“No, I need you, Jack. Don’t ... don’t stop.” Please. Don’t ever stop. I arched up further, tilting my hips, the momentum coming from some deeper, primal part of me.
“Ahh, God, Keri Ann, I—shit.” He gasped through clenched teeth, his thrusts coming faster. Harder. “I can’t,” he managed. One hand left mine and thrust under my spine, yanking me up to him so our bodies were flush, skin against slick skin.
The contact made me shudder and cry out, igniting the fuse inside me and pulling me with him as he lost all semblance of restraint. My hands both suddenly free, I clutched his back and my fingers dug in, holding on as we moved, straining against, yet pulled willingly into the tide of release.
Daylight piercing through the slits between the drapes found us still wrapped around each other. I came awake slowly, taking stock of our surroundings and the feel of Jack’s heartbeat thudding steadily against me. Images of all the things we’d done last night, interspersed between sleeping and more talking, replayed through my mind, sending another wave of longing through me. That thing where he’d flipped me onto my belly and run his tongue down my spine … God. And the things he said … I felt like a goddess to Jack. A worshipped, fall-to-his-knees goddess.
He’d never called me any term of endearment, like baby, or sweetheart, always my name. Over and over, my name. Like a prayer falling from his lips. It was raw. A reminder with every sensation that it was us, right there in that moment. Me that was making him feel the way he was feeling.
Jack had been right, our being together was as real as it got. It was more than real. It made everything else, every thought, every idea that didn’t include him, seem muted and faded. How on earth was I going to exist as anything but an extension of us? How the hell were we going to keep this secret?
“Stop thinking so hard,” I heard Jack’s muffled voice next to me.
I gulped guiltily then laughed. “Sorry, I didn’t realize I was so loud.”
His head emerged from half under a pillow, his hair sticking up in all directions. Damn that wasn’t fair.
I sat up and instinctively pulled my own hair back and secured it with the band I kept around my wrist then quickly covered my bare breasts with my arms.
“Are you joking?” he asked with a grin, reaching out and pulling my arm away. “That’s the most beautiful sight I can imagine waking up to.”
I swallowed, feeling heat bloom in my cheeks, and sank back under the covers with him. “I think I’ll have to take advantage of that gorgeous clawfoot bathtub. I’m aching in muscles I never knew I had.”
Jack leaned up on an elbow and turned my face to his, kissing me softly. “Sorry,” he murmured with a grin that said anything but. Then he laid his head down and just watched me, his hand tracing lazy circles over my neck and chest.
I looked back at him, counting the tiny bright flecks among the sea of iridescent greens surrounding his dark pupils. “Sometimes your eyes are translucent like green sea glass and other times they’re dark, almost grey, like a deep forest,” I murmured. “And sometimes, like now, they’re like pools I want to throw myself into.” I smiled at my own ridiculousness.
His hand that had been lazily tracing my skin now took mine and pressed it firmly against the hard smooth skin of his upper torso, like I could ease an ache for him.
My own heart lurched up to thump heavily in my throat, making it hard to breathe. I swallowed, not trusting myself to speak, hoping he could see in my eyes what I couldn’t get out of my mouth.
And hoping I was strong enough to handle this beautiful man and all he was offering and not let my fears break both our hearts.
Jack and I sat on the front porch before we left, eating our scrounged up breakfast of eggs and biscuits. The latter he’d looked at curiously before declaring them freaking awesome. Biscuits were cookies in England, apparently.
My eyes were on the beauty of the ocean before us, but my mind was awash with worry about my art opening. Still being nervous of the attention and not having anything to wear to it was trivial compared to my new concern of how Jack could be at the event without eclipsing everything I’d worked so hard for.
“I’ve been to some amazing places all over the world,” Jack murmured, his eyes on me. “And all I can think about is how much I want to take you to each and every one of them. See them all through your eyes, be there with you … make love to you in every single one of them.”
His dimple flashed, and he cut his eyes away.