Page 68 of Don’t Go Stealing My Heart

Jack demanded her submission.

She let her next tear fall and despised the wet slide of it down her skin. She hated who she’d allowed herself to become. Fake and distant. Isolated. Jack kissed her jaw, and the hate lessened. He kissed her neck, and the self-reproach fled. Most of it, at least. Desire to prove herself to him flared, so he could fully forgive her lies.

He grabbed the condom, but she pulled it from his hands. “Don’t use it.”

He stilled, but his erection twitched. “What?”

“I’m on the pill and I’ve been tested.”

“You didn’t ask if I’m clean.”

“You won’t hurt me.”

“How do you know?”

“I know you, Jack.” She hoped that included believing he wouldn’t rat her out to the cops, but it didn’t matter anymore, not right now with what they were about to do. “I trust you. I want you to come inside me.” Feel the trust I’m putting in you.

His eyes flashed, primal with a dash of recklessness. “You’re sure?”

She spread her legs.

A growl rumbled from him, but he didn’t move his hips. He slid down her body, eyes and tongue and lips devouring her on his descent. “Need this.”

No. Not this. She craved him inside her, filling her, leaving no room for her worries. “You said we needed sex now.”

“I lied.” He paused and quirked a dark eyebrow at her. “I think I’m entitled to one or two white lies with you.”

She laughed, the sound slipping into a moan as he reached her inner thigh. “We’re joking about this already, are we?”

He gave her a long, slow lick, right beside where she ached. He glanced up and smiled, eyelids weighted with lust. “Laughter is the best medicine.”

“I heard orgasms are.”

“I heard demanding girls get spanked.”

Whoa now. She had only ever been hit out of anger or just plain cruelty. Jack’s threat was wicked and playful, and her excitement hit light speed. She couldn’t speak again. Not with his focus on her body, licking, sucking, stroking. He controlled her like a Nascar champion, revving her engine just enough, pulling back, reacting and adjusting to her moans and moves. Smooth yet aggressive. He knew her. In five seconds flat, he was reading her needs. Predicting them.

The force of her release stunned her, the quick snap of her hips out of her control. She didn’t mean to squash Jack’s head between her knees. “If you keep this up, we’re never leaving this room.”

He looked up from between her legs, his lecherous grin sending fresh waves of pleasure through her. “Don’t tempt me.”

Her body felt sated yet alive, still hovering on the edge of release. She wasn’t prepared for his big frame to loom over her, his thighs to nudge hers wider as he positioned himself at her entrance. “You’re sure?” he asked again.

His tenderness only proved how right she was to trust him. “I am.”

He sank into her in one smooth stroke.

She gasped. “Jack.”

His shoulders pitched forward, a rugged grunt ripping from his throat. “Clementine. So good. You feel so fucking good.”

She wasn’t prepared to feel this full. So why did it also feel like she was teetering near the brink of a cliff? Like she was about to shatter so spectacularly there would be no putting herself back together?

21

Clementine’s eyes shimmered. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. She bent her knees and pressed them into his sides, forcing him deeper.

Jack’s moan was dredged from the soles of his feet. “We’re done with apologies.”