Worth the Risk: A Contemporary Romance Bundle, page 45
“No, Jack!” She’d yelled without realizing it.
He stepped back, clearly surprised. “C’mon, Josie, what the hell?”
“Go back inside. Go find some hottie bimbo to take home. You win The Game tonight. I’m done.”
He reached for her again, but she danced away from his grasp. “I can’t play The Game if you’re not here.”
For an endless moment, his eyes locked on hers. The hall was lit with a black light that turned Jack’s dark eyes into glimmering, shimmering pools. He wasn’t grinning any more.
She couldn’t speak. For the first time in all their years of friendship, Josie couldn’t find the words to tell him how she felt. For the first time, she lied to him. “Leave me alone, damn it! I don’t want you to come home with me!”
Without waiting for him to reply, she stalked down the hall and out the door to the street. A light rain had started, and it felt good. Cool on her hot face. It soaked her thin t-shirt, and she crossed her arms around herself, expecting a chill, but the night was warm and the rain gentle.
The door opened behind her and Jack came out. The beat of club music filled the space between them for a second until the door swung closed again. A man and woman, clearly drunk by their laughter and stagger, passed her on their way down the street.
“Josie!”
She started walking. She lived only a few blocks away. Her boots hit the pavement and splashed in the puddles.
“Damn it, Josie, wait up!”
She walked faster.
“Don’t walk home by yourself!”
Even now, he was looking out for her. Self-loathing filled her. She’d used him for her own selfish desires, and now her shame wouldn’t let her admit it to him.
“I’ll be fine,” she shot over her shoulder.
There was no getting away from him, of course. He could take one stride for every two of hers and catch up to her in a minute. He grabbed her arm again to stop her.
The glow of the streetlamp highlighted his features. The rain had smoothed the fabric of his t-shirt over the curves of his muscular chest. Water dripped from his eyebrows and chin, and he licked away some drops.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Josie, what did I do?”
“Nothing, Jack.” Josie yanked her arm from his grasp. “Forget it.”
“I won’t forget it! One minute you’re all over me, and the next you’re running away!”
Josie slapped her wet hair from her eyes. “Me, all over you? You were the one putting your hands on me!”
He raised an eyebrow at her. “You didn’t tell me no.”
Anger reared up in her as a way to combat her guilt. “Did I have to? I’m not one of your conquests, Jack! I’m not some bar floozy impressed with the size of your muscles or your cock!”
He actually flinched, as though she’d struck him. “No, Josie. You’re not.”
Silence hung between them, and again she felt like she couldn’t breathe. There was more to be said, but Josie was afraid to say it. Even more afraid to hear it. Jack was the best friend she had. Conversations like this ruined friendships, and she refused to lose him. Not like this.
“I’m going home,” she said.
This time, when she turned and walked away he didn’t follow her.
“What happened on the dance floor, Josie?” he hollered after her, but she didn’t answer.
Chapter 2
By the time she got home, Josie was shivering with delayed reaction. The fourth beer she wanted to blame for her mistakes churned in her gut. A headache had begun to throb in her temples. Worst of all, tears stung her eyes and, as hard as she tried to fight them, they fell to burn her cheeks.
She stripped off her sodden jeans and tossed them over a chair. Her skin hunched into gooseflesh in her apartment’s air conditioning, and she turned the thermostat up. The hot shower beckoned her, but she couldn’t even take comfort in its spray. She stepped out after the briefest of soapings and dried herself. Naked, she padded to the kitchen and pulled out the first shirt she found in the basket of clean laundry on her kitchen table, and slipped it over her head. When the hem hit her just above the knees, she clutched the soft fabric with a slight moan. The shirt was one of Jack’s.
“Shit,” Josie swore under her breath.
She heard a knock at the front door and her heart thudded in surprise. She hadn’t locked it. Just as she moved into the narrow front hall, the door banged open hard enough to hit the wall.
Jack, dripping, strode into the hall and kicked the door shut behind him. He nearly filled the hall from side to side. Water puddled on the hardwood floor beneath his boots.
