Jared's Counterfeit Fiancee - Brenda Jackson [39]
Danger of losing his heart.
“Thanks, Jared.”
He tipped his head and looked at her. “You don’t have to thank me, Dana. At the moment, I can’t think of any place I’d rather be than here with you.” And he meant it. “Ready to go?”
“Yes, I’m ready.”
Back in the car, Jared headed toward Jekyll Island. His secretary had made hotel reservations for them. If Jeannie had thought it odd that he’d told her to get two separate rooms she hadn’t said anything.
He glanced over at Dana. “Are you hungry?”
She shook her head. “No, in fact I think I’m beat and going to take a nap when we get to the hotel and check in.”
He smiled. She might feel tired, but she didn’t look it. She looked great dressed in a pair of slacks and top. He spared her another quick glance. There hadn’t been one time he’d seen her that he hadn’t gotten turned on by what she was wearing.
Jared could see them in one bed, in each other’s arms doing a number of things, and taking a nap wasn’t one of them.
Dana woke up from her dream with a start, her breathing uneven, a wave of heat slowly building and touching her in her most intimate places. She closed her eyes to recapture the moments when she had imagined Jared in bed with her, naked with his arms around her, holding her, and his aroused body pressed intimately against her pelvis, sending her over the edge as he tried to connect with her.
She had felt the dampness of his skin, the perfection of his muscles as they clenched beneath her palms and the texture of his chest hair rubbing against her breasts, hardening the tips.
She had experienced all those things. But only in her dream.
Dana pulled herself up in bed and inhaled deeply as she pushed her hair from her face. She’d known she was a goner when he had walked her to her hotel-room door. After saying that he hoped she enjoyed her nap, he had lifted her palm to his lips and placed a kiss at her wrist. And it hadn’t been your typical wrist kissing. His hot, wet tongue had slid over her wrist and then he had gently sucked the area, leaving a mark. His mark.
She glanced down at her wrist. She still felt the heat. She then looked across the room at the closed door that separated his room from hers—a shield, a barrier, a connecting door. But if it were to open…
She wondered if he was there. Had he taken a nap, as well? Had he dreamed of her as she had dreamed of him?
Slipping out of bed she stood and decided it was time to take part in some sort of physical pleasure. The other night Jared had shown her just what her body had been missing. He had given her a taste of what pleasures were out there if she decided to indulge.
Visiting her parents’ graves had made her realize just how unpredictable life could be. You could be here today and gone tomorrow. Life held no guarantees, there were no promises. There were no forevers.
There was only the moment. And you had to seize it to get what you wanted, capture it, slow it down and take advantage of it, make every second count.
Jared had always been honest with her, totally up-front. She knew how he felt about serious involvements. And she knew that no matter what, he had no intentions of changing his mind about that. Next week, if things worked out with his mother, he would walk away, just as surely as there was a sun shining in the sky. But dammit, she refused to let go without at least having something to look back on and remember from their time together.
She turned when she heard the gentle knock on the connecting door. Tightening the belt of her silk robe, she crossed the room and slowly opened it. Jared was there. She inhaled gently, breathing in the manly scent of him. He stood tall, handsome, hot and sexy. His features were sharp; the eyes that were holding hers were keen. She felt her heart beat violently at such profound sexiness.
Regardless of whether Jared was dressed as a million-dollar businessman or wearing faded jeans and a chambray shirt, as he was now, he looked like a man any woman would want both in and out of her bed. The man any woman would want to strip her naked, kiss her senseless