The Truest Thing (Hart's Boardwalk 4)

Another guilty flush heated my cheeks. “Yes.”

“Am I or am I not a grown man capable of making my own decisions?”

I narrowed my eyes at his condescending tone. “Yes.”

His lips twitched at my snippy tone. “Then, Emery, I don’t need you to protect me. You want sex, I’ll give you sex. Nothing wrong with that.” He flashed a wicked grin. “Honest to God, best sex of my life. Why the hell would I turn down the opportunity to have more?”

“Because it’s not that straightforward, Jack, and you know it.”

“Well, I’m a guy.” He stated the obvious. “I can have great sex without it being more. So, the only reason not to do this is if you can’t have sex without letting your feelings develop into something more.”

I was at once hurt by his insinuation that he could detach his feelings from the act of making love and irritated that he’d trapped me. Now if I said no to the friends-with-benefits situation, I’d be suggesting I had deeper feelings for him.

I shrugged, feeling petulant. “I can have sex without needing more from you.”

He studied me a moment, an undecipherable look in his eyes. “Good.” He put a knee to the bed and leaned in and gave me the kind of kiss that was a prelude to dirty sex. I slid my fingers into his soft, thick hair and held on for the ride.

When Jack finally let me up for air, my entire body tingled. He pressed a sweet kiss to my nose and tried to pull away, but I held on to his neck. “You don’t kiss a girl like that and leave her wanting more, Jack,” I whispered. “It’s exceptionally rude. Didn’t your momma teach you any manners?”

He smiled a smile that was at once cocky and regretful. “I’ve got places to be, sunrise.”

My grip on his nape tightened, pulling him down as I laid back down. “Then you should have thought about that before you kissed me.”

Jack grinned, tugging the sheet down between us. “Guess I’ve no recourse now but to apologize for misplacing my manners.”

“Don’t worry.” Heat flushed through me as all that rational thought flew from my mind and I unzipped his suit pants. “I’m very good at accepting apologies.” I slipped my hand inside his underwear and gripped his hardening length, loving the way he groaned, deep and wanting. “In fact, I predict my acceptance will be on your mind all day.”

I thought I heard him mutter, “Then it’ll be nothing new,” but I couldn’t be sure and his fingers were between my legs, chasing away all thoughts of anything but him and his hands and his mouth and his … well, you know ...

“Bailey, I love you, but if you tell one more story about your luxury three-week, five-star honeymoon across Europe, I’m going to scream,” Jess said, tucked into a large armchair in her sitting room with her feet up on a plush stool. Her cheeks were full and flushed, there were dark circles under her eyes, and I could see why Coop and Jess had asked repeatedly for their OB to check if they were having twins. She was huge.

They weren’t having twins, though.

They were just having a Lawson, and clearly he or she was going to be built like a Lawson.

Poor Jess, I thought. Her pregnancy had been uncomfortable from the start.

Bailey shot me, Ivy, and Dahlia a guilty look. “Have I been talking about it a lot?”

No. She hadn’t. This was the first time since her and Vaughn’s return that she’d even mentioned Europe. I gave her a reassuring shake of my head.

“I can’t think of you and Vaughn or anyone gallivanting freely across Europe, doing nothing but sightseeing, eating at nice restaurants, drinking champagne and cocktails, and having great sex all the time. I haven’t been able to find a comfortable position to sit or sleep in, let alone have sex in, for the last four months.”

More guilt suffused me.

I’d just had a night of epic sex.

Such epic sex, I was in denial about how out of control this situation with Jack could get. I didn’t want to think about it. I only wanted to contemplate the next time I could get him naked.

It was so unlike me.

And yet there was something freeing in not caring about the future and only living in the moment.

Probably a terrible point in my life, i.e., about to become a responsible parent, to indulge in such a philosophy.

But my baby wasn’t here yet, so it didn’t count.

Right?