Page 48 of Body Check

Wrapping a hand around the back of my neck, Holly yanks me closer to deepen the kiss. It’s messy, all clashing teeth and dueling tongues, and I’d be lying if I say that it doesn’t send my pulse roaring. She’s the rush in my veins, and nothing has ever felt so right or perfect. Desperate for her, I dig my fingers into her hips and grind her down on me, a slow, sensuous back and forth that leaves no doubt as to how hard I am.

How much I crave her.

Her lips tear from mine as she gasps my name, her sweet, Southern accent breaking on the second syllable.

Yes, sweetheart. Don’t hold back.

“Say it again.”

“Oh, my God,” she whimpers, her blond hair a chaotic mess as she moves her hips in the agonizingly slow rhythm I’ve set in place, “Jackson,please.”

I glance down at her jeans and my sweatpants, and oh, Christ, but I feel like I’m going to come with nothing but Holly dry-humping my dick like we’re back in grade school. Each time she slides down, she kills me a little more. Because with that downward glide, she pulls at the waistband of my sweats, revealing the tip of my cock.

I’m leaking pre-cum, my cock desperate for what’s between her legs, the same way my heart beats that much faster for the expression on her face. Cheeks flushed, pink lips parted, eyes half-shut.

Beautiful, fucking beautiful.

My mouth finds the sensitive skin behind her ear, that sweet spot of hers that’s always felt like my secret weapon. If she’s mad? Kiss her there. If she’s sleeping and I want to wake her up? Kiss her there. If she’s determined to hold the upper reign and I want to tumble her off the throne and regain control? Kiss. Her. There.

A wicked grin spreads across my face when her fingers scrabble for purchase on my body and her hips swivel a little off rhythm. I break from the “torture” long enough to roughly whisper in her ear, “Do you think I can make you come just like this?”

Her slick movements slow, and then her left hand is on my shoulder, the other folded over her heart. I see the crown of her blond head as she looks down, and I have no doubt as to what she’s seeing: her legs spread wide; my cock pulling an X-rated peep show out of my sweats; my stomach and chest flushed with need.

I lean into her, fully prepared to take her mouth with mine, when the hand on her heart flattens over my own and applies pressure.

Like ice water has been doused over my head, everything freezes—my skin, my muscles, my heart.

“Holls.”

The pressure on my heart eases, her hand going momentarily slack, before strengthening again. “We can’t.”

Fuck that. “Weare, right now. You don’t think I don’t want you? You don’t think I haven’t spent every day of the last year thinking of you, missing—”

She shakes her head, effectively killing the words on my tongue. “Our problem was never about wanting each other, Jackson. It was about everything else. The distance, the way we ended up coexisting like we were nothing more than friends who had sex, and then not even that.” Her blue eyes, always so luminous and excited about life, appear dull and worn in her heart-shaped face, like sea glass that’s been buried in the sand for centuries. “Having sex won’t fix any of our issues. It’ll feel good right now and then we’ll regret it in the morning.”

When she makes a move to climb off my lap, I instinctively curl my arms around her frame to keep her from leaving. It’s a desperate attempt, a last move to remind her that I’m the same man she met and fell in love with at Cornell.

“Do you ever wonder?” I ask. My hands smooth over her shoulders and down her spine, and I don’t miss the way she shivers under my touch. “Do you ever wonder where we’d be now if we’d fixed what was broken between us?”

Her hot breath skims my chest, and it’s my turn to fight back a shiver. A soft, barely there kiss lands at the crook of my neck. It feels like good-bye and I squeeze her to me that much tighter.

And then she’s speaking and there’s nothing but a lingering chill all over again: “There was never going to be any fixing when we weren’t willing to compromise. We wouldn’t change—that was our downfall.”

I open my mouth, fully prepared to saysomethingto salvage what little relationship we have left but break off when I hear the door swinging open.

I turn just in time to see Cain burst through the door that should belockedright now, phone in one hand and his gaze trapped down on it. Shit, shit, shit.

“Carter! You got a sec for—” He glances up, jaw visibly dropping as he takes in the scene before him. “Oh, fuck.”

Actually, fucking is definitelynotwhat happened here.

I wind one arm around Holly, trying to shield her from his view as much as possible. “Can you give us a minute?”

“Yeah! Yeah, sure, you got it, man.”

He doesn’t move. Instead, he drops his gaze down to my lap and his brows shoot up. Coughing into one balled fist, he mutters, “The beast is out, Cap.”

The beast?I glance down, only to see the tip of my still-hard dick peeking out past the waistband of my pants.

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