Love In Secrets (Love Distilled #3) - Scarlett Cole Page 0,36
the narrow band of skin between her jeans and T-shirt, but his eyes stayed fixed on hers. “This could get messy.”
Cassie nodded. “It could. But we’re grown-ups, right? You know I’m going home soon, and I know you’re too busy to find something for yourself right now.”
“We’ve got a month.”
“I know this sounds cheesy but calling it friends with benefits gives us boundaries.” Even as she said it, she wasn’t sure she meant it, yet she needed something to hold on to.
“Fine, friends with benefits. Just never act like this doesn’t mean something.”
“Agreed.”
She ran her fingers up his arms to his biceps, knowing the next time he put his arms around her, it wouldn’t be a hug of friendship—it would be a hug that would develop into so much more.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Jake slid a hand through her hair and held her neck while his thumb stroked her cheek.
“Too many clothes?” she asked.
Jake laughed. “Yeah. Maybe. But there was something else you needed to do, first.”
She wracked her brain trying to come up with what he was looking for.
“What did I say to you on the sofa when we were interrupted by Em? What did I tell you to do, Cass?”
Oh, shit! “You said if I wanted you to kiss me later, I had to find you when everyone had left and ask you.”
“Is there anyone left?”
“No,” she whispered.
“And do you still want me to kiss you?”
“I’d say that was pretty self-evident, wouldn’t you?”
Jake grinned. “Yes or no answer, love.”
Cassie bit her lower lip. “Yes, Jake. I still want you to kiss me.”
“No.”
“No?” Cassie said, suddenly uncertain.
“Kidding. Come here,” he replied, pulling her to him.
When his lips hit hers, it was like popping candy going off in her brain. Too many thoughts and sensations and feelings whizzing around. His lips were soft, his tongue sought hers. And his hands were everywhere.
Jake pulled her closer until their bodies were pressed up against one another. He threaded his hand through her hair. The sexual tension between them was so undeniable, Cassie felt as though she might combust. Heat flooded her core, her body preparing for what she hoped followed.
He sucked on her lower lip, teasing her mercilessly with his tongue.
“Fuck,” he groaned against her mouth. “I should have kissed you like this years ago.”
She placed her hands on either side of his face. He looked as dazed by the kiss as she felt. And he’d clearly felt it as much as she had. Seriously endowed proof of that was pressing against her stomach.
“You should have kissed me like that in the bathroom yesterday,” she said.
“You weren’t ready yesterday.” Jake slid his hands beneath her T-shirt, rubbing them up and down her back, a slow and steady rhythm. “Was that the kind of kiss you were looking for tonight?”
“Very much so. And you can do it again if you like.”
“I intend to.”
“Now?”
Jake shook his head. “Nope.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want to go straight from friends to fucking.”
“You don’t?”
Jake ran a finger down her forehead and she could only imagine it was a lame attempt to ease the confusion that must be written in the wrinkles there. “It took us, on average, thirty years to get to this kiss. Why should it take thirty minutes to go from a kiss to sex?”
“Umm, because you got me all hot and bothered with a single kiss.”
He slid his hand between them and adjusted his dick. “Yeah, I felt it too.”
Cassie couldn’t help but laugh. “Are you teasing me or being serious? I can’t tell.”
“Keeping you on your toes is part of my charm. No, I’m not teasing. Yes, I’m being serious. Will you go out for dinner with me tomorrow night? After you’ve been to see your dad.”
His hands slid around her ribcage and she could barely think straight. “I’d love to.”
Jake’s fingers brushed the underside of her breast gently as he bit his lip. “Good. I’ll pick you up from the spare room at eight.”
“Wait, we aren’t going to sleep together?”
“Keep up, Cass. Yes, we’re going to sleep together. Just not tonight. If I wanted a quick fuck, I could find one. But you aren’t quick fuck material to me. And I know you want to label this, but I don’t want to reduce this to the lowest common denominator of sex that means absolutely nothing when we wake up with each other the next morning. While that kind of sex has its place, it doesn’t belong between us.”