Twenty

JENSEN

Rowan conveyed exactly what I needed to hear.

Not just the promise of hot sex, but proof that she’d dealt with her doubts about us.

What a goddamned relief.

She sauntered closer with a sensuous sway of her hips.

Once we were toe to toe, I flattened my palm on the base of her throat and gently curled my fingers around her neck, feeling her pulse jump beneath my stroking thumb.

She glanced down at my hand, and then those mesmerizing hazel eyes met mine with complete trust.

Without a word, I reached behind me and opened the door.

As soon as we were locked in my apartment, I had my mouth on her. My hands on her. Greedy to touch and taste every part of her.

Rowan kissed me, her passion equally all-consuming.

“Bedroom,” I growled after I broke the kiss.

“Couch.”

That gave me pause. “Why?”

“You ever fucked a woman on that enormous puffy couch that you adore so much, Lund?”

I smiled against her neck. “No.”

“Then I want to be the first at something for you too.”

“Too?”

She stood on her tiptoes and placed her mouth on my ear. “You’re the first man I’ve let into my heart and into my life since before Calder was born.”

Might be kinda, sorta halfway in love . . . Nope. Totally in love with this woman.

I forced her to look at me. “The only man,” I corrected fiercely.

“Then I want to be the only woman you fuck on that couch.”

“How about if you’re the only woman I ever fuck . . . period.”

Her eyes gleamed. “Deal.”

Elated, I picked her up and tossed her over the back of the couch.

She squealed.

I planned on hearing that a lot tonight.

“Strip naked. Striptease another time.”

“Anxious?” she said in a sexy coo as she pitched her athletic shoes toward the entryway.

“You have no fucking idea.”

“I do actually.” Her damp workout shirt landed on my head. Immediately the scent of her—a mix of laundry detergent, her perfume and the light musk of her sweat—hit me like a damn drug. I managed to say, “You have lousy aim, Coach.”

“My aim is true. That was a prompt for you to hurry up. I’m already half-naked.”

My shoes flew off. My shirt gone in an instant. I paused before I ditched my workout shorts. “Hang on.” I opened my duffel bag, rooting around until I found the box of unopened condoms. I lobbed the box into the corner of the couch before I vaulted over the edge.

Like me, she still wore her bottoms, but her upper half was bare. I crawled toward her and she waited, resting on her elbows, those gorgeous full breasts on display, her eyes dark with heat, her lips parted. “What’s first on the menu of sexual delights, since we’re skipping dinner?”

“Let’s start with this.” I kissed her as if that were all I wanted from her: one kiss. Then another. And another. While feeding her more fleeting, flirty kisses, I settled next to her, lying on our sides, facing each other. I traced the edge of her jaw with the back of my knuckles. “What?”

“I want to touch you.”

“You can do that as much as you want, beautiful.” Seeing her hesitation, I placed her hand on my chest. “Start here.”

Her tentative touch lasted about fifteen seconds. Then her greed took over. She outlined the thick slabs of muscle that were my pectorals. First with her fingers, then with her tongue. Emboldened by the groans she’d wrought from me, she circled my nipple with the pad of her thumb as her other hand coasted down my arm. She paid particular attention to mapping the tendons, cords and veins on my forearms until every hair on my body prickled with awareness as the electricity between us began to build.

From the moment she’d bared her breasts I’d been biding my time, trying not to act obsessed about getting my hands and mouth all over them. But watching Rowan touch me and witnessing her confident little smirk because she could see how much her explorations affected me was unbelievably sexy.

Her thorough examination of the dips and grooves of my biceps and triceps followed. In fact, Rowan seemed a little infatuated with my arms as she glided her fingertips from the bend in my elbow to the ball of my shoulder. Over and over. She murmured, “Your body is outstanding.”

I’d received a multitude of comments on my physique over the years and never paid much attention to them. My body was a tool. A weapon. Since my injury I’d seen it as a broken piece of equipment. But the admiration and lust in Rowan’s eyes, her words of praise filled me with pride that she saw it as an instrument of pleasure.

