Page 52 of An Unexpected Turn
“Mike isn’t coming home until later this afternoon.”
“So you have time, and we talked already, right?”
“We did,” he said, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear and smoothing his finger down my cheek as he pulled away.
I inched closer and cupped his stubbled cheek.
“There is nothing I want more than to be in your bed all night, but all night isn’t something we’ll have any time soon. But we have a few hours, and I just want to be with you, wherever it takes us.” As the words fell from my mouth, I wondered if they were desperate or direct? Probably both, but either way, they were true. If I was jumping into this, even with the risks we were taking looming over us, I wasn’t holding back or wasting a minute.
“I want that too. So much, you have no idea.”
“Then I think we should get the most out of every second we have.”
Until they run out.
I pushed the nagging voice out of my head and stepped out of the truck.
“Peyton, hi!” Cheryl, my next-door neighbor, waved from her driveway. I was still getting used to friendly neighbors who knew my name.
I waved back as I unlocked my door, the heat of Jake’s presence behind me curling up my neck under my sweater.
I threw my keys in the bowl on the kitchen table as Jake peeled off his jacket. His black Henley stretched across his chest as he hung up his jacket, his back muscles working under his shirt as he lifted his arms. My eyes drifted down to his worn jeans and boots. I wasn’t used to allowing myself more than a friendly glance, but I let my eyes feast on him now. He was so breathtaking that I couldn’t tear my gaze away.
That beautiful man was mine—and I was afraid to introduce him to my neighbor because no one was supposed to know.
“Looks good,” Jake said as he stepped up to the new drywall. “Once we get the carpet down, you’ll never know this place was flooded.” He smiled as he craned his neck toward me. “I told you I’d fix it for you.”
“You did.” I wrapped my arms around his waist. I was already bracing myself for the next time we had to see each other. Not looking at him in public was already taxing—seeing him and keeping my hands to myself would be torturous.
“And now, I have ground-up flooding insurance, so if this happens again, I don’t have to cry into my contractor’s arms.”
He chuckled, deep and low enough to curl my toes in my fleece boots.
“Your contractor would have agreed to rebuild the whole place for you that night if it made you feel better.” His laugh rumbled against my cheek as he kissed the top of my head.
I smiled and closed my eyes, breathing him in enough so I could remember it later.
“Thank God Uncle Keith’s big mouth saved him from what he could have walked in on that day.”
I spied the same wince of guilt that churned inside me.
“Think he’ll hate us?” I lifted a brow and tightened my arms around Jake.
“Not you. Me?” He moved his head from side to side. “He might. I’m the one he’ll be angry with, and I’m fully prepared to take that all on when the time comes.”
“Why? Because you still think you corrupted me?” I rolled my eyes. “You didn’t lure me into a van with candy. I’m very aware of what I’m doing and what I want.” I smoothed my hands over the soft cotton of his shirt, lingering over his chest when his heart hammered against my palm.
“Yeah? What’s that?” Jake’s husky whisper sent a chill rolling down my spine.
I grabbed the back of his neck and brought his lips back to mine. The kiss caught fire as Jake ran his hands over my body, down my thighs and up my back, landing on my ass as he pressed me closer. He dove into my neck, sucking and biting in all the right spots until I slumped against him.
For this heaven, I’d go to hell and back—although I wished that didn’t seem like such a certainty.
Our lips kept moving as he walked me backward down my hallway and into my bedroom. I was impatient and nervous. Making love to Jake would ruin me, but there was already no going back.
I fumbled with the hem of his shirt, peppering kisses along his stubbled jaw and down his neck. “Let me see you,” I whispered as I dragged his shirt up his torso until he pulled it over his head.
All the air rushed out of my lungs as I drank him in. He hissed out a curse when I painted kisses across his chest and skimmed my hand over the ridges of muscle along his stomach, hot and smooth under my fingertips.
