Jake (13 page)

              “I want you inside me this time.”

              “Definitely,” he agreed.

              “I want you to come first.”

              He shook his head. “Not gonna happen.”

              “You watched me,” she pointed out.  

              He lifted his head and stroked a hand through her hair as he regarded her. “It was an earth-shattering moment for me, Ivy.”

              Where urgency had driven them earlier, Jake imposed a gentleness this time that slowly unraveled Ivy. He kissed her in new places and lingered over every touch. Ivy began to feel passion grow in a way she had never experienced. It was a slow, steady burn. She explored his body just as leisurely, falling into his pacing. They sought each other’s gaze often, lost in response as touch was applied and withdrawn and new locations tested.  Ivy focused on his neck and soon discovered that a combination of tongue and teeth just below Jake’s ear drove him crazy.

              She smiled against his skin and whispered. “Ahha!”

              His only answer was the long shuddering of his body and his hands as they tightened against her head, asking for more. She gave it to him.

              She rolled Jake so that he was on his back and straddled him.

              “Is this how you want it our first time?” he asked.

              “Do you have something else in mind?”

              “I think I’ll get more out of this position than you.” He lifted her breasts in his hands and rolled up so that he could suckle a nipple.

              Which was how she wanted it. Jake had already given to her. An orgasm so profound she could only hope a repeat performance was somewhere in her future. She pushed firmly against

his shoulder so that he was again on his back, but reminded him, “You know where to find me.”

              “Hell yes.”

              “And I trust your timing.” She wiggled her bottom, stroking the length of his erection. His eyes closed, his jaw tensed.

              “Ivy? We’re going to have to get a condom soon.”

              “Where are they?”

              “Pants pocket. Front right.”

              She scanned the room from her perch and spotted his jeans on the chair next to the window. Too far. She would have to get out of bed. Leave his warmth. Leave the insistent push of his cock against her.

              She rose up on her knees. “Don’t move,” she said. She took him in her hand, stroked his shaft. Rubbed the sensitive ridge that ran the length of him. And then lowered herself and held just the tip of his penis against her core.

              “What are you doing?” His breath was thick, his eyes glued to where they were almost joined.

              “I’m relying on your control.” She stroked herself again and felt herself melt over him.

              “You’re playing with fire,” he gasped.

              She moved him slickly through her folds and increased the pressure when she brought him to her swollen clitoris. She felt herself bloom, threw her head back and choked out his name.

              Jake rolled away and Ivy wavered on the edge of climax. God, it was sweet torture. She opened her eyes and watched him grab his shorts, pull a string of condoms from the pocket, and tear into one.

              “Let me.” She held her hand out as Jake slid back into bed.

              Ivy kissed the tip of his penis, rolled her tongue around the burgeoning head, and only then slipped the condom into place.

              Jake took her hips and would have plunged into her, but Ivy stopped him.

              “Me,” she said, barely capable of words.

              She placed her hands on his knees, arching her back, and slid slowly down his shaft. Jake released a long, shuddering groan.

              He felt so right inside her. And it was more than a physical reaction on her part. The thought was disturbing, coming too fast into territory well-protected. Or so she’d thought. She didn’t trouble over it for long, though, because Jake wasn’t content to kick back for the ride. He picked up the rhythm and then reached between them to make sure Ivy was well taken care of.

Chapter Twelve

              The alarm on Jake’s watch went off at five-thirty. He fumbled for it on the night stand, silenced it, and then propped himself on Ivy’s pillows and watched the gray dawn light creep through the windows and soften her face. She was beautiful, lush curves and classic cultural features. And for the entire night she had forgotten her inhibitions, her fears, and made love with him with an abandon Jake had never experienced before. She had a wicked sense of humor, a physical strength that nearly matched her passionate and compassionate nature.

              He remembered how her eyes had gone liquid when he’d told her about Arturo. Speaking about the soldier loosened the sadness of his loss. Ivy had been ready then to slow down, to accept another date before they’d brought sex into the mix. As if he’d have let her.

              But her concern for him had been genuine, so much so he’d read regret on her face. He could tell that she was silently chastising herself for her impatience.

              Damn, what it did for him, knowing how badly Ivy had wanted him. Now he just had to convince her they were more than what had transpired in this bed the night before. And again just an hour ago.

              Dawn was becoming more of a reality, the sun pushing stridently against the cloud cover.

Jake hated to wake Ivy, but there was no way he was leaving without her knowing it. He glanced at his watch and knew he couldn’t spare anymore time staring at her.

              He slid down into the covers, moving his body against hers in a long, gentle stroke. His cock came to rest against her backside and stirred as she did. A smile bloomed on Ivy’s face and she stretched her arms above her head. It was only natural that Jake would reach around her and cradle her breasts in the palms of his hands. But it could go no further than this. He had to be on base in sixty minutes and there was no way he was going to start something he couldn’t finish. He couldn’t leave Ivy like that.

              He nuzzled her ear and spoke, “Morning sweetheart.”

              Her eyes fluttered open and she turned so she could peer at him. “Morning.”

              “It’s a work day for me,” he reminded her.

              She became more alert, her eyes flaring a little and her hand curling around his bicep. “You have to leave?”

              He nodded. “I should have left already.”

              She moved, a slim thigh tangling with his. Her breasts came flush against his chest and their peaks beaded on contact. He felt the slight tremble of her belly and that fast his shaft stiffened.

              “We have a growing problem here,” she observed.

              But he shook his head. “There isn’t time—“

              She tilted her hips, slid her leg over his thigh, and his erection became a throbbing need.

The head rested against her wet folds.

              “Already?” He’d barely touched her.

