Page 39 of Love & Rockets

Which totally sucked because he was going to break her heart. A guy didn’t become one of the town’s most elusive bachelors by falling in love with broke, single moms. And men with strings of letters behind their names weren’t generally impressed with a woman who could boast a G.E.D. and some community college time. She needed to keep this real. Keep some boundaries. Darla’d learned a long time ago to be happy with what she could get.

“Jake, don’t make this more complicated,” she began.

“Complicated?” He stared at her as if she’d dropped out of a flying saucer and asked him to submit to a probe. “I’m the one trying to make everything less complicated.”

She shook her head. “How do you figure?”

“By giving us what we both want,” he shot back.

“Who says I want to sleep with you?”

He started toward her and she dodged. The move stopped him in his tracks. “So, I’m okay for sex, but not to sleep with?”

She opened her mouth and he held up a hand to stop her.

“So help me, if you’re going to tell me not to end a sentence with a preposition, I’m gonna—”

Her back straightened and she tipped her chin up. She’d dealt with bullies her whole life. She could certainly handle a sexy nerd suffering a case of injured pride. “What, Jake? What are you going to do?”

To her shock, he didn’t stop coming at her this time. The approach both thrilled and scared her. They stood toe to toe, both breathing heavier than two people with normal resting heart rates should. He was aggravated. She was aroused. And this date was anything but over, no matter how tough she wanted to pretend to be.

Logically, she knew she was falling victim to the same reckless impulse that got her in trouble in the first place. The one she’d been fighting since the day she read the result on that pregnancy test. Every night, she prayed her daughter hadn’t inherited this particular trait from her. Everything else was fine, but not this inexplicable need to see how far she could push. She wanted to keep Grace safe from this and from every other stupid thing she’d ever done. A hysterical need to laugh rose inside Darla as a stark realization smacked her upside the head. The protective barrier she’d built around Gracie and herself wasn’t to keep others out. It was a wall she’d put up in hopes of keeping herself safe inside.

But Jake looked wild. The cool, analytical man of science was nowhere to be seen. The guy standing in front of her, shirtless and disheveled, was anything but safe. He was wild. And he was right. Now, she’d had a taste, and she wanted more. She wanted to know exactly how far she could go before he tore her to shreds. Without giving herself time to think the better of touching him, she reached up to smooth his ruffled hair.

His hungry gaze dropped to her lips, then back up again.

Darla smiled and stared straight into those midnight eyes as she whispered the taunt one more time. “What are you going to do to me, Jake?”

Nostrils flaring with barely suppressed emotion, he lowered his head to kiss her. Telegraphing his intent. Giving her one last chance to turn tail and run.

But running was the last thing she wanted to do. She wanted this. Him. And this hot, angry kiss that left her feeling branded. His lips were soft, but the resolve behind the assault remained firm. Damn the man could kiss. Each pass of his tongue could only be classified as an assault on common sense. He was slow. Methodical, but not tedious. Thorough. A much better word. Commanding. Darla had to admit, it wasn’t an adjective she would have applied before this evening. But it fit. Oh, it fit.

Darla curved into him, desperate to line her much shorter body up with his. Needing to feel the tensile strength vibrating through him as his hand roamed freely over her. Gripping her ass in both hands, he helped her out by hauling her onto the tips of her toes as he changed the angle of the kiss. She moaned as those long, graceful fingers mapped her back, her ribs, and finally, her breasts. He palmed her, his thumbs running over her hardened nipples. She made a soft, mewling noise when he pressed a tender kiss to the corner of her mouth, then blazed a trail along her cheek to her ear.

“For the love of God, tell me where the damn zipper is,” he whispered in a ragged voice.

A breathy laugh escaped her. “No zipper.”

He fixed his mouth to the pulse point in her throat and she almost lost all capacity for speech. Thankfully, she found the words to get them where they needed to go.

“Stretchy. Up and over.”

Jake wasted no time following her directions. Still peppering her neck and jaw with fervent kisses, he gathered the hem of her skirt and pulled the fabric up to her breasts. Then, and only then, did he break contact to look down. His lips wet and parted, he let his gaze roam over her, taking in her too-short legs and never quite firm again belly.

Darla wanted to cringe and back away. At least lie down on the bed, where she could stretch out long and pretend motherhood and gravity hadn’t left a mark on her. A part of her wished he’d finish the job with the dress. At least then she’d be able to distract him with her tits. Most guys didn’t look too closely at anything else when the girls were available to entertain them.

“Up and over,” she repeated, hoping to spur him into action.

To her dismay, he didn’t comply. Instead, the confounded man seemed to forget about the dress altogether as he dropped to his knees in front of her, his hands sliding down to rest on her hips. Fire burned in her cheeks and heat pulsed between her legs when he pressed a wet open-mouth kiss to her belly.

“Stop. Don’t,” she whispered.

But he ignored her pleas. “God, you’re beautiful.” He trailed tiny little kisses over the rounded mound. “Like one of those paintings you see in art history classes. You should be sprawled out on a red velvet couch.” He dipped his tongue under the elastic of her panties and lingered for a moment. “Decadent. Satisfied.” Then he looked up at her. “I’d offer to feed you grapes after, but I don’t have any.”

She wrinkled her nose. “I hate grapes.”

His lips curved against her belly. “But you like wine.”

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