Page 21 of Stockholm

A flash of hurt speared me in the chest at his rejection, and the flush covering my cheeks deepened. I wanted to deny the prick of tears behind my eyes, but it wasn’t possible. Before one could fall, though, Jacob continued. “Let me explain, angel.” He stroked a hand down my cheek, eliciting a blaze of fire through my body until it reached my core. “Sex to me isn’t just two people fucking. It goes so much deeper than that.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, the words slipping out before I could stop them.

“Turn on your side to face me, angel. It’s easier to talk if we’re face to face.”

I did as he instructed, the oversized T-shirt twisting around my body. When I was settled, Jacob reached under the covers and rested a hand on my hip over the material of his clothes, yet the heat from his palm seeped through, sending my pulse into chaos.

“A lot of people fuck without feeling,” he started softly, his eyes boring into mine. “But that isn’t for me.” He moved his hand from my hip to cup my face again, smoothing a thumb over the curve of my cheek. “When you find the right person, sex is about taking your time to build trust. To explore each other’s bodies, to learn what your partner likes and doesn’t like. To discover every intimate part about the person you’re with.”

His warm breath skated over my lips, and I squeezed my thighs together at the pressure building. Oblivious to the growing ache in my core, Jacob continued, and I couldn’t help but hang off every word that fell from his lips.

“Sex isn’t just an act when you’re with the right person; it’s about trusting that the other person knows your limits and respects them. It’s about developing a bond with someone and being deeply connected in a way that no other person on this earth can destroy.”

Excitement thrummed through my veins at his gentle tone and enticing words. Sex had never been described to me like that before; I’d always been told that the only reason my future husband would want to have sex with me was to produce children.

But what Jacob had described? I found myself wanting that.

“Have you ever felt that?” I whispered, my voice barely audible over the pounding of my heart.

Jacob’s eyes dropped to my lips, his pupils growing bigger. A little voice began screaming in my head, ‘Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me,’ and my core clenched again as he moved his face closer to mine, so close that our noses almost touched.

His eyes flicked back to mine, blazing with heat. “Not until recently.” My heart stilled at the insinuation, and for several seconds, my brain short-circuited. Jacob’s gaze darted between mine before a small smile pulled his lips to one side. “We should get some sleep, angel. It’s been a long day.”

Breaking the spell, he shuffled away from me, and my lungs finally remembered how to work again. By now, that ache in my core had grown more intense than I’d ever felt before. Helpless but to stare at Jacob, I managed to coerce my mouth into moving. “Goodnight, Jacob.”

As I was about to roll onto my back and worry about what I was going to do to rid myself of the ache, Jacob replaced his hand on my hip. “So, now you know I don’t want to have sex with you yet; how about a cuddle?”

A swirl of nerves zapped through my body. He’d said yet. ‘I don’t want to have sex with you yet.’

My mind went into overdrive, my body screaming with the need to relieve the ache, preferably by Jacob. But that was insane; even if I had the courage to tell him, he’d made it clear he didn’t want to have sex with me.

Inhaling a deep breath and hoping it would bring calmness to my body, I managed to give Jacob a small smile. “A cuddle would be nice.”

The grin that spread over his face did nothing to ease the throb pulsing between my legs. He rolled onto his back and raised his arm for me to snuggle against his side. I draped an arm over his solid chest, my skin tingling as I pressed against him.

Jacob kissed the top of my head, then reached to flick the lamp off before wrapping his arm around my back and holding me tighter against his warm body. I rested my cheek against his rib cage, and listening to the strong beat of his heart, I closed my eyes, wishing I understood the power he seemed to hold over me.

Chapter 9

Stretching, I blinked the sleep out of my eyes, internally cursing that it was morning already. I hadn’t slept well, in part because the ache between my legs never went away, and the other part because my mind refused to stop playing Jacob’s words to me about sex on a constant repeat.

When I did manage to fall asleep, I was abruptly woken from it when a solid body pressed up behind me, Jacob’s arm looping over my waist to pull me back against his chest. He nuzzled against my hair, and as I closed my eyes again with a contented smile, they flew open at the feeling of something very long and very rigid pressing against my ass.

Mortification plowed into me, but instead of dousing the heat in my core, it only added to the desperate need to feel some sort of relief.

I’d eventually managed to drift back into a light sleep, briefly waking at the feel of Jacob’s lips pressing against my forehead, followed by a whisper of, “Sleep well, my beautiful angel.”

Knowing that the chances of me going back to sleep now were non-existent, I climbed out of bed, the breeze from the balcony window blowing over me and slightly cooling my flushed skin.

Figuring that more fresh air would help clear my head, I stepped out onto the balcony, my jaw almost hitting the floor at seeing a person swimming in the sea, easily two hundred meters from the island.

Although his head was underwater, I instantly knew it was Jacob. Placing my hands on the wooden guardrail, I watched in awe as he powered through the water toward the house, his strong muscles propelling him through the waves. When he reached the jetty, he stretched a hand out to touch it before turning around and heading back out to sea.

Mesmerized by his graceful strokes, I didn’t know how much time passed as Jacob swam to and from the jetty, but after what seemed like hours, he finally pulled himself out of the water and onto the wooden platform, and my eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

Jacob had been swimming naked.

If someone had held a gun to my head, I doubted I would have been able to tear my gaze away as he reached for a towel hanging on a post and began drying his hair. Without meaning to, my gaze moved lower, and a small gasp ripped from my lips when it landed on his cock.