He continued to tease, then moved to her other breast and gave it the same attention. Fingers, lips, teeth-all hurtled her toward an o.r.g.a.s.m she hadn't thought to experience so soon.

"Gotta taste you." He tugged her jeans open, and before she knew it, she wore nothing at all. Not even her socks.

"Jack." Just his name. It didn't matter that she was stark naked in the kitchen. That he still wore his clothes and she teetered on the brink of climax. She wanted him so much...

He nudged her legs wider and kissed his way down her belly, nuzzling the trimmed hair over her mound.

"You are so s.e.xy." He took her c.l.i.t into his mouth, and she exploded.

She cried out as he continued to lap at her, sucking her to a bliss that continued to course through her. When she'd moved past her o.r.g.a.s.m into sated exhaustion, he stood and kissed her.

She tasted herself on his lips, and it tied them even more intimately. She could feel him against her belly, hard and huge and ready for round two. What she hadn't expected was her sudden return of arousal so soon after that supernova of a climax.

"You-naked. That's my dessert. And I'm still hungry." He looked her over while he stroked her with callused hands. Nothing soft about Jack, especially not now. "You feel so good. I have to be inside you."

Remember, you're calling the shots this time. Take control. Don't let him- "Yes."

Antic.i.p.ation glittered in his eyes. When he picked her up into his arms, as if she weighed nothing, she couldn't help feeling owned, taken by a stronger, dominant male. She'd always been on the small side, but Jack's presence, size and stature made her want to submit.

Before her sensible side could rea.s.sert itself, he stopped in the hallway and kissed her. He'd slyly moved a hand between her legs, and when he thrust a finger inside her, she moaned in supplication.

He pulled away from the kiss, panting. "I'm going to f.u.c.k you so hard." He hurried into a bedroom, put her in the middle of the bed and stripped.

Memories of another time, another place intruded, and she stopped him with a hand to his chest before he could pounce. "Condom."

He blinked. "Right." Diving into the nightstand drawer, he found a packet, ripped it open and was about to slide it over his thick length when she stopped him.

"My turn." She urged him to his back and knelt beside him. He palmed her breast while she leaned down and blew a soft breath over his c.o.c.k. Jack wanted her. No doubt.

"Suck it," he growled. "Take me deep, angel."

A planted manipulation, using that pet name? Or a man at the end of his patience? She didn't care, because as she opened her mouth to take him inside, his hand crept up her leg, between her thighs, then cupped her p.u.s.s.y.

He jolted into her mouth, surging deeper, and his fingers began sawing in and out of her, rubbing her c.l.i.t while he sought a place deep inside her that needed more.

"No, stop," he rasped when she took more of him.

His b.a.l.l.s were hard knots, his c.o.c.k thick and salty in her mouth. She knew he had to be on the verge of coming. Then he yanked her off him and rolled the condom on. He flipped their positions, putting her flat on her back under him.

"Jack, what-oh."

He thrust hard, buried himself as far as he could go, and she tightened around him instinctively.

"I need to move, but you feel so f.u.c.king good." Jack rarely swore. That he did so now only reinforced how lost he must be.

"More, Jack."

He didn't need to be told twice. There was nothing gentle about the way he took her, and he watched her as each thrust connected them closer. He'd become part of her body. Her mind. But not her heart. She tried to hold onto that corner of herself that had to be strong, determined never to need a man the way she'd once needed him.

But he wouldn't let her hide as he took her like a man possessed. The hard thrusts, the grunting, the magic of their bodies climbing higher in the pursuit of the ultimate pleasure...

"Watch me, angel. Watch me come hard in you."

She cried out his name as she came again, a mess of emotion while he slammed inside her one last time and stilled.

The look of ecstasy and agony on his face was forever burned into her mind. Jack was handsome, but lost in rapture, he was absolutely gorgeous. He continued to shudder as if he hadn't come not so long ago in her hands.

"Yes. All of it," he rasped as he pumped a few more times, still watching her through shuttered eyes. "Ann." Finally done, breathing hard, he leaned down and kissed her. "This. This is what I've been missing."

