— SIX —
DANI had a permanently packed overnight bag, for when she got stuck at work unexpectedly in a winter storm, or on the rare occasion she was asked to work split or back-to-back shifts. And since she lived with her parents, any social sleepovers had to happen somewhere else.
But this was different. For one thing, she didn’t know for sure that she’d need her toothbrush. Or a change of clothes. Dawn broke over the horizon as she left the house, reminding her this wasn’t a typical date.
On the other hand…it was Jake. And he’d kissed her last night. Pressed her against the wall and urged her to ride his thigh. It was a safe bet they weren’t going to have coffee and croissants.
She’d woken up with a solitary butterfly fluttering pleasantly in her tummy. By the time she turned into his driveway, there had to be a billion of them, and they all seemed to be telegraphing serious reasons for her to have doubts about this.
What if after all this time, it’s awkward and weird?
What if we’re not sexually compatible?
What if it doesn’t work out?
But before she’d even turned off the car, Jake had the door open for her. It had to be ten degrees below, but he stood there with the door open waiting for her. Like he couldn’t wait a second longer to see her, and she’d needed that. She hustled out of the car, grabbing her bag, and as soon as she was within grabbing range, that’s exactly what he did.
She laughed as he shoved the door shut and pressed her against it, kissing her softly and thoroughly. The perfect mix of soft and firm, his lips worked their magic on her until she was breathless and far too hot.
“Let me take my coat off,” she said when they broke apart for air.
“I’ll do it.” He tugged on the tab of her parka and holy crap, he managed to turn unzipping her jacket into foreplay as his hot gaze followed his hand down her body. He shoved it to the ground and pulled her hard against his body again. “Are you hungry?”
“For food?” She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his scruff-covered jaw. She loved his beard, and the sculpted face beneath it. Her small breasts already felt heavy and they were wearing too many clothes. Food could wait. “Not in the least.”
He groaned and slid his hands under her shirt. “Should we talk first?”
“First? Like, before we get naked?” She moved her mouth down his neck, sucking gently and then not so gently as she reached his collarbone. His skin tasted unbelievably good, like freshly showered man with a sprinkle of salty sweet something extra. Was this what fantasies tasted like? She was pretty sure she’d died and gone to heaven. “Take your shirt off.”
“So that’s a no to talking?” He rumbled the question under her mouth and hands, and followed it with a laugh as she bit him on that delicious muscle that connected his neck to his shoulder. Like all of his muscles, it was perfectly defined and made for nibbling.
“You think we should talk?” She broke away from him, panting, and peeled off her own shirt because he hadn’t done as she’d instructed. His eyes dilated and he raked a dark look over her skimpy bra and all the bare skin she’d just revealed.
“Probably.” The word came out as a strained growl before he grabbed her bottom and hoisted her in the air.
— —
Dani shrieked and wrapped her limbs around him as Jake carried her up the stairs. All his carefully considered plans of making her breakfast and talking about their history and hopeful future disappeared when she took off her top. Primal need pulsed through his veins as he carried her to his room—the room he’d built hoping one day he’d share it with her, at a time when he thought that a stupid pipe dream.
He’d built it anyway.
And this morning he’d put clean sheets on the bed because he wasn’t an idiot. But he was supposed to make her breakfast first.
He strode across the room and set her on the bed, following a heartbeat later after whipping off his own shirt. She arched into him as he threaded his fingers into her hair, holding her still for another kiss.
Her hands roamed over his body, and he held himself above her to allow full access. Her touch made him flex every muscle in her path and left a wake of pebbled skin behind, brewing a strange intoxicating sexual tension. Like he wanted her to tease him forever and ever, but he also couldn’t wait until she found the button on his jeans and the erection straining behind it.
Her legs slid through his, then she froze and pulled away from his mouth with a gasp. “My boots!”
Fucking winter. He reluctantly stood and tugged off first one boot, then the other. He paused at the side of the bed for a minute, chest heaving, and before he could climb back on top of her, she’d clambered to her knees and made her way to the edge.