She ran the tips of her fingers across my collarbone. Up my neck. Over the curve of my jaw. Sweeping her thumb over my lips. “I like your face, Lund.”

I laughed softly. “My face would like to say hello to your tits.”

“Funny, my tits were just thinking the same thing.” She rolled to her back and stretched her arms above her head.

I pounced on her, my hands cupping and squeezing the soft flesh as my mouth homed in on her nipples. I loved feeling the tips harden beneath my stroking tongue. I loved how Rowan bowed her back, trying to get me to take more of her into my mouth. Each nip, every hard suck, every scrape of my teeth made her squirm and buck and moan.

I wanted more—to hell with taking it slow. I had the burning need to turn her into a sweating, panting mess. To watch with pure male satisfaction as she lay boneless in the middle of my couch after I’d sated her desire to the point where she couldn’t even move.

Hooking my fingers inside the band of her workout pants, I slid them down her legs, planting kisses on her quads, her knees, her shins. After I had undressed her completely, I pushed on the insides of her thighs as a signal for her to make room for me.

Her legs fell open and I lowered my weight onto her, swallowing her gasp of surprise when she felt my erection jumping against her belly with eagerness.

Then I kissed a path from her chin to her belly button.

Rowan giggled and tried to squirm away. “It tickles.”

“What? This?” I let the ends of my hair skim across the lower swells of her breasts. Then I trailed my hair down her belly, stopping to tease the smooth, sensitive section between her hip bones.

She twisted her upper torso, trying to get me to move. “Jensen. Stop,” she said between giggles.

Locking my gaze to hers, I murmured, “Baby, you really don’t want me to stop, do you?”

A long pause cooled the heat between us.

Her hand shook when she reached down to tuck my hair behind my ear. “It’s just . . .”

I noticed that her face was flushed. I’d chalked it up to arousal, but now I suspected embarrassment. “Am I doing something wrong?”

“No. But I didn’t shower.”

“So that’s why your scent is driving me wild.” Beneath her belly button, I rubbed my lips from her left side to her right. And back. “Tell me what you want, Ro.”

Her words tumbled out in a rush. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had a guy go down on me and I forgot how exposed I am.”

Okay. She needed more time. I could give her that. For her, I’d learned patience. Because I knew she was worth the wait.

I rolled onto my knees and then stood, trying to keep my balance on the wobbly cushions.

“Whoa.” Rowan scrambled into a sitting position. “That didn’t mean I wanted you to stop.”

Sweet Jesus. She was killing me. I grinned at her. “I’m not stopping, sweetheart. Just leveling the playing field.” Sliding my fingers inside the elastic band of my athletic shorts, I shoved them and my underwear to my ankles and kicked them away. “Now we’re equally exposed.”

Her wide-eyed gaze remained on my erection even when I dropped to my knees and snagged the box of condoms.

“Holy crap, Rocket. You are packing a rocket,” she whispered.

I ripped the condom box open—literally tore into it with enough force that the strip of condoms went airborne and landed on Rowan’s belly.

Yeah. I was one smooth motherfucker.

“Well, that’s handy.” Rowan tore a single package off the strip and used her teeth to open it. Then she shifted upright so we were facing each other. She curled her left hand around the back of my neck and reached between us, firmly grasping me as she rolled the condom on. “Not a level playing field, Lund. This is impressive.”

I hissed out a breath and fastened my mouth to hers. Whatever momentum we’d lost, we regained in that explosive kiss, only pausing to rest our foreheads together and suck in a lungful of oxygen before our lips gravitated together again. Sliding, teasing, feeding the frenzy between us.

My hands started at her hips and traveled up, spanning her belly and resting on her rib cage. Her velvety smooth skin flowed like silk beneath my fingers and she trembled from my touch. I trailed openmouthed kisses from the corner of her lips, over her jaw and down her throat, tasting the saltiness and musk of her skin.

Every time I did something she liked, her fist tightened around me. When it became a constant squeeze and release, I had to break the connection of her hand on my dick.

“Too much,” I panted against her throat.

