“I am—” Hope clamped her mouth shut and took a deep breath, not finishing her comment. “I’m doing fine,” she finished more calmly. She averted her gaze away from Jason’s face.
“Are you really fine, Hope?” he asked fiercely, breaching the short distance between them to grasp her chin and force her to look at him. “Or are you feeling just as damn lost as I feel right now?” Jason knew his control was slipping, but he couldn’t bring himself to give a shit. Who watched out for Hope? She’d just split with her boyfriend. Was she heartbroken? Was she happy in Colorado? Why did she stay there if her relationship was finally over?
“I’m doing good,” she answered quietly and looked into his eyes this time.
“What about your ex-boyfriend? How can you be okay?”
She shot him a weak smile. “I think it was time. We just weren’t right for each other. I’ll get over it.” She paused. “What’s happening with you, Jason? Is something wrong? You seem…troubled.”
For some reason, the fact that Hope sounded like a concerned friend made him completely insane. “Nothing’s wrong, but I definitely have a problem.”
“What?” Hope asked gently.
“You,” he growled as he grasped her hand and pressed it against his throbbing erection. “I can’t stop wanting you. I’ve wanted you for what seems like forever. I can get on my goddamn jet and fly back to New York, but distance isn’t going to work anymore for me. I’ll be thinking about you anyway, getting myself off on fantasies of being so deep inside you that you can’t think about anything else but me.” He snaked his hand behind her neck and covered her mouth with his before she could say anything else, or deny the heat between them. He came completely unraveled as she straddled his lap, pushed him down to the carpet, and covered his body with hers. She fisted his hair and kissed him as if her life depended on it. Her tongue met his stroke for stroke, as if she had never felt physical desire before and had to have it—now that she’d discovered it.
He grasped her hips and pulled her heated core against his erection, cursing the denim that separated them. Her silky hair caressed his neck and fell like a curtain around them as they exchanged an embrace so desperate and needy that he groaned into her mouth.
Need. To. Be. Inside. Her. Now.
Finally, Hope tore her lips from his. “I think I have the same problem that you do,” she murmured breathlessly. She buried her face in his neck and ran her tongue over any bare flesh she could find.
“Jesus,” Jason rasped, stunned but euphoric that Hope was actually this raw and out of control. He kept her straddled over his lap while he sat up, grabbed the hem of her sweatshirt and pulled it over her head. With the front clasp of her bra released, he watched as her br**sts sprang free: plump, ripe, and beautiful, the raspberry-colored ni**les already pebbled with desire. “Beautiful.”
“Off.” Hope yanked at his sweatshirt.
He happily obliged. The garment went over his head quickly. Bare skin met bare skin, and he stroked his hands down her naked back.
I. Need. Her.
Jason lay back and took Hope with him. He flipped her onto her back, her body trapped beneath him; her legs wrapped around his waist. His c**k throbbed as he looked at her face, her hair spread out wildly on the carpet, her eyes dark with passion.
“Jason, I—”
He thought he saw a flash of fear in her eyes as he covered her mouth with his finger to silence her. “Don’t speak, Hope. Don’t say no unless you really don’t want this.” He knew she did. She burned just as hotly as he did right now. He eased down and undid the button of her jeans, slid the zipper down and sat up to pull them down her shapely legs. Her panties went with them. “I have to taste you,” he rasped, needing to watch her go over the edge.
“How?” she whispered urgently.
Jason hovered above her. Her eyes lit up with anticipation and…confusion? “Christ. Haven’t you ever made love in any other way except f**king?” Her boyfriend must have been a jackass. How could he not have wanted to savor Hope?
“No,” she admitted softly. “Not really.”
“I’ll show you.” His voice was graveled with desire, desperate to pleasure her now that he knew he was going to be the first man to make her come this way.
Hope’s nude body laid out on the cream-colored carpet in the firelight was a sight that Jason knew would be burned into his brain forever. She looked like something straight out of his fantasies. No…she looked even better.
I’ve never even imagined her quite like this.
Not even as the star of every one of his wet dreams had he pictured her like this. Jason knew exactly what he wanted to do: he wanted to make her come until she was spoiled for any other man. Fuck knew he was completely gone, and he wanted her to be just as desperate only for him as he was solely for her. If he was being avaricious and greedy, he didn’t give a shit. He had to feel Hope’s hunger for him.
He lowered his head to her breast and sucked her nipple into his mouth as his fingers teased her other breast.
“Jason.” Hope moaned and speared her hands through his hair to bring his mouth harder against her breast.
The moment she moaned his name in pleasure, Jason knew he was completely lost in his f**king fantasy, and he had no desire to be found anytime soon. His control was gone, stripped from him by the needy, throaty sound of his name on Hope’s lips. Jason tenaciously went after what he wanted, his mind focused on the only woman who could make him lose himself completely.
Chapter 3
Hope knew her body had won the war between her mind and her desire. Her need for Jason was so strong that she couldn’t fight it anymore; she didn’t even want to engage in emotional combat over it. She simply wanted to devour him whole, which she’d almost done when she’d jumped him. Desperately needing to feel connected to him, wanting to feel more of her burgeoning sensual desires, she’d responded with her instincts, and every part of her wanted this to happen with Jason.
One night. I just want this one night with him.
She hadn’t wanted to explain the reason for her inexperience, and luckily, Jason hadn’t pushed it. Now, she took what he offered. He made her body come to vibrant life, and all she wanted to do was feel.
Maybe with Jason, it’s possible. This is new. I’ve never wanted a man this way.
She’d watched him as his eyes had devoured her nude body. There was no mistaking the hunger in his gaze, even though her body wasn’t perfect, and Hope wanted to be the one to satiate this beautiful man, experience his passion and her own.