by Reina Torres
“You didn’t accept his proposal.”
“No. That didn’t go over well. Kyle got pretty angry, thinking I’d made a fool of him, but I never said that I felt like that about him. He knew that things hadn’t ended well with us and I’d told him that I wasn’t ready for anything serious.”
“With anyone?”
She heard Jackson ask the question, but she was a little distracted by how close he was, the heat of his skin against hers.
“Not right now.”
She couldn’t tell what his expression meant, but she didn’t think she had any clue. Her head was a jumble of thoughts of her own.
She’d been burned by him before.
Burned by his rejection but burned by desire as well.
What she’d felt for Jackson had been love. She knew that and knew that she was still in love with him.
There was no denying the truth to herself.
If losing Mackie had taught her anything, it was that she desperately wanted to feel alive.
And if Jackson was right. The two empty bedrooms would be filled and their time alone… well, it was coming to an end.
Waiting any longer, she might never have a chance.
Just that thought. The possibility that there was nothing Jackson could do to protect her, not if these men, whoever they were, were that determined to find her and silence her.
“Jack?”
She heard his soft groan and it gave her strength.
“I don’t want you to sleep out here tonight.”
He opened his mouth and closed it just as fast, his eyes moving over her face.
She let a few moments go by before she allowed herself to start to worry.
“Jack?”
He turned toward her and settled his hand on her shoulder, rubbing the pad of his thumb over his soft cotton shirt, tracing the line of her collarbone.
“Whatever you want.” He looked up into her eyes. “Anything you want, just ask.”
“I need to know,” she felt her voice waver and her confidence with it, “what you want too, Jack. If you’re just going to do what I want, how is that any different from you making the decision for both of us when we broke up.”
She watched as the words settled over him.
Something changed in his expression.
The set of his jaw loosened and his eyes lost some of their shine.
“I thought what I was doing for the best. I had no idea that you’d doubt yourself.”
That caught her by surprise. “You didn’t?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I thought you’d shut the door on me. Toss me out with the trash and count yourself lucky.”
The words struck home and stole her breath. “How could you think that?”
He laughed. A short bark of sound that was forced from his throat sounding like it had been rubbed raw. “I wanted you to have what I couldn’t have. A future with a man worthy of you. A family to love.”
How could she admit that she wanted that for herself, too.
But she wanted it with him.
And really, Jackson had apparently done enough thinking for both of them. Thinking and talking.
Hi`ilani was done with both.
Lifting her hand up between them, she grabbed a hold of the shoulder of his tank top and pulled. Swung her leg over his, straddling his lap.
She didn’t sit back.
She didn’t try to look at him.
What she needed was to feel.
Rising up on her knees she pressed her lips against his.
She’d caught him by surprise, the gasp she swallowed from his lips was evidence enough.
And she pressed her advantage.
Hands on his chest, pressed between them, she used her position to kiss him, leaning his head back on the top of the sofa.
She fed from his lips, kissing him over and over again as she moved restlessly against him.
It was a heady thing.
Jackson’s lips had always been her kryptonite and soon enough she was taking as good as she gave.
His hands were on her waist, then her hips.
When he lifted his head from the back of the sofa his hands pressed her down. Suddenly she pressed tight against the heavy press of his erection.
“Oh,” the word burst from her lips as she struggled not to pull away.
She wanted him.
She wanted this.
But feeling the heat and need of his body pressed up against her, fitted against her body, she was in danger of losing sight of her plan.
She moved her mouth to his cheek and then to his ear.
Hearing the sharp intake of his breath when she closed her teeth lightly over the tender lobe of his ear.
He hissed when she bit down a little harder, but she didn’t pull away.
No, she rubbed the tip of her tongue over the same skin before she closed her lips over it and rolled it into her mouth.
Jackson muttered a curse under his breath, his fingers digging into the full curve of her hips. “Don’t…” he lost his thoughts a moment later when her lips found the tender flesh just under his ear.
When she sat back, she saw him frowning at her, his eyes narrowing on her face.
“Don’t stop.”
“I don’t want to stop.” She heard the breathy anticipation in her own voice, but she was sure he heard her. His eyes were fixed on her lips, so even if his ears were rushing with sound like hers were, she was sure he could read her words. “But I want you to take me into your room and-”
He was suddenly on his feet, his hands still anchored on her hips.
She yelped at the sudden change, but also because his hands slid around to the round curves of her backside and pulled her tighter against him.
She wrapped her legs around his middle and let him carry her away.
Chapter 9
He set her on her feet and held her close, with just a hint of air between their bodies.
“It’s been so long.”
She nodded, but her gaze didn’t leave his. “Too long,” she agreed.
Lifting his hands from her waist he trailed his fingertips up the graceful lengths of her arms, tangling for a moment with the hem of his t-shirt sleeves before carrying on.