Josie stepped back, breathless, and hit the wall behind her. She couldn’t move. In seconds, Jack crossed the space between them and put his hands on the wall, one on each side of her head. She’d never seen him look so fierce.
Fear and anticipation filled her, but she had no place to go.
“I think—” Jack said, his voice deeper than she’d ever heard it. “—we need to talk.”
She might have spoken, maybe only moaned, but before she could make a sound, Jack crushed his mouth down on hers. She opened beneath the onslaught, still trying to protest, but his tongue swept inside and stole her words away. A moan burst in her throat and became embarrassingly loud as he pulled away.
“Put your hands on me,” Jack ordered. “Now.”
With a whimper, Josie spread both her hands on his chest. His shirt was cold with the rain, and so tight she felt every ripple of his muscles. His nipples were hard as iron beneath her fingers. When she touched them, he muttered a curse.
“Jack…”
“Shut up, Josie.”
Her eyes widened, then narrowed. Jack was the only man who could talk to her like that without a punch in the gut for his efforts. Even so, she opened her mouth to tell him off. He stopped her with another kiss.
Her arms slid around his neck. His mouth molded to hers. Their tongues twined and twisted, dancing. After a minute, she felt him shivering against her and she became aware that her dry t-shirt had become damp.
She broke the kiss and heard the click of his teeth as they chattered.
“Jack, you’re freezing!”
He didn’t answer with words, just another kiss. His mouth was hot, if nothing else was. Josie put her hands to his waist and tugged his wet shirt from his pants. Their mouths remained locked as she lifted the shirt up his belly and over his chest. He lifted his arms to allow her to pull it over his head. They broke apart and rejoined, mouths meeting greedily. She dropped the shirt, forgotten, to the floor.
Josie put her hands on Jack’s bare skin and felt the gooseflesh there. He shivered again when she made circles on his skin with her fingers. His skin warmed under her touch.
Jack put his hands to her waist and lifted her. The strength of his arms left her dizzy with arousal as he urged her, with a touch, to wrap her legs around him. Now her head was higher than his. She put her hands on his head, and the bristly stubble along his jaw scratched at her fingers.
The movement pushed her shirt above her thighs. She was bare beneath it. Jack groaned against her mouth as her dark red curls brushed his belly.
His hands slid down to cup her ass and hold her up. The wall was hard on her back, and Jack was even harder on her front. He pushed against her, and her clit rubbed the bare skin of his chest. She thought she might faint. His hands kneaded her ass, pulling her infinitesimally closer then pushing her back, just enough to keep the pressure building in her clit.
She didn’t want to stop kissing. But lost in the sensations, Josie had to leave his mouth so she could gasp a breath. His mouth found her throat, and she let her head touch the wall behind her. His tongue swirled on her skin. He let her slip down a fraction of an inch, so now she pressed against the cold metal of his belt buckle. The new sensation on her heated flesh made her groan aloud.
One hand left her ass, but he was so strong he didn’t let her drop any further. She felt his hands working at his belt. His pants clung to him from the wetness. Her senses reeling, Josie had time to think that they had reached the point of no return, only to be hampered by a stubborn pair of trousers that refused to be shucked.
She ought to have known better. Jack was too persistent to give up so easily. He pulled her against him so she was totally supported on his hands. He carried her from the hall, across the living room and into her bedroom.
Despite their mutual urgency, Jack didn’t throw Josie onto the bed. Instead, with one hand beneath her ass and the other cradling her head, he laid her down as gently as if he were placing fine china. The subtle, tender gesture took her breath away without lessening her need.
This is crazy.
He crawled up the bed over her, and as he lifted his hips she helped him push down the wet and clinging material. The pants, briefs inside them, stuck on the smoothness of his ass, but Josie pushed and Jack pulled. The fabric bunched and caught on his boots, and he bent to unlace them with impatient fingers. The string knotted, and with a curse, he tore the laces open. With a kick of one foot against the other, he finally rid himself of his pants and slid back over her to kiss her again.