Feeling the same scared her out of her mind. She was falling right back into the role of that weak girl who'd been heartbroken in high school. No. She refused to pay the emotional price tag attached to this romp. h.e.l.l, he'd only been back a few days. How tied could they be to each other?

I can use him and lose him. I know I can.

Yet as he stared into her eyes, she had a bad feeling she was lying to herself. She'd make some excuse to leave, then call her friends to circle the wagons. Time to regroup, to- "Whoa. Where do you think you're going?" Jack asked with a lazy smile, belied by the spark of determination in his eyes. She tried to move him, but he remained buried inside her. A part of her. And still semi-hard.

"I was going to clean up."

"Now, angel, why would you want to do that?" He kissed her, so slowly, so thoroughly, she forgot all about making her escape and pulled him closer. "That's it. Stay with me. Right here, with me."

Chapter Six.

"You've lost your friggin' mind." As always, Maya didn't pull her punches.

Next to her on her couch, Riley sighed. "Give the girl a break. It's not every day you have marathon s.e.x with someone like Jack Bloom."

"Fair enough. So was he better than he was in high school?"

Ann just smiled at Maya. Such a nice way to spend a Friday evening, reminiscing about amazing s.e.x with her friends.

Maya scowled. "Figures. They all get bigger and better looking. Then G.o.d gives them staying power and bam. How do you fight that?"

Riley raised a brow. "Oh? Does Dex have staying power?"

"I wouldn't know."

Her lofty tone didn't fool Ann. "What happened with Dex anyway? You saw him?"

Riley answered for Maya with a laugh. "While you've been playing tonsil hockey with Jack, Maya's been sniffing around Dex's new studio."

"That's right. He's a photojournalist." Ann remembered the guy's fascination with anything camera related in high school. "A pretty good one, from what Bonnie told me. She's friends with his mother."

"Thanks for sharing," Maya muttered. "And I am not hot and bothered. That would be you, Riley, panting after Anson."

Anson and Dexter had been thick as thieves growing up. Cousins who were more like brothers, even after Dex had changed high schools during his last year. The Blacks had often been seen hanging out with each other. She remembered that Jack had been good friends with Anson especially.

"I wonder if Jack has reconnected with them," said Ann. "Wouldn't that be funny? Us against them."

"Against? You mean, all of us, or just Riley and me? Did you manage to disengage from the guy without losing too many body parts? Or is he hiding under Riley's couch, attached to you in an unmentionable place?" Maya pretended to look under Ann.

Riley grimaced. "You have the worst way with words."

"Don't hate, Maya." Ann sighed in remembrance. "I was due a few o.r.g.a.s.ms."

"A few, she says." Maya pointed at Riley. "And don't you say a thing."

Riley raised her hands. "What? That despite your claim you can snap your fingers and get s.e.x you might as well be a born-again virgin? That if anyone is due, it's you, Ms. I-Hate-Men? Nope. Not sayin' a thing."

"Glad to hear it." Maya shot Riley a dark look. "Ann, aren't you the one who came up with the idea for girl power? To get back at the ones who need to pay?" She ran a hand through her long hair. "I'm all for it. But we-as a group-need to remain strong. I'm glad Jack rang your bell. But don't forget he did that twelve years ago and knocked you up."

Riley scowled. "Nice."

"Truth hurts."

Ann sighed. "I know I need to be careful. The s.e.x was amazing. But it's just s.e.x." So she kept telling herself. "We made a date to go out tomorrow night. In public. And honestly, I needed the breather. I have to be able to deal with him without wanting to jump him."

"Geez, Ann. It's happening all over again. You're falling for him." Maya shook her head.

Ann flushed. "I am not. The s.e.x threw me. I hadn't expected it to be that good, is all. He's learned a few moves since high school."

Riley snickered.

"But I'm keeping my head. I'm enjoying his body. Like we said. Use him and lose him, right?"

"Uh huh." Maya sounded less than convinced. "I'm pulling for you. It's just that you're a nice person, and it's hard to go against type. I'm worried you don't have it in you to kick him to the curb."

Insulted, Ann glared at her friend. "I can't believe you just said that."

"She called you nice," Riley repeated.

