His heart pounded as he listened to her, need pulsing through his vessels in hard, thumping beats. Strong, resilient, tougher than the strongest steel, this woman tore through his defenses and common sense the way nothing else had. “What is it, Aja? What’s the thing that’s made you feel the safest?”
He took the cookie out of her hand and rested it on the nightstand. He spread his thighs and pulled her between them, keeping a firm grip at her waist. She closed her eyes, lost in the sensual rhythm of his touch, leaning into him as she spoke. “You, Jackson. I always feel safe with you.”
Good Lord, she knew the right words to say to pull him over the edge. But he couldn’t let her do this without letting her know what she was getting into. “Aja, I’m not the relationship type. This could go sideways if we both aren’t on the same page. There’s a lot to risk. I can give you today, but tomorrow isn’t on the agenda.”
Panic commingled with anticipation sat in his chest like a large boulder perched precariously at the top of a hill. Any moment, it could tip over, its momentum and heft generating enough power and speed to crush him. She could say no. It was well within her rights, and he would never think to sway her decision for his benefit. But knowing his admission could remove this opportunity to share something this special with her made his heart race a few beats faster than normal.
He wanted this. He wanted the privilege of knowing her body as intimately as he understood his own. If she changed her mind, he’d accept it. But damn if he didn’t want the chance to be with Aja in this bed with nothing separating them.
She widened her smile. “Then we’d better use the time we have. The cover of night is burning, Ranger.”
Why wasn’t he a better man?
The question kept gnawing at him as he pulled Aja down onto the bed with him, lips locked together and hands moving frantically against whichever body part they could reach. If he were a better man, he’d spend more time at home with his family. If he were a better man, he’d have seen through Lana’s lies and stopped her from destroying so many lives, the least of which the one they’d built together. If he were a better man, he wouldn’t be ripping Aja’s clothes off her like some addict chasing his next hit.
No, if Jackson were a better man, he would never have allowed Aja to cross the imaginary line between the professional and the personal. But he wasn’t a better man, and since he’d decided he had a reservation in one of the devil’s hottest dwelling spaces a long time ago, he figured he’d better enjoy whatever pleasure was left to him before he closed his eyes to this earth.
They were both shaking by the time they were naked, and Jackson pulled Aja on top of him. The feel of her heat pressed against his when she straddled him made lust unfurl in his belly, snaking its tentacles up, twisting itself around his insides as he fought himself to keep from thrusting up. That was all it would take—a simple movement of his hips and he could be buried inside her, flesh to flesh with nothing between them.
Tormented with the need to join with her body, he sat up, kissing her, demanding entrance to her mouth. If he couldn’t feel her complete warmth one way, he’d taste it instead. A muted relief spread through his body as his tongue touched hers. She tasted of heat and fire and need, and he feasted on the offering like a starving man uncertain of where his next meal would come from.
He was lost in the feel of her hips rocking back and forth on him, begging for him to answer in kind. He pulled his lips away from her tempting mouth, nibbling at her full bottom lip, promising himself he’d find out what it looked like spread around his girth before the sun rose. He turned them around, switching their positions so she was now beneath him, strewn across the rumpled fabric of bed linens, looking like the perfect mix of beauty and want.
He slid a finger between her wet folds and smiled as her hips chased his touch with each swivel. He gave in and allowed her the prize she sought, letting his finger slip into her entrance. “So wet for me,” he whispered as he watched her close her eyes and fall under the spell of his rhythmic strokes. When he removed his hand from her opening, she mewled an almost anguished sound that made him ache to fulfill her vocalized need. “Sweetie, I’ve got to get a condom, or neither one of us is getting what we want tonight.”
“Hurry” was her only answer. He walked quickly to the chest of drawers against the opposite wall. As he searched through the folds of his wallet, silently despairing he wouldn’t find a condom while simultaneously hoping he wouldn’t, he held his breath. Not having a condom would be the exact thing he needed to give him an excuse to stop and think about why this was all kinds of fucked up. But as his finger grazed the top of the foil packet tucked away behind his billfold, Jackson knew he wouldn’t be engaging in any thoughts that would stop this. He had the means, the motivation, and Aja lying on his bed with her fingers disappearing in and out of her wet pussy as she waited for him, moaned for him to hurry. This was the opportunity he’d been waiting for since their first meeting.
