She pushed away from him. Her eyes were dazed but rapidly focusing. More rapidly than he could follow. A distance built between them even though she still straddled him. She looked wildly at him then struggled to her feet.
“What?” he asked thickly.
She almost ran back to the downed tree. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have led you on.” She grabbed her chainsaw and hurried toward her garage.
“Come again?” Jason struggled to his feet. Snow melt soaked through his sweater and a crisp wind blew into his open coat. He hurried after her.
“I didn’t mean—”
“I did.” He followed her though the door. As she hung up the chainsaw, he got behind her, crowding her and cutting off her escape routes. She turned and took a step backward, pressed herself against a worktable.
“Listen, you can’t start something like that and then leave me out in the cold.”
“I have to.” Lips pursed in a prim line, she’d gone colder than the icy wetness soaking his chest. “I’ve been down this road before and I didn’t like where it ended.”
“What road? The next two weeks?” he demanded. “I’m not asking you to marry me or live with me or give up your life, I just want this.” He reached for her hand. Thwarted desire choked him. The need to beg her not to abandon him burned, but the words wouldn’t come out. “I want you.”
Chapter 7
Softened, swollen from his kisses, her lips still tingled. Every inch of her skin seemed to be sparking with delicious sensation. She gripped the hem of her parka with both hands. For years she’d dreamed about making love with Jason Callisto. Ever since he’d appeared at her door, she’d been thrumming with a low throb of desire. He wanted her, and oh God, she ached for him.
Ever since he’d shown up, she’d also been seeing where sex with him could lead, and it resembled a road with a washed out bridge. A jagged strip of asphalt that dropped into a raging river on the other end of his stay.
But he was giving her a warning sign. A nice orange and yellow sawhorse with flashing red lights and a big reflective sign saying Jason Will Be Leaving in Two Weeks. This time if she knew, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, she didn’t have to believe it would be ’til death do us part only to find out boredom was an equally good separator.
Cass forced her left hand to relax its hold on her hem then turned it and curled her fingers around his. She was warmed by his breath on her face. Her heart still wanted to leap out of her chest, but the reason had changed. She didn’t fear a relationship with him would lead to abandonment. It would. In two weeks, he would leave and she couldn’t change that. She just needed to learn to live with it. Now she only had to worry she couldn’t live up to what he wanted. She hadn’t been good enough in the past. “I don’t know. I’m just—”
Jason put his finger over her lips. “Hush.” He pulled her close and kissed her.
All her fears evaporated with that kiss, as he slipped his hands expertly under her coat, ran them up her sides, driving her higher. She clung to him, helpless as he devoured her. Pent up need she hadn’t known she’d had shivered through her.
“Do you want me?” he whispered against her cheek.
“Yes.” She couldn’t imagine any other answer.
“Why don’t we go inside?”
Her hand shook as she opened the door. He seemed taller in the hall. That or, in the tradition of Wonderland, the hallway was shrinking. He pulled the door closed behind them. Before she could come to any kind of decision about the size of the hall, he’d unzipped her parka and pushed it off her shoulders. He shrugged out of his coat, leaving it on the hall floor with hers.
What should she do next? She felt like a virgin. It had been so long, this might as well have been the first time.
Jason wrapped his arms around her waist and carried her into the bedroom. She hadn’t made the bed this morning, leaving the covers thrown open, and kissing her, he laid her down on it. If she’d thought his kiss was intoxicating before, she hadn’t understood the word. Her body flooded with heat and she heard herself moaning. As he shoved her sweatshirt up, he moved down to kiss her stomach. When his hot mouth touched her skin, she shivered with delight. He pulled the sweatshirt off and threw it across the room. It caught on the window crank. Kissing her scorched flesh, making her moan louder, he kissed up her body.
He fell on her mouth again, ravenous, and she reveled in the heat of his lips on hers. So soft, and yet so hard. Driving her to clutch him, digging her fingers into his shirt. His fingers laced through her hair were stopped by her hair elastic. He tugged at the elastic for a minute then lifted away from her. “Your hair. Take it down for me. Please,” he asked huskily.
With trembling fingers, she tried to pull the elastic out, but it tangled in her curls. Jason sat back on his heels, watching her with dark eyes as he pulled off his shirt. His lean chest was scattered with wiry black hair and his nipples were dark and rigid with anticipation. Whimpering, she tugged at the elastic until it slipped free without taking too much of her hair with it. A hand buried in her hair, he kissed, pressed her into the bed. She skimmed her hands along his back. Iron beneath smooth skin, his muscles tensed at her touch. A groan escaped him. He slid his hand behind her back and unhooked her bra, yanked the material away. The air in the house felt cool against her skin, but everywhere he touched her was hot.
“So lovely,” he murmured, stroking along the side of her breast.
“Please...” She couldn’t have articulated what she wanted if he’d asked, she only wanted more. Suddenly, her loose jeans were too tight and binding.
“Oh, I plan to, bella,” he told her, the low purr of his voice making her belly clench. He leaned down and captured one taut and aching nipple between his lips.
