Starks' Reality (17 page)

He removed his own shirt. Then he lifted her onto the counter.

She sat, watching him, as he filled a glass with water. He handed it to her and she drank.

When she finished drinking, Jake took the glass and carefully poured a little water onto her right shoulder. She flinched, but didn’t protest. A rivulet ran down the front of her body, circling inside her breast and disappearing between her thighs. He followed the line with his tongue until he reached her belly. She squirmed and gripped the counter. He poured a little more on the left side and repeated the process, enjoying her delicate taste.

Then he discarded the glass and moved back to her breasts, circling them and teasing the nipples with his tongue and teeth. Her breath quickened, escaping in short gasps, and she grabbed his shoulders.

He pushed her legs apart and stood between them as he moved up the front of her. He needed her mouth. When he reached it, she responded with an eagerness that bordered on desperation, and she wrapped her legs around his
hips.

Damn
, he hadn’t expected the urgency he felt. If he didn’t slow this down, he was going to lose control of the situation. He withdrew his mouth from hers and leaned back to look at her.

She opened her eyes and smiled at him as she moved her hands down to his chest. Her fingers felt wonderful exploring his skin, kneading the muscles.

Jake pulled the condom from his back pocket. He’d had it tucked away since their first encounter, just in case.

He kicked off his boots,
then pushed down his pants and stepped out of them. Heather watched him roll on the condom. She looked up into his eyes, her smile intact. When he leaned in for a kiss, she met him halfway, locking her arms around his neck. He pulled her forward until she balanced on the edge of the counter, poised above him, open for him, waiting, and he pressed against her, burning in her heat. With one good thrust he could have been inside her.

But that wasn’t what he had in mind.

Using every bit of restraint he could muster, Jake kissed her lips and her neck and moved forward a little at a time. He sucked on her bottom lip as he first entered her. She moaned, and he gasped and dropped his forehead to hers. She dug her heels into the backs of his thighs, trying to pull him closer. Somehow, he managed to stay put long enough to regain the control he needed. These games he knew how to play.

He held his mouth to her ear as he moved in just a little more. “You feel
amazing,” he whispered.

She clung to his shoulders and pressed her mouth to his shoulder.

Her muscles began to tighten around him and he stopped. She tried to push her hips forward, but he had a good grip on her. “Not yet.”

She whimpered.

As soon as she relaxed, he continued. “I need to be inside you…deep.” He stopped again.

By the time he was buried inside her, they’d both come close to release so many times, he’d lost track. He wrapped his arms around her and held her, standing perfectly still.

He wanted to feel everything as she came. With his arms tightly around her, his hands spread on her ribs, and his mouth to her ear, he pushed slowly, gently, making each movement count. “Yeah, that’s it. Just let go.”

It didn’t take long. She grabbed him, pressed her head to his, and peaked. The convulsions rolled through her body, tightening every muscle, driving her onto him, and she cried out with each. He bit his bottom lip to keep from losing control and enjoyed her ecstasy. Her release was pure, uninhibited, fierce—he’d never known anything like it.

When the crest passed, she held him, her breath hot and fast in his ear. His plan was to take her to his bed and start over, but she locked her legs around his hips when he tried to withdraw.

“No, Jake,” she whispered, “your turn.”

He groaned and tried again to withdraw. She tightened her grip on him and rolled her hips up and down as she whispered something about needing him.

His tentative grip slipped and he came, holding her to him as he drove himself into her. Her heated, f
irm body met his thrusts with strength to match his own. God, it was perfect. She held him, groaning into his ear and demanding more. He lost track of everything but her heat and her touch and her scent. He lost himself in her.

When it ended, he stood, shaking, holding her, unable to let go. She put her head on his shoulder and stroked the back of his neck. They stayed there for a long time, their hearts pounding into each other’s chest.

“Jake.”

“Hmm?”

“I think my butt has a dent in it.”

“S
orry.”

“Don’t be,” she said.

He lifted her carefully from the counter and carried her to the sofa.

~~**~~**~~

Their coupling was different this time. What had started out as a game to Jake had turned into something else—for both of them.

Heather couldn’t believe how incredible he’d looked when he walked into her kitchen, his shirt open to rippling muscles, his eyes sparkling with determination. At that moment, he could have demanded anything of her and she would have acquiesced.

And then, when he drove her to distraction in his kitchen, he wrapped himself around her as she came, taking her into him, giving himself to her. And the same happened when he peaked. She’d never experienced anything so intense, or so intimate.

On the sofa, he’d deserted her long enough to get another condom from the box he admitted to buying. Then he’d stretched out on top of her and kissed her and caressed her until she was desperate for him again. When she reached down for him, she realized he was just as
ready as she was.

“Christ,” he whispered, “this is insane.”

She nodded as she kissed his neck.

He tore open the condom package and struggled to get it on without moving away from her. She helped him, pulling groans from him as she did,
and then raised her legs around him.

Jake settled between her thighs and entered her quickly. His size still s
urprised her a bit; she gasped and opened her eyes to find him staring down at her, his weight on his elbows. He pushed her hair away from her temples and frowned as he studied her. She loved the lines in his face, the dimple that appeared in his cheek when he smiled, the way the tip of his tongue rested against his front teeth when he was trying not to hurry. She loved the way he filled her completely, but was careful not to push too hard. She loved the way his skin felt, and the way the muscles in his back tightened under her hands. She loved the way he smelled, wet with her kisses. She loved seeing herself in his eyes.

