“Did he accept that?”
“He said he did.”
“But…”
Ally shook her head again. “It just didn’t happen. Sean liked always having his relatives around. That more-the-merrier thing? I don’t think a day went by when he didn’t say that. The only thing that was different after the engagement was that he got sneakier about how he included his family in everything we did. And they were always there—just happening to drop in when we were having movie night, coincidentally at the same restaurant, the same theater, the same mall—”
“So you figured he was still getting the word out, he was just doing it behind your back.”
“It was obvious, yes.”
“And all that family togetherness—”
“Drove me crazy.”
“Too much of a good thing.”
“Way, way too much,” Ally confirmed.
“So you called off the wedding,” Jake concluded.
“I kept trying not to have to.” Ally couldn’t keep the sadness from creeping into her tone. “I did everything I could think of to have some alone-time with Sean, to make him understand that I needed that. That having his family around every minute made me feel like I wasn’t enough for him.”
She hadn’t meant for her voice to crack. It certainly hadn’t been a ploy to get Jake to curve his hand around her neck—although once it was there it was firm and reassuring, and she wasn’t going to reject it…
“Anyway, I wanted what my parents had had—to be part of a couple that was so into each other that almost nothing could penetrate it. But Sean wanted things the way they were and I finally had to accept that that was just what life with him was—if you were with Sean, you were with all the Coffmans. And I couldn’t do it.”
“Sounds like that was the smartest move. As much as I’ve always envied family—especially big ones—I think that would have driven me crazy, too.” Jake traced her hairline from her temple to a spot behind her ear that she’d never known could be so sensitive. “And was that your only near miss with marriage?” he asked.
“You only had one, but you think I should have had more?” she challenged.
He smiled slyly. “Like I said, look at you…”
He was, too. With those dark eyes that glistened with a kind of single-minded attention that Sean had never shown her.
Maybe that was why she was so susceptible to this man.
Maybe that and the fact that it had been three years since she’d been with anyone else.
But even as that thought went through her mind, Ally knew it wasn’t three years of loneliness influencing her. This attraction was all about Jake.
“I think maybe that guy just didn’t know what he was missing,” he said then, doing another slow massage of her nape, this one more seductive than comforting. “I know I like being alone with you so much that it’s all I can think about…” Jake smiled a wicked smile. “Well, not all I can think about about you, but it’s definitely a part of the package.”
His hand went up to the back of her head again, supporting it as he leaned forward and kissed her.
She just liked that too much, she told herself when it seemed as if it was what she’d been waiting for since she’d sent him home the night before.
The kiss was short, though, before he ended it and looked into her eyes again.
“Did you make rules I need to break tonight?” he asked, referring to what she’d told him about having forbidden herself this same thing last night.
“No new ones,” she said with a small smile.
He kissed her again, slightly longer, slightly slower.
“What about those reasons you couldn’t remember? Did you remember them?”
The reasons she hadn’t been able to recall for why she’d forbidden herself these kisses.
“I believe it had something to do with complicating things.”
“Too ambiguous to be a good reason not to do anything,” he judged before kissing her again.
“And there was something about this not being a tropical vacation…” she added in the brief space between kisses.
“How would it be different if it was?”
“Oh, you know…vacation flings…”
“I want more than that,” he said. But he said it just before the next kiss brought with it his tongue to give a languid invitation to hers and take her a step further away from rational thought.
Maybe if Sean had kissed her like that she would have married him in spite of his family.
There was just something so adept in Jake’s every movement, every nuance…
And Ally wanted things, too. She wanted him. She wanted everything he could do for her. And she was tired of fighting it. Somewhere along the way, Jake had become an oasis for her. He soothed her, made her feel things that were so much better.
And that was what she wanted tonight. To step completely into the oasis. To leave everything else behind and give in to all that was just between the two of them. Without worrying about any consequences.
He pulled away and once more looked into her eyes, his own intense and glistening with a desire Ally recognized because it was alive in her, too.
“Break them, bend them or abide by them?” he asked, his voice rich and husky with emotion.
“My rules?”
“Your rules.”
Ally gave herself one final opportunity to say no to him, but she just couldn’t deny herself tonight. Not when she couldn’t think of anything that mattered as much as she wanted him.
“Throw them out the window,” she suggested, craning upward enough to kiss him this time.
She felt him smile as his lips parted. Kissing him now was raucous, rowdy, unruly—mouths were opened wide and his tongue was devilishly rambunctious, demanding the same of hers until everything became a blur to Ally and her senses took over.
His hands were in her hair, bracketing her face, caressing her neck, squeezing her shoulders. He smelled of that clean, heady cologne, he tasted of mint, and he exuded a sexual heat that seemed to infuse her and ignite the same thing in her.
Somewhere along the way her own hands had come to be on his chest and they seemed to move of their own volition to the buttons of his shirt, unfastening them, yanking the tails free of his pants and then meandering inside to his naked chest.