Yeah, he was going to hell with gasoline drawers on, and he didn’t feel the least bit bad about it. At least not in this moment anyway. He crawled back to her, his mouth watering as he watched her fingers disappear again. How he could be both envious and enthralled at the same time was beyond him, but as much as each dip of those digits made fire lick at his skin, the need to be inside her burned through him like hot knives against bared flesh.
“God, woman, are you trying to kill me?”
He stroked himself once, letting out a long hiss. He was so ready. He hadn’t touched her yet and his body was trembling on the edge. It wouldn’t take much for him to lose control. One more stroke and he was certain he could reach release if he sat here between her legs watching her pleasure herself, teasing her way toward her own orgasm.
He could watch her play in her pretty cunt all day. He moaned. It was loud, deep, and long, and he didn’t care if anyone heard it for miles. It was becoming his predicted response to what the old folks would call her sassiness. He called it confidence, though, because that was what it was. She was sure of herself. Sure she belonged in her own skin, certain that the man she was allowing into her space would appreciate her the way she did herself. She was certain life held something for her, and with a little hard work, she’d somehow tap into it. To understand one’s self like that was a gift. One he used to believe he possessed himself. But as of late, as he spent more time with Aja, he wondered if he’d been substituting work competence for life confidence.
There was a difference. It was subtle, but it was still there.
He leaned into the kiss before his subconscious could remind him what a bad idea this was. Yeah, that was actual truth, but it didn’t mean Jackson would attempt to resist this any longer.
His lips covered hers, hard and firm, a display of his intent. He didn’t want her to think their joining was born out of her ability to convince him. He’d wanted Aja since the first moment she’d walked into his office, and her knowing was important enough to him that he devoured her mouth, pouring all his need and desires into that one kiss.
He couldn’t promise her tomorrow. But here and now, he could show her how much her choosing to share herself with him meant. He didn’t take it lightly, and if he were honest, it wasn’t merely about the physical pleasure he knew being with her would bring him. There was something in the way she melted under his touch, the way she moaned, like he was vital to her existence in this moment, that tripped the circuits in his brain and made his desire for her feel more like an essential life element than simply something his baser self wanted to indulge in for a little fun.
He moved down to the curve of her neck, alternating between kissing and biting as he made his journey to her shoulders, then down until his mouth was covering a large brown nipple. He gave it a gentle lick, and she placed an insisting hand on the back of his head, giving it a firm press. “I won’t break, Ranger. Delicate doesn’t really do it for me. I need a man to be deliberate and purposeful in his actions. I’m giving you permission to take what you want.”
He shivered, his arousal cranking up from interested to nearly painful. God, a woman who knew what she wanted—and apparently held no qualms about sharing that with her partner—was so refreshing.
Her decisiveness wasn’t only a quick guide to getting her off. No, it was an aphrodisiac that set Jackson’s blood on fire and made his desire to have Aja squirming beneath him in pleasure burn like kerosene-soaked paper.
“God, woman. I’m doing everything I can to make this last, and you’re pouring gas on the flames by letting slick words fall off your tongue like that.”
Her body stiffened beneath his, drawing his vision to her face. Aja’s eyes were wild with excitement as she took in the sight of him. “Who said anything about making this last, Ranger? Foreplay was downstairs on my couch. I need the main event right now.” Her voice was deep and raw, as if every word was a struggle to produce, and watching her wrestle with the want shining in her bright eyes made his dick so hard, he feared he’d hurt himself.
He crawled up her body, the predator in him slightly disappointed he wouldn’t get to play longer. But when he joined his lips to hers and let his weight sink on top of her, the only thing his body cared about was how soon he’d get to slide his aching flesh inside her.
He broke their kiss, his head a little dizzy with need as he pulled away from her. “Have it your way, darlin’. I had this entire seduction planned. But if hot ’n ready is what you want, I can oblige.”
“It is” was her only answer. “Jackson?” The slow drawl of his name pulled him out of his trance and brought his eyes to her face again.
