“No.” I push at her bare shoulders. “No, no, no. I can’t do this. Not like this.”

She releases me from her mouth, backing away slightly with a frown marring her pretty face. “Why not?”

I kick off my shoes and pants and join her on the bed, pulling that curvy, hot as fuck body close to mine. “Because when I come tonight, it’s going to be inside you, not down your throat.”

“Oh.” Her eyes are dilated and I know what I said just turned her on. Good, because it turned me on too. “Well. Have your wicked way with me, Shepard Prescott.”

Her invitation is all I need. I’m too anxious for prolonged foreplay tonight. I need to be inside her. Moving within her, feeling her clutch me tight, watching as that glazed look fills her eyes and she throws her head back, her body trembling as she’s about to come.

I kiss her wildly, my hands roaming, one reaching out toward the bedside table to find a condom already waiting for me. I grab it, never breaking our kiss and slipping my hand between us, tearing the wrapper open awkwardly and trying to slip the condom on.

“Let me help you,” she murmurs against my lips, her slender fingers taking the rubber from my grip and slipping the ring over the head of my dick. She rolls it on, her mouth never leaving mine and I groan at her touch. I’m desperate to get inside her and lose myself. I need this.

I need her.

She removes her hand from my cock and I roll her over so she’s pinned beneath me. She opens her eyes and smiles, the look on her face nothing short of breathtaking and I readjust myself, slowly sliding inside her body until I’m filling her up completely.

“Oh.” Jade arches her back, sending me deeper and I groan. “God, you feel so good.”

I say nothing, just increase my pace, not wasting any time, savoring the drag and pull of my cock slipping in and out of her welcoming body. The way she curls her arms and legs around me, clinging to me, sending me even deeper, if that’s possible. The whimpers that sound low in her throat when I hit a particular spot and I try my best to hit it again.

And again.

I can smell her, sweet and sexy, her silky hair is in my face and her breasts are smashed against my chest. She’s so wet it’s easy to move even faster and I reach between us, touching her clit, circling it and making her cry out. I need to send her over the edge because fuck it, I’m already so close. Being inside her like this, knowing that she’s going to stay with me, that we’re actually going to try our damnedest to make this work, I’m…overwhelmed. And close.

So fucking close.

That I’m about…

To blow.

“Did you mean what you said earlier?” My head is on Shep’s shoulder, my arm slung over his chest. I’m playing with the scant hair that grows between his pecs, sort of loving it because I’ve never been with a guy who has hair on his chest before. It’s just so…manly.

And sexy. God, everything about Shep is sexy.

“I said a lot of things earlier,” he murmurs, his voice this deep, delicious rumble in his chest.

“When you said you were…” I pause and swallow hard. “That you were falling in love with me.” If he denies it I will die. Just wither away and turn to dust right in this bed.

He stiffens the slightest bit beneath me. “Yeah,” he says huskily, without hesitation. “I meant it.”

We say nothing for a moment and my mind is racing. So is my heart. I can’t believe it. I seriously cannot believe Shep is falling in love with me but then again…I shouldn’t be surprised. I’ve been falling in love with him too.

I’m crazy about him.

“Does that bother you?” he finally asks.

I lift up so I’m leaning on my elbow. Our gazes meet, his full of trepidation. Silly man. “Of course, it doesn’t bother me.”

He studies me, turning on his side so he’s facing me more fully. “This is the moment where you confess you feel the same way,” he whispers.

Smiling, I lean in and press my mouth to his. “Hey guess what? I feel the same way,” I murmur against his lips.

He smiles in return. I can feel his lips stretch against mine. “Really?”

“Really. Don’t sound so surprised.” I kiss him again and then shift away from his big, hot body. Sleeping with him is like sleeping with a furnace, I swear. “Can I confess something else to you?”

“Yeah. Sure.”

I roll over so I’m lying on my back, staring up at the ceiling. “I talked to my mom a while ago and she told me that she sold our house. And that she was staying with her new boyfriend while she looked for a new place to buy. Which meant I had nowhere to go for the summer and I was really worried about it.”

“Wait a minute. When did this conversation happen?”

“Monday,” I admit. I can feel him staring at me but I don’t look his way. I feel too stupid. I should’ve told him. I don’t know why I held it back but I did, like an idiot.

“Jade.” He’s touching me, his hands gentle in my hair as he pushes it away from my face. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“I didn’t want to burden you with my problems.” I sigh and turn to look at him. “Kelli said I was being stupid.”

“You sort of were.”

I shove at him and he grunts. “Give me a break. I was unsure about…everything. I didn’t know how you really felt about me. It was happening so fast and I was trying to find a roommate all this week and failing miserably. I didn’t know what I was going to do.”

“And all this time I was trying to work up the nerve to ask you to stay with me. That would’ve solved your problem in an instant. Crazy.” He runs his finger down my nose. “Why didn’t you ask if you could stay with me?”

“I already told you. I didn’t want to burden you with my problems.”

He drops a kiss on the tip of my nose. “Your problems are my problems. We’re in this together, baby. Can’t you see that?”

I blink up at him, noting the sincerity in his dark gaze. How did I get so lucky that this man is mine? I remember how he drove me crazy when we first met. Now I can’t imagine my world without him. “You mean it?”

“Cross my heart, hope to die.” He kisses me, warm and sweet, his arm curling around my waist so he can bring me flush against him. “I love you, Jade.”

Oh God. Just hearing him say the words makes my heart feel like it could swell to three times its size. “I-I love you too, Shep.”

I wrap my arms around his neck as I drown in his kiss, the assured way his lips move against mine, the delicious sweep of his tongue within my mouth. “This is going to be the best summer ever,” he whispers against my lips after he breaks the kiss.

Now I’m feeling a little shy. I mean really? What in the world is wrong with me? “Do you want me to help pay rent? Enid is moving me up to fulltime for just the summer.”

He pulls away from me slightly. “Are you fucking kidding me? No, you’re not paying rent. You won’t have to pay a dime, just make me cookies and get me fat. That’ll be your payment.”

“I can’t do that,” I say, laughing. “I’ll get just as fat.”