He ran a hand through his hair as he looked down at the brochure and then grinned. ‘You’re right, of course you are.’
‘I’m always right,’ she teased, looking up into his eyes and realising how much closer she’d stepped as she’d worked on convincing him.
‘Is that so?’ He turned into her, his hands reaching for her waist, and she had no desire to pull away. This was what she wanted. What she needed.
She leaned into him, her ‘Yes...’ a whisper, a plea, as he bowed his head and she tilted her own back. His lips brushed over her own, her sharp inhale a striking contrast to the softness of his mouth and its coaxing pressure.
‘Sophia...’ He parted her lips with his tongue, brushing against hers with teasing intent. As if he was savouring her, exploring her, drawing her out, the inner desire that she’d never known existed until now, until him.
She raised her fingers to his chest and felt his warmth, the hard muscle beneath his jumper, and travelled higher still until her hands were in his hair, holding him to her as he took the same journey over her body.
She was aching, an incessant, thudding pang spreading through her lower belly that promised so much pleasure.
He broke from her mouth to travel along her jawline, his stubble teasing the same path, his tongue, his teeth—oh, yes. She clung to his head, her own arching back as he brushed against her ear, his lips teasing with his words. ‘Never have I wanted someone like I want you.’
‘Take me then, Jack, please,’ she sighed against him, her breasts pressing into his chest, her leg hooking around him to draw him closer, to hold him near. ‘I need you.’
And he needed her too. She could feel his hardness pressing urgently against her, could feel his desire rising with her own, his breath as short. He came back to her mouth, this time hungry, his tongue plundering, and she was ready, willing, waiting. She gave it back to him in return, leaving him in no doubt as to how much she wanted this.
He grabbed her by the hips and lifted her onto the counter, wrapped her legs around himself as he came back to claim her lips.
‘This is crazy,’ he rasped against her. ‘Crazy and out of control.’
‘Crazy but so good.’ She pulled his lips back to hers, her hands dropping to the hem of his jumper as she tugged it over his head and leaned back. She had to see him. She needed to.
His dark skin glowed in the light of her kitchen, the sheen of perspiration reflecting in the light, his short breaths rippling his pecs. ‘You’re beautiful.’
He gave a gentle scoff. ‘I’m a man.’
‘So?’ She looked up into his blazing greys, so dilated with desire, and the next words came out gruff with her own need. ‘You’re still beautiful.’
And then she was kissing him again, feeling his hot hands on her bare skin as they slipped beneath her jumper, her nerve-endings coming alive, savouring every sweep of his hands, every light brush of his fingers as they smoothed beneath the band of her bra. She was losing her mind—it was the only way to describe the intense rush of feeling inside her.
‘I want you, Sophia.’ He yanked the jumper over her head, her hair tumbling around her bare shoulders as he threw her jumper to the side.
‘I want you too.’
He lifted her from the counter and walked her to the sofa bed, easing her down before stretching out beside her, his mouth hot against her lips, her neck. Her hands raked down his back as he travelled over her skin, making her writhe and plead. ‘Please, Jack, please.’
She wanted to say more, so much more. She wanted to say, Be my first, wanted him to know what that meant to her, but he already knew. Just as she knew the reminder would stop him, as it had before, and so she clamped down on her bottom lip and told him with her body what she wanted.
‘Come with us, Sophia—come with us to Iceland.’
Her eyes shot open and she gazed down at him, hardly daring to believe the question and knowing at the same time that she couldn’t. The thought, the idea of being surrounded by her fear, by the past, by the snow... She shook her head and shifted beneath him to remind him of her body, of what she wanted in that moment. What he so wanted too.
‘You can’t ask me that, Jack. Don’t ask me that.’
He raised himself up over her, his elbows planted either side of her body to bear his weight. ‘Why not?’
‘Because I can’t. We can’t.’
He kissed her until she was breathless, panting. ‘Why?’
‘We don’t even know they’ll be available for her birthday yet.’
‘That doesn’t matter. They will be available at some point and I want you to come.’
She shook her head, the emotions clawing at her throat and her chest, making it hard to breathe. ‘We both know this has to end and that the longer we spend together with Lily, the more likely it is that she will become attached too.’