“Hey you,” she whispered, an echo of their phone call the night before. ”You coming back?”
A faint tremor shook his hand as he stroked her cheek, then traced a line down to her bra. Maybe he had stood there for more than a moment. His head was spinning and his throat was full of gravel. “Don’t want to move too fast.”
If only he could get his hands and mouth to agree. He dipped his head and breathed in the smell of her neck as he stroked her slim curves and willed himself to slow down. It was so much better than he’d ever imagined.
“Do you have any idea how long I’ve wanted to do this?” asked Dani, lacing her fingers through his. She brought their hands together to her bra strap. He lifted his head to watch as she used his finger to nudge it off her shoulder. He matched the gesture on the other side, staring into her eyes now, and the depth of want he saw there mirrored his own. But he also saw strength, and a surprising raw honesty that matched her words perfectly. “I’m terrified this is a dream and I’m going to wake up before we get to the good stuff.”
She slowly reached behind her, and he didn’t know where to look first. The hypnotic bend and flex of her shoulder as she worked at the back clasp of her bra, or those dark hazel eyes flecked with the tiniest dots of gold. Or lower, right between their bodies, where any second her breasts were going to come into view. He fought to keep his gaze on her face until she laughed and tossed the bra aside. “It’s okay, you know.”
“What?” he asked hoarsely, feeling like a virgin all over again.
“You can look at them.” She leaned in and danced the barest of kisses across his mouth, and he shuddered as her nipples grazed his chest. She cupped his jaw, then brought her lips to his ear. “I want you to look at them. Touch them. Kiss them. You know what, Jake?”
His cock strained at his jeans, almost painfully now. He knew. He was positively vibrating with the knowledge that she wasn’t a girl anymore. She was a grown woman who liked sex. Who’d come over to his house at the crack of dawn to finally do this with him and he was fucking it up. He groaned and swept her backwards, tumbling after her. He palmed one of the most beautiful breasts he’d ever held, and stole the rest of whatever she was going to say with a deep, searing kiss.
She wasn’t a girl anymore, and he wasn’t a nervous teenage kid.
“What, Dani?” he asked after gently biting her bottom lip, now wet and glistening and more than a little swollen. She panted up at him as he lazily circled her nipple with the flat of his palm. “What else do you like?”
Her tongue peeked out between her lips, then she smiled, showing him that she’d caught her tongue between her teeth. She inhaled sharply, then slowly stretched her arms over her head, pushing her breast into his hand. “Everything,” she said with a sly grin. “Sucking. Licking.” Her cheeks turned a darker shade of pink that made him harder than granite. “Biting. Gently.”
Damn. That unexpected edginess sliced right under his skin and hooked him in. “I can do that, gorgeous.” He kissed her hard, hungrily, then scootched himself lower and braced his forearms on the bed, bracketing her torso. He sucked one rosy peak into his mouth, then let it go with a pop before doing the same to the other one. He repeated the back and forth until Dani was moaning in a regular, breathy pattern, adding in all the things she said including the edge of his teeth. Gently. Then he shifted to one side and slid his hand down the flat of her stomach and into her jeans. “This okay?”
She lifted her hips, tilting her pelvis to welcome his fingers. He found her slick and ready, and that was it. The last vestige of his control slipped away and Jake took her mouth at the same time as he rocked two fingers deep inside her body. The shudder that wracked her body matched his own. The wetness coating his hand as he fucked her with his fingers told him there was a time for foreplay, and it was later. Before round two.
Right now he needed something rougher and more primal. He sure as hell hoped he wasn’t alone. The sweet, heady scent of sex swirled around them as he reluctantly withdrew from her tight, hot sex and peeled her jeans down her legs. In turn, she shoved at his pants too, and he barely had time to grab the condom from his pocket before she stripped him and took his erection in hand.
