She tried not to think about their time in Vegas, so she rose and helped Jason clean up the table. “So how do you suppose we got the rings?”
“I imagine we purchased them like any other couple getting married,” he said nonchalantly. His candy wrapper went in the trash since he’d already finished the entire bar of milk chocolate. “Do you like what we got?” His voice was casual, but she heard a note of indecision, a slight hesitation in his tone.
Hope sighed. “They’re beautiful. But it’s not like we’re going to wear them.” She twisted the ring she wasn’t used to wearing on her finger, and started to draw it off.
“Leave it,” Jason demanded as he turned around. “For now,” he added in a low, husky voice.
Hope left it on her finger. What did it matter? She’d take it off eventually, though she found it odd that Jason still wore his, and he didn’t want her to take hers off.
“What were we thinking?” She still fidgeted with the ring on her finger nervously. She wasn’t given to mad acts of impulse, and she was certain Jason wasn’t either. He was the type of man who weighed everything out, considered the pros and cons. He hadn’t become a billionaire by not using his head.
He cornered her by the kitchen table, rested his hands on both sides of her and looked down at her with a set of turbulent blue eyes that made Hope shudder.
“I’m positive the head above my neck wasn’t thinking. My dick was probably happily contemplating the consequences at the time, and in complete control.” He leaned down until she could feel his heated breath against her lips. “Maybe I wasn’t willing to see you married to anyone else but me.”
He captured her mouth in a fierce embrace that made Hope’s core clench in response. His kiss was possessive. Wild. All-consuming. It was the kind of embrace that she didn’t have the strength to resist. Arms wrapped around his neck, she squeaked as his hands covetously palmed her ass and lifted her onto the table. His lips never left hers. He tasted sinful, like the decadent chocolate he’d just consumed, and he was just as addictive. With a grasp on her hips, he yanked her heated core against his engorged cock none too gently and let her feel just how aroused she could make him.
For just a moment, Hope’s heart beat erratically in satisfaction, and she immediately wrapped her legs around his waist, to feel him even tighter, closer.
Jason.
Her heart sighed and her body caught fire as Jason kissed her as if he had to have the connection, as if he needed her mouth more than he needed anything else.
Jason.
She tightened her legs around his waist, needed him so desperately that her core flooded with liquid heat. Her nipples hardened to sensitive twin peaks.
Jason.
She pulled her mouth from his, leaned her head back and moaned. Tears of frustration flowed down her cheeks.
I can’t do this.
“Hope?” Jason put a hand behind her head and forced her to look at him. “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”
Hope looked into his passion-laden eyes, and felt helpless to explain. Gone was the jackass Jason, and the compassionate man she knew slowly returned. Unfortunately, his multiple personalities made everything more confusing. She wanted to confess everything to her old friend, the man who had given her such exquisite pleasure earlier in the year. The man who tried to extort her into staying with him—she wanted nothing to do with him. The problem was, deep inside, Hope knew that wasn’t the real Jason. His cold ruthlessness might be a part of him, but it wasn’t all that he was.
“Everything is wrong,” she muttered. It felt as if the whole world suddenly crashed down around her. She pushed at his chest. “This is wrong. We should have never gotten married, Jason. I can’t imagine either one of us behaving that way, but we did.” This wasn’t all Jason’s fault. Certainly, he was playing a dirty hand right now, taking advantage of the situation, but she’d gotten drunk and apparently jumped on the chance to have a man she’d wanted for such an incredibly long time. Then, her lies had caught up to her with a vengeance. “I don’t believe you did this for completely selfish reasons. Not if you were worried that I was marrying the wrong man at the time. Maybe some rational part of you was trying to save me.”
Jason raised a brow. “Don’t try to make me into a hero, Hope. I’m sure it was completely selfish. And my requirement for you to stay is definitely hedonistic.”
“Then it was a waste of your time,” Hope spat out at him. She stalked into the living room with Jason on her heels.
“I don’t think you understand how badly I want you,” Jason said ominously. He snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her down to the couch. “Let’s hear about why you lied in the first place. Talk to me.”