And he was still entertaining ideas of putting Bear in the car if she interfered again.
Jess stood and pressed a quick kiss to his lips before picking up her phone. “So what do you like on your pizza?”
“Anything.”
“Okay then.” She tapped away on her phone for a few minutes and then set it down. “Done.” She stepped back into his arms. “Now where were we?”
“Here.” He sank his hands into her back pockets, drawing her up against him as he bent his head to nibble her neck, reversing their earlier position.
“That’s right,” she whispered. A shiver rippled through her as he traced his tongue over the pulse point in her neck.
He was here. Bear was here. She’d ordered a pizza. And unless she kicked him out later, he was going to do things right this time, make love to her and stick around, spend the whole night if she’d have him. Because tonight, there was no place else he’d rather be.
***
Mark woke sometime before dawn, disoriented for a moment in the semi-darkness. A purple glow illuminated the room, and purplish shadows swirled on the wall. The familiar scent of incense reminded him where he was. Jess lay sprawled on her stomach on the other side of the bed.
They’d spent only one full night together before tonight. She’d told her parents she was going to a sleepover, and he’d snuck out of his foster home. They’d driven out of town and camped on a blanket under the stars. The memory of that night had gotten him through a lot of tough times in the years since.
He rose up on one elbow to spot the source of the bizarre purple shadows on the wall. Her lava lamp. Of course. He felt a smile tug at his lips. Not that he’d gotten to spend much time in her bedroom back in high school—her parents had forbidden them from shutting the door, which had been a smart move on their part, in retrospect—but she’d had one back then too. Blue, if he remembered correctly. It was oddly hypnotizing to lie there, watching the blobs of wax in the lamp float to the top and then sink slowly back toward the light.
Jess’s bedroom was a peaceful place with the incense and the lava lamp. Or maybe it was just that both of those things reminded him of her, and she’d always been his source of peace.
He rolled over, intending to slip out of bed and go to the bathroom, when he encountered another warm body in the bed on his other side.
Bear.
The damn dog had crawled in bed with them after they’d fallen asleep. He nudged her with his foot, and she lifted her head, fixing him with a wide-eyed, innocent stare, daring him to give her the boot. But her puppy eyes were no match for him. He gave her another nudge, and this time she hopped down, slinking off to the blanket Jess had put down for her in the corner.
He got up, used the bathroom, and then walked to the kitchen for a glass of water. This happened to him a lot in the middle of the night. He’d get these random bouts of wakefulness. No doubt they were the result of his years in the military, too many shifts worked at odd hours. Too many sleepless nights.
He climbed silently back into bed, annoyed to find Bear curled up in a furry ball by Jess’s feet. He shooed her off again.
“Let her stay,” Jess mumbled, rolling toward him.
“Didn’t mean to wake you.”
“I’m a light sleeper.” She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a kiss. “Couldn’t sleep?”
“Happens sometimes.”
“I know a cure.”
“Oh yeah. What’s that?”
She didn’t answer. Instead, she wrapped her hand around his dick, which hardened in record time beneath her touch. A warm ache pulsed in his groin, and he pulled her closer, kissing her slow and deep.
They kissed as the lava lamp threw swirling shadows onto the ceiling above them, as the friction between their bodies built to scorching. By the time he rolled on a condom and sank inside her, he was so far gone he couldn’t think of anything else. There was nothing but the rhythm of their bodies, the tidal wave of need rising inside him, and Jess.
Beautiful, wonderful Jess.
She cried out beneath him as she found release. He thrust again, his whole body shaking as he exploded inside her. He’d never felt more alive than he did at that moment. And then, as she’d predicted, he closed his eyes and slept.
Deep. Hard. Dreamless.
When he woke the next time, sunlight streamed through the windows. Jess was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Bear lay sprawled across the bed beside him, her head on Jess’s pillow.Jesus.What time was it? How had he not heard Jess get out of bed?
The answer to the first question, as he squinted at the clock beside the bed, was five past eight. And as for the second, he had no explanation other than that Jess and her wonderfully peaceful bedroom had worked some kind of voodoo on him because he hadn’t slept past eight in…well, he couldn’t remember how many years.
