Too Hot to Handle (Romancing the Clarksons #1)(69)



“Yes,” she moaned, curling around Jasper as he advanced toward the stairs, still impaled on his dick. There was a mirror at the top of his staircase, and something about the way he could see her dangling feet vibrate every time he took a step made him hot beyond words. Almost hot enough to drop down into the top step and f*ck, f*ck, f*ck until they were both shaking and screaming. “Please, hurry,” she said near his ear. “I’m dying. I’m not going to make it.”

“You will,” Jasper returned through clenched teeth. As soon as they cleared the door frame to his bedroom, Rita was flat on her back on the bed, Jasper covering as much of her body as he could. Arms wrapped beneath her shoulders, stomachs flush. Not able to get close enough. With a powerful need to feel the orgasm move through her body, Jasper fastened their mouths together and worked himself into Rita, again and again, groaning over the feel of her heels buried in his lower back, digging his own heels into the bed so he could f*ck her as hard as humanly possible. “Go on, Rita. Give me that come. Give it to me in my bed. Mess up my sheets like you’ve messed me up.”

Dammit, the anger in his voice had no place between them. There was room for nothing between them. Nothing. But he couldn’t rein it in, couldn’t stop the overflow. Tears were rolling down her temples, from regret or arousal, but her body urged him on. Begged his body to use hers. Her fingernails broke the skin of his ass as he pumped, her * starting to quake, and Jasper kissed her through the storm, guiding her safely to the other side, asking for her to do the same.

“Rita. My God, Rita.” He tucked his sweating forehead into her neck and rocked himself into her perfection one final time, letting go with a muffled roar. It should have been enough to clear him from the downpour, but all the same obstacles remained on the other side, urging Jasper to gather her body close and hope they disappeared. “I guess…I guess we’ll make love on the next try, huh?”

His attempt at humor didn’t ease the tension in Rita’s shoulders any, nor in his. But she didn’t leave. She didn’t leave. She allowed Jasper to tuck her into the safety of his body, falling asleep shortly after. Jasper was the only one left awake to hear the timer go off on the oven downstairs.

Done.





Chapter Thirty-One



Rita was unsettled. Everything was unsettled. Her stomach housed an army of nerves so rowdy they were leaving little footprints wherever they trampled. Looking back at the last twenty-four hours, the revelations from her siblings and herself, the all-night, mind-blowing sexual awakening, she should have been exhilarated. Relieved. Definitely not stressed, being that she’d lost count of her orgasms somewhere around eight. But the man she’d gone to sleep beside, the man who’d acted as her second set of hands while making a soufflé? That was not the stiff, quiet man who’d just dropped her off outside the motel on his way to the Liquor Hole.

Of course, when Rita walked into the room, Peggy greeted her like a college roommate does after a kegger. Big, speculative eyes and a knowing grin. Although, to be fair, that was the expression Peggy usually wore. Whatever she saw in Rita’s face caused some of her enthusiasm to slip, however. “Sage is trying to read and I was distracting her, so I’m heading Aaron’s way to check on his tooth. You want to walk with me?”

Until yesterday, Rita would have avoided Aaron like the Black Death, but things were different now. They’d both admitted to being f*ckups, putting them on even footing for the first time in—forever. And, honestly, she didn’t feel like avoiding much of anything, anymore. “Okay, sure.”

Rita tossed her purse onto the bed and followed her sister out of the room. “Why does Aaron need his tooth checked? Isn’t that something he can do himself?”

Peggy combed slim fingers through her curls. “He’s refusing to take the unmanly painkillers, so I’ve been crushing them up and hiding them in his food. Like a good sister.” She wrinkled her nose at Rita while locking the motel-room door. “You’re not behaving like a woman who spent the night getting the bejeezus boned out of her.”

“Where do you come up with this stuff?” Rita hedged, following Peggy down the path. Having no desire whatsoever to describe the blurred line that had formed overnight between her and Jasper, she intended to leave the conversation there. Until she remembered Peggy’s attempts to talk—actually talk—to her on their first night in Hurley. How Rita had basically blown her off. How hard could it be to make a small effort, especially when Peggy had helped unburden all of them by forcing the trust exercise? “How does one usually behave when they’ve had the bejeezus boned out of them?”

“Hmm.” Peggy visibly tried to hide her grin, but white blasted across her face when her lips surrendered the fight. “There’s usually some gloating. I could really go for some gloating.”

“Gloating.” Rita drummed her index finger against her lips. “I think towards the end, I bypassed Jesus and actually glimpsed the three wise men.”

“Oh, no fair.” The words traveled out of Peggy’s mouth on a giggle. “I’ve only had three-wise-men sex once.”

“Well, it is the trickiest kind of sex, due to the wise men being very barn-animal adjacent. You don’t want to go quite that far.”

Holy shit. Who knew it would feel so awesome to make her little sister laugh? Watching Peggy bend at the waist and let loose the musical sound, she could see Peggy at age nine, laughing exactly the same way on her towel at the community pool.

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