“But you like me anyway.”

I’m pretty sure he’s teasing me, but I nod anyway, because it’s the truth. “Yes, I do.”

“A lot.”

“Yeah.”

“Cross your heart?”

“Yes.” I frown, my face pressed to his muscular shoulder, some of the haze clearing from my mind. “And you? Do you like me?”

My heart thuds heavily while waiting for his reply.

“I do,” he says, quietly, easily, and I smile against the scratchy material of his shirt. “Very much.”

Jesse Lee has admitted he likes me. Which is just a technicality—speaking the words out loud when he’s been showing me as much—but it makes it more real somehow.

Not that it means anything. I mean, liking someone isn’t unusual. Friends like each other.

Friends don’t go down on each other, a smug voice whispers in my mind. They don’t kiss so much either, and they don’t roll in the sheets naked together.

Speaking of naked… My panties are lying somewhere on the ground, and it feels weird to be bare down there. Bare and wet from coming, and as he presses into me, his erection rubs against my slightly bruised mound, sending electric jolts to my insides, making me clench painfully.

For shame, Amber. You just came so hard you almost passed out.

But this man is like a drug. The more time I spend with him, the more I want him, and the way he’s moving his hands over my curves, the way his cock twitches…

“Embers.” My name is spoken in a growl, sending shivers over my skin. “Need to fuck you.”

No idea why these few crude words make me moan and burn for him so badly. “So do it,” I breathe, hitching one leg up, around his thigh and fumble at his fly. His hard-on is tenting the front of his pants.

His hand is already there, unzipping and pushing the heavy cloth down. His breathing is unsteady, shallow and fast, as he reaches into his briefs and pulls out his heavy cock, and like every time, the air leaves my lungs at the sight of it. Big, flushed dark, the head wet and glistening, a thick vein throbbing on the side.

I want to touch, and when I trail my fingers over its length, over the hot, silky skin and the weeping slit on the soft crown, he hisses between his teeth.

Next thing I know, I’m pushed back against the tree, my dress bunched up around my waist, and he’s kissing me hard.

This boy sure likes kissing me.

“Never kissed anyone before.” That’s what he said the first time we kissed, and that’s so sweet and sad and powerful, and—

He pushes into me, his cock breaching me slowly and surely, sliding into me. I let out a breath, taking him in, all of him, until he’s seated inside me, his pelvis pressed to mine. It’s overwhelming, and I squirm, needing something I can’t name to ease the incredible feeling of fullness, and I can hardly believe he fits inside me, so thick and long and hard like steel. I whimper, gripping his shoulders and rocking my hips.

“Fuck, kitten...” He finally starts to move, his eyes trained on my face. “God, you feel fucking amazing. Is this…?”

“Do it, JJ.” I rock my hips again and gasp at the pleasure.

“Goddamn.” His hips snap forward as he drives into me once, twice. “Christ.”

My mouth falls open, a cry rising in my chest, and he clamps his lips over mine, swallowing down the sound. He cups the back of my head, keeping our mouths fused as we move together, rocking and rubbing. Mouths crushed together, tongues clashing, we race toward the end, the drag and pull of his hard cock against my inner walls maddening. Pleasure sparkles at the base of my spine, and I moan in his mouth.

He breaks the kiss, gasping, his hips jerking wildly, his cock impossibly big as it pushes deep into me, filling me to the brim. Pushing me over the edge.

The fall is exquisite. Delicious. Ecstatic. I think I leave my shuddering body for a moment and float above, in a cloud of white light.

Then I come down, and I’m still moving, still moaning with pleasure, milking every last drop of it.

Of him.

Because he’s coming hard, his jaw clenched against a shout as he spills inside me, his cum hot like fire, his forehead pressed to mine as his hips buck. I brush my lips over his, and he chases after my mouth, even as he’s still coming, still spilling, grunting with pleasure.

Gradually, his movements slow down. He slumps against me, slowly softening, still buried in me. He slams a hand into the trunk above my head.

“Holy fuck. That was…” He shakes his head. “Damn.”

He feels so good inside me, even not fully hard, and I love holding on to his trembling body as he struggles to catch his breath. Love the musk of his clean sweat and the nutty scent of his seed, the fainter notes of cinnamon and spice drawing me until I bury my nose where his shoulder meets his neck and inhale deep.

God. So delicious. I’m acting like a mad woman, and I don’t care. Besides, nobody is here to see me.

I hope.

“All right, kitten?” He lowers my leg and smooths down my dress, then he lifts one hand and strokes my cheek. It’s too dark to see the color of his eyes, but I feel his lips when they touch the tip of my nose.

“Yeah.”

I should hate the nickname. Kitten. Ridiculous.

And yet it’s cute. As for calling me Embers, I can’t complain anymore. Not when I know that Embers means something important to him.

“Not so romantic here,” he says. “I know that. I’d buy you flowers. Would you like that?”

Okay, I’m speechless again. “You’d buy me flowers?”

But he hates shopping, is the only coherent thought I manage.

“Hell yeah, I’d buy you flowers. And chocolates, and whatever you want.” He cups my face. “Red roses?”

“No.” I look away, face heating. What girl doesn’t like red roses? “White roses. They stand for new beginnings.” I shrug at his arched brow. “My mom’s a florist.”

He nods, his expression going blank. How weird, I think, that he loves babies but goes stiff when I speak of my parents. That he talks about sending me roses after having sex against a tree trunk. So many contradictions.

“Ready to go?” He takes my hand, and I let him pull me out of the cover of trees, heading toward the street, my mind buzzing.

It’s not until we’re sitting in a cab and rolling that I realize I’m still not wearing my panties, and that they’re lying somewhere in the park.

Then Jesse kisses me, and they’re again forgotten. Who needs panties, anyway, with this man? They’d only get in the way.

***

The house is frigging huge. The gate is open, music and noise spilling into the street. Inside there are pools with stone alligators at the edges. The small crowd of the wedding has expanded. There have to be at least a hundred people milling about the grounds, shadows until they move close to the torches stuck in the ground and the illuminated pools. A long table with food stands on one side. The scent of water tells me we’re on the lake shore.

Crazy place. Never expected anything so grand. I hope Asher and Audrey are enjoying their reception. After what I heard during the ceremony, they more than deserve it.

If only I enjoyed this, too…

Jesse’s arm is a welcome weight around my shoulders, and I’m grateful beyond words for his presence, but as we stroll along one pool, watching candles and bunches of flowers floating in the milky, lit-up water, I know I have to let him do his thing—talk to his friends, catch up with them, talk to new people, without me attached like a leech to his side. Both for his sake, and mine.

I mean, it doesn’t have to be for the whole time, right? I can go find Kayla and Ev, at the very least, and return to him later.

If he’s still available and willing to hold my hand.

“Trust me,” he said earlier.

Maybe I should. Maybe I should trust myself, too, to survive for an hour without need of a babysitter.