“You’ve been paying attention.” She sounded more than a little surprised.
“How can I not, with you as my teacher.”
“I think we’re past the sweet talking stage.”
“Really? Because I think I’ve barely scratched the surface.”
The look she gave him made him wonder if her allergy to compliments went deeper than just not wanting to hear them from him. Maybe that was why she’d seemed so uncomfortable tonight, because he was sure that every guy who’d approached her had told her how hot she looked in that dress. Maybe not in those words, but he was sure the sentiment had been there.
Hoping to put her a little more at ease by talking about something other than how incredible she was, he asked. “Where did you learn to dance?”
It did the trick. Jasmine’s entire body relaxed. “Oh, from Nan. Sort of.”
“Sort of?” he followed-up as he continued to lead them around the dance floor.
“She put me in a pageant when I was twelve and there was a talent portion. I didn’t have a talent, so Nan taught me all the dances that she’d learned from her mom. The Foxtrot, the Jive, the Quickstep. I performed to “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”. I’ve loved ballroom ever since.”
“You were a pageant girl?” Leo wasn’t sure why that surprised him, but it did.
“I did one pageant. It was a short-lived career. I think when I came to live with her, she saw that I didn’t have very high self-esteem and she thought that might help.”
Hearing her admit that she struggled with self-esteem in her past surprised Leo. He filed that information away. “Did it help?”
“Um, well. I didn’t win, but I was runner-up. And I did win Miss Photogenic. I got a modeling contract out of it.”
Now that didn’t surprise Leo. She was breathtaking, and her beauty translated in photos. He knew that better than anyone. He’d been stunned speechless from one look at it. But he did notice that she hadn’t really answered the question.
“Did you like modeling?”
“Not really. I only did it for a year or two. I didn’t really fit into that world.”
“What do you mean?”
“It was just little things. Like, my agency marketed me as ‘ethnically ambiguous.’ But I didn’t know what that word meant and I thought they were calling me an amphibian, like a frog, because I have bulging eyes.”
“Your eyes are gorgeous.”
“I wasn’t fishing for a compliment,” she looked away from him, and her body tensed again.
He hated when she did that. When she put walls up. All night, he’d seen that something was wrong. He’d managed to distract her for a moment, but now she looked just as uncomfortable as when she had guys drooling all over her.
“Do you want to get out of here?” he asked.
“What?” Her eyes shot up to him.
“Do you want me to take you home? Well, technically, I don’t have a car since I came here with Lance, but I can drive yours.” He grinned.
“This is your cousin’s wedding. You’re the best man. You have to give a speech.”
“Lance would understand.”
“No. Why would you do that?” She stopped dancing. “Why would you want to leave?”
“Because, I can tell something’s bothering you, it has been all night, and I want to get you out of here to find out what it is.”
“I’m fine,” she protested weakly.
“You’re not.”
She stared at him for a moment. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking but the wheels were definitely spinning.
“Would you seriously leave the wedding, right now, just because you think something is bothering me?”
“Yes.” He thought he’d made that perfectly obvious.
“Thank you,” she said softly, tears forming in her eyes and her lip quivering.
When he saw her getting emotional, he ushered her off the dance floor into a dark corner. She didn’t strike him as the type that would want her emotions on display for everyone to see. The fact that his offer affected her so deeply made him wonder just how shitty her past relationship must’ve been.
“Wait here, I’ll go tell Lance I’m leaving.” He started to walk away, but she grabbed his wrist.
“No. Don’t. I’m fine. Really.” The smile that spread on her face was the first authentic one he’d seen all night.
“Are you sure? We can leave, I’ll just go tell him.”
“No. I’m better now. You made me feel better.”
“How?” He had no clue what had changed in the last minute, but something had. Her entire demeanor had brightened.
“Sometimes, most of the time, I feel…alone. Like an outsider. I think it’s because of how I grew up. I never had a best friend, or sister, or cousins. I always feel like everyone is a part of something and I don’t belong. But you made me feel like I do belong. I don’t know if that makes any sense.” She shook her head.
“You do belong, Jasmine. You belong—”
“Can I have the best man and maid of honor to the dance floor? It’s time for toasts,” the DJ announced loudly.
“You’re up!” She smiled widely as she smacked his chest. “Bea practiced her speech on me at the pet store yesterday and I don’t think there’s gonna be a dry eye in the place, so I hope you brought your A game.” Her eyes sparkled and she turned and headed to her table.
“You belong with me,” Leo finished as he watched her walk away.
You belong with me.
Chapter 20
Jasmine turned off the engine, but instead of getting out of her car, she sat in her driveway. She didn’t want the night to end, but wasn’t sure how to tell Leo that. Or if she even should. “Thanks again, for tonight. I had so much fun.”
After the toast, she’d been able to truly enjoy herself. Leo had pretty much stayed by her side the entire evening. They’d danced, laughed, and had their picture taken together since she’d caught the bouquet and he’d caught the garter belt.
“Thanks for the ride home.”
“You’re welcome, it was really out of my way,” she teased, smiling as she looked over at him.
