When the music changed and slowed, Jake caught my hand, twirling me out before drawing me tight against him, his lips grazing the tender spots on my neck, goosebumps rising on my flesh. His exhale was barely audible as he brushed my temple with his lips and rested his forehead against mine. “What you do to me, Mare. You’re still deep and unpredictable.”
My muddled mind flashed urgent signals, begging me to break free from this comfortably dangerous embrace. Relax. It’s just dancing … No. With this man from my past it could never be just anything. The alcohol hadn’t sufficiently dulled my senses to allow that fraught trek to the edge of sanity.
Yet all I could hear was Jake and his low, impossibly tender voice on that first night we’d slept together. Mare. The name he uttered only during our closest and most intimate moments. As he had last night. As he was now. Weakening my resolve. Testing my limits. Making me want him.
I wiggled free of the tender hands caressing my back and wobbled toward the safety of the bar. Contact with my beloved ex-boyfriend was a treacherous path leading to a rugged cliff that begged me to jump. Emotional injury was every bit as fatal as physical when it came to my vulnerable heart.
He caught my wrist, spinning me to face him. “Where are you …?” A pained look fleeted across his face. “No, you’re right. It’s ridiculous. I should go.”
I clutched his hand. “What are we doing?”
His lips brushed my cheek. “Sleep well.” He kissed me a final time, his fingertips grazing down my arm before he disappeared into the crush.
I stared after him, desperate to find a solution, a way to crush the ache. Slake my desire in a pathetic orgy involving chocolate and tiny bottles of vodka? Invite Christophe, the adventurous photojournalist, upstairs and attempt to satisfy my reawakened carnal cravings? A third option niggled at the edge of my consciousness. No. No bloody way. Time to shut that shit down. But … Nothing and nobody will satisfy your needs like Jake. Just do it. Live a little. Enjoy some untethered, uninhibited shenanigans.
I snatched my clutch from the top of the bar on my way toward the exit, pausing to scan for any sign of Jake. The sight of his broad back gave me hope. “Wait!” My heels tapped a rapid staccato beat against the shiny marble as I teetered forward, managing to slip inside the elevator just before the door closed. “Please, Jake,” I whispered.
“Don’t.” He swayed and closed his eyes, rubbing his temples. “We both know where this ends.”
“What was that at dinner?” Shuffling closer, I pressed my palm against his firm chest. “Only a kiss …?”
His entire body trembled as if he was scarcely a breath away from breaking down. One arm slid around my waist, and he pulled me against him.
There we stood, nose to nose, unblinking, our eyes and bodies locked. When our lips finally met, I was lost, incapable of anything except responding to him. Clinging to him. Right now, there was only me and this man, back to being that long-lost us.
The next minutes passed hazily. The ding of the elevator. The stumble down the hall. The endless kisses that left me gasping for air and searching for reason. Our silent trip was broken only by the click of the door to his suite, the whisper of my dress slithering into a silky pool, our heavy breath, and lips against sensitive flesh.
No words. No words. Just the tangling of tongues, and the smoothness of hot skin against hot skin. The familiarity of his touch, the brush of that sexy scruff against my navel, that perfect amount of rough and tender that had me yearning for more. The old feelings rose, engulfing me.
Desire … need … love … all intermingled. A perfect union, carrying me back to other times. Better times. Times when we were one and life was easy. Exactly as we were now, even if only for this moment.
Chapter 4
We lay entwined among the rumpled sheets, my head resting on Jake’s chest as I traced the fine muscle definition with a fingertip. Life could be so beautiful and precious yet remain unpredictable and cruel. Here we were, but how long before he realized his mistake and walked out that door?
If only I could ask what he was thinking, but I didn’t dare. A single sound might break the connection, and I wasn’t ready for that. Not yet. I closed my eyes, sending a small thanks to the universe when he kissed the top of my head, stroking my hair as I welcomed sleep.
Sometime later, my eyelids flickered. I struggled to open them in the darkness. My body felt heavy with sleep, but something dragged me toward consciousness. Dread crept in. Something was out of place. Harsh, ragged breathing.
“Jake?” I rose to my knees, wrapping myself around him as he sat on the edge of the mattress, trembling. “Shh, Jake.” I drew him into the bed and pulled his head against my chest, rubbing his back in gentle circles.
He sagged against me, the tension slowly releasing from him as his arm crept around me.
“Tell me.” I brushed my lips against the salty sheen of his cheek, still stroking his back.
Jake shivered and drew in a shaky breath “Mar.”
“I’m here,” I whispered, drawing the covers around us, hoping my presence would banish his nightmares. What spun through his thoughts as we lay there in the dim room, I had no clue. I only knew that this phenomenon was new and uncharted, to be negotiated with care.
Eventually, his breathing quieted, and the silence around us deepened.
“Jake?” I sank lower and lower, a slow recline into the soft
