Chapter 161

Jon cinched his buckle, tugging his white dress shirt over the heavy silver. He wouldn’t have time to change once he got back to Red Bank. A face to face interview with Entertainment Tonight, a phoner and then flight out to do the festivals—he had a headache just thinking about it all.

What the hell was he doing? He’d barely taken a breath before rolling back into the studio and now the mini-tour they’d planned had already blossomed into dates through March of the following year.

He breathed in deep as a pair of thumbs kneaded into his shoulders, just at the base of his neck. “I can feel your tension in the next room.”

His chin dropped into his chest as magic fingers walked across his shoulders and back. “I just thought about my schedule.”

“Knowing you, it’s enough for five people.”

He would have grinned at her words, but her hands felt too good. “That’s it, you’re hired. I’m firing my masseuse and chiropractor and hiring you.”

Her hands looped under his arms, hooking over his shoulders as her forehead pressed into his back. “Tempting offer.”

Detangling her, he pulled her around to his front, an involuntary groan was his first response to her outfit. The little blue bikini top that teased him that first day cupped her perfect little breasts and the tiniest pair of cotton shorts showcased that terrific ass. In between was all skin. “How much is your store worth? Can I buy you out?”

She laughed, trailing her fingers over the tails of his shirt.

He was only half kidding. Part of him wanted her to be available to travel with him, but the other half of him knew that part of what made Tessa so irresistible was her devotion to her work. He understood that and kept his mouth shut. When her hands slipped around into his back pockets and squeezed his eyebrows rose. “I keep my wallet in my front pocket.”

“Aww…I thought that hard ridge in your pocket was for me.” She looked up at him, her green eyes bright with humor. She’d taken a playful turn in the shower, teasing him within an inch of cruelty. It looked like she was going to continue the massacre.

“You want me limping out of here, don’t you?”

“Just want you to remember what you’re leaving behind.” She drew her hands around the line of his belt, under the shirt, her nails scratching lightly along the muscles of his belly.

There was challenge in the tilt of her jaw and smug smile on her face. He walked to his bag, strapping on his watch and swearing. He didn’t have time to—he hissed as he caught her out of the corner of his eye. She’d untied her bikini top to adjust the cups. She was in profile, the swell of her breast and tip of her nipple peeked from the baby blue triangle leaving his cock bent and strangled in his damn jeans.

The mere fact that he could even contemplate getting hard was a miracle. She’d caused enough damage in the shower to put him into an early grave. The things that woman could do with her mouth should be illegal. But that…just the hint of what he couldn’t touch for days was enough to make him forget his schedule.

He tugged at his belt, shaking his head when she laughed, tying her bathing suit tighter.

Her eyelashes lowered, her gaze obviously on his hands. “You have to go, right?”

“Get over here.”

She picked up a clip from the coffee table, twisting her hair up high, leaving her neck exposed. The little minx. “You’ll be late.”

“I don’t care.”

She fluffed her bangs and picked up the little Coppertone bottle, squirting a healthy dollop into her hand. “I don’t want to hold you back. Your work is very important.” Slicking on the suntan lotion from forearm to shoulder, she simply stared as he stalked her way.

“Screw work.”

She waggled a finger at him. “I wouldn’t want to get you in trouble with your—“ she laughed, her hands clutching his shoulders as he scooped her up. Athletic as ever, she wound her legs around his waist. “What would your boss say?”

“I keep tellin’ ya, I know the boss—he’s okay with schedule changes.”

“Really, I heard he’s a bastard about--” she laughed at his arched brow. Her knees gripped his hips and her ankles crossed at his back. “Well if you’re sure.” Damn if he wasn’t hard for her—again.

“Tessa?”

“Hmm?”

“Shut up.”

She scissored her legs, the muscles in her thighs squeezed him mercilessly. “Make me.”

His fingers buried themselves into her hair and her clip skittered across the tile. Mouths clashed and her hair fell around his face like rain as she held on. He backed her into the sofa, his hand bracing on the arm when she wouldn’t let go. Instead, she suction cupped herself to him from lips to chest until he had no choice but to flip around and sit down.

Her knees stayed clamped on his hips, but her fingers found the buttons of his shirt and opened it wide. “God, your chest makes me nuts,” she scraped her nails through the hair, her thumbnails flicking his nipples. “So hard and golden.” Her mouth followed the same path and he went from seducer to seduced.

“Shit!” He reached for her, but she pinned him down, her teeth scraping his shoulder as she tugged at his shirt. He arched up unwilling to break the kiss. Wrestling one arm free, he leaned forward, tugging her hair back until her neck was there for the taking.

She laughed, rubbing up against him until his jeans felt like a straight jacket. With each roll of her hips, he struggled until his other hand was free. With both hands on a cheek a piece, he rolled down her excuse for shorts. “Zipper,” he muttered as control waned.

Good fuck, he was going to come in his jeans. What the hell? She fumbled with the front of his jeans and he remembered too late that they were button fly. The sudden rip of buttons was followed quickly by her soft hands. Coconut and sex filled his nostrils as he swore. She stroked once, fisting onto the base of his cock so he yelled out her name.

“Dammit!”

Her mouth was quirked up in an evil grin. “Testy, testy.”

Giving up on the shorts, he tugged at the knot of her bikini. The cups fell down and her grin disappeared at the same time as his mouth found her nipple. An arm came up around his shoulder, leaving his cock hard against his belly. She tilted her hips forward and lifted one knee until she could get out of her shorts.