And when he’d reached her shoulders, he lifted his hands again to cradle her face in his palms.
“I love you,” he told her the truth, his voice shaking ever so slightly. “You’ll probably get tired of me saying it, but it’s the reason I tried to stay away. And it’s also the reason I came to you again.”
Her lashes glistened with tears in the softly lit room. The moonlight slanting in through the window gave him just enough light to see the myriad of emotions in her eyes.
He saw love, but he also saw the hurt. Some of it he’d caused. Some of it was the loss of her friend… her mentor.
“I can’t fix everything between us, Hi`ilani, but I’m going to stand by you. Even if you stop wanting me in your life, I’ll protect you.”
She shook her head. It was the tiniest of movements but he felt it because his hands were on her. “You don’t need to fix anything, Jack. I loved you before and I never stopped.” She drew in a breath and it shook through her body and into his. “I never thought I’d be in trouble like this, but if I had to have someone watching over me, it would be you.
“I’ve never felt so safe than when I’ve been in your arms, feeling your heart beating in your chest, breathing you in.”
Her words cut him like a knife.
Knowing what he’d taken from her made him all the more determined to give her that and more.
“Hi`ilani-”
“Listen.” Her voice was soft, but he heard the plea in her tone and he wanted to listen. Her voice had always called to the deepest part of him.
Deeper than his heart.
All the way into his soul.
She repeated the plea and he listened but he could only hear her.
“The rain,” she sighed. “I can hear it o
n the roof.”
So did he.
“And on the leaves.”
“Yeah,”
“Do you remember the first time you kissed me?”
Of course he did.
“It was in the rain.” He smoothed his thumb over her high cheekbone.
She smiled up at him. “Barely a mist.”
He smiled back. “And it looked like tears on your skin.”
He could feel her breathing. The gentle movement of her skin against his, just the touch of his hands against her.
He’d used his hands to kill, but what he wanted more than anything else was to use his hands to feel life.
Jackson leaned down and kissed her cheeks before he gave her the barest of kisses against her lips.
When he pulled back, just an inch, she swayed forward, drawn to him.
Just as much as he was to her.
It was a tender moment between them, but the next moment changed everything.
She sighed, a simple exhale.
But he leaned in, breathed it in.
Breathed her in.
And he realized the simple truth.
He needed her like his next breath.
They reached for each other.
Kissed and kissed again as they discarded their clothes between the door and the bed.
It was only when his foot was caught up in the leg of his pants that he fell across the bed, tugging her down with him.
The scent of the rain.
The feel of her supple skin against his hard lines.
Everything rushed in like the current of the ocean, dragging him under her power.
She straddled his body again with a single graceful movement that belied her natural gift of dance.
He rose up on an elbow, snaking his other hand around the nape of her neck. The feeling of her hair sliding over his arm was torture. Between their bodies his dick jumped, pressing against her belly.
A flash of lightning painted their bodies silver, highlighting the pearl of precum beaded on the head of his cock.
Every inch of him heated.
Slanting a kiss against her mouth, he couldn’t help but delve within when she parted her lips. Their tongues tangled, danced together.
Tasted.
Stroked.
And he wanted more.
So much more.
Shifting his weight on his elbow, he moved his hand on her neck, wrapping around even more as he tried to think of the best way to pull her under him.
She was faster.
More in control.
Or maybe less. It depended how he wanted to think about it.
If he wanted to think.
And at that moment, all he wanted to do was feel.
Her hand closed around him, wrapped around the base, stroking up to the tip with one long sweep of motion.
His breath came out as a gasp and she pulled it into her mouth.
Jackson felt consumed.
Felt as if she had swallowed his soul.
Taken it into her own body.
And maybe she had.
Another stroke, down and then up, her palm smoothing over the skin at his tip, nearly cradling him in her palm.
“Are you trying to kill me?”
She laughed and shook her head back, moving her hair about her shoulders like a curtain. The dark lengths framing her breasts for his hungry gaze. When she looked down at him his hand slid down from her neck and his palm traced over her nipple, teasing it into a peak as he copied the touch of her hand on him.
“Kill you? No.” She bit down on her lip as he rolled her nipple between his fingers, teasing her flesh. “But I want you inside me, Jack. I need you.”
And that was all he needed to take all of his good intentions and cut straight through to the heart of the matter.
“I need to get into my drawer.” Looking up and over his shoulder he saw the nightstand open slightly and a couple of foil packets on the top beside the mattress. He turned his gaze back to her face. “How did you-”
“Where else would a guy keep them,” she shifted, moving a few inches closer. When she moved again, he shifted with her, higher on the bed.
He saw her eyes darken as their movements together created the most amazing friction between them.
“I would have looked through your wallet,” she moaned softly as he wrapped a hand around her to nudge her higher with him, “but I thought that might be a little… too obvious.”
