"Well, Wesley, are you dating?"
Wesley's smile widened at Miranda's question. He remembered when he and Jake had lived at home, Miranda would wait for them after their dates to find out how things had gone. Of course he and Jake had never told her everything. But just the thought that she had cared enough to ask had meant a lot to him and he'd never considered it as meddling like Jake often had.
He glanced quickly across the table and met Jake's smile and knew his best friend thought his mother was meddling now. "No, I'm not dating but I am seeing someone," he finally answered.
He saw the bemused frown settle on Miranda's brow. He understood her confusion since the situation confused him, too. However, Jasmine was determined not to "date" him. As far as he was concerned, she could call it what she liked as long as he got to see her and be with her.
"Will we get a chance to meet her?" Jake asked grinning.
Wesley shot his best friend a warning glance. Jake was the only one at the table who knew the woman he was seeing was Jasmine Carmody and just how deep their relationship had gotten. Although none of them other than Jake and Larissa had met Jasmine, everyone knew her name and knew her to be the persistent reporter hounding the Danforths. He smiled when he thought of what everyone's reaction would be when he brought her to dinner, which was something he planned to do when she realized that he intended to remain a part of her life for a while.
"I'll bring her around soon. Right now she's rather shy." He ignored the sound of Jake nearly choking on his wine. "But, her shyness is something that I'm working on."
Miranda smiled. "Good, and we look forward to meeting her."
Wesley returned her smile. He looked forward to introducing Jasmine to the people that he cared about. Then she would see that the Danforths were warm, caring people who had nothing to hide.
* * *
Wesley stood under Jasmine's porch light as she opened the door. Usually he would follow her home from her last interview then go to his own place. He had wanted to give her time to adjust to how things were between them. In addition, she had been a virgin and he had wanted to be considerate and give her body time to recover from last Friday night. So he had waited out a week, but now he wanted her again.
He met her gaze, staring into the darkness of her brown eyes.
Wesley watched her swallow. He noticed her breathing had quickened and the way she nibbled on her bottom lip. She had gotten his message loud and clear. She stepped back and without hesitating, he walked into the house and quickly closed the door behind him.
Driven by a need to show her how much he wanted her, he lowered his head and captured her mouth in his.
With a surrendering sigh, Jasmine opened her mouth to his. When he took her tongue and ensnared it with his, pleasure points went off all through her body. She forgot everything, except for how he was making her feel.
He had never kissed her like this before, with such intensity and fervor—absolute wildness. But tonight it seemed that something was driving him, and whatever it was, she was too powerless to deny him whatever he wanted.
Although she didn't understand what was spurring him on, she wanted it. She needed to be enveloped in him; wrapped tight in his strength, encased in his love…
The thought burst her sensual bubble.
Get real, Jasmine. A few weeks ago the man caught you going through his garbage. Do you really think he's fallen for you just because you slept together? Face it. This is lust and not love. This is a matter of being hot and not a matter of the heart.
But, as Wesley lowered her to the carpeted floor and she felt his impatient fingers lifting her skirt, she didn't care what it was. At the moment all she desired the most was a chance to lose herself in him and to be a part of him. She released a hungry sigh from deep within her throat as he eased her panties off, closed her eyes and took pleasure in what he was doing to her.
Wesley heard the sensual sound emitting from Jasmine's throat and felt the quick pounding of his heart. He pulled his mouth from hers and leaned back and looked down at her. She was gorgeous, laying on the carpet with her skirt to her waist and naked below.
A lump formed in his throat. He became mesmerized as he gazed upon her. She reopened her eyes and saw her confusion as he continued to stare at her. Nervously, she made a move to cover herself with her hands.
He reached out and stopped her. "No, I love looking at you," he said huskily, while slowly unzipping his pants.
"You make me crazy, Jasmine," he said, giving her a half smile and thinking he'd never been this aroused before, to the point that the only thing that mattered was getting inside of a woman. There was no logic to what he was thinking or to what he was doing.
