It was nearly eleven when we said our goodbyes. Beverly pulled me in for a long hug. “I’m so happy to have met you. Come back next Sunday. Every Sunday. Can you?”
I nodded, melting in her embrace. “I’d like that.”
She released me, and turned to Jonah. “I’ll see you next week, honey?”
“Of course,” he said.
He kissed her cheek and she patted his. She held still then, her gaze unapologetically memorizing every detail of his face.
I looked away, my eyes stinging. I felt a shift in my soul as I was exposed to this moment between a mother and her son. For the whole drive home to my place, I couldn’t think of anything to say. Words wouldn’t capture it. They might even ruin it…
“What you said to Theo was amazing,” Jonah said.
“It was the truth.”
“But it was new. Dad is so hard on T and he’s grown deaf to hearing me defend him all the time. He needed a fresh perspective.”
“I was worried I’d crossed a line.”
“Not at all.”
“I heard faint echoes of my dad in your dad. Don’t get me wrong, yours is nothing like mine. It’s just I know how Theo feels.”
“Never good enough.”
“To say the least. Does he really want to open his own shop?”
“He does, but unless he gets a big chunk of cash for a down payment, he needs a co-signer on a loan. That’s a huge point of contention between him and Dad. My parents had to take out a second mortgage to help cover my hospital bills because my insurance only went so far.”
“Oh.”
“Theo would never complain about that, of course. It’s just our parents have always been one hundred percent supportive of me, and less so with him. The balance is horribly skewed.”
Jonah pulled into the lot of my apartment and parked.
“It must be so hard for him,” I said.
Jonah brushed his knuckles over my cheek. “I think you won him over a little tonight. And my parents loved you. I knew they would.”
“It was a good night,” I said. I unbuckled my seat belt and climbed into his lap, straddling him. “Let’s end it with a bang. “
“Literally or figuratively?” Jonah murmured, his hands sliding up my thighs as our mouths met.
“Both.” Our kisses quickly became more heated, even as a passing car lit up the interior of the truck and the steering wheel dug into my lower back.
“This isn’t as easy as it looks in the movies,” Jonah said, breathing hard. “Change of venue?”
I nodded. “Upstairs,” I said, then added in a husky Southern drawl, “Take me to bed or lose me forever.”
Jonah’s brow furrowed. “Body Heat?”
“Top Gun.”
“So close.”
In my bedroom, Jonah’s humor fled and he caught fire. I’d never felt so wanted by a man in my life. His kisses turned bruising, his hands stripped me of my clothing. His eyes were dilated, the deep brown of them almost black. I tore off his shirt, fumbled at the zipper on his jeans.
“Leave these,” he said, as he fingered the thigh-high tights I wore under my boots. “And the necklace.”
A white hot thrill skimmed through me at his rough-voiced need. His breath came hard as he stared at me, naked but for the black nylon along my legs, and the curved, silver horn between my breasts.
“Kacey…”
I let out a little sigh, my legs weakening. We grabbed for each other again and he backed me up against the bedroom wall, his tongue, teeth and lips mauling my mouth. I could feel him between my thighs, hard and ready. I fumbled in the nightstand next to me and blindly fished out a condom.
He gripped my hips, barely holding back while I tore the condom wrapper open and rolled it down over him. Then his hands slipped under me, lifted me, and I wrapped my stocking-clad legs around his waist as he groaned into my mouth. My arms went around his neck, my nails digging into his skin and my teeth biting at the slope of muscle between his neck and shoulder. Already, the sensation of him inside me was so intense, so dizzying and hot, I was delirious.
“I’ve never had it like this. I swear…” I said into his skin, clutching him, clinging to him.
“Me neither,” he said finding my mouth again. “All I want is this. You…”
His body moved against mine fast and hard. He filled me up, the heavy pressure stoking a sweet ache of pleasure into something that roared and consumed. I held him to me as tightly as I could, taking his thrusts deep while the glow of need in my belly burned brighter than molten glass.