I laughed. “You just want me to prance around in a towel then?”
“Prance. Walk. Sit. Stand. Breathe.” He brushed his lips across my cheekbone, causing me to shiver. “I’ll be okay with any of those things.”
Turning my head just the slightest, our lips glided together. The kiss started off sweet as he drew his fingertips up to my cheek. My grasp on my towel loosened as his tongue flicked over my lips, coaxing my mouth open.
I loved the way he kissed, how he tasted me and could practically bring me to the tips of my toes with his lips and tongue. My breath quickened as he shifted closer and there was only an inch or so separating us.
Need rose swiftly, and I was so hot for him. The desire for him ran deeper than the physical. I wanted nothing to be in between us.
He moaned against my lips. “I want you.”
Molten lava flowed through my veins. “You are what I want.”
His hands skimmed down my sides, reaching the edge of my towel as he growled deep in his throat. I swayed into him. “I’m yours,” I whispered.
He kissed me again, dragging his tongue over mine. When he pulled back, he nipped at my lip, causing me to gasp. My eyes fluttered open, and I got snared in his silvery gaze.
Jase had been right to stop things the night before. I didn’t want our first time to have shadows clinging to it. Like him, I wanted it to be perfect. I wanted to look back on this moment and have absolutely no regrets.
But I knew it couldn’t be perfectly planned. It was all about both of us wanting the same thing, and while him wanting to do everything the right way melted me inside, he didn’t realize that he’d already done things in the right way.
Taking a deep breath and drawing on my courage, I loosened the knot holding my towel closed. It was like stepping out on the stage and knowing all eyes were on me, but this was different—more potent. Because only his eyes mattered, and right now I was his entire world.
I tugged the knot free and let the towel drop.
“Christ,” he groaned, lips parting on a sharp inhale.
Completely bare with the exception of my very sexy blue knee brace, I was more vulnerable to him than I’d been with anyone in my life.
I wasn’t just offering him my body, I was truly offering him my heart.
Jase took a step back, his hands following to his sides. He opened and closed his fists. “Do you know how beautiful you are? How it affects me?” A pleasant haze invaded my system as my body and heart responded to his words. He slowly shook his head. “I don’t think you really understand, because if you did, I don’t think you could just stand there. God, Tess, there isn’t a part of you that’s not perfect in my eyes.”
There was a lot of me that wasn’t perfect. Without dancing, I’d lost the lithe figure about fifty cheeseburgers ago. My hips were more rounded, my thighs not as lean as before. Instead of the perfectly flat stomach I used to rock, it was now convex and my breasts were larger. Not a bad thing, but so was my ass.
But in his eyes, I felt more beautiful then I ever did before.
I’d never felt such anticipation before. His stare was doing crazy things to me. I was flushed, excited, and I knew I was making the right decision.
“I’ve never . . . been this bold before,” I said, voice shaky. “But this is the right moment for us. I want you, Jase. Do you want me?”
“Yes.” His voice was gruff as he dragged his gaze up, lingering on my chest until I ached and throbbed there for his touch. “I want you.”
Jase touched me then, his hands closing around my upper arms as he dipped his head. Strands of his soft, still damp hair brushed my cheeks. “Are you sure this is what you want?”
“Surer than anything,” I breathed.
His bare chest rose, brushing mine. The sensation rocketed through me. He made another deep sound in the back of his throat. “Stay right here. Don’t move. Okay?”
“Okay.”
He kissed me quickly, sucking deeply before he broke off and left the bedroom. He returned a few seconds later with several foil packets in his hand. I arched a brow as I started to grin. “You came prepared, huh?”
A cocky grin appeared. “I wanted to be prepared with you.” He tossed them on the bed behind me, and I moved until the back of my legs hit the mattress. “Watch me?”
“I’m not looking anywhere else.”
My breath caught as a full smile appeared, but then I held my breath as he reached down, thumbing out the button on his jeans. The zipper came next, and then his jeans slid down. They were gone in a second and his boxers were next.
I gasped at the sight of him, and he chuckled. He was utterly magnificent. The deeply tanned skin of his rippled in all the right places.
Jase was . . . well, he was endowed. And then some.
Two fingers pressed against my chin, lifting my gaze. “You like what you see?”