I’d failed her on every level.

“How long until they get here?” Abby closed the distance between us and went up on her toes to kiss me.

“A couple of hours?” I guessed, as her hand slid beneath my shirt and her mouth trailed down my neck, her tongue darting out to taste my skin in hot little increments.

“I know exactly how I want to spend it,” she murmured against my skin, and I groaned beneath her touch.

Abby pulled my shirt up, and I lifted my arms to let her remove it. My tee hit the floor near hers. Her kisses continued down my neck while I slid my hands over her shoulders and down her arms. She felt amazing. Warm, and smooth, and soft. She smelled like strawberries and tasted like…Abby.

That was the moment I realized that no matter what her father said, I would not be able to let her go.

EIGHTEEN

Abby

Jace tilted my face up, then leaned down to kiss me, and desire exploded deep inside me. My breasts ached in anticipation of his touch. I’d never wanted anyone or anything the way I wanted him, and I couldn’t seem to touch enough of him.

And I could see from the bulge straining against his zipper that the feeling was mutual.

“Come here,” Jace whispered against my neck. He tugged me toward the armchair in one corner of the room, where he sank onto the edge of the cushion and pulled me close so that I was framed between his thighs. I could feel the heat from his skin through his jeans, but that wasn’t enough. My body demanded more.

He reached behind my head to tug the rubber band from my hair, and curls fell across my back and over my shoulders. “You are so beautiful.”

No, he was beautiful. I skimmed his chest lightly with my fingers. I was still getting used to the fact that I could touch him whenever I wanted, and that privilege was about to be ripped away from me.

Surely, separating me from Jace was crueler than any other punishment the council could come up with.

Jace leaned forward and anticipation made my heart race. My eyes closed as he lifted my left breast. He dropped a kiss on my nipple, and when I groaned, his tongue darted out for a taste.

“Mmmm…” I said as his mouth closed over my nipple, sucking gently. I leaned closer, wordlessly asking for more, and he took more into his mouth, teasing the tip with his tongue. The bulge in his pants swelled against my leg, and my body answered with an aching throb of its own, low, hot, and insistent.

Jace’s tongue trailed toward my right breast, leaving my left damp and neglected in the cold room. I groaned when he took my right nipple into his mouth, and his hand slid around my waist to my back, then lower, squeezing me through a thin layer of lace.

“Jace.” I said, and he sat up to look at me, his pupils dilated from arousal. I held his gaze while I slid my fingers beneath the sides of my panties, intending to step out of them. “I want more.”

“Abby, wait.” Yet the gruff timbre of his voice said that waiting was the last thing he wanted. “Are you sure? I don’t want to rush this just because you think we won’t get another chance.”

Though I was right about that. I could see the truth in his eyes. If the council locked me up, or if my dad refused my transfer request…

But that wasn’t what this was about. “I’m not rushing it. I want you, Jace.”

The heat in his eyes burned through me. Touching him was like holding fire in my hand. “Then let me do it.”

My heart slammed against my sternum as he slid off the chair to kneel in front of me, angling us so that the wall was at my back. He lifted my hands onto his shoulders and looked up at me, and something about seeing him from that angle—his face inches from my stomach, his hands wrapped around the backs of my thighs—made me ache in sensitive places. His hands slid slowly up my legs, skimming my skin so lightly I wanted to lean into his touch. I let my head fall back against the wall, my eyes closed, content just to feel him.

His fingers hooked the sheer lace stretched across my hips, then tugged it slowly down. So slowly I started to complain—until he kissed the point of my left hip. His mouth was warm, and soft, and…several inches from where I truly wanted it.

A needy sound rose from my throat. Jace bit my hip gently, just the graze of his teeth against flesh, as he slid that scrap of material down my thighs, skimming my overheated skin with his fingers. He let go, and the lace fell, but his hands continued their slow exploration until he lifted first my right foot, then my left, to push the fallen garment away.

His hands crept back up and slid over my backside. Then he lifted my right leg and I caught my breath when he hooked my knee over his shoulder. He forged a trail of kisses up my thigh, and my pulse raced faster with every drop of fire left in the wake of his lips.

Anticipation pooled inside me, hot and aching. At the first smooth stroke of his tongue where I’d never been tasted before, my eyes fell closed and every muscle in my body tensed beneath the delicious, wet pressure.

Jace groaned, and the sound rumbled through my most sensitive places. His next lick was longer, the next deeper, and by the time his fingers slid inside me, an exquisite spiral of friction and pressure was already building, teasing me toward a peak I’d only ascended once before.

“Oh…” I breathed, and Jace groaned again. His tongue worked faster, his fingers moving gently, applying pressure inside, and my hands slid into his hair. “Oh…” Pleasure erupted in a hot wash of sensation, and I lost all mastery of language. Jace kept moving, stroking, as I clenched around him, until I exhaled and let my head fall back against the wall again.

Then reason returned, and I remembered what I’d really wanted. “Oh, no, I wanted to…”

Jace smiled up at me, and new flames kindled where his hand was still nested. “We’re not done.” His fingers slid out of me slowly, trailing forward and up, and I shuddered as the touch triggered blissful aftershocks. He stood, and I reached for his waistband.

“We should be in my bed,” he whispered as I tugged on the denim restraining his button.

“Why? You seem more than adept at…upright.” I pushed the button through its hole, and his pulse spiked.

Jace groaned as I pushed his jeans down. “I want to do this right, Abby.”

“You already are. You’re the only thing I need.”

“Say that again.”

I slid his boxers down to follow the denim, freeing the hard length of him. “I need you, Jace.”