The throbbing now became a steady pounding beat. She arched her head against the pillow, mouth open, trying to draw enough breath. As he tugged, his tongue rasped across the tip. One of his hands rested on her waist, and curling it around to her back, he slipped one finger under the waistband of her jeans. She put her hand on his shoulder, wondered what she should be doing to please him, but she couldn’t seem to get a message out. A hurricane raged around her, and she could only feel and react.
Jason pressed his face between her breasts, inhaling her scent. His hot breath fanned her. She stroked through his long hair, cradling his head. He shivered. Then he took her other nipple in his lips. She arched up to meet him. It wasn’t enough. She wanted more. She reached for her jeans, but he caught her hand.
“No, bella, let me.” He shifted onto his side and reached down, unbuttoned her jeans.
Cass took the opportunity to press her hand against his chest, sought and found his tight nipples, making him gasp. “You like that?” she asked.
“Very much.”
She pinched his nipple lightly as he worked her zipper down. “If you lay back I can do more.”
He smiled at her with hazy desire. “I’ll bet you could. But first I’d like to remove your jeans.” He knelt at the end of the bed and pulled off her jeans. Her panties went with them, leaving her naked. Laying a hand on her bare calf, he said, “You are an incredibly beautiful woman, Cassandra, bella. Do you know that?”
Cass had no idea how to answer him.
Jason leaned down and kissed the inside of her knee, then forward and kissed her inner thigh. She closed her eyes as his fingers slipped into her most sensitive spot, couldn’t move, couldn’t think. A rush of pleasure coursed through her. Her skin tingled maddeningly. He kissed the inside of her thigh again, higher this time. Cass shuddered. “It’s so good.”
“It gets better.”
Then his lips closed around her, and as a surge of greater pleasure tore through her, she wailed. She reached down to touch his head. His hair brushed against her legs, making her nerve endings crackle. His tongue tasted her expertly, bringing her tighter and tighter until she could stand no more. Her body clenched and released in a flood of pleasure.
She fell back against the bed, ashamed. Groupies could probably hold out longer. They knew well enough to serve him first. “I’m sorry, I—”
Jason sat back, licking his lips. “For what?” His voice dropped lower. “I’m just getting started, cherie.”
Still charged with his touch, hungrier instead of sated, she trembled.
Eyes on hers, he reached into his pocket. Then he frowned, digging deeper into the pocket. “Shit,” he said, on his knees and looking in both front pockets. “Hold that thought,” he told her, climbing off the end of the bed.
Cass watched him walk out to the hall and pick up his coat. He must be looking for a condom. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to go all the way to his cabin for one because she didn’t own any. She’d opened her mouth to tell him to forget it, they could do without this once, when he dropped the coat and returned to the bed. He was tearing a condom’s foil packaging open with his teeth.
“Did you hold that thought?” he asked as he opened his jeans. Then he shoved them down his legs. Everything about him was long and lean and powerful. Gorgeous, naked. Feral and beautiful. His skin had a tawny cast everywhere. Smiling at her gaze, he kicked away his jeans.
“I did my best.”
He crawled onto the end of the bed. “I’m getting the impression that you didn’t manage to hold on too tightly, but I’m willing to start over if I have to.”
“Sounds good to me.” Her breath caught. Then his body stretched along hers and any dissipation of her passion vanished. Before he’d even touched her, her skin tingled. One hand sunk into her hair, he urged her lips to his. She could taste herself on him.
“Am I starting over?” he murmured against her mouth.
“What?” Her voice sounded thick, as if she were drunk. Yeah, she was. On him. Because wherever his body touched, hers burned with acute pleasure. Even his hand in her hair was a thrilling agony.
“Good. I don’t think I could hold out.” Jason shifted between her legs.
Her breath stopped in her throat and mouth went dry with anticipation. He seemed to hang above her forever, looking down at her face. The room grew impossibly hot. The fire crackled. She touched her fingertips to his chest, watched his flesh pebble under her fingers. With a groan, he thrust inside her.
She cried out as her body contracted around him. He pulled back and thrust again. Digging her nails into his back, she dragged him down on top of her. Face pressed into the curve of her neck, he moved harder and faster, making her gasp. Her legs were wrapped around him, but she spread herself as wide as she could to bring him further and further in, even as her ankles locked behind him to keep him there. The moments drew out into eternities. Clutching him to her, she rode each thrust, hardly aware of the passionate moans she made. Like thunder on the mountain, rolling and pounding, vibrating everything, the climax took her with it. With a shout, he collapsed on her.
For a few moments, all she could do was lie still, getting her breath back. Jason didn’t move either. Reaching over, she pulled the blankets around them. Sex had never felt this amazing before. Hopefully it had been as good for him. She put her arms around his shoulders, wishing she knew the words to tell him how wonderful he’d made her feel.
But what if he was disappointed? He’d worked hard to get her. What if she wasn’t enough? He seemed quite spent. Did that mean she was good enough for West Virginia? She didn’t want to disappoint him.
“I must be crushing you,” he murmured.
“It’s all right.”
