High Risk Love (26 page)

“That okay for you?” She crawled up my body, sitting on my stomach. I could feel her center, wet and hot, and I knew just how fucking tight it was. Already I was hardening again, thinking about thrusting into her. But not yet.

I rolled her onto her back and then stood up, stared down at her like the first time we’d made love. Sweet heaven above, had it only been two days ago? If this was our last night together, then I wanted a memory of something more, of something I’d only before imagined.

“Touch yourself,” I said. “I want to watch you touch yourself.”

That delectable pink color rose up from the base of her neck; something I would never tire seeing. I hoped she never lost that innocence, that soft beauty.

Tentatively at first, her hand dipped between her legs and I watched, unabashedly turned on by the sight I’d imagined so many times. Her knees parted, opening fully, showing me her beautiful petals I’d kissed and touched. Now her finger circled her clit, teased it as her other hand paused at her breast, uncertainty scorching her features.

“Jet—”

“You are beautiful, Jasmin. I want to watch you come undone, want to see you, all of you.”

A whisper of a smile ghosted across her lips. “And after?”

I touched her foot, lifted it up and kissed the inner side of her ankle. “Anything you want, Spitfire.”

“Hmm,” she murmured, her fingers sliding down to steal moisture from her center, then back up to her clit, rubbing with two fingers, pressing her hips forward. When her eyelids fluttered closed I touched her foot again, getting her attention. “Eyes open, beautiful, look at me.”

The eroticism was not lost on either of us, I think. Her eyes dilated as her fingers worked her clit and nipples, teasing and tugging. My gaze wandered to where she touched herself, burning the vision in my mind. I held her one foot up, kissed her ankle, stroked her calf, fought not to touch her anywhere else. This was a memory I would hold. If this was our last night, then I would make sure I could see her forever like this, see her coming for me. Only me.

Her stroking sped up, and the little whimpers I knew meant she was close started to spill out of her lips.

“Come for me.”

Her lithe hips bucked and writhed, but her eyes never left my face as she came with a soft moan, her hands slipping from her body.

I reached behind me to the dresser and the last condom from the box I’d brought, slipped it on with a single hand.

“Last one.” I pouted, shaking the empty box.

“I guess we’ll have to buy more then.” She giggled and my heart skipped. Maybe this was not our last night?

I wrapped my hands around her tiny ankles and lifted them up so her ass was an inch off the bed. She locked them behind my head and I bent over her, almost folding her in half. Her hands splayed on my chest, fingered my nipple ring; touched the scars there on my ribs. I didn’t mind' in her I’d found the peace I’d always looked for, the healing I’d never found. She didn’t make me whole, but she calmed the wildness in me, and then brought it crashing out with a touch of her hand.

I slid into her, her wet heat curling around me, clutching me as her muscles tightened around my shaft.

“Please, Jet, don’t go slow. Just . . . go.” Her half whimpered plea was all I needed.

I slammed my body into hers, harder than I ever had before. Her gasp brought my eyes to hers, but she wasn’t hurting. She panted alongside me, mouth parted, fire racing between us, a second climax building in her, I could feel it gripping me, drawing me deeper into her. Over and over I thrust into the warmth, her legs.

“Fuck me, Jet. Please.”

I didn’t hold back, didn’t think about anything but her. Jasmin, my Spitfire, and sometimes potty mouth. Her gasps turned into screams as we rode the wave of pleasure, the fire of it sending me over the edge. I collapsed onto her, pleasantly exhausted, feeling more undone than I could have ever imagined.

“I can’t control myself when I’m with you.” I groaned, forcing myself to stand back up, keeping her legs where they were and then pulling her up with me. Cupping her ass, I wobbled toward the bathroom.

Laughing, she wrapped her arms around my neck and squeezed with her legs, which only tightened her inner muscles on my shaft, waking it up again. “What are you doing?”

“Shower.”

“We don’t have any more condoms,” she said. “And the last time we were in the shower you had to get out to go get one.”

“I can control myself.” I stepped into the bathroom and turned on the hot water, still not putting her down.

“Really? I don’t know about that. Didn’t you just say you couldn’t control yourself?” She nibbled on my earlobe, sucking it into her mouth, repeating the same moves she’d used on my shaft. Mother in heaven, I wasn’t so sure of anything anymore.

