When they were in bed, one of her favorite things to do was run her hands over all that muscle and sinew and hold him close and treasure him and the knowledge that he was hers in a way he’d be to no other. She’d been so proud of him and humbled to call him hers.
It had been a wrenching pain the first morning after she left him to realize she’d never do that again, that she no longer had that right.
The chorus of grunts and low-voiced swearing went on for another ten minutes through which Quinn lightly dozed until he shifted into pushups. She roused with interest. If she remembered right—and she was pretty sure she did—Jasper lifting and flexing his way through pushups was a sight worth seeing. She rolled onto her belly into the warm pocket left in his wake and, after a Herculean effort to lift her eyelids, peered over the edge of the bed.
Totally worth it.
Dim sunbeams seeped in through the blinds, cutting the floor into bands of light and dark. Jasper’s long body stretched down through one beam, head at the nightstand, feet a good four inches past the end of the bed.
Damn if the man didn’t glow.
His shoulder blades met in the center of his back on each down stroke, throwing his spine in sharp relief. Quinn shifted on one hip and propped her head on a forearm to get a better vantage point to trace the defined groove from the base of his neck all the way down to where it disappeared beneath the waistband of his black boxer briefs. The sheet slipped to the small of her back as she spent a few moments in intense study of his firm, clenched ass.
His back was a thing of sculpted beauty matched only by his literally bulging biceps and delts as he lifted up into a precise, even plane from toe to knuckle then back down to hover half an inch above the bedroom floor before lifting up again into a push up stand. Quinn’s heartbeat accelerated as she watched, riveted by the wonder of form and discipline, tracking each flex and ripple as if mapping the secrets of the universe.
And that was before he switched to one hand.
Quinn bit her lip, but not before a low moan managed to escape.
“What was that?” he asked without looking up.
Mesmerized, she counted thirty repetitions before he switched hands. “Sorry?” she croaked.
“You said something.”
“Hardly. I’m not even in my body yet.”
“Give me fifteen minutes, and I will be.”
She narrowed her eyes, but declined to retort given he probably wasn’t wrong, especially if he kept up with that, and focused on the show he was bent on performing.
He held firm in a push-up stand, then bounced back a few inches on palms and toes before lowering prone to the floor. Crossing his arms under his face so his fingertips nearly brushed each elbow, Jasper extended upwards, legs in an X formation, hands crisscrossed beneath him, one above the other, wide shoulders rounded so his triceps bulged out all along the outside of his arms. Without pausing for rest, he powered on through another set.
Quinn caught her breath and slid a hand down her belly.
“That one’s new,” she noted, a little breathless.
He grunted through three more. “Forearm to triceps extension.”
The tip of her index finger strummed along her slippery clit. “Do tell.”
There must’ve been something in her voice because this time, when he held the push up stand, his chin lifted and those green-gold eyes zeroed in on her.
Quinn licked her lips and watched heat chase the question from his face. “You like that.”
He wasn’t asking, but she held his gaze through lowered lids and let him see her answer.
She liked it. She like it a lot.
Balancing on one hand, he reached out to tug the sheet from her body. “Show me,” he rumbled, voice hoarse.
Without losing his eyes, she rolled to her back and spread her legs wide, setting her thumb to work so she could slide two fingers inside. Automatically, her hips lifted toward the pleasure. A low groan rolled up from the floor. Her free hand cupped her breast. She plucked the nipple under his avaricious gaze.
“Wider,” he ordered, chin jutting toward her legs.
“Baby,” she whispered while she complied. “Get up here.”
“You got your show,” He levered up from the floor and stretched out across the bottom of the bed, head in hand right between her spread feet. “This one’s mine.”
Fair enough. Quinn settled in to giving a show that would drive him wild. She moved her hips against her hand, working herself on her fingers as she watched Jasper watching her. Twin spots of color ran high up on his cheeks. His beautiful mouth pulled into a thin rigid line. Sweat glistened on his chest from the workout and she lick her lips again thinking how next time she was going to taste him from stem to stern and everywhere in between.
