Seaside Embrace(40)

“Well, you did call a truce,” Jenna reminded her. “And chunky-dunking is against the rules.”

“Whatever.” Bella stomped across the grass.

Hunter stepped off the deck, and even in the dark Jana could feel the heat of his wanton stare.

“Here comes your hunky heartthrob,” Sky whispered. She strutted past Hunter and sang, “I know all your secrets.”

“I swear she doesn’t!” Jana said with a laugh, as the other girls headed for the quad.

Hunter’s lips curved up in a smile that nearly made her towel catch flames.

“Pretty girl, do you know what kind of torture that was?” he whispered to her. “Knowing you were down there, naked and wet, and I had to pretend I wasn’t hard for you every single second you were gone?” His erection pressed against her belly.

Heat roared through her as he clutched her ass beneath the towel and backed her into the darkness beside the cottage, out of eyesight of the others. He nudged her legs apart and slipped a hand between them. She gasped at the intense invasion as he teased her, hitting the perfect spot to drive her over the edge quickly.

“Home. Now,” he growled. “Or I swear I’ll take you right here.”

“Holy shit!” Bella’s voice carried from around the front of the cottage.

“Shh!” Amy said. “You’ll wake the babies.”

Pete and Caden’s laughter sparked a chaotic din of exclamations.

Hunter withdrew his hand from between her legs, leaving her bereft and trembling with need.

“We’re not done,” he promised. He kissed her quickly before taking her hand and walking around front to see what all the commotion was.

Standing in the light from the cottage window Bella stared up at Theresa’s house, her face red with anger. Amy, Jenna, Leanna, Jessica, and Sky were bent over in fits of laughter, as were their men.

“You look like Smurfs!” Grayson said.

Jana looked down at her arms and legs, which were tinged a bright shade of blue, like the other girls’.

“Holy crap. We’re blue.” Her eyes shot to Hunter.

He spun her around so her back faced the others, opened her towel, and his eyes blazed as he drank in her blue skin. “Holy fuck, that’s hot. Zoe Saldana has nothing on you. Come on Na’vi girl, let’s play Avatar.” He closed her towel and dragged her toward the truck, calling out a goodbye over his shoulder to the others. “I’m taking her home to wash the dye off.”

Hunter backed her up against the passenger’s side door, crashed his mouth to hers, and kissed her until her legs went weak.

“God you’re gorgeous.” He opened the truck and lifted her in, then came down over her, pressing all those hard muscles against her, and his eager arousal in the most perfect spot. The friction fried Jana’s brain cells. Somewhere in the darkness of lust she realized they were still parked at Seaside.

“Drive,” she panted against his mouth as his hands moved over her flesh, threatening to make her give up any remaining care about being caught.

He made a guttural sound that tightened the lust coiling low in her belly and reluctantly went around to the drivers’ side. Jana was lost in a fog of desire, her body buzzing with need. She reached for his zipper as he drove out of the community and felt his body tense as she bent to take his hard length in her mouth.

“Jana,” he said through gritted teeth.

She felt the truck make a sharp turn. There was no light coming in the windows, and Jana didn’t bother asking where they were headed. She knew Hunter was too possessive to chance anyone seeing them. She focused on pleasuring him, moaning as she swallowed him deep. The truck rattled to a stop and he cut the engine. Hunter fisted his hands in her hair, tugging her up and crashing his mouth to hers. Their tongues fought for dominance, plundering roughly.

“Can’t…get enough of you.” He bit her lower lip, and she gasped at the sting and taste of blood. He sucked that lip into his mouth and tore her towel off.

“Fuckin’a, Jana. How did I get lucky enough to be the man you picked?”

Her body ignited with his words. “Like you’d have it any other way?”

Their mouths came together in another frenetic kiss as she tugged at his shirt. They parted just long enough for him to rip it off and push his pants down to his knees. He lifted her easily, and she straddled his lap and sank onto his hard length.

“Hunter—” She closed her eyes with the blissful, overwhelming sensation of his bare shaft filling her so completely.

