Explosive (The Black Opals) (26 page)

“But you won’t always be here.
You’re leaving after Jasmine’s wedding. Or soon thereafter.”

Maybe, maybe not.
That all depended on whether Clarke felt he’d given Jayce enough cooling off time. And if Alyssa would just give them a chance, she’d have the support and protection of the whole damned Black Opal team. They might not all be easily accessible, but he could guarantee, if there was a need, someone would step out of the woodwork.

All of which, if he mentioned it, would destroy the evening they’d spent together and throw them back into opposite corners with their past forming an unbridgeable chasm between them.

He pulled into her driveway and killed the engine. “I’m not going anywhere until I’m convinced you’re completely safe.” Before she could protest, he jumped out of the truck, hurried around to her side, and opened the door. As she stepped out, Jayce scooped her into his arms. “Stop worrying.”

“What are you doing?” She laughed uneasily.

“Carrying you inside for a nice hot bath.” Thank God McTavish’s Hummer was nowhere to be seen. He wanted Alyssa completely to himself tonight, and not just during sex. McTavish didn’t need to be lurking around while Jayce was trying to prove to her she didn’t need McTavish. “Keys handy?”

She twisted into his chest to better reach her small clutch and withdrew a simple keychain of three keys.
“Middle one.”

“You unlock it.”
He nodded at the door. “I’ll hold on to you.”

“For God’s sake don’t drop me.”

Jayce chortled. “I think that was the point.”

Her keys jangled, the lock clicked, and with an awkward twist, Alyssa pushed the door open.
Jayce entered and nudged the door shut with his heel. Turning her, he gave her time to lock it behind them before heading to the hallway bathroom.

Alyssa recognized his destination then redirected him.
“There’s one upstairs, down from my room.”

Much better—guaranteed privacy.

He took two steps into the hall, and she tensed in his arms. “Jayce, did we leave the kitchen light on?”

Damned if he knew, but that panicky edge had crept back into her voice.
He didn’t dare confess the truth. “It’s probably on a timer. Kane was down here for quite a while this afternoon.”

That seemed to ease her worries, for the tension seeped from her limbs and she nestled back into his embrace.
Truthfully, the kitchen light didn’t bother him. He’d walked into enough hellholes and firefights to recognize the natural sounds of a sleeping house. If someone had been inside, they weren’t here now. They wouldn’t get very far if they returned, either. Discovering her home had been broken into would only spiral Alyssa back into near-hysterics, so he didn’t second-guess his instincts.

He carried Alyssa up the stairs to the room she indicated.
Inside the doorway, he set her gently on her feet and flipped the light switch. A series of low-wattage lights above a wall-length mirror illuminated the spacious room. Jayce blinked. Alyssa’s comfortable room and the rest of her spacious-but-tasteful house were modest compared to the luxury of this bath. Tiled from corner to corner in stone, the entire wall to his left consisted of an open shower, complete with two overhead nozzles and a whole assortment of showerheads, faucets, and small jets on the farthest end. Fitted between that shower and the countertop to his right, a Jacuzzi bathtub stared Jayce in the face. Moonlight shone in through the wooden slats on the blinds, and overhead, a wide skylight opened to the stars. All this for a guest bath?

His bewilderment must have shown on his face.
Alyssa pointed at a door set into the wall beside a unit of floor-to-ceiling cabinets. “The master bedroom is there. Brice and I fought over the bathroom, so we decided neither of us would claim the master.” She ran her hand over the marble countertop and added with a touch of disbelief, “I’ve used the toilet here once. That’s it.”

This
was part of a master bedroom? Intrigued, he opened the adjoining door and poked his head inside the dark room. The light switch only turned on a ceiling fan, but the full moon outside explained all the windows he’d noticed over the kitchen. The entire far wall was nothing but tall panes of glass. Oh, Kane would have a heyday with this room. It must span the entire back side of the house.

He fiddled with the wall again, searching for a light switch.
When his fingers found a second nub, he flipped it on. Nothing happened.

“It’s not finished.
There’s no fixtures mounted, no carpet. Just empty space.”

