Jersey Six - Jewel E Ann Page 0,62

he framed her face and brought her head up to look at him. “I’m so … fucking sorry.” He kissed her forehead, wiped the tears from her face and the spit from her chin. “Jersey …” He hugged her.

She rested her cheek on his shoulder, draping her limp arms around his neck. “I—” Again, she coughed. “I can’t swim.”

Ian pressed a hand to the back of her head and kissed her cheek over and over. “That quickly occurred to me … after the fact. God … please, forgive me. I’m such an asshole. I’m so, so sorry.” He continued to kiss her face, everywhere except her mouth.

“I’m cold.”

“Okay. Let’s get you into some dry clothes.” He started to pick her up.

“I can walk.” She pushed him away.

He ran a frustrated hand through his hair and nodded, settling for resting it on her lower back. “Let’s take our clothes off here.” He grabbed the hem of her shirt.

Again, she batted his hand away, scowling up at him. She peeled off her own clothes and made eye contact again.

Ian rubbed his lips together and nodded several times, standing in front of her wearing just his boxer briefs. “You could have left on your underwear, but this works too.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You could have not shoved me into the pool so I wouldn’t be standing here naked and freezing.”

“I’m sorry.” He opened the door. “How many sorrys will be enough?”

“Sometimes sorry isn’t enough.” She stood at the bottom of the stairs, teeth chattering, and pointed to the upstairs. “You’re not walking behind me up these stairs.”

He didn’t give her any resistance, which was the reason she didn’t give in to her impulse to knock his teeth out. That … and he looked disturbingly good in nothing but wet, blue underwear.

“Where’s your bag?” Ian turned at the top of the stairs, his gaze slipping for a second to her naked body before returning to her face.

She nodded to Chris’s room and started to grab the doorknob.

“No.” Ian grabbed her wrist. “The room at the end of the hallway. Wait there. I’ll get your bag.”

“Don’t make me cut your hand off, Coop.”

“With what? You have a knife shoved up your ass?”

“He’s seen me naked.”

Ian’s jaw clenched, but at the same time something vulnerable flashed in his eyes—a pleading of some sort.

“He’s seen me naked …” Jersey repeated in a softer tone.

Keeping his hand on her wrist, he slowly leaned down. “Can he not…” Ian whispered over her lips “…see you now? Can you be for my eyes only?”

Jersey blinked several times, feeling tension in her jaw too. But as he eased his grip on her wrist, she released the doorknob.

“Thank you,” he breathed into her mouth a second before kissing her.

She kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his neck, letting him slide his arms around her naked body, letting him lift her up, guiding her legs around his waist. Ian kissed her all the way to the bedroom at the end of the hallway. He closed the door behind them. And he kissed her more, taking slow steps toward the king-sized bed next to the glass doors to a private balcony.

“You made fun …” she fought for a full breath as he took it away with his lips beneath her ear “…of me in the pantry.”

His mouth paused for a moment and turned up into a smile. “I didn’t.” He lowered her to the bed and kissed his way down her throat as she arched into him.

“You tried to drown me.” She fisted the sheets beneath her and let her heavy eyelids close.

Again, he paused at the swell of her breasts, grinning again. “I didn’t.” Making his way back to her lips, he rested his forearms beside her head. “Jersey?”

She blinked her eyes open.

“When I realized you couldn’t swim … your heart didn’t stop beating.” He closed his eyes and released a slow breath through his nose. “But mine did.”

“Coop …”

“I’m a terrible person.”

“You are.” She grinned, and it brought a little light to him as well. “But so am I. So let’s do what terrible people do.”

Ian’s gaze swept along her face. Then he smiled and stretched his arm to the bedside table, pulling out a strip of condoms and tossing them on the bed before losing his underwear and taking. All. The. Kisses.

“It’s not terrible.” Jersey smiled as she and Ian rested on their sides facing each other—naked, sleepy, and satisfied. “I mean, we’re terrible, but it’s not terrible.”

“What is it?” A