One Day in Apple Grove(47)

His pulse pounded as he flicked his tongue against the skin at the base of her throat and tasted her salty-sweet essence. His hands skimmed over her neck to waist, breast to belly, again and again until she began to writhe.

“Let me touch you,” she whispered against his neck.

“Not yet.” He stroked the underside of her left breast with his tongue.

Garbled words made a nonsensical sound as he continued his assault on her senses and she gasped for air. Finally, she uttered the word he’d been waiting to hear: “Now!”

Desperate to take, he yanked back on need a second time and took one breast and then the other into his mouth. Suckling her, he feasted, flicking, swirling, licking, and suckling again until she screamed out his name and went limp in his arms.

***

Caitlin couldn’t move. Her heart threatened to pound out of her chest and her arms and legs felt like water. Oh my God. No one had ever made her spontaneously combust like that before with just his mouth on her neck and breasts.

“Jack,” she rasped. When he didn’t answer her, she cleared her throat and tried again to be heard. “Jack?”

“Caitlin,” he whispered, letting his forehead rest against hers. “You destroy me.”

Laughter caught her by surprise. Feeling loose, she gave in to it, chuckling softly. “Last time I checked, you weren’t the one screaming my name while you came apart in my arms.”

He raised his head and stared down at her. “True enough. Want to do something about that?”

“Oh yeah,” she said as the strength surged back into her arms and legs. She pushed him until he fell onto his back on the couch and straddled his hips. “My turn.” Taking her time, she trailed the tip of her tongue along the clean, strong line of his jaw, teasing the underside of it as she settled herself firmly against his growing erection. “Someone’s already warmed up.”

The dark and desperate desire in his eyes had her squirming, wishing she’d thought to step out of her jeans before her assault. “I think we’re overdressed.”

“Wait,” he said, stilling her movement with a hand to her thigh, before closing his eyes.

She stared down at him as he opened his eyes and an emotion she wasn’t used to filled her, threatening to drag her under.

“Don’t stop touching me, Cait.”

The tender way he said her name had need coursing through her again. She began to explore his torso with her lips, teeth, and tongue. Tiny flicks of her tongue were followed up by nips of her teeth, testing the strength of his pecs and the firmness of his abs. She wiggled lower, so she could twist and flick her tongue beneath the waistband of his jeans. She felt the heat of him and remembered that the dog had shredded his boxers…was he commando beneath his jeans?

She hadn’t realized she asked the question out loud until she heard his raspy chuckle. “Only you would ask me that now.” He pulled her back up his body and cupped her face in his hands, wordlessly urging her to stop as he lifted her away from temptation.

“I didn’t get to go beneath the equator—you can’t either,” he told her. “Unless you don’t intend to play fair.”

Instead of answering him, she slid off the couch so she had a better angle to tease him from. “You’re delicious,” she said, blowing softly across the taut skin of his abdomen before teasing it again with the tip of her tongue.

“God, Cait…I can’t wait.”

She sat back on her heels and met his gaze. “Then don’t.”

“Are you sure?” He sat up and pushed off the couch, so he could pull her to her feet.

When she was in his arms, she shivered at the feel of his hot skin pressed against her breasts. “Thinking about what it would be like to make love with you has been making me crazy too” she confessed. “Besides, now that I’ve tasted you, there’s no going back. You’re addictive.”

“You go to my head like a shot of whiskey.” Easing back from her, he unsnapped his jeans and hesitated. “Cait, there’s something I forgot to tell you.”

“Is it important?”

“To me.”

“OK,” she said. “Tell me.”

He drew in a breath before beginning, “I was injured over in Iraq.”

“I know,” Cait said. “We were so worried when we found out you’d been hurt and broken your leg. That’s why you were limping the day you chased Jamie into my arms, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but that’s not the extent of what happened,” he rasped. Their eyes met and held. “An IED exploded, broke my leg, and filled it with shrapnel.”