Jes was tempted to deny it, but that was difficult to do when it was true…at least to some degree. There was more to it than that though, and for some crazy reason, she wanted Jake to understand.
“I guess part of me was nervous about working with you, Harley, and Caleb, especially since I thought a werewolf had killed Jaime and Neal.” She gave him a small half smile. “But if we’re being honest, that wasn’t the only reason.”
Jake lifted a brow. “What was the other reason?”
She relaxed against him until her upper body was practically draped across his broad chest, her face close to his. “After Rome, I mostly worked on my own, only working with other agents when I absolutely had to. Losing my CIA team was hard, and I didn’t want to go through that again. I know it’s stupid, but when it happened again here, I thought that maybe I was cursed or something. I didn’t want what happened to Jaime and Neal to happen to you guys. Like I said, it’s stupid. All I can say is that I’m sorry.”
Jake’s arms slipped around her, pulling her tighter to his chest. This close, she could feel the warmth of his breath on her lips.
“It’s not stupid and you don’t have to apologize,” he said huskily, his words vibrating through her whole body as he spoke. “As the only member of my SEAL team to make it off that mountain in Afghanistan, I understand what it’s like to lose people you’ve fought alongside and care about. But I know for a fact that what happened in Rome and here in London isn’t your fault. All you did was survive, and that’s never something you have to apologize for.”
Closing her eyes, she leaned forward until her forehead was resting against his, not sure why she was doing it, but knowing it felt right.
“But what if it happens again?” she whispered. “What if these creatures we fought tonight hurt you and everyone else?”
“They won’t,” he said firmly, his lips brushing hers. “We won’t let it.”
Jes stopped thinking about how foolish it was to be doing this and instead simply kissed him back. She’d kissed men before, of course, but it had never felt like this. She felt like she wanted to melt into Jake’s arms and spend the rest of her life there.
His tongue teased against her lips until she opened up to grant him entry. He tasted so damn good that her tongue couldn’t help chasing after his, reveling in the flavor. Tingles ran all over her body as she heard the low growl rumble through his chest. She liked knowing she could get to him like this.
Jake wrapped his big hands around her hips, dragging her up like she weighed no more than a feather until she was straddling his waist, planting her on top of the bulge in his dress pants. While she enjoyed grinding against his hard-on, Jes couldn’t deny experiencing how strong he was definitely worked for her.
She hadn’t realized she had a thing for strong guys.
Or maybe she simply had a thing for this one strong guy.
Jake kept one hand on her hip, holding her firmly in place, while the other slid up her back and found its way into her long hair. His fingers lightly massaged her scalp, creating a whole new set of tingling shivers across her body before he tightened his grip in her tresses and tugged her head this way and that as he deepened the kiss.
And yeah, the tugging worked for her, too.
The connection she felt with Jake was unreal, so it wasn’t a surprise to feel heat pooling between her legs. She wanted Jake in the worst way right now.
Jes barely realized Jake’s lips had left hers until she felt them wandering over her jaw, leaving a path of fire behind. As his hands found the buttons on her blouse, she thought about locking the door, but when he popped first one, then another, tracing along her collarbone with his tongue at the same time, she decided locking the door would have to wait.
She regretted that decision in the next breath as the door in question abruptly opened. Startled, she threw a look over her shoulder to see Caleb poking his head in.
“Sorry to interrupt, but McKay is on Skype and wants a full debriefing. As in five minutes ago,” Caleb said. “I tried to tell him you were resting, but he insisted.”
Jes steeled herself, waiting for Caleb to say something snarky, but instead he regarded them curiously for a moment, then ducked back into the hallway, closing the door behind him.
She turned around to look at Jake. His dark eyes swirled with heat, and it took everything she had to not kiss him again. Reluctantly pushing herself into a sitting position, she buttoned up her blouse.
“I guess we should go downstairs,” she said, not looking at him.
She wasn’t sure what else to say. Now that the moment had passed, she felt kind of flustered. She shouldn’t have let things get out of control like that.
“I guess we should.”
Swinging his legs off the bed, Jake stood and offered her a hand. Jes took it, letting him tug her to her feet. He didn’t say anything else as he took another shirt out of the wardrobe and shrugged into it. She didn’t, either.
What the hell were either of them supposed to say after what had just happened between them?
Chapter 10
“Where the hell did all these frigging pots and pans come from?” Caleb grumbled, dunking yet another saucepan in the sink filled with soapy water and swirling the sponge around inside it. “They must have multiplied when we weren’t looking because I don’t remember using this many to make dinner.”
Jake chuckled as he finished drying one of the aforementioned pots and stowed it in the cabinet. Caleb was right—no one should need five pots, four frying pans, and three saucepans to make spaghetti and meatballs. Unless you were cooking for a pack of werewolves and used five pounds of ground beef, four boxes of pasta, and four jars of marinara sauce. That wasn’t even counting the three loaves of garlic bread. And unfortunately, while the dishwasher could accommodate the plates and glasses, it wasn’t big enough to fit all the cookware.
