THEY SHARED THE SANDWICH and the apple but Zoe flatly refused the chips. “They’re barbecue,” she told Jason, as if this explained it all.
It didn’t. “You don’t like barbecue?” he asked.
“Love them.” But she was staring down the chips as if they were her mortal enemy.
“I’d shake my head in utter confusion,” he said. “If I could move my neck.”
“They’re fattening.”
He stared at her for a beat. “There’s maybe twenty chips on this plate. How many calories could your half possibly be?”
“A million. And you wouldn’t understand,” she said, still staring down at the chips, naked longing on her face.
“Why not?”
“Because look at you.” She waved a hand toward his torso. “You’re perfect.”
He laughed, but she wasn’t laughing along with him. He swallowed the last of his half of the sandwich and ran a finger along her temple, then along her earlobe, enjoying that it made her shiver. “You’re pretty damn perfect yourself, Zoe.”
She closed her eyes. “Don’t.” Then she belied that statement by leaning into him.
His fingers slid into her hair, drawing her closer, then closer still so that she was leaning over him, hands braced on the bed on either side of his hips. “You are,” he breathed against her lips.
Her gaze dropped to his mouth. “At the office—”
“We’re not at the office.”
“No kidding,” she whispered. Their lips brushed together, and she let out a shaky breath, her eyes soft as her chest settled against his. Her body heat was seeping into him, warming the core of him. She was a strong woman, one of the strongest he’d ever met, and having her melt all over him was the most rewarding thing he’d ever felt.
“Jason?”
He tightened his hold on her, frustrated that he couldn’t move when what he wanted to do was roll her beneath him and feel her body wrap around his. “Yeah?”
“I still don’t like you.”
Somehow, though he was both in pain and aroused as hell, he still had room to laugh.
“But you smell like chips,” she said, close enough that their lips were still nearly touching. “And I like chips. A lot. Goddammit, you’re going to taste good.” She was breathless, and so was he.
Her voice was low and sexy, but somehow surprised and curious. Then her tongue outlined his lower lip and he was the surprised one. “Christ, Zoe.”
“I know.” She pulled back and covered her face with her hands. “God. I’m sorry.” She dropped her hands and pointed at him. “But this is all your fault.”
He laughed again. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d wanted to strangle a woman at the same moment he’d wanted to strip her naked and bury himself inside her. “My fault?”
“Yes! I mean, you’re lying there, hurt and in pain, and I…I can’t stand it when someone’s hurting or in pain. And then there’s the chips. The irresistible barbecue chips, Jason. I mean, why couldn’t it have been plain chips? Plain, I could have resisted—” She started to get up, but he managed to snake his fingers around her wrist.
One little tug and she was back on the bed. Another tug and he put her off balance so that she fell over him.
He threaded his fingers in her hair, tilted her head so he didn’t have to tilt his and kissed her, long and slow and deep. He knew she was right there with him when she moaned low in her throat and pressed up against him, her hands running restlessly over whatever she could reach, making a sound of frustration when she was thwarted by the blanket between them. She tugged, reminding him he was bare-ass naked beneath it. “Zoe,” he said in warning.
“Not done tasting the chips,” she murmured, and brought his mouth back to hers.
Not one to argue with a woman—not when her hands were on the move southward and heading toward home base—Jason gave in, nipping her jaw, running his tongue over the hollow of her throat.
“This is crazy,” she gasped, even as she arched against him, moaning with pleasure. Her suit jacket was in his way, so he nudged it from her shoulders. She never took her mouth off him as she shimmied out of it.
“Crazy,” he agreed, pulling her so that she was now straddling his hips.
“I mean, I could totally resist you if I wanted.”
“Good.” His hands went straight to her blouse, flicking the buttons open as she wriggled on him and made his eyes cross with lust. Her skirt had risen up past her thighs so that the only thing separating them was the thin blanket and what looked like a very sexy pair of silky pale blue panties.
She got busy sucking on his tongue. Not wanting to disturb that, Jason spread her blouse wide and tugged the cups of her bra down.
Her fingernails dug into his shoulders, slid quickly down his chest to his abs and back up, as if she couldn’t get enough of him. He urged her even closer so that he could suck her nipple between his tongue and the roof of his mouth. The sweet sounds she made in response wreaked havoc on any control he had left. She was writhing on him, her eyes closed, mouth open, skin dewy and flushed.
She was his every fantasy.
“I want you,” he said hoarsely. “Zoe, I want—”
“Yes. God, yes,” she said with a shudder as he lifted her enough to rip away the blanket and then the towel from between them.
“Oh,” she murmured huskily in soft pleasure as she stared down at the part of him that was the most happy to be there. She wrapped her fingers around him, making him thrust up into her hand. But the movement jarred his neck and he sucked in a breath as the pain slapped him.
“Oh, God,” she said shakily, still holding him in her hands. “Are you okay? Should we stop?”
“Only if you want to see a grown man cry,” he managed to say, gripping her ass in one hand, rolling her nipple between his fingers with his other. He hadn’t chosen to be here, certainly hadn’t planned on this, but now there was nowhere else he wanted to be. He wanted to stay like this, exactly like this, with her. And even though he told himself there was no sense in craving things he couldn’t have, he continued to tease and coax her body into needing his.
“Don’t move,” she demanded. “You hear me? I’ll do it.”
He’d never been much for following directions, and he’d certainly never lay pliant in bed before, but there was something about letting her be in control, letting her have her way with him that excited him.
“Condom?” she whispered.
He stared at her, gobsmacked. Never in his life had he forgotten a condom. “I don’t—” Shit. “I didn’t expect—”
“I’m on the pill,” she murmured. “And I haven’t had sex in two years.”
“Two years—”
“You?”
“I’ve never had sex without a condom. But—”
The words backed up in his throat when she scraped her panties to one side and guided him home.
Oh, God. The feel of her silky wet heat… She’d told him not to move, but he couldn’t help it. He reached down and rubbed his thumb over her until she gasped.
“There.” Her fingers dug into his biceps. “Oh, God, Jason. There.”
Which he took to mean “don’t stop.” He didn’t, and she gasped again, and then she cried out and came. Watching her, hearing her, did him in. He wasn’t going to last. He gripped her hips, desperate to hold it together.
“Jason. God, Jason.”
“I know.” He wanted to slow down, wanted to build the pleasure for her again, but the way she was looking down at him, the bewildered arousal, the tight need, how she’d given herself to him after not being with anyone in so long, was seriously testing his control. “Come here,” he whispered. She leaned over him, sucking his lower lip into her mouth.
His control slipped yet another notch and he rocked his hips into hers, holding there, sucking in air as she grinded on him. He closed his eyes. “Zoe.”
“Mmm,” was all she seemed to be able to get out. He slid a hand between their bodies and stroked, watching as she quivered, loving the way her head fell back on her shoulders, how she cried out and shuddered and came all over him. It was the most erotic, gorgeous sight he’d ever seen, and far too much for his already shaky control. Unable to hold back, he followed her over.