Eyes closed, face flushed, he grinned. “Nah. Least, I hope not.”

“Good.” She got the shirt up more, and then let him strip it off over his head. Spreading both hands on his chest, she said, “Because I want to taste you this time.”

While he sucked in air, she went back to her knees and tugged down the jeans. When the denim bunched at the bottom of his thighs, she leaned forward and kissed him through his boxers. “You smell really good, Jackson.” Hands on his hips, she opened her mouth over him, teased along his length with her teeth. She nuzzled lower, where his scent was stronger, and her stomach did a somersault.

“Know what, babe?” He shifted uneasily. “That’d feel even better if we both got naked.”

Knowing he’d rob her of her chance if she disrobed, Alani shook her head. “Just you.” She tugged the jeans down the rest of the way, and as he stepped free, she pushed them aside. “Now the boxers.”

“Hell, yeah.” Without a modest bone in his body, Jackson stripped them off. He stroked her head. “You wanna come up here and kiss me?”

“No, I think I’ll do my kissing from down here.” He pulsed with life when she wrapped her fist around him. “Jackson?”

Tense from his toes to his eyebrows, he said, “Hmm?”

“Tell me if I do anything wrong.” And with that, she leaned forward to lick away a salty drop of fluid from the head.

“Yeah, su—” Cut short on a gasp, his reply ended with a groan.

Liking that reaction, Alani licked him again, all around and down the shaft to the base.

Breathing hard, he cupped her head in both hands and urged her closer. “Open up, Alani. Let me feel your mouth.”

Even now, when she hoped to wrest away the control, he managed to easily seduce her using no more than his honest need.

“Like this?” She parted her lips around him, drew him in.

“Ah…fuck. Yeah.”

Kneading her hair, he held her still while easing farther into her mouth. It excited her unbearably, to hear his breathless groans, feel the growing tension in his muscles, breathe in his heat and the scent that was purely Jackson.

He put one hand over hers where she held him and, in a gravelly rasp, instructed, “Squeeze me. Like this.” He showed her how to move her hand in counterpoint to her mouth. His thumb slid over her face. “Suck on me. Let me feel your cheeks hollow out—”

And when she did, he praised her with, “Good. Too good.” He groaned. “Damn, I can’t wait.”

She slid him free, licked again, drew him back in.

His knees locked. “That’s enough, Alani. Enough.”

He tried to tug her away, but she didn’t want to stop. This time, she wanted everything from him.

“Alani…baby, it’s now or never.” Another groan, raw, broken, and: “Too late.” Cupping his hands around her neck, he drew her close and growled out a strong release that shook his big body.

Alani stayed with him as he continued to groan and tremble, and then he eased her away with a broken, breathless laugh.

“Yeah,” he murmured, “that helped.”

On her knees looking up at him, Alani asked, “Helped with what?”

“All that ails me.” He put his head back against the door, drew in several laboring breaths and blew them out slowly. “Now.”

Her whole body throbbed with a sweet, expanding ache. “Now what?”

“Now you.” He caught her under the arms and scooped her up. “I hope the sandwiches filled you up, because I have a feeling we’ll be missing dinner.”

On the ragged edge of need, Alani said truthfully, “That works just fine for me.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

HOURS LATER, JUDGING by the limp way she rested beside him and the deepness of her breathing, Jackson assumed she slept. His whole body still buzzed with sensation. He knew sex. He knew pleasure.

God Almighty, what he got from Alani was something else.

He wanted to sleep, too, but he couldn’t quiet the upheaval of his thoughts as they bounced from Arizona and Alani, now and the future, danger and…love.

For most of his life, he’d made a point of not wanting anything that he didn’t know he could get.

But now, he wanted a lot.

And there wasn’t a single certainty to be found.

When Alani’s gentle fingers moved over his chest, Jackson realized that she’d only been catching her wind. He took her hand as it started to wander down his body. “Not to cut into your bragging rights, babe, but I’m spent. Even for me, that was…” Profound? No, he couldn’t say that to her. “Draining.”

“Mmm.” She curled into him. “For me, too.”

How could he make her understand that the last few hours with her only made him want more? Like everything.

He kissed her forehead. “Sleep.”

“I don’t know if I can. Not yet.” She half crawled up over his chest. “What are we going to do?”

They hadn’t turned on any lights, and as the sun had set, darkness filled every corner. With the drapes closed, not even moonlight filtered in.

But he knew how she looked. He knew her small, plump br**sts were against his chest, her pink ni**les now soft, her pale hair tumbled into sexy disarray and her mouth swollen from too many kisses.

The beauty of her, of having her with him like this, left his heart full.

The uncertainty of the future cramped his brain.