I throw the covers back and huff. "Yeah, it's such a chore to sleep with me."

"Damn straight it is. I need pads, a helmet, shin guards-you kick like a motherfucker."

My eyes round, I asked, "I still do that?"

"Yeah." He rubs his chest. "You can throw some elbows, too."

"I'm so sorry." I move closer to him so that I can inspect his body for bruises. "Really, really sorry. Rowan should have told you to ignore me and then be on your way."

He sucks in a breath as my fingers trail over his pecs. "She was asleep when I picked you up, so it was up to Seth to explain everything. Obviously, he forgot to share that tidbit about your sleeping habits."

My fingers stop exploring him as I glance up into his face. "You came and got me from their house?"

"Yeah." He shifts away from me. "You needed to come home, sleep in your own bed."

"Did I need to sleep with you, too?" I ask.

Last night, Rowan had lectured me even more on talking less and doing more, unless I was saying something very bold that would be followed up with an action. She is completely convinced that Jase misunderstood me, or that he thinks he knows what's best for me. Only because we have been friends for years will I follow her advice again...Only because I trust her implicitly will I follow her advice right now.

But this time, if it doesn't work and he rejects me again, then I'm done. I'm not going to force myself on a man who wants nothing to do with me. It hurts too much.

"Bad dreams...remember," he says, his voice deepening.

"No, I don't remember." I trace the outline of a snake and skull tattoo that for some absurd reason reminds me of the Death Eaters from the Harry Potter books. His stomach contracts again, but he does not push me away from him. I take that as a very good sign. "Is there anywhere else I hurt you?" Peering at him through my lashes, I lower my head until my mouth is inches from his skin. "I can kiss you there and make it all better."

"Fuck," he breathes. "Fuck, Piper. I'm trying hard to be real good, but you...you-"

I press a small kiss to the center of a tattoo. "Are you saying that you lied to me yesterday? That maybe you do feel something for me?" Purposefully, I allow my hair to fall forward so that it brushes against his skin as well. His entire body shakes, and I smile a little.

"I have no clue right now." He curses again when I swipe my tongue over one of his nipples. "But you have to-I need you...I'm trying, baby. God, why don't you listen?"

"Because I want what I want-and I want you." I push him down to the bed and straddle his hips. The fabric of my skirt gets pushed to my waist by my position and his big hands. "I want you. I need you."

"Damn, you're soft."

"You're hard." I move my hips experimentally. "Very hard."

"Where did you learn to do this? Who taught you-" A low groan tears from his mouth when I begin to rock against him.

"No one. It's how you make me feel." I lower my mouth to his, tracing the outline of his lips with my tongue. Though I am a virgin, I've had years of reading romance novels and daydreaming about this moment to guide me. I can make up for my lack of experience with lots of enthusiasm.

His hands come between us. He's going to push me away again. A lump begins to form in my throat and my vision blurs. But then I feel his hands on my face, framing it. His touch is so gentle that I want to cry.

"Yesterday, I lied to keep you safe, but in the end, all it did was hurt you." A look of pain covers his face. "If you and I, if we decide to be together, so many people would be against us."

I know he's speaking of my family, and my family's friends who would turn up their noses at me and never invite me to another function again. "Who cares if they are as long as we're a team?"

He searches my face, a look of awe shining in his eyes. "Are you sure?"

"I'm positive." My face heats. "I didn't lie to you when I said I cared about you. I l-"

Jase's mouth covers mine. It's not hard and demanding like I dreamed it would be. Oh no, it's a million times better. He cups the back of my head, fingers sifting through my hair while his lips move slowly, gently...almost reverently over mine.

Even with his gentleness, fire races through my body, rendering my breasts heavy and aching, my nipples hard points. His fingers continue to touch me, stroke me, until the need for something...anything to happen makes my entire body throb.

His lips part, his tongue teasing the seam of my mouth. "Open for me, baby."

My stomach flutters. "My mouth or my thighs?" I ask.

"Both."

Kissing Jase is pure, unadulterated pleasure, and I eagerly, shamelessly comply. I spread my thighs wider, grinding down on his hand, and open my mouth, letting my tongue play with his.

