I opened my mouth to tell him yes, when my phone buzzed. I grabbed it and saw a text from Harper. She’d made good time and was fifteen minutes early, waiting for me out front.
“My ride is here,” I whispered.
Jack nodded once. “I’ll walk you out.”
He took my glass and set it on the coffee table. I grabbed my purse, feeling hot and bothered, and like I had just missed a moment I desperately wanted to get a second chance at.
He led me back to the front door, but instead of opening it, he maneuvered me so that my back was against it and he faced me. His dark eyes zeroed in on mine and I knew right then, that yes, I was small prey in the sights of a predator. A sexy, tanned-skinned predator.
“Tonight was surprising,” I stated like a moron. But I felt like it needed saying, since Jack was closing in on me, his black gaze on my mouth.
“I agree, and I want to hear what you were about to say.”
I tried to take another step back, but there was nowhere to go. The cool door pressed against my back, and I felt the indentations of yet more masterfully carved wood.
“I was going to say…well, do something…I shouldn’t—” Shit! I couldn’t say what I needed to. What made sense. But what made sense didn’t seem to match up with what my body wanted. And that was Jack.
“You shouldn’t what, Lana?” His voice was like gravel, zinging through th
e air and hitting every part of my skin, making me shiver and ache.
“I shouldn’t want you,” I whispered.
The faintest grin tugged at his mouth, and it was heart-stopping because there was something sinful about it.
“I disagree completely.”
He closed the distance and seized my lips with his. Hard and rough. One hand cupped the side of my face, and he pressed his thumb down on my chin, causing my mouth to open.
He didn’t wait. Didn’t ask. He just took.
Thrusting his tongue inside, he consumed me. The heat and intensity of his body pressed against mine, his erection digging into my stomach made me want to arch my hips into him.
It should have frightened me. The feel of him. So close. So hard. But it didn’t. He must have read my mind, or my body, because he gripped the back of my knee with his free hand and yanked me closer.
A moan escaped, because his actions caused my dress to bunch at my hips, his hard cock now rubbing against my center.
Flashes of pleasure crackled from my core to my breasts and everywhere in between. He didn’t stop. Didn’t let up. Just took me. And I felt his power—wanted to drink it down like a potion, in hopes that maybe I would walk away with some myself.
Weaving his tongue in and out like a lusty dance, taking and demanding, I realized he wasn’t kissing me. He was consuming me. As if I were edible and made of sugar, he licked, sucked, and bit. Owning my mouth and my body, like he knew exactly how to move and how to work me over so that I felt…
In control.
Which was confusing, because I felt totally dominated by him at the same time. Not in a way that terrified me, but in a way that snapped every ounce of will I had to the forefront and pushed away the uncertainty.
All I felt with Jack was a heady dose of confidence, power, and desperation. An elixir he had locked up and in one kiss, I was already addicted.
He growled my name and tore his mouth from mine to nip my earlobe, then sucked on the pulse beating wildly in my throat.
The hand on the back of my knee slid a little higher. Gripping my leg, he dug his thumb into my inner thigh, so close to the place I was craving him most. A violent jolt of wet need rushed, and I pressed closer against him. Desperate to ease the ache I never realized could hurt so much.
When his mouth traveled lower, the stubble on his strong jaw scraped my collarbone. Sparks rushed to my nipples, as if they were standing up and begging for attention. I was on fire, melting from the heat of him. The heat that was purely Jack.
I groaned, my mind spiraling out of control. In that moment, I’d never felt more consumed. More guarded. It was the same feeling I had the second Jack sat down:
Safe.
He was the wall I’d been searching for.