Perfect pectorals met her, male nibs tightening in response to her touch, but no comparison for the taut, crowning crests of her own breasts as they yearned for the same attention.
Ally coursed her way up and over his broad shoulders, taking with her the shirt she finagled off his arms and cast aside.
The feel of her skin against his only inspired the need in her for more of it. She reached behind her to the zipper that held her dress closed and again felt Jake’s grin as he took her hands away and did the honors himself.
But at a pace that was so slow it was agony for Ally, who could only deal with that anguish by letting her palms stroke his well-honed biceps, his pecs and shoulders, his broad back…
But then, as if something occurred to him, he stopped it all and leaned away from her. Pointing a thumb to the switch on the wall next to the door, he said, “Lights or no lights?”
Ally feasted on the sight of him—flat, well-defined abdominals; the ever-widening V of a torso that would have made an underwear model’s fortune; those tremendous shoulders and arms—and being able to go on seeing him was a distinct positive.
But her dress was about to come off. And he’d be able to see her just as openly as she was ogling him…
An instant of inhibition made her say, “Off.”
Jake stood and went to the switch. He flipped it off, but the small apartment didn’t go completely black—there was a full moon tonight and its creamy glow flooded in through windows whose curtains were open.
It was in that light that Jake came to the couch again. Standing tall beside it, he held out a hand to her.
Ally took it, getting to her feet at his urging.
Keeping her hand, he led her to the bed, swinging her around to face him once they were there.
And that was when he sent her dress to the floor, leaving her in nothing but her strapless bra and panties.
He had to look—she could tell he couldn’t resist, and she was glad she’d opted to have only moonglow illuminating his scrutiny. He devoured her with his eyes, the groan that rumbled from his throat showing approval for the sexy black lace thong and the matching bra that held her bulging from its top.
And okay, yes, maybe the chance that he would see her in it had been a fleeting thought when she’d gotten dressed, but she certainly didn’t regret it now. Especially not when Jake leaned down and kissed the swells of each breast from above the cups, obviously relishing what he was seeing before he unhooked the bra, letting it fall away.
This time Jake didn’t stare, though. After an appreciative glance he kissed her again, his mouth, his tongue playful, while he took something from his pocket and tossed it to the mattress. Then he rid himself of the rest of his own clothes and Ally of her panties, too.
Mouths parted so he could gently ease her onto the bed and Ally was treated to a brief glimpse of the rest of him—an athlete’s legs, narrow hips and long, hard proof of his intentions. He was a spectacular specimen of masculinity, a design she couldn’t have improved upon, and she was only too glad to have him join her on the bed.
Lying on his side, his big body running the length of hers, he kissed her once more, his left arm bracing his weight while his right hand rested on her hip. His thumb was doing feathery strokes that tickled slightly and enticed deliciously just before that hand began a leisurely journey up to her waist.
Again, more leisurely than Ally would have liked when her breasts were aching for his attention, her nipples tight little knots of yearning, and the hunger for him churning inside of her.
His hand went from her waist to her rib cage, doing that tantalizing massage there until Ally’s shoulders drew back involuntarily in answer to the ever-increasing demands of her body.
She felt the smile and knew he was tormenting her on purpose, but his hand finally reached her breast, taking it into a firm but tender grip and letting her nipple tighten all the more into his palm.
She’d wondered today if she was remembering his touch to be better than it actually had been, if her memory had glorified it. But, no, it felt every bit as good as she’d recalled—and longed to feel again. Better even.
Kneading, pressing, manipulating her flesh, he had talents he hadn’t even displayed the night before, spending just the right amount of time caressing her, just the right amount teasing and tempting, and toying with her nipple until a frenzy of need was born in her.
Ally’s own hands went roaming over his body. She drew them up his back, around his shoulders, down his oh-so-flat belly and lower still, finding that impressive shaft she’d barely had the chance to see.
Jake moaned and for a while it was Ally who did the tormenting, the teasing, the controlling of how much pleasure she bestowed and how much she withheld, until she could tell she’d erupted the same burning needs in him that were flaming in her.
He stole a moment to sheathe himself before he refocused on her, taking her breast into his mouth.
His tongue flitted across the very tip of her nipple, flicking, fluttering, as his hand slipped between her legs.
Lost in her own delights, Ally had loosened her grip on him, but she tightened it now, sliding up, sliding down, again driving him as wild as he was driving her with fingers that found their way inside of her.
Ally’s hips arched away from the mattress, moving her closer to Jake.
He caught her with the hand that had been otherwise occupied a split second before, splaying it against her rear to bring her more completely to her side. Then he raised her leg to drape over his own hip.
She let go of him as he carefully slipped into her, fitting his body to hers as if he were the missing piece.
