Chapter 10

Jack wondered if he was dreaming. He must’ve fallen asleep at his kitchen table and was having a fever dream. There was no possible way that Gwen Parker was at his door, telling him what he thought he’d never hear.

But then he realized that it was misting outside, and Gwen was starting to shiver. He hustled her inside and grabbed one of the two blankets from his bed, wrapping it around her shoulders.

“Are you drunk?” he snapped.

Gwen blinked. “No.”

“Are you high?”

“Um, also no.”

“Then why the hell are you here?” He knew he sounded like a dick. But he wasn’t capable of lowering his voice right now.

“I mean, if you want me to leave, I will. I don’t want to bother you—”

Jack acted on instinct. Pulling her into his arms, he kissed her. She made a little yelp of surprise, but a moment later, she melted against him. Jack sifted his fingers through her silky hair. She tasted like vanilla and sunshine.

“Are you sure?” His voice was hoarse.

“I think so.” At his frown, she added quickly, “I just...I need to go slowly. If I want you to stop, you need to stop.”

He furrowed his brows. “That’s obvious.”

“We should probably choose a safe word. Just to be, you know, safe.”

Jack stepped away, his brain going a mile a minute. He also had no idea what Gwen was talking about. A safeword? Would they have to write out a contract for each of them to sign, too? Whatever happened to just enjoying each other without talking about every single detail?

“A safe word,” he repeated, skeptical.

“It’s a word you wouldn’t normally say during sex that means ‘stop.’”

“As opposed to saying the word ‘stop?’”

Gwen chuckled. “You’ve never read or watched ~Fifty Shades of Grey~, have you?”

“I don’t even know what that is.”

That made Gwen laugh harder, which Jack admittedly didn’t appreciate.

“Have you been living under a rock?” asked Gwen.

“I don’t have the Internet out here. So, pretty much.”

“No Internet? Goodness, you really are an old man in a young man’s body, aren’t you? I’m surprised you didn’t come to the door with a shotgun pointed at me while yelling at me to get off your lawn.”

“I don’t own a shotgun. I’m a fisherman. Guns aren’t much use for catching things that swim. And I don’t have a lawn.”

They stared at each other, the tension lengthening. Jack suddenly wished he didn’t live in this tiny house with barely any furniture. Gwen had never been inside his house. Very few people, in fact, had come inside the place, besides a few women who’d come over for the night when they couldn’t find a room in town.

“I think our safe word should be salmon,” said Gwen, breaking through Jack’s thoughts. “Nobody says salmon during sex.”

“Clearly you’ve never slept with a fisherman,” was his droll reply.

That response seemed to shatter the tension. Gwen laughed, a sound that went straight to Jack’s groin. With her red hair tumbling down her shoulders, her cheeks pink and her mouth red from his kisses, she looked delicious. Seductive. Dangerous.

“Salmon it is.” He approached her and touched a strand of hair. “We won’t do anything you don’t want to do,” he said seriously.

Tears sprang to her eyes. “That means so much to me.”

Jack didn’t want to see her tears. It made him feel strangely guilty, like he was taking on something he knew would end in failure. But he couldn’t resist the temptation she presented. He was only human, after all.

“This isn’t a relationship, either. We’re enjoying each other until we decide we’re done,” he said.

She nodded. “Does that mean we can date other people?”

The thought of Gwen with another man sent a stake through his heart. Gritting his teeth, he replied, “Yeah, I guess it would.”

“I’m kidding, by the way. I’m not interested in anyone else at the moment.” Her pupils dilated. “Just you.”

“Thank fucking God.” He growled the words and kissed her.

She mewled, the sound sweet to his ears. Pushing the blanket to the floor, he pressed her against him, needing to feel her curves nestled against his hardness. It took all his self-control not to strip her naked and have her right here on the kitchen table like some animal.

~This is just sex. Nothing else~. He knew that. He knew this was temporary. He just had to keep telling himself that, or he’d lose himself letting Gwen burrow further into his heart.

When he slipped his tongue into her mouth, she stiffened. He broke the kiss to look into her eyes. “Too much?”

“Just surprised, that’s all.”

“Have you never been French kissed?”

“I have, it’s just—” She sighed. “I’ve never liked it.”

Jack realized that this wasn’t going to be as easy as he’d thought. He’d assumed that with a little patience, he could shed Gwen’s reservations within a night. Maybe two. Clearly, he’d been way over-confident.

He took her to his bed, glad that he’d recently washed his sheets. They sat together, facing each other, still fully clothed.

“Do you trust me?” he asked quietly.

She let out a shuddering breath. “I trust you.”

“Then can you trust me that I want to make you feel good? This is all about you. Not me.”

She nodded. “Okay. But if it gets too much, I’ll use the safe word. Salmon.”

