Chapter 20
THE STREETS WERE ALMOST EMPTY AS THEIR CAR PULLED IN front of Alex’s house. No one had a match the next day, so more than a little bit of alcohol had flowed at the table once Indy and Penny had returned.
Now Alex was draped over Penny’s shoulders, mostly holding himself up but definitely needing her to guide him up the stairs. She stole the house keys from him, and Indy watched as he leaned on the door and nearly fell through when Penny pushed it open.
“I better get him upstairs,” Penny said, letting him wind an arm around her shoulders again, taking most of his weight, which probably wasn’t all that great for her ankle. “Night, guys.”
“G’night!” Alex called over his shoulder as they climbed the stairs.
Indy looked back at Jack, who was giving the driver instructions for the next morning, safely assuming that no one would be in the mood to head in for practice until the afternoon.
Leaning on the doorframe, she waited for him to jog up the front steps and gave him a small smile as he joined her, pulling the door shut behind them.
“That was nice,” she said as he looked anywhere but into her eyes. “Jack.”
“It was,” he said, and then let out a shaky breath.
Annoyance flared in her, so she said, “We need to talk.”
His gaze finally met hers in clear panic. No one ever wants to hear those words. At the sight of her smirk, though, he relaxed and let out a huff. “I deserved that.”
“Yeah, you did,” Indy said, needing every ounce of reassurance she got from what Penny had said earlier and the very real fear she’d seen in his eyes just now to say what had to come next.
“I can’t keep doing this. I can’t keep being the one who is in this while you pull away because you’ve tied yourself in a knot over something.
I’m not even just talking about the other day.
I thought we were on the same page, I thought you wanted this, wanted me. You said you did.”
“I did, I do.”
“Then what changed?”
“Nothing.”
“Then what do you want, Jack?”
He looked down at the shining wood floors of the foyer.
“With you?” he asked, though clearly he didn’t require a response.
“Everything. I’ve wanted all of you from the first moment I saw you.
I want to know every thought that pops into your head.
I want to be there for your first Grand Slam championships.
I want to be there the first time you lose in a final.
And I want you there with me for everything. ”
“Is that all you want?”
“You know what I want,” he said, reaching out and taking her hand, lifting her wrist to his mouth and kissing it softly. “And I know what you want, and God help me, I’m trying to be a damned gentleman about it, Indiana, but you make it so…”
“Hard?” she asked, totally unable to control the giggling that followed.
“Yeah,” he agreed, a short laugh pushing out of his chest, but he stepped forward, leaning over her. “Everything about this has been damn hard, hasn’t it?”
“Because you insist on making it that way. I swear, Jack, sometimes it feels like you…”
“What?”
“That you like the drama of it all. Am I dating a closet drama queen?”
She could see the laughter still in his eyes, but his voice was firm and serious. “That’s not it.”
“No?”
“No. You just drive me wild—”
“Jack?” she said, wrapping her fingers into the front of his shirt.
“Yeah?”
“No more talking.”
“Right,” he said, closing the last few inches between them and slanting his mouth over hers.
The kiss was intense, a clash of tongues and teeth, none of the finesse she’d come to expect from him, and as he leaned his body into hers, he pulled his mouth away to whisper against her lips.
“You seemed to like it like this before we were interrupted the other day. Did you, champ?” His fingers pushed at the small of her back, angling so that his thigh slipped between hers.
“Yes,” she whispered, her breath coming shallow and fast as she pressed against it, sending shock waves through her body.
“Good, that’s all I want you thinking about tonight. How much you want this, how much I want you,” he said, stepping away from her and smoothing down the front of his shirt.
“You’re kidding me. Jack, you can’t just… I need…” She stumbled over her words, still in a heady daze from his kiss.
“There’s no privacy here, nowhere to—”
“Everyone’s asleep,” she said, nodding up the stairs, “or about to be.”
Jack followed her gesture and then looked back to her, his eyes darkening as he took her in slowly, and then finally he met her gaze again.
“C’mon,” he said, reaching down to lace their fingers together as he led her past the stairwell down the long hallway to the back of the house.
She followed him as he unlatched the door and slipped outside.
It was a beautiful night. There were even a handful of stars twinkling down on them despite the bright lights of London beyond the tall hedges that lined the garden.
