Chapter 3 Jack
JACK
I didn’t have time to process the fact that I had just told my twin sister’s best friend something private that my own family wasn’t aware of yet.
Janie could easily spill it to Essie, out of loyalty or accidentally.
But I knew she wouldn’t. It didn’t matter that the woman was virtually a stranger to me, and I hadn’t even asked her to keep her mouth shut.
I knew I could trust her. People played cards the way they lived life, and Janie?
She didn’t have a dishonest bone in her body.
I didn’t open up easily, but I had opened up her—something else I couldn’t process right now.
Because right now, I was too busy trying to process the fact that Janie was my twin sister’s best friend and I was about to fuck her within an inch of her life.
We were already kissing when we crashed through the door of her apartment upstairs, our hands roaming each other’s bodies in search of whatever bare skin we could find. Her wrist, her neck, the inch of stomach above the waistband of her jeans—I wasn’t picky. I wanted all of it.
I cupped her round ass and pulled her flush against me as I swept my tongue into her mouth.
God, she was sweet. She tasted like the limes she had squeezed into her water while we played cards.
I couldn’t hold back my groan and that seemed to drive her wild.
Her fingers dug into my shoulders as she leaned into the kiss, making eager, greedy little sounds that nearly had me bursting out of my jeans.
I was so fucking hard for her and I thought I might die if I couldn’t find out how wet she was for me.
Fuck. Fuck.
I didn’t do this. I didn’t have spur-of-the-moment sex.
I had carefully planned encounters with women who had clean background checks and valid STI paperwork.
The stakes were too high. Few things in this world had the potential to ruin your life like sex.
I’d seen too many men I’d respected face the consequences for a night of fun.
Disease, kids they mostly abandoned, espionage.
And for what? Getting their dick wet with a woman whose name they couldn’t even remember.
Hell no. Could not be me. I didn’t fuck around with fucking.
But with this woman? I didn’t care that she was virtually a stranger. I didn’t care that she knew my secret. I didn’t care that I didn’t know a damn thing about her outside her name and that she was my sister’s best friend.
She made me reckless.
The crazy thing was, I was actually enjoying it. For a man who liked his control nice and tight, it was a revelation. Having her in my arms, it didn’t feel like I was teetering on the brink of disaster. It felt like winning.
I caught her by the backs of her thighs, just under the ample curve of her ass, hefted her off her feet, and pinned her back to the closed door with my body.
Her long legs locked around my waist, her ankles crossed at the base of my spine.
When she pushed her pussy against by cock, I groaned into her mouth.
“Do you have any idea what you’re doing to me?” I panted, pulling back to see her damp, puffy lips smirk back at me.
Her eyes lowered to our crotches smashed together. “I have a pretty good idea, yes. But I think…I could do more.”
Using the door as leverage, she pushed harder against me.
She stared at me, doe eyes half lidded, as she gave another purposeful roll of her hips.
A slow smile bloomed across her lips at the desperate moan that tore from my throat.
I was coming undone and she loved every second of it.
And I didn’t even care. I didn’t care that she knew the power she had over me.
That triumphant smile was the sexiest fucking thing I had ever seen.
“I hope you don’t think I’m going to let you come like that,” I murmured.
Her head jerked back, her eyes narrowed. “Let me?” she said testily.
Damn, I loved that flash of spirit. But watching her surrender? I was going to love that even more. “As much as I enjoy the way you’re grinding that sweet pussy on me, I need you to hold off a little longer. We’re not taking the easy way out tonight, Ace. You’re going to make me work for it.”
She considered, all that shiny copper hair spilling over her shoulder with a tilt of her head. “I can do that.”
I grinned. “Fuck yeah, you can.”
I kissed her languidly, just to prove I could. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t rushing toward the next thing. No one knew where I was. There was nowhere I had to be. I could just…exist.
But that was another thing I couldn’t process right now because not knowing what came next scared the ever-loving shit out of me. I preferred confined spaces and known variables. What the hell I was going to do with the rest of my life, that was too nebulous to contemplate. Too many wrong answers.
This room, this woman, this moment. I could handle that.
More than handle.
I could excel.
Exceling was where I was comfortable. And by god, Janie would reap the benefits of that tonight.