He thrust into her grip, rough jerky movements because he wasn’t capable of finesse right then. She stroked him firmly, squeezing at the base and then again around his crown. Squeeze, stroke, squeeze. Stroke. Stroke. Squeeze, stroke, squeeze. Jake growled and shoved her legs apart, and Dani pulled their sexes together, rubbing herself against the underside of his cock as he fumbled with the condom at the tip.
“Let me do that,” she whispered, and he braced himself over her, his forehead touching hers as she sheathed him, her fingers now slick with his pre-come and her wetness as well, and the lubricant from the condom. It all felt impossibly good and yet still like pure torture, because he wasn’t inside her.
It was all he could think about. Every muscle in his body twitched to cover her with his heavy weight. To surge inside her and mark her as his. And when she brought them together, not just touching, but actually notching him against her swollen, shiny pussy, he thought he’d died and gone to heaven.
Jake had a long history of enjoying sex. He’d lost his virginity at fifteen and spent the next ten years doing everything he could to get into girls’ pants. But for the last eight years, he’d only truly wanted one woman.
Now she was here, in his bed. And it was a different kind of first.
“Dani. My Dani…” he ground out her name as he slid deep, filling her and being filled himself. Her warmth imprinted on his skin. Her lips marked his chest and shoulders and neck as he thrust slowly, barely holding himself back from rutting against her like a bull in heat. But she was so damn snug, and he was bigger than he’d ever been before. This had to be good for her. He needed to hold back.
She echoed him, whispering his name as she wound her legs around his hips. One slid higher, her heel digging into his ass, and the other tangled with his thigh as she lifted her hips to meet each of his strokes. One of her hands wrapped around his neck and he welcomed the invitation to get closer. Everywhere she touched, his skin sizzled with awareness, and as they hurtled together toward something that felt slightly out-of-control, he didn’t care at all that this wasn’t slick or practiced.
Losing his mind never felt so right.
Dani’s lips found his and she licked her way into his mouth, curling her tongue around his. Her kiss was frantic and all-consuming, feelings he understood completely, and he groaned into her.
“So close,” she panted before sucking his lower lip. “Can I get on top?”
He tumbled sideways, gripping her hips tightly so their connection wasn’t broken as they rolled. Like a sphinx, she curled her spine up and sat proudly on top of him for a few seconds. This angle was different, and oh so fucking good. Still hot. Still tight. Still impossible slick. But now there was this gentle weight, too, and he could see all of her.
As she started to ride him, he stroked his hands up her hips—the hips he’d wanted for so long, and now he knew they felt even better than he imagined. Soft skin stretched over firm muscle. A small curve of a belly in between, all nipping in to a tight waist and a long, slim torso above that, with those breasts.
He cupped them, rolling his thumbs over her nipples. She tipped her head back and glided one hand down her body to where they joined, her fingers dancing over those dark curls he’d only touched briefly.
Next time he’d go slow and take his time getting to know all the secret spots of her body. Every single part of her fascinated him, including how pink she turned as she neared orgasm.
As if her little gasps and tight, peaked nipples weren’t enough of a clue, she told him she was close, over and over again, and he took that as his leave to drive hard into her. He moved faster and faster beneath her as his impending release curled inside him, drawing tight like a pinball plunger. When she came, she ground her pelvic bone against his, her fingers trapped between their bodies, and almost by accident he let go and followed her into the blinking lights and stuttering free fall of spilling himself inside her.
— —
“God. That was….” Dani took a heaving breath, then covered her eyes as her cheeks warmed up. She’d lain next to Jake for a few minutes, neither of them speaking. Well, first she’d lain on him, then he’d nudged her just to the side so he could deal with the condom, but he hadn’t let her go far. His arm bound her to his side with fierce determination—like she’d run away from him.
Ha. She wasn’t going anywhere. But as she started to talk, to reassure him, she was flooded with heat and she got a bit tongue-tied. It wasn’t that she was embarrassed about sex—she was an adult, and sex was fun. But that hadn’t just been sex. That had been…animalistic fucking, at points. And crazy tender making love at others. The combination was overwhelming.
