Page 117 of Dallas

They looked down at the dog, who was looking at them. “She thinks you’re hurting me,” Sam said, studying Poppy and feeling...embarrassed and somehow guilty for exposing her poor dog to her and Jace’s sexual activity.

Poppy wagged her tail and approached the couch. Jace stood, cupping Sam’s ass and holding her up against him. She flailed and wrapped her arms around his neck, trying to keep herself steady.

“Mine,” Jace said, his voice almost a growl, the word directed very clearly at Poppy. “Stay down here and sleep on the couch if you want. I don’t care. But she is mine tonight, and you don’t get to interrupt.”

Sam squeaked when Jace turned and started walking them toward the stairs, pausing for a moment to kiss her again, quick and hard. “I’m not sharing,” he said, his tone hard.

It was so stupid, but she felt like swooning a little bit. Thank God he was carrying her because her knees had turned to jelly and she wasn’t sure she would be able to support her own weight.

But Jace could. He carried her up the stairs and she was surprised by how much of a turn-on it was. Such a cliché, but it made her so conscious of his strength and size, of how much of a man he was. Of how much of a woman she was.

He carried her down the hall and to his room, and when he opened the door she was assaulted by the strangest sense of familiar and new colliding. She’d been in Jace’s bedroom before. Lots of times. But she’d never been carried into his room and set down on the bed. She’d never been in his room while he was looking at her like she was dessert and he was a very hungry man.

That was the real difference. She’dnever been in his room when she was quite so conscious of the fact that he was a man and she was a woman.

A woman who wanted him. Very much.

There was something extra terrifying about the desire tearing through her because it was directed at Jace. And something comforting about it too.

The entire experience was an exercise in extremes. Good and bad. Terrifying and...well, terrifying. Because she’d never wanted a man like she wanted Jace right now. She’d never trembled with it, had never been so close to the edge from just kissing and a little touching.

He moved away from the bed and pulled his shirt over his head, his hands going to the buckle on his belt. She wanted to stop him. She wanted him to go faster.

Jace was a contradiction, like everything else about this situation. So familiar, yet a stranger. The lines on his face, a face she’d know anywhere, looked sharper, more drawn, his expression much more...dangerous than she’d ever seen it before.

And it was that combination, that contradiction, that thrilled her, that made her feel like she was going to die if he didn’t hurry up and take those jeans off. And a little like she might die when he did.

And then he was pushing them down his lean hips, along with his underwear. And she was looking at her best friend, naked and aroused. For her.

And good Lord, he was the biggest man she’d ever seen.

“You’d think,” she said, her voice scratchy thanks to her suddenly dry throat, “that after fourteen years of friendship, you might have mentioned that you were in possession of what must be record-breaking equipment.” She tried to swallow and couldn’t. All the moisture in her body had clearly migrated elsewhere.

“I doubt it breaks any records. But I didn’t mention it for the same reason you never told me that you have the world’s most perfect nipples.”

“I might have mentioned it if I’d known I had the world’s most perfect nipples.”

“What assholes have you been flashing your breasts at, Sam? They should have told you.” He got down on the bed with her, lying next to her, pulling her tight up against him, his erection hard and hot against her stomach.

He cupped one breast in his large, rough hand, squeezing her gently. “You are perfect.”

She wanted to cry. And she didn’t know why. Except that she was excited, and scared, and no one had ever looked at her like Jace was looking at her right now. No one had ever given her a compliment like that before. One so sincere and so deep.

It made her feel like she was being turned inside out. And in the theme of contradictions, made her want to run from him and cling to him all at the same time.

He moved his hands to the snap on her jeans and undid it, then pulled the zipper down slowly. He closed his eyes and paused, his expression pained.

“What?” she asked.

“I have to catch my breath,” he said. “I...you don’t know how long I’ve wanted to do this, Sam. What it means to be this close to touching you. I tried not to put you in the middle of my dirty fantasies, but baby, I failed miserably. And this? This is a big fantasy of mine about to come true.”

Her heart felt swollen, achey. Jace had wanted her like this? He’d thought about it? She felt...honored by the realization. And strange too.

“I don’t want to disappoint you,” she said, her voice a choked whisper.

“Never,” he said, his hand sliding beneath her panties. “Oh...damn, baby,” he whispered as he slid his finger over her clit, down to the entrance of her body.

“Jace.” She lowered her head, rested it against his shoulder as his hands created a path of white fire over her flesh, the pleasure so deep, so all-consuming she didn’t know if she would survive it.

---