"Stars Fell on Alabama" was playing. It was their song. The song they'd danced to at the reunion on the night they'd made love.
Jake led her under the canopy and they were secluded from the world. She felt that she was the wrong woman in the wrong place. This was a romantic dream and not at all anything that practical Larissa Nielsen had ever experienced. But she wasn't Larissa Nielsen anymore. She was Larissa Danforth. And maybe romance was what she needed.
"Dance?" he asked.
She nodded and he pulled her into his arms. Her head fell to his shoulder and he danced her around the rooftop. "It feels like a lifetime since that night," he said.
Jimmy Buffet sang … did it really happen? And it was a question that Jake had asked himself many times since he'd last made love to her. The memory of it was so vivid and so real, and yet unbelievable.
"I was so nervous about dancing with you," she confessed.
"Why?"
"Because you're a good dancer and I'm not."
"I didn't notice that."
"I didn't either. Once you took me in your arms, all my worries dropped away. It was … magical."
He didn't say anything, but he'd felt the same way. It had been a magical night. A moment out of time to be treasured for always. He lowered his head and dropped nibbling kiss down the side of her neck. She sighed and tipped her head to the side to give him greater access.
He sucked lightly at the pulse beating strongly at the base of her neck. She shivered in his arms. He soothed her with languid strokes of his hands down her back.
She pushed her fingers into his hair and pulled his head down to hers. Raising on tiptoe, she kissed him. Her lips moved over his with intent, arousing in him a need that had never been sated.
He wanted to let her take the lead so that later on there'd be no question of him seducing her. But he couldn't just stand there. He stopped dancing and lifted her in his arms with his hands on her buttocks and thrust his tongue deeply into her mouth.
He craved her. He doubted that anything less than total surrender would satisfy the ache that kept growing inside him.
She pulled back, gasping for breath and watching him with wide eyes. He dropped his hands and stepped away from her, clenching his fists at his side.
"Let's eat."
"Jake?"
"Not right now, Larissa. Food, first."
"I don't want food."
He paused and glanced over at her. "What do you want?"
"You," she said, and walked toward him purposefully.
* * *
Blood rushed through his veins, pooling in his groin as she walked closer. He staggered back and had to sit down on one of the dining chairs. He'd expected to have to woo her slowly. He had, in fact, arranged for total privacy for them on the rooftop by asking the hotel staff to wait for his request before coming upstairs.
She continued toward him, a smile spreading over her face. The music still played in the background—no longer Jimmy Buffett but some smooth-sounding classic jazz. Miles Davis. Not an artist that was his favorite but one that he knew Larissa loved.
She paused. "Miles Davis?"
He nodded.
"How'd you know?"
"Woman, you've got about fifteen different CDs of his."
"You're observant."
Only when something mattered, he thought. And Larissa mattered to him in ways he was only beginning to explore.
"I like that," she said, still moving toward him slowly.
"Good." He stood and crossed the small space between them in two strides. It had been an eternity since he'd last held her in his arms.
He'd been aroused since they'd stepped off the plane and no amount of work, exercise or cold showers had dulled it.
Her mouth opened under his and he told himself to take it slow, but slow wasn't in his programming with this woman. She was pure temptation. He slid his hands down her back, pulling the zipper of her dress down at the same time.
Her bodice loosened, and from his angle looking down at her, he could see the tops of her breasts and the barest hint of her nipples. He lowered his head, using his teeth to pull the loosened fabric away from her skin.
She wore a demure cotton bra under her wedding dress and that simple undergarment made something clench deep inside him. Her nipples stood out against the plain fabric. He ran the tip of one fingertip around her aroused flesh. She trembled in his arms.
He undid the front clasp of her bra and brushed the cups away. Lowering his head, he took one of her nipples in his mouth and suckled her. She gasped his name and held him to her with a strength that surprised him. He pulled back and blew lightly on her skin.
She shivered and tried to direct his attention to her other nipple, but he held back. Knowing that his control would shatter at any moment, he wanted to savor this feeling of anticipation while he still could.