Gradually, his movements slow down. He slumps against me, slowly softening, still buried in me. He slams a hand into the trunk above my head.
“Holy fuck. That was…” He shakes his head. “Damn.”
He feels so good inside me, even not fully hard, and I love holding on to his trembling body as he struggles to catch his breath. Love the musk of his clean sweat and the nutty scent of his seed, the fainter notes of cinnamon and spice drawing me until I bury my nose where his shoulder meets his neck and inhale deep.
God. So delicious. I’m acting like a mad woman, and I don’t care. Besides, nobody is here to see me.
I hope.
“All right, kitten?” He lowers my leg and smooths down my dress, then he lifts one hand and strokes my cheek. It’s too dark to see the color of his eyes, but I feel his lips when they touch the tip of my nose.
“Yeah.”
I should hate the nickname. Kitten. Ridiculous.
And yet it’s cute. As for calling me Embers, I can’t complain anymore. Not when I know that Embers means something important to him.
“Not so romantic here,” he says. “I know that. I’d buy you flowers. Would you like that?”
Okay, I’m speechless again. “You’d buy me flowers?”
But he hates shopping, is the only coherent thought I manage.
“Hell yeah, I’d buy you flowers. And chocolates, and whatever you want.” He cups my face. “Red roses?”
“No.” I look away, face heating. What girl doesn’t like red roses? “White roses. They stand for new beginnings.” I shrug at his arched brow. “My mom’s a florist.”
He nods, his expression going blank. How weird, I think, that he loves babies but goes stiff when I speak of my parents. That he talks about sending me roses after having sex against a tree trunk. So many contradictions.
“Ready to go?” He takes my hand, and I let him pull me out of the cover of trees, heading toward the street, my mind buzzing.
It’s not until we’re sitting in a cab and rolling that I realize I’m still not wearing my panties, and that they’re lying somewhere in the park.
Then Jesse kisses me, and they’re again forgotten. Who needs panties, anyway, with this man? They’d only get in the way.
***
The house is frigging huge. The gate is open, music and noise spilling into the street. Inside there are pools with stone alligators at the edges. The small crowd of the wedding has expanded. There have to be at least a hundred people milling about the grounds, shadows until they move close to the torches stuck in the ground and the illuminated pools. A long table with food stands on one side. The scent of water tells me we’re on the lake shore.
Crazy place. Never expected anything so grand. I hope Asher and Audrey are enjoying their reception. After what I heard during the ceremony, they more than deserve it.
If only I enjoyed this, too…
Jesse’s arm is a welcome weight around my shoulders, and I’m grateful beyond words for his presence, but as we stroll along one pool, watching candles and bunches of flowers floating in the milky, lit-up water, I know I have to let him do his thing—talk to his friends, catch up with them, talk to new people, without me attached like a leech to his side. Both for his sake, and mine.
I mean, it doesn’t have to be for the whole time, right? I can go find Kayla and Ev, at the very least, and return to him later.
If he’s still available and willing to hold my hand.
“Trust me,” he said earlier.
Maybe I should. Maybe I should trust myself, too, to survive for an hour without need of a babysitter.
A very sexy, handsome babysitter. Still…
“Hey, I was
thinking…” I start to pull away from him, and his arm instinctively tightens around my shoulders, then drops to his side.