After the briefest of hesitations, he matched her passion, fingers digging into her back as he fed off her mouth. The kiss exhilarated her. Everything about being with Jason made her happy. Smiling, she sucked his lower lip into her mouth and rubbed her breasts against his chest. As soon as she heard his soft groan, she released him.
Stepping back, Ming surveyed her handiwork. From the dazed look in his eyes, the flush darkening his cheekbones and the unsteady rush of breath in and out of his lungs, the kiss had packed a wallop. A quick glance below his belt assured her he would spend a significant portion of the evening thinking about her. Good.
“Careful on the drive home tomorrow,” she murmured, wiping her fingertip across her damp lips in deliberate seduction. “Call me when you get back.”
And with a saucy wave, she headed for her car.
*
The sixty-eight-foot cruiser Jason had borrowed for Max’s bachelor party barely rocked as it encountered the wake of the large powerboat that had sped across their bow seconds earlier. Cigar in one hand, thirty-year-old Scotch in the other, Jason tracked the boat skimming the dark waters of Galveston Bay from upstairs in the open-air lounge. On the opposite rail, Max’s brothers were discussing their wives and upcoming fatherhood.
“She’s due tomorrow,” Nathan Case muttered, tapping his cell phone on his knee. “I told her it was crazy for me come to this bachelor party, but she was determined to go out dancing with Missy, Rachel and her friends.”
Nathan’s aggrieved tone found a sympathetic audience in Jason. Why were women so calm about the whole pregnancy-and-giving-birth thing? Ming wasn’t even pregnant, and Jason was already experiencing a little coil of tension deep in his gut. He hadn’t considered how connected he’d feel to her when he’d agreed to father her baby. Nor could he stop wondering if he’d feel as invested if they’d done it her way and he’d never made love to her.
“I’m sure Emma knows what she’s doing,” Sebastian Case said. Older than Max and Nathan by a few years, Sebastian was every inch the confident CEO of a multimillion-dollar corporation.
“I think she’s hoping the dancing will get her contractions started.” Nathan stared at the cell phone as if he could make it ring by sheer willpower. “What if her water breaks on the dance floor?”
“Then she’ll call and you can meet her at the hospital.” Sebastian’s soothing tones were having little effect on his agitated half brother.
“You’re barely into your second trimester,” Nathan scoffed. “Let’s see how rational you are when Missy hasn’t been able to see her feet for a month, doesn’t sleep more than a few hours a night and can’t go ten minutes without finding a bathroom.”
Sebastian’s eyes grew distant for a few seconds as if he was imagining his wife in the final weeks before she was due.
“Do you know what you’re having?” Even as Jason asked Nathan the question, he realized that a month ago he never would have thought to inquire.
“A boy.”
Jason lifted his Scotch in a salute. “Congratulations.”
“You’re single, aren’t you?” Sebastian regarded him like a curiosity. “How come you’re not downstairs with Max and his buddies slipping fives into the ladies’ G-strings instead of hanging out with a couple old family men?”
Because he wasn’t feeling particularly single at the moment.
Jason raised the cigar. “Charlie said no smoking in the salon.”
“But you’re missing the entertainment.” Nathan gestured toward the stairs that led below.
Some entertainment. Max might be downstairs with a half dozen of their single friends and a couple of exotic dancers someone had hired, but Jason doubted his best friend was having any fun. Max wasn’t interested in any woman except Rachel.
Up until two weeks ago Jason hadn’t understood what had come over his friend. Now, after making love with Ming, his craving for her had taken on a life of its own. His body stirred at the memory of her dripping wet in his kitchen. The way her white blouse had clung to her breasts, the fabric rendered sheer by the water. He wasn’t sure what he would have done if she’d denied him then. Gotten down on his knees and begged?
Probably.
Jason shoved aside the unsettling thought and smirked at Nathan. “When you’re free to hit a strip club any night of the week, the novelty wears off. You two are the ones who should be downstairs.”
“Why’s that?” Nathan asked.
“I just assumed with your wives being pregnant…”
Sebastian and Nathan exchanged amused looks.