Chapter 11
Janey raised Joe’s right hand to her lips and pressed gentle kisses to each of his abused knuckles.
She ached when she thought about how he’d injured his hand and how out of character it was for him to hit someone.
“I wanted to do this earlier when I got to my parents’ house and saw your hand all swollen and bruised. ”
“That would’ve shocked them, huh?”
“Just a little. Well, except for Maddie. She knows. About us.”
Joe gasped. “Oh, my God, Janey! If she tells Mac—”
“She won’t. She promised me.”
He released a long rattling deep breath. “He’d kill me. You know that.”
“After everything that happened, I had to talk to someone.”
“And it had to be her? Your insanely protective older brother’s fiancée?”
“We’ve become very good friends, and I knew she’d understand.”
“I don’t like it, Janey. I don’t want any trouble with him. We go back too far, and with his wedding right around the corner. . .”
Anxious to quell his worries, Janey straddled him, pressing him into the back of the sofa. “I trust her to keep it quiet, or I wouldn’t have told her.”
“People will think I took advantage of you—”
She silenced him with a kiss that, like most kisses with him, quickly spun out of control. “If anything, I took advantage of you, and we both know that.”
“That’s not how it’ll look to other people, especially Mac, because he knows how I’ve felt about you for years. He’ll think I jumped you the first chance I got.”
“When it was quite the other way around.”
“He’ll never believe that, Janey. Never.”
“Then let’s keep this between us for now. No one else needs to know until we’re ready for them to know.”
“And what is this that we’re keeping between us? What would you call it?”
“Fun.” She kissed him. “Exciting.” Another kiss. “Passionate.” This time, she ran her tongue between his lips. “Delicious.”
Joe’s fingers combed through her hair, anchoring her for another desperate kiss. Tongues tangled in a violent, exhilarating battle that sent pleasure darting from her breasts to her core.
Janey pulled her lips free and pressed them to the pulsating nerve in his cheek. “Is it later yet?” she asked as she turned her attention to his neck. The tremble that rippled through his big frame filled her with a sense of her own power.
His fingers ventured beneath the hem of her tank top. “Mmm, definitely.”
“And have we talked about everything we need to talk about?”
“Not even close.”
She rolled the tendon that joined his neck to his shoulder between her teeth.
He jolted, gasped and his fingers dug into her hips, holding her tight against his erection.
“Will it keep?” she whispered.
“I suppose it’ll have to.” He shifted his hands to her bottom and stood, accommodating her weight effortlessly. “Because this won’t.”
In a cacophony of claws on hard wood, her menagerie followed them to the bedroom.
“Are we going to have an audience?” he asked, setting her down next to the bed.
“Come on, guys.” She shooed the animals from the room, closed the door and turned to him. “Alone at last.”
The whining protests from the hallway reminded them they weren’t completely alone.
“Whatever do you plan to do with me?” he asked.
Smiling at his playfulness, she sashayed over to him, shedding her top on the way.
There was something about knowing he’d loved her from afar for so long that had Janey also shedding inhibitions that had plagued her relationship with David.
She’d often found it difficult to be free and unguarded around him because she never seemed to have his undivided attention. That wasn’t a problem with Joe.
His hands slid from her ribs to cover the lacy bra she’d worn with him in mind. Judging by the hot gaze he directed at her breasts, the bra had done the trick. “You’re so beautiful, Janey. So incredibly sexy.”
She raised his shirt and trailed her fingers over the ridges of muscles on his abdomen. “So are you. I can’t believe you cover this six-pack with a shirt. That ought to be a crime.”
He snorted with laughter. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Just keep your shirt off, and I’ll be happy.”
“Mmm, I want you to be happy.” Lowering her to the bed, he kissed the plump flesh that spilled from the top of the push-up bra.
“I’m feeling very happy at the moment.” Janey squirmed under him, itchy with desire and need and something else that tightened in her chest, demanding she not ignore what he made her feel.
She tugged the shirt over his head and massaged his shoulders as he worshiped her breasts through the bra.
He got rid of her shorts, leaving her in just the bra and a matching thong.
Watching his eyes darken with awareness when he saw the thong made her laugh.
“You’re out to give me a heart attack, aren’t you?”
She fluttered her eyelashes at him. “Would I do that to you?”
