I loved the way he kissed, how he tasted me and could practically bring me to the tips of my toes with his lips and tongue. My breath quickened as he shifted closer and there was only an inch or so separating us.

Need rose swiftly, and I was so hot for him. The desire for him ran deeper than the physical. I wanted nothing to be in between us.

He moaned against my lips. “I want you.”

Molten lava flowed through my veins. “You are what I want.”

His hands skimmed down my sides, reaching the edge of my towel as he growled deep in his throat. I swayed into him. “I’m yours,” I whispered.

He kissed me again, dragging his tongue over mine. When he pulled back, he nipped at my lip, causing me to gasp. My eyes fluttered open, and I got snared in his silvery gaze.

Jase had been right to stop things the night before. I didn’t want our first time to have shadows clinging to it. Like him, I wanted it to be perfect. I wanted to look back on this moment and have absolutely no regrets.

But I knew it couldn’t be perfectly planned. It was all about both of us wanting the same thing, and while him wanting to do everything the right way melted me inside, he didn’t realize that he’d already done things in the right way.

Taking a deep breath and drawing on my courage, I loosened the knot holding my towel closed. It was like stepping out on the stage and knowing all eyes were on me, but this was different—­more potent. Because only his eyes mattered, and right now I was his entire world.

I tugged the knot free and let the towel drop.

“Christ,” he groaned, lips parting on a sharp inhale.

Completely bare with the exception of my very sexy blue knee brace, I was more vulnerable to him than I’d been with anyone in my life.

I wasn’t just offering him my body, I was truly offering him my heart.

Jase took a step back, his hands following to his sides. He opened and closed his fists. “Do you know how beautiful you are? How it affects me?” A pleasant haze invaded my system as my body and heart responded to his words. He slowly shook his head. “I don’t think you really understand, because if you did, I don’t think you could just stand there. God, Tess, there isn’t a part of you that’s not perfect in my eyes.”

There was a lot of me that wasn’t perfect. Without dancing, I’d lost the lithe figure about fifty cheeseburgers ago. My h*ps were more rounded, my thighs not as lean as before. Instead of the perfectly flat stomach I used to rock, it was now convex and my br**sts were larger. Not a bad thing, but so was my ass.

But in his eyes, I felt more beautiful then I ever did before.

I’d never felt such anticipation before. His stare was doing crazy things to me. I was flushed, excited, and I knew I was making the right decision.

“I’ve never . . . been this bold before,” I said, voice shaky. “But this is the right moment for us. I want you, Jase. Do you want me?”

“Yes.” His voice was gruff as he dragged his gaze up, lingering on my chest until I ached and throbbed there for his touch. “I want you.”

Jase touched me then, his hands closing around my upper arms as he dipped his head. Strands of his soft, still damp hair brushed my cheeks. “Are you sure this is what you want?”

“Surer than anything,” I breathed.

His bare chest rose, brushing mine. The sensation rocketed through me. He made another deep sound in the back of his throat. “Stay right here. Don’t move. Okay?”

“Okay.”

He kissed me quickly, sucking deeply before he broke off and left the bedroom. He returned a few seconds later with several foil packets in his hand. I arched a brow as I started to grin. “You came prepared, huh?”

A cocky grin appeared. “I wanted to be prepared with you.” He tossed them on the bed behind me, and I moved until the back of my legs hit the mattress. “Watch me?”

“I’m not looking anywhere else.”

My breath caught as a full smile appeared, but then I held my breath as he reached down, thumbing out the button on his jeans. The zipper came next, and then his jeans slid down. They were gone in a second and his boxers were next.

I gasped at the sight of him, and he chuckled. He was utterly magnificent. The deeply tanned skin of his rippled in all the right places.

Jase was . . . well, he was endowed. And then some.

Two fingers pressed against my chin, lifting my gaze. “You like what you see?”

I shivered. “Oh yes.”

“Good.” He kissed me, and the very air in the room became laden with sexual tension. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted this,” he murmured against my lips as he wrapped an arm around my waist, lifting me until I was flush against him. The next kiss ignited a fire. “Or how many times I lay awake at night, thinking of you like this with me.”

“As many times as I dreamed of this,” I said as he lowered me to the bed, so I was lying down the middle. “I don’t want to wait any longer.”

“Neither do I.” He grabbed a condom, ripped the foil open, and slid it on.

He lowered himself, trailing his lips over my flushed face and then down, blazing a path across my chest, suckling and nipping until my h*ps moved restlessly against him. The moment my h*ps pushed into his, he shuddered. His hands were everywhere, caressing me as if he sought to etch the lines of my body into his memory.

My body arched into his, aching and tense as I ran my hands down his chest. Desire flooded me, like a dam bursting after a long storm.

“I want to take my time.” He reached down between us, finding me and slipping a finger inside as he nudged my thighs apart. “I want to kiss and taste every part of your body, because that’s what you deserve, but I don’t think I can wait, baby. I really don’t.”

And he was shaking as he spoke those words. He slowly withdrew his fingers as his gaze fixed on mine. I almost came apart at the first touch of him pressing into me.

“God, you’re so . . .” He faded off, as if he was incapable of words.

Halfway in, the pressure and fullness was unbelievable. I lifted my hips, wrapping my legs around his waist. Our mutual groans filled the room as he rolled his hips, driving in until he was completely inside.

Keeping still inside me, he panted with the control to hold himself immobile. “Are you okay?”

There was a bit of stinging since it had been so long, but I was okay. I was better than okay. “Yes.”

His lips brushed mine in a sweet kiss as he cupped my cheek. “Nothing is better than the feeling of you holding me tight.”

