When he saw Blythe peek around the corner, he caught her eye and pointed toward the bottle sitting on the coffee table. She understood and brought two more and set them down.
“She’s out,” she whispered.
He already knew she was. He’d spent more than one night close enough to her to know the way her breathing evened out when she fell asleep. He longed to slide his hand under her sweatshirt and feel her warm skin, but didn’t. He shifted, so if she woke, she wouldn’t feel what being that close to her was doing to him. He closed his eyes and willed sleep to come to him, too. It didn’t take long before it did.
“Shh,” followed by a giggle woke him. He opened his eyes and saw Liv tiptoeing past them, warning Ben to keep quiet. When Jace opened his eyes, Liv waved. Ben waved too, mimicking his wife. He put his finger in front of his lips, as if to say they’d be quiet.
He tried to move his arm from around Bree’s waist, but she clung to him. He leaned down and kissed her shoulder through her thick sweatshirt.
“Jace?”
“Yes, sweetheart?” He hadn’t realized she was awake.
“Do you think anyone would mind if you came downstairs with me?”
“No, darlin’, no one will mind at all.” Least of all me.
Why did she keep doing this to herself? She woke up in bed with Jace again this morning. It wasn’t that she didn’t remember asking him to sleep with her last night, after they’d fallen asleep together on the sofa, again, it was just that, each time, she vowed it couldn’t happen again.
He shifted and pulled her closer. She closed her eyes, knowing she wouldn’t be able to fall back to sleep, not with him pressed against her. So many nights she’d fallen asleep imagining he was holding her as he was now. She’d let her mind drift, imagining his hands on her body, his lips always followed…in her dreams.
His arm was draped over her, his hand close enough that she could run her lips over the fingers she so often imagined bringing her body pleasure. She couldn’t resist. She kissed his hand, and then brushed her lips over the back of it.
Before she knew it, she was under him. He urged her legs open with his knee, holding himself over her with his powerful arms. He leaned down and ran his lips over the pulse points in her neck, murmuring her name as he made his way lower.
Her arms went around
him, urging him closer than he was. She wanted him as close to her as he could be. She wanted them to be one.
Instead, he continued moving further down her body, soft lingering kisses making a trail lower, and lower. Her body arched against him. Yes, this had been part of her dream too. Jace loving her with his lips, his tongue. She closed her eyes, trying to focus on how it felt to have Jace take her to a place she’d never been, not even with Zack.
“Bree,” he breathed. “Baby, I need you. Do you know how much I need you?”
“I need you too.”
This is the last place he’d expected to be, and more, the last thing he expected to be doing. He rolled away from her. “Shit.”
“What?”
“Bree, darlin’, I, uh, don’t have anything with me, sweetheart.”
“You don’t?”
Her voice was so soft, so sweet, he could just eat her up. “I’m sorry, sweet girl.”
She sighed. If he didn’t know better, he might’ve thought it sounded more like a huff than a sigh.
He raised himself up on his elbow so he could look at her face. Sure enough, she was pouting. He leaned over and kissed the down-turned corners of her mouth.
“I can try to find some.”
“What? No. God, Jace, please, tell me you’re joking.”
“Okay, I’m joking. Sort of.”
“It’s bad enough that everyone knows you slept with me. They don’t need to know you slept with me.”
“Almost slept with you, baby.”