Stopping at another light, he gave me a strange look. “Did Kevin say I traveled all the time?”
“When we first started dating, you posted about your girlfriend’s art exhibit and I suggested we invite you both for dinner. He said you were only in town every few months.”
Jack laughed but it didn’t seem humorous.
“He’s a little shit, that one. While you were dating, I was working on a book. I didn’t take assignments for more than a year.” He shifted and said, “He knew not to let me anywhere near you.”
“What do you…?”
“Let’s shelve that question for later. You’d like my friends and they’d love you.” He looked at me and away. “I wouldn’t keep you locked away from the people I care about.”
“Do you have any weird dads in your group? I pick up the weird moms like discards in a high-stakes Rummy game.”
“Uh, I need more information.”
I watched him smile in profile and my heart raced. “Those are the moms who don’t fit in. Per hard-core mommy bloggers, they quit breastfeeding too early, are irresponsible to let their kids get dirty, and basically suck because they have lives in addition to their parental duties.”
“Harsh.”
He traced his fingertip along the inside of my knee and I wondered if it was possible to come from something so small.
What were we talking about again?
I tried to retrace the steps of our conversation. “Their lives don’t revolve around every hiccup that issues from their spawn. They always have the coolest and smartest kids on the planet. The mom cliques shun women like that.”
“Do you like kids?”
“I love other peoples’ kids. They seem to like me. I haven’t killed my plants so one day, maybe I could keep a mini-me alive if I’m very lucky.”
“Petra, I swear to god, you’ve got to be the most fascinating woman I’ve ever met.”
“You don’t get around women much, huh?”
He issued one of his deep cream my panties laughs and I desperately searched for a topic that would help me regain my composure.
When in doubt…
Time to talk business. “Did you ever create a website?”
“I never did. I have too much work and I get overwhelmed.” He looked at me. “How did you know I didn’t have one?”
I shrugged. “It’s my thing. I check out everyone to see if they have websites. You need to stop dicking around in the Stone Age. It’s time to do a website, Jack.”
“Have you seen my work?”
Suddenly realizing I’d outed myself as a stalker, I tried to minimize the damage. “Mm hmm. It’s remarkable. Digital prints and specialty products featuring your photographs would sell themselves.”
“You’re hired.”
“What?”
Delivering a heart-stopping smile, he said, “You know what you’re doing. I don’t. Work up a quote and I’ll sign it.”
“We haven’t talked price. I’m not cheap.”
Cocking a brow, he shot back, “In that dress?”
“Fair enough. Fuck, you totally got me there.”
“I don’t care what it costs.”
“Don’t say shit like that to a woman who owns her own business, Jack. I’ll have your shit competing with National Geographic.”
“They’re one of my best clients. A good goal to strive for.”
I was stunned. “Are you being serious?”
“I never joke about business. Your expertise in this arena is well-known, Petra.”
“It is?” I was genuinely confused.
“I’m willing to pay for the quality and skills you bring to the table.” He smiled at me. “Work your magic, send me a bill, and drag me into the modern world.”
Easiest close ever.
He turned into an exclusive gated community and waved at the security guard. He drove through a complex of large homes with sprawling property around them and pulled into the driveway of a house similar in size and style to my mom’s.
“You live here alone?”
“I use the upper floor. My three wives and all the kids have the main level. We try to give each other privacy while I look for wife number four.”
“You’re a funny man, Jack.”
He chuckled as he raised the garage door. “Yeah, I live here alone. I needed a specific amount of space for my studio, dark room, and outdoor living. I get claustrophobic.”
Driving inside with a confidence and accuracy I simply didn’t have in tight spaces, he put the SUV in gear, turned off the engine, and lowered the door behind us.
Unbuckling, he motioned for me to wait while he came around.
As my door opened, he leaned in to unbuckle me. Then he lifted me – again with the lifting – from the car and set me on my feet on the concrete floor.
He bent to kiss me lightly. “I didn’t think I’d make it.” He kissed me again.
“No more business. No more friends. No more family. We’ll have plenty of time for that later. Much, much later.”
Chapter Ten
Jack closed the door and opened the back to get my bag. As he slid his hand along my waist, he murmured, “Even in this shitty light, you’re lovely.”
“You stole my thunder, you bastard.”
Laughing, he guided me to the door leading into his house. My first impression was of an immaculate kitchen fit for a chef and he placed my bag on a barstool. He shrugged off his jacket and removed his tie, tossing them there as well.
He kept his hand at my waist as he opened the refrigerator and removed a bottle of one of my favorite champagnes.
Glancing at me, he murmured, “I need to open this but I don’t want to take my hands off you.”
Reaching up, I cupped his face with one hand and raked my fingers through his hair with the other. It felt amazing to touch him. He closed his eyes and leaned into it.
The bottle clinked against the countertop and he pressed me against the wall beside the fridge.
His mouth descended on mine with a low growl, his hands roamed over me, and threw my body into chaos.
What the fuck was my name?
Moving to my jaw and down my neck, his grip tightened on my back and ass. I felt light-headed.
