Calling All the Shots (7 page)

“Do you have to keep asking?”

“Yes. I don’t get it, Jack. No matter how I look at you and me
we don’t make sense.”

“That’s funny, because when I look at you, Willow, all I see is
a woman I don’t want to let go.”

“Don’t mess with me, Jack. I’m still not sure that you’re not
playing a game.”

* * *

“I’m not,” he said.

Jack had never been one to look away when Fate presented him
with a second chance. And whatever he’d done to Willow in the past, he could
fix, because he wanted her in his life now. He didn’t know if it would be
forever. To be honest he didn’t believe in that sentiment. Everything ended and
he knew that better than most people did. But he had also learned that he
couldn’t ignore experiences simply because they wouldn’t last.

On this cold November Saturday morning he had been given an
opportunity to spend time with Willow. He wanted to get this conversation out of
the way so he could take her into his arms, carry her to her bedroom and make
love to her in her own bed. Then he wanted to just lie in her arms under the
covers and for this one day pretend the rest of the world didn’t exist.

He didn’t know if he’d get that chance but he was going to do
everything in his power to make that happen. She’d cooked for him—something that
only his mom had ever done. Sure, he’d dated other women and had some long-term
relationships but the women he’d been involved with had never really done
anything like this for him.

He felt cared for, and there was something so powerful in this
moment that he was struggling to keep his hands to himself. He guessed that the
way to his heart…or even lower…was through his stomach.

“Why are you smiling?” she asked. “There is something about you
grinning that makes me nervous.”

He had to shake his head because that comment was so Willow.
Not the Willow he’d been texting with for the past few days but the Willow who’d
refused every date he’d asked her on since May. “You make me happy. Even when
you’re prickly as a porcupine,” he said.

“I’m not prickly,” she said, reaching up and tucking a strand
of her thick black hair behind her ear. He noticed she had small hoops in her
ears this morning. He didn’t think she’d ever worn earrings before. Then he
noticed she had on makeup and unless he was mistaken, lipstick.

Had she dressed up for him?

“You look very pretty today,” he said.

She blushed and shook her head. “Do you think by saying
something nice I’ll forget you just called me a porcupine? They aren’t cute and
cuddly.”

“Well, you are,” he said.

She shrugged. “Eat. You have to be starving,” she said.

“Not for food. But I am hungry for you, Willow,” he said,
taking her hand and lifting it to his mouth. He brushed a kiss along the line of
her knuckles.

She pulled her hand back. “I’m not…I can’t do this.” She
stood.

“Why not?”

She shrugged again and turned her back on him. He felt as if he
had her on the run and that was the last thing he wanted.

“Talk to me.”

“I am. You’re being difficult. You say I’m prickly but you’re
the one who is a pain.”

“Why am I a pain?” he asked.

“Forget it,” she said, sitting back down across from him and
pushing the food around on her plate.

“What happened to that honesty you had earlier?” he asked. “I’m
just a guy who is attracted to a girl who can be so stubborn.”

She looked up at him with that dark chocolate gaze of hers and
he felt a jolt go through his body. His blood started to run heavier. He thought
he’d die if he didn’t get her into bed soon.

Maybe that was the problem. They were talking when they should
be doing. He was sitting here hesitating and letting her set the pace when that
wasn’t his way at all. Any other woman would have already been in his bed. But
he’d waited because Willow could be…well, Willow.

“I don’t try to be difficult,” she said at last, licking her
lips. He couldn’t help but stare at her full mouth. He remembered the way she’d
tasted when he’d kissed her just over a week ago. It couldn’t have been as good
as he remembered but a part of him knew it was.

“I just have to be in control,” she said at last.

“I know. It’s your defense mechanism. I hadn’t realized it
until this moment. You seem so tough that I never guessed there was anything you
weren’t confident about,” he said at last. He stood up and walked around the
table and drew her to her feet.

“What makes you think I’m not confident?” she asked.

“The way you’re staring at me,” he said. “You look like you’re
afraid of me. Why is that?”

With his hands on her hips, he held her still when she would
have turned away. The curves of her body drove him mad. She was tall and slim,
but so damned womanly. He wanted her out of the skintight jeans she wore and
naked in his arms.

