Tell Me No Lies by Delphine Dryden Page B

in mounting frustration as he stepped away. “On the
other hand, if you keep going and take whatever I dish out, you’ll be rewarded
for it.”
    He was walking around behind her again. Tess resisted the
urge to turn her head and watch when she heard him step out of the room. A few
seconds later, the heater clicked on and Jake was back. He had taken his shirt
off, revealing a body that was even better than it had been in high school.
Harder, a little hairier—and nothing boyish about it. He looked finished .
She could have spent hours gazing at the way his waist tapered, the symmetrical
muscles with that arrow of hair dividing his abs, begging her to scan lower.
    His fingers under her chin prevented that. She met his eyes
instead. Those were like they’d always been. Fathomless blue, wiser than his
years. I have a secret , they said. Are you finally ready to hear it?
    Oh she was. She was more than ready.
    There was a pause, thick with anticipation, and then Jake
swept down and latched his mouth onto hers.
    Any hint of hesitation Tess might have harbored was gone in
an instant, wiped out by the intoxicating feel of Jake’s lips caressing hers,
the strength in his body as he pulled her into a tighter embrace, settling her
against his long frame from knee to shoulder.
    Tess wasn’t sure at what point she’d wrapped her arms around
his neck. Possibly about the time he started building the kiss, nibbling her
lips open and slipping his tongue inside her mouth to explore more deeply. She
couldn’t help but respond. She felt like she’d been waiting her whole life for
this touch, this moment.
    In the back of her mind the doubt tried to re-assert itself,
reminding her that this was Jake. The same Jake she had known all her life. The
Jake she had played touch football with in fourth grade, but avoided playing
with once she was old enough to know what boys were for. Jake, who knew far too
much about her to be safe. He could break her if he wanted to. But she couldn’t
stop.
    When he finally pulled back, her first instinct was to
follow him, not let him re-create the distance between them even for a moment.
Her knees shook as the world slowly righted itself, and her lips buzzed faintly
from the brush of Jake’s afternoon stubble. Everything between those points
burned for more.
    Jake brought one hand up to her cheek, tracing her cheekbone
from nose to temple before tenderly stroking a wayward strand of hair behind
her ear. He carried the motion down the side of her neck, letting his thumb
slide over so his fingers encircled her throat with a steady pressure. Not
squeezing, not choking, but definitely enough that Tess couldn’t ignore it.
    Claiming. Those fingers spoke volumes, simply resting
against her windpipe. Give me everything. Trust me even with this. Put your
life in my hands.
    Tess panicked for a second, almost yanked her head away but
forced herself to stay still. She took a deep breath and released it slowly,
letting her shoulders relax, centering herself on the task of not resisting. An
acute wave of arousal rewarded her, but threw her even further off guard. He
was only touching her neck …and looking at her with obvious approval. As
the anxious tightness eased from her upper body, it reassembled itself into a
different kind of tension below, in the muscles of her lower abdomen and inner
thighs.
    When he spoke again it was so prosaic, so ordinary, she was
startled. Then slightly amused.
    “I just realized I need to call my dad and tell him I won’t
be in to the paper this afternoon either. This headache is killing me. It’ll
only take a minute.” He smiled then threw her for another loop. “Go upstairs
and wait for me. The master bedroom is the door on the left. Use the restroom
if you need to, then kneel on the floor next to the foot of the bed, facing the
door, and don’t move. Do you understand?”
    She nodded. It was simple enough, though it seemed like a
big step. A test, maybe. Probably.
    He lowered his