“Pardon me but…fuck the champagne. All I care about is stripping you naked and having you spread-eagled on my bed.”
I released a gut-wrenching moan but he was already moving us out of the kitchen. I got a fleeting impression of open space, hardwood floors, a dimly lit living room, and framed photographs on custom-painted walls I knew I’d want to examine more closely later.
A grand tour wasn’t on the agenda and Jack let me go long enough to take my hand again and pull me up the stairs.
At the top, he wrapped his arm around my waist and murmured, “I’ll show you around later. I swear it, Petra.”
I glimpsed what looked to be an office to the right. A spare bedroom on the left. He walked briskly down the hall to double doors and pushed them wide.
Jack’s bedroom was a massive space filled with bright white and shades of blue. Recessed lighting lent a warm glow. Picking up a remote, soft instrumental music drifted on the air.
Pivoting in front of me, Jack took my face in his hands. His gaze was intense. I could feel him trembling where we touched.
It was a reaction I’d never inspired in a man before.
“Should I perform badly the first time due to an over-abundance of enthusiasm, try to keep me anonymous when you post about it on Facebook.”
I laughed and he arched his brow.
“Barring that, mention that though I have the endurance of a fourteen-year-old with a Hustler spread in front of him – plenty of tissues and lotion on hand – I’m hung like a horse.”
“Agreed,” I said seriously. “I better not have to lie.”
His laughter filled me up as he spun me around and held my back to his chest. He trailed his finger over the top edge of my bodice.
“I wanted to get you out of this dres
s the moment I laid eyes on you, Petra.”
“Well, naturally. It’s hideous,” I quipped.
He lowered his mouth to my ear and nipped it lightly. “No. That wasn’t why.”
Strong fingers massaged my shoulders and the back of my neck. There was no way to hide my natural tension.
“You’re nervous.”
It wasn’t a question but I answered it anyway. “A bit. This isn’t…usual for me. Completely out of character, in fact.”
His fingers stroked my jaw, turning my face up and back so he could stare into my eyes. The silence drew out.
“I love your honesty almost as much as I love your intelligence.” Stroking a fingertip over my brow, his thumb along my upper cheek, he whispered, “Your lashes make the magnificent green of your eyes stand out. I ache to photograph you, Petra.”
I stiffened and he gave me a half smile.
“Not like that, you kinky wench.”
He dropped a small kiss at the corner of my mouth and moved back slightly. I realized why when he started removing the pins from my hair.
I hated hairspray. Particularly the after-effects of stiffness and stickiness. When my hair was styled earlier, I insisted the woman find another way to secure my hair. Her only choice was to use dozens of pins to keep it in place.
“I’m so curious,” he said quietly.
“About what?”
“How much hair you’re holding up with all these pins.”
Jack was slow, methodical. He carefully removed them one by one. I listened as they dropped with a ping on the wood of his bedside table.
I stared across the expanse of his California king bed at the far wall. There were nine photos depicting each piece of a mountain scene. The jigsaw effect was captivating.
“Did you take those?”
“Yes.”
“They’re remarkable.”
“Thank you.”
I felt the mass of my hair give way at last as it fell down my back. His breath caught in his throat.
“Dear god, Petra.”
His fingers raked through it from my temple to my lower back several times, massaging my scalp and making sure it wasn’t tangled. It felt ridiculously good after having it up all day.
“Dark and silky as mink.”
Gathering it in his hands, he dropped it gently over my shoulder to the front of my body.
Warm palms trailed over my bare shoulders, arms, and down to my wrists. He lifted my arms and wrapped them around his neck. The position left the entire front of my body open.
“Keep them here, Petra,” he murmured against a cheek I knew was hot with embarrassment.
He gently ripped away one side of the last-minute halter strap before I felt him touch the zipper along the side of the dress.
Self-conscious and feeling strangely vulnerable, I started to lower my arms.
“Stop.” His brusque command froze me and he pressed his face to mine. “You’re a beautiful woman.”
“Jack…”
He hugged me hard from behind. “There’s nothing about you I don’t find attractive. Nothing. Don’t hide from me.”
It wasn’t the time to bring up former lovers and their habit of making me feel ashamed.
I knew not to tell him how his brother always insisted that the lights remain off during sex. Kevin hadn’t been the first offender but he’d been the worst.
“I’m sorry.”
I uttered the words knowing I had nothing to apologize for, knowing it gave power to the distant words mere mortal men told me to make me question my attractiveness, my femininity.
Knowing yet unable to stop myself.
“You don’t need to do that shit with me, Petra.” His breath was warm along my neck. “I’m going to love on you for a long, long time.” A light scrape of his teeth just below my ear made me shiver. “When you see yourself the way I see you, we’ll talk about you leaving my bed.”
The zipper lowered and I forced myself to be still. I felt the dress slide to the floor and puddle around my feet.
His moan of lust slipped over my skin. “I may need to rethink letting you out of touching distance. Oh yes, Petra.”
Hard palms stroked up my sides to cup my breasts. I’d always been shy about their size. Developing in sixth grade was a kiss of death and I’d done everything I could to hide them.
