“Baby—”
“Plenty of not-so-great boyfriends and not-so-great jobs. I bounced around the area, every time thinking a new place, a new town would make the difference. But it didn’t. Not when you had the same lessons to learn and still refused to, not when you sank yourself into a dark place and couldn’t find the way to climb out. Then, I met Catch, and I thought I found my answer, but that didn’t work out so great, but it gave me Becca.” She sucked in a breath. “I named her for my mom, Rebecca.”
“It’s a beautiful name.”
“It is.”
“If I’d known, I would’ve—”
“Offered me a job as a stripper?” she said, a crooked grin on her face.
“No. No, I don’t know.”
“We met again anyway.”
“We did.”
We held each other’s gazes.
“Yeah, we did,” I repeated.
Her eyes filled with water.
“Jillee, what is it?”
“It’s just that, all this time, I thought you and Dready and whoever else you’d sent up to check on me were doing it to intimidate me only.”
“Well, yeah, that was part of it.”
“Part of it. Not all of it?”
“I had to make sure—”
She put her hand on my arm. “It means a lot to me. Look, I’m sorry I made you uncomfortable when I said your name.”
“It surprised me, is all.”
Her watery eyes shot up at me and held mine with that steely confidence. “It made you sad. I don’t ever want to make you sad. I care about you, and I don’t want whatever we have to make you sad.”
“Firefly,” I whispered, my heart twisting in my chest.
My thumb rubbed over her lips. “You took my breath away, coming on my tongue. I did that to you, and it was so beautiful to watch, to feel. And then you said my name, and I lost it. You do that to me, Jillee. Every time we’re together. Every time I think of you.” I leaned my forehead against hers. “You.”
What had she said to me?
“Get lost.”
She’d dared me.
I am lost, baby.
Lost in you.
Lost without you.
Fucking lost.
But I couldn’t afford to get lost.
I took in a breath. “I have to get dressed. I’ve got some business to take care of with Butler. Should be back tonight.”
“Okay.”
“Do me a favor. Stay home today. You got appointments and stuff?”
“Yeah, actually, I do.”
“What is it?”
Her eyes widened. “Just something quick in town with Nina.”
“I’ll call Sy and have him tag along.”
“What’s wrong? Is something going on?”
“Just being cautious. With me out of town, I want to make sure you’re safe.” I eyed her. “It’s an Old Man/Old Lady thing.”
She laughed.
My heart thumped in my chest like an excited horse’s hooves on dry earth. This girl. “Need a kiss, Firefly.”
She pressed herself in my arms and kissed me, completely opening up to me, taking, sharing, giving me her warmth.
So unlike Inès.
Jill’s fingertips skimmed my scar, and I let out a hiss of air.
Inès had folded and blasted our house of cards with a cruel grin on her face. She’d turned into someone I didn’t know.
And so did I.
But this was the opposite of all that.
“Boner,” Jill’s breathy voice and warm hands on my skin brought me back to my fucking spectacular present.
She ripped the towel from my waist and flung it on the floor.
There’s my Firefly.
HE RAISED ME IN HIS ARMS and pushed me back against the front door, growling, grinding his erection into me. The creamy soap scent of his freshly washed skin and the press of his taut bare muscles made me rabid.
He tore off my T-shirt.
His green eyes electrified. “Is that the bra that—”
I had gone back and bought that peach bra and panty set that I’d teased him with when we first walked into the store at the mall.
“It makes me feel pretty, sexy, like you see me. I think of you on me when I wear it.”
His face softened, and he let out a groan as his fingers stroked my skin. They worked quickly, unsnapping the hook at my back, releasing my breasts, and I let out a gasp. He wrapped the bra around my wrists, raised my hands above my head, and attached the bra up on the empty coat hook on the back of the door. His hands smoothed down my wrists, my arms, in between my breasts, my tummy, around my hips. He shoved my straight cotton skirt down over my hips, down my thighs.
He was on his knees, looking up at me. I was on display for him, hanging on the door. I squirmed as his tongue nudged at my clit over the thin satin of my panties, wetting the fabric, his burning heat penetrating my seismic center.
My pulse jumped as he peeled down my panty, sliding it down my legs, stopping mid thigh. All I wanted to do was thrash and smash my body into his mouth, but my legs didn’t have freedom of movement with the panty and the skirt bound around them.
“Ah, fuck,” he murmured as his thumb slowly stroked up and down my strip of curls, tantalizing every nerve ending. The dark god coaxing me to enter his sensual underground.