Page 83 of Threat of Danger
He pushed her over the edge, drawing out her pleasure as long as possible. And then he stayed there, enjoying her little panting breaths, the soft tremors that still ran through her body, the cloud of intimacy that surrounded them. His body still pounded with need, but more than the physical satisfaction, he neededthis. This elemental connection was what he hadn’t allowed himself to miss for the past decade.
Jess.
His.
He kissed her nape, letting his lips linger on her hot skin, tasting her.
High above, in the branches, half a dozen crows watched. They could see both the prey and the hunter. This time, the hunter was far behind. This time, the hunter was watching through binoculars.
Chapter Nineteen
Monday
JESS TOOK THEhospital elevator up, a bag of oat raisin muffins in one hand, a tray of four cups of tea in the other. Sex with Derek in the woods the day before had been a kind of catharsis, but she wasn’t sure it’d been the catharsis she needed. The physical release had been sublime. Although, it had been one-sided. She felt guilty aboutthat. All she had this morning were mixed feelings and a lot of questions. Had the physical intimacy solved anything? Or had it made everything more complicated?
Were they lovers now? No. That wasn’t the right word.Loversimplied a continued sexual relationship, and she had no plans to go in that direction right now. Even if the sex had been the best she’d ever had.
Her past had messed up her few previous attempts. She didn’t advertise her attack, but she’d always felt that before she slept with someone, she needed to come clean. Partially, because what if she had a flashback and freaked out? And also, because sex had always been a big deal to her. She wasn’t a casual type of girl. So if she got that far with someone, it meant they were in a relationship and the guy deserved the truth.
Knowing the truth, however, meant that men had often been tentative, almost scared to touch her, too careful, too soft, asking,Is this OK? Is this OK?Painfullyaware, while all she wanted was a taste of mindless passion.
Derek had simply taken her in hand, as if nothing was wrong with her. As if he never for a moment doubted that she could take everything he had to give. He’d given her the mindless passion she craved. His primal, raw intimacies had made her fly apart under his hands. She grew hot all over just thinking about him.
So ... sex did not solve everything. But ... she wouldn’t have had sex with him if she didn’t think there was hope for the two of them. They would have to figure out together how to move forward from here.
Jess got off the elevator on her mother’s floor. She wanted to deliver her mother’s treats first and chat for a while before heading downstairs to see about Chuck. Zelda was with him. Kaylee was at school.
Her phone rang. Eliot.
“Hey,” she said. “How are things in LA?”
“A three-ring circus, like always,” he said. “I thought I’d check up on you. How are things there?”
“Mom is the same. Chuck had a heart attack.”
“For real? Anything I can do to help? How is he?”
“He’s OK. He’s getting good care.”
“Do you need to stay longer?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do what you need to. Just let me know. I could reschedule shooting your scenes to be last on the new movie.”
“Thank you.”
“Jess ...” He didn’t finish. Silence stretched between them.
She had a feeling he wanted to say something about how his visit turned out.
“I’m glad you came,” she said.
“I wanted to ...” Another pause. “The way he looks at you ...”
“I know.”
“It’s like I can almost see the link between the two of you. It wouldn’t have been right for me to try to get in the middle of that.”
