CHAPTER 39

ALICIA

I leaned up and pressed a soft kiss to Jared’s lips where he hovered over me. Groaning loudly, he kissed me back with fervor. He sucked my bottom lip into his mouth and tunneled his hands into my loose hair. He gripped my hair with his left hand, and he trailed the right down my side, digging his fingertips into my hip.

His mouth dominated mine, another primal groan escaping as I sighed into his mouth. My nails dug into his back at the encouragement of the raw sound, tracing his strong muscles to his shoulders and those biceps I’d admired while he’d been jumping around on stage earlier.

Savoring the feel of them, I traced the shape of his lean muscles. His arms were defined but didn’t bulge. Jared’s breath hitched as I slid my hands under the hem of his T-shirt, running my fingers over his hip bone and then up over his abs.

He seemed to hold his breath as I reached his happy trail and tugged lightly at the hairs there. A low moan caught at the back of my throat as he pinched down on my nipple he was playing with. My back arched into him, my hips ground against him, but it still wasn’t enough.

Having decided to be bold and take a chance by dropping my dress just after stepping into his room, I was only in my skimpy underwear, but Jared was still fully dressed.

Can’t have that. I tugged urgently at his shirt, and he released me to pull it over his head. Our lips met against as soon as his shirt was gone. His body was hard and hot against my skin, his heartbeat thundering and his breathing as ragged as mine.

Sucked a nipple into his hot mouth, he set my nerve ending on fire even before reaching around my back to unsnap my bra. It joined his shirt in the great beyond somewhere in his suite. I didn’t care where.

He covered my body with his, resting his jean-clad legs between mine and holding my hips down as his tongue drew lazy circles around the sensitive bud of my nipple. As if his tongue had a direct line to my core, wet heat pooled between my legs.

“Not yet,” he growled in my ear when I tried to push his jeans over his ass. Pressing his hips to mine, I could feel how hard he was, but he was really going to make me wait.

“Jared,” I moaned.

“Soon, baby,” he whispered against my stomach, trailing kisses down my body. “Stay still for me for now, okay?”

My hips refused to obey my, or his, command to stay still. I squirmed against his hold, and he hissed as my core made contact with his. Moaning from the moment of relief that swept through me, my hips bucked. My body felt like it was on fire, and he was the match that lit me up.

He placed both of my wrists in his one hand when I tried to reach for his jeans again and moved the other to roll my panties off. Cupping my pussy in his hand, he groaned. “Fuck, you’re so wet already.”

“Not already. After all night with you,” I breathed as he dipped his fingers into me and then withdrew them again.

Running his fingers over my outer lips, he rasped out a quiet, “Fuuuck, Alicia.”

My need skyrocketed to almost painful levels as he repeated the movement until I felt like I was going to explode if he didn’t touch me properly.

“Jared,” I pleaded. He finally relented, sliding a thick finger into me and pressing his thumb to my sensitive clit.

“God, you feel so good.” He groaned as he slid another finger into me. “Can’t wait to get in you.”

“So don’t wait,” I moaned, but he didn’t move off me. His thumb circled around my clit again and again. The world fell away until only thing keeping me from floating into oblivion was the heat of his body pressing onto mine. There was nothing but Jared.

Lights explode behind my eyelids as he kept drawing his circles, whispering, “Look at me, Alicia.”

I did and then exploded into a million pieces around his fingers. A lightning bolt of pleasure ripped through my body until my entire existence was reduced to a ball of light.

Something flashed in Jared’s eyes as my breathing slowed, and I became aware that I wasn’t, in fact, a ball of light but a human being. It was gone before I could make out what it was.

Slowly, I became aware of his heavy breathing and the way his hips were moving against me as if of their own accord. I drank in his expression, the hunger in his eyes.

“Jared, I need you inside me,” I whispered to him, knowing what he needed.

