he’d ever had since joining the Marines at twenty-two. He’d have maneuvers to figure in, but they were never played out for more than a week at a time, and a training at Quantico coming up right after Christmas that came with a month’s commitment. But these were obstacles that they could work with.
He and Ivy had common ground. Perhaps their experiences were different—almost certainly they were—but they had earned their emotional maturity.
With Ivy, his plan was to move with about as much speed as a snail. Easier said than
done. He’d never gone from zero to sixty with a woman so fast. Just thinking about her made his balls ache.
Jake laced up his shoe and then burst into a sprint. Ivy was just getting home about now. She was ending her day and his was just beginning. He’d dealt with crazy work hours before, of course. The body adjusted. She’d probably shower, grab a bite to eat, and then fall into bed. He tried not to think about that too much. He definitely wasn’t going into his favorite game of what was she wearing. But damn, she was gorgeous. Long legs and lush breasts and eyes that met challenge, didn’t skitter away from it. She wasn’t afraid to look down the mouth of a lion. That kind of courage was developed over hot coals. It was earned, because it was tested. More than once. And so she was a little fearless and delightfully bold. Those two attributes made his blood quicken.
It was a big draw. He suspected that kind of strength in a woman transferred to other areas of her life. Ivy was a woman who told her man what she wanted and how she wanted it. She probably wouldn’t rely solely on words, would leave out enough details that a man had to make a few discoveries on his own, and was open to exploring some uncharted territory.
Nothing irritated Jake more than to try and figure out a woman who constantly submitted to what she thought he wanted. That kind of game always ended with both parties the losers.
Ivy needed time to decide what she wanted from Jake—aside from the physical. There was no way she could possibly know just minutes into hello. Well, hours really, but he had no intention of rushing things. It all came back to time, and how they used it. Revelations and confidences required trust and trust grew with exposure. If he could keep his dick in his pants they had a chance.
He rounded Hour-Glass Park, passing Marine cadets in their endurance run and college co-eds rushing onto campus. It was a perfect morning, the heat held off by a persistent breeze. In a few hours the sun will have bleached the sky to a paper white and curled the ends of the air, but right now it was as good as it gets end of August and Jake appreciated that. He decided to add a mile to his run, maybe more, let his body absorb the vitamin D and burn off the libido.
She had a handful of cereal at the bottom of the Rice Krispies box and no milk. Ivy poured it into a bowl, anyway, and added a container of vanilla yogurt—her last—and sliced banana. She really needed to get to the grocery store. She sat in a chair next to the open window and enjoyed the cool breeze while she spooned in what amounted to her breakfast. She’d showered and was dressed in a pair of comfy cotton pajama bottoms and tank top. She’d already set the alarm and pulled out a set of clean and pressed scrubs for her shift this afternoon. Still, she felt an electric hum just beneath the surface of her skin. Sometimes she got off shift and was too keyed up to sleep. Today, though, she suspected that Jake was the cause of her heightened senses.
She wondered if he’d felt as turned on as her. She’d witnessed the flush of his skin, the tension in his muscles, but how easy was it for a man to let something like that go? After all, a Marine had discipline. He had control. She had watched Jake use both on that long ride to Children’s. And it made her frown. Her thoughts about him grew talons. Oh, how she would love to break through that iron wall. Touch him and turn him into a shaking mass of need. It was no fun being in that maelstrom of passion alone.