Jayce frowned at Alyssa.
“But you finished the bathroom?”

She shook her head.
“No, the man I bought it from did. He lost his wife suddenly and pretty much fled the house. I got it for a steal.”

He cocked his head thoughtfully.
“So
you
bought the house?” She hadn’t purchased it with McTavish? Definitely what he needed to hear.

“It’s in my name, yes, but Brice has paid half the mortgage since day one.”

Workable…if he ever managed to smooth things out with Alyssa. Right now, all he cared about was that McTavish wasn’t permanently tied into her living space.

Jayce pulled the master bedroom door shut.
Grinning, he went to the tub and started the water. When he had the temperature where he wanted it, he motioned Alyssa to the ledge. “You get comfortable. I’ll be right back.”

Oh, he was definitely going to enjoy this tub tonight.
And so would she.

T w e n t y – n i n e

E
yes closed, Alyssa reclined in the ridiculously large tub, basking in the comfort of the hot water and the absolute quiet that encapsulated them both. Her head rested against Jayce’s shoulder, the tips of her hair floated around her elbows. One of his hands gently caressed the length of her arm as he dusted light kisses to her shoulder. The other twined with hers and rested on the marble ledge surrounding the bath. Never had she known such ease, such absolute relaxation and peace as she did right now. It was as if he’d made the last week—no, the last decade—magically disappear.

Maybe the wine had contributed; Jayce returned to the bathroom with one full glass, which they’d shared.
Combined with her earlier two, she felt as warm and fuzzy on the inside as she did with the water swirling around her body. Whatever the reason, she wanted to hold onto this feeling for eternity.

“Sleepy?” Jayce murmured at her ear.

“No. Just relaxed.”

“Good.”
His lips brushed the side of her neck, and the hand on her arm made another lazy trek to her wrist. “Keep your eyes closed.”

She smiled, drifting deeper into the warm cocoon of contentment.

Water trickled. Warm rivulets cascaded over her breastbone, across the rise of her breasts. Then soft terrycloth swept over her breasts. Slowly. Heavenly.

“Mm.
That feels good.”

“You feel good in my arms, Alyssa.”
Despite the roughening of his voice, his hands remained gentle as he drew the washcloth over her breasts again, then guided it down the length of her abdomen.

She tried, really tried to remember why she shouldn’t acknowledge the same.
But all the reasons she needed to keep Jayce at a distance eluded her. She gave in to the admission, “I don’t want to ever leave.”

For an instant, his grip on her fingers tightened.
She distantly recognized the catch of his breath, felt the momentary tension in his upper body. But in the next beat of her heart, Jayce relaxed and slid that tantalizing cloth over her breasts again. The lap of water droplets against the surface filled her ears.

His tender caresses spread another veil of heat over her body.
So innocently administered, they belied the hard length of his cock beneath her thigh. The evidence of his desire created an underlying anticipation that he had yet to encourage. But each slow, deliberate sweep of that washcloth heightened her susceptibility to touch. She hovered a keen edge between hungry arousal and sated fulfillment.

“You are so beautiful,” he whispered.

The terry brushed the side of her ribs. She curled her toes, waiting for the full stroke. Instead, his fingers curved around her breast, and he gave it a gentle squeeze. Alyssa’s lips parted with a pleasured gasp.

“These fit my hands perfectly.”
He untangled his fingers from hers and dipped that hand beneath the water as well, cupping her opposite breast in his large palm. Lifting, he gathered them closer together. His thumbs scraped delightfully over her nipples. “And these were made for my mouth.”

A sharp yearning took root in her belly as a picture of Jayce’s lips latching onto her nipple flashed through her mind.
Oh, she wanted that. Wanted to feel the firm pull of his mouth as he suckled. The scrape of day-old whiskers against her sensitive skin. She tipped one knee into the other to temper the sudden ache between her legs, inadvertently tilting the hip that trapped his erection. His hard length slid free and grazed the outside of her thigh. A low grunt rumbled in Jayce’s throat. She couldn’t decide if he was encouraging or protesting.