He rolled off her. Cass missed the weight of his body. She sat up, staring at a patch of wall. His silence worked under her skin like cold fingers of wind under her peacoat. Had he worked so hard for nothing? Behind her, the sheets rustled as he propped himself against the headboard. As he traced her spine, the calluses on his fingertips scraped her bare skin, making her shiver. That she could feel so good had her reeling. She wanted it again.
He probably didn’t. Was likely sorry he’d gotten involved with her in the first place. Mediocre on a good day, Michael had said. Had today at least been a good day?
“I’m sorry,” she offered. She pulled her knees against her chest and pressed her cheek against them, biting back tears. She’d offered herself to him like a groupie and hadn’t measured up.
“For what?” Jason asked, and tugged her hair.
“I’m not very experienced.”
He laughed. “Cassa bella, if you were any more generous and enthusiastic a lover, I’d be dead right now.”
When she peeked over her shoulder, he was smiling and sweaty. She twisted to face him. “Really?”
“Baby, you just about gave me heart failure, but if it had been my time, I would have died a happy man.” He pulled her against his chest, stroked her hair. “You must not be experienced, or some guy would have snatched you up a long time ago and locked you in his bedroom.”
Cass listened to his heartbeat. Beneath her ear, it hammered. Michael had always told her she was a boring lover. Could he have lied about that, too? She’d never slept with anyone but him before now. Of course, Jason could be lying, too. She was the only woman for miles and he was lonely. He could be thinking better this than nothing at all.
Fine. She was lonely, too. In two weeks he would go back to his fabulous life and she would stay here. End up a spinster or married to Finn Runningwater. For two weeks she could have great sex, and for the rest of her life she’d have great memories.
She moved her leg across his and pushed herself upright. “That good?”
“That good.”
“Mmmm.” She smiled. “Maybe you should give me another shot at that heart attack.”
He grinned back. “Now I know what you’re capable of. You won’t be able to spring anything on me.”
“So I’ll have to try harder next time.”
“I hate to disappoint you, but next time might take a while.”
Cass brushed her lips against his. “How long?”
“You making up for lost time?”
“Maybe.”
“How much?” He trailed his hand down her back, and the pulsing excitement low in her belly returned.
“Five years. You?”
Jason hesitated, and she wondered if she’d been too nosy. His lips thinned. “Two years,” he said.
Stella. Famous rock star Romeo had been solo since Stella. Cass traced her finger across his chest. His breaths shortened. “So what can I do to wipe out the memory of that gap?”
“You’re doing a good job right now.”
She leaned down and touched his now tense nipple with the tip of her tongue. He sucked a breath through his teeth. Cass felt herself speeding down hill. This was so wanton and wild seducing him this way, but she wanted him. Her whole body ached to have him inside her again. She played her hand across his hard stomach. He gasped and his penis stirred against her leg. He buried one hand in her hair. The other rested in the middle of her back. As she slipped her hand between his legs, testing his thickening flesh with her fingers, he groaned. He arched his head on the pillow, rolling his eyes closed.
“Cassandra, bella, you are a temptress.” He moaned.
“Thank you,” she told him, moved her hand across his belly, brushing the sleek skin covering his tight ab muscles. She’d never held a man in her thrall the way she held Jason now. He seemed unwilling to stop her, maybe even helpless, and when she scattered kisses on his chest, he quivered at her lightest touch.
His hand tightened against her back. He shifted toward her, trying to lay her back again, met her lips with hot urgency. She resisted, moved and straddled him. As she knelt across his body, he looked up at her with dark eyes. His gaze said he could wait and that he wanted her now. Slowly he moved his hands up her thighs, then curled them around her waist.
He filled her, hot, shocking, deliciously, as she impaled herself on him. She rocked against him, absorbed him deeper into herself. Jason sat up, pressed his face be
tween her breasts. The deep-throated sounds coming from him vibrated through her chest. She let her head loll. Her hair hung down her back and across her buttocks.
Jason took one of her nipples in his mouth again. He matched her rhythm with the sweet tug of his lips. The sensation spiraled away from her, sweeping her down and lifting her up at the same time. With every shuddering sensation, she rocked against him harder. She pulled his face up to meet hers, dipped her tongue into his mouth, and explored every hot secret place, wrenching his ecstatic groans into herself. Their sweat-slicked bellies rubbed together. She was suspended on the cusp of climax. He had to feel the same way. Tight and aching. She dug her fingers into his hair, holding him close to her. Hands curved around her buttocks, he clenched her against him, faster and harder.
He shuddered.
Like a lightning strike this time, the climax hit her then sent ribbons of electricity through her. She shuddered and cried out, lost to the sensation.
When she came back to herself, she lay across his chest. She didn’t remember lying down or curling her arms around his neck.
Chuckling, he held her close. “And I thought I knew what was up with you. If you had unleashed all that on me the first time, you really might have killed me.” He kissed the top of her head.
She giggled. Every fiber of her hummed with passion, but her eyes wanted to close. As he settled the blanket over them, he shifted her so she wasn’t resting on him, but still lay tangled around him.
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