“You’re wearing too many clothes, beautiful,” I murmured, pressing a kiss just below her jaw where her pulse beat wildly.
I felt her throat bob against my cheek as she swallowed. Then she slowly unwrapped her legs and I eased her down until her feet met the ancient pine floor with a soft thump. She stretched her arms toward the ceiling, a small grin on her lips and a challenge in her dark eyes.
Fuck me, that was an invitation I couldn’t pass up.
With the hem of her shirt fisted in my hands, I dragged my knuckles up her torso.
It was like unwrapping a sweet treat. Soft skin so pale that I found myself thinking of moonlight and stars, followed by a nude, lacy push-up bra that served her spectacular tits up on a platter.
Golden freckles dusted the curve of her breasts, making my mouth water.
I tossed her shirt aside and skimmed my tongue along the lace edge before delving straight into her cleavage as I unclasped her bra behind her back.
I stepped back to admire her. Her ponytail was mussed from my hands and lower than it was fifteen minutes ago, sliding over one shoulder and curving around her breast. My gaze slid lower.
Apricot-hued nipples adorned with little metal studs that I was dying to play with.
Silver stretch marks that flanked her navel and peaked over the waistband of her jeans on her hips, barely noticeable against her pale skin, zigzagging like ski tracks on fresh snow.
“You’re beautiful, Janie.” My eyes ate her up, landing again on her nipple piercings. I bit my fist. “Perfect.”
Her cheeks flushed. She didn’t like me staring at her. I could tell by the way her gaze shifted down and sideways. But she liked the compliment. She bit her lip and, still not meeting my eyes, flicked open the fly of her jeans and shimmied them down her legs.
I groaned because she was red there, too. She looked like a sunrise, all pink and gold and peach. If I had known all this beauty was waiting for me in Aspen Springs, I might have been tempted to earn that medical discharge a lot sooner.
I could have stared at her for another hour, but Janie was done with having all the attention focused on her.
“Your turn,” she ordered. She tugged at my belt.
I laughed. “Eager, are you?” I meant it appreciatively, but she dropped my belt like she’d been scalded.
I frowned. This wasn’t the time for a heartfelt conversation, but I wasn’t going to pretend I didn’t see her, either. I took her hands and put them right back where they belonged: reaching for my dick.
“Don’t pretend you don’t want me, Janie. It hurts my feelings.” I whipped my shirt off over my head. “Now put your hands on my dick and tell me you think I’m pretty.”
Her eyes shot to mine and her flush deepened.
But then she quirked an eyebrow at me and tossed her hair like she was accepting a dare.
Her gaze swept over me, over the muscles women liked and the scars they sometimes didn’t.
I knew people felt some kind of way about my scars.
They were too thick, too ugly, and far too close to vital organs.
She took her time about it, and I could feel a blush climb my cheeks in spite of myself. I wasn’t soft like Janie. I wasn’t made of moonbeams and sunsets. People looked at Janie and saw beauty. They looked at me and saw death.
But when she slowly dragged her gaze back up to mine, her eyes were dark with hunger. “I think you’re pretty, Jack. But I think you would be even prettier on your knees.” She placed her hands on my shoulders and gave a firm push.
Hell, yes.
A shocked chuckle escaped me. It was the second time tonight Janie had surprised me. Whatever baggage she carried, she wasn’t going to let that stop her from asking for what she wanted.
And right now, what she wanted was exactly what I wanted to give her. I dropped to my knees so fast I made a breeze.
God, it had been too long since I’d done this. With my fingers on her thick thighs, I used my thumbs to spread her open. My mouth watered at the sight of her. Pink and copper everywhere.
“So fucking pretty, honey,” I murmured.
And then I couldn’t wait another second to have her taste on my tongue, her scent in my face. I licked her from her entrance to her clit, swirled my tongue right there, and licked her again.
“Oh, wow.” Her head lolled back and hit the door with a thunk. “Do that again.”
I did it again. Again and again until we were both groaning.
I licked and sucked and nipped. One of her hands went to cup her own breast, and when she rolled her nipple between her thumb and finger, I nearly went out of my mind with jealousy.
I wanted to play there, too, but not until I made her come on my tongue.
She was close. So damn close.
With one hand toying with her nipple piercings, her other hand clutching the back of my head, she rocked her hips against my mouth, taking her pleasure as much as I gave it.
