Jack laughed. "Can't say the same, but I've never left a girl unsatisfied."

"Yeah, but with a c.o.c.k like that...do you leave any alive?"

"Alive, satisfied, and spent from o.r.g.a.s.m after o.r.g.a.s.m."

"Promise?"

Jack grinned. "Trust me?"

"Absolutely not."

"And that's why you're still a good girl."

He spread my legs and fell over me, his weight supported by a thick arm bulging with muscle and tensed with a need to take and rut and seize me.

I leaned up to kiss him, sucking along his lip, baiting him with my tongue. Jack growled. The head of his c.o.c.k pressed against my slit.

And that was the moment my phone rang.

"Let it go-" Jack pulled away as I twisted, lunging for my phone. "Kiss, what are you doing? Get that perfect a.s.s back on the couch."

"It's Jolene." I recognized the ringtone, more obtrusive than ever. I wiggled away from Jack only to plop off the couch on my apparently perfect b.u.t.t. "It could be about that journalist."

"f.u.c.k that sleezeball."

"I'm afraid he's going to f.u.c.k you."

"At least someone will."

I answered the call, realizing all too late I was completely naked, slick with desire, and sweating in antic.i.p.ation. My curves were on display for Jack, and his c.o.c.k bobbed obscenely hard, waiting for me to return.

Jolene talked fast, but I kept up, eying Jack as he was sure to get the news too. I ended the call.

He shrugged. "What?"

I didn't know how to cover my nudity, but folded arms offered me a bit of protection.

"Were you supposed to go out with Bryon tonight?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"He was just arrested for s.e.xual a.s.sault."

I pulled my dress from the floor and did my best to shimmy into it. Jack still had my panties. He could keep them. A memento of the mistake that might have been.

"What do you mean arrested?"

"You need new friends, Jack," I said. "I am so glad you weren't out with him."

"Wait...they're wrong. He wouldn't do that."

I arched my eyebrow. Jack broke my gaze first. Bryon was exactly the type of man to do something so heinous.

"He's in custody now. Jolene got a call from his agent. They want to hire us before it gets bad. I gotta go in to work." I held my hand out. "Panties, please."

Jack reluctantly handed me the crimson silk. "What about...?"

"Sorry." I covered my face. "Sorry, this got out of control. We never should have-"

"Yes, we should have."

"No, Jack. We can't. We just..." I wished I had a gla.s.s of water, something to ease whatever flames burned through me. "You are so lucky you weren't with him tonight. Half of the d.a.m.n offense is at the police station with him. If you had been there..."

"I wasn't."

"And that's why we need to be careful," I said. "This. What we're doing? This fake relationship is for our protection. We can't jeopardize it. No matter what happens. We can't let ourselves..."

"I get it." Jack didn't look like he wanted to understand. "Fine. Need a ride?"

"No, I'll call a taxi. I want you to stay here, okay? That journalist was bad enough. I don't want anyone to even start a rumor you were with Bryon."

He tossed his shirt over his shoulders. It couldn't b.u.t.ton. His c.o.c.k still raged hard in his pants. I tried not to look at what might have been.

"Thank you for dinner," I said. "I...uh, I won't bill you for it."

Jack scowled, returning to his beer on the bar. "Bill me, Kiss. If this is our professional relationship now, I don't want anything to ruin my reputation. At least my credit is impeccable."

"Jack-"

"This is how you want it?" He held his arms out. "This is how you get it. No fooling around. Nothing more than sheer respectability. I possess some self-restraint, but thanks for the vote of confidence."

"I didn't mean-"

"Yes, you did. I'm not your type. I'm your one wild moment. The one man you could've looked back on while your future husband lays over you for thirty seconds to finally give you that baby you want so much." He shrugged. "Fine. I'll spare you the guilt of having s.e.x and using me to feel good about yourself."

"I'm sorry!"

"I'm not some mistake to be made," he said. "If I get you, I want all of you. Not just your curiosity. Not because I'm your one bad thing you do. I want to f.u.c.k you, and I want you to like it because you wanted me."

I couldn't answer. Jack didn't expect one.

Well I didn't have a choice. If I was protecting myself and my career and Jack's reputation, we had to be responsible.

Even if it meant denying something we both wanted.

Even if it meant denying each other the only thing we both needed.

Chapter Six - Jack.

I kicked my a.s.s from one side of the field to the other and worked my muscles raw, and still I couldn't punish myself enough for being so f.u.c.king stupid.

I made a lot of bad calls in my life. Yelling at the most gorgeous woman in the world seconds after her legs wrapped around my head?

Rookie. Mistake.

