Pure Wicked (Wicked Lovers #9.5)(12)
Author: Shayla Black

“I…I can’t.”

Jesse eased back, trying not to let the surprisingly visceral disappointment consume him. “You can’t let me kiss you?”

“No, I can’t say anything.”

His entire body tensed. He wanted to throw her to the ground and get inside her in the next thirty seconds. Sure he liked sex. Loved it. But this compulsion to take off Bristol’s clothes and make her scream out his name seemed way beyond any normal urge.

He took her face in his hands. God, she was so small in his grip. Delicate. Lovely. Her stare clung to him, her green eyes so open and earnest. She wasn’t playing a game, wasn’t merely interested in him because of who he was. She seemed to like him.

Now was a really crappy time to decide that he seriously liked a girl. Jesse knew he should walk away. But Deke had advised him to make all the parts of his life meaningful. Bristol Reese might be the most meaningful thing he’d felt in years.

Chapter Three

Bristol fought to catch her breath. When Jamie cradled her face and looked into her eyes as if nothing in his life meant more than this kiss, an electric spark had sizzled down her spine. The answering jolt darkened his hungry stare.

She hadn’t felt important to anyone since her father. She wasn’t unhappy being alone, but her ill-fated relationship with Hayden had taught her that she couldn’t play second best anymore. Looking back, she saw that he’d always gravitated to Presleigh. Too often, he’d been happy to forego an evening with her to have dinner with her mother and sister. Jamie could care less that her beauty queen sibling was anywhere in the building.

“Good. I’m going to kiss you.” His voice sounded husky, rough. His grip on her tightened as if he didn’t want to let her go. “I’m going to make you open to me so I can taste every corner of your mouth. I want to know what it feels like when you melt against me and moan in surrender.”

Her heart picked up speed until she could hear its beating in her ears. “Sure of yourself, aren’t you?”

He shook his head. “I’m banking on the hope that this pull I’m feeling toward you isn’t one-sided. The way you’re looking at me says it’s not. If I’m wrong, tell me.”

“You’re not,” she breathed. “This is crazy. We met an hour ago.” But she still felt as if she knew him in some weird way on a soul-deep level. Jamie made her hormones swirl and did something she couldn’t quite classify to her heart. Walking away from him now simply because they hadn’t had a requisite date at Chili’s before sharing a movie didn’t make sense. It didn’t have any bearing on whether they slipped into bed.

Hadn’t she vowed earlier to have flings? Jamie seemed as if he’d qualify as the perfect one.

He leaned closer, his gaze focused on hers as his lids shut. Her breathing stopped. Her heartbeat stuttered, then lurched. Bristol wanted to know how being close to him would feel. He wasn’t her “type” and that didn’t seem to matter at all.

“Bristol?” She’d know that sharp voice anywhere.

“Yes, Mama?”

“Hayden and Presleigh have a few words to say to everyone. And she’d like you to pass out the cookies.”

“Damn it,” she muttered under her breath. When Jamie smiled down at her, his hands still cupping her face, his warmth went a long way to squelching her disappointment. He wasn’t letting her mother ruin their first kiss. She wouldn’t either. “I’ll be right there.”

“And Aunt Jean wants to know what she’s doing wrong with her chocolate sheet cake.”

“I’ll bet she tried to use two-percent instead of buttermilk again,” she murmured to Jamie. “Sure thing. I’ll be right there.”

The sound of her mother’s heels clicking away was a relief.

“Does she do that a lot?” he asked.

“Interrupt my love life. No. I don’t have much of one.”

“Excuse me while I have a Neanderthal moment and tell you I’m glad to hear that.” He chuckled. “I meant does she try to direct you.”

Bristol rolled her eyes. “All the time. She’s from a really old-fashioned family. If you’re not a wife and mother, you’re not really an adult. There’s no such thing as being a single woman who can look after herself in this neck of the woods.”

“I’ll bet you have an independent streak.”

“Always have,” she said wryly. “But I need to get back or she’ll badger me.”

“Then let’s go.” He took her hand and led her toward the others.