He moved his body from hers and leaned in for another soft kissâsomething he knew would be an addiction from here on in.
Having this ability to kiss her whenever he wanted was like all his birthdays coming at once, and he intended to use it to its full potential.
âIâm still mad at you.â
Emma slid her palms across his stomach, sending shivers of anticipation through himâher hands smoothing within his jacket, which was open and sliding across the muscles in his chest.
He had to steel himself against the urge to turn to Jell-O. His eyes followed her progress, and the tiny hint of a smile tugged at her lips.
He couldnât stop looking at her. âI donât blame you, ~Bella.~â He frowned.
âIâm mad at me too,â Jake replied regretfully, smoothing her hair back behind her ear and taking a moment to focus on untangling a strand from the dangling diamond cluster earring.
He needed to calm down his playboy impulses if he was going to romance her into a happily ever after.
She wouldnât be some one-night piece of fun for him; Emma was all he had been waiting for in lifeâthe other half of his soul.
He watched her carefully, regret at so many lost months eating at himâknowing if he had just been honest with her long ago, then he would have always had her.
~Complete idiot.~ âMakes a change from being mad at me, I guess.â Emmaâs smile widened to a smirk as he regarded her.
Lost in how many times he could have changed the course of their relationship by saying three little words to her.
âI didnât know how to behave around you or how to deal with all this crap inside of me. Overemotional men are just snarky shits.â
He softly smiled, knowing it was lame as apologies went, but he intended to spend every day making this up to her for the next hundred years.
âI get mad at you because youâre an asshole sometimes; nothing to do with emotions or love.â She joked, smiling widely with a hint of amusement in those gorgeous pale eyes.
She moved to run her fingertips softly across his mouth again, drawing his attention to how perfectly they gelled. Each touch tailored to the other almost perfectly, and how she could weaken him so easily.
âWe need to make this work,â Jake sighed. âI canât walk away againâI donât want to. This past month has been unbearable, like I had my insides wrenched out.â
âAre you asking me to be your PA again?â she asked softly, looking him dead in the eye with a hint of the old Emma confidence seeping back in. He couldnât help but smile at her.
âIâm asking for way more than that, ~Miele~.â His hands had moved back into that blonde curled hair he loved so much, fingertips grazing her scalp as he entangled its silky smoothness between his fingers. He loved that every time he touched her hair, it felt good and released more of her delicious scent.
âTell me what you want from me, be specific.â Emma had gone into full-on PA mode, that stern yet curious look. She was waiting for him to lay his cards on the table before she let too much of her own hopes out. Typical Emma, still guarding her heart until she was sure he wouldnât trample on her.
~I love you, bambina.~ Jake did not hesitate to do what she needed. No games, no hiding, no more misunderstandings. âI want you to be the one woman I share my bed and my life with. I want a real relationship with you, ~bambina~.â
He didnât think he could spell it out any clearer than that, and she deserved his full honesty after everything he had put her through. Somehow, though, even knowing she felt this way too, it was still terrifying to lay his soul bare out there.
Emma threw herself against him so suddenly it almost winded him and wrapped herself tightly around him as a child would to a parent. She squeezed him as tightly as she could.
âI want that too,â she whispered so softly it was barely audible, and his heart swelled tenfold. He slid his hand back into her hair, resting her head against him and cradling her close.
âYou better not be crying again,â he joked, warming more when she tilted back to look up at him with wide, happy eyes and the most gorgeous of Emma smiles. The one thing that had always captivated her to him was that genuine smile.
Even eons ago, when they first met, any hints of her natural smile had floored him. âNo tears ⦠Brownieâs whatsits.â Emma attempted some disastrous salute that had him grinning like a kid, pushing her hand down with an indulgent look. Maybe she wasnât perfect at everything she did, but she was perfect enough.
âThis ⦠us ⦠itâs really happening?â Jake needed to say it aloud and get to grips with the fact that this was real, and she wasnât just a dream resulting from a major emotional breakdown at losing her.
âIt looks that way.â Emma wiggled her fingers into Jakeâs and pulled his hand to nestle against his chest beside her face. He could feel the soft sensation of her breaths on his wrists, sending tingles all through him.
âYou may need to pinch me a couple of times to believe it, shorty.â Jake slid her off his body to bridge the height difference and kiss her again. His hand freed from hers was now skimming across the softest expanse of creamy throat, across her shoulder slowly. Her skin felt like the softest velvet.
Emma looked suddenly very serious, her facial expression dropping in an instant and her body tensing as quickly as she looked up at him with wariness. âWhat about Marissa?â Her voice broke subtly, emotion under the surface and pain in the depths of those eyes.
He cursed internally, hating that this was one situation he couldnât just wipe away, even for her. It was a stupid drunken mistake. âIâll be there for the baby, but as far as sheâs concerned, she means nothing. Itâs you. It will always be you.â
Itâs all he had, the best he could do, knowing that it was something he would need to deal with soon. He traced her eyebrow gently, trying so hard to erase that goddamn soul-crushing look of doubt in her eye. She was thinking about the one thing that could potentially ruin what they hadnât even started yet.
âHow do you feel about the baby?â she asked sheepishly, and he knew there was no getting around it. She wanted to feel secure, and it was his job to make her that way.
âIâd be lying if I said I was happy ⦠Iâm not ⦠but I did this, and I need to take responsibility. I hadnât ever thought about having kids, so this is all pretty overwhelming right now.â Jake screwed up his face at the thought of that wretched whore Marissa crossing his mindâs eye, all smug and repulsive.
âDonât walk away from your child.â Emma blinked up at him earnestly, her mind following through to what it was like in her own childhood with a guy who didnât want a kid. Jake leaned in to kiss her again, trying to erase some of that self-doubt and heartache almost instinctively. He hated that guy for doing that to his beautiful girl.
âThatâs not me, Emma ⦠Iâm nothing like your father. I wonât walk away.â He pushed her forehead with his reassuringly. âCan we drop this conversation for now, as I have something Iâd much rather be doing?â Jake grinned, determined to take her mind elsewhereâand her body too if she was willing.
Enough of the delaying and standing in a dark hall surrounded by strangers; he wanted to take her home and make this thing real. âSuch as?â Emma smiled warily, sudden doubt as to his motives, and it only made him want to grin. Always a little unsure and childlike, it was something that had always drawn him to her and made him want to take care of her.
She had no clue how vulnerable and naïve she often came across, even in full-blown school mistress PA mode. âTaking my girlfriend home and fucking her brains out. Itâs long overdue.â He grinned, hitting her with a ground-moving kiss to recapture some fire between them, hands sliding around her possessively and pushing her back into the wall to support them both.
Emma kissed him back with equal enthusiasm and passion, her body molding to his and hands sliding up inside between the buttons of his shirt. Bodies igniting with raw lust and on the verge of losing control. He knew there was no stopping them now. He was taking her home as soon as he stopped kissing herâand never letting her go again.