His thumbs rasped over her nipples again, and Alyssa’s back arched of its own volition.

“You like that, don’t you?”

She swallowed to work words through her dry throat and nodded.
“You know I do.”

“Yes,” Jayce murmured, his mouth at her shoulder once more.
“I know what you like, baby doll.” Releasing one breast, he flattened his palm on her ribcage and pushed it down the centerline of her body, down her abdomen, over the rise between her legs, the water helping him glide along smoothly. He pressed a fingertip to her clitoris and held it still, the pressure enough to drive her mad. “You like this too.”

Alyssa sank her teeth into her lower lip and exhaled with a hiss.
Her heart shrugged off languor and lurched into a hard, unsteady rhythm. But the rest of her body, primed as it was, still battled with the weighty feeling of utter contentment. She wanted to move, to reach beside her and wrap her fingers around his cock and give him the same pleasure he was building inside of her. Yet the desire was fruitless; she couldn’t pull herself from the bleary haze of bliss to do anything but lie against Jayce and drown in the magic of his hands.

She parted her legs a little more, making room for the width of his palm.

Jayce ignored her subtle request and released the pressure on her clitoris for a flash instant, only to settle deliberately back into place. A fleeting touch meant to remind her he was still touching her, and yet teasing her body all the same.

“Jayce,” she whispered.

“Easy,” he murmured as he feathered kisses up the side of her throat. His lips closed over her earlobe. With his teeth, he gently tugged. “Relax.” Repeating the lazy stimulation of her sensitive nub, he gave her nipple a slight twist with his other hand. Then, his hands fell away from her pleasure points, only to resume the lazy sweep of the washcloth.

Alyssa exhaled long and slow, becoming fully aware of just what Jayce was doing.
He didn’t want her keyed up. And yet, he intended to keep her just on the edge. He had achieved that place of infinite control, where he could worship her body for hours before desire demanded he see to his own needs. She drew in another deep breath, and as she released it, turned her focus inward, concentrating not on her heightened state of arousal, but on the simple basic pleasure of his touch.

She loved his hands.

His mouth.

A quiet murmur of contentment bubbled in her throat as he feathered soft kisses across her damp shoulder.
God, how she loved his mouth. He conveyed so many intimate secrets with a mere touch of his lips.

She loved
him.

The deep-seated need to deny that emotion had vanished somewhere tonight, and Alyssa gave in to a soft smile as she accepted the truth she could no longer deny.
She loved Jayce Honeycutt; she had never stopped. The acceptance was frightening, indeed. What happened now? Where did they go from here? If—no, when—he learned why she hadn’t been able to go to him, would there even be a future to consider?

But with his talented hands sliding up and down her body, and the warmth of his skin soaking into her back, fear couldn’t form a foothold.
For the first time in a full decade, she felt completely released from her nightmares. This date would no longer haunt her. Memories of this night, of Jayce’s thorough loving, would replace those of her past.

She turned her head to brush a kiss against his cheek.
He tipped his to give her a sideways glance, and a smile lingered in his eyes. Shifting his position, in one fluid motion he stood and scooped her into his arms. Water ran down her body, dripped off her toes as he stepped out of the tub, onto the heated tile floor. Gently, he eased her to her feet.

She set her hands on his shoulders to gain her footing, feeling slightly dazed.
But before she could pull her thoughts together, Jayce picked up a towel and crouched at her feet. He dried her off thoroughly, every touch deliberate, from her toes, to her fingertips, to the nape of her neck. His mouth caressed just as many places, leaving only the most significant areas untouched. An approach that had her heart stuttering and her head spinning.

Alyssa let out a ragged chuckle.
“Jayce, you’re making me dizzy.”

“Which is precisely why”—he paused to chuck the towel aside—“I’m carrying you to bed.”

In the next instant, she was in his arms again, the backs of her knees dangling over one corded forearm, her cheek tucked against his damp chest. Without a care in the world about their mutual nakedness, he strode from the bathroom, down the short hall, and into her bedroom, where he laid her gently on the bed before shutting the door.

