Free Asking for More by Lilah Pace Page A

have turned me inside out. It’s enough to feel the soft aftershocks of pleasure as Jonah carefully, tenderly, moves his body against and into mine. So I hang on, moving with him, glorying in the one sound I have won from him: his breaths coming shallower and faster within his chest.
    Let go, Jonah
, I think.
You’re safe with me. I’m safe with you. Let go.
    Only at the very end does he speed up at all, and then only for a few strokes before he pumps into me hard, shudders, and goes still. I feel him pulse inside me as he spends himself, as if I can hear the raw cry of passion he has to hold back.
    After one long moment, he lifts his face to mine. We smile at each other, half-drunk on pleasure, his cock still inside me.
    â€œSee?” I whisper. “You always take care of me.”
    Jonah kisses me again. The shadows of the past have gone far, far away. There’s nothing but this, us, now.
    ***
    Even knowing what his sister needs, Jonah still found it difficult to leave Rebecca. When we hugged her good-bye at the airport, he hung on to her for a long time, and she clung to him just as tightly. I stood a few paces away, duffel bag in hand, remembering what Jonah told me about her the first time he ever opened up about his family: that he and Elise kept Rebecca and Maddox from witnessing the horrible sexual abuse in their household.
    Sometimes I think that’s the only truly good thing I’ve ever done, protecting them,
he said.
So they get to be the normal ones.
    He needs Rebecca to be safe, sane and whole. She and Maddox prove, to Jonah, that in one small way he beat Carter Hale. Jonah saved her, even when he couldn’t save himself.
    I think of that in the final half hour of our flight while the pilot tells us wind conditions in Austin. (Airplane pilots always seem to think other people will be as interested in this information as they are.) Looking over at Jonah, I see him staring out the window, expression thoughtful.
    â€œYou’re still worried about her,” I say, taking his hand.
    He nods. “She can take care of herself. I know that. I trust her. But I’d feel better if she’d come home for a while.”
    â€œHow long has she been overseas?”
    I expect Jonah to talk about a two-year fellowship, maybe. Instead he says, “Since high school, mostly. Rebecca applied to . . . I don’t know how many foreign universities. Wound up at Trinity College in Dublin. From then to now, she’s spent exactly one year in the U.S., and she talks like she’ll never come back.”
    â€œWell—her work does take her to the tropics—”
    â€œThat’s not it.” Jonah sighs and squeezes my hand. “Rebecca’s running away from the past. But it has a way of keeping up with you.”
    â€œTell me about it.”
    When I say that, Jonah leans over, resting his head against my shoulder. He doesn’t do that often—seek comfort so openly, so simply. But as we grow closer, he continues to surprise me.
    Maybe one of the reasons Jonah and I work so well together is that we both understand that you never outrun the past. You just keep running, and never look back.

Chapter Five
    On our way home from the airport, Jonah and I stop at the supermarket. This is a necessity, because after this long, most of the food in our fridges will have gone to the dark side. Jonah and I haven’t done simple, domestic stuff like this much . . . at least, not until now. There’s something sweet about standing here, discovering the likes and dislikes we have in common, and planning meals we’ll share.
    You’re getting gooey because this guy eats the same brand of peanut butter you do,
I tell myself at one point.
You’ve got it bad, girl.
    As I steer our cart into the beverages aisle, however, I’m jerked out of those pleasant thoughts by the sight of Arturo, Shay, and baby Nicolas only a few paces ahead. Arturo’s