Emma took a few steps toward him, stopping when she was standing just between his knees. She placed her hands on his shoulders and looked down at him.
God, she was beautiful. The fact that she didn’t think so just made her that much more attractive. Even when the mask had hidden most of her face, there was a beauty that shone out of her from the inside. Perhaps that was what he’d been drawn to all this time. No mask, no boxy suit, no stuffy demeanor could suppress it.
Jonah ran his palms along the outside of her legs, down and back up to her hips. There, he pulled her dress shirt out from where she’d tucked it into her waistband. He immediately sought out the silk of her skin beneath it, stroking her elegantly arched back and sides that seemed to quiver at his touch. She was content to let him explore, closing her eyes and just feeling him.
He unfastened her dress pants, sliding them over her hips to the floor. Once she’d stepped out of them, Jonah hooked his hand behind her knee and pulled her toward him. With little resistance, she crawled into his lap, straddling him on the bed. He ran his hands over her smooth thighs and hips before turning his attention to her blouse. One by one, he slipped the pearl buttons through the holes until Emma was astride him in little more than a lacy peach-colored bra and panties.
Emma reached up and pulled a few pins from her hair. With a shake of her head, the dark brown waves broke free of their restraints and tumbled down around her shoulders. The scent of her shampoo swirled around him. Jonah could only wrap his arms around her waist to hold her securely in his lap as he leaned in and buried his face in her creamy, lace-clad breasts.
She gasped and wove her fingers into his hair, pulling him closer as he teased and tasted her sensitive skin. His tongue rubbed across the rough lace that kept her nipples confined, over and over until the fabric was damp. Frustrated by the impediment, he tugged the straps down her shoulders until her breasts were exposed. He kissed the inside of each one, then placed a kiss on the ridge of her sternum between them.
“Why are you wearing so much clothing while I’m wearing so little?” Emma asked. “I feel like I’m at a distinct disadvantage here.”
“You’re prettier naked than I am,” Jonah replied with a grin. He immediately followed his words with action, tugging his shirt up and over his head. He wanted as much of his skin to touch hers as possible. He wrapped his arms around her and pressed his bare chest against hers before meeting her lips with a searing kiss.
He couldn’t get enough of her. Not then and not now. She was unlike any other woman he’d ever known. She was his and he was hers in more ways than he could even describe. His butterfly had changed everything. And even if the thing with Game Town ended badly, he knew that if he made it out of this situation with Emma still in his arms, everything would be okay. She was his anchor, holding him steady so he wouldn’t drift out to sea. He couldn’t lose her.
Emma pulled away from his kiss, shifting in his lap and grinding against his erection with a wicked grin lighting her face. “Now,” she pouted.
He wasn’t about to deny her. Emma rose up onto her knees while he scrambled out of his jeans and kicked them away. And then, she slowly lowered herself back down, taking in every inch of him at a deliciously slow pace.
“Oh Emma,” he groaned into her hair, pulling her close as her heat enveloped him. “I’m never letting you go. Never.”
* * *
She didn’t want him to let go. She was content to stay right where she was forever. Emma had never felt so close, so connected to a man before. As she raised her hips and lowered them, rocking back and forth in his lap, the delicious friction her movement generated hit in all the right places.
A heat that started in her belly seemed to spread through her whole self. As her temperature shot up, the close proximity of their bodies made her skin break out in a thin sheen of perspiration. Each time Emma moved, her moist skin glided across his. Jonah only clutched her tighter as the sensations they were each experiencing grew more and more intense.
Emma wanted to find her release like this. She wanted to come apart wrapped in his arms. She wanted him to feel every tremble, every aftershock, and then she wanted to experience the same thing for him. This closeness was what she truly craved with Jonah. Here, in this moment, she could truly believe that they were supposed to be together. She could open her heart enough to let him in, if just for a moment.
She was roused from her thoughts by Jonah’s encouraging whispers in her ear. “Ahh, yeah. That’s my beautiful butterfly. Come apart for me, baby.”
The low rumble of his voice against her ear and neck sent goose bumps through her body. She moved faster, rocking her hips hard until her muscles ached and her knees burned. It was when she almost had nothing more to give that she reached her goal. As suddenly as a snapping of fingers, her body gave in and the pleasurable sensations rushed through her.
Jonah held her tight, continuing to whisper to her as her body shuddered and spasmed in his arms. When the rush subsided and she barely had the energy to hold on to him, he thrust hard from beneath her until with a final groan, lost himself in her. Jonah collapsed back onto the bed, taking Emma with him. After a moment, she rolled off and flattened into her mattress, drawing in a lungful of cooler air. They shifted around until Jonah could pull the covers up over them both and they snuggled together in the plush softness of her bed.
Lying there, looking up at her ceiling and listening to Jonah’s heartbeat pound in his chest, she wondered if this could really be what her life would be like now. With the audit behind her, she would soon be free to be with Jonah. She wasn’t sure how things would turn out, but even if they didn’t marry, surely her parents would be happier about the pregnancy if they were together. If they loved each other.
Did she love him?
She had questioned her feelings for Jonah repeatedly over the last few days. Now, lying in his arms, making love to him again, it was easy to admit to herself that she did. She had loved him since that first night. She’d just been afraid to acknowledge the truth, even to herself. Love was a scary proposition, and love with a man like Jonah could be downright terrifying.
He was everything she thought she shouldn’t want. Exciting, spontaneous, rebellious, passionate... For some reason, she’d lumped all those qualities in with irresponsible and dangerous, when that was hardly the case. She didn’t need a man to be boring. She just needed him to be there for her. Jonah might very well be that man.
Emma was so content in his arms and so deep in thought that when her cell phone rang, she was tempted not to answer. And she wouldn’t have except for the fact that it was her work ringtone. It was awfully late to be fielding calls from the office. Then again, they wouldn’t call her if it wasn’t necessary.
She answered the phone, seeing her boss’s name on the screen. “Hello?”
“Emma. We have a problem,” Tim said.
Her stomach instantly felt as though it had twisted into a knot. How could they have a problem? She hadn’t even filed the report yet. And she’d disclosed everything. She sat up in bed and grabbed her robe off the hook. “What’s wrong?” she asked as she nervously walked out of the bedroom and tied her belt. She needed to focus and couldn’t with Jonah’s nude body sprawled on her bed.
“I spoke with Mark not too long ago. He told me about the conversation you had with him today. I really don’t appreciate being left out of the loop on something so important. You should’ve come to me with this issue first.”
Emma’s free hand curled into a fist at her side. She went to her coworker for support and he’d ratted her out before she’d had a chance to do what she needed to do. “He gave me some advice and I’m following it. I’ll have my r
eport to you first thing in the morning. I wanted to read over it again before I submitted it.”