Calling All the Shots by Katherine Garbera

her. He kept thrusting
into her and then she felt his hips jerk, a flood of warmth jetting into
her.
    She was shaking and he was sweating as he leaned down over her.
His chest resting on her breasts, his head nestled into the curve of her neck.
He dropped the softest, sweetest kisses on her shoulder and it was all she could
do not to turn and drop a kiss on the top of his head.
    She wrapped her arms around him and her legs around his waist
and held him to her. She was careful not to let herself get too attached to this
moment but she couldn’t help it. This was Jack Crown, the man she’d never
thought she’d have in her bed.
    And she had to say that her dreams were nothing compared to the
reality of having him. He stood up and pulled out of her body. Suddenly she felt
vulnerable and shy and she sat up, pushing her long hair back behind her
shoulder.
    “Um…I need to clean up,” he said.
    As far as postcoital endearments went, those sucked, she
thought. She’d slept with other guys who’d left her as soon as the deed was done
but she’d expected something more from Jack. She’d forgotten that by his own
definition he was still a frog. Hoping that her kiss would turn him into a
prince. “That’s it? That’s all you’re going to say? My kisses obviously weren’t
special enough to turn you from a frog.”
    “Dammit, I’m not sure what else to say,” he admitted. “I want
to take you in my arms and carry you down the hall to the bedroom and then spend
the rest of the day making love to you.”
    “Then why don’t you?” she asked because there were times when
she wanted to pretend she lived in this fantasy world with Jack. A world where
he thought she was hot and sexy and neither of them had a past or a future to
worry about.
    “I’m not sure you’re ready for it,” he said. “And I’m not sure
I am, either.”
    She nodded. “Go clean up.”
    Aching deep inside, she hopped off the table. She wrapped her
arms around her waist, but it wasn’t enough of a comfort. She felt raw and
exposed and all the good feelings she’d had just seconds earlier were gone.
    Then she felt Jack’s big hand on her shoulder and the other one
at her waist. “Damn it.”
    “What?”
    “I can’t do this. I know it would be better to give you some
time to adjust to things, but I need you, Willow. And for once I’m taking what I
want.”
    He lifted her in his arms and carried her down the hall to her
bedroom. They spent the rest of the day in her full-size bed—which was too small
for Jack—making love and pretending that the real world didn’t exist.
    “Thank you for this,” he said as the afternoon started to
darken into evening. “I think we had a date planned for tonight. How about I
head home and you get dolled up?”
    She nodded, afraid to say anything. Her emotions were too close
to the surface and if she wasn’t careful she was going to reveal too much.
    She put on her robe and got out of bed when all she really
wanted to do was to stay there curled in his arms. God, not knowing if he’d died
in that shark attack had shaken her too much. What had she been thinking to
bring him here? If she thought she’d had a hard time keeping him out of her mind
when he’d been just a boy from her past how was she going to do it now that he’d
slept in her bed.
    She let him leave, then stood in front of the mirror staring at
her tousled hair and the red marks on her neck from his kisses and beard stubble
and wondered where her willpower had gone.

Eight
    J ack tried to keep his mind on the date
night he’d promised Willow but really he was just glad he’d gotten out of her
bed when he did. His temptation had been to stay there and wrap himself around
her. To hold on to her so she’d never disappear from his life. And he knew that
when he felt that way about anything it was doomed to end.
    He entered his apartment and showered, washing the smell of sex
and Willow off his body. He’d checked his email and voice mail