“Uh-huh. I do believe you would.” His talented lips went to work on her belly, and as his tongue flicked into her belly button, Janey discovered a new erogenous zone.
She clutched his hair, her heart hammering when she realized where he was heading. That he liked to do that was still a bit of a shock to her, and he seemed to really like it. Just the thought of it made her skin heat with embarrassment and nervousness. “Joe. . .”
“Relax, honey.”
Despite his softly spoken words, Janey trembled as he spread her legs and settled between them.
She closed her eyes and tried to control the trembling, but it only intensified when he tongued her through the silky thong.
A low moan exploded from her chest as the sensations became almost painfully intense.
Keeping up the pressure with his tongue, he slid a finger into her.
After just a few more strokes of his finger and tongue, a scorching orgasm stole her breath.
“So beautiful,” he whispered as he kissed his way to her lips. “So very, very beautiful.”
Janey focused on drawing air into her heaving lungs as aftershocks reverberated through her body.
While she recovered, he got rid of the rest of their clothes and came back to join her, covering her body with his. Infused by his warmth, Janey floated on a cloud of satisfaction.
“You aren’t going to sleep on me, are you?” he asked. She could hear the laughter in his voice as he throbbed against her leg, letting her know he was very much awake.
“I wouldn’t do that to you,” she said, even though she was having trouble opening her eyes. She curled her legs around his hips, urging him to take what she offered.
“Look at me.”
Janey forced her eyes open to find him looking down at her, his gaze full of love and awe.
Overwhelmed by everything she saw in his eyes, she put her hands on his face and drew him into a sweet kiss as he entered her in one swift stroke that made her cry out from the sheer amazement of how good he felt inside her.
“God, Janey,” he muttered through gritted teeth. Something in him seemed to snap as he abandoned his tightly held control and hammered into her. With both hands, he clutched her bottom, holding her right where he wanted her for his fierce possession.
Janey had never experienced anything even close to Joe out of control, crazy in love and lost in passion. She could only hold on for the ride until a second orgasm, even more powerful than the last, ripped through her, drawing an equally turbulent finish from him.
Gasping for air, he clutched her close to him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be so rough.”
She brushed the hair back from his damp forehead. “Please don’t apologize. I loved it.”
“I’ve never lost my mind like that before.”
Janey loved knowing she had done that to him. “No?”
His eyes locked on hers, he shook his head, brushing soft kisses on her lips. “Never.”
“Did you like it?”
“If I liked it any more, it might’ve killed me.”
She laughed and tightened her legs around him, keeping him from shifting off her. “Stay.”
He rested his head on her chest and continued to take deep breaths. “I’m not going anywhere, sweetheart.”
Janey held him tight against her and closed her eyes, wallowing in the contentment of being exactly where she belonged.
She woke up before dawn the next morning to Joe placing soft kisses on her back.
Arching into his embrace, she wanted to purr like a kitten.
Janey clung to the pillow as he reawakened her body, working his way down her spine.
It occurred to her that if she hadn’t walked in on David with another woman, she might never have known this kind of passion existed.
She would’ve married him and gone on with her life, thinking she understood desire. What she would’ve missed. . .
Joe reached her bottom and paid homage to each cheek, kissing, licking, biting.
He had her on the verge of another climax within seconds.
Raising her to her knees, he entered her from behind.
Whereas before he’d taken her fast and hard, this time was all about slow and sensual—and still, he hadn’t said a word.
He kept up the slow, easy pace until Janey thought she’d go mad from the sensations storming through her body.
Cupping her breasts, he tweaked her nipples, sending a jolt of shocking desire straight down to where they were joined.
As he was always so in tune with her, he sensed she was close, so he reached down and stroked her to climax. They collapsed into a heap on the bed.
“I love you,” he whispered in her ear.
Janey clutched his hand to her chest. She loved him, too. Of course she did. But was she in love with him? She could be. Absolutely. However, until she was sure, she couldn’t say the words she knew he needed to hear.
“Joe, I—”
“Don’t, honey. Don’t say anything.”
How well he understood her, and how grateful Janey was to be so in sync with him.
“I need to go.”
“Not yet.”
“If we’re going to keep this just between us, I shouldn’t be seen leaving here in the morning.”
Janey turned to face him. “Are you sure you’re okay with keeping it a secret for a while?”