All That Jazz (Butler Cove #1)(74)
There’s a sound at my sliding glass door and I jump. “You don’t sleep with this unlocked, I hope,” Joey says as he slides it open and slips inside in running shorts and a hoodie. I hold my breath. I’m assailed with images and sensations of him pinning me against the wall last night. Letting my breath out slowly, I try to act normal. This is going to be so freaking hard.
I probably did forget to lock the door last night. It’s typical that it would be the first thing Joseph says.
“She’s not answering her phone,” he says.
“Cell service is for shit on Daufuskie,” I say, then nod at my computer. “So it gets worse,” I go on and angle my screen so he can see.
He looks over my shoulder and the scent of him freshly showered causes me to cross and uncross my legs. He left me unsatisfied after all. That’s all it is.
And about that … what a jerk.
I instantly feel better.
“Who is this?” he asks at my screen.
“That would be Ashley. I went to school with her. And no, nothing happened apart from her engineering that idiotic selfie of her making out with Jack’s ear.”
Joey scowls at the picture.
I close my laptop, breaking his trance. “I’m thinking I should go with Dan on the boat to intercept them at Daufuskie,” I suggest. “He leaves in an hour. You said the reporter is hanging around the house, so we don’t want to go back there. I can see if Dan can drop us at a dock in Savannah instead, then you can take my car from here and meet us there.”
“Good idea, but you go to Savannah, I’ll go to the island to get her.” Joey folds his arms.
“No offense, but K is going to need her best friend not her overbearing, judgmental, I-told-you-so brother.”
“Wow. Tell me how you really feel.” He sounds fine, but a flicker of hurt crosses his face.
“Sorry. No filter. As you know. But think about it.”
He stuffs his hands in the pockets of his hoodie. “Yeah, I can see your point. Also I might feel inclined to deck Jack’s smug face. He spent the night debauching my sister while leaving this f*cking mess in his wake.” He pulls the folded pages out his pocket, holding them out.
“It’s not his fault, Joey,” I say, taking them. “I know it’s a sore spot for you because she’s your sister. But he’s a good guy. I promise.”
He purses his lips but doesn’t say anything.
I scan through. It’s pretty bad, but it will be old news soon. I just have to convince Keri Ann she can deal with it. “Anyway, I’m sure what they did last night was probably closer to making love than what we did against the entryway wall in your house. If anyone was ‘debauched,’ I was. And by the way, what century are we living in? Debauching? Seriously?” What on earth possesses me to just bring it up like this? I don’t believe myself sometimes.
“Are you done?”
I shrug.
“What we did last night wasn’t debauched. Granted it wasn’t how I imagined it would be when I got to be inside you again.”
My stomach drops at his words. He’s imagined being inside me … again?
“We f*cked,” I offer up the explanation as a bizarre means of protection.
He pins me with his blue eyes, then leans down and gets in my face. “It was way more than f*cking and you know it.”
I swallow as heat flashes through my veins and my throat constricts. “Actually, I don’t. Besides,” I can’t help adding, “it wasn’t that good for me, anyway.”
Joey sets his arms on either side of me and leans down closer, his face inches from mine. His eyes haven’t left me. “I love how you just say whatever the hell is on your mind. And I love that I’m on your mind.”
“You’re not. At all.” I shake my head.
He smiles. “Liar.”
“Remove yourself from my personal space, Joseph,” I warn.
“I’m planning on getting very, very intimate with your personal space.” He lifts up slightly, a hand coming between us and flicking open the top button of my jeans. “We have an hour, and I intend to use it wisely.”
My hand grabs his. “What the hell are you doing?” I ask and cannot stand that my voice is breathy.
“You quite rightly pointed out my ungentlemanly and thoughtless behavior.” His hands continue working on my buttons, and then he’s curled his fingers over the waistband and is tugging. “I think I should be allowed the opportunity to set things right.”
“I—”
He cuts me off with his mouth on mine, his tongue slipping lazily between my lips.
It’s my weakness. I love his mouth.
My hand lets go of his and reaches up to thread into his hair. Why am I so easy when it comes to Joey? I can’t let him decimate me like he did last night. He kisses me deeply. He kisses me over and over until I’m a gooey mess of memories of our make out sessions.
I’m stuck deeply in nostalgia and arousal. It’s not a healthy mix. “Stop,” I manage on a breath.
Joey blinks like he’s in a fog. I ignore the jig my heart does that he can lose himself in me too. “Jazz,” he whispers. Then he’s picking me up effortlessly and depositing me on the bed. He’s tugging my unbuttoned jeans down my bare legs and over my bare feet. I’m not stopping him. Why am I not stopping him? I’m watching his face, that’s why. I’m seeing his eyes fix on my pale pink underwear. His jaw flexes and his nostrils flare. A lock of his dark blond hair falls across his eyes, and he looks up at me through it. Is he waiting for me to stop him? Because he looks so delicious looking up at me hungrily like that, there’s no way I want him to stop. Plus, my body is burning up from the inside out. He better be able to put me out of my misery.