Page 63 of Cherry Picked
I laughed. “For food? Not at all. For you, on the other hand, I have a powerful hunger.”
As in, years andyearsof hunger that only Jack could satisfy.
Jack pulled me against him and pressed a brief kiss to my smiling lips, and I was so caught up in him I didn’t give a single thought to who might be watching or what they might think. I wanted to shout my happiness from the rooftops.
“Let’s go make the most of our night, then?” he suggested softly.
I nodded. “Lead the way.”
ChapterThirteen
JACK
“He is so excessively handsome!” ~ Mrs. Bennet
Hawk had been to my house many times before. Hell, he’d helped me renovate almost every room in the place. But bringing him home tonight felt different.
For one, he hadn’t been here in a couple of weeks, which meant there were plenty of little changes he noticed.
“I like the trim you picked,” he said, pointing to the crown molding above the cabinets in the mud room.
“You picked it,” I said with a soft laugh while we kicked off our shoes on the tile floor. “Remember you shared that folder of inspo pics? This was from one of those. Or… as close as I could figure, anyway.”
Hawk’s cheeks turned a little pink. “Really? No wonder I like it. What else have you done since I was here last? Did you decide what to do with the addition yet?”
I thought about the project I’d spent most of my nights working on. “I, uh… I have some plans.” And when I thought about what those were, it seemed impossible that I’d hidden the truth of my feelings for Hawk from myself for as long as I had. “But since you suggested turning it into a dedicated ravishing room, I may have to rethink. Howdoesone decorate a ravishing room?” I wondered.
“I have ideas.” His eyes heated. “I may have to start a new inspiration folder.”
“Can’t wait. In the meantime, I did finish tiling and grouting the upstairs shower,” I offered with a salacious eyebrow wiggle designed to make him laugh. “I got that rain showerhead if you wanted to take a look.”
“I think I read about this in one of my books.” Hawk’s gaze followed his fingertips as they trailed lightly up the center of my sternum, fire-hot even through my shirt. “You plan to lure innocent little me upstairs to see your etchings and then have your wicked way with me, is that it?”
My heart rate sped up so fast I was nearly light-headed with it. My hands shook with the need to touch him. Seeing him here brought home just how much I wanted him in my life as more than my friend, more than my employee, more than my renovation partner.
“You caught me,” I said roughly. “There’ll be no going back after that. You’ll be ruined.”
He lifted his face to mine and studied me for a moment. “Promise?” he whispered.
Without another word, I grabbed his hand and led him upstairs, directly into my bedroom. Hawk let out a surprised bark of laughter as I tugged him across the threshold… and then his laughter dissolved into a moan when I pulled him against me and covered his lips with mine.
He tasted like the cool water of Glassy Creek after a long hike. Like fresh air after spending too long in a crowd. Like freedom. Like home.
I couldn’t believe it was possible to crave someone so much when I’d spent so long denying to myself that I wanted him at all. I was still half-convinced—maybe more than half—that it might go bad somehow in a way I didn’t know how to fix, but I could no more push him away in that moment than I could stop myself from breathing.
And when Hawk’s hands fisted in my shirt, pulling me closer so that I had to wrap my arms around him to keep us both from tumbling to the ground, there was no choice to be made at all anymore. Hawk was every bit as hungry and demanding as I was.
Our mouths explored each other while the sounds we made were almost embarrassingly desperate—or maybe that was just me. It was hard to tell, and it didn’t matter. All I knew was a gut-deep need for him, to hold and touch and devour him without ever letting go. Now that the lid was unlocked and flung open on this opportunity to be with him this way, I was all in.
“Hands are shaking.” His words were muffled against my mouth.
“Sorry.”
“No,” he said, moving his mouth away from mine so he could let out a nervous laugh. Our cheeks pressed together, his stubble rubbing against mine. “Me.Myhands are shaking. It’s… I feel out of control.”
It’s his first time, for fuck’s sake, I admonished myself.First time being with someone this way. First time withyou. Stop attacking his face.
“Shit.” I pulled back and cupped his face, rubbing my thumb over the tiny faded scar below his eye. “I’m sorry. I’m going too fast.”
