Page 34 of Protecting Jess

She didn’t get a chance to respond as his lips captured hers. She sighed into the kiss, wanting it more than she wanted her next breath.

His tongue traced the seam of her mouth, and she opened for him.

Jess pressed tightly against him, wanting to take the kiss to the next level. Wanting to lose herself in it.

Wanting to forget their past and forge a new future together.

Finn broke the kiss before she was ready for it to end.

“I want you, Jess, so much, but I also know I have a lot to do to get you to trust and believe that this is what I want.”

“I want you too, Finn. And I have to believe if you didn’t want to be here, you wouldn’t be. That what happened last night isn’t the reason you’re standing with me right now.”

Finn’s warm hands framed her face. “Look at me, popsicle.”

Jess couldn’t look away even if she wanted to.

“I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again. I was a dick that night in New York. I was an asshole for what I did after. I was scared. Scared that one kiss was all it’d taken for me to want you so much. Kissing you generated feelings so intense, I was surprised I could still stand. But I believed walking away was the right thing to do. Not for me, but for you. You were just starting out with your career, and I was seriously considering joining the SEALs. I regretted it every day afterward. I’m here, standing in front of you, because I want to be here. Nowhere else. Not because of what happened last night. I may have walked away from you after I saw you backstage, but I wasn’t going to let you leave without seeing you again.”

Her heart stuttered at the ferocity of his confession. However, she didn’t doubt his words. Didn’t doubt his sincerity. She believed he’d thought he was doing the right thing.

Yet something still wasn’t sitting right with her. Something he’d said when he’d come up to her at the bar.

“But you said at the bar that you only came over because of Oak. Was that a lie?”

“No. I wasn’t going to bug you again the same night, but I was going to go to the big guns for help.”

A small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. Jess had a feeling what he was going to say next. “The big guns?”

“Yeah. I was going to call Aunt Poppy and see if I could find out where you were staying. And come and see you. See if you’d let me show you around.”

“What if I said I didn’t want to see you, even after you went to all this trouble?” Jess arched a daring eyebrow.

Finn sighed and a little of the light died out in his eyes. “Then I would’ve respected what you wanted, and I would’ve walked away, knowing that I’d made the biggest blunder of my life. But it was what you wanted, and I couldn’t ignore that.”

She considered everything he’d said. If things had been different, and she hadn’t gone to the bar, would she have turned him away if he’d come knocking on her door?

No.

She would’ve gone with him and ended up where they were right now.

“I wouldn’t have turned you away,” Jess said quietly. “Last night, after I said I didn’t want anything to do with you, I regretted it immediately. I was so happy to see you at the bar, but I also didn’t want you to know that.”

“How about we stop playing games with each other?” Finn asked.

She smiled, relieved he wasn’t upset with what she’d just confessed. “I like that idea a lot.”

Twelve

Finn sat on the balcony, watching the sun rise over the horizon. He was so used to getting up early for PT, he couldn’t sleep in, even if he wanted to. Not that he ever slept in. He’d grown up on a working ranch. Of course, they’d had ranch hands, but he and Dad would get up every morning and help with the day’s chores.

Primmy preferred to sleep in, but there were times when she’d surprised them all and also gotten up early to help.

A bout of homesickness hit Finn. It’d been a while since he’d been home to the ranch. Most of the time, if his parents wanted to see him, they’d fly out and he’d see them for a weekend.

His phone buzzed on the table, and he glanced down, immediately going on alert when he saw his commander’s name flashing on the screen.

Fuck. They weren’t about to be called up to go on a mission, were they?

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