Jessa looked happy to accept the coffee, though, so I let itslide.
Abit.
“Jessa,” I asked, my eyes never leaving Maggie as she handed me a coffee, “you cold,sweetheart?”
“I’m good,” Jessa said. “The fireisnice.”
Maggie was staring me down, giving me another one of those narrow-eyed looks, but I stared right back. I knew she was pretty tight with Jessa, and it was cool of her to have her girl’s back. I’d always appreciated Maggie’s attention to detail, when it came to business. As long as it wasn’tmybusiness.
I drew a line at her butting her nose into my personal shit, and sheknewit.
“Alright, well… I’ll be down in the party room, making sure Zane doesn’t burn the place down, if you need me,” she told us. Or rather, she told Jessa. “And I’ll make sure no one bothersyouguys.”
Then she threw me another narrow lookandleft.
After she was gone, Jessa and I looked at each other. She smiled. “You better be nice to me,” she said. “Or you’re on Maggie’s shit list. Justsaying.”
“Yeah. Well. Hers wouldn’t be theonlyone.”
“That’s true,” she said, maybe a little too pleased at the thought, and sipped herdrink. “Mmm!”
I took a sip of mine. “Jesus,that’sgood.”
“Is there anything Maggie can’t do?” shemused.
Yeah. Keep her nose out ofmyshit.
I set my coffee down on the low table in front of the fire and got serious. “You have a lot of people here who care about you,Jessa.”
She didn’t say anything, just nodded and sipped at her drink, licking whipped cream from the corner of her mouth. There was the tiniest dabb of it onhernose.
“What?” shewhispered.
I swiped it off with my fingertip. I showed it to her and she gave a little giggle. She took my hand and pulled my finger closer, and licked it off with a little flick of her tongue. Then her eyesmetmine.
When she let my hand go, I laid it on the side of her face, running my thumb over her flushed lip, her cheek. Then I took her coffee and reached to set it on the table. When I turned back to her, she was nibbling onherlip.
“I spoke with Dolly,” she said. “I have a photo shoot in a few days, down in L.A., but I was thinking… maybe I’d come back up afterward for a bit. I don’t want to outstay my welcome at Roni’s, but Dolly says I can stay with her for a while. Zane’s there too, but shehasroom.”
“That’s niceofher.”
It was. But no fucking way I was letting Jessa go stay with Dolly. She had a nice place, a really fucking nice place that Zane bought for her, but it was even farther from here than Roni’s. I knew Jessa had a shoot; if she was actually considering coming back afterward, though, I was gonna go ahead and hope like fuck it was at least partly because of me. And whatever happened between us on the phone lastnight.
And whatever was happeningrightnow.
“But you should stay here.” My heartbeat throbbed in my throat and I swallowed thickly. “I’ve got plenty of room, Jessa. And… I wantyouhere.”
She parted her lips to say something, but I leaned over and kissed her instead. Softly. I brushed my lips against hers and stayed there, feeling her breathe. Her breath caught, then deepened. I felt the exact moment when she yielded to me, and I nudged her lips open to stroke my tongueagainsthers.
She kissed me back, so I went in for more. I kissed her deeper and deeper until I was half on top of her and our bodies were fusedtogether.
“This can be your safe place,” I told her. “I want this to be your safe place. I want to be that for you.” But I was kissing her when Isaidit.
Yeah, I wanted her to feel safe. I wanted her not torunaway.
But I also wanted my dick up inside her. So fuckingsueme.
I wanted my tongue in her mouth, my hands on her tits, her long legs wrapped around my back, and I wanted her screaming, sweating, panting my name as she came on my cock, over andagain.
