Chapter Twelve
“Is this a mistake?” Jack asked, not entirely sure he wanted the answer. They’d stopped kissing long enough to stand and start tearing at each other’s clothes.
“Maybe.” Ellie didn’t stop hitching up the hem of his shirt. “Are you saying you want to stop?”
He could think of little he wanted less than to stop what was about to happen between them. “No.”
“Good.” She yanked his shirt the rest of the way off.
“Do you?” He could have inferred her answer—from that or from the way her hands stroked his bare chest. But he needed her to say it, to agree that even if they both thought better of it in the morning, tonight they were on the same page.
“No.” She looked from his torso into his eyes. “No, I don’t want to stop.”
“Good.”
Because she still wore a shirt, he went for her neck, kissing and licking and biting with just enough force to make a point. She dropped her head to the side and arched forward—an erotic display of consent that left him wanting to explore every inch of her with his lips, tongue, and teeth.
“More.” She wiggled her arms between them and pulled up her shirt.
He grabbed the hem and tugged it over her head. “More.”
Her breasts, still covered in a froth of hot pink satin, heaved against his palms. Even through the fabric, her nipples hardened. Desperation threatened to overtake him, and he dipped his head to take one into his mouth. Ellie gasped and buried her fingers in his hair.
The gasp did him in. He reached behind her to flick the clasp of her bra, releasing her just long enough to toss it to the side. Her breasts were creamy and pale, a stark contrast to the tanned and freckled expanse of skin above. “Someone seems to make a habit of forgetting sunscreen.”
“I don’t,” Ellie said with a pout. “I’m just so pale I get freckles anyway.”
“I’m not complaining.” He lightly bit the curve of her shoulder, then traced her collarbone with his tongue.
“Damn right you aren’t.” She laughed.
The comment made Jack chuckle and kept him from getting overly serious, which he’d been known to do with sex.
Maybe this was a bad idea, but maybe it didn’t matter.
They were stuck, they’d been dancing around each other for weeks, and he didn’t know if he could make it through another night of sleeping next to Ellie and not touching her.
In a flurry of hands and limbs, they stripped each other of their remaining clothes.
Ellie threw the bedcovers back and pulled Jack with her onto the mattress.
He used one knee and one arm to brace himself and settled his other leg between Ellie’s.
With his free hand, he roamed every inch of her he could reach—her belly and sides, the swell of her hip, and that perfect little crease where the top of her thigh met her abdomen.
She was soft and lush, and the more he touched her, the more he wanted.
“I might combust if you don’t touch me soon,” Ellie said with a laugh.
“I am touching you.” Jack gave her ass a squeeze to drive home the point.
“You know what I mean.” She pinched his side hard enough to make him yawp.
He considered giving her a taste of her own medicine, of teasing her and playing dumb until she begged for him. But as much as he might enjoy that, his own need demanded more immediate satisfaction.
Jack slipped his hand between Ellie’s legs and slid the pad of his middle finger over her clit. She was hot and wet and the way her body arched into his was absolute perfection. Her hands, that had been roaming over his back, gripped his shoulders.
“Yes?” he asked, loving that he already knew the answer.
“So much yes.”
He continued to stroke, and Ellie continued to move against him.
Deliciously hypnotic, and yet not enough.
When she asked him to be inside her, his cock twitched with equal parts excitement and longing.
He settled for his finger and wasn’t disappointed with the way she tightened around him and pulled him deeper.
“More.” Her voice was breathy now, but no less insistent.
He added a second finger but kept his thrusts slow. Exploring the curve and shape of her from the inside, learning the way her muscles clamped around him. God, he could spend hours doing this.
“Please.” Insistence gave way to desperation as she began to thrust against him.
He increased the pace, curling his fingers slightly to test the sensitivity of her G-spot. Ellie groaned, pumping her hips faster. She came hard, a flood of wetness spilling into his hand.
“Fuck.” She took a few shaky breaths. “You’re really good at that.”
“Thanks.” He settled on his side next to her to give her some air. “Your body is amazing. You’re amazing.”
Her body trembled with an aftershock. She closed her eyes and let out a soft moan. “I haven’t come like that in a while.”
“So sexy.”
“You are.” Ellie chuckled. She rolled to her side and pressed a hand to his chest, nudging him onto his back. “Okay. So. What do you like? What can I do?”
The fact that she asked instead of jumping right in ramped up his desire even as it helped him relax. “I like hand jobs.”
She smirked. “Are those the only jobs you like?”
The insinuation had him imagining Ellie on her knees, looking up at him through those impossibly thick lashes. Maybe they’d get there. But not yet. “I consider them a good place to start.”
“Acceptable.” She did come onto her knees but remained next to him rather than crawling on top. She cupped her hand around his cock and stroked fingers along each side. “Any particular kind of hand job?”
“That’s good,” he said, voice strained. “Really good.”
She continued stroking, adding just the right amount of pressure. “I love how hard you are.”
It took every ounce of restraint he had not to come right then and there.
He groaned, since there was no chance of words much less a complete sentence.
Ellie hummed her pleasure—or was it satisfaction?
—and rocked her body in time with her hand.
Even without her on top of him, the sensation intensified her touch, and he exploded.
