Just One Night (4 page)

But then again, no one,
anywhere, was like
Jase
.

“That's it,
Nickie
.
 
I can feel
it coming,” he whispered against the shell of her ear before he bent his head
to suck a spot near the crook of her shoulder.

She could feel it,
too.
 
Building inside
her, higher and higher.
 
Sending
shock waves throughout her body until with one rough pull of his mouth against
her skin and a sharp bite, she came.

Her body shook and
trembled against his and she keened his name over and over as she shoved her
hips against his hand.

“I'm here,
Nickie
.
 
I'm not
going anywhere,” he said as he held her and gentled his caresses, letting her
ease back from her release.
 
His kisses
tender and less demanding, although she knew he still wanted more.

But she wanted it,
too.
 
Her earlier hesitation about what
to do with
Jase
was totally gone, burned away by the
fire he had ignited inside her. She wanted him and if this night was to be the
only night they had, she intended to make it memorable.

Chapter 4

Jason helped
Nickie
get presentable again, smoothing the dress back into
place.
 
Finger-brushing the long thick
strands of her dark hair into some kind of order.
 
Before they climbed back onto the boardwalk
steps, he kissed her again before reluctantly breaking away.

As much as he wanted
nothing more than to make love to her all night long, there were still guests
up at the house and responsibilities to be handled.
Nickie
was not the kind of woman that would fail to honor those duties.

He snagged his hat and
her shoes from the boardwalk and they walked hand-in-hand back to the
mansion.
 
Many of the guests had left and
there was only one couple outside on the terrace as they approached.
 
He was grateful for that.
 
He wanted to be alone with her for as long as
possible.

As they reached the edge
of the lawn and the steps to the flagstone, he urged
Nickie
back into his arms and kissed her again, reminding her that this was only a
short break from the night they would spend together.

“I'll meet you in your
room later,” he said when they separated.

“When,
Jase
?
 
People are going to linger
– ”

He laid a finger against
those lush lips he wanted to kiss all night long.
 
“You head up and I'll be there,
Nickie
.
 
I promise.”

She nodded, her doubt
obvious, but he kissed her once more to reassure her.
 
When they parted, she went inside to mingle
with the guests while he took a calming breath to curb the erection that
refused to go away as long as she was near.

It took several long
minutes and lots of thoughts about baseball scores until he could venture back
inside. Somehow he managed to plaster on a smile and make nice with the
remaining guests until little by little the number of people dwindled down to
just them and a few long distance family members waiting to say their goodbyes
before they headed to a nearby hotel.
 
He
and his parents had been invited to stay with the de
Silvas
because they were in some ways closer than distant family.

“Thank you for your
hospitality, Mr. and Mrs. de Silva,” he said to
Nickie's
parents as he and his parents stood by the stairway just past midnight.
 
Nickie
and Tommy
waited there as well, completing their familial duties, although a bright flush
of color erupted along
Nickie's
cheeks as she shot
him a quick look.

“It's our pleasure,
Jason.
 
You're family,” Mrs. de Silva
replied.

Nickie's
dad grudgingly
agreed, but shot him a hairy eyeball before likewise glancing at his daughter.
He clearly sensed there was more going on than was obvious and judging from his
glare, he wasn’t too thrilled about it.

“I guess we'll see you
in the morning,” his mother said and after all the parents hugged, he dutifully
followed his up the stairs, but he had every intention of changing and sneaking
back out to
Nickie's
room as he had promised.

At the door to his
parents' room, he embraced them and offered a good night before entering the
bedroom next to them.
 
Their
accommodations were located in the west wing of the beachside mansion while the
de Silva family quarters were on the opposite end of the building.
 
The grand staircase split the floors in half
and there was no way he'd make it down the hall to
Nickie's
room at the far end of the wing without being seen.

That was the last thing
either of them wanted right now.
 
Whatever was happening was still too fragile for such scrutiny.

Inside his room, he
quickly stripped and hung up his dress uniform and sword.
 
A sense of pride filled him for a moment to
see them and all that they represented.
 
He’d met the challenge and succeeded.

Now it was time to face
another challenge in his life.

He quickly changed into
black jeans, a black polo shirt, and sneakers for traction.
 
His room opened onto a balcony that faced the
ocean and ran the length of their wing.
 
The de Silva family section had a similar balcony, but the two weren't
connected.

That wasn't about to
stop him.
 
He'd scaled higher and harder
places during some of his ROTC training assignments.

He shut off his lights
and exited onto the balcony, careful to keep out of sight.
 
A trellis at the far side of the space was
covered with fragrant wisteria.
 
The
thick tangle of the plant's vines provided an easy way to climb down to the
ground floor and the fragrant blooms would provide some cover to keep him from
being seen.
 
Luckily the bees wouldn’t be
buzzing around the flowers at night.

On the flagstone terrace
he skirted the edges and watched as
Nickie
and her
family bid the last of their guests good night.
 
Together they trudged up the stairs and into their wing of the home.

He waited until the
lights snapped on in the various rooms and easily identified
Nickie's
as he caught sight of her silhouette by the French
doors leading onto the balcony.
 
He
jogged toward the wisteria-covered trellis close to her room and scrambled up
the tangle of vines and over the railing.

At her French doors, he
rapped lightly on a glass pane and barely a heartbeat later, she cracked open
the door and let him enter.

