Then he lowered onto her.
“I need you,” she whispered, and her voice caught. “I need you for more than this, Jack.”
His throat thickened, and he knew what she couldn’t say. He felt it. In his bones. Then exquisite heat rolled up his body, into her and exploded. It blinded him with its power, and he thrust hard. She cried out, bowing like a silken ribbon beneath him, and he pushed and pushed, shoving her higher on the bed as their climax dragged them over the edge of rapture, and kept on dragging. It razored through him and into her, ripping out on a soft groan.
Desire suspended between them, a silent thread of a moment. Fused to her, Jack buried his face in the curve of her shoulder and held on tightly. Passion wouldn’t let him go.
When it began to fade, when he thought there would be nothing left of him but ashes, Jack knew his heart had left him somewhere, and he prayed it landed inside hers.
Nine
He smoothed her hair back from her face and kissed her deeply, with as much fervor as before, with a devouring hunger that lent itself to the side of demand.
She responded instantly. She didn’t have a choice; he owned her desire. Possessed her when she hadn’t thought she wanted to be possessed so strongly. But she did, she was, and when he rolled to his back, taking her with him, Melanie lay draped over him and sighing with satisfaction.
They didn’t speak, still catching their breaths, yet he palmed her spine, her buttocks, in a slow roam. She lifted her head, then folded her arms on his chest, propping her chin there. His expression was serene, his eyes closed.
She wanted to tell him what she was feeling, but she just wasn’t sure. And she wasn’t ready to commit her heart so deeply, though she already knew she’d taken a tumble when Jack walked back into her life. Now he was in her bed again, making her feel much more than before, and she wanted him to know how much of a woman she was with him, but she decided that he already knew. He was the only man who could make her rip apart with her desire and still want more.
He opened his eyes. “Hi.”
She smiled. “Hi yourself, Lieutenant.”
He squeezed her buttocks. “I’m almost afraid to hear what you have to say.”
“I’m not talking myself out of anything, Jack.” She inched up, running her tongue over the seam of his mouth before she kissed him.
He groaned, trapping her in his arms.
“We’re amazing together, aren’t we?” she said, and he shifted them to the side, running his hand over the curve of her hip.
“Oh, yeah.”
“So what happened when you stayed in the water for hours?”
He cocked a look at her, amused. “I didn’t think you were listening.”
“I wasn’t, but that much I caught.”
“We finally got to come in and we ate the leftovers from the previous meal out of the trash can.”
“Eww,” she said, sitting up. “That’s disgusting.”
“All a matter of survival, darlin’. You’re hungry, you eat what’s there.” From his position, her bare breast was too much of a temptation. He tipped his head and took her nipple deep into his mouth.
Her sharp indrawn breath filled the room, followed by a low throaty moan. Melanie knew she was moaning. It was hard not to be vocal when Jack touched her like this. He cupped her breasts, kneading them as he sucked, the pull sending spirals of sweet sensation out to her fingertips.
Her toes curled.
Only him, she thought, scrubbing her hands over his chest and then lower. The muscles of his stomach flinched and she smiled to herself. He nuzzled between her breasts and Melanie shifted lower, leaving hot grinding kisses in her wake. His breathing labored, his grip on her tightened.
“Melanie.”
She met his gaze, stroking his stomach, her hand gliding over his skin, then slowly closing her fingers around his arousal. He was already hard. She arched a brow.
He just shrugged and grinned. “It’s a perpetual state with you around.”
Then she bent and licked. He howled and she took him.
“Oh!”
Jack was helpless. Sinking fast and furiously into the sensations rushing and churning inside him. His body reeled in ten directions at once. His hands fisted in the sheets. His blood shimmered in his veins and rushed to collect where she touched. She tasted. He couldn’t stand it. He wanted to stand it, but he was almost embarrassingly powerless.
He grasped her under her arms and pulled her upward. “We better do something about that,” he growled. “Now.”
“Thought I was.” Melanie smiled as she straddled his hips. He didn’t give her a second to breathe, pushing into her and bucking. She laughed and spread her hands over his chest, riding him, rocking hard and watching his face. He rose up, pulling her legs around him, then quickening their motion. Gazes met and locked as their bodies beat a frantic rhythm.