by Jill Shalvis
She laughed again. “Did you think I wouldn’t be?” she asked softly, nipping at his lower lip. “A sure thing?”
Truthfully? He had no idea what she was thinking, or even what he was thinking—other than he’d trained himself not to count on anything as a sure thing.
She stared at him for a beat and then proved she was a mind reader. “You claimed me out there on the dance floor tonight,” she said with a small smile. “All cocky as hell. I mean, you might as well have peed in a circle around me. Do you want to know why that didn’t make me mad?”
Since she was still running her fingers through his hair and he was quickly turning into a puddle of goo, he shook his head.
“Because I’ve claimed you too. Love it or leave it,” she said, cracking open something deep inside of him that him hauling her in even closer. Nothing was between them now except her sundress and his T-shirt and board shorts, and even that was way too much.
She must have felt the same way because she backed away from him and, with a little smile, nudged the spaghetti straps off her shoulders so that they fell to her elbows. Then, with that smile going more than a little naughty, she turned her back on him and started walking slowly to his bedroom, hips gently swinging with casual grace as she reached behind her and unzipped her dress.
And then let it fall.
And then walked right out of it in nothing but a very tiny pair of panties and vanished into his room.
Sophie barely got past the doorway before he grabbed her hand. One thing she could say about him, he wasn’t one to back down from a challenge.
And she was definitely a challenge.
Eyes locked on hers, his own dark and heated, he pulled her in to him, kicking the door shut behind them. He had her up against the closed door, hands locked around her wrists, his lips devouring hers before she had time to breathe.
That was okay. She’d breathe later. All she needed now was him, and she gave herself over to it, to him, losing herself in the power of what he made her feel.
When they finally pulled apart, panting, staring at each other, he seemed to have enough control left to assess the situation and took action accordingly, yanking his shirt over his head and shoving his shorts down and off. He immediately locked her against him again, letting go of her arms only to lift her up by the backs of her thighs effortlessly.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist and held on as he turned and walked to the bed with a casual strength that thrilled her.
And then he was tumbling her down to the bed. She landed on her back, where Jacob hooked his thumbs in the sides of her undies and slowly tugged them down her thighs, sending them sailing over his shoulder.
He looked down at her and groaned. “Damn, Soph,” he murmured, reverently running his hands up her legs, letting his thumbs meet in the middle to lightly stroke over her. “You’re wet for me.”
She let out a shaky breath. “I’ve been this way since watching you wakeboard earlier,” she admitted.
He let out a low laugh. “Is that right?”
“Mm-hmm. You guys were hot stuff out there.”
“All of us, huh?”
“Well, maybe one of you more than the others,” she murmured, wrapping her legs around him so he couldn’t move away.
“Maybe?” he asked.
“Or definitely.”
He bent over her, bracing on his hands on either side of her head. “You take my breath, Soph. Every single time.”
“Yeah?”
“Oh, yeah,” he whispered, and began kissing her body, starting at her mouth and working his way south. Long before he got to where she needed him the most, she was in a state, rocking her hips, practically begging him to get inside.
“In a hurry tonight?” he asked against her skin.
As a matter of fact, yes. She could feel him hot and huge against her and couldn’t stand it. “Please, Jacob.”
“Mmm,” he said approvingly, nibbling at an inner thigh, making her squirm. “Love that. More of that.”
She slid her fingers into his hair and tightened her grip.
That did nothing besides elicit a chuckle from him. Out of patience, she rolled and crawled on top of him. Triumphant, she beamed down and then oscillated her hips so that she could rub the neediest part of her over the hardest part of him. This caused some creative swearing from the man as taut as a bowstring beneath her, his hands going to her hips to take over in the rhythm he wanted.
A rhythm that drove her up so high she could feel herself start to quiver. Another “please” escaped her before she could stop herself, and she gasped when he pushed up into her.
“Is that what you wanted?” he asked.
“Yes.”
Gripping her hips, he urged her down to him so he could kiss her while also controlling her admittedly frantic movements. Seemed he wanted her on top and he wanted it slow and steady. This worked, too, and she loved how he helped her when she faltered, slowing her when he didn’t want to come.
