“Watching you with my family had me feeling the exact same things. Wanting you, needing you has kept me up every night since we met.” She could nearly taste his lips on hers, but instead of kissing her, he said, “But you need to know that I’m going to want more than just one night.”
Yet again, he was the most honest, straightforward man she’d ever known. Instead of sweet-talking her into rushing to open her front door so that they could fall into bed, he was giving her every reason to push him away again by asking for too much, too fast.
“Let’s start here,” she said softly. “With tonight. Please, Jack, come inside.”
She held her breath as she waited for him to decide if what she was offering was enough for him.
Finally, he lifted her hands to his lips and kissed them. “Let’s go in.”
Nerves fought with heady anticipation as she led him up the steps. He might spend all day working on computers in a dusty garage, but Mary knew just how dominant, how alpha Jack could be. She’d felt it in every stolen kiss, in the hard press of his body against hers when she’d sworn that getting tangled up with him wasn’t what she wanted. But tonight she sensed he wanted her to lead him only as far as she was comfortable going…even if it was a distance she honestly couldn’t yet calculate.
Her house was so quiet she wondered if he could hear how hard and fast her heart was beating. He helped her off with her coat, and even though she was still fully dressed, she felt as if she was already standing naked before him in her foyer.
“So they girls are really all gone?” His warm breath heated the bare curve of her neck as he remained behind her with her coat in his hands.
Mary took both her coat and his from him and hung them up before turning back and saying, “We have the place entirely to ourselves.”
“I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you, Mary. I didn’t think it was possible to want like this.”
He hadn’t yet reached for her, hadn’t yet pulled her in for a kiss. But when he spoke, heat rolled across her skin as if he’d done that, and more.
And yet, though she knew Jack was different from the other men she’d been with, the hard lessons she’d learned over the years had her wondering if it was just her face, just her body, he wanted so badly.
“I’m sure you’ve been with plenty of beautiful women before.” And, Lord, she prayed she could measure up to them.
“Don’t you dare try to act like that’s what this is about.” There was a fierceness in him now. “Yes, you’re beautiful. And yes, your stunning face, your gorgeous body might have been what first drew me to you, but that’s not why I’m going to make love to you tonight.”
“Then why?”
“You could be at a glittering Christmas party full of movie stars and moguls. You could snap your fingers, and a dozen of the world’s most eligible bachelors would come running to give you everything you desired and more. Instead, you spent the night with my family and even made us dinner. You laughed with my brothers. You put my sister-in-law at ease, and you played on the floor with my nephew.”
Ever since Mary had become famous, the men she’d met assumed she craved the glitz. The spotlights and flashbulbs. Only Jack had ever seen the truth—that she’d take spending time with a loving family over all of the fame and flash.
Just like that, her nerves fell away, and she reached for him. He’d remembered to shave that morning, but his jaw was already dark with an evening shadow. Gently, she ran her fingertips over his face as he slid his hands around the curve of her hips.
“It’s my turn to steal a kiss from you tonight,” she whispered as she ran her thumb across his lower lip. He was so tall that she had to go on her tiptoes in her heels and thread her fingers into his dark hair to pull his mouth down to hers.
And as she kissed him, the breath Mary realized she’d been holding since the moment she’d met Jack Sullivan escaped her lips in a happy sigh.
Chapter Twelve
Mary’s lips were so soft, her breath a whisper of warmth across Jack’s mouth. Every kiss they’d shared had been spectacular, but nothing could have prepared him for this. He’d been stealing passion from her before, but now she was giving him her boundless sensuality freely…and so damned sweetly that his hands were shaking as he cradled her hips.
She drew back just far enough to murmur, “You taste so good, like lemons and sugar and you,” and then she was kissing him again, slicking her tongue over his lower lip. Meeting her halfway, his tongue found hers, and she gave up a gasp of pleasure.
The small tastes of her that he’d had this past week had made him ravenous for more than just a few fleeting moments of heaven. He wanted to learn every inch of the incredible woman in his arms. What made her pant. What made her plead. What made her eyes flutter closed as she came apart in his arms.
Slowly, he slid his hands up her curves, from her hips to her back and shoulders. She was trembling by the time he threaded his fingers into her silky hair, and as he took their kiss deeper, her hands clasped his shoulders as if she needed to hold on to him to keep her balance.
Tilting her head back further, he began to rain kisses over her jaw. Drawn like a magnet to the rapidly beating pulse at the side of her neck, he covered it with his mouth. Her skin was even softer here, and she shuddered when the bristles from his evening shadow brushed over her. When she arched back, he licked once into the hollow at the base of her throat, before moving down to press his lips over the bare skin of her collarbone where her sweater had pulled away.