When she did, she saw that his expression wasn’t playful. It was serious. “You look so beautiful tonight. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of you.”
She dipped her head, feeling overwhelmed with shyness at the intensity of his stare.
“I’m not sure your plan worked.” His voice held a raw grittiness that had goosebumps breaking out on her arms.
“What plan?”
“The law of diminishing returns. I don’t think I got you out of my system.”
She hadn’t gotten him out of her system, either. Lifting her eyes to his, she asked, “Do you want to come in?”
They both knew what she was asking, and it wasn’t for a nightcap.
“Yes,” he answered without hesitation.
Jasmine couldn’t seem to catch her breath as she walked up the steps. Her hands shook as she unlocked the door.
All she could think about was how good it would feel for him to kiss her, to touch her, to be inside of her. Her body had missed his hands, his mouth, his…
Her face flushed as her inner walls clenched at the memory of him filling her completely. Her entire body flooded with arousal, causing tingles to spread through her as the urge to rip off his clothes and feel his skin against hers overwhelmed her.
As soon as they stepped inside and she shut the door, Leo turned to her, a knowing grin tugging at his luscious, begging-to-be-kissed lips.
She flushed. Damn, could he read her mind? Was he an honest-to-God mind reader? It didn’t seem possible, but…there were times when he looked in her eyes that the concept didn’t seem so crazy.
He reached out and brushed her hair back from her face. “Penny for your thoughts,” he said, his voice so low and intimate that she felt like they were the only two people in the world, not just the room. It was like that with him. When he looked at her, when he touched her,
the rest of the planet disappeared.
Her brain searched for words for a long moment before she decided they simply weren’t necessary. Taking a huge leap in the form of a quick step forward, she gave into temptation and pressed her lips to his extremely kissable ones. His arms came around her and she melted into him, contentment and warmth filling her from head to toe.
God, she’d never known the deep sense of safety and belonging that she felt when he held her, not in her entire life. She’d always thought that you couldn’t have both sparks and stability. She’d thought you had to choose. And with her background, it wasn’t even a choice—stability would win every time. She’d never dared to dream that sparks could be in her future.
But now, with Leo, she was finding that not only could she have both, they actually went hand in hand—and that the version of each she felt with him was so much more profound than she’d ever imagined existed.
This is temporary, not stable.
She pushed down the annoying voice of reason in her head that was doing its best to pipe up and ruin her fun. Normally, she found her inner critic pretty tough to turn the volume down on, but da-yum, it turned out that Leo’s lips were a pretty effective distraction.
His tongue slipped inside her mouth and her pulse started racing as her heart beat faster and faster. His hands moved over her body, picking up speed as they went, as well.
Her head swam so much that, if Leo’s strong arms had not been around her, she wouldn’t have been completely certain of staying on her feet.
Without breaking the kiss for even one second, she started unbuttoning his shirt, moving her trembling fingers down the length of his chest, uncovering him button by painstaking button.
She was frustrated, suddenly, at not being stronger. If she had been, she would’ve just grabbed the two halves of the shirt and pulled them violently apart, tearing the clothes from him as if she were a wild animal, driven mad with starvation.
An analogy that wasn’t actually too far off, if she thought about it. That was kind of what she felt like—animalistic. Primal.
Again…very out of character for her…but she didn’t exactly hate it.
He moved his hands down her body and cupped her ass authoritatively, picking her right up off the ground. She drew in a breath and her eyes widened. She really liked it when he took control like that.
Her legs wrapped themselves around his torso automatically, and she moaned as she ground her hips into him. Through the thin scrap of material covering her core and the linen covering him, she could feel his rock hard length. It pulsed each time she rubbed her heat against him. A deep groan vibrated from his chest and the sound and sensation lit her body on fire.
This was everything she’d always dreamed sex could be, and everything that she’d never even dared to think it could be.
“Damn, Jasmine. I want you so bad,” he growled. “I want to taste every inch of your silky, soft skin.”
“Yeah. Yes. Definitely,” she gasped. “Do that.”
Good thing he apparently wasn’t attracted to her for her sterling rejoinders, because she seemed to lose all composure when she was around him, and had to respond with dirty talk as witty and original as yeah, yes, definitely, do that.
The next thing she knew, Jasmine felt her back pressed hard up against the wall. Her head had been swimming so deeply with all the things she was feeling that she hadn’t even felt the movement as Leo carried her all the way across the room.
He pulled back, looked into her eyes. His were smoldering with an intense fire that made her even wetter than she’d already been. “I’m going to set you down for a minute,” he growled, “but only long enough to get those clothes off of you.”
Not able to speak through the arousal clogging her throat, she nodded furiously. Apparently, now even a yeah, yes, definitely, do that was beyond her. But it didn’t keep the message from getting through, and it certainly didn’t dampen his fervor.
The minute her feet hit the floor, his hands were all over her, tearing her clothes from her body the same way she’d just been wishing she could tear his. Her skin burned with need, and it only got hotter every place his hands touched.
