Standing between her legs as he was, she couldn’t close them, but given how she wrapped them around his hips, she didn’t seem to want to. He curled his fingers into the elastic strip of her bikini panties and tugged.

They ripped free.

At the sound of the silk giving way, she blinked up at him, and he thought, Now I’ve finally pushed her too far and she’ll shove me away. He was even braced for it, the apology ready on his tongue.

Instead she arched up again, her bare flesh against his denim, and whispered, “Oh, please.”

He looked down to where her legs were opened, wrapped around his hips.

She was wet, and at the sight he groaned, slipping a finger into her.

Her breath came in short, desperate pants that went into overdrive when he added a second finger, slicking his thumb over ground zero.

“Jacob.” She sounded panicked, her hips oscillating. “Please…”

“Come,” he murmured, watching his fingers sink in and out of her creamy heat. “I want you to.”

She brought her hands down and gripped his, holding his thumb to the right spot, and as she cried out and began to shudder, he bent over her and drew a nipple into his mouth.

It seemed to draw out her climax, or restart it. Watching her, listening to her, feeling her, made him crazy for her. While she was still lost in the throes, he shoved his jeans to his thighs and grabbed a condom from the still-opened drawer.

She opened her eyes and wrapped her fingers around the biggest, hardest erection he’d ever had, leaving him to stifle his groan as he helplessly pushed into her hand. She squeezed, and stroked him, and somewhere in the back of his mind he recognized that she was wrestling his control from him again, and that he was powerless to stop her this time. Everything she was doing, every touch, every sound she made, every look she gave him, drove him closer and closer, until he was standing on the edge.

She leaned in and kissed his pec, stroking him, and again his hips rocked to meet her, a base reaction he could no more have stopped than his next breath. Too good, this felt too good, and he was too far gone to be teased. He wanted to be inside her when he came. “Em.”

Her busy fingers were exploring him, and there was a sexy little catch in her throat as she touched his body, as she looked up at him with everything she felt in her eyes. “Hurry, hurry, hurry,” she said. “Oh, please, hurry.”

It was all far too much for his poor, aching body. Unbelievable as it seemed, she was going to take him right over the edge with nothing more than her touch. “Wait.” He heard the shocking desperation in his own voice. Later he could kick himself for letting it get so out of hand.

For now he tore open the condom packet and did his best to get it on.

Her fingers covered his. “You’re shaking,” she murmured.

Yeah. Shaking. Shaken. To the bone.

Pulling his head down, she smiled into his eyes, tugged a little harder and kissed his tense jaw. He figured if he got any more tense his teeth would shatter.

Then she kissed her way to his ear. “I love your body,” she whispered, and gave a damp lick to his lobe, along his throat.

He groaned. She was going to devour him. Kill him. “Em.”

“I know,” she murmured softly, soothingly, cupping his face, touching her forehead to his.

Christ. Tenderness. He didn’t want tenderness. It brought a shocking lump to his throat, and made his eyes burn. Unable to handle either, he pushed her back to the table. Grabbed her hips. Gave a hard yank so that her wet heat slid over him, making his vision double and his knees wobble again. “Hold on,” he grated out. “Goddamn it, hold on to me.”

But she already was, and as he thrust hard into her body, she cried out, a sound of pleasure, of surprise, of need, her groan mingling with his.

“Kiss me,” she whispered, and he did, leaning over her, thrusting inside her again as his mouth touched hers.

Her body tensed. “Jacob…”

“Again,” he demanded. “Come again,” he growled, holding on to her as she did just that, his name a sigh on her lips.

He was lost then. Lost in her body, in the feel of her, lost in her eyes.

Even as he was found.

11

MUCH LATER, JACOB WALKED Em to her hotel room. She didn’t know what she expected but it wasn’t for him to follow her inside.

The light on her phone was blinking, so she picked it up to retrieve her messages, feeling a little self-conscious and a lot aware of the big, bad, silent man behind her, watching her every move.

What they’d just shared had been so intense, she didn’t know how to react. Just remembering how she’d cried and panted, and damn it, begged, had the heat rushing to her face. Plus she was fairly certain she’d embedded her fingernails in his most excellent posterior, which meant that he had ten indentations in there.

