense. I know that scares you. Am I right?”
“Yes,” she said, her voice barely registering in the cavernous suite.
“Good. Scared is good.” He nodded a few times, and then a few times more. She wouldn’t have thought it possible for him to be more attractive, but here he was, naked and vulnerable in every way.
It toppled her.
Three days ago, Jack Kilroy had been the designated fling. The sexy rut to get her out of her boring rut. The guy to turn her on and turn off that blinking ‘Service engine soon’ light. It was supposed to be a one-night stand, a temporary mantidote to her problems, yet here they were, scaring the hell out of each other. And oh, was she terrified.
Lili had made some big decisions these last couple of days—hitting on Bon Appetit’s Sexiest Chef Alive, agreeing to date a guy who should have been all wrong for her, coming after him because the idea of losing him made her physically ill—but even those crazy moments paled compared to what she needed to do.
Tell him that he slayed her, too. Completely, utterly.
“Jack,” she whispered.
No response. She raised her head and lapsed into a smile.
The fall and rise of his warm chest, and the steady soughing told her the afterglow soul-baring would not be happening tonight. After several sleepless nights and a very satisfactory orgasm, Jack Kilroy had finally fallen asleep.
So, mortal, after all.
Thirty-Two
Jack was trying not to shout at his sister partly because being pregnant gave her a pass, but mostly because Francesca and Tad were hanging on his every word not ten feet away in the DeLuca family kitchen.
Out on the patio sofa, Jules folded her long legs under her body and set her jaw. “I told you I’m not coming to London with you.”
“You can’t bury your problems, Jules.”
She gave him an oh-yes-I-can smirk. “Francesca and Tony have offered to let me stay for a while,” she said, unable to keep the triumph out of her voice.
Irritation notched his throat, though he was already privy to her scoop. On his arrival, Francesca had laid her hand on his arm, and said, “She’s safe with us,” and he almost tackled her to the ground in a hug of gratitude. Now, he was having second, third, and fourth thoughts.
“You can’t stay here. They’re complete strangers.”
“Really, Jack? Complete strangers? I’d say you know one member of the family quite well.” Her eyes glittered like golden coins, a light that spread to her smart arse smile. She was enjoying this. Up the duff in a strange city with people she met five minutes ago and she was enjoying it.
