“Shoes off,” he insisted.
Then he set to work at the fastenings of her pants while drowning in the taste of her kiss. As he slid them down her hips, she kicked her tennis shoes aside and wriggled her hips until the denim fell to her ankles and she stood before him in nothing but a tiny pair of white lace panties.
Jesse smiled as he released the messy pile of her brown hair shimmering atop her head. As the waves cascaded around her shoulders, heat settled in his belly. Blood rushed to his cock. Yeah, this woman did it for him, excited him in ways he hadn’t known a woman could. For the first time in his life, he wanted to be a better person—enough to do the hard work to improve himself, not use her for some quick fix to normalcy and improved self-esteem, the way he’d tried with Kimber years ago. He intended to be a better man for Bristol. He intended to keep her beside him, wake up every morning to her smile.
Heavy realizations. But Jesse couldn’t remember a time he’d felt clearer or more certain.
“Now lose the underwear,” he demanded. “Slide them down your hips slowly and let me see what I’m craving.”
She cocked her head. “What if I don’t take orders from you?”
Oh, now she was challenging him. He just smiled. “I can take what I want.”
“I dare you,” she breathed.
He understood what she was playing at. If she gave in too easily now, it would bend her pride. Instead, she challenged him to take her body and push the issue of her surrender.
Game on.
Jesse anchored his hands around the fragile undergarment at her hip and pulled. The seam unraveled for him—precisely like he intended she would under his touch.
When she stood naked before him, she shivered. He watched the shallow rise and fall of her breasts, the movement of her hard nipples as the midday sun slanted through her window. Her fair skin looked luminous and golden. No spray tan for her. No chemicals that made her reek or look like an Oompa Loompa. Bristol was classic and alabaster, appearing untouchable.
But he definitely intended to touch her—and more. She wasn’t leaving this bed until she knew she belonged with him.
Jesse bent and lifted her against his body, following her down to the mattress. He didn’t give her an opportunity to wriggle away, simply anchored his hips between her thighs and pinned her down. She felt so small beneath him, and he braced an elbow near her head to take some of his weight off her.
She met his stare. Those leafy green eyes of hers were a sight he’d never get tired of.
“Jesse,” she whispered.
The uncertainty on her face broke his heart. “Close your eyes. Yeah,” he commended as she did. “Take a deep breath. That’s it.” He bent to whisper in her ear. “Any doubts you have we’ll talk out later. Right now, I want to worship you.”
Bristol gave a low moan. Against him, she trembled. Then so slowly it made him sweat, she opened her eyes, her arms, and finally her heart to him. Given his past, he probably didn’t deserve her, but he intended to do everything possible to make her glad she’d chosen him.
She clung to his shoulders, and Jesse brushed the hair from her face and worked his lips up her neck. “Feel how good we are together.”
With a little shiver, she nodded. He fanned a hand over her breast, his thumb brushing her taut nipple. She arched into his touch and thrashed under him. He swallowed the sound with his kiss, aligning their bodies until he was flush against her, not merely covering but enveloping her. Jesse wanted to take all of her, make sure she knew that she was his. A sizzle shot up his spine when he thought about the pleasure of making love to her. But more than anything, he simply ached to feel her close.
Yeah, he had it bad. Never in a million years had he thought he would fall hard and fast for a down-to-earth baker. On paper, she wasn’t his usual—not loud or flashy or sexually aggressive. Yet everything about her shy sparkplug of a personality fascinated him. Almost from the first, he’d felt as if some invisible wire attached them, tugging him closer and closer to Bristol. Until her, he hadn’t really known that sort of pull was possible.
Jesse positioned her arms above her head, splayed on the mattress, then eased his hands up her silky flesh from elbows to palms, finally curling his fingers around her wrists. He anchored her to the bed and buried his nose in the cinnamon musk of her neck, closing his eyes as the light brown silk of her hair caressed his shoulder and teased his senses.
Beneath him, she softened, a gasp escaping her throat as she tossed her head back, as if the pleasure somehow surprised her. Jesse took the opportunity to drag his lips up her oh-so-soft skin before working his way to her mouth and dominating the sweet bow with a slanting, possessive kiss.
Endless. Timeless. The joining of their mouths went on. All the things that made Bristol unique piled on top of his senses.
She responded without artifice, exactly as she had the first time he’d taken her to bed. Her glimmering green eyes stared up at him, soft with raw emotion, as he skated one palm down the lush under curve of her pert breasts, her small waist, the feminine flare of her hips. True, she had the same basic parts and curves as every other woman he’d fucked, but she alone made him feel this electric gravity when they touched. When he was near her, his head buzzed, his dick engorged, and his heart chugged.
Jesse didn’t see how he could possibly give her up.
Needing to inhale more of her, he made his way down her body, claiming the sweet expanse of her skin as he descended past her delicate collarbones, the swells of her breasts, her tight nipples begging for his tongue. He took them all, gliding his lips over the sensitive flesh before teasing with his tongue, nipping with his teeth.
Beneath him, she wriggled and moaned in arousal. The sweet music filled his ears. The melody he’d been writing for her played in his head, and the bridge that had stumped him last night suddenly rolled across his imagination. It sounded like a more sensual rhythm than he’d been chasing yet so perfect. So her.
The notes played a soundtrack in his head as he dipped down again to nibble at her hipbones and drag his lips over the slight curve of her belly. Jesse even liked that she wasn’t perfect and didn’t have the sort of personal training regime that made him feel as if he was cozying up to a bodybuilder rather than a woman.
“Spread your legs,” he murmured as he caressed her mound, using his thumbs to open her folds for him.