The water came on, and I reluctantly put her down, pulling myself out of her sweet, tight center. I kissed her eyelids, her cheeks, chin, and finally her mouth. “Shower with me.”

In my mind, I could see it already, the soap and warm water, her slippery, soft skin. I would make her come while I was on my knees, my face in her sweet, sweet—

The front door of the apartment slammed and Lily’s voice shrieked into existence. “I have never been so furious in my life!”

We jumped as if we were teenagers caught by the unexpected return of a parent. Jasmin grabbed a towel and tossed it me, her face a mixture of nerves, horror and a smile that trembled.

“Don’t let Lily scare you.” She tucked a towel around her own body and stepped into the hallway, closing the door behind her. I turned the water off, cleaned myself up and leaned against the bathroom door. Feminine voices were lowered, just at the level where I couldn’t make out their words. Sweat broke out all over me; depending on how Lily spun it, I could end up looking really, really bad . . . .

And then they weren’t lowered anymore.

“What do you mean?” Lily shrieked. “He has to leave, you said two days, three at the tops. You said you could get him out of your system!”

“I didn’t say that, you did,” Jasmin yelled, but I was still hearing Lily’s words.

Get me out of her system, had Jasmin known all along . . . fuck, she’d been in on Lily’s plan.

The door creaked open and Jasmin stood there, clinging to her towel, so like the first time we’d made love. “Jet, I’m so sorry. I didn’t . . . I don’t know what to say.” The light in her green eyes was gone.

I stood and moved closer to her, anger burning its way through me. She was using me, just like all the other women I’d known. “So, did you have fun? Get me out of your system? Have a good time with the bad boy—”

She stepped back, her eyes widening. “Please don’t. I’m sorry, I should have told you. It wasn’t like that for me.”

I grabbed her arms, forgetting about my towel, and dragged her into the bathroom. She squeaked and Lily came stomping down the hallway, got a look at me and her eyes popped open wide.

I slammed the door in her face, earning a gasp out of Jasmin, and then Lily started to pound on the door. Ignoring Lily, I pulled Jasmin tight against my body.

“Let’s make one thing clear,” I whispered in her ear, feeling like a fucking schmuck for believing Lily. This was, I had to admit, a manipulation I never saw coming. “I came here to make you see that I loved you, not to get you out of my system. Lily and Jasper thought this was a phase; it isn’t a phase, it never has been. Not with you. But it looks like you’re no better than any of the other women I know.”

She stopped struggling as I spoke, her eyes filling with tears. “I don’t want you out of my system, Jet. I had to prove to Lily that you mean more to me than that. That I do love you.”

“Fuck Lily! This isn’t about her; it’s about you and me.”

She gulped a sob and then the rest of her words hit me.

“You love me?”

“Since Mexico,” she whispered, her eyes lifting to mine. “Maybe a part of me hoped that a weekend with you would burn you out of me, but I knew it would only make it worse. Knew that it would break my heart. But I was willing to go through the aftermath for the moments I would have to hang onto.”

Emotions battled inside my head and heart. She’d put her heart on the line, taken a chance. Fuck, why was I so angry, wasn’t this what I wanted?

I let her go, grabbing the towel and wrapping it around my waist. “Why is Lily back early?”

Jasmin slumped against the door, her arms wrapping around her torso. “Something happened with her and Jasper. She won’t tell me, but I think maybe . . . .”

I was already shaking my head. “No, he wouldn’t have slept with her.”

“You don’t know that.”

I tipped her head up, stared down into her green, green eyes. “Jazzy, he hasn’t slept with anyone for years.”

Her mouth turned into an ‘o’ of understanding. I leaned in and kissed her, stealing the exhale of air, breathing it into my lungs. I pulled back just enough to speak. “I love you, Jasmin Vargas.”

A tear trickled down her cheek, dropped onto her chest. I kissed it away. “God, don’t cry. I don’t want any regrets, to think I screwed up and didn’t ever say it when I was awake.”

Her hands slid up and cupped my face, her lips pressed into mine, her words a bare whisper. “I love you too. Can you forgive me?”

“Hmm. Let me see. You fool me into spending a weekend in your arms, so that you can tell me that you love me and want to keep me forever?”