He lay between her thighs as they kissed. Josie’s legs parted to accommodate him. She waited, aching for him to enter her. Jack pulled away. Startled, Josie opened her eyes.
Jack moved his mouth down to the pulse beating in her throat. His tongue traced circles on her skin. He nipped along the edge of her shoulder, exposed by the neckline of her too-large shirt. He continued over the curve of her breast, pausing to suckle a moment through the damp fabric. Josie pushed upward to allow him greater access, but Jack had already moved down over the slope of her belly, across her naked hip, bared by the lifted hem of her shirt. His lips traveled down her thigh, nuzzling the soft downy hairs she didn’t bother to shave. Then over where she needed him to be, where she’d dreamed of him being for so long…so fucking long….
She was suddenly overjoyed she’d taken the time to shower.
Jack put one hand on each of her inner thighs and supported himself on his elbows between her legs. He dipped his head to lick her with a finesse she’d always known he’d have. Back and forth, up and down, then settling into a small, circular pattern that took her to the edge within moments.
As if he were completely attuned to her body, Jack backed off. Josie sighed a protest. He touched her, lightly, with one hand. Her clit pulsed beneath his touch.
She looked down to see him watching her, a question in his eyes. Josie nodded almost imperceptibly, giving him permission. Her heart swelled as he bent to love her with his tongue again. This was Jack between her legs, her Jack, her friend and now, at last, her lover.
There was no guilt, no shame. She’d loved him for years as a man she could count on for anything. He’d been there through tears and laughter, held her hand through times of trouble, sent her flowers on her birthday when nobody else remembered. Tomorrow might bring regret, but at this moment, Josie gave herself up to the feelings she’d been hiding for too damn long.
Jack’s breath sent a shiver crawling up her. She was going to come again. After her orgasm on the dance floor, she didn’t think she’d have been able, but her body knew better than her mind. Desire fluttered within her, and she fought it, wanted to make this last and last.
Barry had always refused to go down on her. He said he didn’t like the smell, the taste, and the way her pubic hair felt on his tongue. He’d been insistent about blowjobs, though. In the last month of their six-month relationship, Josie giving Barry head was the only sex they’d had.
Now she pressed herself into the softness of the bed and gave herself up to the feeling of Jack’s mouth and hands on her. He was as skilled at cunnilingus as he was at dancing. He knew how to lead her, how to bring her close, then soften the touch so she didn’t go over. Her mind-blowing climax on the dance floor hadn’t totally relieved her frustration, but it had decreased it to manageability. Now she was content to ride the waves of sensation flooding her without urging herself to immediate climax.
Jack slipped a finger inside her, then two. He slid in and out in perfect rhythm with the slow, steady pressure of his tongue. She let out a cry and lifted her hips, asking without words for more. He gave it to her. He curved his fingers inside her to press against the spot just behind her pubic bone. She felt a pressure, almost a burning, then he flicked her clit lightly with her tongue.
Josie’s entire body clenched. Her inner muscles contracted around his fingers. Her clit pulsed and throbbed…but she didn’t come. Not yet. It would take only the slightest amount of pressure and she’d go over the edge, but Jack had stopped moving.
He pulled his fingers free, slowly, then kissed his way back up her belly, her breasts, then to her throat and finally her mouth again. His body covered her, and she felt him nudge at her opening.
“Wait,” Josie breathed.
In the dim light of her bedroom, she couldn’t see the flecks of gold she knew were in Jack’s eyes. She pushed his shoulder gently until he rolled off her and onto his back. She’d waited too long for this to happen for it to be over so soon. Besides, she’d longed for Jack’s cock in her mouth as much as she’d wanted to make love to him.
He stretched one arm behind his head to support it as he looked at her. The lines of his body flowed like sculpture. He was pure perfection.
Josie let her eyes feast hungrily on him. She knew every inch of Jack’s body already, but she’d never allowed herself to look at it like this.
