15. Ember #3
“I don’t know, just do it by feel?”
“Do it by feel?”
“You know what I mean!”
“I don’t think I do, Ember.”
“Just drop the towel and reach forward,” I said, turning to face him so he could get at the sports bra without ripping my arms out of their sockets. But, smart as I was, I didn’t consider what I’d just told Jack to do.
It was the near hypothermia. It was making me confused.
Because what happened next was Jack, his eyes dutifully squeezed shut, reaching forward with outstretched hands. Hands that were right at my chest height, with my own arms pinned above my head and unable to react.
The instant his palms connected with my breasts, Jack’s eyes flew open. He jerked his hands back with an apology, but then his gaze dropped to my exposed chest. My hard nipples. My sweat- and water-drenched body. Time stood still for a second. Two.
“Jack!”
“Shit,” he said, jerking his gaze away from my tits.
“Sorry! Sorry. I just—I wasn’t expecting—hang on.
” He wrenched the wet activewear off my elbows and freed me from my Lycra prison.
I slapped my hands over my boobs and turned my back to him, hurrying to throw on the oversized T-shirt he’d left for me.
It smelled like him. I just about died. While I gathered my wet clothing into the towel and hurried to the passenger seat, Jack threw his sweatshirt on and wrapped a towel around his wet shorts before getting behind the wheel.
He blasted the heat and then we just sat there.
My almost-husband cleared his throat. “I, um.”
I got over my own mortification to slide my gaze sideways and was surprised to see the flush spreading over his cheekbones.
“I’m sorry about…all that.”
“Which part?” I grumbled.
He didn’t answer for a long time. “Probably dunking you in the ocean. That’s what caused…all this.” He shifted, wiping his palm over the orange terrycloth of the old beach towel he’d wrapped around his hips.
Something in his tone of voice made me turn to study him. Really look at him. Then I said, “Jack. Are you embarrassed right now?”
He shot me a glare, and his eyes immediately dropped to my chest. A second later, his eyes slid shut, and his jaw went tight. “Not embarrassed,” he said. “Not exactly.”
The warm air blowing through the vents was thawing my frozen fingers.
Blood prickled as it returned to cold limbs, and my thoughts began to move more quickly.
I glanced down at myself to see the wet outline of my breasts pressing against the front of the white T-shirt he’d given me, nipples hard and clearly visible. I slapped my arms over my chest. “Oh.”
“You have fantastic breasts,” he said.
“Jack!”
“I’m just trying to explain! It surprised me!”
“It surprised you?”
A low growl rumbled through him, and then he was whacking the gearshift with his palm and backing out of the parking spot. “Forget I said anything. Forget this morning happened, actually.”
“Great idea.”
“I’ll never take you jogging again.”
“That’s the best news I’ve gotten all day.” I shot him another glance, and the flush on his cheeks had spread down his neck. He stretched it from side to side, squinting at the road like it was taking all his concentration not to crash. The drive was silent, and finally we were home.
Before I could escape up the stairs to my attic room, Jack stopped me by calling my name. “I’m sorry,” he said. “What happened today will not happen again,” he said emphatically, slicing a hand through the air.
I nodded like I was glad to hear it, but inside, I wondered why my chest felt like it was caving in. With nothing more to discuss, I scurried up to my room and locked the door.
JACK
Hot water sluiced down my body, and I did my best to think about anything other than Ember’s soft flesh and her eyes full of lightning.
I washed my hair and tried to forget the way she’d kissed me in the water.
The way she’d felt in my palms. The way she’d looked, half-naked and outraged, when I’d opened my eyes from the shock of touching her.
The way the white fabric had clung to her breasts as she sat there, oblivious, and how badly I’d wanted to lean down and take one of those hard nipples in my mouth.
I was more turned on than I’d been in years.
It was constant. Endless. Every day brought fresh images and fantasies and desires.
As the days wore on, the fantasies were growing strange.
Fantasies of late nights on the couch, with her head in my lap.
Waking up beside her on a lazy Sunday morning.
Showing her all my favorite places in and around town, and then coming home and telling her to get on her knees just to see the pretty pink flush spreading over her cheeks.
I wondered, as I took myself in hand, if I’d ever felt this intensity of desire before at all. Water battered my back as I bowed my head and gripped myself, running down the back of my neck and into my nose and mouth, but all I could think of was Ember.
I came harder than I had in years, and it barely knocked the edge off my need for her.