Dangerous Exes (Page 23)

But his presence was completely with me. I felt him, like I could read his thoughts, like I knew exactly what he would rather be doing.

Me.

Sex would ruin things.

I couldn’t give him that kind of control over my body—men like Jessie were greedy. They’d ask for more, they’d use promises to get it.

And then they’d get bored.

A time-out was called.

And the cameras panned to us again.

I quickly bounced onto Jessie’s lap, thinking it would look playful and fun, only to realize he still had a huge problem.

Huge.

Problem.

“Fuck!” His hands came to my waist, fingers digging into my skin. “A warning next time before you break my dick off.”

“Sorry.” I wiggled my ass to get comfortable and grinned at him as he pulled my legs across the arms of the chair.

He clenched his teeth. “Move that ass again and I’m spanking it on national TV.”

I moved.

He spanked hard.

I moved again.

And I’m sure parents everywhere covered their children’s eyes as the camera quickly panned away from our little PG-13 show.

“Cameras are gone,” he whispered as his hand stayed on my ass like it belonged there. I could have sworn I felt him grow beneath me, strain to reach me.

“I know.”

“You don’t have to stay on my lap.”

“I’ve made a new friend, it’s rude to just abandon him.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Oh, have you?”

I nodded. “I’m friendly.”

“Very.” He swore loudly and then wiped his face with his free hand. “You have no idea how much.”

“Does this count as our two hours?” I tried changing the subject in order to keep myself from jumping him.

He tilted his head. “Do you want it to?”

“No,” I gulped, surprising myself and him at the same time, if I read the look on his face right.

“Me either,” he rasped.

I pressed my hand against his chest. “This would be a really bad idea.”

“What?” He gripped my hips harder. “Kissing your fiancé again?”

I grinned. “Nice justification there.”

“I would justify every damn thing in the world for another taste of you.”

He really shouldn’t say things like that to me.

To someone starving for that look in his eyes. Even if he only meant sex, his look matched those words.

They were dangerous.

So. Dangerous.

To someone who was cheated on.

To someone who still looked in the mirror and wondered what they were missing.

To someone like me.

I kissed him first.

His lips molded around mine as he cupped my face with his hands. I didn’t care about the TV screens, the cameras, this was for me.

Jessie was for me.

His tongue slid past my lower lip on a groan.

I pulled back and slid off his lap, then grabbed him by the shirt, tugging him up the stairs and toward the back of the box.

I made it maybe three feet before he gripped me by the waist and slammed my body against the wall. His hands went from my waist up to my breasts then down again like he couldn’t decide where he wanted to place them. His mouth never left mine as his thumbs grazed the bare skin on my stomach, my shirt rose higher and higher. I reached between us, tugging him against me with his belt. I undid it and let it fall to the ground, even as my mind reminded me this wasn’t smart.

Bad idea, bad idea.

My body wasn’t listening.

My heart was pretending it wasn’t happening.

And my blood was pounding so hard I was sure that he could hear it roaring through my veins.

“I’ve never wanted someone so desperately.” There he went again with the words, the words he didn’t mean, the ones he didn’t know I needed. I tugged his pants down at about the same time his mouth met my neck, and I lost all sense of time and just felt tongue, teeth, lips, sucking.

My knees buckled, he caught me with one hand while I gripped his length and felt him pulse beneath my fingers.

It had been too long.

So long.

Damn, everything was long.

Huge.

His kiss deepened on another moan from me as I moved my hand. His body jerked in response like he wasn’t used to women touching him, pleasing him, which in turn pleased me, made me want to drop to my knees and make him feel good the way he was making me feel good.

So I did.

I slid down the wall.

His half-lidded gaze was the type of lazy, sexy gaze that every woman wants, but none of us really get. It was fantasy.

The entire situation wasn’t real.

But this I could make this real.

Every touch.

Every lick.

“Isla,” he said just as I leaned in. “You don’t need to do this, this isn’t—”

I shut him up as he slammed a hand against the wall behind me, and when I pulled back I could have sworn I heard him utter, “Only you, I’ve never let anyone . . .”

And then he stopped talking.

Chapter Twenty-Five

JESSIE

I stared at my reflection in the bathroom mirror, my skin had a rosy hue, my breaths were still coming out short.

I blacked out from lack of oxygen.

From kissing.

From thinking I could survive off her lips.

And when oxygen isn’t present, you say and do things you shouldn’t, like allowing her to drop to her knees in front of me.

Like letting her suck me dry until I saw stars and hallucinated while my soul took a vacation and floated above my body.

Her mouth.

Her tongue.

Her.

Just. Her.

Vanessa had never touched me like that, and when I asked why, she said it was demeaning, yet anything went when it came to her having sex outside of our marriage.

I never told anyone.

Because guys like me didn’t complain about their own wives finding them disgusting.

It was my secret to keep.

That I was used in my own marriage for sex only when it was convenient for her—only when whoever she was sleeping with wasn’t putting out. I’d gotten myself tested and never looked back.

Dry spell didn’t even begin to cover it.

More like dry years.

She wanted sex, she used me.

So I withheld.

I stared back into the mirror—my life with Vanessa had been so fucked up and I didn’t even realize how bad until I was out from underneath it.

A knock sounded at the door. I washed my hands and opened it to see Colin giving me a funny look.

“What?” I tried to look casual while my eyes searched for Isla. She was back in her seat with popcorn in her lap. For being so small the woman could really put away her food.

“Did anything happen”—he motioned to the room—“in here while we were gone?”

“No,” I said quickly and patted him on the shoulder as I made my way to Isla. The minute I sat she handed me popcorn without a word.

It was like nothing even happened.

Confused, I watched the game with her, held her hand, talked to Colin and Blaire as my confusion grew, and when she got in my car after the game, all hell broke loose.

“Two hours start the minute we get to the house,” she announced, “and all I want to know is why.”

“Why?” Dread pooled in my stomach. I played dumb. “Why what?”

“Why you made me think that was your first, and if my assumption’s correct, why your bitch of an ex-wife never touched you like that. Why we let her live without sniping her. And why she’s so stupid.”