“It is for an elf,” he said. “Here.” He lifted her and sat her on the passenger seat, then closed her door.
“Hey!” But he was walking around the vehicle to his side. She glared at him when he slid in and he grinned.
“I’m teasing.” He leaned over and brushed his mouth across hers, sending tingles cascading over her whole body. She blinked at him, then remembered to fasten her seatbelt.
He parked on the street in front of her apartment building in the quiet residential neighborhood and walked with her to the door. As she paused at the door, the shadows of the tall queen palm shifting moonlight over and around them, he slipped his fingers beneath her chin and lifted her face. She stared back at him, her gaze moving over his dark eyes, crinkled at the corners as he smiled, the cleft in the middle of his chin, the sexy curve of his lower lip. Oh. Her breath whooshed out of her.
Heat expanded, the air around them feeling like it might ignite, and then they were wrapped in each other’s arms, mouths fused together in a hot, impetuous kiss, bold, frantic and hungry.
His arms crushed her to him, her purse thunked to the ground and her feet lifted as he hauled her higher and tighter to his body.
“Jesus,” he muttered against her mouth, before taking it again in another devouring kiss. She kissed him back, mindless, frenzied. The sexual tension that had been smoldering inside her all evening burst into flames. Heat swept over her.
His tongue dragged over hers, licked her bottom lip, then his mouth sealed over hers again. An intense ache bloomed low in her belly, and she slid her hands into his hair, holding his head, and she kissed him back, a full-mouthed, full-bodied kiss that had more heat exploding between them.
Eventually, she pulled back, panting, heart hammering, and gasped, “Wait.”
He made a sound like a groan.
“We don’t have to do this,” she wheezed. “This was supposed to be an act.”
He made a derisive noise. “Yeah. It was supposed to be. But don’t tell me you don’t feel it too, Shelby Rose.”
His hands tightened on her ass, pulling her against him, and she felt his erection against her belly. Holy crap, he was big. She’d made him that hard. And he’d made her so wet her panties were soaked. You couldn’t fake that kind of reaction. She gazed up at him, uncertain of what to do now.
“Invite me in,” he ordered softly.
She licked her lips. She wanted to, she really, really did, but she’d made this mistake before. Slept with guys too soon, because they got her all hot and bothered, because dammit she liked men, and she loved sex. Her friends had analyzed to death her tendency to fall into bed with men and she knew it had to do with wanting attention from them, and she was determined she was done with all that. But all those old doubts fell away when she studied him, remembering what he’d done for her that evening, how he’d helped her, how he’d really cared that she fixed things with her boss, and a tender warmth spread through her. She was lost.
“Okay.” She bent to pick up her purse where she’d dropped it, but he was faster scooping it up and handing it to her. She took it, dragged her eyes off his face, and led the way through the small lobby toward the elevator.
“Third floor,” she murmured inside, and he punched the button. Awareness crackled around them in the small space and then they were all over each other again, kissing in deep, wet, sliding kisses. Her hands dug into his big shoulders and she gasped when he spun her around and pressed her against the elevator wall with his body. Dear god in heaven, that felt good, his big, strong body crushing her, and she strained to get closer still. He lifted one of her legs up to rest on his thigh and oh yes, that was so very good, with added pressure right between her legs.
The elevator doors slid open and they fell out, still clutching each other, and somehow stumbled down the hall to the door of her apartment. Lust and adrenaline surged through her veins like liquid heat as she tried to get her key in the lock with shaking hands. He crowded her from behind, nuzzling her hair, and then the door opened and they surged inside. Jake kicked the door closed behind him.
She should have been nervous, afraid even, of bringing a stranger into her apartment, especially someone who was so dominant and big and almost overwhelming, but all she could think of was that she wanted to strip him naked and lick him all over.
Foreplay had apparently been occurring over the course of the picnic, with the sexy dancing and touches and heated looks they’d shared all for the purpose of convincing people they were actually together. Now heat had built to the point of combustion and neither of them needed, nor wanted, to wait any longer.
Clothes flew off on the way to the bedroom between hot kisses, her tank top landing on the hall floor, his T-shirt on the knob of the bathroom door. She’d left the hall light on, and some light spilled into her dark bedroom as somehow they found their way in there, hands all over each other.
“Christ, you’ve got me so hot, I don’t even know my own name,” Jake muttered against her jaw.
“Oh I know.” She moaned at the rough texture of his beard stubble against her face. “Me too.”
He caught her chin in one hand and turned her face back to his for another long, heated kiss, his other hand finding the button of her jeans. His fingers slipped inside, pushing the zipper down, his fingertips just brushing the edge of her panties. She moaned again.
His fingers slid down from her jaw to gently cup her throat in a dominant, possessive gesture that sent a ripple of excitement through her as they continued to kiss, mouths moving together. His tongue slid into her mouth, tasting faintly of the cola he’d been drinking earlier, dark and sweet. Then he trailed his fingertips down between her breasts, which ached and swelled in the lacy cups of her bra. She rubbed against him, bringing forth a low growl.
He pulled back a bit and looked down between them. “Sweet god have mercy,” he whispered, just staring at her breasts.
Yes, guys generally loved her breasts. And because this was the first time Jake had appeared to even notice them, she was inordinately happy that he was so appreciative, and affection for him swelled even bigger inside her.
He studied them, then slid both hands up to cup them, almost reverently. He pushed them together then rubbed his thumbs over her nipples through the lace, and heat flashed over every nerve ending.
“Very nice.” And then he grabbed her and picked her up. With a small shriek, she wrapped her legs around his waist, her arms around his head, and he carried her over to her bed. “You’ve got me so hot, I can’t fucking wait,” he growled. “This first time isn’t gonna be slow and gentle, sweetheart.”
“That’s okay.” She landed on the bed and he kneeled beside her, grasping her jeans and dragging them down over her legs, leaving her in pink lace bra and matching thong. “I can’t wait either.”
This first time. She’d be crazy to let hope and affection mingle, like it did every other time she had sex with a man, knowing that he was probably like every other guy and once he’d gotten off, he’d be gone and she’d never see him again.
But really, wasn’t that what this was all about? He’d helped her out by pretending they were a couple and that was it. Done. Never to be seen again. So what did it matter if they had sex? Why couldn’t she have hot, one-night-stand sex with a gorgeous guy? And if she was going to, wasn’t it better that it was Jake instead of her boss?
Her pussy throbbed and burned with need for Jake, and she couldn’t stop him any more than she could have picked up that big SUV of his and tossed it. The admiration in his eyes as his gaze moved over her warmed her even more. He looked down her bare legs, trailed his fingertips over the edge of her panties and down one thigh, then slid his gaze up over her torso lingering again on her breasts.