"I know exactly what she called me." Ann pointed at Maya. "You really called me weak. Malleable. Unable to know my own mind."

"All that from nice?" Riley and Maya exchanged a look.

"It's not easy for me to be mean, okay? It would help if Jack weren't so darned sweet. The good thing is he didn't apologize, and that really still p.i.s.ses me off. If I remember how horrible he was to me back then, I can do this."

Riley rubbed her shoulder. "Honey, are you sure you want to? Maybe Jack being back is a good thing, and not because you can get closure by one-upping him, but by letting the past go. You're different people now. Why not see where tomorrow takes you by being honest?"

Maya blinked. "Are you high?"

"What?"

"The guy d.i.c.ked her over, and you're telling her to give him the keys to the kingdom all over again? He needs to own up to what he did. To apologize and suck up and f.u.c.king grovel for treating her like she didn't matter. Then, and only then, can Ann decide to forgive him. But falling for him and dating like they have no bad blood between them is just wrong."

"You're so black and white all the time," Riley griped. "Life isn't like that. Life is full of gray."

"That was deep." Watching Riley and Maya pick at each other, Ann relaxed, glad to no longer be the center of attention.

"Oh? Well, if you're going to label me, at least call me white, because I'm on the side of the angels here. But it's funny, I don't see you playing kissy face with Anson Black."

Ann laughed.

Riley huffed. "Kissy face? What are you, one of Ann's second graders?"

Maya suggested she shove her head somewhere that was more or less anatomically impossible.

"Jesus. Anson and I have always been at each other's throats. From day one, that boy has been on my last nerve. What's your excuse? Dex was a nice guy. So he made you go out with him on one lousy date. So what? You told us you had fun, so-"

"So? So the little jerk blackmailed me! Me! Maya Werner."

"Is it just me or did Maya somehow manage to stick 'The Great' before her name that we didn't hear?" Ann teased.

"Hey. I'm trying to stick up for you."

"Oh? Because it sounds like you're scared of Dex."

Maya frowned. "Okay, that is totally two plus two equaling five. We were talking about you and your tendency to see the best in everyone, even when they don't deserve it. Can you honestly tell me what Jack did to you back then doesn't bother you anymore?"

Unable to lie, Ann shook her head.

"Exactly. So until you grow a pair and demand an apology or take my advice and make the jerk feel a little of what you felt way back when, you need to zip your lip. Or at least take my side against Ms. Shades-of-Gray over here." Maya nodded to Riley.

Riley scowled. "You can be such a b.i.t.c.h."

"Yeah, and I haven't had anything to drink yet." Maya wiggled her brows, which sent Ann into gales of laughter.

"You have to admit she has a point, Riley. Our Ms. Absolutes here knows I'm too easy to forgive, and you're too fair to go for the jugular. She's keeping us on the path."

"But is it the right path, I'm asking," Riley grumbled. "Oh shut up, Maya. I'm done arguing. Now, I'm going to pour you a gla.s.s of tea. A nonalcoholic beverage. Then we're going to watch that ghost hunting show and we're going to enjoy ourselves. I think tonight they're spotlighting haunts of the Northwest."

Ann settled in with her friends and wondered what Jack was up to. And if he couldn't stop thinking about their next date either. Oh man. I need more Maya time. If I keep thinking like this, I'll blow my chances for closure for sure and end up falling in love with the rat all over again.

She moved closer to Maya, hoping to absorb Maya's need for battle, and tried to will herself to focus on the ghosts on TV-not the ones from her past.

Jack sat at a quiet table in the corner of a sports bar downtown, nursing a scotch as he decompressed from his week with a seven-year-old. He loved little Josh like crazy, but the kid had the energy of ten kids hopped up on pixie sticks. Since the boy had accepted a sleepover invitation from a friend, and Jack unfortunately had no plans with Ann, he figured he'd indulge in a drink. Just him, his scotch, and the highlights of last week's NFL games on the screen above him.

"Well, well. Ain't this grand?"

He turned around, recognizing the face if not the voice, and grinned. "Holy s.h.i.t. Anson Black." He stood and accepted the hug from his old friend. "When did you get back in town? I heard you were in Portland."

"Mind if I join you?"