* * *

Nickie
had told herself
all night long that
Jase
wouldn't keep his promise.
 
That he’d rethink what he’d done earlier and
decide that she just wasn’t the kind of woman for a man like him.
 
A man who took risks.
 
A man of action and not
hesitation.

But having him standing
there, looking dangerously sexy in all black, told her otherwise.

“I didn't think you'd
actually come,” she said and defensively wrapped her arms around her waist.

“I made a promise,
Nickie
.
 
I keep my
promises,” he said and stepped close.

But all he'd
promised was tonight and I'm not a one night stand kind of girl
, she
thought.
 
Almost as if he could read her
mind, he said, “Don't run from this before we even get started.”

She chuckled hesitantly
and offered up a hesitant smile.
 
“Seems
to me we already got started beneath the boardwalk.”

He grinned and laid a
hand by the crook of her neck.
 
He urged
her forward until they were barely inches apart.
 
He smelled like sunshine and the beach and
she breathed that scent in deeply.
 
The
weight of his hand on her neck was demanding, but in a good way, and sent a thrill
through her.
 
Between her legs, her clit
throbbed for his touch and she grew damp again.

“I guess we did, babe.
So are you ready for more?”

“That depends.”

He narrowed his amazing
green eyes and examined her features.
 
“That depends on what?”

She was nothing if not
honest.
 
“On what
you
want to do.”

He grinned again and she
realized that sex with him would always be filled with light and laughter and
fun.
 
“Let's start off easy,
Nickie
.
 
I want you
to talk dirty to me.”

“Talk dirty?”

He expects me, a woman
who blushes at the good spots in romance novels, to talk dirty?

“Like this,” he said and
finally closed the last few inches between them and his warm breath tickled her
skin as he whispered in her ear.
 
“I love
your tits.
 
The way they feel in my hands
and in my mouth.
 
I'm so hard thinking
about how they'll taste again and how they'll move as you ride me later.”

She moaned and beneath
her dress, her nipples pebbled almost painfully, aching for his touch and his
wonderful mouth.

“You so don't play fair,
Jase
.”

“I'm always fair,
Nickie
.
 
You know
that, but I'm also determined to get what I want and I want you.
 
So will you do it?” he asked and bit her
earlobe playfully.
 
“Will you talk dirty
to me?”

 
“Christ,
Jase
.
 
You know this is difficult for me,” she said
and he surprised her by grabbing hold of her hand and pressing it over the long
ridge of his erection.

“You don't know how
difficult it was to see you all night long and ignore the fact that what I
wanted the most was to be buried inside you.”

She moaned at that
thought and cupped his cock, getting even wetter as she imagined him filling
her.
 
Somehow she found the courage to
say the words he wanted to hear.

“I used to watch you on
the beach with Tommy and wonder what you'd look like.
 
How you'd feel in my hand, like you do now,”
she said and stroked him.
Explored the length and width of
him as best as she could with the fabric of the jeans keeping her from his
erection.

“That's it, babe.
 
Oh God, that's it,” he said, urging her on as
he stood stock still in front of her, as if understanding that if he did
another thing, she might reconsider their night together.

“You're so big,
Jase
.
 
All of you,”
she said and she ran her free hand across the broad width of his shoulders and
then down to cup the thick muscles on his chest. He was well over six foot and
without her killer heels, the top of her head barely brushed his chin.
 
She raised her head and brushed a kiss along
the rasp of beard on his jaw.

“I want to see you,
Jase
.
 
Feel your
skin,” she said.

She'd fantasized about
it so often in her dreams and as she'd sat on the beach reading, although a
good part of her attention had been on him as he'd worked the lifeguard stand
or surfed.
 
He was so beautiful and she’d
wondered more than once how his board shorts had stayed on those lean
hips.
 
She had sweated more than once as
the shorts had dipped low to reveal those enticing
Vees
that temptingly pointed down.

At her words, he went
into action, ripping off his sweater to reveal his chest, immense shoulders,
and a defined six pack that was more of an eight pack and would put any cover
model to shame.

She laid her hands on
his shoulders before moving them all across those muscles and his smooth hot
skin.
 
Beneath her hands he was tense and
as she met his gaze, she realized just how much he wanted her and how much
control he was exerting.

She also realized for
the first time just how much control she had over him.

It was more exciting
than she could ever have imagined.

Emboldened, she said,
“I'm wet for you,
Jase
.
 
Wet and aching for you to touch me again.”

“Only if you want
me to,
Nickie
.
 
I'll never do anything you don't want me to
do,” he said, his hands fisted at his sides as he struggled for restraint.

She shuddered with need
and dipped her hands down to the waistband of his black jeans, but she couldn't
go any further.
 
Not just yet.
 
Holding onto the waistband as if it was a
life preserver, she met his gaze and said, “I don't know what I want. I don't
normally play these kinds of games.”

* * *

Serious bookish
Nickie
would never play a game
quite like this one
,
Jase
thought.

Not that he did
either.
 
He wasn’t the kind of guy who
had fuck buddies or used women for hook-ups.

“This isn't a game,
Nickie
.
 
This is for
real.
 
What I feel for you is for real,
but I want you to enjoy it.
 
And I need
for you to want me as much as I want you.”