Her fingers may have been trembling but she didn’t let that stop her. She stripped his clothes from him as quickly as she could, working to match his frantic speed, and before too long, they both stood in front of each other, completely naked.
There was no time to stand back and admire each others’ bodies, though. They were both too desperate and close to the edge for that. Instead, he reached out and pulled her to him, pressing her body the length of his, and crushed his mouth to hers once more. After that, there was nothing but pure bliss.
* * *
Leo couldn’t believe how easy it was to lose himself in Jasmine. Her taste, her feel, her smell. Everything about her was just so damn intoxicating.
His dick was so hard it actually hurt. He knew he was going to have to be inside her soon or he’d fucking explode. Early, and probably all over her belly—which wasn’t a great look. He wanted this to be special, because it was. She was special.
He slipped his hand between her legs and sank his fingers into her wetness. Fuck! The silky, hot feel of her around him drew a raspy groan from his chest, and her inner walls squeezed around him even tighter at the sound.
He pumped his fingers inside of her, pulled them out, and trailed her feminine folds, taking special care to rub her clit before starting the entire erotic dance again. She felt so damn good. With every stroke of his fingers inside her body, her inner walls clamped tighter around his digits. Her fingernails dug into his back, a little bit harder every time his fingertips brushed her sensitive spots, and the thought occurred to him that it might leave a mark.
Damn, that turned him on, the idea of being branded by her. Even if it was underneath his shirt, in a place that no one else could see, he would know that the small semi-circle indentations were there. And he would know what they meant.
She ripped her mouth away from him, suddenly and firmly. At first he thought she was going to say something and struggled to focus his racing mind to listen. But that wasn’t it—instead of looking up at him, she dropped to her knees in front of him and hungrily took his cock in her mouth.
The sudden sensation of being enveloped by her mouth, which was every bit as warm and wet as her pussy had been around his fingers, was so intense that it knocked the air out of him. His knees buckled and one hand slapped on the wall to brace himself. It was a few long seconds until he was able to draw a full breath, and he even grew lightheaded.
Being with this woman was a roller coaster ride of feelings, and he meant “feelings” in both ways—both emotions and sensations. It was like he’d been seeing life in monochrome and suddenly Jasmine had made the world explode into a kaleidoscope rush of colors.
He’d built his life around chasing adventures, sure. But he’d never found anything quite as exciting as Jasmine.
He locked his gaze on her head as she sucked him in and out of her mouth. With his free hand, he tangled his fingers in her curly hair. It looked so damn sexy, the way her lips were steadily moving up and down his shaft. And then when his eyes drifted past her head and caught a glimpse of her tits, jiggling because of the movement of her head…he just couldn’t take it anymore.
He reached down and pulled her up, gripping her upper arms tightly. Even after she was upright, he didn’t let go, but pushed her firmly back against the wall.
Her eyes met his and flared with lust. He took a step closer, leaning in until they were breathing the same air but never letting their lips touch. Never breaking eye contact.
As the tension between them ratcheted up to eleven, she reached her hand out and wrapped her pretty, delicate fingers around his dick, still slick from her saliva, and started stroking him. She moved slowly at first but steadily picked up the pace.
Damn. The feeling of her hand on him, giving him the hottest handy he could ever imagine, while their
faces were so close that he could feel the heat coming off of her skin, feel her breath as it hit his lips…it was indescribable.
The best part, though, was how their eyes were laser locked on each other the entire time. He could see every subtle change in light and color, see every flash of feeling that crossed them.
He’d never felt more connected to her than he did right then.
Hell, he’d never felt more connected to anyone than he did right then.
He didn’t want to break the spell, but he knew he had to be inside her. Fast. The craving was growing too strong. It wasn’t something he could control.
His hands gripped her hips and he lifted her up, pressing her up against the wall again, but this time more deliberately, taking his time, savoring the smoldering heat in her eyes. She wrapped her legs around him and snaked her arms around his neck.
Her breasts were at immediate eye level for him then, and as desperate as he was to plunge into her, he couldn’t resist taking a detour and sucking her nipples into his mouth one by one, swirling his tongue around them and feeling her shiver with delight in his arms.
When he absolutely could not hold out even one second longer, he pulled his mouth away and positioned his throbbing head at her opening. Her wet sex pulsed against his tip in a suctioning motion. It was as if her body was pulling him inside of her.
He tilted his head up to look into her eyes and saw that her eyes were closed, her head thrown back. He stopped, stilled his entire body, hoping that would get her attention.
It did, but her only reaction was to dig her nails into him and groan, “Don’t stop!”
He had to smile. Normally, he would’ve just given in to her demand. After all, he wanted nothing more than to make her happy. But this was too important, he needed it.
“Open your eyes. Look at me,” he ordered, his voice nothing but a paper-thin rasp over lust-strained vocal chords.
It took her a moment to do it. Probably processing the information through a brain that was just as foggy with arousal as his was, he thought.
When she did snap her head down to meet his gaze, hers was puzzled. He answered her unspoken question anyway.
Just One Touch - Leo & Jasmine (Crossroads Book 16) Page 19