Pressed against Jameson from chest to knees, Luna looked him in the eyes, suddenly very sure how she wanted to spend what was left of the night. Back BTK, she’d been feeling alone and a little lost. Very lost. ATK, the loneliness had retreated a bit. She had a feeling that if they took things to the next level, that loneliness would be eradicated entirely. “I know you’re already sleeping here,” she murmured. “And I know we haven’t gone out three times unless you count when I ate your burger, and sitting on my rock, and tonight playing with baby goats . . . but I’m pretty sure the couch thing is getting old. Conveniently I have room in my bed. I mean, if you’re interested.”
“I think we both know just how interested I am. But—”
“Oh my God.” She shoved him back a step, embarrassed to her core. When would she learn to not put herself out there, basically begging to be hurt?
Jameson came right back, hands on her hips, eyes intense. “There’s nothing I’d rather be doing than spending time with you, Luna, don’t ever doubt that. You’ve been starring in my fantasies nightly.” His voice went low. Gruff. “The things we’ve done to each other . . .”
Her pulse kicked into high gear. “The but. I need to hear the but.”
“But . . . I just want to put it out there for the both of us to remember—I’m leaving at the end of next month.”
“I remember.” The pang in her gut suggested otherwise, but she ignored it. “And? Because I also sense an ‘and.’”
“And,” he said, holding eye contact the way he always did, “there are things you don’t know about me.”
This time her heart skipped a beat in shock. “Like . . . you’re a criminal?”
He gave a barely there smile and shook his head. “No.”
“You hate animals.”
The hint of a smile grew. “No.”
“You don’t recycle.”
With a rough laugh, he dropped his head for a beat, then lifted it again. “I like you, Luna. I like you a lot.”
A warmth hit her chest. As far as things about him she didn’t know, she could get behind this one.
“I like your spirit,” he said. “I like your guts, and your inability to give in or give up.”
She snorted. “You mean stubbornness.”
“Yes.” He paused. Smiled. “And let’s not forget your bad attitude.”
She rolled her eyes, but he stepped up close and personal again. “It makes you real. And real is my very favorite thing about you.” He tipped her head up to his and kissed her softly. “I also like the way you make me smile.”
“That sounds . . . friendly,” she decided.
“Believe me, I feel very friendly toward you.”
She laughed, but he didn’t. He looked deeply into her eyes. “Real truth?” he asked.
“Yes, please.”
“You treat me like a human being. You trust me. You accept me, as is. You’ve given me your friendship, and make me feel as though I have value, that you care about me.” He cupped her face. “You have a beautiful heart.”
She had no idea why she felt so damn moved. They were just words. But her heart rolled over in her chest and exposed its tender underbelly. “Right back at you,” she whispered. “All of it.”
His eyes warmed, but still he hesitated.
“Don’t worry,” she said, “I know it’s just for tonight.”
“Believe me, I’d take more, but it’d make me a selfish bastard. I don’t want you to get hurt because of me.”
She didn’t want to think about that, so she took him by the hand. “I understand the terms and I’m signing on the dotted line.” She led him into her bedroom. It was small but neat, and the dark wood bed was her very favorite piece of furniture in the entire cabin. Cozy with warm bedding, she couldn’t wait to see him in it.
So she gave him a push, smiling when he let himself fall back—taking her with him. Lying beneath her, body sprawled out for her perusal, he looked hot as hell and she wanted to ride him like he was the mechanical bronco that she and Willow rode last month at a bar in Reno. To that end, she straightened and started to pull her clothes off.
He stopped her, his hands covering hers and holding on. “I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time. Don’t rush me.”
“We can go slow next time.”
His eyes heated. “I like the way you think.” He slowly slid off her sweatshirt, then kissed his way from her bare shoulder up her throat, making her shiver. “But since nothing in life is guaranteed, I’m taking my time with you. I want you completely out of your mind for me by the time I’m inside you.”
She had to laugh. “Did you forget how long it’s been for me? I’m already out of my mind!”
With a grin, he rolled them until she was flat on her back with one hundred and seventy-five pounds of sexy, focused man pinning her there. It was a thrill, and when he kissed the soft, sensitive skin just beneath her ear, she gasped with pleasure.
“Love that sound,” he murmured against her. “What else can I kiss to get you to make it again?” When she didn’t answer, couldn’t because he’d robbed her of the ability to speak, he took his mouth on a hot, wet, thorough tour to the hollow of her throat, making her writhe beneath him for more.
She had her hands inside his jeans now, trying to get him naked. “Jameson.”
“Right here.” He had her sweatpants off in a single heartbeat. “Mmm, and what about here . . .” Lowering his head, he kissed everything he’d uncovered before making a home for himself between her thighs, and she definitely kept making sounds. She couldn’t help herself. “I especially love the way you look like this.”
“At your mercy, you mean.”
“You’ve got that entirely backward.” He hooked a couple of fingers in her bikini undies and slid them aside, making way for his mouth.
“Omigod.”
She felt him smile against her hot skin. “No. Just me.”
She huffed out a breathless laugh. “Jameson . . .”
“There you go. I’ve got you, Luna.”
The combination of that low, husky voice with his knowing fingers and tongue drove her right out of her mind in shockingly little time. She might’ve been embarrassed if he hadn’t been making some yummy noises of his own, saying things against her like “you’re so soft” and “damn, you’re beautiful . . .” and “the way you taste . . .”
