inciting his lust; when Alani touched him, he felt it everywhere. “You want to go on like yesterday happened.”
No woman had ever left him this confused. And horny. At the moment mostly confused. No, mostly…it didn’t matter. “Yesterday did happen.”
“But you don’t remember it.” Her eyes full of entreaty with an edge of uncertainty, she gazed up at him. “I want to be honest with you.”
“Honesty is good.” Because he honestly knew that she wanted him, too.
“It’s disturbing that I can’t think of anything else, but you can’t even remember it.” She looked down at his sternum, and her voice dropped to a husky whisper. “I still feel you, Jackson.”
A bombardment of emotions took his breath. “Yeah?”
“I’m tender in places that I’ve never noticed before.”
Ah, hell. Hearing that stirred him anew. He nuzzled her ear. “Like where?”
“You know where.”
His muscles clenched. In a near growl, he insisted, “Tell me anyway.”
She hesitated, then nodded. “My thighs are shaky.”
“I was rough with you?”
“No. You…you were exuberant.”
Heat rose inside him. “Where else?”
Voice lower, filled with shyness, she admitted, “My breasts still feel full, and my…”
He bent to see her face. “Nipples?” Just talking to her was more exciting than sex with other women. He badly wanted to cover her breasts with his hands, to touch her, to draw her into his mouth and test how tender she might be.
Tilting back from her, he looked at the soft white swells above the top of her sundress. Putting a tight leash on his need, he trailed one fingertip over the top of each breast.
With her accelerated breaths, her flesh shimmered.
Slowly, with hot intent, he drifted his open hand over the front of the dress, cupped her right breast and gently circled the taut nipple with his thumb.
She gasped; her hands clutched at him.
His gaze sought hers. “They’re sensitive?”
Long lashes fluttered as she closed her eyes and drew a shuddering breath through parted lips. “Very.”
It’d be so easy to take her. Hell, even with her brother and Dare in the other room, she melted for him. He could put his hand up the skirt of her dress, inside her panties. He could cup that warm, wet peach, and she’d be coming in minutes.
Jackson fought himself. She trusted him. And she’d been through enough.
He couldn’t stop himself from catching her nipple, giving one small tug that made her tremble and bite her bottom lip. “Jackson…”
“I know.” He slipped his arms around her, easing her closer so that her head fit to his shoulder and her breasts pressed to his chest. He was so turned on, his dick threatened to rip apart the zipper of his jeans. “Better?”
The sound she made affected him like a hot lick. “I’ve never been this way. Last night was a revelation for me.” Her hands knotted in his shirt. “And you don’t even know what happened.”
“I know I’m going to have you again. I know I’m going to be inside you, feeling you all nice and wet, slick and hot, and you’re going to hold on to me while you come—”
To silence him, she touched his mouth, then took a few seconds to collect herself. “For you, what we did, what happened between us, might not even be real.”
Oh, it was real all right. He took her wrist, kissed her palm and carried her hand back to his chest. “You can’t deny what’s between us.”
“No, I won’t. But we both know that sometimes sex talk doesn’t mean anything.” She pushed back to look at him. “Men say things in the moment just because they want to sleep with a woman.”
Waiting for a response to that death-trap statement, she watched him.
What the hell had he said to her last night?
He chewed the side of his mouth but gave up with a shrug. “Sometimes, yeah, maybe.”
She looked down at her hands. “When they think sex is of utmost importance.”
“That covers every minute that I’m around you, because when I see you, I want to be inside you.”
“Jackson…”
“I’m obsessed,” he admitted and meant it. If he just wanted sex, he could have it. He hadn’t lacked for female attention since his late teens. Hell, if he wanted an orgy he could have it.
But he wanted Alani.
“Don’t you see?” Not giving him a chance to muck it up with more drama, she went on. “Maybe if you knew the things you’d said, if you…remembered everything we’d done, you wouldn’t even care about…”
“Having you again?” He tunneled his fingers into her baby fine hair, curving his hands around her head, lifting her face so he could see into her eyes. “Not a chance in hell, honey. Having you a dozen times wouldn’t put a dent in my appetite. Not for you.”
The corners of her mouth quivered into an uncertain show of amusement. “Well, you sound confident enough about that, but I’m not.” She licked the smile away from her lips. “So… I think we should start over.”
The groan was there, fighting to come out, but Jackson swallowed it back and tried not to look predatory. “Start over…where?” If she meant all the way back to square one, he’d get her alone ASAP and show her that once wasn’t enough, not for either of them, and to hell with what her brother and Dare thought about it.
She toyed with the front of his shirt, smoothing it and stroking him again in the bargain. His muscles twitched.
So did his cock.
His heart followed suit when she looked up at him with her big golden eyes. “I’m sorry, Jackson, but I can’t jump back into bed with you.”
That did it. He groaned.
“I can’t.” In a rush, she explained, “Not when you don’t remember how we got there.”
But he wanted to know. He wanted the memory of how she looked, the sounds she made at every small surrender, he wanted to watch her get hotter and hotter until she lost it, until she screamed out a climax. So… “We have to get there again? That’s what you’re saying?”
“Yes.”
Huh. Well, that might be fun. He loved a challenge, and knowing he’d already won her over would make it easier. As long as she gave him an opportunity, as long as Tobin remained out of the picture, he didn’t mind charming her anew.
Needing clarification, he held her face tipped up to his. “I need to make up one day, not the past months, right?”
Nodding, she looked at his throat, his chin, and her other hand lifted to touch him, too. “I woke up this morning already wanting you, and I haven’t stopped wanting you since.”
A full-blown boner made idle conversation tough. Trying to relieve the pressure in his jeans, he shifted, but nothing short of touching her would help. He leaned into her, letting her feel his erection and affording himself a modicum of relief against her soft body.
He growled low and kissed her throat. “I can work with that.”
“It’s not too much to ask?”
“Nah.” To stay on course, he’d have to take the edge off, and soon. Tricky, given that he had no intentions of leaving her side. But he’d figure it out. “Be