What the f.u.c.k was happening to me? G.o.d d.a.m.n that woman-that beautiful, s.e.xy, infuriating woman. Leah was the only girl I'd ever wanted who hadn't wanted me back.

No-she was the only one who ever refused me. Even after she liquefied on my couch. She didn't just reject me. She denied herself.

Leah. Wanted. Me.

She couldn't lie to me with my head between her legs. Her thighs had tightened over my ears, but I didn't have to hear her moans to sense what she craved. I tasted it. Savored it. I was practically burned by the searing heat in that perfect p.u.s.s.y that trembled so s.e.xy against my tongue.

It wasn't enough. It wouldn't be enough until I was b.a.l.l.s deep in that woman.

If I hadn't made such an idiot mistake, I might've had her.

Didn't matter. She'd be mine as soon as I figured out how to make her talk to me again. Really talk to me. Not any of this bulls.h.i.t photo-op dates. I'd win her over the only way I knew how. Some people had a golden voice, I had a golden tongue.

But first, I had something equally important to do. I remembered McGrin Regional Hospital's layout. I wished I hadn't. Or that I hadn't remembered all the days and nights we spent running back and forth through the halls. The pediatric wing was the worst, artificially colored and bright but still clinging to the scent of antiseptic.

It was a s.h.i.tty place to grow up. It was worse when most of the kids in the beds didn't make it.

I didn't stay long. Couldn't. Too many memories and not nearly enough reason or justification for what had happened. I dropped the check, shook the doctor's hand, and we were done.

I made it to the lobby before she found me.

Leah dressed for success. She covered up everything s.e.xy, but she didn't need a miniskirt to make me beg. She bit her lip. That meant she had bad news. But, h.e.l.l, everything about her was bad news anymore.

Look, but don't touch.

Defend, but don't take.

Have, but only temporarily.

Women never used to affect me. I just needed a quick f.u.c.k, and I'd get her out of my system. No other woman would do. I needed her. Begging. Panting. Wanting.

"You're a hard man to track down, Jack," Leah said.

Everything about me was hard. "What the h.e.l.l are you doing here?"

"I'd ask you the same question." She adjusted the strap on her laptop bag so she didn't have to look me in the eye. She hadn't held my gaze since that night. "Jolene reps this hospital. Imagine our surprise when her contact calls to tell us Jack "Play-Maker" Carson is talking to the Chief of Pediatrics."

"Think I was going to ruin something?" My voice edged hard. "Cause a problem? Throw down with a nurse in the middle of the floor?"

Leah flinched. G.o.d, I was edgy around her. She didn't deserve my temper, not when she was still trying to preserve my reputation along with her job. That made her dedicated...and an idiot. She refused to take her pleasure even when it was thrust in front of her face.

Or between her legs.

She sighed. "Jack, I'm not starting a fight-"

"I was donating money."

Leah's eyes widened like I handed her the fifty grand. "You're...donating? Like, charity?"

"Yeah."

I nodded for her to follow me. Her pet.i.te legs scampered to stay at my side.

"Why are you donating to the pediatric ward?" she asked. "And why didn't you say anything to me about it?"

Because I avoided this reaction. "What's it matter?"

"Jack, this is a moment we could use." She followed me outside but pulled me behind a concrete pillar before I bolted for the parking garage. Her voice hushed. "This is something amazing I could use as a photo-op. If I could write an article and push it to an outlet-"

"No. You're not doing it."

She didn't understand. She wouldn't, and I didn't want to explain.

"Jack."

"You're not making this into some G.o.dd.a.m.ned PR stunt."

"This is good publicity. You need some of that. It's not like our dates have been doing much."

Yeah. Total waste of time, especially if I wasn't getting laid. "Those last three dates were a blast."

She shrugged. "I'm trying. I have social media retweeting and reposting things, and I'm leaking pictures. It's only been two weeks."

"It could be two f.u.c.king months, Kiss. Christ." I didn't mean to get p.i.s.sed. Two weeks without a f.u.c.k was something I hadn't dealt with before. "Unless I'm banging two girls in a bar bathroom, doing body shots off some co-ed with daddy issues, or getting sucked off in my car-no one cares what the f.u.c.k I do. They want to see the media's version of Jack Carson. Your version. The trouble-maker."

"I don't think that's really you."

"Yes, you do, or you wouldn't have stripped for me."

"Jack-"

"We almost f.u.c.ked, Leah."

"Yeah, well, sorry my notch in your bedpost buffs right out."

"Don't apologize to me." I licked my lip just to watch her squirm. "You missed out on the f.u.c.king of a lifetime. Hope you don't lose too much sleep regretting it."