“I got a bit rough and manhandle-y there,” he muttered.
“Like when you flipped me? God.” For a good Catholic girl, she was taking the Lord’s name in vain a lot. But after what they’d just done…there was a bit of a naughty Catholic girl in her, too.
“Sorry,” he said gruffly, and she laughed.
“No, it was awesome.” She laughed again. “Wow. What the hell were we waiting for?”
It was the wrong thing to say. He froze, and so she stilled as well. Should they talk now?
“It’s not like this was a known option,” he said quietly, and guilt lanced through her gut.
No, for the better part of two years now, Dani had been the one to throw up road blocks. She owed him an apology for that, but where to start? That was probably a conversation for another time, when they had clothes on.
“I’m glad we’re doing this now,” she said. It wasn’t as much as she could say, but it was something.
“Me too.” Under her ear, his heart thumped slow and sure, and she relaxed against him. “I should feed you.”
Right on command, her stomach grumbled. He drew her close for a slow, gentle open-mouth kiss that made her nipples tingle, then rolled away. She lay there for a moment watching him move around naked. Did he know how gorgeous he was? His body walked that perfect line between lean and bulk. Long, sculpted legs, covered in an even dusting of light brown hair that had felt delicious against her skin. More hair at his groin, and as he slipped on his jeans—commando, which made her pulse race—she followed the narrowing trail of curls up his flat abdomen to his wider, bulkier chest and shoulders. His arms were made of steel, she’d known before he’d gotten naked, but now she could really take her time and appreciate just how strong he was. There was so much to look at. Including his tattoos. He had a maple leaf on his chest, and when he turned around, she saw the Latin script that matched the same markings on her brother’s back.
She climbed off the bed, needing to touch him. She pressed her hands to his back, then followed that with her lips. Curved between his shoulder blades, across his spine, the words Fratres In Armis . Brothers in Arms. Her brother Tom had the same memorial marking, from the same tour in Afghanistan. Jake had left soon after she moved home, and when he returned, he wasn’t the same.
Surrounded by military men, Dani wasn’t oblivious to what happened in war. Zander had nine overseas deployments under his belt between Bosnia and Afghanistan. Tom just had the one tour, same as Jake, and Rafe had only gone to Dubai for a training mission. But they all talked, and sometimes they didn’t notice she was in the room. She knew something had happened when Jake and Tom were there, something had gone wrong—more than the usual fucked-upedness of war. Friendly fire, they called it, although there was nothing friendly about bombs being dropped on a convoy from three thousand feet in the air. She shivered, sad for the soldiers killed in the lead vehicle, and grateful that Jake and her brother had been a few vehicles back. Tom had been injured, a concussion and a broken arm. Many had been hurt worse. Jake had been physically untouched, somehow, but the way her brothers talked about it, that hadn’t been a blessing for him.
She smoothed her hands down his back, then slowly walked around him until she found the maple leaf tattoo on his right pectoral muscle. She kissed him there, just above his nipple, then licked that dark brown nub because looking at it made her mouth water. He shuddered and pulled her against his body, his hands cupping her ass cheeks.
“Let me make you breakfast before you get me hard again.” He kissed her hard and fast, gave her bottom a final squeeze, than grabbed his t-shirt off the ground and handed it to her. “Here, wear this.”
It was deliciously big on her, and smelled like him. She loved it. Leaning over, she snagged her jeans, looking for her underwear that got yanked off with them in their hasty lovemaking. But Jake slid his hand around her arm and pulled her upright.
“Nothing else. Just the shirt.”
An unexpected thrill chased through her body. “That’s…hot. Naked girl in your shirt fantasy, check.” She quirked her lips and sashayed past him, heading for the stairs.
From behind her, Jake growled. “I have a lot of Dani fantasies, brace yourself.”
She paused at the top of the stairs and glanced back at him, loving the way he raked his gaze up and down her bare legs. “I’ve got a few Jake fantasies of my own, don’t worry.”
He advanced on her and she ran down the stairs, laughing.