Page 93 of California Wild

But he didn’t have the words. Didn’t have anything but this—the raw, pulsing hunger flooding every inch of him as she stepped forward, stepping into him, stepping into the water, the heat, the space that had felt so empty for the last six weeks.

Water hit her skin, streaming down her bare shoulders, darkening her hair, curling against her mouth, her lips—

She was close enough now that her hands smoothed over his chest, fingers tracing the lines of him, spreading over the scars she knew like a map.

Jesse didn’t think. Didn’t hesitate.

He hauled her against him, crushing her into him, hands gripping tight, pressing her flush against his soaked, burning skin.

Her gasp was swallowed by his mouth as he crashed into her, desperate, drowning, devouring.

Her nails bit into his shoulders. Her body curled against his, soft and slick, melting into him like they were made for this. Like she had always belonged here.

“I hopped in a cab as soon as you texted,” she said between ragged breaths. “I couldn’t wait.”

Jesse dragged his mouth down her jaw, breathing her in, fucking breathing again for the first time in weeks. “Couldn’t wait?” he rasped. “Either to kill me or—”

“To kiss you.”

She tipped her chin up, and fuck if she didn’t smirk, knowing exactly what she was doing to him.

Jesse growled low in his throat, dragging his tongue along the pulse pounding at her neck. “You missed me then.”

“Shut up.” She bit his lower lip, teasing, taunting, but her eyes—

Her eyes gave her away.

She had missed him. She hadn’t stopped missing him.

Jesse’s hands slid down, gripping the backs of her thighs, hoisting her up, forcing her to climb into him, to wrap around him, to let him hold her the way he needed to.

Her legs locked around his waist, her arms clung to his shoulders, her body molding into his like she had never been gone. Like she had never left.

He pressed her back against the tile, water crashing over them, his lips never leaving hers, never letting her go.

His hands found her hips, fingers pressing deep, like he had to remind himself she was real.

She was real.

And he was going to do everything.

Chapter 14

The steam swallowed everything. The glass fogged. The walls dripped. Water beat down like a storm against her spine, but all Hayley could feel was Jesse—his heat, his hunger, his body crashing into hers like he’d been waiting six weeks just to lose control.

And he had.

The second the door had clicked shut behind her, he had her.

There’d been no lead-up. No pause. Just her back hitting the shower wall and Jesse lifting her like he owned the right to. Like he needed her more than air. Her legs wrapped around his waist on instinct, her hands in his wet hair, mouth already on his before she could even say his name.

It wasn’t gentle.

God, it wasn’t gentle.

His kiss was brutal—possessive, consuming—like he was trying to erase the time apart, devour every second of it in the way he claimed her mouth. His hands were everywhere—palming her ass, gripping her thighs, dragging her down against the full, hard length of him, letting her feel exactly what she’d done to him by showing up.

“Jesse—”

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