Nicole gasped with surprise when Jake suddenly picked her up with one hand behind her back and one between her legs and under her bottom. She grabbed at his shoulders nervously as she was lifted off the stool, and then glanced around with surprise when he set her on the edge of her desk and used one arm to swipe the papers, stapler and other odds and ends out of the way, before shifting her to sit on it more fully.

Her gaze slid back to Jake then, but before she could say or even think anything, he kissed her again. Nicole kissed him back at once, with all the passion and need he’d stirred in her. Her own tongue tangled with his briefly before she withdrew it to suck at his, and then Jake broke the kiss and stepped back to pull at her jeans. It was only as they began to slide off of her that Nicole realized that he’d undone the button and zipper while he’d kissed her.

He made quick work of removing them, which was probably a good thing. She didn’t get a chance to protest that way, and didn’t really want to, but if she’d had time to think, Nicole might have felt she should.

Tossing her jeans aside, Jake stepped back between her legs to kiss her again, his arms slipping around her and hands dropping to cup her behind through her panties to squeeze and knead her cheeks as he pressed her against him again. The sensation was even more exciting without her jeans there buffering it somewhat, and Nicole gasped and shifted eagerly against him as much as she could. Her own hands slipped down to cup his behind and urge him on briefly, before she began to work at the top of his jogging pants, first tugging, then pushing them down off his hips in the back until his bottom was bare.

Nicole squeezed hard, pressing him tightly forward until it was almost painful and then jumped in his hands and gasped when one of his hands slid far enough under her to press between her legs through her panties.

“Oh God,” she groaned, and then released a small disappointed sigh when he stopped doing that and eased his hips back from hers. In the next moment, she cried out with surprise and pleasure when his hand slid between them again. This time he didn’t just cup her, but tugged her panties to the side and slid his fingers beneath the thin material to caress her hot, damp skin.

“Oh-please-yes-God-Jake.” The words were gasped in one long slurred sound and almost unintelligible, but then Nicole didn’t really have a clue what she was saying. Didn’t care either. The only thing she knew was that what he was doing felt so damned good. It was instinct alone rather than any conscious thought that made her slip one of her own hands around to find his hardness through the joggers. They had been trapped between them in the front when she’d pulled them down in the back, but had ridden down somewhat when Jake had put space between them. He was still covered by the cloth, but barely.

The moment her hand closed on him through the material, Jake sucked in sharply through his teeth and stilled. Nicole hardly noticed what he was doing, however. She herself had gone stock-still at the sudden sharp stab of excitement that shot through her.

Confusion hard on the heels of that excitement, she hesitated, and then jerked his joggers down so that he sprang free and closed her hand over the velvety skin of his erection. That sent an even more powerful wave of passion shooting through her, but Jake was no longer caressing her.

“What . . . ?” Nicole raised her head to look at his face. “I feel—It’s like—”

“I know,” Jake ground out when she faltered. “So do I when I touch you.” He slid his fingers over her again as if to prove it, and groaned out loud, but it was the way his erection jerked in her hands that told her he was experiencing her pleasure along with her. Though it was rather amazing that she was aware of his body’s reaction with her own body reacting to his touch.

“But how?” she asked breathlessly.

“I don’t know,” he panted and began to caress her again. “And right now I don’t care. I’ll ask Dante and Tomasso later.”

With her mind already losing its grip on her attention, Nicole thought that was fine. Later they could find out why this was happening. Right now—she slid her hand along his shaft again. Dear God, right now all she knew was that she wanted more of this.

Jake gave a grunt of surprise when Nicole suddenly released him and gave him a push away from her. Before he could ask what she was doing, she’d slid off the desktop and dropped to her knees before him. She’d always wondered how she was as a lover, and now she could find out.

“Nic—” Jake cut himself off with a curse as she closed her mouth over his erection.

Nicole moaned at the sensation she sent rifling through them both. She was aware when his legs began to shake, and wasn’t surprised when he bent over her to grab for the desk behind her to steady himself. However, she was caught completely by surprise when Jake suddenly jerked himself free of her, caught her under the arms and drew her to her feet even as he headed for the daybed. He swung her around as he reached it, almost tossing her on top of it and then he was on her, kissing her almost violently before starting to slide down her body.

Suspecting what he was up to, Nicole caught him by surprise and rolled, shifting him on to his back on the daybed. She had started this and wanted to continue. Not giving him the chance to roll her back, she shifted quickly off of him and turned to take his erection in hand again. Jake had started to rise up, no doubt to grab her again, but fell back with a gasped protest as she closed her mouth over him again. He was as stubborn as she was though, and she wasn’t surprised when he grabbed her upper leg and tugged her hips toward his head.

For one moment, Nicole had to stop what she was doing and balance herself with her hands as he shifted her knees to either side of his head. She nearly toppled over when Jake suddenly ripped her panties off, tearing the sides away to get the thin cloth out of the way. Nicole was glad he did that rather than shifting her about to remove them properly. In fact, it kind of turned her on . . . and then he pulled her hips down and buried his face between her legs and she forgot her poor panties.

Groaning, Nicole dropped her head briefly, her hair trailing over his upper thighs as his tongue rasped over her sensitive skin. With the second rasp, her nose bumped against his erection, and— recalled to what she’d been doing—she returned to it, taking him in her mouth and helping to drive them both crazy.

