Nobody But You Read online

  He gave her an almost smile. “When it comes to you.”

  “If you weren’t so hot, I’d find that really annoying,” she said.

  That got her the full-wattage smile. He didn’t use it often, which made it all the more potent and sent desire skittering through her.

  He reeled her in for a brain-melting kiss, during which her hands found their way down the back of his jeans.

  “If your endgame isn’t finding yourself naked and under me for the rest of the night, you should stop that,” he said.

  She tightened her fingers, digging them into his edible ass.

  “Good choice.” He lowered his head, sucking a nipple into his mouth, teasing it with his tongue, his teeth, while skimming her skirt up her thighs. “You’ve got me burning up from the inside out,” he murmured.

  She’d never done anything like this outside, ever. But they were in a secluded cove and she was flat on her back, out of sight even if someone did come along. Still, a secret thrill raced through her, an illicit one, and she felt a rush of arousal.

  “Tell me you’re burning up for me too.”

  She opened her mouth, but Jacob skimmed his lips down her torso, playing with her, easily stealing her breath along with her words. She was totally burning up for him, and as his hands slid up her thighs, she could feel exactly how turned on she was.

  A single push had her skirt bunched around her waist. Another stroke of his fingers scooped her panties to one side, and then she knew he could see too.

  “Yeah,” he said in wicked, naughty accusation. “You’re burning up for me.” He stroked his thumb through her wet folds. Her thighs trembled, and she whimpered incoherently, her hips writhing.

  And then he slid to his knees, pushed those broad shoulders between her thighs, and kissed her.

  And then licked. Nibbled. Sucked.

  And drove her right out of her ever-loving mind.

  When she could draw air back into her lungs, she sat up so fast she bumped the top of her head on his chin and saw stars. “Ow!”

  “Easy, tiger,” he said, rubbing his chin.

  His hair was standing straight up—from her fingers—and his mouth was wet—from her. No shirt, jeans low and barely concealing what was quickly becoming one of her favorite parts of him. She felt her mouth go dry just looking at him. Sliding to the floor of the boat, she mirrored his position, hitting her knees. Then she shoved him onto the seat she’d just vacated.

  “Pushy,” he said. “I like that—” He broke off on a groan when she popped open his jeans, tugged them down enough to free him, and sucked him into her mouth.

  “Oh Christ.” His voice was a low, rough growl as his fingers slid into her hair. “Soph.”

  And that, her name, was the last thing he said for a while.

  Boneless and sated, they sort of melted into each other, letting the cool air drift across their damp and overheated bodies while they struggled to lower their heart rates from near stroke level.

  “I can’t even…,” he finally murmured, his voice gravelly. “That was…” When he couldn’t seem to find the words, he merely tightened his grip on her like he knew she was a flight risk and he couldn’t bear it.

  She loved that. The gesture, tiny as it had been, kept her warm. She knew this was to have been…what? Angry sex? Makeup sex? She couldn’t remember anymore, but she knew one thing.

  It hadn’t been just sex.

  This hit her like a wave over the head, as cold as the lake water beneath the boat. Not just sex. That meant more than just sex.

  She’d told him she couldn’t fall, not ever again, and yet she was seriously doing just that.

  This was crazy. Crazy impossible. And just thinking about it, she began to have a very quiet, very internal freak-out.

  Except maybe not so internal. She didn’t realize she was trembling until, with a low murmur of concern, Jacob pulled her in closer, running his big hands over her as if to warm her.

  But he couldn’t, because she was cold from the inside out. Cold with the certainty that she’d truly done exactly what she’d promised herself she wouldn’t.

  She’d fallen. And as the commercial went, she didn’t think she could get up.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked.

  “Nothing. Everything’s peachy. Listen, I think we should forget this happened.”

  His long look suggested she was mental, and she gave a nearly hysterical laugh, because he was just now figuring that out? Sitting up, she began to re-dress. “Hurry.”

  “Where’s the fire?”

  She’d broken the hook on her bra, dammit. She slipped her blouse back on without it. Her damn nipples hadn’t gotten the freak-out memo and were pressing against the thin material. It was hugely annoying, but when she glanced over at Jacob, he seemed anything but annoyed. “Okay, so I’m not in a hurry to get somewhere. I’m in a hurry to get away from any awkward…after.”

  He laughed. “Since when do we do awkward afters?”

  She stared at him and remembered last time, in his bed, where he’d taken her to new heights. Over and over again.

  No awkward after. “Fine. Whatever. I’m taking you home.”

  His slow, sexy smile told her she’d just played right into his big hands, but at the moment she didn’t care. She took control of the boat and headed across the water at a fast clip.

  The evening was truly gorgeous. The water was like a piece of glass, and she cut straight through it, loving the light spray off the front of the hull, the wind in her face…She was almost thankful that Lucas was such an asshole.

  Almost.

  When she got back to the north shore, she slowed down, passing the row of cabins. When she came to Jacob’s, she lined up with his dock the best she could, but she wasn’t good at coming in from this direction, and the wind and waves were not being her friends.

  “Careful,” he said. “The corner—”

  “I see it.” She whipped her head around, trying to eyeball the maneuver, still getting used to how differently a boat glided over water versus a car on the road.

  Jacob stood up. “Sophie—”

  “Sit down or jump into the water,” she said. “Because I can’t see around you.”

  He stood on the very edge of the boat, one foot on the hull, the other reaching out to work as a buoy for the dock. “You’re coming in too hot,” he said. “You’ve got to—”

  “I see it.” Shit. He was right. She’d overcorrected, and now she was stuck in the position of having to overcorrect an overcorrect—which never worked out.

  “Sophie—”

  “I got it!”

  But she didn’t, and in the next second she heard the boat collide with the dock. And a big, huge chunk of the dock broke off and fell into the water.

  Chapter 17

  Jacob took over, leaping onto the dock, the rope from the bow of Sophie’s boat in his hand, which he used to tie it to the torn dock. “Got it, Andretti,” he said, turning back to Sophie with a smile that quickly died on his lips.

  She hadn’t moved from the controls, though she’d turned off the engine. She was still white-knuckling the wheel, head bent.

  Silent.

  He reached for the rope at the stern to tie that as well. “You breathing over there?”

  “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

  Finished with the boat, he crouched on the dock, as close as he could get to her with her still behind the wheel. “Hey.”

  “I’ll get it fixed,” she said. “I promise.”

  “Soph. Look at me.”

  She lifted her head. She was pale, upset. And goddamn it all to hell, anxious. A stark difference to how she’d been looking at him fifteen minutes ago, when she’d been on her knees between his, eyes lit with erotic promise as she’d driven him wild with her mouth.

  “It’s just a dock, Soph,” he said softly. “It won’t take much to fix it. I can do it myself.” He shifted closer, and she froze. Froze into a solid block of ice, every inch of