* * *
ALYSSE KNEW SHE’D MADE a huge mistake by coming here. She’d already been in a “romantic” mood, thinking that this Marine was going to make a gesture that would win back his woman. Being the woman in question...well, a cupcake wasn’t enough, but sadly Jay was. He was the guy she’d been waiting for and now she found she was ready.
Her control of the kiss lasted briefly and then Jay’s hands were on her hips and he pulled her off balance and into him. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and was overcome with an emotion that was embarrassing. She felt the sting of tears so abruptly she stopped the kiss and rested her head on his shoulder.
It had been too long. She took a deep shuddering breath. She refused to cry. But she couldn’t help it when he slid one hand up her back to her neck and rubbed her shoulders.
“Ah, Aly. I’m so sorry.”
“Me, too,” she admitted, the truth finally revealing itself. Jay wasn’t someone she could be casual about, as he’d said. If she couldn’t walk away now and not look back, she was never going to be able to do it.
She might want to pretend that she had some say over her emotions, but truthfully she didn’t, not where he was concerned.
He tipped her chin up, looking down at her with those big dark chocolate-brown eyes of his and he kissed her. His hands framed her face as his mouth moved over hers with the confidence and surety she remembered.
But then his tongue slid against hers and she stopped thinking. She just let her feelings take over. Shivers spread down her spine. Her breasts felt full and needy. She shifted her shoulders to rub against him and he moaned deep in his throat as he widened his stance so that his hips cradled hers.
She felt the nudge of his cock as he hardened and she moaned a little as he rubbed himself against her.
She was alive and nothing else mattered to her in that moment. Jay’s hands were under her shirt and sliding over her back. His big calloused hands caressed up and down her spine until she was arching against him, trying to get even closer.
He lifted her off her feet and took a few steps before sitting down on the closest chair. She straddled him and looked down at him, smiling.
“I want you,” he said. He took the tip of his finger and drew it down the center of her throat and then caressed the skin where her neck and throat met. It was a particularly sensitive spot for her and she shuddered with awareness.
“I can tell,” she said, rocking her hips over his
erection.
“I never could hide the way you make me feel,”
he said.
“I’m glad,” she said. She didn’t want to talk. If they did, she’d start thinking and worrying and she’d have to leave. And right now she was remembering that it had been a very long time since any man had touched her this way.
She leaned down, dropped nibbling kisses against his jaw, and slowly worked her way to his lips. When she met his mouth, he tunneled his fingers through her hair and tangled his tongue with hers. She shifted on his lap and knew she was close to climaxing.
She reached between them, running her hands over his chest encased in that black T-shirt. He was a fine-looking man, she thought. She reached for the hem of the shirt and lifted it up and over his head.
She sat on his thighs and looked down at the light smattering of hair on his chest. The muscles pulsed as she moved her touch over him.
She traced the line of hair that narrowed over his hard stomach before it disappeared into the waistband of his jeans where flesh met fabric. His stomach tightened and he let out a long, low breath.
“Damn, woman...”
“Like that?” she asked, feeling a heady sense of power over him. This was what she’d wanted. She needed to be in control.
“Love it.”
“Good,” she said, shifting on his lap to lean forward and kiss his chest. She kissed each pec and then used her tongue on his brown nipples. Gooseflesh spread down his body wherever she touched him.
His hands tightened on her waist and then he swept his hands up her back, taking off her shirt. He tossed it to the side and brought his hands around to her breasts. He cupped them and leaned into her.
She felt the arousing warmth of his breath on her skin before the brush of his lips. He kissed the scalloped edge of her lacy bra over one breast and then the other. She shuddered on his lap, fighting to control the sensations that threatened to overtake her.
He put his hands around her midriff and then brushed his thumbs up until he found the center of her nipple under the lacy fabric of her bra. Using his thumbs, he stroked back and forth and she found his mouth.