Knuckles rapped against the wood a second time. Would he use his key and enter if I didn’t answer? I didn’t think so, butbecause I was weak and couldn’t stop myself from wanting to see him, I opened the door.
“Hey,” he said. “I thought maybe you weren’t home.” He held a plate in his hand. “I made too much and thought I’d see if you wanted some.”
“Some of what?” I asked, my left brow rising involuntarily.
“My dinner,” he responded, the ghost of a grin crossing his face.
So much for not engaging.
My fingers brushed against his as I took the plate. “I didn’t know you cooked.”
“It’s just chicken, vegetables, and sweet potato. Nothing fancy.” He patted his stomach. “Have to keep regimented with what I eat.”
An image of me on my back and Jackson’s head between my legs sprang out of nowhere. Before I made a fool of myself, which wouldn’t be the first time, I set the plate on the counter and removed the plastic wrap. I swiped up a small amount of the sweet potato and sucked it off my finger. “I wasn’t sure what I was going to eat, so thank you.”
Jackson pointed at my mouth. “You have a little something there.” Before I could check myself, he pressed his thumb to the corner of my lower lip. His action caught me off guard, but the second he touched me, all my earlier reasonings disappeared. He didn’t get a chance to pull his hand away before I took his thumb into my mouth, swiping my tongue to catch the sweetness of the potato.
“Sophie.” My name fell from his mouth in the most seductive warning. “You shouldn’t do that.”
I finally released his thumb. “Why? I thought this is what you wanted.”
Seriously, every scrap of reasoning evaded me.
“I did. I do,” he corrected. “Bringing you dinner was only my excuse to come over. I really wanted to apologize for what I said this morning.”
“So, you don’t want to have sex with me?”
“No. I mean yes, I do. It’s just… I’m really trying to do the right thing here, but you’re making it so hard.”
“Am I?” My eyeline dropped to the area below his waistband, my sultry voice sounding foreign to my ears.
I could weigh the pros and cons of getting sexually involved with Jackson all day long, but the truth was, right now, I didn’t care about the cons. All I wanted to do was live in the moment and embrace a sliver of selfishness.
I leaned up on my tiptoes and brushed my lips over his. I’d barely made contact when he gripped my upper arms and pushed me back, mumbling something I couldn’t quite make out. With barely restrained passion, his gaze bore deep into mine, so heated it burned like an inferno.
But I wasn’t a quitter. I wanted him, and I was tired of playing the will-we-won’t-we game. Pressing my mouth to his once more, I released a silent prayer that he’d finally give me what I wanted. What we both wanted.
“What are you doing to me?” he growled against my mouth before pulling back a second time, the rumble of his words fanning the flames burning inside me. What felt like an eternity passed between us, but I wasn’t going to back down, and I hoped he didn’t either.
His stare intensified, promising me everything I didn’t know to ask for. Every breath I took was hijacked by eagerness and hope.
“You want this?” His voice dipped lower as he studied me. But he wouldn’t find a single doubt, not an ounce of hesitation. “You want me?” A flash of something I couldn’t readily identify swirled behind his eyes.
“Yes,” I barely managed to say, too enraptured with the possibilities of what was coming.
“Fuck the consequences, then,” he rushed to say, his words hanging in the air seconds before he slammed his mouth over mine.
The way he kissed me was far from tender and sweet. His passion was greedy, insatiable, and desperate, consuming us both.
My response was visceral. I returned his enthusiasm, sliding my tongue against his, hungry for more. I’d envisioned this moment since the first time I laid eyes on him, even though I was hard-pressed to admit such a fact because of the way our first encounter played out. But there was something about Jackson that called to me, and it went beyond simple desire. I hadn’t been in the right headspace then, but over these past weeks, something inside me shifted. Whether he felt the same, I didn’t know, but for now, I would give in and enjoy the ride.
Fuck the consequences, indeed.
He hoisted me on top of the counter as if I weighed nothing at all, and I wrapped my legs around him, shifting toward the edge so I could press my body to his.
“Do you have protection?” I whispered against his mouth.
He shifted to look at me. “Of course. It’s just not on me.” His hand disappeared down the back of my shorts as he tugged me even closer, grinding his hips into mine. “I have to go next door to get it.” As our lips collided once more, his teeth toyed with my bottom lip, and he glided the tip of his tongue over the sensitive area after he gently bit down. “I don’t want to stop yet.”
