She waited. Wanted.
But like usual, Jack seemed determined to push her every last button. So close, and yet he refused to move, waiting until she couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Are you going to—”
He swallowed the words, his mouth moving over hers decisively. No room for escape, no retreat. Pepper responded enthusiastically, letting him take control because, oh God, the man could kiss. His lips were firm for just the right amount of time before demanding that she open to him, their tongues connecting briefly before she was no longer analyzing every move, but clutching him even harder to stop from floating away.
His hand at the nape of her neck slid into her hair, knocking out the couple of pins she’d used to hold the loose knot in place. Her hair fell over his hand and her shoulders, suddenly cool against her heated skin.
Jack turned on the spot, cradling her closer, and for one instant she had thoughts of him laying her on the cold granite bench and stripping her. Straight-out fucking her right there in the shadows not fifty feet from one of the premier restaurants in the city.
The idea didn’t make her nearly as uncomfortable as it should have.
But instead of readying her for a wild ride, he sat, rearranging her so her legs were together as her butt rested in his lap. The very solid evidence of his arousal was rock hard against her hip.
The entire time he kept kissing her. As if to prove he hadn’t been exaggerating about being starving.
Pepper twisted until she could run her hands over his shoulders to his back, wishing the material between them was gone. The evening might have started as a dud, but this was better than anything she could ever have hoped for.
When they finally separated, neither of them was breathing very steadily. Jack slid his hand forward to cup her cheek, gently running his thumb over her swollen bottom lip. “I’d apologize, but I didn’t do a damn thing that I haven’t wanted to forever.”
“If you apologized I’d have to hurt you,” Pepper whispered. What came next? That was pretty obvious as far as she was concerned. “Take me home.”
Only the bastard did exactly what she asked.
Ten minutes later, she stared up at her parents’ house in shocked dismay before turning back to him. “What kind of joke is this?”
He had the wheel clenched hard enough to turn his knuckles white. “You didn’t think I was going to take you to my place, did you?”
“Ummm, yes.”
He took an enormous breath as if gathering his strength. “If I took you home, about five seconds after we got through the door you’d be naked. And about five seconds after that I’d have my cock in you.”
A shiver shook her from top to bottom as images flooded her mind and heat pooled between her legs. “Good by me.”
He shook his head. “That’s not going to happen.”
“You’re not serious.” He couldn’t be serious. She peered at him closer, dismayed to discover he looked damn serious. “I have no problems going home with you and getting jiggy. And you just said you want that, too.”
He groaned in frustration. “You have no idea.”
“Then I don’t get it,” she complained. “Why?”
“I need to talk to—”
Pepper snapped up a hand. “If you dare say the words ‘I need to talk to Parker before I fuck you’ I will rip your spleen out.”
“Trust me, I’m not doing it out of any misguided sense that he’s in any way in charge of you or your sex life.”
Holy mother of pearl. He really was going to talk to Parker. “I can’t believe you’re going to do this. And I can’t believe you’re making us wait. And I can’t believe I just had my tongue down your throat, and you’re not hauling me home with you so you can fuck me blind.”
The utter pain in Jack’s expression echoed her own. “The man saved my life more times than I can count. He’s walked beside me through hell, but none of that is why I’m going to talk to him before you and I get official.”
If she were a flouncer she would’ve flounced by now. “Please explain the logic before I go insane.”
“Because he’s a damn good shot, and he knows how many women I’ve been with before, and I don’t want him gunning for me because he thinks I’m just dicking around with you.”
She wasn’t sure which part of that comment to respond to first. “How many women?”
His serious expression broke, those lips curving into the familiar grin that had exasperated her and taunted her for so many years. “I’ve forgotten. There’s only one woman I want.”
Good answer. “And you’re not just dicking around?”
He shook his head.
Sudden warmth rushed through her at his absolute attention. Fine. It was obvious she wasn’t going to be able to change his mind. “Then here’s my counteroffer. You talk to Parker, and I get to be in charge.”