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  Jake dropped the iPad. Maybe on the arm of the couch or maybe on the floor. Didn’t care. All he cared about was sliding his hands up under Darcy’s shirt and feeling the heat of her soft skin.

  All that mattered was touching her.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  DARCY DIDN’T CARE if it was a bad idea. She didn’t care if everything blew up in her face tomorrow. All she cared about was getting Jake naked. Now.

  The shirt was easy and she practically purred running her hands over his bare chest. Then she leaned forward and ran her tongue up his breastbone to his Adam’s apple. He moaned, one hand clenching in her hair while the other pushed down on her hip, grinding her against him.

  “I’ve missed you,” she said before yanking off her shirt.

  “I’ve been right here.”

  “I’ve missed this. Us.” She undid the button on his jeans, loving the way his stomach muscles tensed when she brushed them with her knuckles.

  Very slowly, she worked his zipper down and then she rose onto her knees to give him room to shove his jeans and boxer briefs down past his hips.

  When she took him in hand, stroking him with the same slow deliberation he’d teased her with, he groaned and dropped his head back against the couch cushion.

  “Don’t do that too long if you have plans that include you,” he warned.

  “I’ve waited too long to let you have all the fun.”

  She had to stand to step out of her clothes while Jake fished a condom out from under the couch cushion.

  “Do you have those hidden around the apartment?”

  He grinned and tore open the foil. “Yes, I do. Strategically placed for almost any opportunity.”

  She laughed and straddled him again, this time relishing the heat of naked flesh. With her hands on his shoulders and their gazes locked, she lowered herself onto him. As she rocked her hips, slowly taking him all in, he fisted his hand in her hair and pulled her mouth to his.

  His kiss was savage, devouring her as he cupped her breast, pinching her nipple between his thumb and forefinger. She squirmed, her hips circling, and he groaned.

  “No more games,” he said in a low, rough voice. “From now on, I’ll touch you when I damn well feel like touching you.”

  She threw back her head as he gripped her hips and forced her to ride him faster and harder. Her fingertips dug into his biceps as his hips jerked to meet her thrusts.

  “Come for me, Darcy.”

  The orgasm hit her hard, and when it was over, she collapsed against Jake. His chest heaved with every ragged breath and he tightened his arms around her.

  “I needed that,” she whispered when she could talk again.

  “Give me a couple of minutes. I’m not done with you yet.”

  “I think the hideous fabric on this couch wore half the skin off my knees.”

  His chuckle reverberated through her body. “How do you think my ass feels?”

  “It was worth it.”

  “Yes.” His hand stroked up and down her back, making her shiver. “But bed next.”

  “My bed’s closer.”

  It was another five minutes before they’d recovered enough to make it there and quite a bit longer before either of them slept.

  * * *

  KEVIN DIDN’T ARRIVE until almost noon. Usually Jake would be annoyed at having half the day blown waiting for him, but since he and Darcy didn’t roll out of bed and into the shower until ten o’clock, it was probably for the best. And they didn’t get out of the shower until the water started running cold.

  That wasn’t the way Jake wanted Kevin to find out he’d done the one thing he’d specifically told him not to do.

  “Everything looks great,” Kevin said after Jake and Darcy had given him the grand tour. “I knew you two would be good together.”

  Jack managed to keep a straight face, but through the corner of his eye he saw Darcy take a deep and sudden interest in her shoelaces. “Everything’s right on track.”

  “How about the Valentine’s Day thing?”

  “I’ve got a rough draft of the ad upstairs,” Jake said. “We can look it over later.”

  “There’s an ad?” Darcy jabbed him with her elbow. “You haven’t even told me what the thing is yet.”

  “You’ll find out.”

  “She’ll be back at the bar by then,” Kevin said. “Once the doors open, the front end will be the wait staff’s responsibility and Darcy can come home where she belongs. God knows, we need her. Courtney, the temp girl we hired to cover for you, is driving Paulie nuts. She flirts to drive up the tips, but guys start vying for attention and it goes downhill from there.”

  Jake laughed with the other two, but he wasn’t feeling the humor. He didn’t want to think about Darcy leaving. He couldn’t imagine wandering around their ugly brown apartment alone. Not seeing her every day. He didn’t want to imagine it. “Unless she decides to move up here and manage the pub. She’s got a lot invested in it.”

  “Yeah, right.” The two words were like a blade through his heart. “I couldn’t wait to move to the city after school, and this is even smaller than the town I grew up in.”

  Jake wasn’t stupid. He’d known the time both of them were doing the same thing and working toward the same goal was limited. Eventually they’d have some decisions to make about how their relationship would go forward after Jasper’s Pub opened for business.

  He hadn’t realized how closed she was to the possibility of staying where they were, and that was a problem. He really liked it. He liked the quiet and the snow and the people and he really liked the restaurant they’d built. A three-hour drive each way didn’t preclude them seeing each other, but it was enough to put a crimp in a relationship.

  Kevin and Darcy were chatting about the wait staff applications and how she felt about Karen Sikes, who was probably going to be their senior server and manage the other wait staff.

  Jake didn’t care. And he didn’t care about the menu and he tuned out the dinner conversation about why Darcy had chosen one coffee supplier over another. And he was aware Kevin kept shooting him questioning glances, but he didn’t care about that, either.

  He cared about whether or not he and the woman he was pretty sure he was in love with had a future together.

  The next morning Jake was up early, disentangling himself from Darcy’s arms and leaving her bedroom as quietly as he could. He dressed in layers and downed a cup of coffee before driving up the road to the motel to meet Kevin. Since the motel had a small café that served breakfast, they ate there before donning their snowmobile gear.

  Kevin was pretty quiet, Jake thought as he pulled on the bibs and coat that belonged to Kevin’s brother, Joe. He’d be riding Joe’s snowmobile, too, since Jake’s was still in Connecticut. Maybe the motel mattress had sucked and he’d had a rough night. Maybe the stress was getting to him. Or maybe he was just missing his wife and daughter.

  They’d put on almost fifty miles before Kevin parked on the side of the trail and took his helmet off. Jake did the same, then rummaged through the tank bag for one of the candy bars he’d stashed there.

  “I asked you not to get involved with whoever I sent up here,” Kevin said without introduction. “That was the only thing I asked of you.”

  There was no sense in denying it. One, he wouldn’t lie about it and, two, if Kevin picked up on it, they weren’t doing a very good job of hiding it. “Remember the pretty, fun and wicked-smart woman I spent the night with before I came up here?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That was Darcy.”

  “No.” Kevin threw up his hands. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me that?”

  “We didn’t know. Her number got wet and I couldn’t read it to call her. I tried everything I could think of to get her number and couldn’t. Drove around and couldn’t find her place. And you always call me J.P., so...I don’t know. And we’d talked about you sending somebody up to help, but you weren’t sure who and you must never have told me