Chapter 34

We burst through the door of the penthouse in a tangled embrace. I’ve waited all day for this. I’m about to explode with lust. I need him all over me, right now.

He removes my bag from my shoulder, throwing it to the floor and grabs me around my waist so I straddle his hips. He walks us into the kitchen, flicks a few buttons on the remote control and my ears are soon flooded with Placebo’s Running up that Hill. This only serves to spike my desperation for him more. He’s a man of his word.

‘I want you in bed.’ he says urgently as he takes the stairs at an alarming rate.

I kick my ballet pumps off on the way up, in an attempt to reduce the time constraints of undressing when we get upstairs. The door to the master suite is kicked open, and I’m placed on my feet at the end of the bed.

‘Turn around.’ he says softly. I oblige, giving him access to the back of my dress. ‘Please tell me that you have lace on,’ he pleads, unbuttoning my dress. ‘I need you in lace.’

‘I have lace on.’ I confirm quietly. I wear nothing but these days. I hear him exhale a long, satisfied breath as he pulls my dress over my head and let’s it fall to the floor.

I turn back around to face him, finding a lax mouth and hooded eyes. He’s as desperate as I am. He reaches forward, slowly pulling down a cup on my bra, brushing his knuckles over my nipple. My heart starts a relentless sprit in my chest. He’s in gentle mode – I love gentle Jesse.

I watch him reach over his back and grasp his t-shirt, pulling it forward over his head. The leanness of him will never cease to have me panting. There’s not a scrap of fat on him.

‘Have you had a nice day?’ he asks softly. He doesn’t touch me. He just stands in front of me removing his shoes and socks, while I’m mentally begging for him to hurry up. He wants to have a chat?

‘I’ve had a lovely day.’ I say, trying my hardest to ignore the passionate beats of the music surrounding us, especially if he’s set on chatting for a while.

‘Me too,’ He’s all serious and pensive. I don’t know what to make of it. ‘Shall we make it even better?’

Oh God. ‘Yes.’ I breathe.

‘Come here.’

There will be no countdown necessary this time. I step forward, placing my hands on his solid chest and tipping my face up to meet his stare. We spend a few silent moments gazing at each other before his lips fall to mine, instantly catapulting me to Central Jesse Cloud Nine – my most favourite place in the universe.

I moan, moving my hands up in his hair to hold on to him as he lifts me and secures me against his body, our tongues lapping and circling slowly. He takes me to the bed, laying me beneath him, my hands placed above my head. He doesn’t hold them there, but I know that’s where they’ve got to stay.

He releases my mouth and sits up, leaving me hot, dazed and panting short, sharp breaths.

He looks down at me, the cogs going into overdrive in that beautiful mind of his. I want to know what he’s thinking. He’s been slipping in and out of thoughtfulness for days now.

‘I could sit and watch you writher under my touch all day.’ he murmurs as he plays with my breast, yanking down the other cup and lavishing it with equal attention.

My nipples twinge, being pulled and elongated by his fingers as he watches himself work me into a crazy wreck, his lips parted and moist. I want them on me now!

‘Stay where you are.’ He gets up from the bed pulling my knickers off as he goes. I whimper slightly at the loss of his weight from me. Where’s he going? I watch him slowly unbutton the fly on his jeans and drag them down his thighs, kicking them off calmly before drawing his boxer shorts down his legs. I clench my thighs together to control the dull pulse at my core that’s just advanced into a steady throb at the sight of him bared naked and stunningly spectacular in front of me. He crawls back on the bed, parts my thighs and runs his tongue straight up the centre of my sex.

‘Oh God, God God!’ I cover my face with my palms, sinking my teeth into my own hand as he plunges his tongue into me, withdrawing and circling slowly before dipping back in. I might pass out.

My hips rotate in time to his tempo, seeking further friction, his palm spanning my stomach to keep me from bucking under him. Why did I ever run? Of all the stupid things I could do, running away from this man would get the gold.

He lifts his mouth and blows a cold stream of air across my flesh before returning to his inexorable pattern of torturous pleasure. When my head start thrashing and I make a grab for his hair, he increases the power and I detonate around him, pushing my hips up on reflex and shouting out on a rush of desperate breath. He closes his mouth around my core, literally sucking the pulses out of me as I shake like a leaf and my back arches to breaking point.

Jesse moans in pure gratification. ‘Hmmm, I can feel you throbbing against my tongue, baby.’

I can’t even talk. The influence he has over my body is extraordinary. I don’t think I’m weak, I think he’s too powerful – he definitely holds the power.

My over worked heart starts to steady its beats, as I weave my fingers through his hair, relishing in his attentive mouth dropping tender kisses down the insides of my thighs, nibbling and sucking as he goes. We’re in tender lover mode, but for how long could be anyone’s guess. I’m not going to try and kid myself that I’ve heard the last of my contraventions from last night, but I’m quite content to lay here with Jesse nuzzling between my legs for as long as he’ll allow. And that’s another thing: it’s always on his terms.

His teeth clamp lightly onto my clitoris and I shudder, hearing him laugh lightly as he kisses his way up my body until he finds my lips, sharing my release with me, brushing his soft lips over mine as he gazes down at me. My arms find his shoulders and accept his weight as he buries his face in my neck and sighs, his raging arousal thumping lightly against my thigh. I shift my hips so it falls to my opening.

‘You make me so crazy mad, lady.’ he breathes into my neck, lifting himself and slowly driving into me on a stifled moan. I whimper, gripping every muscle around him. ‘Please don’t do that again.’ He reaches down and snakes his arm under my knee, pulling it up to drape my leg over his shoulder before bracing his upper body on his forearms. Slowly, he withdraws and lazily works his way in again, his eyes fixed on me.

‘I’m sorry.’ I murmur, circling my hands in his hair.

He pulls back, driving forward on a moan. ‘Ava, everything I do, I do to keep you safe and to keep my sanity. Please listen to me.’

I moan on another deep, delightful plunge. ‘I will.’ I confirm, but I’m aware I’m raging with pleasure and, once again, he can make me say anything he wants. I don’t need keeping safe – except, perhaps, from him.

He gazes down at me. ‘I need you.’ He looks despondent, throwing me out completely. ‘I really need you, baby.’

I’m mindless on pleasure, totally swallowed up by him, but he can’t keep saying things like that – at least not without elaborating. He’s making my brain a knotted mess of coded statements. Is he getting confused with needing and wanting? I’m past the wanting stage and only mildly afraid that I’ve let myself fall into the realms of really needing this man