Chapter Twelve
JAMIE WAS HOT and bothered, hornier than a bunny on Viagra. The image of Jessica sucking his finger with that seductive look in her eyes that did him in every time played over and over in his mind. They were halfway to the dunes—the parking lot was three minutes away. Four, tops. And there was no way he was going to make it. He had to feel her against him. They were shrouded in darkness, far away from the band and the lights. He swept Jessica into his arms. Her eyes were at half-mast, full of desire and the same well of emotion he’d seen earlier. He was so far gone, he couldn’t ignore his feelings for her if his life depended on it. He forced himself to slow down. After how aggressively he’d taken her the first time, he wanted to cherish every inch of her, show her how good she could feel with tenderness instead of heady need. He ran his thumb over her lower lip and heard the breath leave her lungs.
“Jess.” He breathed deeply, reminding himself to be sweet and tender, and forcing his greediness away. He lowered his mouth, a whisper away from hers, so they were breathing the same air. He had to taste her, to feel the woman who had seared herself into his heart so fast. He dragged his tongue along the swell of her lower lip, and she inhaled a jagged breath. A seductive, intoxicating sound that nearly brought him to his knees. He grazed her lips with his, kissed her softly, resisting the urge to deepen the kiss. His hands slid down her back, and he felt her heat through the silky fabric of her dress. His tongue slid over hers, to the smooth enamel and jagged ridges of her teeth. Her jaw dropped open and she melted against him, giving herself over to him as she’d done from their very first kiss. Allowing him to lick the insides of her lips, the creases and corners, as he memorized every dip and curve of her sweet mouth.
He could barely think for the need to make love to her. He drew back, putting distance between their lips, if not their bodies. There was no way he was letting go of her.
Her eyes opened and her lips curved into a contented smile. “Hi.”
Her whisper brought his forehead to hers. “Hi.”
“Kiss me more,” she pleaded.
“I’m going to kiss you all night long.” His hands circled her waist, lifting her into his arms. Her legs wrapped seamlessly around him as their lips met again in another interminable kiss.
He parted from her delicious lips, and his powerful legs carried them up the sandy path to the top of the dunes. Jessica rested her head on his shoulder, her hot breath on his neck, and ran her fingers through the ends of his hair.
“Hurry,” she whispered, as he picked up her flip-flops from where she’d left them.
The word shot through him like a bullet. The temperature had dropped, and a chilly breeze swept over them. Her body was so amazingly soft as she gripped him tighter and cuddled closer.
“Dune or bed?”
“Whatever’s fastest,” she answered.
He tangled his hand in her hair and tugged softly, so he could see her eyes.
“Baby, I want to love every inch of your body the way you deserve to be loved. I want you to feel how good your body is capable of feeling, learn each of your most sensitive spots. Hurrying is the last thing on my mind.”
Her eyes went dark. “Bed.”
He carried her to the car and settled her into the passenger seat. He loved taking care of her. Jamie climbed into the driver’s seat and leaned over for another kiss. Bed. Bed. Bed. He started the car and set one hand on her thigh as he drove. He tried to pay attention to the road, but his eyes darted toward Jessica.
“Home,” she whispered.
Less than five minutes later they were unlocking the door to her apartment. Jessica fumbled with the keys as Jamie kissed the back of her neck, his hands exploring her taut stomach.
She turned in his arms and held her hands up by her head, surrendering herself to him again. “I can’t unlock…”
He settled his mouth on the curve of her neck.
“Unlock the door,” she whispered.
He pressed his hips to hers and held her wrists against the door.
“I think it’ll be a little embarrassing if everyone comes home and finds us like this right here on your deck.” Just the thought had his body twitching.
She strained against his hold, craned her neck, trying to kiss him. He lowered his mouth, leaving a sliver of air between them.
“Jamie…” she said with pleading eyes. “Open. The. Door.”
He slid her wrists closer together against the smooth wood and held them both in one hand.
“Now you’re just getting demanding.” He smiled up at her as he kissed her.
“Please open the door? You’re killing me.”
His heart sank, and he released her wrists. “Did I hurt you? I’m sorry, babe.” He cupped her cheek, and she leaned forward and kissed him.
“No, silly. You’re killing me in a good way.” She handed him the keys, then wrapped her arms around his middle and pressed her cheek to his chest.
He blew out a relieved sigh.
“We need a safe word.” He fumbled with the keys.
“Safe word? Like to make you stop?”
Jamie closed the door behind them and tossed the keys on the table. He wrapped his arms around her waist and touched his forehead to hers.
“Yeah. You know, so I know I won’t hurt you.”
She furrowed her brow, obviously thinking it over. “What if I hurt you?”
He laughed. “I somehow doubt that’s going to happen.”
“What if I tie you up and it’s too tight? Or I do something you don’t like?” She pressed both hands against his chest and smiled playfully up at him.
“Tie me up? I thought you’d only been with one other guy.”
“Two. You, remember?” She slipped off her flip-flops and tossed her long hair over her shoulder.
“And you want to tie me up?” Jamie arched a brow.
“No. Not now.” Her cheeks pinked up and she turned away.
He turned her by the shoulders and drew her closer to him. “You can tie me up, tie me down, or ride me to heaven and back, Jess. You don’t need to be embarrassed.”
She placed her hands softly on his chest again in what he’d come to think of as her spot. “I don’t know what I’ll want to do, but if I need a safe word, then I want you to have one, too.”
“So this is all about being fair?” The side of his mouth quirked up. “Okay, how about the word red?”
“Red?”
“Red.”
She slid her hands beneath his shirt and pushed it up to his armpits. She pressed her lips to his abs and trailed kisses up to his pecs, making every nerve stand on end.
“Then if I say green, does that mean go?” she asked.