In a flash, his jeans and briefs were gone, a condom rolled on, and he was positioned at my entrance. My muscles clenched as he sunk into me, stretching me so perfectly.

“Alicia,” he groaned, as his eyes slid open. His eyelids fluttered shut like he was fighting for control.

The man really was too sexy for his own good. Already, I was so close again. Then he started moving in me, and before I knew it, my world was narrowing to nothing but this feeling. I was still so sensitive that I was climbing to the edge again in no time.

He thrust into me over and over again, bringing the peak closer fast. I felt the muscles in his back tense. He was close too. The knowledge was all I needed to push me right over the edge. I clung onto his shoulders as the light swept me away and as his thighs started shaking against mine.

When we resurfaced, we were tangled on the bed. My eyelids were heavy, and I knew I was going to fall asleep soon.

My dress was lying all the way over by the door where I’d stripped it off on a whim. To get to it, I was going to have to cross Jared’s entire suite bare ass naked.

Get over it! How many times had he seen me naked by now? A lot. And he’d never made me feel uncomfortable for it. Not once. Quite the opposite was true, actually. He made me feel like a goddess when I was naked.

Pushing aside my insecurities about walking away from him still naked, I sat up in bed with the sheets still tangled around me. Jared eyed me lazily, resting his head on his bent elbow. “Going somewhere?”

“Yeah.” I much rather would’ve stayed with him if I thought it was an option, but while I’d stayed over once or twice before our big fight, we were still adjusting to this new normal. I didn’t want Jared to think I was turning this into more than I was. “I’m seconds away from falling asleep, I better get back to my room.”

“Why?” His dark eyes captured mine, a fine line forming between his eyebrows.

I hesitated, trying to get a read on what was going on in that head of his. Jared was very different tonight than he usually was. He’d been forthcoming and open, easy to talk to, playful, indulgent about taking photos with me in Times Square.

It felt like something had changed between us, like he’d come to some kind of decision or realization about me or us he wasn’t sharing with the class. “Because if I don’t go now, I’m going to pass out here, and you’ll have to deal with my snoring.”

“You don’t snore,” Jared scoffed, grabbing my wrist gently and pulling me down to his chest. “That loudly.”

Swatting his arm, I let him drag me back down to the bed and then marveled at him when he rolled over me and held himself up over my body, trapping me. “Stay.”

His eyes implored me to listen to him, to stay with him, but his jaw was tight. Raising my hand to cup the side of his neck, I gazed into his eyes. “You want me to stay with you?”

“I do.”

“Okay,” I agreed, still staring into his milk-chocolate eyes, memorizing every golden fleck and every nuance in the way the light in the room hit them. With something being different about Jared, I was afraid my time with him might be coming to an end.

Again.

The thought alone nearly ripped my heart out. Losing him—for good this time—was going to hurt. Badly. I didn’t even want to think about it yet, but was there any other explanation for the way he was acting suddenly?

Was that even an explanation for how he was acting? Because despite his insistence that he hadn’t been on a real date since high school, that was exactly what tonight felt like to me. A date. A dream date with my dream man.

Was I crazy for thinking like that? I had to be.

Instead of worrying about it anymore tonight, I was going to take advantage of the rest of this perfect night and stay with him. Everything else could wait until tomorrow.

The corners of his lips twitched upward before he dipped his head to kiss first one and then the other side of my mouth. “You’ll stay?”

“I’ll stay.” There really wasn’t even a question about it to me.

Jared nuzzled my neck and then rolled over onto his back, patting his chest. Without a word or voicing my confusion over this latest turn of events where he apparently wanted to cuddle after sex and not just fall asleep even if I was there, I rested my head right over his heart.

The steady beat of his heart lulled me to sleep, his arms warm and comfortable and surprisingly caring. Just before I drifted off, I murmured against his chest. “Thank you, Jared. Tonight was amazing, so thanks for everything tonight. And sticking to your word and being on your best behavior during the interview earlier.”