Chances Are - By Christy Reece Page 0,25

do with his inappropriate lust.

“Jake?” Warm breath from her soft whisper was like an erotic caress against his skin.

His entire body went taut as a violin string. Eyes closed, teeth clenched, Jake fought every instinct and signal his body was sending him. He told himself she needed comfort. He told himself he had nothing to give her. He told himself to let her go.

Her lips pressed against his throat in a hot open-mouthed erotic invitation.

Ignoring every warning in his head, Jake went for what he wanted above all else. Lowering his head, he trailed tender kisses along her impossibly soft cheek. When she turned to look up at him, her dark eyes holding a hunger he felt deep within his soul, he could no more have let her go than he could stop breathing. Groaning with pent-up desire, his mouth covered hers.

His world exploded.

Never had he tasted anything as delicately delicious or more decadent. She had the softest, sweetest mouth in the universe and Jake wanted to devour every succulent morsel. Her mouth opened beneath his with a blatant challenge to explore. Accepting the provocation, he thrust deep and lost his mind.

While he ravaged her mouth, Jake’s hands were equally busy exploring. The towel trapped between their bodies was an irritating deterrent to his goals. Growling his frustration, he lifted his head to concentrate his energies and finally tugged it low enough to expose her breasts. Hungrily, his gaze roamed over her, devouring the perfect globes of cream satin with small, rose-colored nipples.

Taking a breast in his hand, he tested the weight against his palm, then flicked her nipple with his thumb and watched in awe as it went tauter, stiffer, seeming to beg for his mouth. Unable to resist, he swirled his tongue around the tight peak. Pulling away slightly, he admired the now glistening and even tighter bud. “Damn, that’s pretty.”

A soft, gasping sigh had him moving his gaze from the most perfect breast he’d ever seen to the most beautiful face in existence. Classically high cheekbones, velvet brown eyes, full wide lips and slightly pointed chin, was the type of beauty poets wrote sonnets about. Jake had no poetry in him. The only thing he possessed in spades was pure, unadulterated lust.

Leaving the vision of her face for a moment, his gaze explored her body. Long…impossibly long, sleek legs, ivory-colored and toned, led down to narrow feet with nails painted a vibrant red.

Breathing out a longing sigh, he growled hoarsely, “You are so dammed beautiful.”

Shuddering with arousal, Angela watched Jake’s face as she lay in his arms. Wanting to take the initiative, wanting to give everything and anything he asked for, she waited for a sign of acceptance. This man had rejected her more than once. Having him do so while she was almost nude and vulnerable in his arms wasn’t something she could survive. If she tried to take it further than what he was ready to give, the fracture in her heart would widen to a giant crevice.

So, she waited. Hoping against hope that this time he would want what she wanted. That at last the barrier would be broken and he would allow his need to take control. Her eyes met his and she knew the answer before he said the words, “I could hurt you so easily, Angela. I don’t want to be the one to break your heart.”

She tried to smile though she knew it was a poor attempt. “Ever thought you should be worried about your own heart and not mine?”

“What would hurt me more than anything would be to hurt you.”

“Why don’t you let me worry about that?”

“I’m not a forever kind of guy. Not anymore.”

“Who said anything about forever? What’s wrong with living in the moment…the here and now?”

“You’re not a living in the moment kind of woman.”

“And you think you know what kind of woman I am?”

Before he could answer, Angela was sitting up and struggling to get away from him. She needed distance or she was going to say or do something that she would eventually regret. Neither punching him in the nose for his arrogance nor kissing him because she saw the hurt and sadness behind his words were the right courses to take.

Only Jake wasn’t having it. His arms tightened around her, keeping her from leaving.

“Let me go, Jake.”

“I can’t.”

“Why? If you don’t want me, then let me go.”

“Hell woman, you think I don’t want you?” He shook her gently, his eyes blazing into hers.