Worth the Risk_ A Contemporary - Megan Hart Page 0,182

like this ruined friendships, and she refused to lose him. Not like this.

“I’m going home,” she said.

This time, when she turned and walked away he didn’t follow her.

“What happened on the dance floor, Josie?” he hollered after her, but she didn’t answer.

Chapter 2

By the time she got home, Josie was shivering with delayed reaction. The fourth beer she wanted to blame for her mistakes churned in her gut. A headache had begun to throb in her temples. Worst of all, tears stung her eyes and, as hard as she tried to fight them, they fell to burn her cheeks.

She stripped off her sodden jeans and tossed them over a chair. Her skin hunched into gooseflesh in her apartment’s air conditioning, and she turned the thermostat up. The hot shower beckoned her, but she couldn’t even take comfort in its spray. She stepped out after the briefest of soapings and dried herself. Naked, she padded to the kitchen and pulled out the first shirt she found in the basket of clean laundry on her kitchen table, and slipped it over her head. When the hem hit her just above the knees, she clutched the soft fabric with a slight moan. The shirt was one of Jack’s.

“Shit,” Josie swore under her breath.

She heard a knock at the front door and her heart thudded in surprise. She hadn’t locked it. Just as she moved into the narrow front hall, the door banged open hard enough to hit the wall.

Jack, dripping, strode into the hall and kicked the door shut behind him. He nearly filled the hall from side to side. Water puddled on the hardwood floor beneath his boots.

Josie stepped back, breathless, and hit the wall behind her. She couldn’t move. In seconds, Jack crossed the space between them and put his hands on the wall, one on each side of her head. She’d never seen him look so fierce.

Fear and anticipation filled her, but she had no place to go.

“I think—” Jack said, his voice deeper than she’d ever heard it. “—we need to talk.”

She might have spoken, maybe only moaned, but before she could make a sound, Jack crushed his mouth down on hers. She opened beneath the onslaught, still trying to protest, but his tongue swept inside and stole her words away. A moan burst in her throat and became embarrassingly loud as he pulled away.

“Put your hands on me,” Jack ordered. “Now.”

With a whimper, Josie spread both her hands on his chest. His shirt was cold with the rain, and so tight she felt every ripple of his muscles. His nipples were hard as iron beneath her fingers. When she touched them, he muttered a curse.

“Jack…”

“Shut up, Josie.”

Her eyes widened, then narrowed. Jack was the only man who could talk to her like that without a punch in the gut for his efforts. Even so, she opened her mouth to tell him off. He stopped her with another kiss.

Her arms slid around his neck. His mouth molded to hers. Their tongues twined and twisted, dancing. After a minute, she felt him shivering against her and she became aware that her dry t-shirt had become damp.

She broke the kiss and heard the click of his teeth as they chattered.

“Jack, you’re freezing!”

He didn’t answer with words, just another kiss. His mouth was hot, if nothing else was. Josie put her hands to his waist and tugged his wet shirt from his pants. Their mouths remained locked as she lifted the shirt up his belly and over his chest. He lifted his arms to allow her to pull it over his head. They broke apart and rejoined, mouths meeting greedily. She dropped the shirt, forgotten, to the floor.

Josie put her hands on Jack’s bare skin and felt the gooseflesh there. He shivered again when she made circles on his skin with her fingers. His skin warmed under her touch.

Jack put his hands to her waist and lifted her. The strength of his arms left her dizzy with arousal as he urged her, with a touch, to wrap her legs around him. Now her head was higher than his. She put her hands on his head, and the bristly stubble along his jaw scratched at her fingers.

The movement pushed her shirt above her thighs. She was bare beneath it. Jack groaned against her mouth as her dark red curls brushed his belly.

His hands slid down to cup her ass and hold her up. The wall was hard on her back, and Jack was