Jack’s fingers curled around the undersides, his thumbs flicked over my already tight nipples, and I tried to hold back my sound of need.
I failed utterly.
“My mouth waters.” His cheek nuzzled mine, the bit of stubble screaming male. Fingers raked through my hair as he moved it to nestle between my breasts.
One hand crossed over my torso to roll my nipple between finger and thumb while the other skimmed down a stomach that never firmed no matter how many crunches I did.
When it reversed direction to slide over my hip and around to my ass, I’d never been so grateful for lingerie lines that remembered bigger women liked to feel pretty, too.
I held my breath as his panted at my ear.
“The fine silk of these panties is nothing compared to your skin. I’ve never wanted to devour another human being. I can feel your heart pounding against my lips. Still nervous?”
I shook my head slowly. “Less by the moment.”
“Are you excited?” I nodded. “Are you wet for me, Petra?”
Inhaling sharply, I let the explicit words play through my mind. No one had ever said such a thing to me. I liked it.
“I plan to tell you exactly how I’m feeling every step of the way so there’s no doubt, no wondering. You can do the same but I’ll understand if you’re too busy begging for mercy.”
“Jesus…”
Lifting his hands from me, he untwined my arms from around his neck and turned me to face him. He kept me close to his body by wrapping one arm around my back.
He did it for me, to help me feel secure. The consideration of such a thing moved me.
A warm palm slid along my jaw, tilting my gaze to his.
“I see you, Petra. I see you and I want you more than I’ve wanted any woman in my life. I’m not lying and I have no interest in changing a single fucking thing about you.”
His lips settled over mine and I knew this man – this beautiful, unexpected man – already had the power to break my heart.
Chapter Eleven
The kisses went on and on until my mind was unable to focus on anything but Jack’s mouth, his hands, the taste of him.
When I felt his bed against the back of my legs, it startled me. He lowered me carefully and followed me down.
He remained fully dressed and it lent an eroticism to the experience that I didn’t expect.
Dragging my body deeper onto the bed, he settled in the cradle of my thighs, his cock notched against my clit. Every nerve in my body roared to life like never before.
Setting a gentle, rocking motion raked the head across the tiny bundle of nerves and I was so wet for him that I should have been embarrassed.
Taking one of my hands in his, he kissed my fingers and placed them on his chest. “Anything, Petra. I’ll give you anything if you’ll just touch me.”
Caught up in my own nervous insecurities, I hadn’t noticed how he trembled in my arms. The skin around his mouth was tight, his eyes a much darker gray.
“Jack, I’m dying to touch you.”
I pretended my hand didn’t shake as I moved it over the buttons of his shirt until they were all undone. He lifted away enough so I could pull it from his pants and spread the sides. His body was lean, sculpted.
Staring at his torso, I whispered reverently, “Look at you. It’s like Christmas.”
The woman I was half an hour earlier would have focused on the fact that I probably weighed more than he did.
The woman I always wanted to be reveled in sliding my palms over broad shoulders and down a body honed from miles of hiking to photoshoots in the wilds of the world.
I raked my nail
over his nipple and he groaned my name. I wanted to make him as crazy as he made me. To make him feel as out of control as I felt.
As skilled as I am in many areas of my life, I never had much practice in the bedroom. Men used my body while they pretended not to judge it and I let them do it while I pretended they fulfilled me.
Jack’s eyes stayed on mine and I couldn’t look away as my fingers grasped the buckle of his belt and separated it.
The sound echoed through the silence of the room and I pulled my lower lip between my teeth.
His eyes tracked to my mouth. “They’re like lush satin pillows. I’ll never tire of feeling them all over me.”
The implication made my hips rock into him and he met the movement with a stronger thrust of his own.
Lifting my head, I placed a kiss in the center of his chest. He raked his palm along my neck to gather my hair and spread it above me.
I took his small nipple between my lips and his palm held the back of my head. I worried it with my teeth before kissing and licking it better then moved to the other.
Jack’s fingers tightened in my hair and pulled me away. He said roughly, “I need to feel everything.”
Then he was gone and cool air washed across my overheated skin. Up on my elbows, I stared at him as he shed the remaining clothes from his body.
As he skimmed his boxers from his legs and straightened, I took in what I was working with before meeting his eyes.
I winked. “So. You weren’t lying.”
He resembled a jungle cat as he crawled across the bed to stretch out beside me. Resting his head in his hand, he stroked his palm back and forth across my diaphragm.
The warmth of his chest against my shoulder, the throb of his cock against my hip, wiped out any ability I had to be shy as his eyes roamed over me.
The tip of his finger traced the outline of my panties. “These are so fucking sexy.” His fingers trailed over my upper thigh and under the strap of my garter. Chills shook me.
“How sensitive you are to my touch. How I love touching you.”
The way he phrased the words caused my heart to stumble. I knew not to invest any hope for my future in them.
“The dress was admittedly hideous. Your underthings and these shoes more than compensated.”
Always Delightful: A Romantic Comedy (Always Series Book 1) Page 5