All That Jazz (Butler Cove #1)(40)

Oh, God.

My arms skated up his biceps to his hard shoulders until they grasped at his neck.

I was terrified he’d suddenly raise his head and stop kissing me. The feel of him against me, against my body, the heat of his mouth, the skin of his neck under my fingers was like what I imagined a hit of ecstasy felt like. It was sudden and overwhelming and euphoric. I let out a low moan of need, my mouth opening under his. God, yes.

His hands tightened on me. He lifted his mouth fractionally as if the sound shocked him. His eyes were dark, his brow furrowed. We each took a breath against each other’s mouths.

I licked my bottom lip. Please let him not stop, I want more. I leaned up and nipped at his mouth.

He let out a shallow breath that caught. “A really, really bad idea,” he murmured before his mouth was on mine again. His tongue licked into me. His hands couldn’t seem to find where to hold me as they moved from my hair, to my back, to my face. He held my face, angling my mouth to suit him. Jesus. My body strained against his without me even meaning to. I felt his erection thick and heavy between us. Holy shit. Yes. I pressed closer. Damn, he tasted good. I kissed him back with everything I had like I could imprint the taste and feel of him on me forever.

His mouth pulled from mine, his wet lips and hot breath skating to my ear and down my neck. I held his head, my fingers slipping into his silky hair.

“But really, really … really good,” I whispered, gasping as his teeth and tongue worked down my neck. The sound of his ragged breathing almost did me in as much as the feel of it against my skin.

“Fuck,” he murmured, his tone tortured as if he had no will against what he was doing.

An aching and relentless need had taken root low in my belly. The urge to open my legs and wrap them around him, seeking relief was almost becoming tunnel-like. I could barely think. How had a simple kiss moved from hot to … this … in less than two minutes? This was no kiss for anyone’s benefit. This was no favor. This was pure, raw, unadulterated want. This was what I wanted sex to feel like. This was not even close to how it felt when Chase kissed me. Chase was definitely the wrong choice. Joey. I wanted this with Joey. I wanted him to be my first. The sudden image of him naked on me, my legs wrapped around him as he kissed me like this, went off like a lust-bomb in my stomach and I whimpered—a strange tortured sound.

Fisting my hands in his hair, I pulled his face back to mine. His hips rocked against me, and his tongue sank into my mouth. We kissed, and we kissed. It was like we couldn’t stop. He became my air, and I thought I’d rather die kissing him than ever breathe again.

I vaguely became aware of voices and the tremble beneath our feet that told me people were walking down the boardwalk.

Joey pulled his mouth from mine, immediately stepping away.

Both of us were panting.

My heart pounded heavily against my ribs.

He exhaled sharply and ran a hand down his face. He stared at me. Shocked. He looked shocked.

Make that two of us.

I couldn’t help bringing my hand to my lips. They throbbed. The skin of my chin tingled where it had met relentlessly with his rough jaw.

A group of people were suddenly about twenty feet away walking toward us from the beach. Joey adjusted his shirt, pulling the bottom of it as if he could make it longer, then he stepped to the railing again, leaning forward over it, hiding evidence of his arousal.

Hysteria bubbled up inside me and I laughed. “Holy shit,” I said.

He huffed out a laugh too.

“Evening,” one of the group said as they passed.

Joey nodded his chin, looking over his shoulder at them, but still leaning forward. “Evening.”

I smiled dumbly.

As soon as they had passed, Joey pushed away from the railing. He grabbed my hand and headed up the boardwalk. “I’m taking you home.”

It was obvious his brief lapse in judgment was over. He was silent and brooding as we got into the truck.

He turned the engine over and flicked the headlights on. They washed over the palmetto scrub that surrounded the Islanders’ Beach parking.

“So you want to talk about that?” I asked eventually when the drive to the marina apartments was almost over and I could stand the silence no more.

“Nope. I sure don’t.”

“So, like, we pretend it didn’t happen?”

“Exactly. You asked me to kiss you, I kissed you. That’s it.”

Wow. Okay. A stab of what felt weirdly like panic zinged through me. I’d analyze that another time.

“Okay,” I said.

He flicked a glance at me.

I smiled.

“Okay?”

“Yep,” I said breezily. “A kiss is just a kiss. Sex is just sex. I think we’ve had this conversation before.”

He cleared his throat and flexed the fingers that were wrapped around the steering wheel.

“So about that comment I made to Courtney,” I said

“Which one?” he asked, his tone wary.

“You know. The one where I said you had a small dick. I think I can safely say I was mistaken.”

Joey made a choked sound.

“I’ve only felt it against me, mind you, but I’d say it’s really quite impressive.”

“God, your mouth.” Joey shook his head. “Seriously, I don’t know whether to keep a hand across your mouth when I see you, or—”