TWENTY-FOUR
JACK
It’s already past midnight when Emma and I leave the wedding festivities and stand in front of her room at the inn. “Okay, this is me.” She clears her throat and turns to me. “Do you want to come in?” she asks, lowering her gaze and smoothing down her dress.
I study her, wondering what her invitation includes. A whole new tension has grown between us today, and anticipation has been steadily building up to a point where it almost hurts.
There’s been the incidental touch here and there, turning into a deliberate touch as the day progressed. I held her in my arms when we danced, and our lips met in a kiss that awakened a particular need in me. I need to know where this could lead—if it could lead anywhere—so I nod and follow her inside.
With an ever-faster beating heart, I watch Emma take off her shoes and place the purse on the desk. She grasps the back of the chair, lowering her head, and before she turns around, I stand behind her and rest my hands on her waist. Emma’s mesmerizing scent fills my nose, and I deeply inhale the familiar fragrance. At once, the pull toward this woman intensifies, and I tighten my grip on her when my lips touch the bare, velvety skin on her shoulder. Again and again. I leave kiss after kiss along the back of her neck, over to the other shoulder, agonizingly slow .
Emma takes in a shuddery breath as she rests her hands on mine, intertwining our fingers. She tilts her head to the side to grant my mouth better access to the sensitive spot behind her ear. “Oh, Jack.” My name falls from her lips like the softest whisper, yet it hits me like the loudest roar. Her voice makes me tremble, makes me weak in the knees, and my desire for her grows exceedingly. She makes me feel things that no woman ever has. I want all of her, want to make her mine, and I’m finally ready to do that.
“Jack,” she whispers as she removes our entwined hands from her hips and turns around to face me. She looks up at me with heavy-lidded, lust-filled eyes.
Good, she wants this as much as I do.
“Jack.”
I will never tire of her saying my name like that. My eyes close as I draw in a slow breath, savoring the emotional high it sends me to. I meet her gaze as she cups my cheek. She tilts her head and narrows her eyes. “How drunk are you?”
I frown. So this is what she’s worried about. “I’m not,” I tell her, cupping her face and running my thumb along her lips—the lips I want to kiss so badly right now.
I lower my head, but just as my mouth is about to touch hers, she asks, “Are you sure you want this?”
With a chuckle, I let go of her and grasp her hand, placing it on my erection, which is getting harder and harder for her. “Is this answer enough?”
She closes her eyes and moans softly. “You won’t regret it in the morning?” she asks, eyes still closed.
I bury my fingers in her hair. “Look at me, Peach.” My thumb strokes her cheek, and her eyes open and blink at me. “I didn’t have any alcohol today. I want this. I want you, and I could never regret it in the morning.”
And I love you , I want to add, but I can’t drop that bomb on her now.
At last, her worried expression disappears, and her lips lift in a soft and sexy smile. “That’s good because I want this too. I’ve wanted you for so long, and I can’t believe this is finally happening.”
“Stop doubting, because this is definitely happening.”
I lower my head once more, but again, just before my lips brush over hers, she pulls back. “Are you sure you won’t freak out right in the middle of it all?” she whispers.
I bite my lips and rest my forehead against hers. “Oh, Peach,” I say with a sigh. “I’m sorry I make you doubt this so much. I promise I won’t freak out. We’ll do this, and you will scream my name when I finally make you come, okay?”
She trembles after hearing my words. “Okay,” she says.
“Good. Are we done talking?”
With the cutest expression and a blush suffusing her cheeks, she nods, and I close that last inch between us. When our lips meet in a slow and deep kiss, with our tongues encircling each other, my hands explore her body. They make their way down her front, over her beautiful, full breasts, onto her back, where they linger on her soft, round ass, all the while she runs her fingers through my hair.
I’m surprised at how tenderly and slowly this is happening, considering how long we’ve been waiting for it. I thought once we did this, there’d be clothes ripping and lots of impatience, but this is soft and tender and sensual as fuck.
I run my hands up her back, to the zipper of her dress. I pull it down until the whole thing lands in a puddle on the floor. My palms stroke her arms down to her hands, and our fingers intertwine. I step back and drink in her beauty, her soft curves, the swells of her gorgeous breasts, and the small bump.
Emma lets go of my hands to unbutton my shirt and slide it off my shoulders. She strokes my chest, using her nails a little, and I suck in a sharp breath at the sensation. My heart beats wildly against my ribs, but I know that this time, it’s not out of unease. It’s because of this woman standing in front of me, looking at me with so much affection, touching me everywhere within reach.
She undoes my pants, and when she drops to her knees and pulls them off along with my boxers, a low, guttural groan escapes me. “Ah, damn, Peach.” That’s all I manage to utter.
She looks at me with a cheeky smile before grabbing my dick, and my eyes close. I draw in another sharp breath when she runs her tongue along my shaft. I can’t remember the last time this felt so good. I don’t know if any woman ever made me feel the things Emma makes me feel while being intimate. Every sexual encounter up to now has been about relieving tension. But this, here, is so much more.
Emma flicks and twirls her tongue, and I groan when she wraps her lips around me. By now, I’m sure it’s never been like this, but I can’t let her continue. I grab her wrist. “Stop, Peach, or this will be over way too soon.”
