Page 120 of Dallas

She didn’t make a move to touch him, but she was here, in the shower with him, so that had to mean something.

“So, I was thinking,” she said, her voice soft.

“Sounds dangerous.”

“Does it?”

He shrugged, feeling a little like an asshole for trying to have a conversation while standing in front of her with an erection that was advertising the true contents of his thoughts. “I’m having trouble doing any real thinking right now.”

She looked down. “Yeah. Well...I can see that.”

“Sorry.” He wasn’t. Not really. She was there and naked. And he was crazy about her. If he was lucky enough to see her naked every day of his life for the next sixty years, she would probably always make him hard. That was just the simple truth.

“I was just thinking that...that there’s no going back, Jace,” she said. The way she said it made him feel cold. Like he was sure he wouldn’t like the next words out of her mouth. “I can’t forget last night or what happened beforethat. The only solution is to...is to keep going until we come out the other side. That makes sense, right?”

“I suppose,” he said. Except he was right—he didn’t like what she was saying. What she was saying made it sound like they were lost in the forest, muddling around, groping and falling into each other’s naked bodies. But not to worry—they would find the other side eventually and all the groping could stop.

And that wasn’t how he felt. He didn’t feel lost. He finally felt like he’d found himself.

“While I’m living here...Jace, this tension isn’t going to let up while I’m here. There’s no freaking way. We’ve seen each other naked. We’ve...y’know, and we’ll be sleeping down the hall from each other and...it’s not going to work.”

“I agree.” Kind of.

“So, I think...as long as we want it, let’s have it. While it feels right, we do it. And when it doesn’t...we’ll stop and never look back.”

“Can you do that?” he asked, feeling like the wind had been knocked out of him.

“What other choice is there?”

There was another choice. One he knew she wasn’t ready to address. One he was more than ready to take on.

If he said the L-word now, he would scare her away. But he could show her. He could make her fall in love with him before they got out of the damned woods.

He wrapped his arm around her waist, pulled her up against his body and kissed her. That was his answer. Because he wasn’t agreeing to her terms, not really. He had his own agenda. And he wasn’t about to give away his plans.

She didn’t seem to want to talk any more, though. She was kissing him back, and his whole body felt like it was onfire, the stream of the shower not nearly enough to stop the flames from burning through him. Consuming him.

She was so soft. So perfect. Everything he’d ever wanted. Everything he’d never known he wanted.

The woman he loved.

He groaned and pushed her back against the wall, deepening the kiss, cupping her full breasts in his hands, her skin slick, sexy. Tempting. He leaned forward and licked the water droplets running down between her breasts, lowered his hands and sucked her nipple deep into his mouth, drinking in the moisture that had pooled on her body.

She shifted, opening herself up to him, and he reached down, gripping her thigh and tugging it up over his hip, testing the entrance of her body with the head of his erection.

He slid deep inside of her, his breath exiting in a gust, curling around his throat and pressing against his windpipe, making breathing an impossibility. But it was okay; he didn’t need to breathe. He just needed her.

The feel of her, hot and wet, tight around him, the water hot on his back, her breasts crushed against his chest. It was too much, but it was perfect.

She gripped his ass and pulled him forward, burying him deeper inside her body. She had her eyes closed, her head back against the wall, her brows locked together, her lips parted slightly.

He leaned in and kissed her because in his mind, parting her lips just like that was an invitation to taste her. An invitation she’d made subconsciously for years, one he’d denied because he didn’t want to ruin their friendship.

But he wasn’t denying it anymore. Never again.

He slid his tongue over her lush bottom lip, taking in herflavor, her texture. Like a crushed rose petal dipped in sugar. Sweet, velvet perfection.

He moved his hands over her curves, the water easing his way. Full breasts, slim waist, rounded hips. A fantasy. But no matter how those curves changed and reshaped over the years, they would still be a fantasy. They would always be his fantasy.

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