He clutched her hips, and she wondered if his hands would turn blue, too. “Don’t move.” He gritted his teeth. “This feels too good. I’ll lose it. Fuck. I’m sorry, Jana. I’m too into you. I forgot the condom.”

The restraint on his face and the feel of his hot, hard length stretching her made her ache with the need to move. Her heart was racing as she quickly contemplated the ultimate show of trust.

“Have you been tested?” It felt wrong to ask him, but she had to. She needed to know.

“Every year at my physical.” His eyes narrowed. “Last time was four months ago.” He sat up with a wicked grin, driving deeper into her. She let out a needful moan. “Four months ago, pretty girl. I haven’t slept with anyone but you for six months, and I never had sex without a condom. Ever. Not once.”

She read the silent question in his eyes and whispered, “Me either.”

His arms circled her in a tight embrace that pulled him deeper into her, but before he moved any more, he cupped her cheeks and said, “I want this. I want you. But it’s up to you, pretty girl. I’ll wait forever to make love to you without a condom if that’s what you want. We can drive to your place and get protection.”

Her body was on fire, and her sex swelled with every word he spoke. As she gazed into Hunter’s eyes, the adoration and deep emotions she saw made her feel like this was her first time. Like she was eighteen all over again. But she wasn’t that girl any longer. She wasn’t even the woman she’d been a month ago. The ache consuming her wasn’t about sex and consumption; it was about respect and fulfillment, wanting to be closer in every way possible, wanting to experience all of Hunter, the physical, emotional, and everything in between. It was her heart that spoke the loudest, and her trusting words fell easily from her lips. “Take me, Hunter. All of me.”





Chapter Twenty-Nine


HUNTER COULD HARDLY believe he’d finished the sculpture in time for the competition. He’d been so wrapped up in Jana that his creativity had flowed like a river, and he was able to spend the last two weeks getting Jana’s studio ready. It took a few days for him and the guys to build two rooms for classes and extend the registration desk. He’d since painted and was getting the final touches ready. He’d found furniture online from a designer in Harborside, just a short drive from the Cape. He’d ordered wooden chairs with elaborate carvings of trees and giant leaves as backings, and then he’d designed two end tables using wood and iron to complete the lobby area.

He’d finished making the sign, and Jana had loved it so much she’d ordered business cards with the same design. He’d stopped by earlier to check out the landscaping. He’d hired a crew to make the entrance as beautiful as Jana. They’d come close, but nothing could top his girl.

He glanced at her now, as she stepped from the truck, her pretty painted toes on display in a pair of cute leather sandals. She wore tan shorts with a blousy top, which went well with Hunter’s tan pants and short-sleeved white button-down shirt. Her hair fell loose, like a mane down her back, just the way he loved it. She was beyond gorgeous, and she no longer looked like she wanted to throttle him and fuck him all at once, like she used to. As he came around the car, she looped her arm into his, looking like she wanted to fuck him and climb beneath his skin.

Little did she know that she already had.

“Ready?” They were going to the Bombshelter, a local pub where their friends were celebrating that Sky and Sawyer had chosen their wedding date.

“Yup.” She smiled up at him and wound her arms around his neck.

He loved when she claimed him. He pressed his lips to hers and couldn’t resist backing her up against the truck to deepen the kiss. She had this incredible sensuality that resonated in everything she did and said, and he knew he’d never get enough of her.

“I forgot to tell you,” he said between kisses. “I made a key to your place so I could run over and change before the competition tomorrow, since your place is closer.”

She pushed back and wrinkled her brow. “You made a key?”

“Yeah. I figured—”

“Hunter, don’t you think you should have asked me about that first?”

Surprised by her response, he took a step back to clear the desire from his mind and focus on the conversation. “Jana, we’ve been practically living together for weeks.”

“Living together? We’re not living together.”

The panic in her eyes sent his mind back in time, and he tempered his annoyance at her attitude, reminding himself that this was classic Jana. One step forward, two steps back, until she slammed into a wall, beat it for a while, and finally leapt—because she was too rebellious and stubborn to take two steps forward and one step back like others did.