CHAPTER THREE

JASON

SHE TASTED AND FELT BETTER than he could have imagined. And he had been fantasizing for a very long damn time.

She was fucking perfect.

When she told him what he had been waiting too long to hear, his control broke. He swooped in and finally kissed her. He had wanted a small taste, something to tide him over until their date, but the road to hell was paved with good intentions.

One small taste exploded into so much more. One of his hands roamed south, cupping her ass, while the other moved north, tangling in the softness of her hair. With her body flush against him, his fingers clenched and lightly tugged on her silky tresses.

“Fuck,” he cursed against her lips, pulling away. Everything inside of him yelled not to stop. To drag her inside, slam the door behind them, and take her on whatever flat surface was closest.

“Jay.”

“So fucking perfect,” he whispered. His voice was like gravel in his own ears. He gripped her ridiculously plump ass tightly in his hand and loved the sweet pink tinge on her face.

“You’re hard,” she pointed out, her voice slightly raspy as she rubbed her sweet little body against his. Jason’s cock ached to get closer, and the sensation made his eyes shut. He took a much-needed cleansing breath through his nose.

“I’m always fucking hard around you,” he admitted once his eyes were open and on her.

“You are?” Her pretty eyes popped up, wide in surprise.

“Yeah.”

“Wow.”

“I should go,” he groaned, not moving from her doorway. Leaning his forehead against hers, he couldn’t get himself to move.

“Or you could stay?” she suggested, and he cursed again as he fought the temptation of how good staying sounded.

“You shouldn’t offer that.”

“Why not?” Her hands cupped his face and moved him away, so he could look at her.

“Because I’ll take you up on it. I’m a man who’s been starving for the last two years, baby.”

“What?”

“I haven’t touched a woman since I decided I was done fucking around. You have to know you are it for me, Row.”

“What?” She let his face go and took a step back. The expression of her face, he knew she didn’t believe him, and he couldn’t blame her. “What about The Meat Market? The dates?”

“I didn’t fuck those women. I didn’t even kiss them, baby, unless you count Mrs. Baxter’s cheek.”

“Mrs. Baxter?”

“She’s the only date I’ve been on when it comes to the other side of the butcher shop. It’s a standing appointment. She likes to cook me dinner and talk. But I never let her pay. I always leave her envelope on the dinner table.”

“She’s, like, eighty.”

“Eighty-five,” he corrected, and Rocio looked at him like she was looking at him for the first time.

“So, The Meat Market escorts, you didn’t get paid to…”

“The women paid for companionship. Friendship. A date. What the guys did after was their choice. They were escorts, not hookers,” Jason shared and rubbed one hand on the back of his neck, wondering what she was thinking. Thankfully, she didn’t leave him hanging for too long.

Her hand extended to his, and he grabbed it. Their fingers intertwined. His heart slammed hard against his chest.

“Stay with me,” she repeated her tempting offer.

“I should take you on a date,” he told her, holding his body tightly. “If I walk into your place knowing what your lips taste like, I can’t promise to keep my hands to myself and not take my fill of other parts of you,” he confessed. He knew himself. He was too weak to try otherwise. He watched and felt her shiver, her skin covered with goose flesh, and his mouth watered to lick each and every one.

ROCIO

My chest heaved—rising and dropping. I didn’t know how I was still breathing. Nerves from being here like this with him. My best friend. The person who knew everything there was to know about me.

But I was standing.

Somehow, someway, I was and hadn’t made a complete ass out of myself.

“Fuck the date.” Thankful my voice didn’t shake, I watched his jaw clench. I could see the fight within him, and knowing that, seeing it, made me ache even more.

“You deserve a date,” he gritted, his jaw clenched.

“But—“

“You deserve more than me going in there and fucking you against a wall or on a couch.” Wow, that sounded really good.

“Jason.” I swallowed hard. “What if I want that, though?” I dared to ask. He shut his eyes tightly, trying to decide what was right. I should back off. I shouldn’t make it harder on him. But I didn’t want to. I was finally asking for what I wanted from him, and I couldn’t stop.

“I stay. We go to bed. You don’t touch me ‘til we get there,” he ordered when he finally opened his eyes. The usually aquatic blue brightness was darkened with passion.

For me. He wanted me.

“Okay,” I agreed all too quickly.

“I’m not fucking you tonight, though.”

“What?”

“We sleep in bed together. You under your sheets, and me next to you over them.”

“What? But—”

“I’ll get you off before,” he announced. My thighs clenched together. The wetness pooling probably making my sleep shorts damp. He took the first step in, and I took one back.

“I’m going to get you off,” he repeated, his voice low and sexy. He took another step in, and I walked further into the house, my eyes never leaving him.

“I’m going to sleep with your taste on my lips and your sweet body in my arms. But that’s it.” He closed the front door behind him. The sound of his fingers turning the lock was clear in the air.

“Jason…” I breathed while the air around us sparked with energy.

“Get to your room and take off your clothes, Row.”

“What?”

“You heard me.” His hands clenched at his sides, and I knew he was serious.

It dawned on me, what he was doing.

Jason Somers was giving me exactly what I had asked for. For him to be in control, so that I didn’t have to be. I turned around on shaky legs, but before I took a step, he spoke, shaking my entire world up again.

“Completely naked, baby. Stand by your bed with your back to the door.”

At his instructions, I trembled and walked into the room, doing exactly as he’d ordered.