“I can’t think when you are this close,” she said.

He pulled her even closer but their bodies didn’t touch except
for his hands on her hips. Still, he could feel each exhalation of her breath
against his neck.

“Why not?”

She lifted her hands to his shoulders. Then he felt her fingers
along the back of his neck as she rose on her tiptoes and whispered in his ear,
“I want you.”

He shuddered as blood rushed to his groin and he hardened.
“Good.”

He lifted her off her feet and brought his mouth down on hers.
He was tired of waiting for something that he knew he wanted. He needed her and
the past week had only reinforced that fact.

He hoped that Willow never realized the power she had over him.
Because if she did, he’d be on his knees.

Seven

W
illow melted inside as Jack’s mouth moved
over hers, removing all her doubts at last. This was what she should have been
focusing on since the beginning. Once she and Jack had sex, her obsession with
him would fade and she’d be able to get back on track with her life.

She wrapped her legs around his hips and her arms around his
shoulders. She tunneled her fingers through his hair and deepened the kiss. She
kissed him with all the fear and longing and desire that had been plaguing her
since she’d left his apartment little over a week ago.

He tasted of coffee and Jack. Something that was unique to him,
and she realized that it was something she’d never get tired of tasting. His
hands cupped her butt, his fingers moving over the tight denim that encased her
and making her squirm in reaction. She loved the feel of his big hands on
her.

He rubbed them up and down her back settling them on her waist
to hold her close against him as his tongue thrust deeper into her mouth. He
kissed her like he was as addicted to her taste as she was to his.

She rocked her hips forward rubbing the center of her body
against the tip of his erection. He moaned—the sound was earthy and sensual and
she shivered again.

She felt like she was falling and then felt the solid wood of
her butcher-block table underneath her. Jack leaned over her, caging her with
his body. His breath sawed out of him and there was a slight flush to his skin.
His pupils were dilated and his lips full and wet from her kisses.

He surrounded her, his hands on either side of her hips, his
chest over her torso and his head right in front of hers. That sexy look in his
blue, blue eyes made her shiver. She wanted this man.

“Enough playing around,” he said. He found the sensitive spot
beneath her ear and tongued it before nibbling his way down her neck until he
encountered the collar of her sweater.

Jack was a dominant lover and though she usually liked to take
charge, a part of her didn’t want to with him. This was her break from reality
and the more she wasn’t herself the better she felt she’d be when they
parted.

“Good,” she agreed. “I was waiting for you to make the first
move.”

“That doesn’t sound like the Willow I know. You go after what
you want…don’t you want me?”

He was right. Something about Jack had thrown her off her
stride and made her forget that Willow Stead waited for no man. She put her hand
on his chest and pushed him back until she stood up in front of him. Then she
nudged him toward her chair, which she quickly pulled out from the table. He sat
on it and she reached down to pull his black T-shirt up and off.

“That’s better.”

He rubbed his hand up his sternum and over the light dusting of
hair there. He had just the right amount, she thought. And she’d been right
about the rock-hard muscles there. She leaned down and ran her finger along the
centerline of his body, following the tapering trail of hair.

She tweaked his flat brown nipples and watched as goose bumps
spread across his body. He shifted in the chair, stretching his long legs out on
either side of her. She moved a little closer, leaning over him, letting her
hair fall gently over his chest. He shuddered and his hips jerked forward.

His pecs were heavy and well-defined and she lingered over
them. Jack was hers for this moment in her tiny kitchen and she was going to
enjoy every second of him. She straddled his lap and felt his hands on the hem
of her sweater but she brushed them away.

“Not yet. I’m still exploring you.”

“I want to do the same thing,” he said. He pushed his hands up
under her top and found the curve of her waist. He ran his fingers down her back
over the seam of her jeans until he reached between her legs.

“I need to touch you, Willow,” he said, her name a husky
endearment on his lips. She shivered at the way he said it. But she wasn’t going
to let him take control now that she’d decided this was her show.

“It will distract me,” she said. “And I want to know every inch
of you by heart.”

