around. Stopped treating him like a child and giving him the most ridiculously convoluted mixed signals so you don’t know whether you’re coming or going—although you certainly aren’t coming because someone is such a cock-tease and never follows through with what his body promises you.”
“We aren’t talking about Eliot anymore, are we?”
“You think?” Lucy snarled. “How dare you?”
Jake shifted to the opposite edge of the crate, eyeing her warily. “How dare I?” he repeated cautiously.
“You think you can just waltz into my life, get me all fired up and then just walk away ? Just because you’re too hot for your own damn good doesn’t mean you can treat women like that.”
“Lucy.”
“Oh, don’t Lucy me. Let me give you a hint, Casanova. When you have a girl pinned up against a refrigerator panting for you, the absolute worst thing you can say to her is it won’t happen again . It’s the dimples, isn’t it? It’s because I’m too cute . You don’t think of me that way , right?”
Jake grabbed her and shut her up with a kiss. His touch was even more scorching than she had remembered. By the time he released her mouth, her bones had been thoroughly liquefied by the heat.
“I don’t know where you get this idea that I don’t want you,” Jake growled. He picked her up and dropped her onto his lap. “I’ve been having a devil of a time keeping my hands off you since the second we met, and the only reason I bothered to try was because I knew Karma would have my balls for earrings if I messed up her shot at the finder’s fee on Joe Morrissey.”
“So you want me?”
Jake shifted her on his lap. “Do you really need to ask me that?”
“Right. Stupid question.” Lucy wasn’t going to waste any more time talking. She speared her fingers through Jake’s hair and pulled him back in for another kiss.
He let her have control for about five seconds before he took over, slanting his mouth over hers as his strong hands molded her body against his. One hand slipped beneath her T-shirt and closed over her breast, stroking, teasing at her nipple through the silky fabric of her bra. Lucy squirmed on Jake’s lap, twisting around to straddle him, to give him better access and to get pressure against the best parts. She pressed her hips forward, the apex of her thighs rubbing against the ridge in his jeans through two layers of denim. Lucy moaned into his mouth and he growled, thrusting his tongue against hers.
Lucy arched her neck back, breaking the kiss, nipping at his lips when they chased hers. She yanked his shirt off over his head and nearly whimpered at the sight of his chest. He was all smooth muscle pulled taut beneath caramel tan skin. The broad, slightly bulging muscles of his upper arms flowed up into the wide expanse of his shoulders and down into defined pecs and abs so tight she could bounce a quarter off them.
“Damn, you’re gorgeous,” she murmured huskily.
Jake grinned wolfishly and reached for the hem of her shirt. “My turn.”
He pulled her shirt up slowly, his gaze intensifying with every inch of skin he revealed. He teased her stomach with the backs of his fingers, drew his hands over her ribcage, brushing the sides of her breasts, and then slowly slid his palms up her arms until his fingers were wrapped around her wrists and the shirt fell to the ground behind her. He didn’t immediately release her hands, but kept her shackled by his fingers, her arms extended above her head as he bent his head and gently scraped his teeth across the upper curve of her breast just above her bra.
Lucy shivered and bit her lower lip as she watched him nibble and lick his way across her body, catching the front clasp of her bra between his teeth and releasing it as he bent her back and stroked his tongue down toward her navel. He released her hands, but all she could think to do with them was lace her fingers through the dense softness of his hair as his mouth slowly drove
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