She loved him.

The realization might have scared her if she hadn’t been about to lose control under him. She closed her eyes and grabbed his shoulders. He kissed her. She opened her mouth, drew him in, and exploded. Her world shattered into a million pieces as she rose up to meet him, again and again, unable to stop, unable to get close enough.

And he pumped himself into her with powerful strokes, peaking as she did, drawing out her ecstasy until she thought she might
pass out. She wrapped her legs around him and rode each pulse until the last one tore through her body with agonizing pleasure.

Jake held himself tensed above her for a long moment, then collapsed. He moved to her side to allow them both to pant as they held each other.

She wanted to tell him that she loved him. Thankfully, something kept her silent. What would she do if he laughed at her foolishness? And surely he would; as wonderful as sex with Jake was, she wasn’t naive enough to think he loved her in return. How could he? They hadn’t known each other long, and he’d seen her at her worst, not her best.

At least ten minutes passed before either of them moved beyond stroking the other’s skin. She kissed him, and he rolled onto his back as she propped her head on her hand and traced lines in his chest. The kitchen and hall lights lit the living room
around them, but leaving the two of them in shadow. Still, she could see his eyes as he watched her.

“Jake,” she said, hesitant to talk for fear of disturbing the tranquility, but feeling the need to do so anyway. She needed to know more about the man lying beside her—to decide if it was
even possible for him to ever feel about her as she felt about him.

“Yes, Heather?”

She loved his deep, sexy voice.

“You said that if I wanted to know about your past, I should ask you.”

He frowned. “Yes.”

“What happened with your marriage? I mean, what went wrong?”

At first she thought he wasn’t going to respond.

“Do we have to talk about this now?”

“No, I guess not,” she said.

He sighed heavily and folded his arm under his head. “It was a long time ago, in another life.”

“Did you love her?”

“Serena?” He sighed again. “Not at first. I thought I did, but I know now I didn’t. The sex was good, but that was about it.”

He swallowed hard and closed his eyes. “I did love her by the time she left, though. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late.”

“Why did she leave?”

He opened his eyes and frowned at her again. “Heather, I don’t really want to talk about this. I was a different person back then. My life has changed a lot in the past ten years.”

“Can’t you tell me?”

He huffed and shook his head. “You’re the one I don’t want to tell any of this to.”

“Why?”

“Because your feelings for me will change.”

She pushed his arm away and sat up. “That’s not fair, Jake. You don’t even give me a chance.”

Before she could stand, he wrapped his arm around her waist from behind and pulled her back to him. Heather struggled, but couldn’t begin to get out of his grip. It infuriated her that he saw her as immature.

He held her against him and didn’t move until she quit struggling.

“Don’t run away,” he said, quietly, into her ear.

The note of honest pain in his voice made her stomach knot. He wasn’t just asking her not to leave his arms at that moment; he was talking about the future, when he bared his soul. For whatever reason, he was convinced she wouldn’t want him anymore. How could anything be bad enough to stop her from loving him?

“I won’t,” she said.

Slowly, he released his hold. Heather settled back into her position beside him.

Jake pushed his arm under her and pulled her head to his chest. He stroked her cheek as he spoke.

“When I met Serena, we were kids. We dated, figured we were in love, and got married. I started college while she worked. Then she got pregnant with our first child. I drop
ped out to get a job, and joined the Dallas Police.

“I’d always wanted to be a cop. My dad was a cop. Before he died, he made me promise not to follow in his footsteps. I made the promise, but I knew it was a lie as soon as I said it.”

Heather’s head moved up and down as Jake took a deep breath.

“I still remember the first time I busted a kid for holding up a liquor store and saw him back on the street the next day. I thought it was a fluke. By the
third time, I realized the system was flawed.

“Things went downhill from there. I was surrounded by scum all day, then went home to my wife and daughter. Sometimes I forgot to leave work at the office. I started drinking with my buddies. We’d talked about how screwed up things were as we got loaded. Then I started forgetting to go home.”

He stopped talking.

Heather listened to his heart thunder in her ear. “That’s when she left?”

“No. That’s when she had our second daughter. She hated me for getting her pregnant. It wasn’t planned. I was banned from her room during the pregnancy, which was fine with me. I had…other friends.

“Then, the night Karen
was born, I was on duty when I got the call and I ran to the hospital. Serena was in labor for ten hours. I’d missed Becky’s birth, so I guess it hadn’t affected me the same way. For Karen, I was in the delivery room. When the doctor put that tiny little body in my hands, something happened. I don’t know, it was like I suddenly woke up. My whole life changed in that one moment. I had no desire to drink, or to stay away from home. My work was meaningful. I was making the world safer for my children. Hell, I became Mr. Wonderful.”

Heather snuggled closer, dreading the rest of the story, but needing to hear it. “What happened?”

“Six months later, she took the kids and left. No warning, just left a letter on the table and took off in the middle of my shift.

“Not that I blame her. I put her through hell for most of seven years. There was no way to make up for that. But she got the revenge she wanted. I paid the price for a long time.”

Heather put her hand over his left breast and felt his heart beating too fast against her palm.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

Jake covered her hand with his own and squeezed. He kissed the top of her head.

They lay together until the cool night air drove them to their clothes.