He set a knee on the mattress, then turned on the lamp on her nightstand.
Soft light erased the shadows surrounding the bed and added a warm, romantic glow to the rest of her darkened room.
Intimate.

The thought flitted through her head, only to vanish as Jayce’s warm palm slid down her side.

“Roll over on your belly,” he whispered.

Alyssa couldn’t have protested if she wanted to—she was too wrapped up in the glorious feeling of being freed from the responsibility of thinking and making decisions.
She rolled onto her stomach and turned her cheek against the pillow.

Jayce nudged her knees apart with his and knelt between them.
As he bent forward to massage her shoulders, his swollen cock brushed her buttocks. Alyssa’s stomach clenched, and she felt the damp flesh between her legs moisten even more. Instinctively, she parted her thighs a bit further. But that brief taunt gave way to an even greater pleasure—that of his strong fingers working deeply into muscles that had been a chain of knots for far too long.

“Mm, Jayce, that feels so good.”

His voice rumbled pleasantly in the quiet. “How long’s it been since you’ve had a massage?” Moving down her shoulder, he kneaded the upper portion of her right arm, working a slow path to the base of her hand, and her fingertips beyond.

“I go to the spa, but it’s nothing…like… this.”
Words became difficult as pleasure stole through her body. He bent forward again, repositioning his strong hands on her opposite side, and teasing her with the careless nudge of his erection again.

Jayce chuckled.
“I should hope not.” His hair tickled between her shoulder blades a heartbeat before his mouth danced across the skin there. “I know you have some lotion or something around here somewhere. Where?” His lips fluttered against her spine, drifting lower, lower.

“My nightstand...”
Alyssa gasped quietly as his kisses scampered across her ribs. “I have…oil Brice uses on my feet once…” She drew in a sharp breath at the feel of his tongue sliding slowly over the compressed swell of the side of her breast. Exhaling brokenly, she managed to finish the thought. “Once a year.”

“Once a year?”
His surprise was obvious.

“On my birthday.”

Surprise gave way to sarcasm as he opened her nightstand drawer. “He could at least give you Christmas too.”

Alyssa smiled, too content to fully laugh.
“I did try.”

“Mm.”
His hands, now slick with the warming oil, glided down her spine. “I’ll do better than your feet.” He gripped her buttocks, strong fingers working into the muscle there.

A low, contented sound drifted from her throat.
She closed her eyes, unable to stop the lifting of her hips. Her pussy contracted, and another rush of moisture gathered between her legs.

* * *

Jayce watched the way Alyssa’s back flexed as she gyrated her hips beneath his hands. Each tiny ripple added another hot coal to his burning desire for her. He was so hard his cock was painful, but he wanted to savor this as long as he could. To savor her, and this incredible night, until need became unbearable.

His gaze traveled down her spine to the soft flesh he worked in his fingers.
She had an absolutely amazing ass. The flare of her hips beneath the narrow indentation of her waist gave way to rounded curves that perfectly formed to his hands. And she was so supple right now, so willing to be molded as he wished.

She lifted into the squeeze of his fingers again, and the moisture gathered on the insides of her thighs reflected in the soft light.
That wet flesh commanded his attention. He moved his hands an inch lower, parting her buttocks as he lifted and gathered. Soft pink flesh glistened as her pussy contracted. She was so wet. Her subtle fragrance so sweet. He bit down on the inside of his cheek to stop the heady rush of arousal. But his cock pulsed against his abdomen, and a drop of pre-ejaculation seeped over his swollen head.

“Alyssa,” he managed through his tightening throat.
Drawing one finger down the cleft between her buttocks, he dipped it into her warm juices.

She arched forward a fraction, inviting him to more.
“Hm?”

He stroked his fingertip over her slit.
Teased through the slick folds of her flesh. The shudder that rolled through her body told him it wouldn’t take much to send her over the edge into orgasm, but her sharp intake of air and the tightness that settled into the base of her spine, told him she was holding back. Waiting to give her body complete surrender until he granted her the freedom. She liked it that way, and so did he. Tonight though, he didn’t want the tension she’d released to return.