Quinn glanced down and saw the tip of his erection popping out from the top of his boxer briefs. Jasper caught her direction and pulled himself free in the next second, stroking his length almost leisurely without looking away from her busy hands.
Quinn’s efforts sped up.
“That’s it, baby,” he coaxed. “Show me how much you want it. Let me see how wet you get for me.”
“Jasper,” she moaned, fingers flying between her legs, her nipple pinched so tight, pain mixed with the intense pleasure. She wanted to close her eyes and let the orgasm roll through her, but she couldn’t look away from Jasper. He’d shifted his hand to stroke her calf while his cut forearm kept steady rhythm on his cock. “I fucking love arm porn.”
He barked out a laugh, then leaned over to kiss her thigh. “Go over hard,” he urged. She felt his breath on her fingers and tripped over a new high. “Give that to me, sweetheart.”
She scratched her nail over her nipple and that tipped her past the edge. Her neck stretched back and she lost her view, but Jasper jacking himself for her was already burned across her mind’s eye. “Oh yes,” she moaned as it crashed over her, her head full of Jasper’s hands and Jasper’s face and Jasper’s cock.
She was still in the throes when he bumped her thighs wider, knocked her hand aside, and shoved deep within her.
“Holy fuck,” he swore when her still convulsing pussy clamped down on his cock.
“Jasper!” she screamed. She grabbed him by the neck and wrapped one leg around his thighs, one high on his back. “Don’t stop, Jasp,” she begged. “Don’t ever stop.”
He turned his head and sucked her wet fingers into his mouth, curving his tongue to lick her taste from them, and, Lord love a duck, it was so hot, she nearly passed out from the spasm that spurred through her. Jasper lowered his forehead to hers as he rocked his cock in and out. She stared up into his eyes while the sound of their flesh slapping together filled her ears. Dark stubble covered his cheeks so he looked like some pirate intent on pillaging her until she felt him for a week. He’d shave it before going to work, but she wished he wouldn’t. Scruffy Jasper was the man who was all hers, only hers, and she hated knowing soon, she’d have to give him up.
“Come on, wildcat. Come all over me.” He palmed her breast and ducked his head to slip the nipple between his teeth, biting down until she shrieked. She felt the orgasm building again and knew this one was going to be harder that the last two, wild and out of control the way Jasper made her feel every second she was under him.
His hand replaced his mouth at her breast. She reached up to bite his bottom lip as that wild inside her cinched tighter and tighter and tighter until it burst. Her neck arched back; he took hold of her throat and pounded away.
“Fuck, how you squeeze my dick when you come,” he grunted. “Fuckin’ spectacular.” His hand slid up to her jaw, yanking her face down so they kissed deep and wet and long as he fucked her even harder until finally he came with a hoarse shout.
Panting, they lay in place, Jasper’s face in her neck, Quinn’s mouth at his ear, spent, joined, and savoring that connection in the delicious haze that followed amazing sex. Quinn shivered when his tongue teased her earlobe. Slowly, lang
uidly, her hands mapped his back, tracing the muscles he’d worked that morning first on the floor and then on her.
“You’ve always been my best adventure,” she whispered.
He went rigid and she froze as her words penetrated.
Oh crap, did she really say that out loud?
Jasper raised his head. Going by his look of intense triumph, yup, she definitely said that out loud.
She opened her mouth to backtrack, but was saved the effort by a loud knock on her apartment door.
“Queen!” Twist’s dull voice sounded through the apartment and the opened door of the bedroom. “I’m not standing out here while you bang Quinn again!”
Quinn and Jasper stared at one another with shared shock, and then Jasper’s head dropped to her shoulder.
“I am going to kill him.”
Quinn laughed. “No you’re not. He’s your best friend.”
“Not for much longer. You wouldn’t believe the shit he pulled yesterday. It was a frickin’ sewing circle on coms with my sex life the main gossip topic.”