His laughter was little more than a soft chuckle deep in his chest.
“Men can be a little dense,” he caught her look and continued on, “so feel free to be obvious. I might need the hint.”
He took the chance and laid back flat on the bed, reaching his arm back, he managed to pinch one of the packets between the flats of two fingers. Pausing only to open the packet with his teeth, he kept his eyes on her.
Jackson watched her breathe.
Watched the way her body rose and fell with every breath he took.
Saw the way her eyes watched him as if she was memorizing him.
He knew that look.
Knew that he’d created it.
He dropped the packet down on the bed beside him. “Come here,” he crooked his finger at her, “closer.”
Her smile made him want her even more.
The way she leaned forward, lowering herself down over him, made him shake with desire.
The touch of her breasts against his chest, the way her lashes lowered to hide her gaze…
“I was a fool.”
She set one hand over his shoulder, and then the other, slowly trailing her tongue over her bottom lip. “Yes, you were.”
He opened his mouth to speak but felt her roll her hips against him, sliding the heat of her body against him. Root to tip, she turned him inside out, strung him out, sent his heart into overdrive.
Hi`ilani rose up over him, pressed a kiss to his lips, brushed the side of her nose against him.
“You know what else you were?”
Jackson swallowed and let out a breath in a rush of air when she lowered herself down, pressing her breasts against his chest, the stiff peaks making the contact even more frustrating.
“No… no.” He pulled a breath into his lungs just so that he could feel her against him again. “What was I?”
She rose up again, moving so that she could look into his eyes. “You were mine.”
If he thought he was hard before. Hearing her words. Seeing the sadness in her eyes mixed with hope, feeling her skin moving against his, he ached for her.
He arched his back to slide his cock against the soft curve of her belly.
Her eyes shut and her breath caught in her chest. “Jack, please.”
“Please? What do you want? Tell me and it’s yours.”
“Please,” her tone was softer, barely a whisper, “don’t leave me again.”
It broke him.
His heart stopped short in his chest, his lungs begged for air.
He blamed himself for her fears.
And here she was, letting him back into her life. Letting him touch her. It would be years before he felt like he was worthy of that trust.
Her love.
Pressing his lips up against her, she rose up on her hands on a gasp.
Jackson caught the tip of her breast in his mouth, swept his tongue over the tight bud of her nipple.
Wrapping a hand around her back, he held her gently in place as he pulled her deeper into his mouth, the slightest hint of teeth bowed her back.
Brought a sigh to her lips.
Clenched her thighs around his hips.
She held herself close to him, close enough to cause him pain, but he didn’t care.
He welcomed the pain and pulled her closer.
Jackson heard her digging her fingers into the sheets, heard her gasp and pant in time to his tongue, the soft scratch of his teeth.
They moved together, his hips pushing her higher and she urged him on, his name on her lips.
She was off-balance, delirious.
The rain pounding on the roof, the scent of it in the air, the scent of his skin. The scent of the two of them together.
His mouth on her skin.
And oh god, his teeth. His tongue.
Every push of his hips ground him against her. And she pressed tighter needing to feel his fullness against her skin.
So long.
So, so long.
And she’d never stopped needing him.
She’d tried to move on, but no one made her feel the way he had.
The way he was making her feel.
“Oh Jack…”
His mouth closed over her other breast and the pleasure was so keen it was nearly pain. He was gentle but insistent.
And she pressed down against him and felt the twitch of his erection even while it was trapped between their bodies.
A little shift of her hips and the keen pressure of the base of his cock against her clit sent sparks of pleasure shooting through her body.
“Yes… oh yes.”
Jackson. Heaven help her. The things he was doing to her with just his mouth.
More.
She wanted so much more.
Blindly reaching out with her hand she had to fish around a little but there it was.
She felt the scratch of the perforated edge of the wrapper and lifted it off the bed.
“Here, here.” She pulled it up and handed it to him. Grumbling when he took his mouth away from her skin. “Can’t you do that without- Oh.”
She was under him before she realized what he was about.
His arm hooked under her thigh, opening her as he straddled her other leg.
She looked up at him and saw the way his eyes raked over her body.
“You’re so damn beautiful.”
“You too, Jack.” Hi`ilani licked at her lips trying to keep her breathing under control. The last thing she wanted to do was miss a single moment. “So many nights I dreamt of you. Of us. Like this.”
He moved closer, heavier on her. The weight wasn’t uncomfortable. She liked being under him.
Loved feeling his skin against her.
“Like this?”
His gaze left hers and looked down.
She followed him and saw his hand around the base of his cock, holding it as he leaned forward.
The way he was built, if he had her against the wall all it took was lifting her up and he’d fit snugly against her, but on her back, sinking into the comforter with his weight it was different.