around Mallory, threatening the stability and peace he thought he’d found.
He glanced her way. The sunglasses he’d seen her eyeing earlier were perched on her scrunched-up nose. The wind had blown her hair into wild disarray and her cheeks were flushed from being outdoors-just how he imagined she’d look after a hot night of making love. With him.
Damn. Why hadn’t he thought of it as just sex? Jack swallowed back a curse. Had he really thought getting away from the hotel would give him distance? All this trip had done was bring them closer emotionally. This getaway hadn’t made him want her any less, nor had it alleviated the burning tension inside him.
“And those dreams of yours. Are they shut down as well?” he asked.
She nodded. “I got older, immersed myself in reality, decided to follow in my father’s footsteps and try to make the old man proud.”
“That’s too bad. Because I have a hunch if you let yourself, you’d find a goldmine of untapped dreams inside you.”
She rested her chin on bended knee and glanced his way. “Maybe I was wrong.” Her expression grew pensive. “I don’t think anyone can really close themselves off to dreaming,” she said softly. “Including you.”
He would have vehemently disagreed before this trip. He hadn’t thought he had any dreams for the future beyond the life he’d created. He’d always associated women with his mother and marriage with his parents’ disaster of a union.
And now…
“What was I thinking?” she asked before he could take his thoughts any further. “Macho men don’t dream and if they do, they don’t admit it.” She laughed, breaking the seriousness that had been surrounding them.
The sound, light and carefree, eased the growing knot of tension in his stomach. She was back to relaxing. Best of all she wasn’t asking him for a damn thing beyond their stolen time together. So why was he allowing himself to get caught up in such serious considerations like relationships, marriage and the future?
He turned his attention to the scenery. They’d left the stretch of homes behind and the now empty beach stretched out before them. Jack spotted a deserted outlet beneath a boardwalk where he could park. He turned into a secluded spot that afforded them a perfect view of the water, and because they were still in an exclusive area, they wouldn’t be interrupted by tourists. Jack silently thanked Eva, the gym manager, for telling him about this place even though her reasons for helping him would make Mallory green with jealousy.
He shifted to park and before he could blink she climbed over the seat and into the back, motioning for him to join her.
He studied her and glanced around them. “You sure about this?”
“Are you afraid of getting caught?”
He flew out of the car and joined her in the back seat. “You’re naughty, Mallory. And you’re also forgetting who extended this invitation.” He pulled her into his arms and into the kiss he’d been dying for all afternoon.
She didn’t resist. Her lips opened wide and she let him in, deeper than he’d thought possible. He moved his mouth over hers, tasting her luscious lips before moving to nuzzle her cheek, lingering only seconds before traveling down to her neck.
He suckled and soothed, then inhaled the fragrant scent of her perfume. “Man, you smell good.”
“Then keep going.” She tilted her head to provide him with better access as he slid his wet tongue across her collarbone. He pulled on the neck of her shirt and pressed butterfly-light kisses to the white skin on the swell of her breast.
She shuddered and let out a trembling sigh, but caught him off guard when her hands moved to the fly on his shorts. His brain warned him to stop as he had last night, but this time he couldn’t. He’d been holding back for too long, needed release by her hands too badly.
The pop of the snap echoed in the car and the rasp of his zipper moving over his straining erection caused a surge of renewed desire to flood his veins. “Sweetheart, our first time is not going to be in the back seat of an open convertible,” he said.
She opened her mouth to reply.
He pressed one finger to her lips. “Hush. Because nothing you say now, including a challenge, is going to change my mind.”
She licked at his finger and a sizzling current traveled from her hot mouth straight to his groin. He clenched his fists and cocked his head to the side.
“Okay. I can play just as easily another way.” She pushed his legs apart in a wide vee and settled herself in between before dropping to her knees in front of him.
Her hands reached for the band of his shorts and he let out a strangled groan.
“Lift your hips.”
He liked the command and his waist bucked forward in an involuntary response.
Mallory laughed. “That’s not what I meant.”
The strain of desire was wearing on him. “I know what you meant. I just can’t believe you mean to do this here.”
Her blue eyes darkened with real passion. “Oh, but I do.” She reached for the blanket on the floor beside her. He’d bought it in the gift shop, in case they stopped for food and wanted to sit on the beach. “Good planning, wouldn’t you say?” she asked.
“It’s not the reason I bought it.”
She shrugged. “That’s okay. I won’t hold it against you if my imagination’s better than yours. It’s a female thing, I guess.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Now lift those hips.”
“Bossy wench.”
“Yeah, and you love it.”
Damn but she was right. He glanced around. Not a single person or car was in sight for what seemed like miles. But just in case, he spread the blanket wide and tossed it over the headrest of the front seat. “Just in case.”
She giggled. “You can cover me and your lower half if you need to.”
He rolled his eyes. “And explain what I’m doing alone in the back seat of a car covered by a blanket in the heat of the day.”
“You’re a smart man. I’m sure you’ll think of something.”
In another minute he figured he’d be too far gone to utter a coherent word. He raised his hips off the seat and helped her wrest his shorts down to his ankles, freeing his erection for her waiting hands.
She didn’t waste a minute. As he watched, she cupped his length in her delicate fingers, which were warmer and stronger than they looked. His body shook and he leaned his head back and exhaled a groan.
“Watch me, Jack.”
He opened his eyes. She’d pay later for this control thing of hers, but right now he liked her being in charge too much to do anything about it except enjoy.
So he watched.
Just as she lowered her head and licked at him with her tongue. “Oh, man.” The words burst from him as his hips thrust forward and he nearly came right then.
“I’m assuming that’s a good thing?” She raised her head and asked lightly, but he sensed the import of her words.
That she didn’t do this often filled him with ridiculous male pride. That she did it now, for him, filled him with a sweeping emotion so strong he didn’t dare give it a name. Not that he could have, because at that moment she took him into her warm, wet, willing mouth and Jack was lost.
Her hands worked a slick vertical gliding motion in synchronized rhythm with her talented mouth. If he was an experiment, she’d found the formula for success. His hips began a gyrating motion he couldn’t control, bucking up and down without regard to her sensual assault.
She licked and suckled, providing friction with her tongue. She pulled and pushed with her slick palms, bringing him to the peak and easing him back without allowing him the pleasure of release.
“Mallory, please-” The word burst from him in a groan. He’d never begged a woman before. But this was Mallory, and experienced or not, she was so damn good.
Without warning, her hand position changed and she pressed at the base of his penis, in a spot low and deep. “Jesus, don’t stop.” She didn’t and white-hot darts of fire exploded in every nerve ending he possessed.
