Page 86 of Drive
Not yet,anyway.
She raised a brow at him, her hazel eyes flashing at him like he was the dumbest guy in the world. “Jacques, that’s a slipperyslope.”
He couldn’t help it. He laughed. Her brow arched higher, and Jacques realized he’d be okay if she looked at him like that for the rest of his life. Maybe he was the dumbest guy in the world, but he was the one besideher.
He shook off his humor. “Tell me to get out of your bed,” he said, and her immediate look of shock and distress gratified him to no end. When she said nothing, he prompted. “Go on. Doit.”
He watched her swallow, uncertain. Her hesitation thrilled him. She opened her mouth, and for a moment no words came out. Then she tried again. “Get… get out of mybed.”
Even as Jacques slid his arm out from under her and moved off the bed, he prayed he wasn’t doing something he’d regret. He turned to face her and lowered himself to the edge of the empty bed beside hers, looking into her eyes, which peered at him beneath a frown ofconfusion.
She pushed herself up so that she sat facing him. The blankets that had covered her slipped into her lap, and for an instant, Jacques’s gaze fell to the silhouette of her breasts beneath the fabric of her tank top. The top, a pale blue, reached over her shoulders with thin straps that begged to be peeled down, and it gaped just enough in the front for him to glimpse a shadow of cleavage that he knew he needed to taste before he could die a happy man. But he yanked his eyes back up to hers when shespoke.
“Wh-what’s goingon?”
Jacques’s shrug was calculated. “I moved out of your bed — like you told meto.”
Rainey stared at him. “So, I’m in control? Is that what I’m supposed to understand?” she asked, skepticism now entering hereyes.
He gave her a rueful smile. “You always havebeen.”
Shock replaced skepticism. “When we were down in the lobby, you could have fooled me,” shequipped.
It was hard to shut down his laugh, but he managed. “That’sdifferent.”
“Mmm-hmm.”The sardonic line of her mouth and the crook of her brow were so bewitching, he wanted to dig out his phone and snap herpicture.
She tilted her head to the side, and the light in her eyes changed. “So, if I’m in control, does that mean…” He watched her swallow. “…if I asked you to come back, youwould?”
The inside of his body became volcanic. “I would.” His voice came out somewhere between a rasp and a whisper. He tried to keep his features even. “Are youasking?”
Raineynodded.
Jacques pushed off the spare bed and moved back to hers, taking the same position beside her on top of the covers. But instead of lying down in his arms again, Rainey remained sitting, eyeing him doubtfully and chewing her bottomlip.
He propped himself up on his elbows. “What isit?”
The expression on her face shifted three times before she spoke. “You’re really okay with whatever…whatever…”
“Whatever you want,” he finished for her. It was the truth. He wanted everything, but whatever she wanted from him, he wanted to giveit.
Her lip disappeared between her teeth again. “So, if I asked you to get in with me and just holdme…?”
She didn’t finish, and Jacques didn’t make her. In two deft moves, he was beneath the blankets, pulling her down into his arms. Rainey settled into his embrace, and his body knew the joy of her soft weight, her deliciouswarmth.
Again, her head nestled against his shoulder, and she wrapped her arm across his chest. Without the blankets to separate them, the silken skin of her legs pressed against his, her feet only reaching to his calves, but the newfound intimacy awoke every fiber of his being to the feel of her. Cradling her in one arm, he ran his other hand lazily up and down her shoulder, and since this seemed to be allowed, he kept doing it. The softness of her bare arm was a newaddiction.
“And if…” she began on a whisper, her voice still tentative. How could she still be uncertain? Didn’t she already know he’d give her anything? “If I just wanted us to stay like this — just for tonight — would that beokay?”
In answer, he switched off the bedside lamp and closed her again in hisembrace.
Rainey gave a sigh, and he felt her warm bodyrelax.
And at this clear signal, Archie stood, twirled three times in the space behind her, and then flopped down with a satisfiedmoan.
The only light in the room came from the flickering TV, and when Jacques glanced down at Rainey’s shadowed face, he found that she was gazing back athim.
“Thank you,” shewhispered.
