Act Like You Love Me (Jessica) novel Chapter 54

Chapter 54

Chapter 54

Jessica’s POV

The first thing I registered wasn’t the light or the sound of the ocean. It was the weight.

A heavy, warm arm was draped across my waist, pinning me to a chest that felt like solid marble.

My eyes fluttered open, and I blinked against the soft morning sun streaming through the porthole, casting golden ribs across the silk sheets.

For a second, I forgot where I was. Then, memory hit me in a sudden, violent rush: the journal, the confession, the way Aaron had looked at me when he realized I wasn’t joking.

And then, the sex.

My face heated up against the pillow, the fabric smelling like his expensive Creed perfume and the salt of the sea.

I could still feel him; a dull, thrumming ache between my thighs that served as a vivid, pulsing reminder of everything we’d done.

Every touch, every praise he’d whispered into my ear, every time he’d called me flower while he took me apart.

I shifted slightly, trying to sit up to gather my scattered thoughts, but the movement made me wince as my sore muscles protested.

“Stay,” a low, gravelly voice vibrated against my back.

Aaron wasn’t even fully awake yet. His voice was thick with sleep, a rough baritone that sent a shiver straight down my spine.

His grip on my waist tightened, his large hand splayed over my stomach as he pulled me back into the furnace-like heat of his body.

I froze. Reality was crashing back in, and it was loud. I had told him I loved him, I had cried. I had basically handed him the keys to my entire soul, laid it all out in ink and breath, and then passed out before he could say a single word.

The panic started to bubble up in my throat.

What if he didn’t want the keys? What if last night was just a release of tension for him-the final conquest, and now that the “hunt” was over, he was going to go back to being the cold, bully he was?

He’d seen my rawest self in that journal: every pathetic crush, every jagged wound he’d ever caused.

I could almost see him pulling away, sliding that distant, cocky “Tyrone” mask back into place. Or worse-he might pity me.

I couldn’t bear the thought of him looking at me like some charity case he’d accidentally fallen for.

Vulnerability hit hard; I’d handed him the power to shatter me all over again.

I had to say something. I had to break the silence before it broke me.

My instincts screamed at me to run-to slip out, hide in some corner of the ship, and pretend this was all a dream. But running wasn’t an option.

I looked down at his hand resting on my skin. It was steady, currently holding me like I was the most fragile thing he’d ever touched. I needed to say something. I needed to get ahead of the rejection before it could kill me.

“Aaron,” I whispered, my voice shaky as I twisted in his arms to face him. His eyes were half-lidded, sleepy but alert, locking

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Chapter 54

onto mine.

“About last night… I-I know I said a lot. And the journal… you weren’t supposed to read that. I was emotional, and the ship, and the stress with your family-it just makes people say things, you know? High-intensity situations and all that. You don’t have to say anything back. We can just pretend it was the heat of the moment. I don’t want things to be weird or for you to feel like I’m trapping you into some—”

Suddenly, the weight shifted. With the sudden, coordinated grace of a wolf, he was over me.

The mattress dipped as he caged me in, his arms locked on either side of my head. He didn’t say a word; he just stared down at me with those dark, unreadable eyes.

The morning light haloed him, making him look almost ethereal.

I couldn’t speak. My breath hitched in my throat, my heart doing a frantic tap-dance against my ribs.

The silence was heavy, filled only by the sound of my own shallow breathing.

Then, he moved. He didn’t go for a kiss. Instead, he leaned down and began using the tip of his nose to trace a slow, agonizing path down my cheek.

He moved toward my ear, his stubble grazing my sensitive skin, before drifting down to the hollow of my neck.

I gasped, my fingers curling into the sheets.

My heart thundered, every inch of my skin aware of him-the way his thighs straddled mine, the faint scrape of his stubble as he leaned closer.

“You shouldn’t be sorry about how you feel,” he murmured, his breath hot against my skin.

“Neither should you be ashamed, Jess.”

He pulled back just enough to look me in the eye, his face so close I could see the gold flecks in his irises.

“Who knows,” he whispered, his voice dropping into an impossibly low, vibrating register. “I probably feel the same way.”

I swallowed hard, my eyes wide and searching his. My brain felt like it was short-circuiting.

