One Long Embrace (Eternal Bachelors Club #5)

“Tara,” he warned, with a deep rumble in his voice. “Be a good girl tonight. And if you still feel the same way tomorrow and decide you need a waiter or a construction worker to piss off your parents, then you can jump my bones anytime you want.”


She stared at him, wide eyed and surprised at his offer.

“Just one word of warning though,” Jay added. “I’m not the kind of guy you can toss aside after one night, so be careful what you start.”





6


Jay stirred. He’d been awake half the night, watching Tara sleep in his arms, wondering whether to continue with his charade. When she’d revealed her issues with her parents and how she felt about rich men, he’d realized that confessing that he was wealthy and exactly the kind of guy her parents would love to have as a son-in-law, would only make her flee. It would have confirmed all her assumptions: that rich guys felt entitled and played with other people’s feelings.

And he didn’t want her to think that of him. He wanted her to get to know him away from all the things her parents found so important. Just as he wanted to get to know the real Tara, the one she’d started revealing last night. The young woman with dreams and fears. The brave woman who’d rescued a stranger from drowning.

Jay opened his eyes and rolled onto his side, stretching out his arm to bring Tara back into the curve of his body. But the other side of the bed was empty. He reared up.

“Tara?”

He let his eyes wander around the sleeping cabin. The door to the bathroom stood open. It was empty. His gaze shot to the closet where Tara had hung her damp dress the night before. The hanger was still there, but the dress was gone.

He listened for sounds from the upper deck, but only silence greeted him.

Tara was gone. She’d heeded his warning this time and decided to leave, before she got into something she didn’t want to continue. Apparently the thought of dating a poor waiter and construction guy wasn’t as appealing in the light of day as it had been at night.

Jay walked into the bathroom. As he went about his morning routine, disappointment swept through him. He’d thought he’d seen something in Tara that had made him believe she was different from the other young women of New York and the Hamptons, willing to give an ordinary guy a chance. Clearly, he’d been wrong. However, the spark had been there, he knew that. He’d seen it in the way she’d looked at him, in the way she’d reacted when he’d kissed her, when he’d touched her. When he’d licked her smooth, hairless * in the shower. Just thinking back to it made him hard.

Jay switched on the water and stepped underneath the warm spray, imagining Tara to be with him. Wishing the water running down his skin was her touch. Her lips kissing him, her hands caressing him, wrapping around his hard rod. Pumping him. Yet his cock was thrusting into his own hand, his hips pumping air, while with the other hand he braced himself against the tile wall.

He closed his eyes, seeing her in front of him like the moment he’d stepped into the bathroom. Creamy smooth skin, small, yet beautifully formed breasts with rosy nipples, slim hips, and a * that had nearly robbed him of his breath. He hadn’t expected her to be bare, but now that he’d seen her like this, he couldn’t imagine how he’d ever liked anything different.

Her skin against his lips had felt soft like velvet, and he’d been close to coming in his tuxedo pants when she’d stopped him. Yet now, in his imagination, she wasn’t stopping him. She was letting him continue, writhing underneath him, moaning out her pleasure.

He pumped his cock harder and faster, his chest heaving now as if he were running a marathon. His balls pulled up tightly. He remembered the taste of her juices on his tongue and shuddered. His semen shot through his cock and rained over his hand and the tile wall. The warm water washed it away, but it couldn’t wash away the disappointment that Tara hadn’t given him a chance.

He stayed under the shower for a long time before pulling out his razor and starting to shave. Finally he turned off the water and dried off. He hung the towel over the rail and strode into his stateroom, heading for the closet. At the sound of a creaking floorboard near the door, he whirled around.

“What the—” He stopped himself, frozen in place.

Tara stood in the door, a small traveling bag in her hand. She wore shorts and a tank top. And she was staring at him with an open mouth, her eyes traveling over his naked body.

“I thought you’d left,” he managed to say. And though by now he’d recovered enough to be able to reach for a piece of clothing to cover his lower half, he didn’t.

Tara shook her head without taking her eyes off him. Fair enough. He’d seen her naked the night before. It was only fair that she now got a good look at him. He wasn’t shy. Besides, he liked the way her eyes roamed over him.