The Christmas He Loved Her (Bad Boys of Crystal Lake 2)

He was hard, achingly hard, and weak enough not to be able to do anything about it.

The air between them was charged with something fierce, something electric and alive, and for the first time in ages, he felt exhilarated. Reckless.

Aroused.

The book fell from his fingers onto the floor, and neither one of them looked away from the other.

She licked her mouth again.

He exhaled a long, shaky breath.

A heartbeat passed between them. And then another. The world slowed down, and for that one moment there was nothing but Raine. Nothing but her sweet face, her exquisite eyes, and a mouth that begged to be kissed.

Years of want and need and pain and anguish rolled through him. He was weak from the enormity of it all and for a second saw nothing but darkness. But she was there—right there in front of him—and the look in her eyes gave him strength. It gave him hope, even though he knew it didn’t belong to him.

He inhaled her scent and closed his eyes, wanting to find the strength he knew he needed to stay away from her.

But when her heat slipped over his skin, when she slid up his chest and her mouth touched his, a tentative, soft caress, he did nothing to stop her. He let his body control what his mind knew was wrong, and his arms slipped around her waist. He felt her shudder and he pulled her in hard, so that she was crushed against him and he felt every single inch of her.

“Jake,” she breathed into him.

He opened his mouth beneath hers and let her tongue slide inside. She tasted like heaven, just as she had so many years ago, and when she moaned into him, when her soft sigh fell into his mouth…

He gave up any pretense of fighting the one thing he’d wanted his entire life, it seemed. Wrong or right didn’t matter anymore, not when he’d been lost for so long and finally, finally felt as if he’d found himself.

In that moment, Jake Edwards said to hell with the consequences and ignored the voice in the back of his mind.

The one that told him he’d be damn lucky to survive it.

Chapter 16

Raine reveled in the want and the need and the pleasure she felt in Jake’s arms.

As his hands moved down her back and settled at the base of her spine, there just above her butt, she realized that she’d been heading toward this ever since Jake came home.

Maybe even longer.

She’d been asleep for so long, her body and mind dormant, that she’d all but given up hope of ever feeling anything again. Jake had always been that spark, the one to light her up, and now he was the only person who made her feel alive.

Sure, she was still pissed at him. So pissed and hurt at the way he’d abandoned her last year. For not being there for her when she was at her lowest point ever. But still, as his large palms gripped her ass and held her in place against him—against the evidence of his own needs and passion—she was willing to forget all that.

For this one moment she would forget. If only to feel alive once more with someone she trusted.

With Jake.

“Raine,” he breathed into

her, his voice husky and full of need.

They kissed forever, it seemed. Tongues entwined, lips giving and taking, their bodies crushed to each other, held together by burgeoning desire.

Her hands sank into his thick hair, and she wondered at the silkiness of it. For so long he’d kept it trimmed in the standard military cut, and as her fingers slid through the glossy waves, she relished the feel of it, the feel of him. She groaned as his tongue licked her bottom lip before suckling her there.

But then suddenly, he was gone, swearing like a fiend as he pulled back and took two steps away.

Raine’s fingers fell to her swollen lips, her gaze avoiding his eyes as she hungrily took in every inch of him. His T-shirt was askew and a fair bit of his skin was visible above the low-slung, faded jeans he wore.

Her mouth went dry as she focused on the thin dusting of hair there, the arrow that pointed and disappeared beneath the waistband. His erection strained against his jeans, an unmistakable hint as to the depths of his need, and she licked her lips at the sight of it, an answering ache heavy between the folds of her sex.