“You mean here?” His hand stroked higher, lingering in the dark shadows of her thighs. “Or maybe here?” His fingers slid over her with intimate skill, touching her in a way only he knew how to do.
She was breathless. “Can we talk about work later?”
“Sure. Or we can stop talking altogether.” He brought his mouth down on hers, kissing her with raw possession and devastating skill.
He drew her arms above her head, laced his fingers between hers and held her trapped. He lowered his head fractionally, teasing with his mouth and with his gaze. “I’ve got you where I want you. No escape.”
“I don’t want to escape.” She stared into his eyes and what she saw there made her heart race. She knew, with utter confidence, that he loved her. It was in his eyes. In his touch. In all the small things, like the way he listened and paid attention. All the million tiny ways he tried to make her life easier.
He cared.
He slid his hand under her hips, lifting her against him as he thrust into her and she moaned, deep in her throat, all her thoughts blending together in an incoherent mess.
She couldn’t concentrate when they made love. Could think of nothing but the heavy thickness of him and the delicious pleasure he conjured with each thrust. He left no part of her untouched or unexplored. With knowing fingers and consummate skill he unwrapped, discovered, experimented, took liberties no man had ever taken befo
re and she urged him on because this was Jake, her Jake, and she couldn’t remember a single day of her adult life when she hadn’t been in love with him.
Unbalanced, shaken, she unlocked her fingers from his and rested her hands on his shoulders, dragging her fingers lightly over the hard swell of muscle. She often forgot how strong he was because with her he was always so gentle.
He paused, his eyes holding hers. “Are you all right?” His voice was rough and sexy, his breathing as unsteady as hers.
“I’m always all right when I’m with you.”
He lowered his mouth to hers again, kissing her with explicit intent as he shifted position and brought another gasp to her lips. He drove into her and she moaned, shifted and stirred with each movement of his body and each slide of his clever hands. He touched, teased, swamped her senses with sensation until her only focus was pleasure.
He drove her higher and higher until her world exploded. It was raw and real, the connection between them so deeply personal that her feelings refused to be contained. It was as if something had been unlocked. Released.
“I love you.” She’d worried about when to say it, but in the end the words spilled from her unplanned. She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I love you so much.”
“Yeah.” He smiled, eyes closed. “Glad it was good for you, too.”
It was a typical Jake response.
“I’m not talking about the sex. I’m talking about the way I feel about you.”
“Honey, some women see God, others see love, but either way it amounts to the same thing. Sex that good can make anyone emotional.”
She frowned.
Did he really not understand the reason it was so good between them?
Reining in her frustration, she raised herself up on her elbow. “I love you, and loving you has nothing to do with the fact that you know all the moves in bed. Yes, the sex was good, Jake, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I love the way we are together.”
His eyes opened. His smile disappeared. “Paige—”
“I love you.” She spoke quickly, unable to hold her feelings in any longer. “I love everything about you. I love your mind, your laugh and the way you listen. I love the way you employ people no one else would touch. I love that you’re so passionate about things. I love how loyal and protective you are to your friends. To Maria. My brother. And most of all I love the way you are with me. I even love that you protect me, even though it drives me insane.” It was only as the torrent of words and feelings slowed that she realized he hadn’t said anything. He lay ominously still, his gaze fixed on her.
And she felt the first shoots of doubt spring to life inside her.
The longer the silence stretched, the bigger the doubt grew.
She’d freaked him out.
She shouldn’t have said anything. It was too soon. She should have let things ride a little longer and waited for him to come to the conclusion himself instead of bashing him over the head with it. But how long was long enough? When you were as sure as she was, what was the point in waiting? Life could be unpredictable, she knew that. You needed to seize the moment.
But by seizing the moment had she ruined everything? “Jake? Say something.”
He stirred. “Something? We both know what you want me to say, Paige. That’s how this game works, isn’t it? You tell me you love me, and either I don’t say it back and therefore we break up, or I say it back and we stumble along together until one of us decides that in fact we don’t love the other anymore, and then we break up. Either way, we break up. Generally I prefer that to happen sooner rather than later. It’s cleaner for everyone concerned.”