Something else entered his green eyes. Something warm. Something heady. “And how is that?”
She stood on her toes and pulled his head down close enough to press her mouth to his. She put everything she had into that kiss. All of her emotion. All of her yearning. And when she finally went down off her toes again, her heart was hammering so hard inside her chest he couldn’t fail to feel it. “Like that,” she whispered huskily.
He drew a finger down her cheek. “You’re too good for me.”
She shook her head. Reached up and kissed him a second time. Went back down on her heels and had to hold on to him just to keep her legs from collapsing beneath her. “I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you.”
His jaw flexed. She knew he wanted her, too. She could feel it. Not just in the hardness of his body but in the heat of his eyes. In the tension of his hands as they roved down her back.
But still, he was holding back and her frustration rose in her throat.
She went up on her toes a third time. She stopped shy of kissing him, though. Need was a hot hollow cramping inside her. “Do I need to strip off my dress right here, Jay? I’m on the Pill. Perfectly safe, I promise you.”
He groaned slightly. “Bella.”
“I will,” she warned—promised—huskily. “One zip is all it takes.” To prove it, she reached between them to tug at the zipper.
“No.” His hand caught hers, stopping her.
Her dismay never had a chance to get off the ground, though, because he suddenly reversed their positions until it was her back pressed against Loretta’s stalwart side.
“I want to do it,” he said gruffly. His fingers brushed against hers as he took over.
Her breath came hard in her chest as she stared up at him. Every nerve ending she possessed stood at high alert, sending frenzied little charges in accompaniment to her pounding heartbeat as he lowered the zipper tab with excruciating slowness. Her dress loosened tooth-by-tooth and she sucked in an aching breath when he took a step back and lowered to one knee as he continued pulling down the zipper. Right to the very bottom of her hem. Then he tugged one last time and the zipper separated altogether.
He exhaled audibly and his hands slid under the denim, settling first on her waist for a long moment before slowly sliding behind her back, drawing her toward him again.
She shuddered, drowning in desire. When he rested his forehead against her belly, she ran her fingers through his thick, dark hair. In that moment, there was something intimate and impossibly vulnerable about him. The slightly sunburned skin at the nape of his neck below his short hair. The long sweep of his spine, just visible beneath the gape of his shirt collar.
Loretta shifted then, pushing so hard against Arabella that she lost her balance and fell forward against Jay, taking him right with her down to the tall, sweet grass.
He caught Arabella against him, his eyes glinting. “Good old Loretta. Always has my back.”
Arabella laughed softly as she tried to sit up, but Jay just caught her hips in his hands to keep her in place, sitting right there on top of him.
Then he pressed hard against her and her laughter died. Her dress had slipped down one arm and was barely hanging on to her other shoulder. And even though she’d been the one threatening to strip, now that she was all but nude in front of him, she was acutely aware of how she must look. No bra. A pair of white bikini panties with pink sunglasses printed all over them.
She started to pull the dress together but he shook his head. “Don’t.” In fact, he curled his fingers in the dress fabric as if to make sure she couldn’t.
Her skin tingled. She didn’t think her nipples could get any tighter, but they did. Inside, however, she was simply liquefying.
“Undo your hair.”
She moistened her lips and tried not to reveal how shaky she suddenly felt as she raised her hands to her ponytail and worked the thin band free. Her hair fell down around her shoulders.
“Do you know how many times I’ve thought about you?” His fingers flexed against her hips and his voice deepened even more. “Dreamed about you?”
Thunder murmured again but it didn’t matter since she was suddenly incapable of speech, anyway.
“Months.” His eyes were almost as green as the grass surrounding him. “And more months. And then there you were. In Rambling Rose. At the police station.”
It dawned on her then. She pressed her palm flat against his abdomen and felt his muscles bunch. “Was that why you were so unfriendly? Were you there because of the balcony collapse?”
“I warned you that you’re too good for me.”
She was shaking her head even before he finished speaking. “I’m perfect for you and you know it.”
His dimple appeared suddenly. “Now who’s confident?”
She could only attribute her sudden wealth of self-assurance to him. Particularly when she slowly rocked her hips against his. “Does that feel perfect?”
His eyes darkened and the edge of his white teeth showed as he inhaled audibly. “Getting close to it.” He deftly slid his hand between them, fingers curling unerringly beneath her panties to find her.
Then she was the one to catch her breath.
“Even closer,” he murmured.
And then she couldn’t think anything at all. All she could do was feel. His fingers on her. In her. Driving her right to the edge of insanity only to pull back and taunt her even more until she was so desperate that she mindlessly caught his hand in hers, pressing his fingers against her until finally, finally, the pressure inside her escaped.
His exultant groan worked through her as she collapsed in a heap against his chest. But even then there was little rest because he rolled until it was her back cradled in the lush grass. Her