Not being nearly as controlled as he, she came twice, his name on her lips, and when she sagged over him, he flipped her over and pinned her beneath him on the mattress and then he was even deeper inside her. Holding her face in his hands, he deepened the kiss, his fingers curling into loose fists in her hair as he moved. She arched into him with every thrust he made, spurring them both on as the deep sensations pulsed and spread through her in welcoming waves.
Neither of them smiled now. Jacob’s breathing was every bit as rough and unsteady as hers, and she realized it wasn’t just passion washing over her, taking her under, but something much deeper. For a minute she slammed her eyes closed, needing to hide it, but then Jacob said, “Look at me, Sophie.”
Dragging her eyes up to meet his, she felt an almost fist-like clenching spread through every part of her as she came.
And took him along with her.
After, she could hear her own crazy breathing compared Jacob’s, deep and even now, his eyes dark as he cupped the nape of her neck and slowly brought her mouth to his, his gaze never wavering.
Hard to hide from a man who liked the visuals.
She was still trembling, but when his lips grazed hers, she gripped him tight and kissed him back. Under his gentle ministrations she finally quit shaking and felt something inside her let go.
Her fears.
After, they both fell asleep and were jolted awake later by the sound of her phone vibrating across the bedside table—a text from her sister.
Found another job for you, this one entirely un–porn related, I swear. How do you feel about phone sales?
Sophie hit herself in the forehead with her phone a few times until Jacob pulled it from her fingers. He read the text, snorted, and then…
God bless him.
He turned off her phone and tossed it aside. “Better?” he asked.
“A little.” She sighed. “I just want…”
“What?” he asked quietly. “What do you want?”
“To be in charge of my life,” she said. “I want to be my own boss.”
“That’s easy enough,” he said. “Start your own temp agency. You’d be a natural. It seems like you know how to do everything.”
“No.” She paused. “Well, maybe. But I know what I want to do even more than that. I want to start a concierge business.” She held her breath, but he gave her a slow smile.
“You’re going to rock at it,” he said.
The easy confidence he had in her had her smiling back. “I am, aren’t I?”
He pulled her on top of him. “You’ll be good at anything you go after,” he said. “I love that about you.”
“You do?”
“Yeah.” He slid a hand to the nape of her neck and drew her in for a quick kiss. “I love your cup-half-full, rose-colored-glasses, fight-for-what-you-want ’tude.”
“I thought you liked quiet and calm,” she said. “And we both know I’m anything but.”
“I’m quiet and ca
lm,” he said, “but I don’t need that in you. In you, I love the chaos. I love waking up next to you and thinking, ‘Good Christ, what next?’”
She smacked him and he laughed, catching her hands in his. “You’re an adventure, Sophie, and I love an adventure.”
She sucked in a breath because he kept using that L word.
He took in her reaction and slid his hands down her back to cup her bottom, squeezing her cheeks. “Would you like to take a guess at what else I love?” he asked.
“Um…” Her heart was suddenly pounding in her ears. “Frozen pizzas, chopping wood, and your crazy siblings?” she asked more than a little breathlessly.
“All that,” he agreed. “But something else. Something big.”
“Your truck?”
He smiled and pulled her arms out from beneath her so that she fell onto his chest. “Nice try.” He kissed her, short but most definitely not sweet. “You,” he said against her lips. “I love you, Sophie, just as you are. Not quiet, not calm, and most definitely not easy.”
She went utterly still. When was the last time she’d heard those three little words from a man who’d meant it? When was the last time the simple but devastating statement had something deep inside her welling up, filling her heart and soul?
He just continued to look at her, patient. Steady as a rock.
Everything she was not. She gnawed on her lower lip. “You said we weren’t going to do love.”
“No, you said that. Not me.”
“But you agreed,” she whispered.
He shrugged. “I should’ve known better. Nothing goes according to plan around you. You told me not to fall for you no matter how lovable you were. I overestimated my ability to resist you. The end.”
She stared at him. “There’s a chance I already love you,” she whispered. “But you scare the hell out of me.”
His mouth quirked. “I’m aware of that.”
She stared at him. “What, that I love you, or that you scare me?”
“That I scare you,” he said, “but good to know you love me.”
“I said there’s a chance,” she clarified.
He smiled. “I heard you.”
“I don’t love easily,” she warned. The understatement of the year, of course.
Jacob nodded. “I get that too.”
“Do you also get that I don’t want to love at all?”