Josie reached to touch the smooth, hard contours of his chest, and her fingers brushed the soft, scattered dark hairs there. Down her fingers trailed on the fine line of black hair along the muscled lines of his belly to join the thick curly pelt of his pubic region. She stopped there, unable to look away from his erection.
Josie had shared a bed and a bathroom with Jack more times than she could count. They’d vacationed together, crashed on each other’s couches, even lived together briefly for a time when Jack had been between jobs. Even so, she’d never seen him this way.
Jack’s cock was something of a private joke between them. The monster, the beast, the drill. Josie had no illusions about Jack’s proportions. Unlike a lot of men whose muscles outstripped their equipment, Jack’s cock was as large as everything else about him.
“The beast,” she murmured, and stroked a finger along his length. “The drill. Mercy, Jack, I’m surprised you haven’t killed anyone with this yet.”
To her surprise, he didn’t respond with a witty comeback. His dick pulsed under her fingers. She stroked him again, and the low, soft sigh that escaped him echoed in the throb of her clit.
“How long has it been?” she asked him.
“A year.”
His answer so shocked her she involuntarily squeezed his erection. “The hell you say!”
With a wry grin that was a mere shadow of his normal thigh-spreading smile, Jack put his hand over hers. “Not so hard, Josie.”
“Sorry.” She loosened her fingers and bent to kiss the tip of his penis.
Jack cursed and covered his eyes with his arm. Josie let her fingers slide down to cup the weight of his balls. His reaction endeared him to her even more.
“A whole year?” She asked. “Jack, why?”
He scrubbed at his face before looking at her. “Because I couldn’t find anyone I wanted to be with more than I wanted to be with you.”
Now her shock made her scoot back on the bed. “What?”
Jack sat up and took her hands in his. Naked, he faced her across the bed, his expression more serious than she’d ever seen it. “Josie, don’t you know how long it’s been you?”
She shook her head, tears sparking at her eyes and burning in her throat. Jack lifted one hand to cup her cheek. She swiped at her face, embarrassed by her show of emotion.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” she asked.
“You were with Barry. And before that… Hell, Josie, you know me. I’d never wanted to get tied down before. I didn’t want you to think it was just part of The Game. I didn’t want to lose you.”
Josie blinked and looked at Jack’s face. His hand slid from her cheek to her shoulder. She put her hand on his arm to pull him closer.
They kissed, softly, then harder. He captured her neck with his hand and rocked her toward him. Josie splayed her hands on the bare heat of his chest.
This time, spurred by Jack’s admittance of how long it had been since he’d been with anyone, she took charge. Josie slid her tongue along the curve of his jaw, down his throat, to his shoulder. She pushed him back onto the pillows again then let her lips make a trail to the hard point of his nipple. Her tongue swirled around the tip, and she suckled lightly. Jack’s hips jerked, and she curled her fingers around his shaft again. Lightly, softly, she stroked his cock in time to the gentle sucking of his nipple.
He tangled his hand in her hair, loosening it from the ponytail. The strands fell across her face and shoulders, along the neckline of her borrowed tee shirt. Impatiently, Josie sat up to tug off the shirt then bent back to her task.
From one nipple to the other, she concentrated on pleasing him. After a moment, without ceasing her teasing strokes, she kissed the ridges of his six-pack abs. She followed the slightly jutting edge of his hipbone, and paused to sink her teeth into his skin just enough to make him mutter another curse. He pushed himself into her hand, urging for her to stroke him harder. She didn’t. She had Jack at her mercy now, and she wasn’t about to let him take control.
Josie left his hip and went down to the perfection of his ankle. She kissed it. Licked it. Let her mouth slide up the bulge of his calf, then to his knee. She kissed the top of his thigh and ran her tongue along it, all the while stroking him firmly, but slowly.
He strained upward into her hand, but she refused to quicken the pace. She relished the way the thin skin of his cock slipped beneath her fingers, and the heat it gave off. She stopped to toy gently with the head of his penis, finding the first slippery drops of pre-come and smoothing them down to lubricate him.
