Free Wild Fling or a Wedding Ring? by Mira Lyn Kelly Page B

absorbed the heat of Jake’s body.
    Oh, God, she could barely breathe.
    His chest was right there, and he smelled so good, and her mouth was suddenly dry. She tried to conjure Amanda, hoping the mental image of her boss getting all breathy about Jackson would be enough to douse the flames licking low in her belly—get her to stop this mind-traveling back to that night in the bar.
    Slow jazz. The seductive, gliding caress of his tongue against hers. His ragged groan, “Tell me to stop.”
    Only it didn’t work. She was alone in her apartment with Amanda’s Jackson, standing there watching him tempt her into seeing him as just Jake. The truth was he’d been tempting her all day. Longer, even.
    He was just Jake. He’d been with her all day. Making her laugh. Making her think. Talking about life and—and she was making a mistake letting herself think that way for even a second. Only she couldn’t stop.
    A shiver ran the length of her spine, skirting around to tighten the skin across her chest, hitching her breath to a halt. There was no stopping it, this desire that built within her every minute they were together, that jumped and flared at every innocuous touch. He read it in her eyes. He had to. She needed him to.
    His pupils dilated, roiled with turbulent emotion. He was going to kiss her, and this time—
    “Turn around and lean forward over the counter.”
    “Wh-what?” Cali’s eyes flared wide, but Jake took her by the shoulders and steadily turned her away from him. Herheart slammed a staccato beat against her ribs. She couldn’t move, couldn’t voice a word of protest as his wide, strong hand spanned her lower back, then skimmed up her spine, using a gentle but firm pressure to bend her over.
    He gathered the hair that hung heavy down her back, parted it at her nape and, twisting the untamed curls, pushed them to fall forward over her shoulders. And then those long fingers were sifting through the weighty mass, tugging at the strands so tiny sparks of pleasure flared at the roots. The tingling sensation of shifting follicles had her fighting a groan, only to lose the battle when his hands moved with steady pressure in a downward stroke from the base of her skull across the slope of her shoulders.
    “Jake,” she gasped as his thumbs pressed into the taut tissues astride her spine, circling slowly until her worn muscles succumbed, releasing their tension to his ministrations.
    He worked the muscle groups, large and small, his every touch and murmured comment—“Hard? Like that?”—melting her resolve.
    Making her want more.
    Need more.
    Warm breath bathed the exposed skin of her neck as he worked the joints of her shoulders, her upper arms, traps and deltoids. His fingers walked the path of delicate bones that collared her neck. Touched on the tops of her pectoral muscles, making her breasts peak and ache for the attention that remained just out of reach. Dipped lower in an elusive caress, still inches from her nipples, before retreating to the spread of her shoulders.
    His skilled hands followed around her ribs, moving over her in confident, deliberate strokes. Easing lower. Locking around her hips as he kneaded the small of her back.
    “You’re so tight.”
    Cali’s teeth sank into her bottom lip at the gruff sound of his provocative words—words that conjured erotic images—used in a context to torment her.
    “You like that?”
    Her belly knotted as her body went liquid beneath his touch.
    “Jake,” she gasped again, his name riding a quivering breath. “Please….”
    The heat of him radiated over her, so close, but not quite touching.
    “Tell me what you want, Cali.” His voice was rough velvet at her ear, making her knees weak. Her body burn. “Tell me. And I’ll give it to you.”
    She was lost. Her mind spun, trying to grasp onto a solid reason she shouldn’t, but there was nothing beyond this aching need. No sense. No reason. No more resistance.
    “Please…touch me.”
    “Like