She rubbed his head in mock sympathy. “Poor baby,” she teased. “I had no idea you alpha boys chattered so when left to yourselves.”
“We don’t, but Twist is a rare breed. Got a psych degree and left a practice behind to join the Navy. Makes him more emo than ten other guys put together.”
He nuzzled her neck. The skin there rippled under the caress. “Man’s got a calling,” he added quietly. “Feels more than most. What you see of him is how he protects that.”
“It’s all an act?”
“No, he really is that much of an annoying idiot.” She laughed again at his wry frustration. “But I’d trust no one more at my back,” he finished on a serious tone. “Or with my secrets.”
Quinn felt a shard of disappointment that he didn’t feel the same way about her, but shoved it aside. She was enjoying this light, affectionate aftermath with Jasper. He’d be leaving in a few minutes. She didn’t want old wounds opening up before he did.
So, she wrapped him up and gave him a light squeeze with her arms and her legs and her still throbbing sex. “He loves you,” she noted while Jasper groaned.
“I know it.” He brushed his thumb over her mouth. “But can we not talk about Twist when I’m hard inside you and have to go in 5 minutes?”
She nipped at his digit when it made a second pass. “Deal.”
His eyes and face softened, and Quinn lost her breath. “Been waiting a long time to see that look on your face again,” he said in a low, warm voice that made her vibrate in all the right places.
“What look?”
Eyes open, he captured her mouth with his and slowly, sweetly slid out of her. “Satisfaction,” he growled and kissed her again. “Gotta go, babe,” and now there was regret in his voice too.
“I know.” She ran her hand over his stubble. “Wish you didn’t have to shave for the job,” she admitted. “I like this look.” She kissed the edge of his scruffy chin. “Pirate Jasper.”
He chuckled low and deep, making her nipples rise up against his hard chest. “You like it, I’ll keep it while I’m here.”
The gesture surprised her. Jasper never went against regulations. “Really?”
“Sure. There are no regs on McBain’s detail, and I don’t have the Navy to adhere to for a couple of weeks.” He bent to rub his rough cheek against her puckered nipple. “Already I can see the benefits.”
“Mmm. You’re giving me ideas.”
His tongue sneaked out to lick sensitive flesh. “Good. I’m already a big fan of your plunder.”
He was doing it to her again, revving up her hunger. He thought she’d been satisfied when the truth was, she could never get enough of him, not if she had him for a hundred years.
“What are we doing here Jasper?” The words escaped before she’d registered them in her brain, or else she would’ve stopped that shit right away.
He looked up at her without moving away from her breast. “We’re enjoying each other, Quinn. And some seriously explosive sex. Why does it have to be anything more complicated than that?”
“Because we’re us. Because it’s always complicated when it’s us.”
“Maybe that’s our problem. Maybe we need a little easy for a change.” He brushed a wisp of hair back from her face. “I’ve missed you. I’ve missed fucking you. I’ve missed talking and laughing with you. You’re a seriously good time and an amazing lay. Why can’t that be enough?”
As painful as his choice of words was, he made it sound so achievable, but Quinn wondered how long they could actually stick within those parameters. How long she could live with having only Jasper’s body and social company and nothing of his soul.
“What happened with the Navy, Jasp?”
“Who are you afraid of, Quinn?” he shot back. She rolled her lips together to keep her mouth shut. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” His eyes filled with a hint of mean. “You can have my cock. I’m happy to give you more orgasms than you can handle, take as many as you can give me. And we’ll eat and drink and have fun together for as long as we’re both here. But you’re gonna have to share your own secrets before you get a shot at mine again, baby. You gave up the right to know my heart when you gave up on our marriage.”
It hurt and hurt deep, but he was right and it made her voice small when she agreed. “Okay, Jasp.”
He studied her. Quinn figured her easy capitulation came as a surprise. But she was saved again by Twist’s shout. “Let’s go, Queen! Or I’m gonna tell all the boys why we were late to the briefing this morning.”
