We’d kissed before with far more passion, but this was different somehow. Jack was coming in from a road trip and at my house and we hadn’t seen each other since we agreed todo this. It felt inappropriate to jump his bones, no matter how much that small smooch made my stomach flutter. In a way, it was like he was a stranger all over again, even though I’d picked up my wedding dress to wear with him on Friday.
We’d been so intensely connected before he left, and those few days apart felt like plunging into a cold pool. When we were together, everything made sense, but apart? What the hell had I been thinking?
It hadn’t even been a week since I got fired, had an allergic reaction, got hospitalized, and got engaged to the man in front of me.
He didn’t seem as petrified as I felt, but he did look nervous. He chuckled before his eyes flicked between us, down to my feet. “Cool shoes.”
“Thanks. My house Birks. My hips protest if I go barefoot or in something without superior arch support.”
“No, I love it. Very sexy. Very practical. Socks and sandals.”
“Maybe I’ll get you a pair,” I said, my thumb tracing his collar.
“Yeah? You think I need some?” Jack rasped. His tone shift told me we were absolutely not talking about German orthopedic footwear. My chest heaved and his tongue darted over his lower lip.
Okay, yeah. There was the attraction again. The spark.
A flash fantasy rattled through my brain of him slamming me against the wall behind me, crushing my body with his weight, grazing my neck with his lips and stubble.
He must have had a similar thought because his hand grasped the back of my neck and pulled me up to him right as I ratcheted my arm tighter around his neck.
Thiswas the kiss I’d been looking for. His hand splayed over my lower back, drawing me up into him, but I backed into the wall. He groaned as we slammed against it but carried on, histeeth dragging on my lips, his tongue gliding against mine, and I had the fleeting thought that if I ever wanted to devour someone, it would be him.
He won’t love you.
The thought brought my hands on his chest and pushed him back, both of us panting and his hardness starting to press into my stomach. “I should finish packing,” I breathed.
He shook his head, his swollen lips hanging open. “What?”
“Let me out, please.”
Jack put his hands up and backed away from me. I scurried past him, busying myself with packing the kitchen drawers again. Jack stopped in the powder room in the hallway, then his heavy footsteps followed me into the kitchen.
He let out a little laugh. “Mara, stop it. I hired movers. You’re going to hurt yourself.”
I was bent over a box, clutching my back as I stood up. “I just want to make sure they pack it right.”
“They’re literally professionals,” Jack said, stepping to my side and pressing his fist into the spot I clutched on my lower back.
“Oh, fuck,” I sighed, leaning my forearms against the counter and pitching forward so he could dig in deeper. “Yes, shit, right there.”
“Keep moaning like that and we won’t be able to stay chaste until our wedding night,” he teased.
I smirked at him over my shoulder. “Yeah, what are we doing about that?”
“Having a wedding night?”
I glared at him. “And what does that mean to you—ah, fuck, yes, more,” I moaned.
“It means I’ll have training in the morning, and in the afternoon, we’ll go to the courthouse and say ‘I do.’”
“And then?” I pushed him on.
“Hold on,” he said, repositioning himself behind me. “Grab the sink. Use it for leverage. I’m going to pull your hips back.”
His fingertips hooked onto the insides of my hip bones while I held the sink.
“Fuck, Jackie baby, it feels like I’m gonna—” I breathed heavily, then panted as I flexed a muscle in my ass and popped my back.
