She wasn’t going to hide from what she was feeling anymore. She wasn’t going to pretend to hate him. She wasn’t going to lie to herself any longer. The simple truth was that she’d fallen in love with him on that night three years ago, when they’d talked about their pasts, their futures, and shared an amazing blaze of passion in the moonlight.
She hadn’t wanted to love him. Hadn’t expected to. Had tried for three years to hide from the truth behind a curtain of venom because she’d known it couldn’t go anywhere. Men like Jesse King didn’t settle down. And if they did, they didn’t marry women like Bella. So it had been easier to tell herself that she hated him, rather than face the fact that she loved a man she would never have.
But she was done with that now. She did love him, though she’d never tell him that. And she was going to have another night with him—even if that was all she ever got.
She reached up, wrapped her arms around his neck and went up on her toes. “I want to be here, Jesse. With you.”
“Thank God,” he whispered as he bent his head to take her mouth with his.
Bella’s mind splintered as he parted her lips with his tongue and swept inside, stealing what little breath she had left and sharing his own. His tongue stroked hers, tangling them together in a prelude to a dance she’d spent three years hungering for. Her hands splayed against his broad back, holding him to her, as she gave him everything she had and took everything he offered.
His arms tightened around her body, pressing her to him, aligning her body along his with a need so fierce that it inflamed her own. Jesse lifted her easily, swung her up into his arms and Bella felt like a heroine in a romantic movie. Dazed, she lolled against him as he stalked across the patio, through the house and up a set of stairs. She paid no attention to where he was taking her and didn’t care, as long as he started kissing her again really soon.
When he finally stopped and set her on her feet again, Bella took a quick look around. They were in his bedroom, obviously. A huge, bamboo four-poster bed took up most of the space. A skylight directly over the bed fanned moonlight onto a black-and-white quilt that looked handmade and what had to be a dozen pillows piled against the intricately carved headboard. Windows provided a view of the moon-kissed ocean and allowed the soft, cool sea wind to glide into the room.
“Like it?” he asked, reading her expression correctly.
“Oh, yes,” she said, turning to look up at him.
“You’ll like this, too,” he told her, stepping past her to flip the quilt back, exposing clean white sheets. “Recycled cotton.”
She sighed. “I think I just had an orgasm.”
He laughed. “Not yet, baby. But soon. I promise.”
Bella looked up at him. “And Kings always keep their promises?”
“Damn straight.” He came to her then, hauling her up against him with a hard embrace that sent shivers of excitement scuttling down her spine.
She felt every hard inch of him and her body instantly went into eager mode. She forgot about everything else. Her business, her feud with him, everything. Bella didn’t want to think. She wanted to feel.
And Jesse more than obliged.
His kiss turned hot and hungry and frantic. It was as if he couldn’t taste her enough and she was right there with him. Her hands slid up and down his back, feeling the pull and flex of lean muscles honed by years of swimming in an ocean that he loved. His arms were like bands of steel, wrapped around her, holding her tightly to him. And when he cupped her bottom and pulled her in even closer, she felt the unmistakable hard length of him pushing into her.
Her body lit up inside and went hot and wet and ready for him. He seemed to sense what she was feeling because he took the hem of her shirt in his big hands and quickly peeled it up and over her head. In seconds, her skirt was gone, too, and she was standing in front of him in her white lace bra and panties.
His hands skimmed up and down her body, following her curves, cupping her br**sts until she felt the heat of his touch through the fragile fabric. “Jesse…”
“Don’t rush me,” he said with a half smile. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this opportunity.”
“No rush,” she said and swayed a little unsteadily. “But I think my knees are melting.”
That smile kicked up an extra notch. “Let’s see what we can do about that.”
He led her to the bed, and gave her a gentle push that sent her tumbling onto the mattress. The sheets were cool and smooth beneath her, and Jesse’s hands were hard and hot as he continued to explore her. Bella’s eyes slid shut on the sensations rippling through her body—there was too much sensory input. Too many feelings. Too many things rushing through her mind, vying for recognition. She was here, in Jesse’s bed, with his big hands sliding over her skin, and she knew that no matter what else happened between them, nothing would take away the perfection of this night.
She opened her eyes when he stepped back from her and watched him as he quickly stripped out of his clothes. Through the skylight, a swath of moonlight fell across his na**d body and Bella couldn’t help thinking how beautiful he was. She smiled and he answered it.
“I remember,” he said softly, “just how beautiful you are in moonlight.”
“Funny,” she answered, “I was just thinking the same thing about you.”
One corner of his mouth lifted. “Men aren’t beautiful, Bella.”
“You are,” she assured him and watched new hunger flash in his eyes.
“Enough talk,” he told her and leaned over her on the bed. In a few short seconds, he had her bra undone and off and was sliding her silky panties down her legs to fall to the floor. She twisted beneath him, trying to press herself even more tightly to him, to feel every inch of his hard, warm body along hers.
His hands seemed to be everywhere at once, she thought wildly as passion spiked and desire boiled. Her br**sts, her belly, and lower still to the heart of her. Talented fingers and thumb stroked her center, making her writhe beneath him as need built into a firestorm that threatened to engulf her.
Again and again, he pushed her close to the edge of oblivion, only to ease back and keep her from reaching the peak of satisfaction that he held just out of reach. Her h*ps lifted into his hand as he lowered his head and took first one nipple and then the next into the heat of his mouth. His lips and tongue and teeth scraped and suckled at already too sensitized flesh and Bella was moaning now, from deep in her throat.