She chuckles as I help her up. She saunters to her bed, pulling me after her before turning to me and unclasping her bra. I let out a deep growl when I see her naked breasts for the first time, and I can’t help but cup them, run my thumb over her hard nipples, and lower my mouth to suck on them. Emma moans at the contact and grabs my shoulders. “I need to lie down,” she breathes. So we lie down.
I caress her soft and full breasts a bit longer, enjoying how responsive she is to my touch and how she writhes underneath me while my hands explore more of her smooth body. I leave a trail of tender kisses all over her skin, over her belly, down to her hot core. When I see her soaking wet panties, another groan emanates from my chest. “These need to go,” I breathe on the skin of her inner thigh as I hook my fingers in the waistband of her underwear and pull them down.
It’s only now, when I see her glistening pussy, that the pace picks up. Only now, impatience spurs me on, and I lower my mouth to her, tasting her, inhaling her feminine scent. It’s been forever since I last tasted a woman like this, and I have no idea why, but it probably wouldn’t have been the same. No woman would have tasted like her. It’s pure agony to hold back and not embarrass myself, that’s how bad I want her, want to be buried deep inside her.
“Ah, Jack!” Emma screams. “Stop, please! Don’t make me come.”
“Why?” I narrow my eyes at her as she sits up and moves away from me .
Her cheeks flush even more when she whispers, “I told you I wanted to come with you the first time.”
I groan at her words and move my body over hers, pushing her into the sheets. “Fuck, Peach, that is so sexy.”
With a fierce impatience that’s making me lose control any second now, my body slips between her legs, and I hover above her so I don’t put any weight on her. I tenderly kiss her lips before pulling back and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. My eyes search hers. “You want me to use a condom?”
She blinks at me before furrowing her brows.
“Not to prevent a pregnancy, obviously,” I explain. “I, um, I’ve been tested since the last time I had sex. I’m clean.”
Emma smiles as she places her hand around the back of my neck to pull my face closer. “I trust you. And I’m clean too,” she whispers before her lips find mine again in a fervent kiss.
Great, that’s settled then.
I place my tip at her entrance and push in only a little. Even though I’m way too impatient to finally feel her wet heat wrapped around me, I slide into her body only slowly, inch by inch.
“Dammit, Jack!” Emma groans. “Would you hurry up and fuck me properly?”
I chuckle into her neck, and she arches her back and shudders. “Sorry, Peach. I’m just enjoying this moment so much.”
I keep up the slow pace until I’m all the way inside her. I stay like this for a couple of moments to savor everything I feel. Amazing things, none of them scary anymore .
“Ah, yes. That’s incredible,” Emma says with a soft sigh. Her lips find mine in a passionate kiss with our tongues melting together, and she moans into my mouth over and over when I pull out of her just to thrust right back into her, over and over. We move together in the most magnificent rhythm, panting each other’s names, grabbing, stroking, touching every patch of our burning skin within reach.
And then we both climax. Emma screams my name, tightening her grip on me everywhere, pushing me over the edge with her, just as she wanted.
I try hard not to collapse onto her body and crush her, so I lie beside her, pulling her with me without breaking our connection. We both still breathe heavily, our chests touching with every inspiration.
I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to come back down from this emotional high. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that I slept with the woman I love without being drunk. I touched her and let her touch me.
While that took me to a sad place in the past, it does the opposite now. Feeling her skin on mine is the most soothing sensation. While it used to take me to a moment of despair and sadness, it lifts me up now—all thanks to Emma, the woman who swept me off my feet right when I met her.
“Can we stay like this forever?” Emma asks with her head buried in the crook of my neck.
I wrap my arms around her a little tighter. “I’d love to,” I murmur into her hair before sucking in a sharp breath. “What are you doing?” I ask.
She chuckles as she tightens her inner muscles around the part of my body that’s still inside her. “I might be pushing my luck here, but can we do that again?” she asks and lifts her head to smile at me, and at the same time, she undulates her hips.
“Greedy little thing,” I say with a low laugh, and I laugh a little louder when she gasps and gives me a surprised look as I pull back and out of her. “Let’s take a shower.” I grab her hand and lead the way into the bathroom and the shower, where we do that again.
After another round of hot and steamy and—I can’t stress that point enough—sober sex, I lie in Emma’s bed, waiting for her to finish drying her hair. When she returns from the bathroom, I hold up the blanket. She snuggles up to me and wraps her arms around me. She buries her face in the crook of my neck again, and I smile to myself when she inhales deeply. “You didn’t freak out,” she murmurs, her breath tickling my skin.
“No, I didn’t.”
“And you didn’t leave after.” Emma trembles as my fingers draw lazy circles on her back.
“I told you I wouldn’t.”
She gives me a pleased smile before her gaze falls on my left arm. Her finger dances over my skin, just like it did that night at the ER. “I’ve been meaning to ask: when did you get your tattoo? Was that before everything happened?”
I chuckle and tighten my grip on her to have her even closer. “No, it wasn’t. That took so many sessions, and I spent most of the time breathing into a paper bag. But I wanted it, and I did it.” I add in a whisper, “Just as I wanted tonight.”
Emma lets out a quiet moan that I feel all the way down to my toes.
“Now sleep. You look exhausted,” I tell her.
“Good night, Jack,” she whispers, brushing her lips over mine.
“Good night, Peach,” I answer and return the kiss with just a little tongue.
And with that, we move even closer together and fall asleep quickly.