40
Danielle
“It’s not much,”Jack told me over his shoulder after he opened the door and turned on the lights. “But I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed this place. I haven’t been here …” He trailed off before throwing his keys onto his tiny kitchen table. “The last time I was here was … when I left for my last shift.” He exhaled a long breath as his eyes darted around the small space. “Is it weird to get a little freaked out to be back here?”
“No, it’s not. At all. That was a pretty big trauma you went through. The last time you were here was—”
“The end of my old life,” he scoffed and shook his head. “I’ll probably make an ass of myself if I ever set foot in the firehouse, again, if I’m this uneasy only thinking about it.”
“You underestimate yourself a lot.” I closed the tight distance between us and cupped his neck. “Give yourself some time. You have a few more months until you have to think about that. And maybe I’m not your therapist anymore, but I still intend to push you because I know you can do it.”
A little smile curved Jack’s lips before he kissed my forehead. “If you say so, then it must be true. Give me a second to change, and we’ll head out.”
“Why do you have to change?” My hand slid down the soft cotton of Jack’s T-shirt.
“I wanted to take you somewhere nice, and a T-shirt and sweat shorts aren’t what you’d call nice. Especially whenyoulook like that.”
My eyes rolled as I tried to ignore the heat creeping up on my cheeks. Jack’s molten gaze made me squirm. “It’s a sundress, not a ball gown. You look fine.” My fingers slipped inside the waistband of his gray sweat shorts. “We just ate at your parents’ house. Why do we have to go anywhere. Can’t we just stay here?”
“I promised you a real date. One that didn’t involve unwrapping our food or exact change. Coffee, a bar, we can go somewhere. Give me a second—”
I attacked his lips, licking my way into his mouth and groaning when his tongue collided with mine. Jack’s hands glided down my back and cupped my ass before venturing lower and fisting the material at the hem of my dress.
“I’ll ask you again, and this time, how about you understand what I mean?” I murmured against his mouth.
“You’re sure?” he asked, half-pleading and dipped his head to meet my gaze. “It’s a big day.” He grinned and drifted his hand down my cheek. “I don’t want to push—”
I stepped back and lifted my dress over my head, my heart hammering against my rib cage so hard I thought it would burst out of my chest. This hadn’t been my intention for tonight; at least, not consciously. But after years of denying what I wanted because I didn’t feel I was good enough, I wanted to grab my new life with both hands and not waste another second holding back.
“Wow,” he whispered with so much reverence, my eyes clouded. “You’re so … I can’t …”
“Did I render you speechless, Taylor?” I slid my arms around his neck, hoping he wouldn’t notice my hands shaking.
“You’re killing me.” His fingers threaded in my hair before twisting around a fistful. “In the best possible way.” He kissed me long and deep and slow. So slow my nails sank into his back at the torture. Jack laughed against my lips as he walked me backward down the short hall toward his bedroom.
“I’m not used to having all this room,” he laughed when I fell back on the bed. He peeled his shirt off and I gasped before I could help it. My damp palms drifted over his broad chest and down the sinew of his arms. As amazing as he looked in a T-shirt stretched across his muscular torso, I wasn’t prepared for how gorgeous he was without one.
“Like what you see?” He nipped at my bottom lip before trailing his mouth down my neck and over my collarbone. My hips bucked off the bed as the tip of his tongue ran over the swells of my breasts. After I rushed out of work, I took extra time with everything before I met Jack tonight. I fretted over every detail: my clothes, my hair, even tearing through my lingerie drawer in an attempt to find something sexy enough. All the while, denying to myself I didn’t intend to be here but hoping like hell we would be. There was no closet door, no chance of interruption, only Jack and me. It excited me as much as it terrified me, but there was no turning back now.
Jack’s lips grazed my shoulder as he pulled down my bra strap, sucking my nipple into his mouth when I fell out of the cup. I had no words, only whimpers as he brought me closer and closer to the edge.
“Beautiful,” he whispered against my stomach before his mouth inched lower. I shivered at the sexy curl of his lips when he hooked my leg over his shoulder.
“Keep your leg here, hold it steady.” He’d repeated my words during so many therapy sessions, smirking as he kissed across my thigh. His thumb grazed over my slit and around the swollen bundle of nerves that pulsed with its own heartbeat. A bead of sweat dripped down my temple as my chest heaved. I cried out when his lips found my core, lapping, kissing, sucking the life out of me and into me. I grabbed the back of his head, still unable to speak. My legs flailed back and forth until Jack grabbed my hips and held me tightly in place.
“So close,” I breathed out with the little air I still had in my lungs as Jack’s moans vibrated between my legs, the control he’d had moments ago now gone along with mine. He slid two fingers deep inside, and I came hard on a scream. I’d never had an orgasm I could feel in my toes before. The entire lower half of my body shook until my climax subsided.
Jack climbed up my body, his lips and chin soaked with me, and met my gaze with pained, hooded eyes.
“I … don’t have anything here. Last time I was here, I was with—I didn’t need …”
I grabbed the back of his neck, pulling his lips back to mine. Swallowing his moans and tasting myself on his tongue had me aroused all over again.
“My purse is on your table. There’s a package of condoms in there.”
He pulled back and squinted at me in disbelief.
“Just in case.” I let out a nervous laugh.
