“No. I think you need a date to a wedding. And as your wife, I’m the obvious choice. You’re helping me. I’ll help you.”
My frame relaxed. How she trusted me, I wasn’t sure. But she could. I didn’t need any of the Eden fortune. I wasn’t interested in getting involved with their businesses or meddling with the family dynamic. I just . . . was too much of a coward to face Sam alone.
“Why are you going to your ex-wife’s wedding?” Eloise asked.
“It’s complicated.”
She gave me a sideways glance. “She’s not marrying your brother or father or something strange like that, is she? I saw that in a movie once.”
I chuckled. “No, nothing like that. I’m pretty sure she invited me as a dare.”
“A dare? What do you mean?”
“To see if I’d show. She told me once that I’d never be happy without her. This wedding is her way of testing me.”
Except the joke was on her. This wedding was going to be my way of testing myself. Of facing those old demons.
It was probably a horrible decision—wouldn’t be my first or last where Sam was concerned. The smart thing to do was say no. To do my best to forget. Except I’d been trying that for ten fucking years.
And I still couldn’t shake her.
“I get it.” Eloise nodded. “If you don’t go, then she wins. She’ll think you’re miserable or still in love with her.”
“Something like that,” I muttered. “Like I said, we have a complicated relationship.”
“Sounds like it.” Eloise relaxed into the couch, her head against the back. “Thank you for doing this.”
My finger reached out, acting on its own, to touch a wisp of hair at her temple. “I’m the one who should say thanks. It was my idea.”
“Think it will work?”
I shrugged. “No idea. But at this point, I figure . . . it can’t hurt.”
She leaned into my caress, those brilliant, blue eyes looking up at me from beneath long, sooty lashes.
My heart thumped. A spark zinged beneath the finger still toying with her hair.
“We’ll have to convince my family this is real.”
I nodded, my gaze shifting to her soft lips, watching how they formed every word.
Eloise talked fast. At times, the words ran together, and if I wasn’t listening closely, I’d miss something. But if I watched those lips, I caught every word.
Or maybe I was just totally fixated on her mouth.
“Not to jump straight into the fire here, but we should talk logistics,” she said. “First, we probably need to start by living under the same roof.”
The A-frame. I hadn’t seen more than the entryway and living room of her place, but I wanted to stay here.
“Actually . . .” I shifted, inching closer. My hand in her hair threaded deeper, sliding into the thick tresses at her temple. “That’s not the first step.”
“It’s not?” Her breath hitched as I leaned in closer.
“No.” I bent to run my nose along the long column of her throat. “First, we do this.”
I wanted Eloise on my tongue.
Her pulse fluttered beneath my lips as I kissed my way down her neck to her collarbone. Her head lolled to the side as her hand drifted to my hair. “Jasper.”
The way she said my name . . .
I turned hard as a rock.
My hands trailed down her thighs, stopping at her knees. I stood from the couch, and with a fast yank, I pulled her until she was flat on her back.
Eloise reached for me, but I swatted her hand away, reaching for her leggings instead. With the waistband balled in my fists, I peeled them off her legs, whipping them away so fast she yelped and slid even deeper down the couch.
She wore a black thong, the lace delicate with a scalloped edge.
With one swift tug, I shredded the seams, sending the scrap sailing over my shoulder to the floor.
“Hey.” She scowled. “I liked those.”
“When you move in here, panties are optional.”
“Who said I was going to move in here?”
“Me.” I grabbed her ankle and tossed a leg over the back of the couch. Then I dove for her, dragging my tongue through her wet slit.
“Oh my God.” Her hands threaded into my hair. She hummed, relaxing and letting her other leg fall toward the floor. Opening herself up for me entirely, her body so fucking responsive it made my cock weep.
“You taste so good, El.” I lapped at her, flattening my tongue against her center before dropping to my knees to lick and kiss the inside of her thighs.
Eloise trembled, her hips lifting to meet my mouth.
“You like my tongue, angel?”
“Yes.” Her hands wandered over my shoulders, then up my nape. Like she’d done with the couch, for every lick, for every suck, she drew a circle in the back of my hair.
I feasted on her, lost in her sweetness and the sexy moans escaping her throat. When I latched on to her clit, she gasped, her back arching off the couch as her legs began to tremble.
But before she could come, I eased away.
“Make me come.” She lifted, seeking more. “Please. Don’t stop.”
I slid a finger through her tight heat.
Her whimper filled the room. “More. Babe, I need more.”
Babe. I’d do this every fucking day to have her call me babe. Eloise wasn’t the first woman to use that endearment. But I liked it in her voice the best.
It was just more paint. More color, more beauty, covering up my ugly past.
My arousal was painful, straining against my jeans, but I kept my pants on. “Come on my tongue. Then you’ll get my cock.”
Eloise moaned, writhing against my mouth as I devoured her, fluttering my tongue while I plunged two fingers inside, curling them to the spot that made her limbs shake. Her fists gripped my hair, holding me in place as her inner walls began to pulse. “Jasper, I’m—”
Her warning was cut off by a scream, her body nearly rocketing off the couch as she exploded. Every muscle in her body quaked. Her grip on my hair was unforgiving. But no matter how hard she pulled or pulsed, I kept at her, drawing out her orgasm until every last tendril of her pleasure was mine.
She collapsed, boneless and panting, her legs spread wide and her drenched center glistening.
I’d have her in bed next. I’d have that lithe body spread across my sheets, that hair undone and tangled with my pillows.
“Okay.” She let out a dreamy sigh, her mouth turning up at the corners. Her cheeks had a beautiful flush.
“Okay, what?”
“I’ll move in with you. But only because you asked me so nicely.”
CHAPTER NINE
ELOISE
“Do you think it’s a bad idea for us to keep having sex?”
“Now?” Jasper’s cock, still buried inside me, twitched. “You want to talk about this now? When my come is leaking down your legs?”
I giggled. “Okay, let’s talk about it later.”
“Yeah.” He held me tight for a moment. His arms were wrapped around my shoulders, his chest pressed to my back.
But like always, he let me go too soon and slid out. Then he tucked himself into his jeans before bending to pull up my panties and joggers.