“Some guys might be into cheerleaders and flaunted beauty. I’ve always liked a challenge, and you were the kind of girl I wanted but couldn’t have,” he whispered.

He flicked his tongue over my bottom lip a moment before his mouth conquered mine in a long and heated kiss. He circled my tongue, sucking it deep into his mouth, as his hands roved over my body. I shuddered in his embrace, and my head fell back as I moaned with the storm rising within my abdomen. His hand tugged at my shirt, jerking it out of my slacks in one quick motion. The soft pressure of his calloused fingers undoing buttons set me on fire with the promise of what they might do to me.

What the hell was I doing?

This place wasn’t secluded. Anyone standing above us or on the other side of the lake could see us. I should walk away, not let him have me in a public place where everyone could see us. I wasn’t an exhibitionist, and doing it on a patch of grass with god-knows-what crawling up my skin wasn’t my thing either. But my physical needs were getting stronger, screaming for release. What would it be like to sleep with someone I really wanted?

In an unexpected moment of lucidity, I poked a finger in his chest and tried to push him away, but my attempt was a feeble one.

“Not here,” I mumbled.

“Why not? No one’s here,” Jett whispered, not backing off. The pressure of his mouth on mine intensified. His fingers skimmed downward from my neck to the sheer material of my now exposed bra, circling the pink bud I’d dreamed he’d caress ever since meeting him. I arched my back against his rough hand, closing the space between us, vaguely aware that if he continued his delicious torture I’d be lost.

“I want to know what you taste like,” he whispered, fingers fidgeting with the bra clasp.

“Let me—”

With a flick of my hand, I undid my bra and rolled it down my arms onto the green grass.

My pale breasts spilled free into his open waiting palms.

“You’re beautiful,” Jett said hoarsely, his eyes glued to my chest. As though to prove his point, he let out an appreciative moan and went about flicking his tongue across one hard nipple, then the other, sucking and licking in equal measures. He was sending me up in flames in a whirlwind of passion I never knew existed. Lowering myself onto the grass, my arms moved around the nape of his neck, pulling him on top of me in the hope he wouldn’t stop. But Jett didn’t need persuading.

His tongue swirled a few more times, then sucked so hard a short ripple of pain rushed through me, followed by a cascade of pleasure that travelled right into my sex. And then he stopped.

“No,” I whispered, my gaze begging him to continue.

From under half-closed eyes I watched him place butterfly kisses down my abdomen, his hand already fumbling with the zip of my slacks.

He hadn’t changed his mind. He was about to move on to the next step. Somewhere inside my brain, I could hear that tiny but annoying voice asking me what the hell this was, but for once I didn’t want to listen to reason. I wasn’t sure whether to be mortified that he was about to fully undress me in public, or excited at the outlook of more hot mouth action.

It was too late for second thoughts anyway. Before I knew it, the slacks were off and Jett slipped a hand between my parted legs, tugging my panties to the side.

Bloody hell.

I was already damp for him, waiting to be touched.

“Don’t stop,” I said.

“I wasn’t going to.”

Peeling off his jeans, he rubbed his shaft against my swollen clit until I lifted my hips to invite him in. My breathing came in short rasps. He opened my legs wide and moved two fingers over my clit, then slid them into my soft flesh. A deep thunder rippled through me, nearly pushing me over the edge, and then, as though sensing it, he pulled out.

“Not yet,” he murmured, almost scolding.

“No! Don’t stop.” I sat up on my elbow and our eyes connected. He looked sexy as hell with his dishevelled hair and that naughty smile. My clit twitched at the sight of his tongue flicking over his lips.

“When I’m done with you you’ll be panting my name, begging for release,” Jett whispered.

Not likely, but I didn’t want to shatter his illusion. Other men had never been able to get that particular response from me. Jett might be hot as hell with a body to drool over and a kiss to melt the Arctic, but in the end I doubted his dick could perform miracles.

He pushed me down onto the grass and lowered his face between my thighs, cupping my ass as he soaked up my female scent, making me blush. Raising his gaze to meet mine, he let his tongue swirl between my folds, focusing on the tiny nub at the top. A tremble began to form somewhere deep inside me and spread through my whole body, gathering in my vagina. I moaned and arched my back, bringing my hips closer to his magic mouth. If he didn’t enter me soon I’d embarrass myself by begging him to take me on the spot.

“Jett.” My voice dripped with want. He laughed briefly and continued his torture, swirling and licking. Quivering, I let out a broken moan and clawed at his shoulders. “I need you inside.” My voice sounded hoarse with demand, matching the deep, approving rumble in his throat.

“Not yet, baby.”

Holy mother of pearls, he was so good.

I pushed my fingers through his hair, not quite able to decide whether to force him up or pin him down. I moaned louder as he trailed the tip of his tongue through my sensitive slit, devouring every drop of moisture.

“Please,” I rocked my hips against him.