They were entirely alone.
Finally.
“How’s this?” he asked, and with the door shut behind them, Jack raised their joined hands to his mouth, pressing a soft kiss to the inside of her wrist.
It was gentle. Sweet. And not what she wanted right now.
She wanted to make him lose control.
Break. Completely.
They were close enough for her to simply rise to her tiptoes and lean in, her lips a whisper touch against his ear. “I thought you said you liked things a little bit wild.”
“I do,” he admitted, swallowing roughly as she moved his grasp to her hip and then around to her ass.
She guided his mouth toward hers, the kiss open and fierce, swallowing down her gasp and his groan.
Yes, finally. There he was—all of him. Then, suddenly, she was weightless, lifted off the ground and into his arms. She wrapped her legs around him as he surged forward, hot and intent, the smooth, cool wall at her back and him holding her there with the press of his body.
One hand stayed firmly beneath her, grinding her up into him, the denim of their jeans only adding to the friction between them, while his other landed at her neck, his thumb pressing just the other side of gentle at the base of her throat.
And his mouth tortured her with the wicked chase of his tongue and the nip of his teeth on her bottom lip.
She set a rhythm with her hips, needing more from him, wanting to feel his skin against hers, to feel him inside of her, to stare into his eyes as he took her and then to watch when he disappeared inside of her.
Reaching between them, she undid the button of his jeans and yanked the zipper down. Slipping her hand inside, running her fingers along the length of him straining against the cotton of his boxer briefs, she felt rather than heard his answering growl as it vibrated out of him into her.
“Too fast,” he muttered as he ran his tongue down the line of her neck, but the thrust of his hips contradicted him immediately.
“I want you like this,” she confessed. “I want hard and fast and up against this wall.”
“Fuck,” he answered, and then shifted back just enough to allow her legs to drop as he busied himself with the button at the top of her jeans, unzipping them carefully and tracing the lace of her underwear so, so close to where she wanted him.
She gripped him firmly as his hand slid beneath the fabric. “Damn, is this for me?”
“Yes, Jack, please,” she whispered, not able to trust her voice as he explored and then gave in. One finger and then another. Her mouth dropped open at the sensation and then light flashed across her vision when he curled his fingers and found that spot inside of her.
His other hand left her hip and reached behind him.
He fumbled with his wallet one-handed and then tossed it to the ground before lifting a foil packet to his mouth and ripping it open.
She’d have marveled at his ability to multitask if his hand weren’t setting off a barrage of fireworks through her with every twist of his fingers and press of his thumb.
She took the condom from him, needing his hand to stay right where it was. It took her a few tries—she was out of practice and more than a little distracted—but finally he was ready.
Even now, there was the hint of a question in his eyes, and she was shaking her head to deny whatever hesitation he was about to voice when he said, “You are everything I’ve ever fucking wanted, Indiana.”
He didn’t give her a chance to respond. A hand spanned her thigh, lifting it against his hip, and she leaned back fully against the wall as he guided himself into her.
“God, Jack,” she managed, throwing her head back against the wall, but no, not the wall; his hand was there, catching her.
Her heart soared at the sweetness of it and then took up a new pounding rhythm as he withdrew and then snapped his hips forward. Hard and fast—she’d asked for it and he gave it to her. She was starting to suspect he’d give her anything she wanted.
She held on as tight as she could, one arm wrapped around his shoulders, the other at his biceps, the heel of her foot at the small of his back.
“Fuck,” he cursed as her body tightened around him. Her toes curled in the sandals she’d never taken off, and sparks flashed through every nerve ending, turning quickly into an all-out inferno, flames licking up into the heavens from where they were joined.
It was overwhelming, wave after wave coursing through her, and just when she was beginning to come down, he’d bring her there again, his mouth at her neck, his thrusts slow and deliberate, until he caught up, his hips stuttering into an uneven cadence, his forehead buried against her neck as he shook in her arms and he took her with him one last time.
He broke, for her, finally and completely, pulsing inside of her. It was the hottest thing Indy had ever experienced, that legendary control snapping all at once. And now that she’d had him this way, that she knew what it could be like, she wasn’t sure if she would ever get enough.
But damn, was she willing to find out.