My hips rocked against him, against that long hard ridge that had brought me so much pleasure. His lips and teeth scraped down my neck, sending a shiver through me from head to toe. I would miss this nearly as much as I would miss his smile, his eyes. Everything about him. “Jackson,” I moaned when he sent my shirt flying across the room before his delicious mouth tugged on my breast.
It was incredible, as always. But tonight it wasn’t enough. I tugged on his hair and took over the kiss, plunging my tongue deep enough to make him groan and hold me tighter. Closer.
And finally, his control snapped. He held me tight, his grip rough as he let out guttural moans each time my hands passed through his hair and over his chest. “Becca,” he grunted and pushed off to the couch, undressing both of us in seconds. He was that hungry for me and it was insatiable. He pulled me back down to the couch, right on top of him, but I slid down, eager for a final taste of him. “Becca,” he groaned again when I took him deep, making sure every solid inch of him was slick from my tongue and my lips. His hips jerked up and I relaxed, taking as much as I could handle. Not quite all of his inches, but enough that he gripped my hair hard enough to bring a tear to my eye. “Oh, fuck me, Becca.”
“Mmm,” was my response and the quiver that shot through him made me smile.
“Enough. I need to be inside you.”
I smiled. “That’s perfect because that’s where I want you.” Climbing back onto his lap, I slid along his length, coating him with my arousal. “Jackson.”
He lifted me up and I gripped his hard length in one hand, lining our bodies up as he lowered me onto him. “Becca. Sweet, beautiful Becca.”
“Oh, Jackson.” I needed another taste of him and I took it, kissing him with as much ferocity as I could dig up as our bodies smacked together, prematurely slick from the tension between us. It was fast, frenetic and so intense I felt my orgasm rising to the surface.
He pulled back and smiled, his hands on my hips, lifting me and slamming me back down on him. “Yes,” he growled as my hips began to move in a frantic pace that even I couldn’t control. I was so close, and he filled me deliciously.
“Oh, yes, Jackson!” I fell against his chest, my mouth to his ear. “I love you, Jackson,” I whispered as he thrust up into me and then I let go. I flew apart into a billion tiny pieces, crying out as tremors wracked my body. “Jackson.”
He kept thrusting, hard and fast, his gaze locked onto mine as he exploded into me. “Ah, Becca!” He looked so gorgeous in that moment. His brow furrowed, face twisted in a dark scowl but his mouth wore just a hint of a smile as pleasure swamped his body. “Becca,” he said with a sexy, lazy grin. His grip suddenly tightened on me. “Now I have you right where I want you.”
Which meant we had to talk.
Dammit.
Jackson
Maybe it made me a bastard, but I really enjoyed watching Becca squirm. It was clear that my focus on the future had left her confused about my intentions. “And where is that, exactly?”
I gripped her hips when she began to squirm, groaning as she tightened around me, reminding us both we were still joined. “Right here. My captive.”
She squirmed again and again, letting out a low moan as she realized she was trapped. “Can we not do this, Jackson? Please?”
“We have to.” Everything was in place and I’d come to her tonight to lay it all out for her. “Just listen. Can you do that for me, beautiful Becca? Just listen?”
Her gray eyes were filled with so much emotion—hurt and wariness, longing and love—but fear darkened them further. She didn’t want to hear it, at least she thought she didn’t, but I was persistent. “Okay, fine. I’ll listen.”
“Good.” I pressed a kiss to her forehead and relaxed my grip on her, letting my fingertips graze along her still overheated skin. “And thank you.”
“Sure, but don’t you think we could use a little distance for this conversation?” Her squirming did nothing to help keep me focused on our talk.
“No. I think we need to be just like this.” Her body relaxed until we were joined too deep to ever separate. “Remember a few weeks ago when I asked you to move to Los Angeles with me?”
“Yes, I recall. But it’s just-,”
“No. Hush. I’m talking, remember? You are just listening.” Her gaze narrowed and she looked adorable and sexy at the same time. “Well I want you to know that I understand. And that I love you. Deeply and irrevocably. Permanently.”
“Jackson, you don’t-,”
“Nope. Still talking,” I told her with a smile, laughing outright when she glared at me again and pinched my side. “Where was I?”
“Deeply and irrevocably,” she said with an affectionate eye roll.
“Right. Well I do, you know.” I looked at her, so worried that I would break her heart and so completely unaware that she held mine in her delicate hands. “And I understand your loyalty to your cousin, more importantly though, I respect it, Becca.”
“Thank you, Jackson.”
“I’m not going to push you to leave, but sometime down the line I will encourage you to find out what makes you shine. Right now, I want you to come with me.”
“What? You say all that, refuse to let me up and now you want me to go somewhere with you?” She wiggled off my lap, letting out a low moan as our bodies separated. “Jackson Steele, you are un-freakin’-believable!”
“Thanks sweetheart, you’re pretty unbelievable too. Probably why I love you.” I stood and kissed her mouth, pulling a frustrated groan from her that made me laugh. “Let’s go, babe.”
