She reached out and ran her fingers over the reddened skin. “Does it hurt?”
He looked down to where she touched him. “I hadn’t even noticed.”
This was how she’d remember him. In her mind, Jake and the diamond were now forever linked.
And she couldn’t have either of them. Jake worked for her cousin and she was leaving in the morning.
As much as she didn’t want to be parted from Jake, the chaise was very uncomfortable. It probably hadn’t seen this much action in a long time, and the springs were starting to poke into some very uncomfortable places.
“You want to get up, don’t you,” he said when she shifted for the third time. “Stay there.”
Jake jumped up and slid into his boxers and pants.
Her dress lay in a heap on the floor. She had no idea where her ripped panties had ended up. She started to stand and then felt an uncomfortable sensation in her nether regions.
“Fuck, Ana, I said don’t move. Can’t you listen to a simple instruction?”
The words were hard, but his tone gentle. He walked around the lounge chair, dug his handkerchief out of his pocket and used it to wipe between her legs.
“Jake! What...”
“Do you want to leave come stains on the chair? It’s an antique.”
Her mouth fell open at his crude words, but then she noticed his smile.
“Wouldn’t have this problem if you weren’t such a hussy.”
“Yeah, well, we wouldn’t have had this problem if...” She could usually joke, give as good as she got, but unfortunately at the moment she came up blank. “Shut up.”
He threw his head back and laughed.
Jake’s eyes had always been dark brown, almost black, but now they’d settled into a dark amber, almost whiskey color. She liked it. He looked relaxed. The set of his shoulders was different, even.
Jake had always been the sexiest thing she’d ever laid eyes on, but this new relaxed Jake was even better.
He finished cleaning her and stuck the dirty handkerchief in his pants pocket. He pulled his now wrinkled shirt out from under her and pu
t it on, leaving it unbuttoned.
“You want your dress or my suit jacket? Your choice, I’m very happy for you to stay naked, but I figure you’d want to be somewhat covered while we explore the rest of the museum.”
“We’re going to explore the rest of the museum?”
After the best sex of her life, they were just going to get on with their evening?
“I’m not nearly done with you, but all I had for dinner tonight were those stupid little tiny canapés that pass for food at a shindig for you rich people. I’m starving. There’s a snack bar downstairs we can raid.”
“Dress,” she said, pointing to the floor.
He picked it up and held it up for her to slip into. He zipped it up and closed the clasp. Once the dress was on, he rested his suit jacket over her shoulders anyway. She put her arms through, but she was swallowed up by the garment. The gun and holster were still hanging on the ladder where he’d left them earlier. He didn’t seem to be in a hurry to retrieve them.
“If you hadn’t ripped my panties, I could put those back on now, you know.”
“I know,” he said. She looked down at her feet and sighed. “Now what?”
“Not looking forward to walking around in these shoes any more. They not only look killer, they feel killer, too.”
But no way was she walking around with bare feet.