“I can say the same.” I curled my fingers around his hair, tipping my h*ps against his, and whatever restraint he had up to that point, it broke.

He thrust in me, moving deeper with each long, powerful stroke. My body tensed around him as he cradled my h*ps in his hands, rocking me up against him. The increasing intensity turned into a feverish pace that tore open a floodgate of pleasure. Bliss built inside me and he moved faster, grinding against me as his hands moved, exploring my body, heightening the pleasure until a tightly sprung coil deep inside me started to unravel, to whip through me.

Jase kissed me deeply, and I broke apart, shuddering around him. Spasms racked my body, and he followed quickly, shouting his release, burying his head in the crook of my neck. As one last aftershock jolted my body, my hands slipped lazily down his back as his body still twitched.

Minutes passed before he lifted himself onto his forearms. “Tess, baby . . .”

Opening my eyes to a beautiful silver pair, I fell in love all over again. “That . . . that was wonderful.”

We stayed joined together for what felt like forever, before he pulled out from me, quickly moving from the bed and getting rid of the condom in the nearby bin. Seconds later he was stretched out beside me. We lay there, him on his side, me on my back, staring at each other long after our breathing returned to normal.

A lopsided grin appeared. “You know, that . . . it felt like the first time.” A laugh burst from him as he ducked his head, kissing my shoulder. “That sounds stupid, doesn’t it?”

“No. Not at all.”

“It really did feel like that. I can’t even say my first time felt that good, and I thought I’d discovered the key to life then.”

I laughed as I rolled so I was facing him and my breast pressed against his chest. His eyes flared quicksilver as he rested a hand on my bare hip. Closing my eyes, I anticipated a kiss. I didn’t have to wait long. He nipped at my bottom lip, and I sighed. “It sounds perfect.”

“You know what else sounds great?” He shifted closer, and I felt him against my belly. My eyes widened, and a wicked gleam ­appeared in his eyes as his body slid against mine. The fine coarse hair teased my skin, adding to the sensualness of nothing being between us.

My breath caught. “Already.”

“I told you I’m always ready when it comes to you.”

“Yeah, but . . . oh!” His hand had wiggled in between my thighs, cupping me.

The grin on his face was pure appeal. “What about you?”

It was like he controlled a switch to my sex drive. It was wonderfully ridiculous. My h*ps jerked as he snaked a finger inside. “What do you think?”

“I think that catch of your breath means yes.” He kissed my damp temple. “I want you. Again.” His lips then skated over my flushed cheek, capturing my mouth in a deep, searing kiss. “I want in you. Deep.” Withdrawing his hand, he reached behind him, smacked around until he found a condom in the mess of sheets. A moment later he grasped my hips, lifting me into his lap as he rolled onto his back. The deep growl that rumbled through him sent of flood of heat to my core as his tip pressed into me. “I want to go so deep you can never get me out. You want that?”

My lashes drifted down as I whispered, “Yes.”

“Look at me.” His demand was guttural and dangerously seductive. I obeyed without hesitation. His eyes were liquid silver. “God, you’re beautiful like this.” Reaching up, he brushed my hair back over one shoulder and then drew his fingers down to my breast. He cupped me, smoothing a thumb over the hardened tip. “I don’t think I can get enough of this.”

I gripped his shoulders as my toes curled. Inch by slow inch, he guided me down until he’d done just as he’d promised. One thing led to another, and like the first time, it didn’t take much to get either of us to the point we were hovering on the edge of release. Even straddling him didn’t seem to affect my knee; I was too concentrated on the pressure building in my core as I rocked up and down. We plunged into each other, our bodies straining and reaching together until we both shattered into a million pieces, our names a hoarse shout on each other’s lips.

Wrapping his arms around me, Jase drew me tightly to his chest, burying me against him as he jerked against me, running his hand idly up and down my back, tangling in my hair.

I didn’t want to ever move. Not when he turned my head gently and his lips were a hot brand against my neck as he whispered the most powerful words I’d ever known. “I love you.”

Chapter Twenty-four

He loved me.

Those whispered words pounded throughout my body, playing over and over again. He loved me. It was like a dream come true, a happily every after in romance novels. The boy I crushed on for years, the one I loved, loved me in return. And it was the good kind of love, the kind that nurtured and flourished, not hurt and destroyed. The kind of love I saw between my brother and Avery. I no longer had a reason to be envious, because I had that epic love, the Hallmark Channel movie ending.

Hands shaking, I ran them down his sides as the long, lean muscles slowly relaxed and his breathing returned to normal. “I love you too,” I whispered against the side of his neck, smiling into his damp skin.

The arms around my lower back tensed, and then his hands slid to my hips. He lifted me, gently placing me next to him. He kissed my temple. “I’ll be right back.”

Closing my eyes, I sighed as I curled onto my side. Jase disappeared into the bathroom and then on his way back, he turned off the bedroom light. Climbing into the bed behind me, he wrapped his arms around me.

He didn’t speak, and I was okay with that, because he’d said everything that I ever needed to hear from him.

Insides warm and cozy, I drifted off to sleep with what must’ve been a “cat ate an entire cage worth of canaries” type of grin. Jase’s arms and the way his body was tucked around mine provided a ­lulling warmth that temporarily held the darkness of the weekend at bay.

I don’t know how long I slept and I was sure I didn’t dream, but the warmth that had curled along my back was absent and that was what had pulled me out the contented haze of sleep.

As I blinked my eyes open, my vision slowly adjusted. A pale blue light crept into the shadows crowding the bedroom. I reached over, finding that the spot where Jase had been was empty. Still lethargic, I rolled onto my back.