This he didn’t say anything to, but she could read him every bit as well as he could read her, and she sighed. “Okay, that’s a lie,” she admitted. “I want to. I want to love you. And parts of me already do. Quite madly.”
He smiled. “I’ll take those parts for now,” he said easily.
No frustration. No annoyance at her pace. No sign of anything but the easy acceptance of what she could give. And his patience wasn’t a sham either. It was totally real. He loved her enough to let her catch up. He loved her enough to wait. No one had ever loved her like that before, and it stole her breath and her ability speak for a minute. For the first time in her life she had someone who was in just as deep as she was.
And suddenly that wasn’t scary at all.
A night breeze made its way through the shutters and drifted over them, cooling their overheated bodies.
Sophie felt enveloped, protected in a way that didn’t smother, and she relaxed into the mattress and sighed, heart full.
She felt him smile against her and rolled her head against his shoulder to meet a pair of warm brown eyes studying her in the low light.
“Tired?” she asked, shifting to face him, touching his jaw, dark with a beyond-five-o’clock shadow.
He shook his head. He wasn’t tired.
Neither was she. “Hungry?”
His eyes revealed a smile as he watched her like maybe she was his breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. “Not for food,” he said, making her laugh.
But the laugh backed up in her throat, replaced by another wave of heat and desire when he tucked her beneath him, making it clear what he was hungry for.
Chapter 29
The next morning Jacob woke up like he always did, quickly and immediately. That was the military training ingrained in him—never sleep too heavily, never be caught vulnerable and unaware.
So he knew before even opening his eyes that he was alone. Reaching out to confirm, he felt nothing but cool sheets.
Sophie had been gone awhile.
Flopping to his back, he stared at the ceiling, remembering all the times they’d turned to each other in the night. Hot, erotic memories played like a movie in his mind: Soph climbing him like a tree, her going all breathless and boneless when he held her down and slowly thrust into her, the sound of his name tumbling from her lips as she came, shuddering in his arms, falling apart for him.
He’d loved nothing more than putting her back together again, one kiss, one touch at a time…
Shit. He had it bad.
He rolled out of bed, surprised she’d gotten past him. He must’ve been more exhausted than he’d thought. The sun was just rising as he hurriedly showered and walked down to the lake for the Wounded Warriors breakfast. According to the staff chart, he was on hotcake-flipping detail. He searched the list and found Sophie on serving detail. But since no one could serve or eat if he didn’t flip, he went to work without getting a chance to talk to her.
Two hours later he’d lost track of just how many hotcakes he’d created, but he’d had a great view of Sophie serving while doing it. When everyone had all they needed to eat, he filled a plate for himself and turned to find Kenna waving him over.
She was with Hud and Mitch and a few other staff members. “The problem with this weekend,” he said, nudging Kenna over to make room for himself, “is that it went so well we’re going to have to repeat it annually.”
“Yeah, that’s not your biggest problem,” Kenna said.
“No?”
“No,” she said. “I tried to find you last night, but you vanished right after you danced on the beach with Sophie.”
Everyone was looking at him, so he shrugged. “Got tired.”
“Uh-huh,” one of the staffers said. “I’d have liked to get ‘tired’ too.”
Everyone laughed, which Jacob ignored. “So what’s my biggest problem?” he asked Kenna.
“Leanne Nelson nearly ratted you out to Sophie about Lucas yesterday,” she said.
Leanne was a Housewives of wannabe, and she’d sell her own child for a good story to tell. And he was an idiot. He’d meant to tell Sophie that the resort had hired Lucas. He really had. But it was important to do it in such a way that she didn’t get hurt. The opportunity hadn’t presented itself to him yet, that’s all.
Or you knew it was going to be a problem…
“You never told Sophie that her ex-husband is the resort’s new attorney?” Hud asked in disbelief.
“Not yet.”
Both his brother and sister looked at him like he’d grown a second head.
“And here I thought you were the smart one,” Kenna said, ignoring Hud’s dirty look. “But I gotta tell you, you’ve made a massively boneheaded move here. Massively massive.”
“Agreed,” Hud said. “Bailey would probably kill you dead. I hope Sophie’s a little more open to sleeping with boneheads.”
“Massively massive boneheads,” Kenna added.
Jacob shoved his fingers through his hair. It was a tell, he