Wild Man.
Kristen Ashley.
Dedication.
To Erika Ann Moutaw Wynne and Roy Gilbert "Gib" Moutaw, My big sister and my little brother.
Everything we are is based in love and history and loyalty.
Thank God.
Prologue.
Wild Man.
"Oh my God, " I breathed as I came, my mind blanking, every inch of my body tightening as bliss like I never felt before coursed through me.
When I was done, my neck righted, my eyes slowly opened and I saw him still moving over me, in me, God, God, he looked good. Beautiful. And he felt good. Amazing.
His gorgeous, silvery gray eyes were locked to mine, heated, intense, glittering, searing into me, all of this in a way he'd never looked at me before. Not once in the four months we'd been together.
And I knew, feeling the burn of his eyes, what that look meant. I knew this man, this fantastic, striking, wild man was mine.
Mine.
I felt it in my blood.
"Jake," I whispered, my limbs growing even tighter around him, one of my hands sifting up into his thick, dark, unruly hair and his eyes closed at my voice sounding his name and they did this in a way that seemed like he was in pain.
Um... what?
Then he shoved his face in my neck, moving faster, thrusting harder, his breath labored against my sensitive skin and my mind turned to his body, my hands glided across his skin, my legs gripped him harder as I clenched his driving cock with my sex.
"Fuck, Tess," he growled against my neck then I heard him groan as he kept thrusting and he came.
I held him tight.
He gave me his weight.
I held on tighter.
Then he pulled out and rolled off me, falling to his back. The instant he did, eyes on the ceiling, he lifted the butts of his palms, pressed them to his forehead and closed his eyes.
Um. Not good.
"Jake?" I called softly.
"Yeah?" he grunted, not soft and also not opening his eyes or moving his hands.
Okay, uh, what was going on?
Feeling suddenly exposed and vulnerable even after just moments before feeling like I'd finally, finally found my dream man, he was there, in my bed, in me and the joy that brought evaporated. I moved quickly. Nabbing the throw at the bottom of the bed, I pulled it over my naked body.
"Is everything okay?" I whispered.
"Fuck no," he answered and I felt my body go still.
He dropped his hands, his head turned to me, the look in his eyes not heated, glittering, intense, burning into me. It was conflicted and... I stared, not believing it but seeing it...
filled with regret.
Oh no. Oh God. Oh shit. Oh no.
I pulled the blanket closer to me thinking Martha had been right.
Damn. She'd been right.
His eyes dropped to my hand clutching the blanket to my chest then I watched them melt to quicksilver as they lifted to me, his face gentling, his body turning my way, his hand coming out and then his phone rang.
His hand stilled and he muttered a pissed off, "Fuck. "
Then he rolled the other way and reached out with a long arm to grab his jeans. I was staring at the contours of his back, the sleek skin, the defined muscles, thinking that wasn't for me. It wasn't for me. None of it.
I knew it.
I'd always known it.
From the instant for months ago when his silver eyes hit me, travelled the length of my torso, all he could see of me behind the display cabinet, and when his eyes again hit mine, he'd smiled sexy, lazy and slow, I knew it.
He wasn't for me.
There was no dream man for me.
But he was so beautiful, I went for it anyway.
"Yeah?" he asked into the phone and then I felt his mood hit the room and it grated against my skin like sandpaper.
In the four months we'd been together, Jake did not hide his moods. Ever. Not even in the beginning. And Jake had a lot of moods. If he was pissed, you knew he was pissed. If he was happy, you definitely knew he was happy. If he was feeling playful, annoyed, frustrated, amused, distracted, content, whatever, you knew it, you sensed it; it was like he controlled the atmosphere of the room.
And whoever was on the other end of that phone was pissing him off and frustrating him.