She brushed her lips over my ear to whisper, “The way you touch me . . . It makes me want every part of you—your hands, your mouth, your cock—all over me, all at once.”

Gooseflesh broke out across my entire body as she scraped her nails up my belly and across my chest to reiterate her desire for me.

“So touch me, Jensen. However you want. Just don’t stop this time.”

My dick went harder yet.

“Lie back,” I growled.

As soon as she’d propped herself up with one arm behind her head, her hair a swath of red against the gray cushions, I rubbed my lips across her sternum, watching her eyes widen as I moved my mouth progressively southward.

I intended to tease her. Build her up and then pull back. Use every trick in my sexual arsenal to prove my oral mastery before I sent her soaring.

But a single whiff of the sweet cream between her thighs and I was done for.

Done.

For.

Raising her up to my mouth, I tasted the soft feminine flesh that glistened just for me. I demonstrated what it meant to devour. To feast.

Rowan gave herself over to my hunger without hesitation.

My every lick, every suck, every bite brought forth a sexy sound from her—need, pleasure, surprise. In time I’d learn what every shudder, sigh and gasp meant. Right now, I just knew she needed more.

It wasn’t long until her fingers went from clutching the couch cushion to gripping my hair.

That bite of pain unleashed a primal need inside me. I was relentless in driving her to the tipping point.

As soon as her legs started to shake and she chanted that “oh god, oh god, oh god” mantra, she blindly reached for my hand as if she needed a solid piece of me to anchor her as she lost herself in the pleasure.

Rowan Michaels letting go might’ve been the hottest thing I’d ever seen.

Finally the tension in her hips and thighs and belly went slack.

I moved up her body, keeping as much of her skin in contact with mine as possible. Marveling in her softness and strength. Drawing her scent into my lungs. Swallowing down the tangy taste of her.

Feeling the change in her from languid to expectant, I slid our joined hands above her head and locked my gaze to hers.

I didn’t need to guide myself inside her. Our bodies shifted into perfect alignment like we’d done this a thousand times before.

Her groan of satisfaction echoed mine when I filled her completely.

I eased out of that sublime tightness and thrust back in. Once. Twice. Three times.

As I kissed her, from her temple to her jaw, then dragged my lips down the cord straining in her neck, I picked up the pace, my heart pounding against hers, my skin slick with sweat, my blood pumping hot and hard enough to create a floating sensation in my head.

She arched up and whispered, “I can’t breathe.”

“Hold on.” I rolled us to the side and grabbed the back of her thigh, draping her leg over my hip. In this position I wasn’t crushing her, but I couldn’t drive into her as hard. So with each upward thrust, I kept constant contact where she needed it most.

“God. That’s so good.”

“Rowan. Baby, look at me.”

When she tilted her head back, I took her mouth in a no-holds-barred kiss. I needed a distraction to keep me from coming within the first two minutes of getting inside her.

Sweat dampened my hair. I rocked into her, feeling her tits bounce and slide against my chest. As hot as it was to feel her passion in the way she kissed me when we were joined like this, next time I’d bury my face in those luscious breasts as she rode me.

Rowan dug her fingernails into my lower back and tore her mouth away from mine on a gasp. “That’s it. Like that. Just like that. Yes.”

Good to know I wasn’t the only one with a short fuse.

Her interior muscles tightened around me and she sank her teeth into the ball of my shoulder as she came undone for the second time.

With her clinging to me, biting me, her climax squeezing me, I couldn’t hold back.

Fireworks, a nuclear explosion, a tsunami . . . nothing was as powerful as this.

The physical release unlocked something inside me. Something too overwhelming to give voice to. I pressed my mouth to the warm, sweet-smelling curve of her neck, grounding myself as the shudders racking my body slowly subsided.

In the aftermath, Rowan’s hands caressed my back, clutched my ass, slipped between us to press her palm to my heart. She whispered, “Jensen Lund. I am so crazy for you I don’t know what to do with it.”

I mumbled, “You definitely should keep me around while you’re figuring it out.”

“That was a given.” She nudged my face up and peered into my eyes. “Because you just moved up to spot one point five on my list of life priorities.”