When I Need You (Need You #4)

“Then I have one question for you. Do you want this?” Do you want me?

“Yes. But I need to ask you to do something for me.”

Yes, as soon as we’re alone I’ll pull down your shorts, spread your thighs wide open and drop to my knees so I can feast on you until you scream my name.

Somehow I forced that sexy image from my head and managed to say, “Hit me with it.”

“Give me a reason not to second-guess myself—and this—again.”

My heart beat as if I’d just sprinted a mile when I reached for her, curling my left hand below her jaw.

Those hazel-green eyes blinked at me with uncertainty.

I slanted my mouth over hers and kissed her.

Keeping my lips soft and the kiss gentle . . . not what I wanted. Rowan didn’t need sweet; she needed heat and passion. She needed to see me as the man with a voracious sexual appetite who had been denying his hunger for her for far too long.

I traced the seam of her lips with the tip of my tongue and she opened her mouth on a soft gasp. Then I used both hands to hold her in place as I kissed the hell out of her. I dove into her mouth, again and again, changing the angle of her head so I could kiss her deeper. Harder. Longer.

She fisted her hands into my shirt and pulled me closer.

My head buzzed like I’d downed a dozen shots of tequila. My dick was hard as a goalpost. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d gotten an erection from just a kiss.

In public. In broad daylight.

Not smart.

I slowed the kiss. Then I nibbled on her swollen lips, kissing each corner of her mouth. But even though our lips were no longer touching, I couldn’t let go of her. My thumb stroked the edge of her jaw. My fingers were tangled in her hair.

When I opened my eyes, she was already looking at me.

She whispered, “Holy fuck.”

I didn’t release her. I didn’t smile or make a smart-ass comment. I just let my eyes drink in every nuance of her face as I tried to level my breathing and unscramble my brain.

Rowan maintained the iron grip on my shirt as she studied me in the same way.

“Jensen—”

I pressed my thumb over her lips. “I talk first. You listen.”

She parted her lips as if she intended to argue, but she remained silent.

“Now that I’ve had a taste of you?” I dragged my thumb along the inside rim of her bottom lip. “I want more. I want it all.”

She nipped at my thumb and I moved it, allowing my hands to slide free from her hair to rest at the base of her neck.

Her eyes turned serious. “This is uncharted territory for me.”

“It is for me too.” I kissed her lips and her forehead before I dropped my hands.

“I didn’t want this to happen.”

“Liar.”

A flash of guilt shone in her eyes. “Okay, I never thought it would happen with you.”

“Because I’m an athlete? Or because you think I’m a player?”

“Both.”

“Football is a game for me. I’d never play around with your feelings. What’s between us? Not a game. That’s another thing I want you to remember when you’re dissecting the fact I finally fucking kissed you.”

Her eyes searched mine. “How did you know I’d be dissecting it? God, Lund, how do you know me so well?”

“I pay attention when it’s important. And make no mistake . . . you are important to me.”

The way she kept running her hands over my chest with purposeful but unintentional sensuality kicked my desire to the next level. She’d be a thorough lover—of that I was certain. She gave her all to everything she did; sex wouldn’t be any different.

She pressed her palms against my pectorals. “Why did you just growl at me?”

I leaned in and put my lips to her ear. “Because I was thinking about you being naked in my bed and touching me like that.”

Rowan shivered. “I worry that I’ll be a disappointment.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s been a while for me.” She groaned into my neck. “And I can’t believe I just told you that.”

“You think telling me that you haven’t been screwing around the past six years you’ve been raising your son alone is gonna deter me?” I softly blew in her ear until she shivered again. “Fuck. No.” I kissed the side of her neck and forced myself to push her away. “Go back to work, Coach.”

She blew out a deep breath. She turned to leave—man, I loved to watch that ass of hers in motion—but then she stopped and whirled back around.

This time I had no idea what she’d say. But it turned out she didn’t say anything at all—at least not with words.

My sexy spitfire cheerleader trapped my face in her hands and kissed me. Her tongue pushing past my lips, searching for mine. Her fingernails digging into my scalp, knocking my sunglasses to the ground. Her quiet hum of desire vibrating between us like a promise.

She teased: a nibble of her teeth on the fleshy inside of my bottom lip. She seduced: a rhythmic sucking on my tongue. The dizzy sensation swamped me, forcing me to curl my fingers into the brick behind me to keep from touching her.

Then she used the damp slide of her lips across mine to gently break the connection.

Rowan had just made it clear that I might’ve made the first move, but she was making the second.

After a lingering sweep of her hands through my hair, she stepped back and walked away without saying another word.

Best. Lunch. Ever.

? ? ?


Later in the afternoon, I wandered through the school. Trinity had young artists spread out in a circle on the floor as she demonstrated how to draw a flower with colored pencils.

In the café-torium, Dallas directed the thespians in an improv scene about working in a busy restaurant.

In the music room, Todd strummed a guitar as the kids shared the names of their favorite songs.

In Lucy’s craft room, the students were choosing supplies off the long table while Lucy explained the options for the day’s jewelry. An angry Jax lurked in the back of the classroom, so I beckoned him out.

“What?”

“Don’t do this, man.”

“Do what?”

“Make this about you. If you’re volunteering to spend extra time with Mimi, then you shouldn’t be in Lucy’s room glaring at her. Whatever issues you two have, they don’t get addressed or dealt with here.”

Jax squared off against me. “Mimi is in that class right now. So I was in there because of her. When I tried to help her, Mimi said she wasn’t a baby and didn’t need my help.”

“So you stuck around to glare at Lucy because it’s somehow her fault that Mimi didn’t need your help?”