His nose was cold brushing her cheek, but his mouth was warm on hers, delicious and ardent. He drew back, rested his gloved hand on her cheek and their eyes met and held, the world spread below them, and time came to a halt. His dark eyes flashed, his lids lowered and they kissed again and she pressed closer to him. He hauled her closer, up onto his lap and the gondola swayed. Remi let out a little shriek, her stomach clutched and she dug her fingers into his jacket. Jason laughed softly and they started moving again and Remi grabbed tighter with a start, making him laugh again.
“Let’s go find some dinner,” he said after they’d disembarked from the Ferris wheel. She wanted to fall to her knees and kiss the ground, but instead held her bear tightly. “How about that Billy Goat Tavern?”
She smiled. “Touristy, but okay.”
“Come on, I’m new in town.”
They walked into the lively restaurant.
“What’s the biggest burger you have?” Jason asked the server.
“That would be the triple hamburger.”
“Okay, I’ll have that.”
Remi grinned behind her menu. He could probably eat two, the size he was. She ordered a hamburger. Jason sat her bear on the table, propping him up against the wall, making her laugh again. God, she hadn’t laughed so much in…okay, ever.
They’d just finished a dinner full of talk and laughter, teasing and flirting, when three women appeared beside their table. “Jase Heller!” one of them said with a big smile. “Can we get your autograph?”
“Uh…” Hell, he did not want to do this, but he was never rude to the fans. “Sure.” He cast an apologetic glance across the table at Remi.
“Here.” The woman dug in her purse and pulled out a pen. “I don’t have anything for you to sign, so you can do it right here.” And she pulled down her low-cut top so Jason could sign her chest, just above her left breast.
He gulped and tightened his jaw as he tried to sign without really touching her. It probably was no accident when she moved and her breast brushed against his arm.
“I saw you play against the Bruins last week,” one of the other women said, stepping up for her autograph. In the same place. “You got two goals.”
“Um, yeah.” He signed again and turned to the third woman, and when he’d finished signing her chest, she took the pen from him, took his hand, turned it palm up and wrote a phone number on it. Jesus.
“I love watching you play,” she purred, making intense eye contact, making her words sound dirty.
Jason swallowed, forced a smile and shot Remi a look. She sat there, stone-faced, mouth tight, hands clasped around her drink. She lifted one eyebrow at him.
The three women seemed in no hurry to leave and kept chatting until he finally said, “Sorry, ladies, but my girlfriend and I are just finishing dinner.”
The three women shot baleful looks at Remi, as if they hadn’t even noticed her sitting there until that moment, and finally left.
“Sorry,” he muttered, reaching across the table for her hand. “That never happens.”
“Really.”
She didn’t sound convinced.
“Well, it happens sometimes. I’m sorry, Remi.”
“Don’t apologize. It’s not your fault.” But she looked pissed. “And I’m not your girlfriend.”
“I had to get rid of them somehow. Let’s go,” he said, getting up from the table and holding out a hand to help her up. They emerged from the restaurant to a flash bursting in front of their eyes.
Oh, no. Not again.
Chapter Eight
“It’s okay,” Jason said, turning her from the photographers. He muttered under his breath. Jesus. What were they doing hanging around Navy Pier, for God’s sake? He never would have anticipated they’d be there, looking for someone to photograph. And Remi was already annoyed.
“I guess we’re done here,” he said. Damn. They’d been having such a great day.
“Yeah. I guess.”
He shot her a sideways glance, walking down the sidewalk, holding her hand, remembering the last time he’d tried to take her back to his place. “Will you come home with me?”
She stopped. They faced each other. She looked so pretty with that big scarf wrapped around her neck. “Will the paparazzi follow us there?” she asked.
“I don’t know.” He glanced over his shoulder. They seemed to have dispersed. “I don’t think so.”
“Will you wash that phone number off your hand?”
After a blink of his eyes, he burst out laughing. “Yes.”
She inhaled a long slow breath, then nodded and relief slid through him. “Okay.”
The elevator pinged and the doors slid silently open. They stepped in and he punched a button for his floor, then as the doors closed, he lifted her against him, effortlessly, and kissed her.
If she’d been standing, her legs likely would have given out, it was such a turn-on to be held aloft like that, against his chest, his mouth hot and hungry on hers. His strength turned her on. His mouth turned her on. His everything turned her on.
They kissed like that, wet, sliding, open-mouthed kisses until the elevator opened onto his floor and he carried her down the carpeted hall to his door. Only then did he gently lower her feet to the floor and she leaned against the wall, panting, while he unlocked the door.
He shoved the door open and they practically fell into the foyer, grabbing for each other, frantic, hot, hungry.
“It’s been so long,” he panted.
“I know.”
He unwrapped her scarf, shoved her jacket down over her shoulders and she wrestled out of it as he got rid of his jacket, tossing it into a pile on the floor. Then he picked her up again, this time straddling him, and she wrapped her legs around his waist as he walked to the bedroom.
She caught a glimpse of his apartment—stunning and modern with a wall of windows overlooking the glittering Chicago skyline, a couple of pieces of black leather furniture and a big screen television—before it disappeared from view as he strode into the bedroom. Dark. Shadowy.
He carried her over to the bed and stood there kissing her, hands beneath her ass. She tightened her legs on him and kissed him back, threading her fingers through his soft, dark hair.
Their mouths devoured each other over and over in hot hungry kisses. She needed more. She arched against him, bumping her center into his stomach. He groaned. He shifted her higher. She wrapped her arms around his head while he nuzzled at her breast, but damn, there were too many clothes in the way, her sweater and bra. She let go of his head and reached for the hem of the sweater and he clutched her tighter, shifting his feet to balance better as she straightened and tugged the sweater off over her head.
He made an appreciative noise in his throat as he looked down at her chest. “Very nice.”
She remembered that he’d liked black lace, this one very sheer and edged with velvet. Breathless, she looked down at his head as he bent and pressed a hot kiss to her chest between the curves of her breasts. Her heart thudded madly.
“So sweet,” he murmured. Then he tipped her back. She squealed and clutched onto him tightly with both arms and legs and he laughed, holding her suspended over the bed.
“Jason!”
He held her like that for a moment, just looking at her, then dropped her to the bed. She gave a tiny bounce and he reached for the lamp beside the bed, a warm glow spreading instantly around them.
He lifted one of her feet and tugged off the sheepskin-lined boot, then did the other. Then his fingers went to the button and zipper of her jeans. “Let’s get these off,” he said, and drew them down over her legs. “Oh yeah, that’s pretty.” He gazed at her matching panties, sheer black lace and velvet too, and she lay there clad in black lace and nothing else.