Page 88 of Hot Nights in Morocco
A strange emotion crosses his face as my words hit home.Please don’t let it be regret.
I’d be a fool to think I’m the first woman to love him, but I need to count myself among them now. It’s suddenly vital that he knows how much he means to me.
He reaches out and brushes my long bangs out of my eyes. “I guess that means you’re not mad at me anymore?”
I shake my head again. “Not this time.”
“Do youwantto stand still with me?”
I bite my bottom lip and nod.
“Even though we have earthquakes in California?”
“I’m pretty good at keeping my balance.”
Jake’s lips start to twitch. “I’m pleased to hear it.” He guides me to my feet and lifts me into his arms. “I don’t want you waiting around to be someone’s else’s moment, Charlie. Not when you’re mine.”
I rest my head against the crease of his neck as he walks with me to his bedroom. It’s a masculine space with white walls and dark furniture. I’ve been here before, but so much has happened over the last few months. I’ve changed.We’vechanged. Tonight, I’m here as his lover, not as his one-night stand.
He lowers my feet back to the floor and slowly removes my clothes, one item at a time. “You may think you’re broken, but I only see the bravest fucking woman I’ve ever met.”
“Kiss me.” I’m desperate to feel his lips on mine again.
“All good things come to those who wait, and I’ve been waiting a long time for someone like you.” He steps back to remove his own clothes. As he does, I catch teasing glimpses of bronzed skin in the moonlight. His upper body is flawless, exactly how I remember it—broad shoulders, carved chest, tapered waist. When he unzips his pants, he’s hard and ready. My desire for him reaches fever pitch.
“I need you, Jake.”
“Then get on the bed and show me how much.”
I scrabble backward to comply, never disconnecting from the lust in his eyes. I part my thighs wide, grinding my heels into the mattress. I’ve bared my soul to him, and now it’s time to bare my body.
“Fuck.” He whistles. “You’re too beautiful.”
I close my eyes as he trails a finger from one hipbone to the other before skating downward. A low hiss escapes from his lips. “I’m going to worship every part of you tonight. By morning, there won’t be an inch of your body that hasn’t been fucked or kissed.” As if to prove his point, he drops his mouth to my lower stomach, making my insides clench.
Warm and wet, his lips are moving downward, licking and tasting and igniting my core. But it’s not enough. I need to feel him inside me. I need the strength of our connection. He seems to sense it, too, because he dips between my legs and slowly eases into me.
“I’ve missed this,” he says with a groan, sliding in even deeper as I lift my hips to meet him. “We’ll make this work. We have to. We don’t have a choice anymore.”
I spread my legs wider, and he buries himself to the hilt. The fierce, possessive look on his face only intensifies the spell he’s weaving over me. I’m raw and undone by the outpouring of my emotions tonight.
“Love me.” He molds his mouth to mine, a demand so harsh and needy that another wave of wetness soaks my core.
He moves at a breakneck pace. Urgent and uninhibited, like me. We’re using our bodies to communicate just how much we want to heal each other.
Without warning, he pulls out of me and flips me onto my front. He pushes my knees up to my chest and slams into me from behind.
“Jake!” I cry, clutching wildly at the sheets. That familiar sensation is building, building, and spreading like wildfire throughout my pelvis.
“You feel so good, Charlie. So. Fucking. Good.”
I’m blown apart by his words. My cry turns into a sob as I shatter around him. In the moments that follow, it feels like he’s consuming every part of me, just as he promised. The hurts of my past splinter all around us like broken glass.
My present,Jake, has overridden it all.
Chapter Fifty
I’m lying on my front and Jake is lying next to me, his left leg thrown carelessly over my thighs. Propped up on one elbow, he’s lightly running his fingers up and down my back.