“There is time enough for that later. Right now I need to be
inside you,” he said. He drew her forward until her chest was pressed to
his.

She shuddered as a pulse of pure sexual energy shot through
her, pooling in her center. But she was in charge. She stepped back off his lap
and smiled down at him.

“I’ll decide when that happens.” She narrowed her eyes and
skimmed them over his body, watching his face for his reactions. She saw his
pupils dilate and knew that he was turned on. “Show me how bad you want me.”

“How will I prove it?” he asked, reaching out to rub his thumb
over her lower lip. She nipped at it.

“Make me believe I’m the only woman in your life.” She needed
for Jack to work as hard at this thing between them as she was. She didn’t want
to be the only one out on a limb here. She knew there were really no words left
to say between them right now. But she also knew that there was too much left
unsaid.

“Do you doubt it?” he asked.

She did doubt it and yet at the same time no matter what she
was afraid of she needed him here with her. She needed to know that he wanted
her at least as much as she wanted him. And she wanted to be seduced.

He pushed to his feet. Jack moved his long lean athletic body
with subtle grace. He took her hand and brought it to his mouth, sliding his
lips along her knuckles and threading his fingers through hers. He placed her
hand on his chest where she felt his heart beating like wild.

“My pulse is racing and I haven’t done anything but look at you
and imagine what you look like naked,” he said.

She nodded, liking what she heard from him. “Tell me more.”

It was hard to stay in control when he was so close and his
body heat was wrapping around her. She wanted to push him back down in that
chair and take him but he rubbed her hand over his chest and then let her go to
reach for her sweater. This time he tugged it up and over her head before she
could protest.

She felt his fingers on the point where her shoulder and neck
met. With a light touch he stroked back and forth until her pulse grew a little
bit heavier.

He leaned down and brushed his lips over that exact spot and
then nibbled his way up to her ear as he pulled her closer to him. He whispered
raw sexual words detailing what he intended to do to her and how hot the thought
of it made him.

He caught her wrist in his hand and dragged it down his body to
his erection. She loved the way his skin felt under the light dusting of hair.
But his hardness felt even better to her touch. He was hard and long under the
fabric of his jeans. She stroked him up and down.

He moaned her name, hips thrusting against her touch. She
reached lower between his legs and rubbed him there. He shifted and moved closer
to her.

“Touch me,” he said, dragging her hands back up to his stomach
and rubbing them against his sternum.

Sexual shivers spread over her as she leaned forward to nibble
at his rock-hard stomach. She let her fingers continue to tease him through his
denim jeans. She found his belly button and tongued it.

“Willow,” he growled her name.

She smiled up at him, feeling very in control of herself and
this sexy man. It was a powerful moment for her as a woman and she reveled in
it. If she’d realized how much she’d been missing by keeping him at arm’s length
she would have said yes to him sooner.

She unbuttoned the fastening of his jeans and lowered his
zipper, reaching past the cold metal to his hard-on where it pressed against the
front of his cotton boxers. She reached her finger inside the opening and
touched the hot length. She maneuvered her other fingers in and wrapped them
around him, stroking up and down.

Feeling a drop of moisture at the tip of his erection, she
caught it on her finger and rubbed it into his skin. He shuddered and she felt
another pulse of desire shoot through her.

He moaned her name and then captured her wrist and drew her
hand out of his pants. She brought her hand from his grip and licked her finger
where she could still taste the salty essence of him.

“Enough,” he said. The gruff sexuality in his voice made her
moist and ready for him. She wanted to climb onto his lap and take him. Force
him deep inside of her so that she could claim every bit of him as her own.

He traced his fingers over her chest down to the globes of her
smallish breasts where the push-up bra she wore made it look like she had
cleavage. He lowered his head and she felt the brush of stubble from his jaw
against her skin and then the warmth of his breath.

“So pretty,” he said with a reverence that was at odds with the
bluntness of his touch.

Then his tongue was right there tracing the line of fabric
where her bra and skin met. It was the lightest of touches as his hands roamed
up and down her back but it was exactly what she needed. She squirmed in his
arms, found the opening of his jeans and reached inside to cup and stroke
him.