She grunted but disappeared down the hall and reappeared ten minutes later looking beautiful in jeans that sculpted her long shapely legs and a pink t-shirt that highlighted her magnificent breasts. She tossed a sweater on over the tee and shoved her feet into matching pink sneakers. “Ready.”
“You’re gorgeous.”
“Don’t sweet talk me yet.” She frowned but her lips twitched with a reluctant smile.
I wove our fingers together and held onto her as she locked the door and stayed by my side as we descended in the elevator. The ride was silent but it didn’t feel tense, just contemplative. There was a lot riding on this trip, and since I’d already set the wheels in motion, I refused to fail tonight.
The trip didn’t take long, less than fifteen minutes because all of my plans had been put in place with Becca in mind. She was the center of it all. None of it worked without my sweet Becca. “We’re here,” I told her and jumped out, running around to open her door for her.
“Where is this?” She looked up at the stone skyscraper, mouth slightly ajar at the seemingly never ending building. It was the perfect picture of old school New York wealth, with brass and copper embellishments, requisite eagles and gargoyles perched on ledges as far as the eye could see. “It’s beautiful.”
“And this is just the outside. Wait until you see the inside,” I told her, excitement rising in my voice. But I wanted to wait until we were upstairs in private to tell her everything. Hand in hand, we went inside where we were greeted by one of the three doormen who worked the building. “Harrison, good to see you again.”
“You too, sir. Ma’am.”
We went up in the elevator that looked weirdly out of place with its modern upgrades, a digital display and card reader for the top three units. I slid the sleek silver card through the reader and the car began to move quickly. Soon, we walked straight into the bright, cavernous unit. “This is home.”
Her big gray eyes held a million questions, lush mouth slightly parted in awe. And then confusion. “You bought a place in the city?”
“I did. It would be pretty strange to stay at my place in L.A. with my business moving here.” I let those words sink in because she still looked confused. “And I love your place, loved falling asleep with you in my arms. But your place is too small for both of us.”
Becca nodded, blond ponytail bobbing up and down as she tried to extricate herself from m
y arms. “I understand, Jackson.”
“No, I don’t think you do. But, you will.” I grabbed her hand and we walked into the sunny living room, beautifully lit thanks to the wall of floor to ceiling windows. “I bought this place, Becca, because I wanted to show you that my words were more than just words.” Pulling her to the window, I stood behind Becca with my arms wrapped around her, barely able to see the cars below from this height. “It took some time, but everything is in the works.”
She turned to face me. “What is, Jackson? You’re being awfully cryptic and it’s making me damned anxious.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at her stubbornness. “This place, I bought it for us to live in. Together.”
She gasped but just like that, the wariness disappeared replaced by the kind of love so stunning, so pure and beautiful it called forth every loving and protective instinct within me. “Jackson, you did?”
I nodded. “Of course. I told you I love you, beautiful Becca. What did you think I would do?”
“You’ve been acting so damn strange, I had no clue! You moved your whole company to New York?”
“Well not all of it. Sebastian is going to be my eyes and ears for productions that need to go down in Hollywood and I will have to fly back and forth once in a while. But what can be here, is in the process of moving.” She was so quiet, her face oddly expressionless and I didn’t know what to make of it. “Becca?”
She blinked several times, like she was trying to refocus. “Sorry. Jackson,” she sighed. “You did all this for me? For us?”
“Silly girl. I love you and there isn’t a damn thing I wouldn’t do for you, including moving to New York so we could be together.”
“But…aren’t you worried about making such a big move when we haven’t been together all that long?”
I gathered her hands in mine, pressing a kiss dead center on each palm. “Hell yeah. I’m terrified, but not of moving. I’ve lived all over and I can adjust, but what I can’t do, beautiful Becca, is live without you.”
“You mean that, Jackson? For real?”
I nodded and leaned in to get just a taste of her plump mouth. “I mean it. I’ve spent the past week working really hard, and in secret, to get everything set up for the move. I needed you to see that it was more than empty words. I’ve never been in love before, Becca, but I know you, and I knew you needed to see proof of my intentions.”
Finally, she smiled. That bright, beaming smile that pulled me right in and made me want to do whatever it took to see that smile again. “You were right, Jackson. And though this is totally over the top big, I love it because it’s the only way my crazy man does things.” A tear slipped down her cheek and she quickly swiped it away.
“Your man, huh? I like the sound of that.”
“Well, what would you call it when you pick up your whole life and move it across the country for a girl?” Arms crossed, she’d replaced her confused and worried look with a sassy one.
“Not just a girl, Becca. The girl.” I let out a chuckle at the way her skin flushed so prettily. “And, I would call it love.”
She grinned and pressed up on her toes, laying a kiss on me that I felt all the way down to my soul. It was hot and sweet, full of love and fire. “You always say the right thing, Jackson.”
It wasn’t always the case, though. I knew I was what most people considered charming, but with Becca none of it was an act. I just said what came naturally because I meant it. “I do, don’t I?”
She snorted. “Modest too,” she added with a laugh.
“The most modest man to ever walk the earth. Handsomest too.”
She laughed again and the sound washed over me, like both a warm blanket and a fire stoking between my legs as desire ratcheted up within me. “And the most ridiculous. And the sweetest.”