His mouth had abandoned her breast but it didn’t matter then, not when he was filling her, moving into and out of her, holding her in precisely the right position, each slow, measured penetration, each scant withdrawal building new heights of passion, of craving, of need.
Ally clung to him, moved with him, against him, holding on as tightly to him as he was holding on to her, striving for that pinnacle that each movement brought her closer to.
And then there it was—wave after wave of ecstasy that wiped away awareness of anything else, of everything else. It held her in its grip, suspended her breathing, her thought process, and set her adrift in a sea of bright colors and bliss more powerful than anything she’d ever known before.
As powerful as what appeared to overtake Jake just as she began her descent from that exquisite crescendo. Because that was when he plunged even more deeply into her, melding his body with hers while he stiffened, arched and froze at a peak that seemed to equal hers.
Then he came back to himself, too, relaxing each tensed muscle one at a time, loosening his hold on Ally enough for her to relax as well, as they both caught their breath and deflated into replete exhaustion.
For a time neither of them said anything. Jake’s face was in her hair, Ally’s forehead was against the wall of his chest, and all they did was bask in that moment they’d just shared.
Only when she could summon the energy, did Ally say, “Nope, nothing geriatric about that.”
Jake laughed a low, throaty laugh. “I told you,” he bragged.
He kissed the top of her head again, then drew away enough to reach her mouth with his in a kiss that was raw and purely primal.
When it ended they both collapsed again, arms and legs entwined, face-to-face now, Jake’s hands rubbing her back.
“How do you think Estelle would feel about finding me here in the morning?” he asked then.
“I think she might have a gun,” Ally joked.
“That bad, huh?”
But even though it might be tempting fate, the thought of him getting up and leaving right then was not one she wanted to entertain.
So she said, “On the other hand…” and drew one of hers up his naked side, under the arm he still had around her. “Mother’s alarm is right next to the intercom I bought that first day. The alarm blasts through here loud enough to wake the dead, then she snoozes for half an hour before it goes off again and she gets up…”
“I forgot that you have to listen for her—she can’t hear what goes on on this end, though, can she?”
Ally smiled at the concern in his tone. “No, I have that part turned off,” she assured.
He smiled with satisfaction then. “So if I leave at the first alarm—”
“You could sneak away before she knows you were here all night.”
“Does that mean I can stay?” he asked, his massage of her back becoming more arousing than it had been a moment earlier.
“I think that’s what it means.”
“Good. Because I have plans…”
“Dinner and dancing?”
He kissed a kiss of promise then settled his head on his arm and grinned at her. “The second course of this meal, maybe. And if you want to do a dance for me…”
Ally laughed. “There are no poles in here. Besides, don’t you need a little breather?”
“The second course would be more impressive after a recoup nap.”
“Then by all means—nap,” she encouraged.
He smiled again, a drowsier smile as his eyes closed.
Ally let her own drift shut, settling in against him and hoping that they both didn’t fall so deeply asleep that not only didn’t they wake for another round of lovemaking, but that they slept through Estelle’s alarm, too.
But it was a risk Ally was willing to take.
Because whether or not they made love again, at that moment there was nothing she wanted as much as to stay right where she was.
In Jake’s arms.
Chapter Thirteen
&
nbsp; Jake and Ally had already been awake when the sound of Estelle’s first alarm had come over the intercom Wednesday morning. They’d just made love for the third time and Jake had been in Ally’s bed, holding her, waiting for that signal that he would have to leave. Dreading it.
So when it had come he’d been able to get out of there before Estelle knew he’d spent the night.
He’d been able to, but he hadn’t wanted to.
Three hours later, as he stood at the framed window in his office nursing a cup of coffee, he was still thinking about Ally. And just how much he’d hated leaving her this morning.
He’d hated it like crazy.
He’d had his share of relationships along the way, and of course there had been Claudia. But never had there been what he’d found with Ally.
He would have never guessed that this could happen to him. Not so fast. Not with this woman, who only a week ago he’d believed was just another Claudia when it came to her family, just another Claudia who he couldn’t respect and certainly wouldn’t want in his life.
But now?
Now having Ally in his life was all he could think about.
It was what he was thinking about when he should have been preparing for his next group.
But he just couldn’t help it.
“Physician, heal thyself,” he said wryly to his reflection.
Only he didn’t want help or healing. He wanted Ally.
And, no, she was not just another Claudia. Not by a long shot.
Sure, she was career driven, distant from her mother, focused on her own ambitions and life.
But he’d been allowed to look beneath the surface and understand that Ally had endured a situation that was hardly warm and fuzzy. It was no wonder Ally had gotten as far from that as possible and set her sights on her career, on finding success where she could. It was no wonder she and Estelle weren’t close.
And yet, when he’d called, Ally had come to her mother’s aid. She’d put her own job, her own life, on hold to deal with her mother’s problems. She’d put aside her own old hurts and resentments in order to rescue Estelle.
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