"Just like that," he says, encouragingly. "More tongue. I want to suck on it before I put my face between your thighs."

Heart stuttering at his dirty talk, I sweep my tongue inside his mouth to tangle with his.

Suddenly he groans, rolling me beneath him. His massively hard erection rubs against me, and my head falls back against the pillow. The friction drives me crazy.

Jase pushes up on his elbows, keeping his upper body completely off of mine while he works his hips. The thin material of my panties doesn't offer much of a barrier and I grow even wetter.

I feel his tongue on my neck, his teeth scrape at my skin, and I'm lost to the sensation of him, of what he's doing to me.

"More," I moan as he kisses me along my collarbone.

"Unbutton your shirt and I'll give you what you want."

Nearly mindless with lust, my hands shake as I attempt to take off my shirt. Finally, I give up and rip at the bottom buttons, then shove it over my shoulders and off my arms, leaving me only in a lace demi cup bra.

As my chest rises and falls, the barest hint of my areolas show. I want his mouth there. I want to feel the wet heat, the suck and pull. I want everything I've never had, and I want it with Jase.

"You really do want me, don't you?" he asks, his tone disbelieving.

I stare into his dark blue eyes. "You asked me not to lie to you. I'm not lying when I say I want you in me...all over me."

He sucks in a breath. "Piper, we're moving too fast for you, I think."

I shake my head and rise up to kiss him, and not just any kind of kiss. A kiss that holds all of my pent-up need and closely guarded fantasies. I take his face in my hands, slanting my mouth against his in a hot kiss.

"We're moving just right," I say and dive for his mouth again.

In an instant, his hands are everywhere, tugging at my bra, shoving at my skirt, pulling down my panties until I'm bare. Utterly bare to him.

"You are so pretty...so pink." He touches a hard nipple and I suppress the scream that's fighting to get out. "So soft." His head dips and he takes my aching nipple into his mouth, sucking hard. My back arches off the bed, my hips slamming into his.

As he sucks me, I rub shamelessly against him, trying to use his body to make myself orgasm. He presses his leg more tightly against me, one hand going to my hip to help me ride his thigh.

"Oh, God." I am so close.

"Not yet, baby. Need you to come on my tongue." Jase lets my nipple pop out of his mouth.

Kissing his way down my body, I have no time to think that he can see me. All of me. He doesn't let me. With a soft inhalation of air, he settles between my thighs, gives me the most seductive look I've ever seen in my life, and then licks me.

Crying out his name, I grab his hair. He licks me again and again, then begins to draw circles around my clit with his tongue, frustrating me to no end. I want an end to the torture, yet I don't want him to stop.

A long finger slides inside of me and I moan loudly, fisting his hair as my body begins to convulse. He scrapes his teeth over my clit and then sucks it into his mouth. My body flies apart. I scream, sob his name, and attempt to hold him in place, but he doesn't seem to mind. He keeps licking at me...stroking me...making me come undone in a way that I never expected.

"Don't stop. Don't stop," I chant.

In answer, he adds another finger and presses up. My body tightens in on itself. He uses his fingers to...draw something inside of me, and I fall apart once more.

"Mine," he says, his hot breath puffing against my sensitized skin as my breathing slows. My heart is still pounding against my chest and I'm half surprised I didn't have an asthma attack.

Even more surprising is the fact that Jase didn't go running from my bed. He stayed. Call me silly, call me stupid, and a child, but right here, right now, the man who's so intent on pleasuring me is the one. I know it's not my hormones talking. I've felt this way for years, even while he wasted his life away in prison. I never stopped thinking about him.

"I missed you so much," I blurt, and he peers up at me. The splash of color along the bridge of his nose turns his eyes into a startling blue color so vivid and endless that I want to drown in them.

"What?" He wipes the corner of his mouth, which is shiny from me, and then sucks on his fingers. The same fingers that were just in me.

I blush fiercely, embarrassed at my outburst and at what he did. I can't help it; I can't separate my emotional state from my physical one. It's one and the same with me.

"While you were in prison, I missed you," I impulsively admit.

"Did you?" He presses a small kiss to my inner thigh, making me quiver. "Would you be surprised to know that I missed you, too?"

