“Please, Jackson. Please.” Leah repeated the litany over and over.
His eyes were a little wild and furnace-hot when he surged upright, his fingers unsteady as he popped the button and undid the zipper on her shorts. Jackson stripped both layers off together,his patience gone, his control at a bare minimum. Sliding them down her legs and away, he returned immediately to touch the tattoo he’d uncovered on her hip—a tiny black raven in flight, wings outstretched.
He traced the bird with his finger and turned warm eyes to her face. “I didn’t know you had a tattoo.”
“You didn’t ask.”
“It’s perfect.” He leaned forward, pressing a kiss over the ink on her hip.
“I drew it myself.”
Leah quivered at the touch of his lips, so close to where her desire was spiraling out of control. The heat built faster and faster as his hand moved from her thigh to brush her stomach and the neat triangle of hair below. When Jackson’s fingers slid between her legs, a moment of sudden shyness washed over her. She turned her head on the pillow. He drew one long, steady stroke through the slickness and she gasped; he bit off a curse.
“You are so beautiful, Leah. Spread out like this, you blow my mind.”
He leaned forward again. A reflexive ripple gripped the muscles in her stomach. She felt his breath before he touched her, all conscious reflection scudding away like clouds in a blustery sky. Jackson’s tongue left sparks fizzing and flashing in its wake. It was impossible to focus on anything other than the path he drew between her thighs. She twisted and quivered, begging him, praising him. His grip grew firm on her hips, holding her in place, inflaming her more. On the upsweep, his tongue bathed her clit in the softest warmth imaginable. When he drew backward, the light stubble on his jaw drove her insane. Pleasure, and perfect, prickly pain. It was unbearable. She burned, desperate for release. Half out of her mind, she lasted only until he slid two fingers into her silky depths, stretching her wide around him. Leah’s orgasm rippedthrough her body like a seismic wave, turning her blood to lava as she shook from the force of it.
A visceral hum of satisfaction and tortured desire vibrated in Jackson’s throat. His biceps bunched, rock-hard and taut when he pulled himself upward. His erection jutted, still confined by his clothes, bruising the tender curve of her thighs. Her pulse hammering, Leah’s hands roamed restlessly from his hair to his shoulders to the tense muscles of his bulky arms, traveling greedily downward. They found the waistband of Jackson’s shorts and she tugged at the button fly.
“Off!”
He moved fast, rolling to one side to strip naked, baring every inch of his physique to her in a few swift maneuvers. Leah ran hungry eyes over his body, marveling at the contrast between his rigid form and her own. Jackson held her gaze as he gripped his cock and gave it one firm stroke, the endless black of his pupils dominating his blue irises. He looked fierce. He looked desperate. He looked glorious.
“Shit. My wallet. It’s downstairs on the table.” A pained grimace crossed his face as he bent to scoop up his t-shirt again. “I think I have a condom—”
“I’m on the pill.” Leah grabbed at his top, tugging it gently from his hands. Downstairs was too far away. “I haven’t slept with anyone since Matt.”
Relief flared in Jackson’s eyes. “It’s been a while for me, too, and I’ve always used protection. If you’re sure—”
“I’m sure. I need you now. Like this.”
He took a heavy, juddering breath and crawled onto the bed, covering her body with his. She spread her legs in invitation. The brush of his skin a sinful seduction, his weight a primal thrill. Whispering flattering, adoring, dirty words into her ear, Jackson settled between her thighs, linking his fingers through hers on the mattress either side of her head. His heart thundered against her ribcage. There was a moment of painful anticipation as he droppedhis head to kiss her and kiss her again. Then, with a steady surge that ripped a groan from his throat and a gasp from hers, Jackson pushed inside until he filled her completely.
“Oh God, yes. Fuck. That’s... That is... so hot, so good.” His lips moved against her temple, his voice strangled. “I can feel every ripple of you.”
Leah was beyond words. Jackson’s hips rolled within the cradle of hers, the friction setting off fireworks everywhere they touched. His size, his heat, his bulk, fanned the flames still licking across her skin, and she was in heaven. A turn of her head had her mouth pressed to the tight, salty cords of his neck. She tasted him and he shuddered. She bit him lightly and he cursed. She wanted to explore him everywhere, see all of him, touch every inch, but this was too damn good. Being surrounded by Jackson felt like lifting her hands and face to a summer storm and letting the wild weather consume her.
His words were hoarse, unintelligible. When she gripped him tightly with her heels behind his thighs, he shook inside the circle of her legs and his control shattered. Her heart full, her body fuller, Leah dragged him even closer. She reveled in the way Jackson’s coordination deserted him as he fell, jaw tight, body rigid, into the same maelstrom of frenzied bliss that swallowed her, too. Her second orgasm built on the first, her every nerve-ending hypersensitive, sweeping her away on an uncontrollable wash of pleasure. Her name was on his lips as he came.
Their shuddering breaths echoed through the bedroom. Leah closed her eyes and fought to gather her scattered senses. The dizzying zipline from Esther’s funeral to here, through attraction, irritation, potential unavailability, and resentment, had been a wild ride. From the first touch of his lips on hers, she’d suspected sex with Jackson would surpass any of her previous experiences. It had done all that and more. It had blown her inside out, like washing on a clothesline hit by the force of nature. Dazzlingly, terrifyingly life-changing.
Chapter 28
Jackson
Fearing she couldn’t breathe, he rolled to one side, pulling Leah with him until she lay sprawled like a starfish across his chest. An oversensitive shiver shot through him as skin moved against skin. He hadn’t come that hard in living memory. His nerve endings were still jumping from the release.
“That was fun.” She gave a winded laugh.
“Fun?” Jackson flicked her ear. “Is that the best you can do?”
His hand drifted rhythmically over her curves; he couldn’t stop touching her.
Leah pressed a kiss to his jaw. “It’s just as well you held out for so long, with your stomping and your glaring, or we’d have run ourselves ragged by now. We’d be husks of our former selves.”
His fingers tightened on the contour of her thigh. “There’s still time, Raven.”
Her hair spread, oil-slick black, over the white sheets, over him. Her outline monochrome in the moonlight. Impossibly, his cock twitched and he wanted her again. Jackson drew the bedspread up over them both and pulled her closer to his chest. As close as he could.