What followed was quite the most amazing, mind-blowing thirty seconds of her life. If it was thirty seconds. Nicole couldn’t be sure. It went so fast, passion crashing down over her in wave after hard wave, making the tension building and growing in her body expand exponentially until every nerve in her body was strained and tingling and her brain was a pile of worthless mush.

The release when it came was like a nuclear explosion in her body. White lights went off in her head, blinding her to everything but the pleasure blowing through her. She was vaguely aware that someone was screaming their head off and thought it must be Jake, but while some of the sound was a man’s deep timbre, she recognized a woman’s higher pitch in there too. Just as she realized it was herself, the white light dimmed quickly to black.

Chapter Twelve

Nicole opened her eyes and peered at the ceiling of her studio with a completely blank mind. There wasn’t a thought in her head for at least a full minute, and then her brain kicked in and began to ask questions.

Why was she asleep in her studio? What time was it? Where were her pants?

That last question only occurred to her as she started to sit up and noted they were missing. It also brought a wave of memories washing over her, which made the tingling increase.

“Damn,” she breathed, scrambling to get off the daybed and look for her pants. When she didn’t see them anywhere, Nicole dropped back on the bed. Her body was still tingling everywhere. How long had it been since they—

Had she really fainted? She wondered suddenly.

Good God, she’d never ever before in her life experienced anything like that. Nicole had thought her ex was good in bed, but what she’d just experienced was transcendental. Life altering. Mind-blowing. Fricking amazing! And where the hell was Jake? How could he just leave her there like that after what they’d experienced?

Scowling now, Nicole stood up and looked for her pants again. She distinctly recalled Jake tugging them off and tossing them, but her jeans were nowhere to be seen. Neither were the panties he’d torn off of her. After a hesitation, she decided there was nothing else to do and quickly grabbed the throw off the daybed to wrap around herself. Her shirt was still unbuttoned, her bra askew with one breast out and while she quickly tucked her breast back in, she didn’t bother with doing up the shirt, but wrapped the throw around her chest so it covered her from above her breasts to just above her ankles. Then she headed upstairs.

There were sounds coming from the kitchen when Nicole stepped off the stairs at the top. She turned her feet in that direction, her thoughts so focused on Jake and what had happened in her studio that it didn’t even occur to her that it could be Dante or Tomasso making the sounds and she might have to explain her state of undress.

“Oh, shoot. I was hoping to get back before you woke up.”

About six steps into the kitchen, Nicole glanced to the right at that comment to see Jake standing by the counter in just his jogging pants, a knife in hand and a tray of various foods before him. His words made her relax. He hadn’t abandoned her after what they’d done. Well, he’d left, but had planned to come back.

Her gaze slid over his bare chest and she wondered briefly where his T-shirt had gone. Neither of them had removed their tops downstairs. But then Nicole noticed that his hair was wet and she realized that he must have taken a shower before starting on the tray.

“I thought you might be hungry when you woke up, so I was getting us a snack,” Jake said quietly.

Her gaze slid to the tray. There was cheese, crackers, olives, wine . . . and a can of whipped cream and container of chocolate syrup? Her eyebrows rose. There was no ice cream or any other dessert-type food that might need whipped cream and or chocolate sauce. That had to be for something else, and it didn’t take much thought to figure out what that something else was. The answer popped into her head at once, along with images of drizzling the chocolate over his body and licking it off.

Turning abruptly, Nicole hurried out of the room. She was moving so fast she was nearly running as she crossed the living/dining room to her bedroom. She didn’t stop there but continued on to the en suite bathroom, straight to the shower. Cranking it on with one hand, she let the throw drop and then quickly shrugged out of her top. She was struggling to undo her bra when she heard a sound behind her. Nicole glanced over her shoulder. She’d left the door open and Jake now stood in the doorway, staring at her wide-eyed, concern on his face.

“Are you okay?” he asked uncertainly.

“No. I can’t get my bra undone and want to take a shower,” she answered.

He hesitated and then offered, “I can undo it for you if you like.”

“Please,” she murmured, turning her face forward again and simply waiting.

Nicole heard the rustle as he crossed the room and then he set to work, but said quietly, “When you rushed out I was worried that you were upset about what had happened.”

Nicole was silent for a minute, and then said, “I will be. Later.”

“Later?” Jake echoed. “And right now?”

She hesitated, but the tingling that she’d woken with had increased, first with memory, further at the sight of his bare chest, and even more with the realization of what he no doubt planned to do—and she could definitely do—with the whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Now, with his fingers brushing against her back, she was positively shivering with excitement and emboldened to say, “Right now I just want to shower and then spread whipped cream and chocolate sauce all over you and lick it off.”

Jake’s fingers stilled against her and then her bra snapped open and went loose in the front. Even as she realized that, his hands slid around her sides to slip beneath the cups and squeeze.

“The things I want to do with you,” he growled, kneading the round globes and pressing his groin against her from behind.

“Tell me,” Nicole breathed, reaching back to find the hardness pressing up against her.

Bending slightly, Jake pulled her hair to one side and nibbled at her earlobe before saying, “I want to lay you out on the kitchen table and make a meal out of you. I want to cover you with whipped cream and lick and suck my way across every inch of your body.” He paused then to lick, nip and suck at her neck briefly as his hand slid down across her stomach to dip between her legs.

Nicole groaned as he began to caress her there, his fingers firm and knowing as he circled the hard center of her excitement. When he slid a finger inside of her, Nicole gasped with pleasure and grabbed for the shower door to keep her balance.