His tongue continued to torture me, again and again, moving up to my clit, licking around it, causing a strangled scream of pleasure to form somewhere at the back of my throat.

“You want me inside?” Jett said, suddenly sitting up. I whimpered as the soft breeze hit my sex, cooling down the heated sensation left by his mouth. I nodded, and a wicked grin flashed on his face. Slowly he pushed a finger into me, followed by another, his gaze never leaving me as he pulled his fingers out again. The next time he entered me deeper and faster, thrusting in and out. I moaned as he repeated the process moving gradually deeper and faster until his fingers were all the way in, stretching me, teasing me, torturing me.

“Oh god.” My back arched. My hips lifted to meet his fingers, begging him for more. This wasn’t going according to plan. He wasn’t supposed to make me feel so much pleasure, and yet the even thrusts of his fingers pushed me past anything I ever experienced before.

“A little bit more,” Jett whispered. His eyes remained glued to me as he dipped back down. Keeping his fingers impaled in me, his tongue flicked over my clit once, twice, sending the world before my eyes into a spinning carousel. Heat pooled between my legs, and a deep moan escaped my throat—then another—while my heart began to race. I bucked against him, driving his fingers deeper into me. More heat seared me, driving me insane. My vision blurred into darkness as my body tensed.

“Let me see you come,” Jett ordered. His deep, sexy voice was the last caress I needed. My clit began to pound with a steady hard throb that turned into all-consuming heat. With a stifled cry, my hips jerked against him, and I came against Jett’s hot mouth. The world dissipated and I exploded in a million sensations that washed over me at once.

Chapter 16

I bit my lip hard as I peered at Jett’s relaxed features from the corners of my eyes. We didn’t sleep together on the shore of Lucazzone’s estate. For some reason he just adjusted my panties back in place and sat up, turning away from me as though to give me enough privacy to regain my composure. My hands shot up his strong back, massaging his lean muscles in the process, hopefully signaling just how much I wanted to go all the way.

“Don’t,” Jett said, holding me off with a simple request. My hands jerked away, as though seared, and somehow his words burned more than fire. No man I ever slept with had behaved like this. If they went down, they would demand that I return the favor. Why didn’t Jett? Why wouldn’t he finish what we started right there and then?

I couldn’t stop the sudden onset of feeling inadequate making me doubt myself. Had I done something wrong? Maybe it was the way I reacted to his touch that put him off sleeping with me.

Even though I didn’t want to, my sex kept twitching at the sight of him. It wasn’t natural and certainly not something I ever experienced before. This dark, sultry, earth-shattering lust had to stop. I couldn’t deal with hot waves of wanting that made being around him—without touching him—unbearable. He was so close and yet so far. The attraction was palpable, and yet I didn’t feel confident enough to act on it. I was in this zone in which things were not black and white, but a blurred in-between shade where nothing made sense.

Jett didn’t say a word as I shrugged back into my clothes and followed him up the path and back to his parked car. We kept silent as he helped me into the passenger side and loped around to the driver’s seat, put the car in gear, and drove all the way home.

His home, I reminded myself, the beautiful house on the lake and the pretend normalcy of a work relationship that wasn’t. Ignoring the sting in my eyes, I peered out the window at the blurred countryside, no longer minding Jett’s dangerous driving. It seemed like an eternity passed before we finally reached his house. The moment the tires screeched to a halt, I jumped out of the car and only stopped as I reached the front door, my back turned to Jett as I waited for him to catch up.

He unlocked the door and let me enter first, then closed it behind us. Avoiding his gaze I hesitated, unsure what to say. In the end, all I managed was a feeble, “Thanks.”

His brows shot up, and a glint of irritation appeared in his eyes. “For what? The ride? My highly appreciated company?” A nerve twitched on his right temple.

He was angry and I had no idea why. My mouth clamped shut. What the hell was wrong with him? How could he change from sensual and passionate to cold and calculated in the blink of an eye?

“Or do you mean for going down on you?” He inched dangerously close. His fingers gripped my chin and forced my face up. His height intimidated me. Peering up his towering body into blazing eyes, I felt tiny and powerless against his caginess. Only he knew what went on inside his mind, and he certainly made no attempt to share it with me.

“Thank you for what, Brooke?” His arm wrapped around my waist and turned me around, pushing me against the wall, his thigh parting my legs in the process. His palms moved up the front of my shirt as his teeth grated my earlobe.

“The contract—I wanted to reciprocate,” I whispered. “You didn’t let me.” I don’t know why it was such a big deal, but for some reason it was. He had made me feel an intense pleasure I had never felt before, and I wanted to see whether I could make him feel the same way.

I wanted to be as special to him as he was to me. I wanted him to surrender to me. To what I could give him.

And where would that take you, Stewart?

Probably nowhere.

“Ah, the contract. You think it’s about giving and taking in equal measures.” He sighed impatiently. His hot breath on my neck made me shudder. “I play by my own rules, Brooke. As they say: sometimes it’s all about you, and sometimes it’s all about me.”