His swallowed a laugh, trying his damn best to appear serious and on the mark. He probably failed, because this was Tara. She never let him get away with that. “You sound like a child. ‘I was bored.’ How old are you? Twelve?”
“Almost twenty-six.” She ran her finger down his chest, trailing lower until she hit his waistband. He gritted his teeth. “But you already knew that.”
He captured her fingers and squeezed. “When we get home, I’m going to toss you on my bed and—” His phone went off again, and she let out a trill of laughter. A smile played at his lips, and for once? He let it. “Tara. Fix this.”
When his phone went off again, she choked on another laugh. “Okay, okay. I’ll make it stop.”
She sat down and pulled up the dating website. Despite himself, he checked out what she’d put under his profile description. There was a shirtless picture of him that he didn’t remember having in the first place. And on top of that, she wrote that he liked to give foot rubs, take long, meaningful walks on the beach, and talk about his feelings all night long.
His fucking feelings.
Smiling despite himself, he shook his head. Where had she been all these years? He’d missed her, even if he hadn’t known it at the time.
“Delete it. Now.”
Tara opened one of his matches. He was a blond firefighter. Or at least he was posed like a firefighter—shirtless and all. “Oh. He looks nice.” She skimmed the description. “Too bad he’s gay.” Tara hit the hide button, and moved on to the next one. Equally attractive and equally gay. “Wow. All the good ones really are all gay or taken, aren’t they?”
The smile faded away, and he frowned. Feeling jealous was ridiculous, since they were all obviously batting for the other team, but he didn’t like standing here watching her drool all over these men. Didn’t like her drooling over anyone but him…
Whatever the fuck that meant.
She was his, and he didn’t fucking share.
“Delete. The. Account,” he said between his clenched teeth. “Now.”
She closed all the other matches, including the one she’d been checking out, and deleted his account with a couple of clicks. “There. It’s gone. Happy now?”
No. He was jealous.
“Are you ready to go on-site?” he asked, his voice hard. He needed to stop feeling all these stupid emotions she was bringing out in him, and start focusing on getting the job done. As much as he wanted her, it was best if they parted ways soon. “Or do you need to create another account for me behind my back?”
“I’m done for now,” she said. “Let’s go.”
“After you.”
They headed into the main office, and she stopped at Gordon’s desk. “Hey.”
“Uh,” Gordon studied her, his gaze dipping down her body. “Hi.”
“I saw you earlier, and I wanted to tell you how much I love your ink.”
Gordon’s arms flexed, and he grinned. “Thanks. Do you have any—?”
“We’re leaving now to go on-site,” Jake interrupted. The ridiculous jealousy struck again, seconds after he told himself to knock it off. She’d never said a word about his ink. Not one word. “Can you let Cooper know for me?”
After Gordon nodded, Jake led Tara to the elevator and pushed the button, frustration at his own reactions to this woman making him itchy and irritable.
Once inside the elevator, he backed her into the corner, one hand on either side of her head. His fingers flexed. “I know that you were trying to make me jealous back there. Talking about hot men being taken, and sexy ink.”
She let out a breath in a whoosh, her wide eyes on him the whole time. “What? I was just talking. Why—?”
He smashed his mouth to hers, needing to claim her. Dominate her. Make her his.
She didn’t pretend to not want it, or him. Hell no. She didn’t hesitate to entwine her tongue with his, moaning into his mouth. He wanted to drop to his knees at her feet and worship her properly. He let out his own guttural sound, positioning himself between her legs where he wanted to be.
Where he needed to be.
“You like fucking with me?” he asked, thrusting his hips into her. “You like pissing me off? Well, lucky for you, I like making you pay.”
“But I didn’t—ah, screw it.”
“Exactly.” He tugged on her hair. “Good girl.”
She squirmed against his hard cock. “Please don’t stop this time,” she begged, her nails digging into his shoulders. “Don’t stop, Jake. I’m yours. All yours.”
Something inside him shifted, and he kissed her again. Though he’d planned to kiss her and warn her not to test him again, he didn’t want to stop anymore. She’d asked nicely—and he wanted to give her what she wanted. Everything she wanted.