Did I hear him right? Or was this the heat of the moment again, words whispered in the haze of morning desire?

When we got back to Florida, would things change-back to roommates, friends with benefits, nothing more?

Doubt clawed at me, but so did hope, blooming warm in my chest.

“Aaron….” I breathed, my hands finding their way to his shoulders, fingers digging in as if to anchor myself.

Without caring about morning breath-mine or his-he sealed our lips.

The kiss started soft, almost tentative, his mouth warm and inviting against mine. But it ignited quickly, passion surging as he deepened it, his tongue teasing the seam of my lips until I parted for him.

It felt like a silent “shut up and listen to my body language.”

I reached up, my hands finding the hard muscles of his shoulders, pulling him down until there wasn’t a single inch of air

between us.

A low growl rolled from his throat, and resonated deep in my chest.

The morning sun was warm on our skin, but the heat between us was hotter. He stripped away the remaining covers, his

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Chapter 54

eyes devouring me with a renewed intensity.

I didn’t get enough of you last night,” he rasped, his hands wandering over my curves, reclaiming every inch he’d touched in

the dark.

He pulled my shirt over my head, his hungry gaze raking over my breasts before his mouth descended

Warm suction closed around one nipple, his tongue flicking in slow circles that sent sweet feelings straight to my clit.

I arched into him, a whimper escaping as he switched sides, his hand kneading the other, thumb rolling the peak until I was squirming beneath him.

Sensations overwhelmed: the wet heat of his mouth, the graze of his teeth sending sparks of pleasure-pain.

“Aaron… please,” I gasped, my fingers tangling in his hair, pulling him closer.

He suspected I craved this side of him-the commanding lover who’d talk me through it, make me feel cherished and owned.

Witnessing it now, feeling his dominance tempered by care, made me fall in love all over again, deeper, irrevocably.

He kissed lower, trailing down my stomach, nipping at my hip bone until I bucked. His hands hooked into my pajama bottoms, and he slid it down in one smooth motion.

“So ready for me,” he murmured, his breath hot against my thigh as he parted my legs.

He moved between my legs, his fingers finding me already slick and waiting for him. I let out a jagged moan, my head arching back as he worked his magic.

He was more confident this time, more focused on the way I shivered when he hit certain spots.

He watched my face as he used his mouth to drive me to the absolute edge, his tongue relentless and skilled until I was sobbing his name into the quiet room.

When he finally rose to enter me, I was more than ready. I was desperate.

He slid inside with a long, slow thrust that made me gasp, my legs wrapping around his waist to pull him as deep as possible. It didn’t hurt this time; it just felt like coming home.

We moved in a slow, punishing rhythm, the bed frame knocking against the wall in time with my frantic heart.

“Look at me, Jess,” he commanded, his voice tight with the effort of holding back.

I opened my eyes to meet his gaze. He was pounding into me now, a rhythmic, powerful force that left me breathless.

I could see everything in his expression: the guilt, the obsession, the raw, terrifying affection he didn’t know how to put into words yet.

Every thrust was a confirmation. Every time he hit deep, sparking those stars behind my eyelids, it felt like he was answering the question I hadn’t even finished asking.

As the climax began to roll over me, a physical wave of white-hat pleasure that made my entire body vibrate, I clung to him.

I buried my face in his neck, my teeth grazing his skin as the world fractured into a thousand pieces of golden morning light.

He followed me shortly after, his body tensing, a low growl erupting from his throat as he collapsed against me.

We lay there for a long time, tangled and sweating, the only sound the distant call of a seagull and our own ragged breath.

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Chapter 54

Aaron pulled back, leaning on his elbows to look at me. He looked messy-his hair was a disaster, his eyes were bloodshot, and he looked more human than I’d ever seen him.

He reached out, and traced his his thumb over my lower lip.

“Nothing changes this. You’re mine now, flower. You signed the book.”

I let out a shaky, relieved laugh, pulling the edge of the sheet up to cover us.

“I think you’re the one who signed it by reading it.”

He smirked, that arrogant, beautiful Tyrone smirk that used to make me want to punch him and now just made me want to kiss him forever.

“Maybe I did.”

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13:18 Mon, Jan 12