"And that," he said, indicating the part of her she had tried shielding from his view, "makes me delirious with need."
Pulling out his wallet, he removed a foil-wrapped condom and proceeded to protect them both, knowing that she was watching his every move.
He went to her and began stroking her, glorying in her dampness, in her scent and the sounds she began making.
A low growl escaped his throat when he eased his body over hers and slowly entered her. When he felt her body pulse around him, her feminine muscles tightening, he completely lost it and thrust within her hard and deep. He leaned down and kissed her with an intensity that made her body shiver. He released her lips and she moaned out his name.
Whatever control he had suddenly broke and he made love with her like a madman enjoying what would be his last sexual encounter with the woman who meant everything to him.
That thought had him scared straight but it was too late. The dye had been cast and he couldn't fight what he was feeling any longer. When he felt her body explode around him and heard her cry out, he pushed into her one last time glorying in the explosion that rocked his body, as well as hers.
And at that moment, Wesley knew what it felt to be out of control but totally in sync with a woman. He knew the difference between having sex and making love. He was drowning in ecstasy of the richest and most profound kind, and he knew from this night forward his life would never be the same.
* * *
A short while later, Wesley was still stretched out on the carpet with Jasmine in his arms. He looked down at her and saw her lashes flutter open slowly, trying to catch her breath the same way he was trying to catch his. He suddenly found the strength to whisper. "I wanted you so much."
He waited for her to speak, but when she did, her words took him by surprise. "I thought just the opposite. After following me home, I thought you would leave without coming in like you did all week," she said in a quiet tone of voice.
He reached out and caressed her cheek. "Only because I wanted to give you a chance to get used to the idea of us, as well as to give your body time to adjust," he said softly.
She nodded knowing what he'd said was true and appreciated his thoughtfulness.
"Give me a second and I'll be back," he said.
Jasmine watched as he stood and walked off in the direction of her bathroom. She sat up, put her panties back on and pulled down her skirt, not believing they had actually made love on the floor, just a few feet from her front door.
Wesley returned to see Jasmine sitting in the same spot where he'd left her. The first thing he noticed was that she had her clothes back on straight and a part of him regretted that since he so much enjoyed seeing them in disarray or completely off.
Walking over to her, he crouched down in front of her and took her hand in his. Lifting her hand to his lips he kissed her fingers gently. "Are you ready to talk?"
She frowned, deepening the lines between her brows. "About what?"
"About us and dating," he told her, deciding to sit beside her on the carpeted floor. He kept her hand in his. "I want you to consider it. In fact I want you to be my date at the benefit dinner the hospital is giving next week."
She shook her head and nervously bit her bottom lip. "Wesley, I don't think that's a good idea."
"Why, because your ex-fiancé will be there?"
Jasmine lifted a brow, wondering how he knew then remembered Alyssa's phone call last Saturday morning. Evidently he had heard her stepsister's message.
"That's not it at all. Paul means nothing to me."
"Then why are you letting your stepmother and stepsisters dictate your social life?"
"I'm not. I just don't want to cause problems. If Dad knew what was going on, he would give Evelyn and her daughters their walking papers so fast it would make their heads spin."
"Then let him," Wesley said roughly.
She shook her head. "I can't do that, Wesley. Evelyn and my father have been married for almost ten years. She depends on his money, so do Alyssa and Mallory. They wouldn't know what to do if they had to fend for themselves."
"Then maybe it's time they found out," he said, his tone lacking sympathy of any kind. "How can your father not know what's going on when you eat dinner with them every Sunday?"
"Yes, but with everything that he's involved with at the hospital, he's a very busy man and doesn't know how bad my relationship with Evelyn, Mallory and Alyssa really is. Whenever he's around they're on their best behavior."
Wesley shook his head as he pulled himself to his feet and brought Jasmine up with him. "I know for a fact that you aren't someone who doesn't fight back when boxed in a corner," he said remembering that night they had squared off at the coffeehouse. "Don't let their actions control you."