The taste of her…those fucking sounds she made…
I was so hard it was painful. When I finally got my dick in her, I wasn’t going to last long.
That was fine. I was already planning for round two.
She ground her hips against my face as I found the rhythm that drove her crazy. Her grip tightened in my hair.
“I—”
She didn’t get another syllable out before she broke against me, her body quaking. I slipped my tongue inside her and lapped up every drop. She bowed over me as the pleasure ebbed, and I took the opportunity to haul her over my shoulder in a firemen’s hold.
Two steps to the bed and I tossed her on it, then crawled up her body, caging her in.
She stared at me with half-lidded, sated eyes. “Hey.”
“Hey,” I replied, and then kissed her. My heart beat hard in my chest. Fuck, I wanted her. But—“I don’t have a condom.”
“I do.” She fumbled open the drawer of the nightstand, felt around a bit, and produced a foil square.
I took it from her and tore it open. “Were you a Girl Scout, by any chance?”
“For a few years.” Her eyes narrowed and she tilted her head. “Why?”
“I was a Boy Scout.” I rolled the rubber down my dick, pinching the tip to make sure I had space because fuck.
When I blew, I was going to blow hard. I squeezed the base of my dick and tried to pull myself together.
“We used to go camping. One time, we couldn’t get a fire started.
It was the stupidest fucking thing. The wood was wet and we weren’t prepared for it.
But the Girl Scout troop at the campsite over from ours, they were prepared.
They saved our asses that night. I can always spot a Girl Scout. You know how?”
“How?” she asked.
“They’re always good in the clutch.”
I pushed into her. My eyes crossed as her slick, wet heat welcomed me in. I pushed further. And further. And then a little more.
“Jack,” she sputtered. Her nails dug into my bicep while her other hand went between us. Her fingers grazed the two inches of my shaft that hadn’t made it inside her yet and her eyes widened. “You’re not all the way in yet?”
“Almost,” I muttered.
She made a frantic squeaking sound. “This isn’t going to work. It’s not going to fit.”
My chin dropped to my chest and I got us another half inch. “It will fit,” I gritted out. “Those muscles are flexible. They’re made for this. Breathe, honey.”
She glared up at me. “Do not mansplain my vagina to me, Jack. I will—” She gasped as I sank deeper. “God.”
“Good?” I asked, my voice thick and drugged.
“So good.”
I caught her nipple in my teeth, flicked my tongue over the cool metal stud. She arched and I bottomed out with a groan. I paused as long as I could take it, ten seconds, fifteen, then pulled out halfway and drove right back in.
She stared up at me with wide eyes and shiny damp lips that made me nearly spill right then and there, and then she tucked her chin and craned her neck like she was trying to get a better view.
“You want to see?” I roughed out.
“Yeah.” She tugged her bottom lip between her teeth. “I want to see.”
I straightened my arms and lifted my torso so she could watch me thrust into her. She stared down at where her pussy stretched tight around my pumping cock.
“Look how well you take me,” I murmured. “Fuck, look at you.”
She looked. Her eyes glazed over and her breaths turned short and hollow. I watched her watch me fuck her and—
“Christ,” I bit off. I needed her to get there right fucking now. “Touch your clit, honey.”
She didn’t even hesitate. Her hand delved between us, found her spot, and rubbed. I pumped harder as her whimpers turned to moans, and then I needed to feel her for myself. Leaving one arm to hold my weight, I covered her hand with mine, learning the way she liked to be touched.
It sent us both over the fucking edge. Her pussy pulsed around my shaft, her orgasm deepening my own, and I spilled everything I had inside her.
I braced my arms on either side of her as I slowly lowered my body, not wanting to crush her. But she wrapped her arms around me and pulled me down against all that warm, silky skin. I sank in with a grateful groan. Fuck, I was tired. I had been tired for a week now. A month. A fucking year.
My whole lifetime.
I shouldn’t stay the night, but my eyelids felt like rocks were holding them closed.
“Just a nap,” Janie mumbled in my ear.
“An hour,” I agreed, rolling to my side and curling around her body.
I waited for the regret to hit, now that my dick had gotten what it wanted and my brain was fully operational again. But it never came. I didn’t regret a damn thing.
In fact, I wanted more.