He shimmied his hips and his jeans fell lower down to his
thighs. She pushed them further down and he stepped out of them.

He undid her bra and once the fabric was loosened she shrugged
her shoulders and let the bra fall down her arms and then dropped it to the
floor. He lifted her in his arms again and set her up on the table. This time he
stood back, staring down at her. She straightened her shoulders and let him look
his fill.

She shivered at the passion in his eyes. He made her feel like
she was the most entrancing woman in the world. He cupped both of her breasts,
plumping them up and bringing them together. She glanced at him and was
mesmerized by the look on his face.

He stared at her body with such awe and admiration. She
swallowed hard against the emotions that threatened to overwhelm her. She never
would have thought that she could elicit such feelings from Jack.

His fingers traced the circumference of each breast, making
circles that slowly narrowed in until she felt the brush of his forefinger over
her beaded nipples. He traced her areolas and she thrust her shoulders back to
force her breasts into his touch. She caught her breath, afraid to breathe as he
leaned down and laved first one and then the other with his tongue.

White-hot bolts of sensation shot through her as he continued
to lick at her nipple while he stroked her other one with his hand. She was
caught in a delicate trap with his fingers and tongue holding her prisoner. She
reached for him, grabbing his hips and drawing him closer until she felt him
nudging at her center through the fabric of her jeans.

She wanted him naked. She was tired of playing sexual games.
She freely admitted to herself that she’d only done it to see how far she could
push him. And because she’d wanted to prove to herself that she was still the
boss.

But the more he touched her the less in control she felt. She
knew that she had absolutely no willpower where he was concerned. And for once
that didn’t really matter.

She needed to be pressed against his hot erection and feel him
inside her. She pushed his underwear off his hips and he stepped out of
them.

He undid her jeans and she lifted herself up so he could pull
them down her legs and toss them on the floor with her tiny thong panties. Then
he leaned over her, letting his furry chest brush over her sensitized nipples.
She shivered with desire and he leaned in closer to whisper in her ear.

“Do you like that?”

“Yes,” she whispered back in a soft tone that was husky to her
own ears.

“Good. Do you know I want you?”

“Yes,” she said.

“If you can still talk then I’m not doing a good enough job,”
he said, pushing her knees farther apart.

“Lean back,” he ordered.

She grabbed his hips and pulled him forward to her until she
felt the tip of his erection touching her. She sighed and opened her legs wider
to accommodate his hips. He thrust against her so that the length of him rubbed
over her most sensitive flesh.

She was wet and ready for him but still he hesitated. He leaned
down and found her mouth with his. His tongue thrusted into her the way she
longed for other parts of him to, but still he kept her on the edge.

She drew her hands up and down his back finding those
pronounced hip bones of his and holding on to him while she wrapped her legs
high around his waist. She urged her body forward on his next thrust and felt
the tip of him just inside the entrance of her body.

She sighed as he pulled back, bracing both hands on the table
next to her head.

“Are you on the pill?”

She didn’t understand the words at first, frustrated that he’d
teased her with so little of what she wanted and then pulled out.

“What?”

“The pill?”

“Yes,” she said.

He nodded and lowered his mouth to hers again. His tongue swept
over hers as his hands danced down her body, reigniting embers that were still
glowing white-hot.

His hands lingered over her breasts, cupping them. He rubbed
his palms in circles over her nipples until she arched her back and felt as if
he didn’t enter her at that moment she was going to die.

She grabbed the back of his head and thrust her tongue into his
mouth. She lifted her hips and grabbed the back of his thigh with her other hand
drawing him closer.

He pulled his mouth from hers and all she could do was stare up
at him. He put his hands on her thighs and opened her legs even farther and she
watched as he caressed her with one hand. He parted her nether lips and then she
felt the brush of his finger over the sensitive bud there.

He made circles over her flesh and then tapped it in a rhythm
that made everything inside of her clench. She arched her hips as a climax
washed over her. He kept touching her between her legs until the sensations
started to subside and then she felt him back at her entrance. He nudged his way
into her body one slow inch at a time and thrust gently back and forth.