Wild Fling or a Wedding Ring? Read Free

assured her, catching her against him with one arm around her waist, the other braced at the wall.
    Her palms covered his chest; her breasts and belly pressed against him so he could feel the rise and fall of her every tempting breath. One of them should have stepped away—put the distance back between them—but neither moved. Her gaze touched on his, hungry and aware, before drifting down to his mouth and holding as her lips parted on a trembling sigh. The air went thick with tension, and need surged to life, pumping hot through his veins, stifling reason.
    The lounge door swung closed behind them, dropping the narrow hall into semi-darkness. It was intimate and secluded, and he wanted her. Every muscle tightened throughout his body, straining to take her. He wouldn’t, but, watching thedesperate flutter of her pulse at the hollow of her throat, he couldn’t make himself step away either.
    A tiny furrow etched between her brows as a single word pushed through her lips. “Don’t.”
    Only Jake hadn’t moved, hadn’t given in. He was still holding himself in unrelenting check as he realized Cali hadn’t been speaking to him, but to herself.
    “Cali,” he warned, something predatory responding to her weakening resolve. If she wanted to stop this, she’d have to tell him no. Only she didn’t say anything. Didn’t push him back. Instead her fingers curled into his sweater, her breath pulled ragged from her chest and the indecision faded from her eyes, taking his every good intention with it.
    Cali’s body shifted, soft and tempting against him in torturous slow motion, as she rose up on her toes and whispered, “Just one,” before pressing her lips to his.
    Sure, he thought, fighting a smile. No matter how good the intention, one would never be enough.
    Slanting his mouth over hers in a smooth glide, deliberately light and teasing, he offered a kiss that hinted and lured, rather than taking outright.
    Cali shuddered, her breath slipping over his lips with a soft moan that left every muscle in his body tensing, straining for more—but he could wait, because he knew it wouldn’t be long. Splaying one hand against the base of her spine, he cupped her cheek with the other and pulled back to meet her gaze. “That good, huh?”
    Her lips curved as she drank him in through half-lidded eyes. “I’d forgotten just how good that felt.” The tip of her tongue darted out to moisten the sexy swell of her pink bottom lip. “It’s been a really long time since I’ve been kissed.”
    Hell . He didn’t want to think of her as vulnerable. Didn’t want to like it. Not when that kind of knowledge, coupled withthe husky quality her voice, was doing strange things to his ego, drawing out some inner need that damn near demanded he show her just what she’d been missing.
    “Wasn’t much of a kiss, if you ask me,” he murmured. “I can do better.”
    Her eyes darkened like smoked sea glass and locked on his mouth, sending “go” signals toward his groin. Her breath hitched as, moving closer, he traced the smooth line of her delicate jaw with his thumb, sifted his fingers through the silky hair at the nape of her neck, and tilted her face to his.
    “Maybe just one more,” she whispered breathlessly, her lips an enticing invitation.
    “One more,” he agreed, intent on doling out a kiss with every skill and seductive nuance he’d honed since high school packed into it. And that kiss would become the prelude to a night in bed.
    Jake’s mouth descended on her yielding softness, sinking with a slow, steady build. A light back-and-forth rub. A gentle, parting pressure as his tongue sought the barest taste. She was warm and wet and teasing, fresh and inviting, and as her sultry sigh feathered against his mouth his smug satisfaction gave way to a rising need.
    Her breathy gasps called like a plea for more and, angling his head to take control, he plunged his tongue between her lips. Lithe arms slipped around his neck and,