Chapter Eight #2
She had to put her argument on hold for a moment when Raylene pulled to a stop in front of Jack’s.
Despite those repairs and the security upgrade that he’d mentioned, the place looked exactly the same.
It definitely wasn’t sprawling like the main house just up the road, where Kellan lived and helped run the family ranch.
Jack’s place only had three bedrooms and two baths, and was as comfortable-looking and laid-back as the owner.
“Wait here a sec,” Jack told her.
He got out and ran to the front door. Caroline watched as he unlocked it and then used his phone to disengage the security system.
He also went in, likely to search the place, before he came back out.
As they’d done at the sheriff’s office, they moved fast, and only after Jack had Raylene and her inside did he motion for Gunnar to leave.
While Jack reset the security alarms, Caroline walked into the living room and glanced around.
No changes here, either, and that included the two framed photos of Jack and her on the mantel.
In one, he had his arm crooked playfully around her, his mouth pressed to her cheek, while she had a huge grin on her face.
The other photo was a shot of Kellan and Gemma standing next to Jack and her, all of them smiling.
Obviously, they were taken in much happier times.
“You can take the guest room,” Jack told Raylene, and he motioned toward the first room off the hall.
With her overnight bag in hand, Raylene headed in that direction, leaving Caroline with Jack.
“I’ll take the couch. You can use my room,” he added to Caroline, holding her hand to take her there.
She knew the way, every step of it, and every scent was familiar because it was Jack’s. By the time she walked into the bedroom suite, her body was humming with that familiarity. With those memories of what had gone on here. None of the bad stuff. Not here. This was all warmth and pleasure.
He’d kept the same quilt, and Caroline knew the feel of it. The soft cotton that had slid against her skin every time she’d been naked in that bed.
“Afraid to be alone with me?” he asked, coming up behind her.
She shook her head. “Fear isn’t the right word for it—”
“You told me you loved me,” he interrupted. “That morning before Eric took you, you told me that.”
No need for him to clarify which morning, but she didn’t like his timing in bringing it up now. “I remember.” She cleared her throat so it would have some sound, and had to do it again. Great. Her throat was clogged now, and her breathing wasn’t faring much better.
Jack moved in front of her, studying her face. He wasn’t frowning, but it was close. “You don’t feel the same way about me now.”
She wanted to groan. Apparently, he wasn’t content with just having her surrounded by old memories of them as a couple. He wanted her to relive it with words, too. And it was working. She felt the slow hum of heat circle around her.
“I’m not sure what I feel,” Caroline settled for saying, but it required another throat clearing.
Her answer didn’t smooth his near frown.
But it was partly true. She didn’t know about still being in love.
She’d had no time to sort out her feelings, but when it came to Jack, she was certain about plenty of other things.
She wanted him more than her next heartbeat.
More than she wanted to feel strong and whole again.
And that want was quickly turning into a need.
The silence vibrated between them as he stared at her. It ended when Jack cursed. “I considered offering you no-strings-attached sex. Just to burn off this heat so we could possibly think about something else. Anything else. But I can’t do that.”
Silence fell again, this time because he’d stunned her. “You can’t have sex?” And she hated the disappointment in her voice.
A flicker of annoyance, and heat, went through his eyes.
“I can’t give you the no-strings. The sex is going to happen, but not until you know that it won’t be just to satisfy some raw animal urges.
Strings,” he repeated, emphasizing it. “I’ll want that I-love-you from you again.
Maybe not tonight, but I’ll want it soon. ”
Caroline was about to remind him that he’d never given her those words, but Jack snapped her to him and kissed her.
It was hard and rough, not just his mouth but the grip he had on her arms. The roughness was something that Caroline quickly realized made it even better.
He wasn’t going to treat her like glass.
The fragile kind of glass that broke with a careless touch.
He was going to break her in a whole different way. And there’d be nothing careless about it.
Cupping the back of her neck, Jack deepened the kiss. The physical part of it, anyway, since the emotional part was already as deep as it could get. Or so Caroline thought. He proved her wrong when he stopped and eased back enough to stare into her eyes.
There it was. The face that could have been created for an ancient god. The pretty ones who could be both ruthless and very, very desirable. His eyes, dark. That rumpled black hair. Oh, and that scent. Leather and male. It seeped into her, mingling with the heat that his kiss had already flamed.
Jack waited a heartbeat, maybe giving her a chance to change her mind, all the while knowing that she wouldn’t do that. Caroline knew it, too.
The next kiss was just a brush of his mouth over hers.
Slow and sensual with their breaths mingling.
And he looked at her again. Gauging her reaction.
She was breathing too fast, and her pulse was at a full gallop.
Every inch of her was quivering, waiting, and she didn’t want the wait to continue for even a second longer.
She didn’t have to.
Jack took her mouth again, and there it was.
The raw animal urge that went to full flame and beyond when his hand slid underneath her dress and straight into her panties.
Caroline made a gasp of pleasure when he plunged his fingers into her.
So much pleasure that his touch would have brought her to a fast climax if he hadn’t suddenly stopped.
“No. It won’t be that easy,” he said, his voice as intense as the look he gave her. Jack reached behind her, shut the door and locked it. “It’ll never be that easy between us.”
It sounded a little like a threat, and he hooked his arm around her, lifting her as if she weighed nothing. Those strong, corded arms closed around her. He kissed her, hard and deep again, while he took her to his bed. He practically dumped her on the too-soft mattress that swelled up around her.
When he didn’t immediately join her, she reached for him, only to realize that his plan was to stay standing so he could strip off her dress.
Which he did.
Jack sent it flying. Then he got on the bed, his knee landing between her legs. As he loomed over her, she could feel his jeans rub against the inside of her thighs. Could hear the rough rhythm of his breath.
He kissed her breasts through her bra. Again, not gently. Both his hands and his mouth were rough as he yanked off her panties and then her bra. He’d said he hadn’t wanted easy, whatever that meant, but he apparently wanted fast.
Good.
Because she wanted that, too. Fast meant she didn’t have to think about this.
For that to happen, she needed him as naked as he’d just gotten her.
Caroline went after the buttons on his shirt, but when he took her nipple into his mouth, the heat roared through her.
Fingers to toes and every single place in between.
She gave up on the shirt and went after his zipper instead.
Jack didn’t stop her when she freed him from his jeans and boxers, but he did stop the maddening kisses. Again, their gazes met. And held. Just as he plunged into her.
Caroline made another of those gasps. Pleasure, yes. Definitely that. Mixed with the brief shock of his hard thrust. Then, even more pleasure. So much more.
This was the animal urge part. His eyes held a need of a different kind, though. The pretty, ruthless god planned to claim what he believed to be already his. To possess her. It frightened her a little to think that he could do just that. Frightened her even more that she wanted him to do it.
It didn’t take much. A few more of those deep, plundering strokes inside her, and Caroline couldn’t have held back the climax even if she’d wanted to. She didn’t. But she refused to go falling over that edge alone.
Knowing exactly how to undo him, she lifted her hips, clamping her knees around him and dragging him harder into her. She let the muscles in her body force him into joining her. Her vision blurred, but still she watched him. And he watched her...while they fell together.
Caroline could feel those strings tightening around her, and while Jack gathered her into his arms and kissed her, she prayed for so many things.
That this wouldn’t be the mistake she was certain it was.
Because those strings weren’t just about love and broken hearts. They were about priority and focus.
And those strings could get them both killed.