Mara’s feminine laughter flowed over Jared like a balm to his soul.
She snorted as she said, “I wish I still had my cell phone. I would have taken a picture. I’ve never seen a guy as uptight as your brother. I don’t think I’ll ever forget seeing him walking on the beach in a custom suit and that unhappy expression on his face. He’s hilarious.”
Hilarious? Evan? Jared wondered how his eldest brother would feel about that description of himself. He could guarantee that the words “hilarious” and “Evan Sinclair” had never been used in the same conversation. “So you liked him?”
Mara gave him a contemplative look, a spoon still poised in her hand. “He’s . . . complicated, I think.”
Actually, everyone except his siblings found Evan Sinclair terrifying, annoyingly cold, and a downright son of a bitch. Jared had never heard his eldest brother described as “complicated.” Only Mara would try to see anything more than the bastard Evan usually was to nearly everyone in his life. “Why do you say that?” He moved over to her and took off her new glasses, cleaning them on the soft material at the hem of his short-sleeved shirt. They were fogged up from the humidity of the kitchen, and he could see tiny spots of liquid that had dried on the lenses. He put them back on her face once they were clean.
“Are you ever going to stop doing that?” she asked hesitantly.
“Cleaning your glasses?”
“Yes.”
“Probably not. I told you that I used to need them.” He shrugged. “I wore glasses for a long time, since childhood. It drove me crazy when they had spots. I finally had the surgery to correct my vision after I became an adult. Are you nearsighted?”
“Astigmatism. It isn’t bad. My vision is just bad enough to be annoying and make me need the glasses when I’m working.”
“Then it could be corrected,” Jared mused.
“It could. But it hasn’t been a priority. Glasses work fine for me, and the procedure is expensive.”
“Glasses don’t work fine if you never clean them.” Jared smiled, loving the indignant, stubborn look she got when she was being practical.
“I clean them,” she answered defensively. “I just look around the spots until I have the time to do it.”
He was getting her eyes fixed so she could see well all the damn time. She just didn’t know it yet. Mara was stubborn, but little by little, he’d make sure she had everything she deserved and needed. As Mara moved to the refrigerator, he grasped her by the arm and spun her around slowly, pinning her body against the metal appliance before she could open the door. “So you could see me just fine the other night without your glasses.”
She didn’t even pretend not to know what he was talking about. “Yes.” She licked her lips as she glanced up at him.
“I’m big, and I wasn’t gentle. Tell me the truth. Did I hurt you?” Jared wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the answer, but he had to know. He had lost control, something he never did with a woman.
His heart started to settle into a slower rhythm as she shook her head. “No. And you gave it to me exactly the way I needed it, Jared. I needed to forget, and I did. I needed to feel close to you, and I did. I’ll never forget that night because I finally know how pleasurable sex can be. You showed me that.”
He hated hearing her refer to them being together in past tense. Jesus. He had a feeling he’d always need her, and there was plenty he hadn’t shown her.
“No pain?” he questioned harshly.
“Just the stretching of having a man your size inside me. After that it was incredible. And you weren’t rough. You were perfect.” Mara sighed.
Jared shuddered as she put her arms around his neck, pushing her ample breasts against his torso and laying her head on his shoulder in a gesture of complete trust. “I want that again, Mara. I want you again,” he rasped into her hair, inhaling her clean, intoxicating fragrance. “But I want it to be different this time. I want you to be with me for no other reason than because you want me. I want to lick every inch of your soft skin, bury my tongue in your * until you come screaming my name. I want to savor every moment of your trembling body while you come.”
She tensed, but she didn’t move. “I haven’t . . . I don’t—”
“No man has ever satisfied you with his tongue,” he guessed, primitive instinct now pounding at him to be the first.
“No,” she whispered. “But we can’t do it again, Jared. It was one night, and I’ll never regret it. It was the most pleasurable experience of my life. But I can’t.”
“Why?” If she’d enjoyed it so much, why couldn’t it happen again? To hell with that. It had to happen again. And again. He’d lose his mind if it didn’t.
“Contrary to what you might have believed that night, I really don’t just screw anyone. You are and were special. I’ve been attracted to you since the moment I met you.”