22. Nat #2
He pressed his lips to my ear and lowered his voice. “Do you know what you’ve been doing to me? Walking around in those tiny sleep shorts that are barely more than a slip of fabric? I’ve spent more nights tortured than tired. And I work hard, beautiful. I should be sleepy as hell.”
Thank goodness it wasn’t just me. I’d seen him shirtless more times than I could count.
Showers in our shared space were the most frustrating.
He didn’t always plan ahead and bring clothes into the bathroom.
Sometimes, he had the audacity to come out dripping wet in a towel, to the point that my tongue practically hung out every time he took a shower.
I’d hear the water turn on, and my Pavlovian response was for my mouth to go dry.
I understood how he affected me, but I still couldn’t believe I affected him. “You’re an insomniac.”
He let out a little chuckle. “You make it worse.”
Jack dragged some of my wetness up to my clit and rubbed soft circles there.
I leaned my head back against his shoulder and moaned.
I should have been thinking about the possibility of someone coming in here, but I was too busy hoping I’d be the one who’d come.
And thanks to Jack’s skillful fingers, I was well on my way.
How was I going to go back to sleeping in the same room as him after he’d done dirty things to me? How long would I be able to resist taking his cock between my lips and testing just how hard I made him? If the thing pressed against me was any indication of size, I’d be in for it.
“Do you like being dirty at your place of work? Where anyone could see you leaving flushed and properly fucked?” Jack nipped at my earlobe and ran his free hand up my stomach and under my bra, coaxing another moan from me as he cupped my breast. “You’re so beautiful when you moan, princess.
It must kill you that I’m the one making you come undone. ”
Dirty talking Jack? Sign me up. I didn’t care about our previous feelings toward each other, even if he was rubbing them in my face.
I just cared that I was dangling on the edge, and this hot lumberjack was the one taking me there.
My eyes blurred. I’d felt this nearly overwhelming sensation the closer I got to letting go.
My legs trembled slightly, and another soft noise left my lips. But I wasn’t ready to give in just yet.
My breath came in short bursts. “Don’t think so highly of yourself.”
Jack kissed my neck and blew on the skin, causing me to shiver. “I can stop.”
“Don’t—don’t do that either,” I begged.
The small puff of a laugh leaving his lips confirmed he knew he’d won, but he kept it to himself.
Instead, he increased his pace and the pressure he put on my clit, using his other hand to pinch my nipple until my mind went blank.
I knocked containers of acrylic paint over, grinding my ass against him.
A slew of words I wasn’t proud of flew out of my mouth, many of them incoherent.
When my legs buckled, he held me firmly with his other arm while he continued to tease me.
“That’s it, princess, give in. Give me what I want.”
If he actually hated me, he would have stopped before I dissolved in his arms, but he didn’t. A whine fell from my lips as I broke apart. His kisses softened against my neck, and as I tried to catch my breath, I thought that maybe he didn’t hate me at all.
I caught my breath, then turned around, but I could barely make eye contact, the shame of what I’d done washing over me. “I can’t believe I just did that. After you told me to apologize.”
Jack lowered his head into my eyeline, a spark of recognition crossing his eyes. He touched my arm, and I didn’t pull away. “No, Nat. I meant that I’m the one who’s sorry.”
Oh. “You—”
“Fucked up. So bad I don’t know how to fix it. I should be the one apologizing. And I am sorry. So sorry for the way I treated you. I should have talked to you. Or acted like an adult and dealt with my feelings.”
I swallowed slowly, the shame leaving just as quickly as it’d come.
The sincerity on his face was foreign. I’d grown up in a household where I was always wrong.
I’d had confrontations before, ones where I gave in and apologized for things I shouldn’t have budged on.
I’d never had someone take accountability for what they’d done, and never had they apologized to me.
The one time I’d held my ground with my family had gone awfully.
But this deserved a response. He deserved something for taking ownership of his treatment of me.
“I accept your apology.” The words left my lips, and it sounded like someone else was saying them, but I meant it. He’d caused stress and aggravation, but he hadn’t been harmful, not really. The time he’d gone too far, he’d apologized then, too.
“You… do?”
I smiled softly. “Yeah, Jack.” I hugged him gently, and he responded with his whole body, as if he were desperate for this interaction.
“But I’ve been awful. The entire time you’ve been here. This whole contest—”
“Has been contentious, in part because of what you’ve done, yes. But the competitiveness between us would have come out regardless. Mine’s just been directed at you. Now I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Jack let out a burst of laughter. “You can still be competitive with me. In fact, I hope you will be. Because I have no intention of stopping or going easy on you.”
It was good to hear him laugh. The air felt lighter. Tinged with sexual tension, yes, but lighter.
“But is it going to hit right?”
Jack licked his lips and smiled. “I’m sure you’ll hate losing just as much, princess.”