where he was. The Lamberts’ lake house. Emma’s bedroom. But if that was where he was, then who the hell was in bed with him? Surely not his future sister-in-law!
He pushed up on his elbow and squinted at the clock. Six a.m. He looked down at his bedmate, then carefully brushed the wavy dark hair away from her face. “Oh, shit,” he muttered, snatching his hand away. It had been years—eleven, to be exact—but there was no mistaking that beautiful profile, the upturned nose with the light dusting of freckles, the flawless skin and the long lashes.
She was exactly as he’d remembered her, only Caley Lambert was no longer a gawky teenage girl. She was a woman. His gaze drifted down to her lips, soft and full and slightly parted. A very sexy, soft, warm woman. But what the hell was she doing in his bed?
Jake fought the urge to bend closer and touch her face. God, he remembered those urges. Funny how they all came back so quickly. Just how many times had he thought about kissing Caley Lambert over the course of his life? A hundred, maybe two hundred?
The summer she’d turned eighteen it was all he could do to keep his hands off of her, from the moment he’d arrived at the lake house until the moment he’d left. He’d deliberately avoided her, just so he wouldn’t have to think about it.
And now he had the chance. Why not take it? Why not see what he’d been missing all these years? He smoothed her hair away from her face and leaned over, then touched his lips to hers. As he drew back, she stirred and her eyes fluttered. A sigh slipped from her lips and she smiled.
Jake watched her warily. She obviously wanted something to happen between them or she wouldn’t have crawled into bed with him. It was a pretty bold move, considering her parents were sleeping just down the hall. But Caley had been known for her bold moves and she obviously had become bolder since he’d last seen her. She lived in Manhattan. Hell, he’d seen Sex and the City. He knew what single women in New York were like.
“Do you want me to kiss you again?” he whispered.
“Umm.” She snuggled closer, resting her hand on his bare chest.
“Umm” could be construed as a negative reply, but Jake decided that, coupled with her sleepy smile, it indicated a positive response.
He stretched out beside her, furrowing his hands through her hair and gently covering her lips with his. She seemed to melt into him, her body pressing against his as another sigh slipped from her throat. In his youth, kissing Caley had been an obsession and now that it was a reality, Jake was stunned by the sensations that coursed through his body.
It was just a kiss! But it was as if all of the pent-up desire from his teenage years had suddenly been released. And now, he could actually imagine what might happen between them.
His reaction to the kiss was immediate and intense. It had been a while since he’d had a woman. During the past year, he’d found himself searching for something that had been difficult to find—a woman who was strong and independent and not afraid to be herself. He was through with women who were willing to remake themselves into whatever they thought he wanted.
Jake smiled. He’d known Caley for years and what you saw with her was what you got. Even now, he imagined that she was just as stubborn and opinionated and determined as she’d been as a kid. God, he’d always admired her. She was the only girl he’d ever met who challenged him.
Her hand moved down his back, her palm warm against his skin, then slipped beneath the waistband of his boxers. He held his breath as she moved her fingers forward, to his hip. Though he hadn’t woken up to a morning erection, he’d managed to remedy that situation in quick order by kissing her.
He pulled her beneath him, his fingers still tangled in her hair and molding her mouth to his. Her hips rubbed against his, his shaft hot and hard between them. There was something so exciting about touching her, something almost forbidden.
“Jake,” she whispered.
The sound of his name on her lips was like fuel on a fire. His desire surged and his kiss deepened, his tongue plunging into her mouth hungrily.
This was Caley, the girl he’d known all his life, the girl he’d so carefully avoided. But she could be his, here in this bed. There was nothing to stop them. In the past, the time had never seemed right, but now, every instinct in his body screamed that the time was perfect.
As he kissed her, he found himself caught up in a fantasy that he’d lived a thousand times in his dreams. He slipped his hand beneath her T-shirt and gently cupped her breast, rubbing his thumb across her nipple through the silky fabric of her bra.
She shuddered, then arched against him, but still her eyes were closed. An uneasy feeling came over him and for a moment, he thought she might be asleep and dreaming. Jake drew back and stared down at her face, watching her as he continued to caress her breast. “Caley?”
“Jake?” she murmured.
“Open your eyes.”
Her lashes fluttered. She looked at him, at first with a blank stare and then with growing confusion.
“Morning,” he murmured.
Caley frowned and rubbed her eyes with her fists. A cry of alarm slipped from her lips and then, in a rush, she pushed away from him, tumbling backward onto the floor, her bare legs tangling in the comforter. “Wh-what are you doing in my bed?”
“I think the more appropriate question would be, what are you doing in my bed?”
“Not your bed. This is Emma’s room. It’s her bed.” She blinked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “And you’re not her.”
“Emma’s staying at the inn in town so she can have a little peace and quiet. Our house was full, so your mother offered me the last empty bed.”
Her phone rang again and Caley looked around the room, then crawled across the floor to retrieve her purse. She watched him warily as she flipped open the phone. “Hello?”
Jake grinned at her, letting his gaze take in her long, naked legs and the lacy black panties. Yes, the gangly teenager was gone, replaced by a long-limbed, incredibly sexy woman.
“Yes, John. I understand. No, I’ll get right on it. You’ll have it by the end of the day. All right. You, too. Goodbye.” She closed the phone.
“Boyfriend?”
“Boss,” she murmured. “You were in this bed last night. With me?”
Jake nodded. Oh, hell, she had been asleep. “Yes. But I wasn’t with you. Not in the biblical sense. We were just next to each other. And then, well, then you woke up.” The last thing he needed was Caley to go running downstairs, accusing him of being a pervert. “Hey, it was an honest mistake. It was dark. I looked like your sister. How could you have known?”
A frown wrinkled her forehead. “Then we weren’t just… I wasn’t… Nothing happened, right?”
Jake winced. “Well, there was a little something, but that was an honest mistake, as well. I just kind of assumed you’d crawled in bed with me for a reason, so—”
She touched her lips. “You kissed me?”
“But you kissed me back. And
