“Oh, Jackson, this is nice,” she said as she wrapped her fingers around his thick shaft.
“If you keep doing that, we won’t get to the fun part,” he warned her as her thumb slid across the slick head of his arousal.
“I thought you were more of a man,” she taunted, and his muscles locked up.
He would show her a man. With a quick movement, he shifted his arm beneath her knees and lifted her in the air, then laid her down on the bed, quickly covering her body with his.
“Yes, that’s exactly what I want,” she told him, spreading her legs as she rubbed against his hardness.
He tore her panties away and nearly thrust inside her before he froze, his body shaking with need.
“Protection,” he groaned as he stood up and snatched a condom from his wallet. Where was his brain? He’d almost forgotten, and that was a mistake he’d never made before.
Rejoining her at breakneck speed, he sheathed himself while she nibbled on his shoulder. When he ran a finger down her slick folds and it came back coated in her arousal, it was his turn to groan—she was more than ready for him.
Turning so he was lying flush against her, his chest cushioned by her breasts, he positioned himself and felt her heat nearly scorching him. With a quick movement forward, he slid inside—and almost lost the last hold on his control.
She was too tight—he wouldn’t last. Her body tensed, and he waited. She was small and he wasn’t, so he knew she had to adjust. When she began twisting about beneath him, it was his cue to move—and move he did.
Grabbing the backs of her legs, he settled more fully inside her, pushing in and slowly pulling out of her heat. Within minutes, he was picking up the pace, listening to her moans of pleasure, feeling the pressure build in the movements of her body as he stoked both of their fires higher and higher.
She cried out as her core began convulsing around him, and she pulled him farther inside her, made him give up his struggle to last any longer. His head rolled back as he pumped repeatedly inside the safety of her heat.
Time stopped as he collapsed against her, barely able to take his weight off her as he tried to catch his breath. Normally this would have been the time he’d get up, go to the bathroom, dress, and make it more than clear that it was time for her to go. But he couldn’t persuade himself to get out of the warm bed. With her delectable body draped partway over his, they lay there panting, and neither of them said a word for several long moments.
As he drifted off to sleep, Jackson felt a contentment unlike anything he’d ever felt before. His last thought was that he wasn’t even close to ready to let this woman go.
WHEN ALYSSA HEARD the soft sounds of Jackson’s deepened breathing, she carefully untangled her limbs from his and inched away. He reached for her, and she held still, standing naked by his bed, waiting to see what he’d do. But slumber held him firmly in its grasp, and she was free to leave.
But not free enough to ever forget her fascination with the impressive cut of his muscles, bare for her to see in the light shining through from the hallway. Every inch of her body ached—in the best possible way.
And yet not all of her hurt was good. Surprised by the poignancy of the moment, she was feeling more pain than she’d expected at the sad fact that she’d never see this man again. But there wasn’t time to dwell on that. She pulled her clothes back on—well, everything except the ruined panties, which she tucked into a trash can to be thrown away with all the other New Year’s trimmings.
After taking only a moment to clean herself up, she collected her purse and slipped from the room. It was four in the morning. The traffic from the New Year’s revelers had cleared, and that was a major blessing. It was time to go home. Time to return to being Alyssa Gerard, just a normal woman with no clue what to do with the rest of her life.
Hailing a cab was easy, and just as quickly as she’d slipped into this stranger’s life, she slipped out. Alyssa was very proud that she looked back at the hotel only once before it disappeared from view. Using the last of her cash to pay the cabbie, she entered the airport and made her way to her gate.
It was time to start over. And this time she was going to make no mistakes.
MARCH
Why wasn’t he smiling? Jackson normally enjoyed a function like tonight’s. New York in early March was at last beginning to shed its layer of snow, and even the wintry days were a respite from Montana’s frozen beauty. There were a number of women to choose from for an easy night of pleasure, the food was always excellent, and it gave him a chance to catch up with old friends.
But tonight it was taking all of his willpower to stand in the beautiful room, wearing his custom tux, while he sipped a glass of wine. He didn’t want to be there, didn’t want to fake a smile, and didn’t want to talk to anyone. Maybe he should just leave.
“You made it. I thought for sure you’d find an excuse not to be here.”
Jackson turned to find Lucas Anderson walking up to him, his beautiful wife, Amy, by his side.
“I tried to get out of it. But my father guilted me,” Jackson admitted with a crooked smile.
“Why am I not surprised?” Lucas said with a laugh.
“Because you know me well and know I’ve been less than social the last couple months. How is the clan in Seattle?”
“Everyone is doing well. My father’s here somewhere, but Amy and I are hoping to sneak out early, so we’ve been staying on the perimeter. He can see that we’ve made a showing, and then we can escape,” Lucas said. “And you’ve been less than social for a few years, but you seemed to be getting a little better about coming out until a couple of months ago.”
“Sometimes a person just has enough,” Jackson said. The thing he liked most about Lucas was that he knew his friend wouldn’t push the issue, or ask him why he didn’t feel like socializing. The last thing he wanted to do was tell a sob story, or try to explain to someone else what he couldn’t even explain to himself. “I have a meeting with Congressman Jones and then I’m going to slip out myself. I’ve been in New York for a week now, and I’m more than ready to return to Montana.”
“I know how that is. I’m glad I do a lot less traveling these days.”
“I don’t know, Lucas. It’s nice to get away from home every once in a while,” Amy said.
“I’m more than happy to go anywhere as long as you’re with me, darling,” Lucas said with a brilliant smile for his wife.