“You can scream salmon into my ear if you need to.”

That made her laugh a little. “That’s not a sexy image at all.”

“No, but you are.” He twined her hair around his fingers. He wished it were daylight so he could see all the various colors in her hair. He inhaled the scent of the silky strands before kissing her softly on the side of her neck.

Gwen sighed. Jack kissed her neck, peppering soft touches of his mouth along her shoulder and then upward, to the sensitive place behind her ear. She shivered when he tugged lightly at her earlobe with his teeth.

“You’re so soft,” he marveled. “I want to touch every inch of your skin.”

“I do, too.”

He growled. His cock was hard and aching already and he’d barely touched her. If she touched him right now, he might explode in his boxers, he was that turned on.

He rubbed the back of her neck. Gwen tipped her head back, sighing. When he turned her around so he could massage her shoulders, she truly began to relax under his touch.

Jack had figured out long ago that a little bit of effort with women in the beginning yielded better results later on. Besides, he liked just enjoying a woman’s body, from head to toe.

He pushed one of Gwen’s bra straps down, and he waited. She didn’t stiffen. Kissing the bare patch of skin, he kept running his hands along her spine, working out any knots he found.

“I had no idea you could give a massage like this,” said Gwen. “I would’ve asked you to massage my shoulders years ago.”

“I’m just good with my hands.”

Her expression was flirtatious as she looked over her shoulder at him. “I can feel that.”

He pushed her hair aside so he could kiss and lick the nape of her neck. When goosebumps rose on her skin, he knew he’d found a sensitive spot. He then reached under her shirt until he reached the hook of her bra.

“Can I take this off?” asked Jack.

“Um, not yet. Sorry.” Gwen shot him a pleading look.

“Don’t apologize. Nothing to be sorry for.”

He removed his hand, instead focusing on making her relax. He eventually turned her back around and began kissing her again. As the kisses deepened and lengthened, Jack touched her bottom lip with his tongue. This time, she allowed him in. He felt triumph shoot through his veins.

It didn’t take long for them to lie down on the bed, facing each other. Jack was touching Gwen’s bare skin under her shirt, while Gwen was doing the same to him.

“I want to see you,” he murmured.

Gwen inhaled deeply, as if gathering her courage. Then she nodded.

Jack slowly slipped her shirt off and then, reaching behind her, unfastened her bra. He didn’t immediately reveal her bare breasts. Instead, he kept kissing her, tracing figure eights on the tops of her breasts, letting her get used to the sensations.

Gwen kept wiggling to get closer to him. When she began to tug off his shirt, Jack didn’t hesitate.

“Let me see these beauties.” He tugged at the center of her bra.

To his surprise, Gwen slipped the bra off herself, flashing him a wide grin. But her courage failed when she realized how hard he was staring at her breasts.

“They’re kind of small.” Gwen tried to cover herself now, but Jack peeled her arms away.

“They’re perfect.”

He kissed her, coaxing her, until she let him touch and caress her breasts. Her nipples were sensitive buds that made her gasp when he tweaked them.

Everything faded away for Jack. It was only Gwen, and this bed, and the taste, touch, and scent of her. He wanted to make her moan, beg, even scream. He wanted to kiss every crease, every secret part of her. He wanted her to let go of the fear that had been holding her back for so long.

When he began to palm her ass, rubbing her core through her jeans, he was so intent on kissing her that he didn’t hear her at first.

Then Gwen was pinching his ear and saying repeatedly, “Salmon, salmon—Jack!”

He stopped. His brain screeched to a halt, and it felt like a bucket of ice water was dashed on top of him. He sat up, allowing Gwen to scramble away from the bed. She was holding her shirt in front of her and breathing fast.

“Gwen,” he said, taking her hand. “Gwen, breathe. It’s okay. I’m sorry I scared you.”

He could’ve kicked himself for not hearing her. He should’ve been paying more attention, and now he’d probably made things worse.

Gwen took in a shuddering breath, then another. She then shot him a wobbly smile. “I’m okay. Sorry. I was having a good time until—”

“Until it was too much.”

She looked like she was trying not to cry, and it made his heart crack in two.

“I don’t know if this is going to work. I’m probably too much of a mess.” Gwen was staring at her hands.

“Gwen, look at me.”

She did, finally.

“If you don’t want me to touch you ever again, I won’t. If you only want to cuddle with our clothes on, we can. I don’t care. There’s no agenda here.”

She finally let him hug her. “Thank you,” she whispered.

He didn’t want her to go, but it seemed as though she needed some space. Jack kissed her goodbye, and she just said thank you for a second time.

Jack returned to his bed, the scent of Gwen still on the sheets. He was still hard as a rock. Unzipping his jeans, he stroked his cock, thinking of Gwen and hoping he’d get another chance to show her how good things could be between them.