She tried to suppress a smile, but it crept out. “When you put it that way, I see that perhaps I was being too hard on myself.”

With a shout of laughter, I scooped her up in my arms. “Well, then we need to finish what we started.” I traced along her jaw with my lips, feeling our bodies fitting so perfectly with one another.

Shaking her head, she held up a single finger. “Don’t distract me. Tonight you have to go home. Lily needs me, but you can come back. On one condition.”

“Anything.” I was having a hard time understanding how easy it was for me to forgive her for something that in the past would have me through the roof. But maybe that’s what love does to you, makes you forgive the other person’s mistakes. At least, I was hoping that was the case, because I was pretty sure that there are still several idiotic things in my future that I would need her forgiveness for.

Her lips found mine, tongue flashing out to tease mine into a dance I never tired of, and then she pulled back.

“We need another box of condoms.”

Jasmin

J
et left reluctantly, his hands everywhere at once, finally kissing me, soundly stealing my breath before I got the door shut.

With my forehead pressed against the door, I couldn’t still the pounding of my heart. We’d said the words, the ones I wasn’t sure I could ever say in truth. I loved Jet, with everything I had. And better yet, he loved me back. I’d never felt so alive.

I turned to face Lily who sat on the couch, her back ramrod straight, eyes resolutely not full of tears.

“Are you going to tell me what happened?” I moved to sit beside her, careful not to touch her. When she got like this, she went right back to being the foster kid who had to fight for everything. She wasn’t big into comfort, never certain of how to take it.

“I’m sorry, I thought he was going to treat you like shit, and I was wrong.”

“I’m happy, Lily, I am.”

She grimaced and peered up at me from under her eyelashes. “Yeah, and then I tried to break you up when I came back early. I thought if he knew you’d tricked him, he’d be so angry he’d never want to see you again.”

I shrugged and leaned back into the couch. I ran a hand through my hair, and tried to find the right words. “I get it, Lily, I do. And it doesn’t matter because it worked out.”

“Only because you two fought for each other.” She turned to face me, bending one leg, a wistful look coming over her face. “Was he any good then?”

“Lily!” I screeched, throwing a pillow at her. “Stop trying to change the subject. What happened with you and Jasper?”

Groaning, she leaned back. “I haven’t . . . not since Ryan . . . even looked at a guy more than twice. Hugh has been all over me, phoning, trying to get me to pay attention to him, and he’s cute, I get it, but just so not my type.”

I didn’t interrupt her, just nodded and made a ‘go on’ motion with my hands.

She twisted a lock of hair around her fingers. “Jasper, he’s . . . he’s got secrets, doesn’t he?”

“Yes. They both do.”

“I don’t want you to tell me.”

“Good, because I couldn’t anyway. I made a promise to Jet I wouldn’t talk about their past.” I touched her leg. “But secrets from a man who you aren’t interested in wouldn’t bother you.”

“Damn it! He’s fucking hot, all right? And I was sleeping on the couch, just sleeping, and he was on the balcony having a drink, and I woke up and stuff got heated . . . .”

My eyebrows rose, thinking about what Jet had said, that Jasper hadn’t slept with anyone for years. “Did you . . .?”

She waved me off. “No, that’s just it, we were making out, things were amazing, like nothing I’ve ever . . . and then he just jerks away from me. Says nothing, leaves the apartment.”

Her blue eyes closed and a single tear tracked down her cheek. I wiped it away and finally slip an arm around her. She let me and her small body shook with tears. “What was I thinking?”

“Lily, can you do something for me?”

Hiccupping back a sob, she nodded against me.

“Don’t put this on you. This is about him, not you, okay?” I smoothed her hair back from her face. “Promise me?”

“Why do I always have to like guys who can’t just like me back?”

I hugged her tight, felt her tense and let go. “Ryan liked you back.”

“He didn’t, not the way I wanted him to.”

Tell her.

I took her hands in mine and took a big breath. I’d never told her Ryan’s last words, I didn’t want her to hurt anymore than she already was.

“Before he died, he said that there was something he needed to say to you, something he should have said a long time ago.”

Her fingers tensed under mine and she shook her head, blonde hair swaying in front of her face. “Please, don’t say it.”