“Shit. He’ll do it too,” Jasper muttered and Quinn found her good humor restored.
“Maintaining that badass rep must be a rough gig.”
“You’re not kidding.”
He kissed her hard and quick, then knifed up and off the bed to grab his clothes from the floor. He dressed quickly, barely bothering to button his shirt before strapping the shoulder holster over it and shoving his feet back into his boots. Quinn tangled herself back into the sheet and shifted up on her hip to watch him.
“I’ll shower back at the resort after the briefing.”
“They set you up in one of those posh villas by the sea?”
He snorted. “We’ve got rooms in the employee section, but once we’re done with this job, we’ll move into the resort proper. Discounted rate, or we’d be shacking up next door to you.”
“Hibiscus Court’s not that bad.”
“Babe, I jimmied the lock in two minutes.”
“Bragging is unattractive even in a bad ass, super SEAL.”
He grinned and leaned over the bed so they were nose to nose. “SEALs don’t brag. We don’t have to. But if I was bragging, it’d be about how I got you off twice in less than twenty minutes.” He kissed her hard if quick. “But I’m too much of an officer and a gentleman.”
“I’ll remind you I got to the first one on my own.”
He kissed her again, slipping his tongue in her mouth this time. “Sure you did, sweetheart. Now, you need me to set an alarm so you can go back to sleep or you gonna get up?”
“The wedding’s not till one, and Willow got Clancy to hire a temp to help him cover the breakfast and brunch runs.”
“So, you’re gonna sleep.”
“No, I need to pick up some supplies in town. Then I thought I’d hit the beach until I have to start set up.”
“I get a window, I’ll come find you, yeah?”
She thought of Jasper in swim trunks, his delicious body wet with ocean water. “That’d be good.”
He read her face and his eyes softened. “Yeah,” he repeated. Then with a final kiss and a resigned glare in Twist’s direction when he shouted again, Jasper headed for the door and left without looking back.
Quinn rolled to her side again and stared at the window blinds. She heard the front door shut behind Jasper and the muffled exchange between the two men. She kinda missed not hearing their banter. Probabl
y more than worth the price of the ticket.
What kind of price was she about to pay to have this time with Jasper? Sure, there was something to be said for having an affair with a man who knew exactly how to get her off. There’d been good reasons for her year-long dry spell and only some of it had to do with her broken heart. When you had the best, settling for a runner up was so far from enticing as to not be worth the bother. Jasper was the best lover she’d ever had—he’d ruined her for other men—and it hadn’t even taken an entire day before they wound up in bed together again. Why shouldn’t she capitalize on the fact that fate or divine providence had dropped them both in paradise at the same time?
You gave up the right to know my heart.
Oh God, how she wanted his heart again. His heart and his secrets and the right to claim him as hers with as much ferocity as he’d once claimed her. She wanted to reach deep and pull out the wild he’d only ever shown to her and keep it close, keep it safe. But Jasper had named his price and it was a cost she was unwilling to pay. Because this time, when Quinn left him, she knew it wouldn’t be by her choice.
She might not be alive to make it.
CHAPTER TWELVE
I like to have a martini,
Two at the very most.
After three I’m under the table,
After four I’m under my host.
—Dorothy Parker
“’Bout damn time, son. I was starting to worry about your health.”
Jasper slammed the door to Quinn’s shitheel apartment and glared at his best friend. “What the fucking hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Picking you up for the briefing, like any good wingman.”
“It’s not for another hour and a half.”
“Figured it’d take that long to untangle you from your hot ex and get you spit shined and smooth faced.”
Jasper shoved past him and headed for the stairs. “You’re not my nanny. How’d you find me?”
“You’re kidding, right?” Twist asked as he jogged down the steps behind Jasper. “McBain was knocking on our door first thing this morning. He is not happy you hotwired a company car. Shades of your misspent youth are showing again, brother.”
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