"Yes, I'm pretty forgettable-when it comes to guys." And my own family.

"Even after they saw you like this-not that I'm very happy about it."

"Um...they...no guy...I'm a virgin." There. I admitted the truth. Before now only Rowan knew about my lack of sexual experience.

His forehead creases a little as he crawls up my body, kissing me as he goes. Without responding at all to my confession, he licks my nipples, one at a time, and then fuses his mouth to mine. I can taste myself on his tongue and that alone makes my pulse race.

"Did you hear what I said?" I gasp into his mouth.

There's a low rumble from deep inside his chest. "Yeah, I heard you. I'm trying to come to grips with it."

"You don't sound very happy," I say softly.

Jase leans back a little to gaze into my face. "I'm not unhappy. In fact...it turns me on. More than it should."

Boldly, I slip my hands between us, down his ripped abs and to his jeans. I finish unbuttoning them and shove them down, along with his briefs. His cock springs free, the head a purplish-red. Precum leaks from the tip and I swirl it around with my finger.

"That's incredibly hot," I whisper, looking up at him. "Turns me on, too."

His gaze turns fierce. "You're not scared?"

"Of this?" I wrap my hand around the base and squeeze lightly.

He groans. A look of pleasure and pain makes his skin stretch tight over his cheekbones. "Yeah."

"A little," I admit. "You're not exactly what I'd call a one-size-fits-all type of guy. More like extra-extra-large plus." He laughs, and I grin. "Like huge. Ginormous."

"Okay. Okay. I get it. My ego loved the stroking, but my dick needs more attention."

"What should I do?"

His hand comes around mine and he rolls to one side. "Stroke me."

"Show me what you like." I kiss him, slipping my tongue inside his mouth. "Show me how to make you come. I want to learn. Teach me."

"Fuck...that mouth of yours," he groans.

Our hands begin to move, courtesy of his guidance. Forcing myself to stop kissing him, I watch, I learn...I move his hand away and attempt to do it all on my own. His hips jerk with my movements, his body a work of art as the muscles beneath his skin flex and move. The tattoos on his body are so sexy that I want to lick him while I do this.

"Can you suck me off, Piper? Just a little?" he asks, his voice pleading. He throws an arm over his face, hiding his eyes. "Shit. Don't listen to me. You're doing great. Such a good student."

He wants my mouth. I can give him my mouth. Leaning over him, I touch the tip of his erection with my tongue, then lick him like I would ice cream in a cone. He lets out a ragged groan.

"Take more of me...the head, baby, take the head in your mouth."

Opening my mouth wide, I take the head of him into my mouth. He curses and his hand grabs my hair, fisting it. The slight tug and burn turns me on, but even more so when I realize he did it so he can watch.

His hips move restlessly beneath me. I bob my head up and down, trying to take more of him. It's not easy. I've never done this before and he is, in fact, extra-extra-large.

"Stroke me at the same time, kitten," he orders in a husky voice.

Using both hands and my mouth, I find a rhythm that he seems to like. Judging by the groans coming from his mouth, I say he loves it.

The cords along his neck stand out, his jaw working, as harsh puffs of air leave him. I double my efforts, desperate for him to come and feel as amazing as I did.

He bares his teeth and pushes me away. "I have to come, baby. Next time..."

I lean back, my hands still stroking him as hot spurts leave his cock and cover my fingers and his flat stomach. He growls my name.

His chest heaves like he's been running for miles without stopping. Interestingly enough, my heart feels like it's about to pop out of my chest. Who knew giving Jase a blow job would turn me on this much?

I try to draw in air, but my lungs refuse to be filled. Panicked, I let go of him and then freeze. My eyes widen of their own accord.

Invisible arms crush me from the inside. My throat tightens.

Oh God. No, no, no.

"That was incredible," Jase says, then looks at his stomach and my hands. "Feel like a shower?"

I manage a whimper.

"Oh fuck, no." Jase springs into action. "Hang on, sweetheart." He grabs my purse and searches through it, uncaring that we have made a mess of each other and the sheets. "Got it. Open, baby...open for me. Please."