wife hadn’t gotten pregnant in the time of their marriage. Jake believes it was partially responsible for their issues. Lisa’s infidelity had been another part of their problems.
I shake my thoughts of her, returning to options for Jake.
“You can go to the authorities. Tell them the truth.”
Jake perches up on an elbow, wedged between my body and the back of the couch. “I don’t know what to do.” He shakes his head. “I just . . . can’t think about this anymore.”
I understand. There’s so much to consider, but the pile-up from Nolan’s confession alone is weighing Jake down. He’s gone to prison for a crime he didn’t commit, while his brother had known the truth all along.
“Why didn’t he ever tell you? Admit his part in the fires before.”
Jake shakes his head again. “I don’t know, and I don’t have space to think. I’m just . . . spent tonight.” He lowers his head once more, and I’m reminded of his cinnamon scent when I opened the door.
“Are you drunk?” I ask again, worried that his own state of mind is clouded by more than this revelation.
“Stone sober, sweet. The gum was not to disguise anything but just take away the stench. I didn’t want to upset you.”
My arms tighten around him again, holding him in place against my body. Jake slips one arm out from under me and slides his hand along my outer leg, lifting them both to lay across the couch cushions. He shifts himself, so my legs spread, and he settles between them, keeping his upper body over mine. His head remains near my racing heart, and we hold one another for a while longer in this position.
Time passes although I’m uncertain how much before Jake shifts, rubbing his nose against my skin above the scoop neck collar of my nightshirt. Slowly, he begins kissing me along the ridge of material.
“Jake?” I whisper.
“Don’t talk,” he quietly states, opening his lips to suck at the path he’s made. He shifts a bit, and his mouth moves to my neck before his tongue comes forward. He licks down the column of my throat to the edge of my low-cut nightdress. As his tongue moves down my skin, his hand slips upward, covering my breast over the material.
“Jake,” I groan as he squeezes me hard through the soft covering, bringing my nipple to a sharp peak.
“I need you, sweet,” he mutters into my skin. It’s wrong, I want to say to him. It shouldn’t be like this—when he’s so broken, so desperate—yet I can’t deny him the comfort he seeks, reminding myself of that fateful night for me. How badly I wanted to recapture the sensation of another body over mine. How strongly I wanted to join with another. I had hoped to get lost in someone else. Of course, the circumstances were different. I was drunk out of my head, unfocused, and uncertain of what I was doing.
This is Jake.
“I stopped drinking hours ago,” he states, looking up at me once more to assure me of his mental state. As our eyes meet, he leans upward, joining our lips. At first, the kiss is slow and sad. His mouth is swollen. His cinnamon flavor invades my tongue. Quickly, the kiss grows more desperate. Jake fists his fingers in my hair and deftly moves us until he’s sitting upward and I’m straddling him.
“What is it with you and couches, Kaplan?” he teases before nipping at my lower lip and forcing my mouth open to continue kissing. My hands cup the side of his head as we continue to explore with eager tongues and unquenchable lips. Jake breaks first, pressing me back only enough to work a few buttons on his skewed dress shirt. The tie is already loose at the neck. He tugs everything over his head from the back collar, giving me his firm shoulders and flat chest to explore. My hands wander down his pecs while fingers comb through the fine hairs on his chest.
His hands fist in the material of my nightdress and gently tug it upward, revealing my body in a slow tease of exposure until I lift my arms and he removes it completely. His face is eye level with my naked breasts, and he cups one, leaning forward to suck hard at the swell. Instantly, my back arches, forcing myself deeper into the warmth of his mouth. My fingertips dig into his shoulders to balance myself against his hungry suction. Popping free