“All that,” I told her, motioning with one hand for her to keep complimenting me while the other wrapped around her waist to keep her close.
“And the man I am madly in love with.”
I stole another kiss, making it hard and fast until my head spun and her nails dug into my arms. “Don’t you feel silly now, trying to avoid this talk?” I laughed at the beet red flush of her skin, holding her close when she buried her face in my chest.
“Yeah, I do. Is that what you want to hear?”
I nodded. “I love you, Becca. That means you’re stuck with me.”
“Promise?”
“Forever.” She let out a soft, sexy sigh, leaning into me in a way that told me she would lean on me when she needed to. “And if I can swing it, even longer.”
Epilogue
Becca ~ One year later
“Okay, you were right.” Flat on my back and staring up at the gothic style lighting fixture and ceiling fan, I sucked in several deep breaths to calm myself down. Even after a year sex with Jackson had only gotten better.
The man in question leaned up on one arm, looking down at me with a much too smug and satisfied smile. “I’m sorry, say that again?”
I rolled my eyes. “You were right. It does keep getting better.”
In a move so tender, so gentle and so damn erotic, he dropped kisses on my forehead, my nose and my mouth. “And I heard married men never hear those words,” he joked, kissing the tips of both my nipples until I shivered before his lips trailed down to land on my slightly swollen belly. “I must be the luckiest guy on the planet.”
“Didn’t you say the same thing when you accepted your Golden Globe? And the Academy Award?” That’s right, the script he’d had me read had been an even bigger success than anyone could have imagined. The movie had been both a blockbuster and an awards show darling, garnering him several best actor awards and the big one, best film.
“I did, but I said that at the Globes because I’d just gotten you to agree to be my wife.” His words were sincere, despite the slight quirk of his lips.
“As if there was ever any possibility I’d say no. I’m yours, Jackson. I think I have been since you stole my parking spot.”
He flashed a grin at the memory because, boy did he love that story. He’d told everyone in the Bahamas how we’d met, whether they asked or not. “I still can’t believe my sweet, loving wife would ever throw coffee at a beautiful piece of machinery that way,” he tsked, giving me his best admonishing smile.
“Be glad it wasn’t milkshake.”
He laughed again, pulling me close to nuzzle his face in my neck and let his hands grip my growing belly. “Please tell me you’re happy about the baby.”
I looked up at him, confused. “I am over the moon about our baby. You are going to be the best dad ever. I mean, sure you’ll go crazy for birthdays and holidays and probably every day in between, but you’ll be patient and supportive and kind.”
“And in exactly,” he glanced at the digital clock on the nightstand for effect, “six months and four days, you’ll become the best mother a kid could hope for.”
A tear slid from my eye and I laughed. “Damn hormones. See what you’ve done to me?”
“Me? You’re the one who can’t get enough of me. If you hadn’t been pregnant when we got here, you definitely would be now. My little hellcat.” He kissed me behind the ear and I shivered. “Best vacation ever?”
“Best honeymoon ever,” I told him because though we’d just planned this as a vacation for both of us after the busy awards season for him and taking on more responsibilities for Eric, we both needed it. But after landing in the Bahamas, the clear blue water, the warm sunny days and long, languid nights, I knew this was the perfect place to drop the news the doctor had confirmed the day before we left New York.
“You think this is our honeymoon?” He asked incredulously, smacking his lips together in a ‘get it together’ sound. “Honey have you learned nothing about me this past year? This was a little vacation, a tiny little couple’s trip that turned into a nonstop baby celebration.”
“And we got married,” I reminded him of our impromptu beachside ceremony.
It had been beautiful and intimate. A sunset ceremony that had brought tears to both our eyes.
“Are you upset you didn’t get a big white wedding?”
I frowned. “Are you kidding? I love you and I wanted to be your wife, but having to dodge all those paps had me seriously reconsidering.” The stunned look on his handsome, tanned face was priceless and I couldn’t help but laugh. “This was much better. Just us.”
“I agree. You looked so beautiful in that soft white dress. I’m glad we got a few photos.”
That word made me groan. “Now I’ll have to cancel everything when we get back,” I reminded him, because we’d spent the past six months planning a wedding fit for Hollywood royalty, which Jackson was.
“I’ll have my assistant cancel everything but the reception. A big party to tell the world you finally made an honest man out of me, that should do it, right?”
“Works for me,” I said against his lips, stopping the conversation I didn’t want to have about these big events I endured because I loved Jackson and they were required for his work. “Now, let’s spend our last few hours in the Bahamas the right way.”
He groaned and rolled us over until I was on top of him. “Love me, Mrs. Steele.”
I licked my lips at the sexy image he presented, all smiles and heated looks. “Always and forever.”
“Damn, Becca, your skin is glowing!” Jenn wrapped me in a hug, stiffening when she felt the telltale bump hiding behind the peach tunic I wore over a pair of jeans. “I would say the Bahamas must have agreed with you, but I think it’s more.” She eyed me carefully, trying to get all my secrets.
Daddies & Nannies: A Contemporary Romance Boxset Page 46