Make Me Melt(44)

Caroline did. He lifted her higher and braced her against the cool tiled wall. He fused their lips together, and she welcomed the hot slide of his tongue against hers. She gasped as he pressed against the most intimate part of her, before he pushed upward, thrusting himself into her eager body.

She gave a small cry of rapture and raised her legs higher, wrapping them around his hips even as she met the thrusts of his tongue against hers with equal fervor.


God, he felt incredible, all pulsating power. She rode him just as fiercely, gripping his hips tightly with her thighs and using them to lever herself up and down on his shaft. Her fingers speared through his hair, and she moaned into his mouth.

He was everywhere, surrounding her and inside her, his breath mingling with hers and his heart pounding wildly against her own. His skin was slick with water, and his powerful muscles bunched with effort as he pumped into her.

“I can’t— I have to—” With a hoarse cry, Jason drove into her one last time, and the raw need in his voice was enough to push Caroline over the edge, as well. She clung to his neck, holding on to him for dear life as she fractured around him in an explosion of pleasure.

They stood locked together like that for several moments before Jason allowed Caroline to slide from his body. Turning the water off, Jason snatched a towel from the rack and wrapped it around her, then used a second towel to cover her hair. He slung a third towel around his lean hips and led her back to the bed.

They lay sprawled across the bedclothes, their breathing still a little uneven. Finally, when she thought she could move again, Caroline raised herself on one elbow and leaned over him, tracing a pattern over his chest with one finger.

“That was unbelievable,” she said.

He turned his head and looked at her, and she saw the smile of masculine satisfaction on his face. “Yeah, it was.”

Reaching out, he caught a loose tendril of damp hair that had escaped her towel and wound it around his finger. He tugged on it gently, until she was forced to move her face closer to his.

“So who is Patrick?” he asked, releasing her hair and stroking his thumb over her lower lip. “He’s called you at least a couple of times.”

Caroline wouldn’t have thought Jason was capable of jealousy, but the expression in his eyes was so intent that she wondered if she might be wrong.

“He’s a social worker in Richmond.”

“Go on,” he urged.

She couldn’t talk about Patrick without revealing the pro bono work she did for Child Protective Services. She didn’t know why she was so reluctant to share that with Jason.

“Are you romantically involved?”

“Of course not.” She couldn’t quite suppress a smile at the thought of kissing Patrick Dougherty. At fifty years old, he carried about thirty extra pounds and his ruddy face bore the evidence of a hard life. He drank too much, but she couldn’t even blame him for that. He was a good man, and he’d seen some terrible things during his years as a social worker. She’d probably drink, too, if she was in his position.

“Then why are you smiling?”

Caroline gave Jason an exasperated look. “He and I have worked together on some child welfare cases, okay? But he’s old enough to be my father, and even if I was into older guys, he’s not my type.”

He looked at her with sharp interest. “You work child welfare? I thought you handled corporate law.”

“I do some pro bono work on the side for the city of Richmond.”

“What kind of pro bono work?”

Caroline hesitated. He had shared his background with her. The very least she could do was tell him about her work, even if it meant he would guess the impact he had made on her life. “I’m a child advocate, mostly working with kids who’ve run away from home or gotten into trouble. I try to keep them out of juvie, make sure they have a safe place to go every night.”

Jason was silent for several minutes. “You’re more like your father than you want to admit. Does your pro bono work have anything to do with a certain angry kid that your dad once rescued?”

She risked a glance at his face, but his expression was so tender that she found herself coming clean. “You’re the reason for everything I do, every decision I make. I couldn’t even come back to San Francisco because I was too afraid I would see you, and that you’d reject me like you did all those years ago.”

“You know why I had to do that.”

Caroline nodded. “Do you think my father ever guessed?”

“What? That I had the hots for his daughter?”

“Oh, right,” she scoffed. “No, that I had the hots for you.”

Jason gave a half smile. “I think he knew. I wanted to know everything that was going on in your life, and I wasn’t always so subtle or smooth in getting the information from him that I wanted.”

Caroline stared at him. “You used to ask my father about me?”

He actually had the grace to look embarrassed. “Well, not directly, of course. But I pretty much knew everything you were doing, even when I was away at school.”

“I never knew. My father never said a word.”

“He probably didn’t want to encourage it. I’m sure I wasn’t exactly what he’d envisioned for his daughter.”

“That’s not true. You were the son he always wanted.” Dipping her head, she pressed a lingering kiss against his mouth. “For myself, you were just the guy I always wanted.”