Be Mine (Jackson Boys 2)

“I’m enduring my punishment right now,” I inform her quietly.

“It’s pretty terrible,” Lainey admits.

Another punishment is sitting next to Lainey and watching her eat. We promised each other we’d explore this attraction between us, but life—football, Cassidy, Charlie and Nate—have managed to keep us separated. We can’t seem to find a moment to ourselves and it’s driving me up a wall. I think Lainey’s getting off on it, too. She knows the power she holds over me and doesn’t hesitate to exert it which is fucking sexy as hell, but excruciatingly painful.

Swear to God, she’s tormenting me right now. Each morsel she places in her mouth is chewed carefully and slowly. My dick grows harder by the second. I can hardly be in the same room as her without springing to attention like a pre-pubescent boy. I had better control at fifteen than I do now.

I sigh and shove another piece of bread in my mouth. Her steak isn’t half gone but we’ve been sitting at this table for—I check my watch—forty-five minutes now. That’s a long time, isn’t it?

“How’s the team look?”

She dabs at the corners of her mouth with a napkin, unintentionally drawing attention to her red lips. My eyes linger on their plushness, wanting to press them against my skin.

She notices my stare. “Did you want something?”

I draw a deep, impatient breath.

“No,” I answer tersely.

Lainey raises one perfect eyebrow. Her eyes seem to be laughing, as if she knows exactly what’s going on in my jeans.

“Make an excuse for us to leave.” I’d think of something, but my brain is focused on Lainey’s shirt falling off her shoulder. My dick pulses in excitement. There’s something seriously wrong with me. I’m getting hard over the smallest things—her bare shoulder, the plump curve of her ass, the way that her lip gloss shimmers in the lamplight.

“What am I supposed to say?”

That you want to take me home to fuck. “The nanny,” I suggest. “Say that the nanny needs to go home.”

Lainey’s eyes drift down my frame, pausing on my biceps and then lingering over my hands. I swear on my mother’s still-breathing body that if Lainey doesn’t look away in the next second, I’m taking her on the table.

She might sense my desperation because she announces abruptly. “The nanny has to go home. Sorry.” She slings her purse over her shoulder and gets up.

“I have to go, too. The nanny might need a ride home.” I hustle after Lainey as my brother and Charlotte make weak protests. Reese doesn’t notice we’re gone until Lainey and I are halfway across the room.

“Should we feel bad about abandoning Reese?” Lainey asks. A nervous laugh bubbles up her throat. “He looked shell shocked.”

“He’s a big boy. He can figure out an excuse on his own.” I push open the door and gently hustle her out the door. The parking lot is empty but for a few cars. There aren’t many at Stacks as it’s in the middle of the week and the season hasn’t started. “Your car or mine?” I ask.

All summer a fire’s burned in me. I thought it was hunger for the game, a drive to win; but as my hand closes around her small waist, I realize the core of it was her.

“Nick, I don’t think this is such a good idea—”

I slam my mouth against hers. I’ve waited too long to hear another excuse. She opens her mouth. At first, it feels like she’s going to push me away. Slap me. Maybe knee me in the balls. I brace for the worst, but when it comes, I’m not prepared.

The worst is that she kisses me back with so much need and mad desire that my bones are liquified. I stagger backward, taking her with me until I find the metal frame of a vehicle to prop me up. My dick throbs insistently against the zipper of my jeans and my tongue tingles with anticipation. Finally, I’m going to taste her. Finally, I’m going to touch her. Finally. Finally. Finally.

She tastes like a contradiction—tart and sweet at the same time. I won’t ever want to kiss another woman in my life. Her flavor will be the only one I’ll want in my mouth from this moment until the time that I die. Her tongue flicks against mine and my knees turn to water. Holy fuck, she’s potent. I wrap my hand in her hair until the strands are wound tight around my fingers. She can’t escape me now.

Our kiss is messy, wet, and ravenous. We kiss as if the end of the world might arrive if our mouths lose contact. I run my hands over her back, cup her righteous ass, and press her hard against me. My dick is ready to explode from just the kiss and the over the clothes contact. I’m so done for.