              “I was dreaming about you,” she admitted. She moved against him and the tip of his cock sank into her core. She was as tight as a velvet fist. “What do you think of the withdrawal method?” she asked.

              “Foolish.”

              “Hmm, thought so. I am on the Pill,” she revealed, but he heard the hesitancy in her voice. She looked over his shoulder. There were still a few condom packets unopened. She urged him to get one.

              “No time,” he reminded her.

              “A quickie will do,” she promised.

              Not for him. Ivy was a woman to be savored. But he had only so much control. She flexed her hips, drew him deeper into her body, and Jake knew he had to do something.

              “When we see each other again,” she spoke in a throaty whisper. “I’m going to finish what I started in the truck.”

              Jake had to reach for the memory—but not very far. An image of her bent over his lap, her mouth covering his cock, exploded on his mental movie screen. He watched her pull on his shaft, her dark hair falling around his legs. He’d nearly lost control of the vehicle and of himself. Jake reached across the bed for a condom and pulled out of her.

              “You have a wicked way of winning a point.”

              She watched him sheath himself, a dazzling smile playing on her lips, and then he entered her. No preambles. No gentle build to the moment. He took her roughly, unable to deny her or himself. And she called out. A sharp scream that stunned him to stillness.

              “Ivy?”

              He was a big man. Too big to be taking her so crudely.

              “Don’t stop, Jake. Please don’t stop.”

              Her fingers bit into his hips and she pumped against him.

              He thrust again, watching emotions play across her face. He saw battle and bliss. No pain.

              “Are you sure?”

              “Sure. Definitely sure.” She increased the tempo, and Jake was lost.

              He swallowed her pleas for more in a deep kiss, pressed his thumb to that tight bud above her folds, and mated with her in a frenzy of time and need.

              Later, Jake sat at a mess table staring at his cell phone. It’d been seven hours since he’d made love to Ivy and he was still unsure about how they’d come together that last time. It was too fast . It reminded him of the emotions he dueled with between deployments, when time was limited and developing a relationship was nearly impossible. He didn’t like it.

              But Ivy had. She’d come apart in his arms in a matter of moments, drenching him with

her satisfaction. Then she had gotten out of bed with him, stood naked before him as he shrugged into his clothes, and then kissed him in that sweet spot behind his ear.

              She was a tease, but she always came good on it. The thought made Jake smile. And she hadn’t scuttled behind her defenses as he’d feared she might in the light of morning, when sexual need was satisfied.

              Nor had she said good-bye to him, as he had feared would happen after she’d gotten what she’d wanted. He had asked her, “See you Saturday?”

              “Absolutely.”

              “The dinner cruise?”

              “If we must.” She had put on a pout for him.

              “I insist.”

              “I’ll be wearing a dress that will make you wish you hadn’t.”

              He had laughed and drew her close, holding her for a moment with her head tucked under his chin and her body flush against his.

              He had promised to call her.

              But now he was hesitating. What if, as the day progressed along with the distance between them, she had begun a withdrawal to safer ground? He primed himself for the possibility, knowing he’d have to wait until the weekend to launch into damage control.

              A failed marriage had made her skittish. That, along with an upbringing that did not

inspire happily ever after. He had his work cut out for him if—no when—she realized her heart was as involved with Jake as her body.

              And he didn’t doubt this. She had been generous with her attention and her permissions. But she had also stared into his eyes completely unguarded, vulnerable and trusting. Those moments were fleeting, and almost always when she was on the edge of orgasm and staring at the possibility of it. She had shied away from him emotionally when she’d regained control.

              He pressed his thumb to the icon of ivy she had programmed into his phone on Sunday. She answered on the second ring. Her voice was thin, breathy, and Jake’s body responded with an all-out assault.

              “What are you doing?” he demanded. He heard and regretted the edge in his voice.

              Ivy laughed. “I’m a cowgirl without my steed,” she offered and Jake was slayed. He was stunned by his own laughter, which was low and intimate, but the throbbing in his cock became painful. He tripped back in memory and was crouched at the side of Ivy’s bed, her taste full on his tongue while she stroked her swollen nipples, drawing out the climax he’d just given her.

              He groaned and looked around the mess hall. There were a handful of men and women several tables away, lingering over a late lunch, talking amongst themselves, erupting in a laughter that covered Jake’s lowered voice.

              “You’re putting a hurt on me, Ivy.”

              “I can heal you, Jake,” she assured him.

              He didn’t doubt that. Jake had left her bed this morning with a sense of well-being he

didn’t recognize, never having felt it before. It’d taken almost the entire drive to his place to figure it out. Ivy gave him balance, zing, rightness.

              “I’m sitting in mess right now with a hard-on my grandmother wouldn’t miss without her glasses.” He’d be staying put for awhile. “Tell me what you’re doing. And this time spare no details.” He’d have to remember to resume their vacation swimsuit talk on Saturday. Hell, he decided, he’d even ask her to model that barely-there black bikini. “Where are your hands, Ivy? Where are you?” He imagined her on her bed, the sheets still twisted from their love-making and smelling of their sex.

              “Ah, Jake—“

              He heard her breath hit the back of her throat, her voice thin to a whisper.

              “Are you close? Are you thinking of me while you’re touching yourself? Where’s my mouth? My hands?”

              “Stop!” It was a plea and agitation was clearly building in her tone.

              “You’re close,” he said, his voice a husky whisper. He turned in his seat so that he was looking out the window, so that his face was not visible to anyone. “But not close enough. Let me help you, Ivy. My mouth is on your clit. I’m suckling it, teasing it with my teeth. I love the taste of you. I could live on that alone. I’m slipping my tongue between your folds now—you’re wet, so wet—dipping into your—“