Did he even know? If he didn’t, surely he realized she’d bitten him on the shoulder in those last few seconds, when she’d practically burst out of her own skin. She’d left teeth prints; she’d seen it herself when he’d put his shirt back on.

God. She’d turned into a wild animal.

She had no idea how she was going to look him in the eyes ever again. You won’t have to tomorrow, when you leave. Her heart clenched at that but she ruthlessly shoved the thought aside as she accessed her messages. She had two, the first from a desperate-sounding Eric.

“Your assistant has lost her mind,” he hissed. “She’s pounding on my room door, wanting in. Do you hear her?”

Indeed Em could hear some sort of knocking.

“I can see her through the peephole,” Eric said desperately. “And good Christ, you should see what she’s wearing. Nearly nothing, if you’re wondering!” His voice cracked. “I know I promised you I’d resist her but that was when she was drunk. She’s not drunk now, and I don’t think I’m going to stay strong, Em. Either call me and remind me why I’m not having sex with her, or don’t be upset at the consequences.”

Click.

Em stared at the phone and made a sound of worry. She’d wanted them to get back together, but only if they were both ready. The past few days had told her Liza wasn’t, and might never be. The fool.

“What’s wrong?” Jacob asked.

“Nothing.” Except her best friend was going to gobble up her other best friend, and then spit him out like yesterday’s trash. It was Liza’s MO: love them and leave them before they did the same to her.

Until Eric, no one had ever gotten hurt.

But now Liza had the poor man ensnared for the second time. Eric had a heart of gold behind all that sarcastic wit, and Em was worried.

The next message was Liza herself. “Don’t bother coming down here and saving him,” she said. “I’ve got him right where I want him, and let me just say all these toys in the closets here at Hush are coming in handy.”

Em listened to this and felt the impending train wreck.

“I’ve found some silk scarves in the armoire here, and I don’t think they’re meant to wear for a walk in the park. I’ve got him tied to the bed. He’s a willing captive, though, so don’t worry. I’m going to take good care of him.”

Click.

Em hung up the phone and told herself they were both grown-ups. They could handle the consequences…

“Em?”

She turned to Jacob, and while she didn’t quite manage to look him in the eyes, she settled her gaze on his chest. “Liza has Eric tied up in his room. Literally.”

His eyes heated.

In response, something happened deep in her belly. To cover the confusing reaction, she laughed a little nervously. “What is it about this place? It brings out the animal in people.”

“Is that what you think happened upstairs?” His voice was as intoxicating as whiskey. “The ambience got to us?”

“I’m not sure,” she admitted.

He came toward her, tossing her brown bag onto the table-she’d nearly forgotten her purchase!-and put his hands on his hips as he looked at her and said, “Again.”

“Wh-what?”

“Again,” he said, and made her nipples hard and her panties wet.

Yes. Oh, yes, she wanted him again.

And again.

But he was talking about right here, right now. She also wanted him tomorrow. And the next day. And, she was beginning to realize, the tomorrows after that.

But what did he want? Certainly not that kind of tie, and knowing it should have given her pause, should have stopped her.

It didn’t.

Her heart nearly burst as she tossed her room key aside and flung herself at him, sighing with pleasure when he caught her up in his arms. She could feel the barely restrained need in him, and thought maybe, just maybe, he wanted more, too.

It was enough for her.

“Let me,” he said, dodging her fingers when she reached to get his shirt off. Instead he kissed her until she was dying for more, holding her hands behind her back while he decimated her with his mouth, his hands, his body.

“Let me,” he whispered again, when finally, finally, he stripped her down to her skin. This time, he murmured with pleasure over every inch he uncovered, taking the time to touch her, to taste her.

And then he just took her, which he did in the hot tub.

“Again,” he repeated later when he took her on the counter.

Then the rug on the floor.

And then even later, on the chair by the window overlooking the bright lights of the city that never sleeps.

They finally fell onto the bed somewhere around three, where Jacob pulled her against his warm, hard body and fell instantly asleep.

She stared into his face, relaxed as he slept, and felt her heart click into place. She could love this man. She could love him forever, if he’d let her.