Tugging at his own jeans, he growled as the tip of his cock bumped along her center. She was hot for him, slick and ready. He nosed the hard tip of her nipple, curling the tip of his tongue around the underside just as he slid inside. Sucking hard, he surged up and felt the constricting walls of her surround him.

“Jon!”

He thrusted up inside her, his arm wrapped around her back to hold her up straight. Her eyes went wild and hot, the green flashed as her eyes dilated. God, she was beautiful. In tune with him in every way, she drove him harder and higher even as she tried to keep the upper hand. He couldn’t resist the urge to see just how far he could take it, take them and see her reaction.

Everything stilled inside of him, like the eye of the storm—his Tessa storm as she gasped, tipping her head back, eyes shut in her pleasure. He stared up at her, waiting for the sign that she was just on the edge. The muffled scream, the clasping of her inner walls—God, she was so wet for him. He nearly lost himself when she slammed down on his thighs, vicing around him. He brought the flat of his hand down on her ass in a popping slap.

She reared up, her eyes flashing open. Surprise and pleasure warred as she clenched so hard onto him that he came in a rush right behind her. The strangled cry was followed by a jerk as she milked him. He gasped as she finally let him go and melted against him.

It took a few minutes, but her breathing settled into a normal rhythm against him and finally her fingers detached from the couch. “My God,” she mumbled against his neck.

“God had nothing to do with that one.”

She fumbled over his shoulder and up his neck until her fingertips pinched at his lips. “They feel like the same lips, but the cocky bastard that just said that cannot be the same man I just had sex with.”

He batted her hand away and kissed her shoulder. “Not me, who’s cocky, it was your fault completely.”

“Mine?” she sat up, hissed and looked over her shoulder. “Tell me I’m imagining things and you did not slap my ass.”

“You deserved it.” He grabbed another handful of her rather beautiful ass, grinning at the heat there.

“Ow!” she elbowed him away. She hopped off of him, on none too steady legs, he thought smugly, and turned around to see her butt in the wide mirror on the living room wall. “You freakin’ left a mark!”

“Hey, she who teases, earns her punishment.” He couldn’t stop the grin at his handprint on the roundest part of her cheek. She’d have to remember him for the next hour or two every time she sat down.

“I’ll remember that, Jon.”

He stood, adjusting himself back into his jeans. “That was my intention.”

She stepped into her shorts. “Branding me like cattle?”

He buttoned his shirt, peeking between his bangs. “You’re just pissed because you liked it.” When her mouth dropped open, he laughed, stopping at the middle button of his shirt. He lifted the strings to her bikini top and reached around her neck to re-tie it. “You can’t deny it, Tessa, I felt how hard you came.” Hell, his knees still felt like water at how completely she’d let go.

She blinked at him, the flush as hot as his handprint. Her non-answer spoke volumes. His little Tessa was a constant source of surprise.

He smoothed his thumb down the side of her breast, fixing the triangle until it covered her completely. The fact that her nipple still stood out so straight and hard, was another point in his favor. “Nothing between us is wrong, Tessa—not sex, not anger, not resentment, not even fear. It makes me crazy when you react to me so honestly. Do you know how many women out there will fake a reaction just to manipulate a man?”

“A woman that has to use manipulation to get what she wants isn’t worth forever, Jon.”

“Well, thank God I found you then.”

“Damn skippy.”

He laughed, hugging her until he lifted her off her feet. “I have to go.”

Her arms wrapped around his shoulders more tightly. “I know.”

He didn’t want to let her go. In fact, he wanted nothing more than to pack her up in the car and bring her with him. It was on the tip of his tongue to invite her to go with him, when she let go, stepping back from him.

“I need to get back to the store. I’ve been licking my wounds for far too long. I’ll be heading out today too.” She cupped his face in her hands, touching her mouth to his without heat and without tears. “I’m going to miss you like crazy.”

In her eyes, he saw the woman that had first set him to wanting, but instead of uncertainty, he found peace. A sureness was there now, without the heavy doubt. “Girl, I love you to distraction.”

“Good thing you have a GPS in that hot car of yours.”

He laughed, tangling her fingers in his as he slung his laptop case over his shoulders and hefted his duffle bag. They didn’t really have any room for words, each of them so deeply in thought on the trip to the door. Instead of stopping there at the door, she followed him down the stairs to his car. Watching as he packed the car, she crossed her arms over her belly. This time, there was no protective gesture there, just a piece of sunshine and beach and Tessa with her swirling red hair.

This is the Tessa he would remember for the next week while the machine snapped and tore at him. He walked back to her, tasted the warmth of her own personal brand of sunshine and caught a handful of that swirling red.

“Drive carefully and call me tonight.”

“Oh, I don’t know…didn’t we talk enough?” She waggled her brows.

He pushed her hair back. It would never be enough. That one thing was so clear to him. “At least send me a dirty text or even better a dirty picture text.”

She fiddled with his buttons. “Hmm…I might be able to find a white dress shirt of yours.”

He groaned. “You’re just evil.”

“Mine just doesn’t seem to have the same effect.”

“Oh it does, believe me, it does.” He brushed her nose with his. “Would it be asking too much for you to be there when I get home?”

Her hands came up to twine around his neck, playing with his hair along the back of his neck. She scratched in just that Tessa way that made him want to drag her back inside. “I think that can be arranged.”

They still had so much to talk about. So much to discuss—his thought pattern flatlined when her mouth met his. The kiss was wild and hot like the beach around them. It sure as hell wasn’t a goodbye kiss. Elemental and infused with her taste, the reckless side of her soaked into him, burned him.

She dropped back on her feet, nipping at his lower lip. “See you at home, Rockstar.”

Damn if that didn’t sound perfect.