Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Preston
Kissing Jess was a bad idea.
A very bad idea.
I knew I should pull back and put space between us.
I also knew I wasn’t about to do that.
I’d been thinking about this moment for far too long, probably longer than I cared to admit. And now that I had her in my arms, I had no intention of letting her go anytime soon.
Except…
“This is a bad idea,” I said, because someone had to say it.
Her mouth curved a little. “Is it?”
“You said it yourself,” I continued, desperately trying to hold onto some self-control. “You don’t know what you’re doing. You just ran out on your wedding. You’re—”
“A big girl, Preston. I can make my own decisions.”
Dammit. She was making this way too hard.
“This is too much,” I said, no longer sure why I was trying so hard to put a stop to this. My hand skimmed down her cheek, cupping it gently, unwilling to move away from her. “Too fast.”
“It doesn’t feel that way,” she said softly.
And fuck it, I couldn’t disagree with that. “That’s the problem.”
But it didn’t feel like a problem.
Jess shifted closer to me on the bed. The puppy let out a cute growl in protest and jumped to the floor, dropping with a thud in front of the fireplace.
She was close enough that the scent of her filled my senses. The whiskey on her breath, the unfamiliar smell of the hairspray in her fancy hair, and something softer, sweeter, and familiar. Her fingers slid across my chest, gripping the fabric of my shirt like she was steadying herself.
“You want this.”
It wasn’t a question, and I couldn’t deny it.
“Of course I do.” My jaw tightened.
The truth of it hit me square in the chest. I wanted this. Her. For longer than I’d ever even admitted to myself. Probably since that day when we were kids, and she crushed my heart. But this felt different. It was reckless and inevitable all at the same time.
“If we do this,” I said slowly, “everything changes.”
Her eyes flashed with heat and need. “It doesn’t have to.”
I let out a short, humorless laugh. “I don’t think I—”
“Preston,” she cut in gently, “this doesn’t have to be more than it is.” She lifted her hand and pressed it flat over my heart. “I just ran away from…well, I’m not asking for that.”
“What are you asking for?”
“You,” she said without hesitation. “This. Right now. Only for tonight.”
That should have been enough to stop me.
My head told me to walk away. This could only end badly. I didn’t do only for tonight. Not with Jess. Not like this.
Did I?
My body leaned in.
“This isn’t nothing,” I warned, my voice low.
“I know,” she admitted. “But it doesn’t have to be everything either. It can just…be.”
Her fingers tightened in my shirt again, and she tugged me closer until her lips were on mine again.
This time, the kiss wasn’t soft or testing. It was searching and insistent. Full of want.
“Preston,” she whispered against my lips. “I need this.”
Fuck it.
Jess
Nothing about kissing Preston felt like a mistake.
Yes, there were a million reasons I shouldn’t be doing it, not the least of which was the fact that it had only been hours since I’d run away from my wedding without so much as an explanation to my fiancé.
Maybe it made me a bad person, but I didn’t feel bad about that.
Especially considering the only thing Trevor would be upset about was how it would all look. And what he was going to tell the investors. I should be worried about that, too. But I wasn’t. Not now.
I pushed the thoughts of Trevor and the life I’d potentially left in ruins behind me. There was no room for that right now. No room for thoughts of anything but the moment I was in. And the man I was with.
Preston.
My body wanted this. My heart wanted it.
But I wasn’t going to let myself go there. Not yet.
His hands slid over the soft velour of my jacket, pausing when they reached the bejeweled word emblazoned across the back. “This has got to go,” he muttered.
I couldn’t disagree with that.
He stood and tugged me to my feet, the movement bringing us so close I could feel his breath on my lips. The storm outside raged on, the rain slamming against the old glass panes, but as far as I was concerned, the world could be collapsing all around me.
All I needed—no, all I wanted in the moment—was him and the way he was looking at me, like I wasn’t just a deal or an arrangement. But like I was a woman he wanted. And damn, if it didn’t feel good to be wanted.
His fingers found the zipper, and he tugged it down and pushed the jacket over and off my shoulders. It fell to the floor, the ridiculously sparkly word landing in a heap, leaving me in only the white bra I’d bought specifically for my wedding night.
My nipples pebbled with the shock of cool air, and Preston sucked in a breath.
“Jess.” He murmured my name—in reverence or warning, I couldn’t tell.
His gaze moved slowly over me, lingering on my lace-clad breasts. “Better.”
His voice was rough in a way that rumbled through me.
“Much, much better.”
He wiggled his eyebrows, and I laughed. “You’re not one for sparkly rhinestones?”
“Not even a little bit.” He skimmed his hands down my sides, letting his fingers span out and trail over my ribs, dancing over the edges of my breasts until my breath came quick again, my entire body aware of every touch.
“But this…” His tongue slipped out between his lips.
“I am a fan of this. You’re fucking gorgeous, Jess. ”
His jaw flexed. Desire flickered in his eyes. The air between us thickened and charged. I could practically feel the moment he started to let himself lose the careful control he always held around me.
More than anything, I wanted him to let go for me.
I closed the last bit of distance between us, letting my fingers undo the button of his shirt, one by one, until I could push it off his broad shoulders.
I knew Preston was built, but to see his ripped, defined muscles with my own eyes was very different from imagining them. And I liked what I saw. His body was one built outside through hard work and activity, not in a gym.
I pressed my hands to his chest, splaying my fingers out and letting myself feel every ridge of his hard body as I traveled the length of him.
“Jess…”
His hands hovered at the waist of my jogging pants, but I was done holding back.
I trailed my hands down over the defined V of his waist to the buckle of his jeans.
I slipped one hand past the fabric, while the other skimmed the rough denim, cupping the hard length of him, and the very real evidence of his desire.
He groaned and tipped his head back. “Jess…”
“Are you trying to stop me?” I paused, my hands stilled, a fraction of an inch from his cock. “Because if you want to stop this, now is the time to—”
“No.”
In a flash of movement, he pulled back, my hands ripped away from him, as he caught them both in one of his own. He backed me up against the rough wood wall of the cabin and held my arms over my head, pinning me in place.
My breath came in pants, my chest rising and falling against him. Moisture pooled between my legs and soaked the scrap of lace panties I wore.
“No,” he said again, his voice rough and barely controlled. “I don’t want to fucking stop this.” He leaned in so his lips were only inches from mine.
My pulse thundered.
“I want to kiss those pretty pink lips until you’re gasping for air. I want to touch every inch of your body, making you feel like the gorgeous goddess you are. Until there’s no room for doubt that you are wanted, desired, and sexy as hell.”
My breath hitched.
“I want to look into your pretty green eyes to see how they darken with desire when I make you come the first time.”
The first time?
I swallowed hard. His grip on my wrists tightened a little. Just enough to bring back all my focus on him.
“I want to see that pretty face flush when I make you come so hard that you forget you had ever considered marrying a man who didn’t look at you like this, and touch you the way I’m about to, and kiss you like you are the only woman in the world.”
My breath came so fast, I was afraid I might lose control completely.
“So, no, Jess.” Preston shifted so his hips were pressed against mine, his bare chest scraping against the lace of my bra. “I don’t want to fucking stop this.”
His lips crushed mine in the next moment, and any doubts I had about crossing this line with him were completely gone.
I deepened the kiss, his tongue tangling with mine as he took control in a way that made my knees go weak and made me stop thinking completely.
Maybe I was making a mistake, or ruining the tentative friendship we were forging, but I didn’t think about what this would mean in the morning.
I wasn’t thinking about anything at all.
Because the second he kissed me like that, I was already lost.