“I’ll accept your weak-ass apology, if you promise not to leave me.”
“Kara,” he stepped forwards, “you know I can’t promise that.”
She took his hand and held on tight. “I’m not looking for a promise that goes past today, but if this is the only day you’ll live in this year, you have to promise me we’ll spend it together. Don’t you get how long I looked for you the last time? How wanting to find you consumed my life?”
He looked into her eyes with such longing her insides squeezed. Desperate to feel his lips against hers, she leaned forwards.
He wanted to kiss her, she was certain. But something else mingled with the heat in his eyes. Something was holding him back.
The kiss could wait. “Come on, birthday boy. Let’s party.”
Kara sat cross-legged on the floor of her small apartment and sipped her red wine. Jake had eventually relaxed after she’d stopped hitting on him.
Instead, they’d talked all day and into the night, learning they were both dog people, neither liked anchovies on pizza and both preferred vanilla ice cream over chocolate. Fabulous to know they had more in common than dead mothers and dysfunctional relationships with their fathers, but her hold-off-on-the-seduction strategy was growing old. She’d wanted this man for ever and he was right here.
Across from her on the area rug, Jake leaned back and bent one arm up on the sofa at his back. The NYPD T-shirt she’d loaned him stretched across his body accentuating his deliciously solid shape. Tubs of takeout Chinese and a half-eaten chocolate cake stood between them like a shield to deter her from crawling across to explore the planes of his chest, his abdomen, with her fingers, her lips.
Given the chance, she could even learn to live with the sideburns, that suit. She’d had her fair share of men over the years, and while many had been physically handsome by any objective standard, not one had been able to stir her insides with just a look the way Jake could.
“You must be tired,” he said, setting his wine glass down.
She shook her head. “Not a bit.” Staying up through the day was an all-nighter for her and although bed beckoned, sleep was the last thing on her mind.
Time to blast down the shield.
Pushing the picnic remnants to the side, she crossed the few feet between them and pressed her lips against his.
His body stiffened, and her heart sank, fearing he’d push her way, but then a groan rose from deep in his throat and he wrapped an arm around her, pulling her in, tipping her back, intensifying their kiss. Drawing deep breaths, his tongue plunged into her mouth.
For years she’d dreamed of his kiss, but reality far exceeded her fantasies. The perfume of red wine and chocolate lingered as his lips devoured hers and his tongue stroked and suckled with the fervour of a starving man served his first meal.
Lost in Jake’s kiss, the room spun, drifted, and she lost all concept of time, space and where she belonged in either. There existed only his lips, his tongue, his hands and the heat from their bodies mingling to form a white hot inferno.
When they came up for air, she found herself stretched across his lap, his hardness pressing into her hip through those crazy plaid pants she wanted to get off him as quickly as possible.
She moved and he groaned, capturing her lips in another ravenous kiss. Leaning on to his shoulders for support, she shifted to straddle him as his large clever hands continued to explore every inch of her body. She rubbed the seam of her jeans against him, igniting more fires as he pulled her in tighter.
“Jake.” She pressed her lips into the pulsing vein at the side of his neck. “Let’s move into the bedroom.”
She pushed back and rose to her feet, pulling him with her.
“Kara, wait.” He stopped before they reached the bedroom.
“Sorry, sailor.” She slid up against him. “I’m done waiting.”
“I need to give you something.” He reached for his blazer, balled up on the sofa, and pulled out the envelope and key.
“Can’t this wait?” Her body ached to be naked and pressed against his.
He took a step back. “It’s important.”
She nodded, wondering what could be more important than having him inside her.
“I picked this up at my dad’s lawyer that day in 1967. The key’s for a safety deposit box and the letter gives the holder of the key access. If you have problems, George will help.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Everything my dad left me is in that box. There’s a whack of gold bars, stock certificates, a few other valuables. According to George, it’s worth quite a bit now.”
She leaned into him, drew a deep breath and his scent made her eyes flutter shut. “What do you need me to do?” She pressed her lips into his throat.
He ran his hand up her back, and waves of electricity shot through her like welding sparks.
“The key and envelope might be gone when you wake up tomorrow — might follow me. If it does, go see George. He can get you access to the deposit box.”
“But why?”
“I want you to have it. All of it. It’s no good to me. George doesn’t need it or want it. It’s yours.”
Her throat squeezed. “No. You’ll need it, for when this ends.”
“Kara, this is never going to end.” He kissed her and banished her will to argue.
Battling his better judgment, Jake let Kara pull him into the bedroom, let her tear off his clothes and watched with heat as she removed hers. He let her press hot kisses into his chest, into his belly, let her grasp and stroke him. How could something that felt so good be the cause of so much future pain — for them both?
Crazy with desire, he found the strength to pull away, panting, aching, heart shredding.
“What’s the matter?” She reached for him. “Jake.”
He forced his gaze away. “This is wrong.”
She tugged on his shoulder to pull him around. “Wrong? It isn’t the sixties any more, you know. I want this. I want you.” Her back stiffened. “Or do you still see me as a kid?”
He cupped her face with his hand, hating that he’d caused the hurt in her eyes. “Kara, I’ve never wanted a woman more.” He dropped his hand. “That’s the problem.”
“I don’t get it.”
“I’ll be gone in the morning. It’s not fair.”
“You idiot.” She smiled as she placed her hand on his chest. “I get to decide what’s fair for me. I seduced you, remember?”
He looked into her questioning eyes, even more disappointed and angry than Kara. How could he possibly explain something he barely wanted to admit to himself?
He turned from her. “If we make love, it’ll kill me.”
She gasped. “What haven’t you told me? Will you get sent to the Ice Age or something? What’s happened the other times you’ve had sex?”
He turned to face her and the look in her eyes constricted his chest. “If I make love to you, my life will be unbearable.” Bad enough now. He couldn’t face jumping from year to year with such a huge piece of his heart ripped out and left behind, with knowing she existed on some different plane in time, inaccessible. Torture.
She crossed her arms over her luscious body, still glowing pink with arousal.
He sat on the edge of the bed, closed his eyes.
She joined him and her hand landed softly on his back. “I’m sorry. I’ve been so focused on the thought of having to wait at least a year to see you again. I didn’t even think how it might affect you. That for you it might be longer. Or the next time you see me, it might not be 2010. I’m so selfish.”
“No, I’m the one who’s selfish.” He dropped his lips to her hair and inhaled the sweet scent. “The next time I see you, you’ll have moved on. I can’t take that.”
“Not a chance.”
“Kara, it could be another fifteen years. It could be never. I couldn’t bear to think you’d live your life hoping to see me at best once a year. If we make love—” He dropped his head.