He pulled her dress over her head and the air rushed from his lungs.
“Green. Green. Green,” she whispered.
MUCH LATER, JESSICA lay on her side, spooned against Jamie’s chest, listening to the even cadence of his breathing. As promised, he’d made love to her slowly and sensuously, and after a brief reprieve, he’d made love to her hard, fast, and every way in between. She looked at the chair by the bedroom door, where Jamie’s jeans were hanging over the armrest, his shirt spread across the back. She could get used to falling asleep in his arms, but she knew that until she made a final decision about her career, that was a dangerous thought. He had a business to run and a grandmother to care for. She’d have to travel, and there was no way she’d ask him to give up his time with Vera. It was easy to play house on vacation. She wasn’t so sure it would be as easy back home when she was bunned, busy, and working crazy hours.
She thought about how good it had felt to play her cello with Vera and the accolades Vera had rained on her afterward. She’d even asked her to play with her quartet Thursday night. And I forgot to mention it to Jamie. She’d even forgotten about checking her cell phone for the call from the new owner of the baseball. She wrapped her hand over Jamie’s, and in his sleep he hugged her closer to him. Before she’d come to the Cape, her life was regimented, her schedule dictated by playing the cello, and now she knew exactly what she’d been missing. Now she knew Jamie.
I love playing the cello.
She eyed the case propped against the wall just outside the bedroom and felt her heart squeeze. Was she wrong? Could she maintain a relationship and find a healthy balance between the man she was falling for and the instrument she adored playing? Her eyes drifted upward to the clock on the wall. It was three fifteen in the morning. Should she wake Jamie? Didn’t he need to go home so his grandmother didn’t get upset? Would she? He was a grown man. Maybe she didn’t care. But that generation? Maybe she did.
What was she doing? She needed to wake him and let him decide, but he felt so good, so warm. So safe. She tried to hold back the last thought, but it pressed in close until it nearly suffocated her and she had to get it out.
So loving.
She shifted her hips a little and pulled the blanket up over her thighs. She’d never imagined herself being comfortable naked in front of anyone, much less a man she’d known for only a short while, but with Jamie, everything felt natural.
“Careful moving like that. You’ll wake certain parts of me you might rather leave sleeping.” Jamie’s voice was low and rough against her neck.
She turned in his arms so they were nose to nose and touched his stubbly cheek with her hand. “Don’t you have to go back home?”
He opened his eyes and pulled her against him. “Are you kicking me out?”
“I don’t know. Have you spent the night out before when you were here with Vera?” She lowered her voice to a seductive whisper. “Or will you staying over make me a bad girl?”
“I think you have the whole bad girl thing down pat, but we’ll keep that our little secret.” He kissed her softly and smiled. “I haven’t left Vera overnight while I was at the Cape before, but I’m fairly certain that she knows we’re sleeping together.”
“Well, yeah, but why throw it in her face?”
He pulled back. “You are kicking me out.”
“Not because I want to,” she protested. “Just because I don’t want her looking at me sideways tomorrow. Like I soiled her perfect grandson.” She stroked his cheek.
He rolled onto his back with a dramatic sigh and arced his arm over his eyes. “You don’t want people seeing me take the walk of shame—that’s what this is about.”
She draped an arm over his chest and pushed herself up so she was peering down at him. Her hair curtained their faces.
“Walk of shame? I don’t care who else sees you leaving. I just don’t want to disrespect Vera.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” He said it with a serious tone, and although she couldn’t see his eyes beneath his forearm, she had a clear view of his sexy little smile.
She pressed her lips to his.
He pulled her on top of him, chest to chest, thigh to thigh. Her engine revved up again, and she wondered how she’d gone twenty-seven years without Jamie Reed’s arms around her.
“Okay, I’ll leave in a minute.” He gathered her hair and draped it over one shoulder, then traced her cheekbone down and around her jaw with his finger. “I’m falling hard for you, Jess.”
Ohmyohmyohmy. He felt it, too. “So you aren’t this loving and sensual with every woman you date?”
“Not even close.” He searched her eyes and drew his brows together. “Uh-oh. I played my hand too soon, didn’t I?”
She smiled at that. How could he think that she wasn’t falling head over heels for him? She felt like everything she did screamed it. “Not even close to too soon.”
In the next breath, he held her closer, and kissed her. His hazel eyes were filled with emotion mirroring her own intense feelings.
“I’m not falling for you.” She tried to keep a straight face, but when the smile in his eyes faded, she couldn’t play out the ruse. “You’ve swept me away, Jamie, like Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. You start out soft and magical, and then there’s this intensity that takes my breath away and makes my body ignite into flames, and then there’s the softness again. And just when I think we’re as close as we could get, you surprise me with something as simple as a kiss on my temple—which I love by the way. And…” She realized she was going on and on, and he was smiling at her like she was all he ever needed.
“I don’t mean to ramble, but I’m so comfortable with you, like we’ve been together forever, and there’s still so much we don’t know about each other. And that should scare me silly, but it doesn’t.” She breathed deeply.
“Because you have nothing to fear when you’re with me, Jess.”
She sensed he was right, but suddenly it wasn’t enough to say she was comfortable with him, because what she felt was so much bigger than comfortable.
“Did you know that without rosin, the bow slides across the cello strings and makes a faint whispery sound, or no sound at all? It’s the rosin that provides the friction in order to produce sound when it’s pulled across the strings. Before you, Jamie, I was whispering through life. With you, I’m whole. I’m melodious and tuneful. Pure musicality.” She smiled at him. “You’re my rosin, Jamie.”
“Jessie,” he whispered, and touched his forehead to hers.
He didn’t need to say anything more. She felt his feelings seep through his skin to her very soul, coming together with hers and filling all the lonely, empty spaces she’d always known were there.