When she was boneless, he rose up to strip off his jeans when suddenly he went still while also swearing rather impressively under his breath.
“What?” she gasped. “I didn’t catch you with the zipper, did I? Oh God. I’m sorry!”
He was shaking and she tried to get out from beneath him, but he held her close, which was when she realized he was laughing.
“So . . . I didn’t just unman you?” she asked, eyes narrowed as he laughed even harder. She went hands on hips and narrowed her eyes. “I don’t know why me worrying that I’ve robbed you of ever having children is so funny.”
He wrapped his arms around her. “Do you know how long it’s been since I laughed like that? With a woman? In bed?”
“Wow. First you laugh at me, and now you want to talk about other women?”
His grin was back and he gave her a very hot kiss that had her relaxing again before depriving her of his mouth to say, “Never.” He kissed her again. “Never have I ever laughed with a woman in bed.”
Oh. Oh, damn, he was good, because she melted into a puddle of boneless goo. “Jameson?”
“Yeah?”
“Now.”
“I would.” He kissed his way along her jaw to that spot beneath her ear that drove her so crazy. “But I don’t have a condom.”
She froze. She was glad one of them was thinking, and it certainly wasn’t her. Then she remembered. “I do!” Wriggling free, she ran to the living room where she’d dumped her purse earlier. She rifled through it until she found it at the very bottom of the bag, long forgotten until now.
When she ran back into the bedroom, Jameson was sitting up, looking sexily rumpled and hot as hell in nothing but her sheets.
She showed him the condom and he laughed again, and yeah, she could get used to that sound. “Okay, yes,” she said. “It’s bright blue. I got it as a party favor like a year ago, but it qualifies as a solution to our problem.”
His eyes softened and so did his smile. “Come here, Luna.”
That voice. If he kept speaking to her in that voice she’d probably do anything he asked. When she got close, he snagged her, pulling her into his arms. Even though the only light in the room came from the dim glow of her living room light down the hall, she could see his gaze roaming her face. He seemed to be looking for something, so she did her best to look confident and not needy.
“Luna.”
“Jameson,” she said in a low voice, mimicking his tone.
His mouth quirked and then he kissed her, but when she tried to deepen it, he pulled back a fraction. He had a forearm braced on the bed on either side of her head, his hands cupping her face, his fingers sliding into her hair. “You’re sure?”
It was the first time she’d seen him vulnerable, and that’s when she knew. She was falling for him. Falling scary fast and deep, with no life preserver in sight. “Did you not hear how long it’s been since I’ve used a condom? Yes, I’m sure.” And in case he needed show-not-tell, she wrapped her legs around his waist and tightened. Huh, look at that, Pilates was working out for her. “Now, Jameson.”
She was already breathing heavy in anticipation when he lowered his head, but instead of kissing her on the mouth, he dragged wet, hot kisses down the side of her throat, along her collarbone and south, sending goose bumps dancing over her skin.
It felt amazing, he felt amazing, and she sort of accidentally bit his shoulder to keep him moving. Chuckling, he gave her the lead, and the two of them wriggled to get into a good position, bumping into each other, laughing and swearing as they tried to line things up.
Finally, he sat up, sheathed himself in the bright blue condom while she touched every part of him she could reach. Then he had her straddle him, slowly letting her sink over him until he was in as deep as he could go. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe, could only feel. When she rolled her hips to his, he stilled, head back, eyes closed, a look of sheer ecstasy on his face. Then he opened his eyes and looked deep into hers. “Once isn’t going to be nearly enough, Luna.”
With that shocking statement, he began to move, and just like that, she didn’t feel so lost. She felt . . . found.
She had no idea how much later it was when she opened her eyes. Jameson was watching her, the sheet slipped low on his hips, giving her an incredible view. Then their eyes caught, the moment stretching between them. She hesitated, unsure how to proceed because he looked serious. Much too serious for a man who’d just had his mouth on every inch of her. But then his lips curved in an intimate smile and her heart flipped over in her chest.
Pushing her hair from her face, he pulled her tight against him, pressing a kiss to her temple. “Do we need to talk about it?”
“Oh, definitely not.” She shook her head, like it was no big deal.
When it was a big deal. The hugest deal. He’d just taken her apart and put her back together again with such erotic ease and care that she didn’t even know what to do with it.
He came up on an elbow and ran a finger along her temple, around the shell of her ear. “Around you, logic vanishes.”
She smiled. “You’re just frustrated because there isn’t an equation for feels. You can’t math this.”
He looked at her for a long beat, and then nodded. “I can’t math this.”
“Don’t worry, I’m right here if you get scared.”
“What if I’m scared now?” he asked, hands gliding over her body, renewing the flames.
“It’s okay.” She leaned over him. “I’ve got you . . .”
Much later, she opened her eyes when the bed shifted. Jameson vanished, then came back with two bottles of water. She smiled as he handed her one. “Staying hydrated?”
He toasted her with his bottle. “Safety first.”
She laughed as he leaned down and brushed a kiss across her lips, his fingers gliding over her stomach.
“You staying?” she whispered.
He flashed a crooked smile. “You’re naked. Where on earth would I go?”