Straight Up Love (Boys of Jackson Harbor 2)

“So we’re going to”—I swallow—“start trying tonight?”

My heart’s racing when he bends his head down and leans his f

orehead against mine. “Do you have any idea how gorgeous you are? How beautiful you looked in the sunshine with that big grin on your face?” He cups my jaw in his hand and groans. “I couldn’t stop thinking about tonight. About sharing that bed with you.”

“Really?”

“Oh, yeah.” He slides his hand into my hair and wraps it around his fist. He tugs gently, and pleasure sparks up my spine. “Are you going to let me touch you?” The words are a hot whisper against my ear, and everything in me is tight and begging.

“Yes.” I practically pant the word.

He pulls my earlobe between his teeth, and his hand trails over my collarbone and down to cup my breast. “And you’ll let me look at you?” His thumb grazes my nipple, and hell, now I want to be naked. Even the thin layers of my bra and T-shirt are too much to have between us. “Let me explore you?”

I nod, and I think I might whimper. Am I really expected to form words right now?

“Think on that for me.” His hand slips under my T-shirt, and shit, I want more. His palm runs over my belly. His fingertips dip under the waistband of my jeans. “Think about it in the shower. At dinner. When you dance tonight.” He drops his face to the crook of my neck and takes a deep breath.

Then he steps away and he’s walking out of the bathroom, pulling the door shut behind him.

He gets his wish. I think about him while I close my eyes under the spray, my body pulsing, my mind spinning fantasies about him pressing me up against the tile shower wall, the heat of his bare chest pressed against me as his hands explore.

I wash my hair and shave, taking the extra care of a woman who’s preparing for her lover. I’m thinking of him when I climb out of the shower and when I dry my hair. I’m thinking of him when I choose a short black dress and the slinkiest underwear from my bag.

When I step out of the bathroom, he’s changed into a fresh pair of jeans and a crisp black dress shirt that’s open at the collar and rolled up, revealing his forearms. Those forearms.

A sound bubbles up from my throat that I think might be a purr.

Jake looks me over. His slow, raking gaze trailing from my feet and up my body is its own kind of seduction. “Ready?”

I swallow. “I really am.”

Jake

Usually I wouldn’t be interested in the thumping music of the nightclub and the throng of bodies crowding the dance floor, but it’s good to see Ava let loose. She and Ellie have danced since we got here, and Ava’s gotten more into it with each subsequent song. Her arms are in the air, her hips rocking back and forth as if the music is vibrating from inside her.

“Thanks for coming this weekend,” Levi says from beside me. We’re leaning against the railing that surrounds the dance floor, and his date is . . . somewhere. I don’t know. I haven’t paid much attention to the giggling redhead.

I nod without looking at him, because I can’t take my eyes off Ava.

“It’s always nice to have a few extra people around so I’m not just the third wheel,” Levi says.

This time, I cut my eyes to my brother. “You can’t be a third wheel if you have a girl hanging on your arm, Levi.”

He shrugs, an unspoken you know what I mean. And I do. The women in Levi’s life come and go, but Ellie is as much a fixture of his world as his friend Colton is. She has been since she and Colton started dating.

I know he loves them both. But I’m also realizing his feelings for Ellie might be heavier than any of us realized. Unrequited love is a bitch. Hopefully he handles it better than I did.

“How’s the big plan going?” Levi asks.

On the dance floor, Ellie loops her arms behind Ava’s neck, and Ava throws her head back in laughter as Ellie dances against her. “It wasn’t the smoothest start, but I’m getting there.”

“Getting in her pants or in her heart?” he asks, then holds up two hands when I scowl. “The difference seems significant, is all.”

“As I’m all too aware.” I drain my beer, then slide the empty bottle back onto the table. I don’t want to talk about this shit tonight. “I’m going to go dance with my girl.”

Levi arches a brow. “You dance?”

“I do tonight.” I head onto the floor and pull Ava away from Ellie and into my arms as if I do it all the time. Ava gasps, her eyes going wide, and I press a palm to the small of her back and hold her body against mine. Because I can. Because she’s given me permission to touch her tonight. Because I’ve waited for this for years, and I know not letting myself take things too far might be the hardest damn thing I’ve ever had to do.