"Give me an hour," he said into the phone, paused then went on, "No, man, I'm tellin'
you, I need an hour." Another pause then, "Fuck, you've got to be fuckin' shitting me." Pause then, "This can't happen now." A very short pause then, "I'm tellin' you, this cannot fuckin'
happen fuckin' now. " He shifted his powerful body to sit on the edge of my bed, back bowed, elbows to knees, phone to ear and he growled low, "All right, motherfucker, but you fuck this up, you fuck her over, mark this, you answer to me."
Then he flipped his phone shut and bent forward to grab his jeans.
Then he announced to the other side of the room, "Babe, gotta go."
I closed my eyes.
Okay. Okay.
When Jake got into a mood, you knew his mood. And when Jake had to go, Jake went.
This was nothing unusual.
Okay, so, we'd been seeing each other for four months and this was the first time we made love.
Sure, that seemed weird, considering he was all man, a wild man but he was always gentle with me, very gentle and it was like he sensed I needed that, I needed him to take it slow. And I did need that, boy did I need that. So I didn't think anything of it.
And sure, we'd made out; we'd fooled around, a lot. A lot, a lot and it was good. The best.
And he'd made me come with his hand though he'd never let me touch him that way saying he liked to watch and the first time I made him come, he wanted to be inside me. Just him telling me that nearly made me come. But he'd never come inside, in fact, I'd never been naked with him, not even close, until now.
So, any girl would expect, after all that time with a wild man unlike any man she'd ever been with, a wild man who tamed that beast in order to be gentle with her, that he'd hang around after the big event.
But not Jake.
I knew that about him.
But this was something different.
I knew that too.
"Tess," he called, his deep voice gentle and my eyes opened.
He was somewhat fuzzy, I didn't have my glasses on but I knew he was still unbelievably gorgeous. The sight of him was burned on my brain in a way I knew I'd never forget.
"Yeah?" I replied and watched him, now fully clothed, lean into a hand on the bed toward me.
I held still as he got closer and came into better focus.
"Grab your glasses, darlin'," he whispered and I must have narrowed my eyes to focus on him or something.
Jake, I also knew, didn't miss much.
I forced my body to come unstuck, rolled as I kept the blanket pressed to me, nabbed my glasses off the nightstand and slid them on. Then I rolled back to him.
Seeing him focused, I saw his eyes were no longer conflicted and remorseful. They were quicksilver still but affectionate, gazing at me like he gazed at me when I fancied he was thinking I was cute. Or at least I hoped it was that.
He liked me wearing my glasses. He'd told me that flat out. Said he never had a woman who wore glasses. He told me it was like stepping out with a sweet, sexy school teacher.
I'd never felt sexy, not in my life. Not until Jake.
"We'll talk later, yeah?" he said quietly.
"Yeah," I answered, hope budding in my heart at his look, his tone, his words.
"We'll talk later, Tess. Yeah?" he somewhat repeated and I blinked.
"Yeah," I repeated too.
"Promise me, babe."
I stared at him not sure why he needed that. I didn't play games with him, not at all, not even when Martha told me I should, repeatedly. Test the waters. Test him. Don't be too available. Don't let on how much I liked him.
But I was too old for that shit and I'd never had a man like Jake. There was no way I was going to fuck it up with games.
So now I didn't get where he was going with his need for a promise.
But still, he asked and I'd give him anything he asked. Anything. Even from the very beginning.
"Promise," I whispered.
He nodded.
Then he asked, "You sleep naked?"
A shiver I couldn't quite read slithered over my skin. It wasn't bad but it also wasn't good.
"No," I answered.
"Don't start tonight," he ordered, I stared at him and while doing it saw his eyes move over my face.
Then he leaned in, his hand not in the bed coming to cup the back of my head, he pulled me to him and kissed me hard and wet.
His mouth released mine but he only allowed me to pull back an inch before his hand still at the back of my head put pressure on to stop my retreat and his eyes locked with mine.
"We'll talk later," he whispered.
Then his hand disappeared because he disappeared.
Gone.
I listened to my front door close.