“Fucking fuck,” he managed after the orgasm swept over him.
“A good fuck I hope.” Ellie swung her leg over his hips and straddled him.
“Good. Fuck.”
“Is this okay?” She undulated slowly, sending aftershocks rippling through him.
“So good.” He settled his hands on her hips, not to control but simply to appreciate them more deeply.
“I’m not going to lie, feeling your cock on my clit like this is enough to make me come again.”
And just like that, he was back to hard and horny. He dug his fingers in with a little more force. “Yeah?”
“Especially when you grab me like that.” She canted her head. “Makes me feel used, but in a good way.”
Seriously, did this woman have a playbook for turning him on and getting him off? He guided her with more intention, letting the pressure build low in his belly. “Keep that up, and you’re going to make me come again, too.”
She folded forward, bracing a hand on either side of his shoulders. She slid her hot, slick, perfect pussy up and down his cock, over and over. “Yes.” Her movements bordered on frantic. “Yes. Please.”
The please sent him over the edge. He bucked, held her to him, and swore.
She came against him, flooding the space between them with another wave of liquid heat.
His own orgasm tumbled into another, or maybe it never stopped.
But it exploded through him, blurring his vision and leaving him disoriented and weak.
Ellie sagged over him, still on her knees but with her breasts against his chest and her face nuzzled into his neck. “Holy crap,” she muttered.
“Uh-huh,” was pretty much all he could manage.
Ellie lingered for a long while before shifting to Jack’s side. She kept one leg draped over his thigh and her breasts pressed to his ribs. It was blissful. Until it wasn’t.
The wet spot on the sheets was large and grew cold beneath her. She didn’t even want to think about how gross it must feel to Jack. It was nice that he didn’t immediately bound out of bed and demand a shower, but she honestly wouldn’t have blamed him. “Sorry about the mess,” she said.
“I’m not.” Jack didn’t move or even open his eyes.
She smiled. “Well, I’m not sorry I made it, but I am sorry we’re now lying in it.”
He remained still. “I’m not.”
“I have clean sheets.”
Jack rolled his head to face her and opened his eyes. “Is that your way of asking me to help you change them?”
“Offering.” She poked him lightly in the ribs. “I’m being nice and offering to change them so you don’t have to sleep in a cold, wet spot.”
He gave her a smug smile. “I’m perfectly happy to throw a towel over the situation and call it good, but I will happily help you remake the bed if you prefer.”
She hadn’t expected him to be a jerk about it, but this super laid-back vibe caught her off guard. “Are you trying to be considerate or do orgasms make you placid?”
“Yes.”
Even as her skin started to itch, she laughed. “I like that.”
“As much as you like clean sheets?”
“Maybe.” She lifted her head. “Does it amuse you that there’s something I’m fussy about that you aren’t?”
He mirrored the gesture. “Maybe.”
“What if you help me change them and then we take a nice hot shower together before crawling back in?” She could imagine little appealing more after amazing sex.
“One condition.”
She tipped her chin. “What’s that?”
“Neither of those things preclude middle of the night shenanigans should the mood strike.”
Who was this guy and what had he done with grumpy Jack? Ellie stuck out her hand. “I accept these terms.”
Rather than shake on it, Jack shifted, rolling Ellie onto her back and bracing over her. He studied her for what felt like eternity before breaking into a grin. “Good.”
In a disarmingly graceful move, Jack pushed off the mattress and stood. He extended a hand to her, but instead of finishing the handshake she’d attempted to start, he hauled her to her feet. “Smooth,” she said.
“I have my moments. Now, where are these sheets? Even with the heat back on, it is not warm enough to stand around naked.”
He was right, of course. Though she would have tolerated a couple more minutes to appreciate him standing naked in front of her.
It was her first real look at the gorgeous oak tree tattoo that spanned his chest, complete with intricate roots that covered his surgery scars. “Sorry, I was busy objectifying you.”
“Can’t you do that in the shower?”
The question, with all its serious delivery, made her laugh. “I guess I’ll have to make do.”
She hurried over to the closet and pulled out the spare set of sheets.
With one of them on either side of the bed, it took all of two minutes to strip off the dirty and tug the clean ones into place, even with Emily Dickinson jumping on the mattress and deciding each move of fabric was something to be batted at, rolled over, or pounced on.
Ellie led them to the bathroom and got the water going.
The shower fit both of them, but barely.
That meant little opportunity for looking, but plenty for sudsy skin-on-skin action.
Jack made a show of being efficient, but when she grazed her hand over his cock, he didn’t hesitate to pin her against the shower wall and kiss her until her knees threatened to buckle.
By the time they stood on the little rug toweling off, Ellie was hot, bothered, and totally horny again. She debated saying so, wanting Jack to know how much he turned her on but not wanting to come across as demanding. Not yet at least.
Jack hung his towel on the hook and pointed to it. “Do you have spare ones of those, too?”
“Yes?” She cleared her throat. “Yes. Do you need another?”
“I figured we should bring one to bed with us.”
The meaning behind his words spun into place and it was all she could do not to laugh. She should have known better than to worry about her own horniness around a guy on T. “I like the way you think.”
Jack looked her up and down slowly, and there was no mistaking the hunger in his eyes. “In that case, grab two.”