He frowned at me. “You are more beautiful with your bare makeup-free face than most of the girls I know after four hours in the hair and makeup trailer.”
I didn’t say anything for a few moments. Finally, I managed a small thank you. Jack responded by reaching an arm out and dragging me to him, turning me, and pressing my back against his chest. He curled his muscled arm over my waist. I snuggled into the curve but stiffened when I felt his erection pressing against me. I bit my lip against the urge to turn in his arms and finish what we’d started earlier.
“Just ignore it. I am,” came his muffled voice in my hair. “Night, Keri Ann.” Then he inhaled deeply and kissed my shoulder. I sighed and closed my eyes, trying very hard to comply.
*
Sometime in the night I woke up utterly aroused and with Jack completely wrapped around me. My head was on his one arm, and his other was across my midsection. I listened for his breathing in the dark, expecting to hear the deep and steady rhythm that would tell me he was sleeping.
Then I felt the soft rhythmic caress of his thumb on my belly where my t-shirt had ridden up. That must have been what had gotten me hot and bothered and awake. I waited, willing him to continue. His body was hot at my back and one of his legs was hooked between mine, and then I felt his breath at my neck before he touched his lips to my skin.
I sighed, and with sleepiness making my inhibitions less bossy, gently moved his hand further up inside my shirt to cradle my breast.
He tensed for a moment before his thumb continued its movements, this time skimming across my taut nipple.
I bit my lip and involuntarily arched slightly into his hand as he hissed out a breath and pressed his hard arousal against my bottom, hitching his leg further up between mine.
His breathing was hot and heavy against my neck, matching my own, and I rocked against him as the deep throbbing inside me picked back up from earlier as if it would never be satisfied. He groaned, and his arms tightened around me and pressed me down against his leg.
An unrecognizable sound of pure need and lust escaped me. Why did I have to wear pajama bottoms and a t-shirt? Why wasn’t I wearing some cute little spaghetti strap night-shirt with no panties? Before I could talk myself out of it, I untangled myself from Jack’s leg to push down my pajama bottoms. There was just something about being in a dark room, and being in a drowsy state, that made all my inhibitions and nerves fade away.
“Stop, Keri Ann. Please,” Jack whispered against my ear and stilled my hands.
It was like a bucket of cold water. I was instantly mortified.
“I want you too much. You have no idea.” He squeezed me and kissed my shoulder.
I wasn’t sure how to respond. His words were a soothing balm for my pride, but I still felt like a heel. Self-doubt crept in and left a heavy calling card in my heart, and I cringed at myself in the dark. Nice one, Keri Ann ... you offer to get naked for a guy, and he turns you down, with an ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ line.
He rolled me over and kissed me softly on the lips before moving a little distance away. Although he still kept an arm across me, I felt bereft. I swallowed the lump in my throat, and thought about counting sheep.
T W E N T Y – F O U R
I woke up with a pounding headache left over from tequila and sugar. “Ow,” I croaked and clutched my head. Water, I needed water. It was morning, but barely. Jack! It suddenly all came back to me.
“You okay?” came Jack’s voice from the foot of the bed. I opened my eyes to find him sitting with his elbows resting on his parted knees, watching me.
He was still in just his boxers. He stood up and left the room. I heard the water running in the bathroom and the medicine cabinet open and close. He came back with a glass of water and two aspirin.
I accepted them gratefully and shifted up onto an elbow. “Thanks.”
“No problem.”
My cheeks burned as a collage of images of us in front of the fireplace downstairs fluttered through my head. Of course that was followed by the memory of my blatant invitation to him during the night that he flatly turned down.
I couldn’t get a gauge on what he was thinking. He had come over last night to say getting involved with me was a mistake, I reminded myself. I swallowed the pills and water down nervously and decided on diversion as the best tactic. “Do I snore or something?” I asked.
“What?” His eyes widened a moment, then he broke into a laugh and shook his head slowly. “No.”