an available female, but that’s not it at all. I swear.”
Jess let a little laugh escape. “Well, that’s a relief.”
He reached for her hand, stroked it gently as he looked at her. “Do you trust me, Jess?”
“Of course I do.”
“I mean really trust me. Trust that I mean what I’m saying, and that I’d never do anything to hurt you?”
“I believe you, and I definitely believe you’d never—never mean to hurt me. But honestly? I’m a lot more worried that I’d hurt you.”
“Not possible.”
She blew out a breath. “You have no idea.”
“Maybe we could give in to our smoking hot chemistry and see where things go? No pressure?”
His voice was light, but his eyes were intense in all the best ways, and it was all Jess could do not to melt right into his body.
He lay back against the hay, pulling her ever so gently. “Kiss me, Jess. You kiss me this time.”
She wanted to resist, wanted to flee the hayloft as fast as her legs would take her, but as he lay there, vulnerable and so, so gorgeous, she felt herself lean toward him. Felt herself responding to the pull of his fingers, felt herself sliding her body next to his as she raised her other hand to trace the curves and lines of his face.
Cole held still, so still, as she explored. He closed his eyes, one steady hand on her back, but not an ounce of pressure to do more, to get closer. He just let her run her fingers through his thick hair, sighed quietly as she traced one ear with her fingernail.
He was so…beautiful. She ran her fingers down his arm, linked them with his, drew their hands between their bodies.
And still he waited. He didn’t pull her closer, didn’t reach up to kiss her, didn’t pressure her in the slightest bit.
She had to kiss him. There were a hundred reasons she shouldn’t, a thousand reasons she’d regret it, but right now, right here, on the hay in the moonlight with this perfect man, she couldn’t not kiss him.
She leaned closer, touched his lips with a whisper-soft kiss, then another. His eyes fluttered open at the first, and then he smiled as she kissed him a third time. Still he lay motionless, one hand steadying her, one hand clasped with hers.
She shifted her body, angled closer, hungered for more. Was this what it was supposed to feel like? This—this crazy desire to mesh every inch of her skin with his? This longing to have his arms encircle her and hold her tightly, to rock her against him until they could bear it no longer?
She pulled her hand loose from his, traced his lips with her fingertips, then linked her fingers with his once more as she kissed him again. In a move so bold she hardly dared to believe it was her doing it, she pushed his hand backward beside his head, pinning it there as she shifted her body so her chest touched his.
He groaned in response, but still let her lead. “You’re killing me, Jess.”
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered. She swore she could sense every muscle in his body holding taut, trying not to scare her.
“I’m happy to die, if this is what death looks like.”
She pulled away and his eyes opened, his arm still steady around her back. “Kiss me, Cole. Please.”
“I’m perfectly happy just like this.” He reached up to brush hair away from her face. “I could stay here forever like this and be perfectly happy.”
“I want you to.”
He nodded, his eyes intense. “I will stop whenever you say so. You call the shots here, Jess.”
“Okay.”
“I mean it. I need to be sure you know that.”
“I do. I know.” She drew his hand to her mouth, kissed his palm, and he groaned as he pulled her closer.
When his lips touched hers this time, it was all she could do not to moan in pleasure. They were sure but gentle, demanding in the hottest, most tempting way. She shifted upward, then slid to sit at his waist, her legs on either side of his body, her fingers intertwined with his. As she pushed his hands downward on either side of his head, she felt his hips respond by rising toward her.
His mouth opened under hers, and she felt herself sinking deeper, deeper into the kiss as their bodies found a sweet, slow rhythm. He pulled his hands loose, slid them slowly up her thighs and around to the back. He held