Jack clasped her hand and towed her behind him.
Halfway down the empty hallway, Keely jerked out of his hold. She put her hands on her hips.
“What’s so all-fired important you had to drag me away?”
“Where in the hell do you get off telling my mother, for Christsake, that we’re going to start a family—a big family—right after the wedding bells stop pealing?”
Her mouth curled in an impish smile. “I was cementing our cover, Jack. I thought you’d be happy.”
He got right in her face. “Nothing about this situation is making me happy, Keely. Especially not every goddamn one of your brothers threatening to gut me— gut me! —like some redneck code of vengeance if I do anything to hurt poor little ol’ you.”
“Then you’d better make me happy, huh?” she said sweetly.
Jack crowded her against the wall, bracing his hands on either side of her head. “Try again.”
“What do you expect me to say? I have no control over my brothers.” Keely drilled him in the chest with her index finger. “And speaking of… Since when does your brother get to act all, ‘You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, baby’, when that stupid ass**le dumped me?”
“Fuck if I know. I have no control over my brother either.”
They glared at each other.
“If you have nothing else to chew my ass about, let me go.”
“Not a chance, buttercup.” He searched her eyes. No teasing warmth. Just cool appraisal. “Why are you being like this?”
“Like what? Business-like? Isn’t that how you wanted it between us in private? You turn the charm on and off with me whenever it suits you. Why can’t I do the same to you?”
“Because even though this engagement is fake, you’re not, Keely. I don’t want you to become like me.”
Her eyes shot daggers at him. “God, you piss me off.”
“Why? What did I say?” Hell, he thought what he’d said made sense. He’d been honest with her for a change.
“Just when I want to punch you in the kidney for bein’ a total jackass, you show me a part of you that ain’t half-bad.”
Jack’s heart sped up. “Which part?”
“That part. The real, sweet, sincere side of you. You didn’t toss off a sexual comment like ‘I’ll show you the best part of me, baby’. You act as if this is more than us cementing our cover. You act like you care about me.”
“I do care about you, Keely. More than I should.” Jack brushed a damp tendril of her glossy hair behind her ear, letting his finger trace her perfect, beautifully shaped jawline.
With his every inhalation, Keely’s scent teased him. Warm. Flowery. Womanly. He leaned closer, drawing in a deeper breath. When their gazes clashed and Jack saw raw desire swimming in the amazing blueness of her eyes, he stopped fighting the inevitable. He framed her face in his shaking hands and said,
“Fuck it,” before he smothered her mouth with a blistering kiss.
Chapter Eight
She was kissing Jack Donohue. Kissing him like crazy. Kissing him like she’d fantasized about after he’d kissed her so thoroughly at Colt and India’s wedding reception.
It was so much better when they were both sober.
Keely slid her hands beneath his suit coat up his muscular back. Oh man. Such a hard-toned body.
Such an insistent mouth. The hint of cologne on his heated skin wafted up from his open-collar shirt.
Drugged. She felt utterly drugged by his masculine scent and the sheer power of his body pressed to hers.
Jack wouldn’t let their lips part for more than a second before he dove back in for another mind-blowing kiss. His tongue was hot velvet and smooth as whiskey as it glided and stroked and teased. He seduced her, reduced her to a trembling mass of need with just the power of his avid mouth.
“Sweet Jesus, Keely,” he muttered against her lips. “I want you so f**king bad.”
“Jack—”
He kissed her chin. “Steamy, raunchy sex is a more productive outlet for our frustrations than flinging insults.”
“I agree,” she moaned when his lips slowly feathered down her throat, hitting every sensitive spot with unerring accuracy.
Jack sucked the tender slope between her shoulder and her collarbone, letting his breath fan the damp spots as his tongue licked to the other side.
The gentle sweep of his thumb in front of her ear as his firm lips and sharp teeth assaulted her neck caused her whole body to quiver with unbridled lust.
“I want to hike up your skirt and f**k you right now against this wall. Raw.” His mouth brushed the shell of her ear. “Hard.” He blew oh so softly. “Fast.”
Her sex moistened and clenched with want.
Then she and Jack were face to face. His wild eyes didn’t fit his matter-of-fact tone. “Say you’ll let me do every dirty thing to you I’ve ever fantasized about.”
“You’ve imagined having sex with me?”
“Always,” he admitted. His rough whisper launched another blissful shiver through her. “Since you were barely sixteen.”
Keely blinked at him, trying desperately to believe his incredibly sweet bullshit. “Strange way of showing it, GQ.”
“We both know you would’ve lorded it over me. I fought it. No more.” He pressed his pelvis into the cradle of her hips, letting his c**k rub her belly button. “Say yes.”
As if she could possibly say no. Keely raked her fingers down his back, wishing her fingernails were leaving scratches from his shoulders to his tight ass. “Yes.”
Jack’s never-ending kisses morphed from brutal to sweet. Passion tempered with unexpected tenderness. Her head was buzzing. Her blood was humming. Her body was doing the boot scootin’ boogie.
The kiss waxed and waned, burned and soothed, so she almost didn’t hear the giggles. When the noise finally registered, louder, Keely managed to break her lips free.
“Jack. We have an audience.” She peered over Jack’s broad shoulder. Her nephews and nieces were gawking at them.
When she attempted to extricate herself, his possessive embrace increased. “Who cares?”
“They’ll tattle to everyone.” Keely caught the eye of Kyler, the self-appointed ringleader. “Keep this to yourself, okay?”
Kyler’s enormous grin revealed two empty spots where his front teeth had been. “No way.” He raced down the hall in front of his entourage. In the main room, he shouted, “Hey, guess what?” The crowd quieted. “Aunt Keely and Jack are kissin’ in the hallway!”