He was so freaking hot in so many ways. His body was a furnace, heat radiating off him in waves, but what a fine body it was. The fury in him, the flames she could almost see licking his skin, the male possessiveness in his eyes, all of it was a massive turn-on. She wanted him feral, she wanted to tame him, she wanted to keep him whichever way he decided to be.
“What?” she said when he just kept staring at her.
“He touched you and I wanted to kill him for you.”
An image formed in her mind, and she laughed. She didn’t mean to, but it was out before she could stop it.
“That’s funny?”
“Yes, I mean, no. It really isn’t. It’s just when you said that, I pictured my cat proudly dropping a dead mouse at my feet. It’s his way of showing he loves me.”
His eyes shuttered. Damn, she shouldn’t have said that last part. If Jake came to love her, she wanted him to say it without her prodding him or feeling like she’d forced him into admitting to something he didn’t really feel.
Not responding, he put his hands on her thighs and spread her legs apart. When his mouth came down on her and he began to explore her with his tongue, she groaned and spread her fingers through his hair. The disappointment that he’d not given any hint as to his feelings for her was momentarily forgotten as he sucked her to an orgasm that had her gasping for air and chanting his name.
When the last of her shudders faded, he crawled up her body, licking her the entire way with pauses at her belly button and her breasts. She was fairly certain she’d died, and if this was heaven, she had no problem with staying.
“Maria.”
He’d said her name many times but never like that, as if it were the most precious sound in the world to him. Before she could think how to answer—or even decide if an answer was required—he kissed her and this too was different, almost as if he were trying to show her something he couldn’t say. It wasn’t the words she wanted to hear, but she would take it.
Not that she’d said them to him either, but she wanted to wait until he returned because . . . because why? If there’d been a reason, it escaped her now. He was leaving on a dangerous mission and if something happened to him, he’d never know.
She cupped his jaws, wonderfully bristly, and let him see the truth in her eyes. “I love you.”
Not a word passed his lips, but he held her gaze with a fierce intenseness as he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her with a possessiveness that said he was claiming her. She fought off the hurt that he’d not said it back.
If your own mother couldn’t love you, Maria, why would you think he would? Don’t go there, not now. She squeezed her eyes shut and banished the dark thoughts. Or tried to, but they hovered on the edge of her mind, mocking her.
If nothing else, Jake hadn’t grabbed his jeans and run out of the room. That was a good sign, right? Still kissing her, his hands began to move over her, sliding over her skin, leaving lines of goose bumps in their wake.
Needing to touch him, too, she trailed her fingers down his sides, over the ridges of his ribs, to his trim waist, then to his narrow hips. His taut butt flexed under her palms and she grasped it, tried to pull him into her.
“Condom.”
“You have one?” She didn’t want a condom. She wanted to marry him, sleep with him every night, and have his babies, ones who would never doubt their mother loved them.
He grunted as he leaned over the side of the bed and pulled his wallet out of his jeans. Did he always have one on him, just in case? She wanted to beat on his chest in a mad rage at the mere thought of him with another woman.
When he tore off the end of the foil, he glanced at her, then frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” God, why did her every thought have to show on her face?
His eyes flicked to the condom and then back to her. “You’re wondering what every woman wonders at the sight of a condom in her man’s wallet. Am I wrong?”
Her man. She liked the sound of that, especially since he’d given himself the label. Her silence apparently verified his guess because after he rolled the condom on, he took both her hands in his.
“Listen to me, Maria. For as long as we’re together, I’ll never cheat on you. That’s my promise to you. I can’t see into the future, but I hope it’s for a long, long time.”
It wasn’t a marriage proposal, or even an “I might be falling in love with you,” but she believed him. And maybe, just maybe, it was the beginnings of love on his part.