All he had to do now was reach out and pull her into his arms, and he just couldn’t help himself. He wanted her, needed her, and the thought of her going into that MRI machine on Monday morning was driving him ten kinds of crazy. The thought of what they might find…
He slipped his hands around her waist, drawing her up against him. She felt so warm and vital in his arms. He didn’t even know what he was doing until his lips were on hers. With a soft moan, her hands went around his neck, and she was kissing him back.
She tasted sweet, like whatever fruity punch she’d been drinking at the party. She nipped at his lower lip, and his dick surged against his jeans. Then his tongue was in her mouth, stroking hers, and his whole body was burning up for her. He was on fire in a way he hadn’t been in years, maybe not since he’d given her up back in high school.
She pressed closer, all the warm, soft parts of her pressed up against all the hard parts of him.Heaven.She felt like heaven in his arms. All those long, cold nights in the desert…he’d been so disconnected from the rest of the world. A lot of the guys turned to porn, but for Mark, it had always been Jess.
His fantasy woman. But his fantasies didn’t hold a candle to the real thing. Holding Jess in his arms, kissing her, he felt alive in a way he hadn’t in a long damn time.
“Mark.” Her breath whispered across his neck, driving a bolt of red-hot need straight to his dick.
He tightened his arms around her, wishing like hell he could touch more of her, but in that dress, all her best parts were completely off limits. Didn’t stop him from running his palms over her ass, so frustratingly covered in all that fabric and lace, and giving it a firm squeeze.
In response, Jess went up on her tiptoes, pressing her hips against his. They kissed until he’d all but forgotten where they were, until nothing existed but Jess, her hot, eager mouth and her body fitted against his like a second skin.
Finally, she lifted her head and gave him a dazed smile. “That was…wow.”
He had a feeling it had a lot to do with the magic they created every time they touched.
She gave him a funny look. “You have a little, um…my makeup is all over your face.”
That would make sense because her makeup was a mess. “Shit, Jess…I’m sorry.”
But she was laughing. “It’s okay. It was totally worth it.”
And now he was smiling too. Hell, yeah, it had been worth it. Kissing Jess was like fuel for his body. It filled him up and turned him on, gave him an energy and a vitality he didn’t feel any other time.
She reached up and dabbed at his cheeks, presumably cleaning up some of the makeup that had rubbed off on him. “Got most of it.”
“Yours is all messed up.” He rubbed her cheek, smoothing out the whisker marks in her white makeup. Around her mouth, it was almost completely gone. It added to the ghoulish effect of her outfit but also made it painfully clear what they’d been doing out here in the woods.
“Nicole’s makeup kit is in the car. If we can sneak over there without being seen, you can fix it for me.”
“Uh.” He had no fuckin’ clue how to fix her makeup.
“Just wing it. You’ll be fine.”
He wasn’t so sure about her makeup, but if there was one thing he was good at, it was recon work. Keeping to the shadowy back regions of the spa grounds, he ushered Jess into the parking lot through the woods without being seen. She grabbed a black bag out of the backseat of her sister’s car and rummaged through it, coming up with a white tube, which she handed to him.
“Something tells me you’re going to regret this.” He took the tube and squirted a small amount of the stuff onto his fingers. Hesitantly, he rubbed some of the white cream onto her skin. Okay, that didn’t look half bad. He smoothed makeup over all the areas he’d messed up while he’d been kissing her, trying not to think about the feel of her warm, soft skin beneath his fingers and how it made him want to kiss her again.
When he’d finished, she pulled out a pocket-sized mirror and inspected her reflection. “Not bad.” Then she opened a tube of pink lipstick and applied it to her lips.
When she turned to smile at him, she looked almost the same as she had before he’d kissed the daylights out of her back in the woods.Well, I’ll be damned.
“Let’s go get some food,” she said. “I’m starving.”
He nodded. Despite the sandwich he’d eaten earlier, he was hungry too. And the thought of spending more time with Jess made even the prospect of going back to the party sound bearable. He followed her across the patio, heading for the tables of food against the back wall.
He’d just zeroed in on a pile of sandwiches when he saw her, the blond woman from the deli. The woman whose presence made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end every time he laid eyes on her because he was more certain than ever that he was looking at the woman who’d given birth to him.
The woman who’d walked away and abandoned him when he was six years old.
But this time, it was his turn to walk away.
