"God, Piper, you're killing me," Jaeger muttered. When she faced him again, her hand on her hip, he shook his head. "You are truly spectacular."
"Keep talking dirty and I'll let you have your way with me," Piper breathlessly quipped. She pushed her glasses up her nose and thought the dorky gesture was in complete contrast with the vamp she so longed to be. She pulled her glasses off and threw them onto the couch.
Jaeger smiled, stepped toward her and scooped her up to hold her against his chest. Piper linked her arms around his neck, reveling in his hard thighs beneath hers, his wide chest. His masculinity made her feel so utterly feminine.
"Let's take this to the bedroom. As much as I want to make love to you on this couch in front of these windows, I'd hate for Beck to walk in and get an eyeful."
"Your brother lives here too?" Piper asked, pulling back.
"Temporarily," Jaeger told her, walking down the hallway to what she presumed to be the master bedroom. Piper dropped her eyes from Jaeger's face to look ahead, and her mouth fell open when she looked right to the glass wall of the hall and noticed the view of the Hudson River flowing between two sets of city lights. Dear God, she had been so worried, so focused on her problems, she'd missed this amazing view!
"Oh my God, your view is phenomenal!"
What else had she missed? Piper stretched her neck to look over Jaeger's shoulder, back into his apartment, and she noticed the oversize, vibrant artworks, the clean lines of his modern, very expensive furniture, a metal sculpture. She realized the sculpture was of a horse and the artist had captured the elegance of the animal's movement. Only one artist had the chops to do that; it had to be Latimore, one of her favorite artists.
Ever.
"Is that a Latimore?"
"Now she notices the art," Jaeger muttered."No more talking about art or views or anything else. Got it?"
"Then I'm going to have to find something else to do with my mouth."
Above hers, Jaeger's lips curved into a bone-dissolving smile. "I most definitely can help you with that."
His big arms tightened his hold on her, melding her to his muscled body. The art could, very definitely, wait.
She couldn't. "Kiss me, Jaeger."
At the end of the hall Jaeger dropped her to her feet and pushed her up against a door, his mouth slanting over hers, his tongue sliding into her mouth. All thoughts of art and views were forgotten, and Piper released a deep groan in the back of her throat.
This was what she wanted, needed.
One of Jaeger's hands fumbled for the knob behind her back, and the door opened. He banded an arm around her waist and pulled her up and into him, holding her against his body as he walked her into the room. Piper felt the edges of the bed against her calves, and Jaeger gently lowered her and followed her down. As her back hit the cool covers, he lifted his head, and his eyes glittered with desire and need.
Jaeger lowered his mouth to hers, sucking on her bottom lip and sliding his tongue into her mouth. His hands skimmed her sides, his knuckles rubbing over her ribs, and she arched her back in a silent plea for him to touch her breasts, to pay attention to her aching nipples. When Jaeger finally, finally, sucked her lace-covered nipple into his mouth, she let out a low sound and clasped her hand behind his head to keep him in place.
This was what she'd craved during those long, lonely nights-this hot, delicious, mindless sex. She needed him to touch her everywhere, to slide into those neglected, lonely places and chase away the doubts and the darkness. She needed the oblivion, to step out of her life. But even as he touched her, as his mouth moved down her body to explore her belly button, to drag warmth over her lace-covered mound, she knew she couldn't, mustn't, become addicted to him, to this.
He was a temporary fix, not a permanent repair. She couldn't rely on him to be there in the future, not for her and certainly not for Ty.
He was about pleasure, and he did pleasure so well.
Jaeger quickly divested her of her underwear and, sitting on his heels, he looked at her, naked except for her boots. "As sexy as these are, I want to see you, all of you."
He grabbed the heel of one boot, pulled it off and repeated the action for the other. There was something incredibly intimate about being naked when your lover was still fully dressed, Piper thought. She kept her eyes on his face, watching the emotions sliding in and out of his eyes. Lust, desire, crazy attraction, they were all there, but the romantic in her thought that under the crazy, she could see affection, a little fear, a lot of anticipation.
Romance had no part in this. Tonight was about sex and escapism.
Jaeger pulled away from her to stand between her legs and lifted his hand to grip the back of his shirt. He pulled it over his head in one easy, fluid movement. His wide chest was lightly touched with hair, hard with muscle. Long, lean hips disappeared beneath the low band of his pants, and Piper sucked in her breath when he hooked his thumbs into the waistband and pushed his jeans down long, muscled thighs. And there he was, utterly masculine, hard, proud-needing her.
Naked, Jaeger grabbed her around the waist and boosted her up the bed. When she was where he wanted her, he lay down on top of her, chest to chest, his erection finding its natural place between her thighs. He reached across her to yank on the bedside drawer. Ten seconds later he'd pulled a condom out of its packaging.
Oh, God, she didn't have much faith in Jaeger's condoms. Somehow-who knew how?-she'd managed to become pregnant despite him wearing one. It wouldn't happen a second time, would it? That would be like winning the lottery twice, Piper thought.
Jaeger sheathed himself and skimmed his thumb over the spot between her eyes. "Second thoughts?" he asked.
Uh, no. Her ankles were already curved around his calves and she was lifting her hips, trying to push his tip further into her. She needed him now, immediately.
Pregnancy and condoms flew out of her mind as his chest brushed hers, her nipples teased by his chest hair.
"Quick question?" she asked.
His eyes bored into her. "Make it very damn quick."
"I was just wondering how long you are going to tease me?"
"This long." Jaeger entered her with one fluid stroke, burying himself to the hilt. Yeah, this was what she remembered, this feeling of being filled, completed. Then Jaeger kissed her, his mouth echoing his body's movements and Piper forgot to think.
All she could concentrate on was the warm, sparkly sensation building, each spark igniting the rest until a million tiny fires danced under her skin. When Jaeger placed his hand under her back and yanked her up as he plunged inside, those fires joined and created an explosion burning her from the inside out. She thought Jaeger stepped into the fire with her, but she didn't care. All she wanted was this heat and light and warmth.
She hadn't thought sex could be better than what they'd shared in Milan. But it was-better, hotter, brighter. And that, Piper thought when she crashed back down to earth, was a big, huge, freakin' enormous problem.
Seven
Version one of fantastic sex was pretty much immediately followed by version two-Jaeger hadn't needed much time to recover. But as much as she wanted to, Piper knew she couldn't hang around for version three. Ceri had agreed to watch Ty for a few more hours, but Piper had to get home; Ty was her first priority.
Piper slid out from under Jaeger's arm and sat on the edge of the bed, looking down at the floor. She needed to call a taxi, dress and gather her scattered thoughts and belongings. Piper felt his hand on her back, his knuckles running down her spine.
"I'll drive you home when you're ready."
Piper spun around and looked at him, long-limbed and naked, sleepy and satisfied. "That's not necessary. I can take a cab."
"You can, but you won't." Jaeger stretched, sat up, dropped a kiss on her shoulder blade and rolled out of bed. He reached for his jeans and tossed her panties and bra onto the bed beside her. Then he nodded to his en suite bathroom. "Would you like to take a shower before you go?"
She should, but she knew if she did, there was a good chance they'd get distracted and she'd be even later than she already was. Piper cradled her lingerie against her chest and shook her head.
She stepped into the modern, luxurious bathroom and quickly cleaned up. She pulled on her lingerie, ran her fingers through her curls and touched her puffy lips. Yeah, the fact she'd had sex-fantastic, mind-blowing sex-was written all over her face. On the plus side, she had taken nearly a week to fall into Jaeger's bed and arms instead of thirty-six hours. In a century or so, she might be able to resist him altogether.