But Jake wouldn’t let her fill her lungs as his mouth came back over hers. His tongue swirled with hers, his hands moving to grip her hips. His skin felt even rougher against her softness, and she reveled in the slight scratch of his large hands, the calloused fingertips that so deftly played over her, inside of her.
He shifted so that his entire weight was over her and she instinctively opened her legs wider to give him room to settle between them. He pulled the black T-shirt up over her head and threw it to the floor. The head of his shaft slipped and slid over her sex and she arched into him again, but he held her hips still in his big hands, holding himself just as rigidly above her as he lifted his mouth from hers.
“You’re absolutely sure you’re pregnant?”
She didn’t know why he was asking her that question. “Yes. I’m sure.”
“I’m safe, Sophie. I just had a blood test and I swear I’m safe.”
Somehow, through the lust-filled haze that clouded her brain, she realized what he was saying. He didn’t want to use a condom. She didn’t want anything between them either, wanted Jake and Jake alone to fill her.
The thought made her so wild with need, she could barely get out the words, “I am, too.”
“Thank God,” he said, and the words really did sound like a prayer of thanks falling from his lips.
She held her breath waiting for him to slam into her the way he had their first night together. Instead, he gently slid his hands out from beneath her hips. Not to fondle her br**sts. Not to tease her skin the way he had just a little while ago. But to reach for her face, to hold her jaw so gently with those big hands that were capable of such strength.
He didn’t kiss her, just stared at her with those dark eyes, and she was held completely in his thrall. “You’re mine.”
This time there were no sage, protective inner voices to stop her from agreeing. How could there be when they were all on the edge of anticipation?
“I’m yours.”
The word Mine sounded in the room again as he slowly entered her, his eyes still locked with hers. Sophie had never known such intensity, in or out of bed, as Jake’s presence wrapped itself around her just as his arms had, cradling her, holding her steady when she otherwise would have broken apart.
She had to tell him, needed him to know. “I’ve never felt like this before.” Pleasure so sweet couldn’t possibly exist. And yet, she now knew it did. “I never knew.”
It was what she’d said to him after their first kiss, and now she was saying it again as he made love to her in his big bed as the sun rose higher in the sky and washed over them.
“All those books, and you never knew.”
Her eyes widened as she realized he was teasing her, the corners of his beautiful mouth curving up for a split second before he bent down to press one soft kiss against her forehead, and then each cheekbone, before moving lower to the curve of her neck, her collarbone, the upper swell of her br**sts.
If their lovemaking after the wedding in Napa had been a fierce staccato of desire and unquenchable need, the way Jake now lingered over every inch of her skin was like a beautiful sonata, playing slowly as the soundtrack to their coupling.
She knew sex was simply part of their one-week agreement, had thought she could hold part of herself back from him while still finding pleasure in his touch. Only, now she had to face just how impossible that goal really was.
After loving him in secret for so long, to have him touch her like this, to know his intention was to convince her to let him be a part of her and her baby’s life...it was too much for Sophie to resist.
And in the end, it was his tender attention, along with his unexpected smile, that had her crying out in the ultimate pleasure, his mouth capturing the sounds as he moved with her, taking her higher and higher with every stroke of his body into hers.
Together, they moved, sweat-dampened skin slipping and sliding, mouths taking and giving in equal measure as her inner muscles gripped him so tightly that he had to fall with her, just as far, just as hard, just as long. As she felt him explode inside of her, she leapt to an even higher peak she hadn’t known to reach for, one where it felt as if the explosions would continue forever, ripples of pleasure that had no end.
She’d thought she needed fast and rough, had believed her urgency to be taken by him warranted nothing else. But she’d been wrong.
Because after everything that had happened, she’d needed to be loved.
And, oh, how Jake had loved her.
Chapter Thirteen
Jake lay over Sophie, pressing her into the bed, her slim arms wrapped tightly around his neck, her gorgeous legs wrapped around his waist. He could stay like this with her forever, never wanted to let go—
Oh no! He scrambled off her, practically jumping out of the bed.
“Jake? What’s wrong?”
“I can’t believe I forgot.” He grabbed pillows and shoved them under her knees while she stared at him like he’d lost his mind.
She tried to sit up, tried to reach for him again. “What are you doing?”
He put his hands on her shoulders and gently laid her back against the bed. “I was crushing you. I could have hurt you, could have hurt the baby.”
He’d noticed this morning that her stomach had a slight swell to it. Not big enough that anyone would notice the change if they didn’t know she was pregnant. But he knew, and that knowledge had already changed him. He’d never felt like this, so protective and pleased...and proud.