Free Need You Now (1001 Dark Nights) by Lisa Renée Jones Page B

feeling lost and hurt, not from Katie, but from Jensen. Somehow, impossibly, a man I barely know has gotten to me. Refusing to let that turn to tears, telling myself this is really embarrassment and not real pain, I decide a walk on the beach will do a lot to clear my head.
    Pushing to my feet, I pass through the living area decorated in tropical floral colors that really do not scream luxury as they should and enter the bedroom. Opening my suitcase where it sits on a luggage rack beside an unimpressive bamboo-framed bed, I dig out the pair of shorts I brought with me and a tank top. Quickly changing, I glance at the clock, noting the ten o’clock hour, and fit my cell phone in my pocket for safety reasons. Next, I slip on flip-flops and head to the patio door. Knowing Jensen is next door with a patio as well, I opt to leave the lights out, not sure I want to see him right now. Or maybe the problem is that I want to see him so much and he clearly does not want to see me.
    Sliding open the glass, the ocean air gusts in my face, blowing my hair all about. I inhale and step outside into the pitch-dark starless night, closing the door shut behind me. Glancing to my right, I find Jensen’s patio attached to mine, and I think there’s a steel railing separating us, but it’s hard to tell in the dark. It doesn’t matter. I’m avoiding him, moving forward past a table to lean on the part of the steel railing lining the beach. I can’t see the water, but I hear the waves, and I’m not sure I can go to the beach without a flashlight I don’t have. Shutting my eyes, I focus again on the waves crashing to the shore, and I start to count them, letting them soothe me.
    A sound to my right snaps my eyes open. I turn and blink, bringing a shadowy figure on the next patio into view.
    “Jensen?”
    “Yes.” The shadows shift and he steps to the part of the rail separating us.
    Smashing the nerves in my stomach, I take slow steps and join him, my hands coming down on the rail. His do the same, framing mine but not touching me. His shirt is unbuttoned, as if he was undressing when he stepped outside.
    I want him to touch me.
    And yet like so many times today, neither of us move. I can’t think. I can’t breathe. I’ve never been so alive and on edge. And then it happens. The movement. His movement. He grabs me and the next thing I know, he’s lifting me over the divider and pulling me against him.
     

Part Eight: Rules Are Made To Be Broken
    My feet have not even hit the ground when his hand is at the back of my head, his mouth slanting over mine, and he is kissing me. Deep, passionate kissing. I wrap my arms around his neck, pressing into him, embracing him and the moment, unwilling to face tomorrow with the same regrets of today. I never let go of my control, never indulge or feel anything, especially sex, without reservations. But tonight, with this man, I want and need him in ways I never believed I’d ever experience. Maybe it’s because we’re each other’s forbidden fruit, or maybe it’s simply how scorching hot he truly is. Whatever the case, if I go home tomorrow, it will be knowing I experienced everything with him and more.
    Jensen’s hand flattens on my lower back, molding my hips to his hips, my bare thighs to his thighs, and I melt into the hard lines of his body, my fingers lacing at his nape. His tongue licks deeper into my mouth, and that now familiar rich male taste of him, teasing my senses, drives me crazy. Every nerve ending in my body is alive, and when his hand skims up my ribcage, the mere brush of his fingers on the curve of my breast has me moaning, my sex tingling and far too empty.
    He seems to react to my pleasure, a low, rough sound slipping from his throat as he tangles deliciously rough fingers into my hair and presses his mouth to my ear. “You’re mine tonight,” he all but growls. “Don’t even think about leaving this time.”
    His words stroke through me as if they are his fingers