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twenty-one Jake hadn’t nailed.
     
    Until now, she reminded herself.
     
    Ellie guessed she should be proud of his restraint; he’d resisted for fifteen years. He had never treated her in a sexual way. She’d just never thought she was the type of woman Jake would want to sleep with. There was her mistake. Every woman was the type of woman Jake would sleep with. Not that Jake was a male whore. He just loved women. And women loved Jake. He just had a way about him that caused females of all ages develop a case of the giggles and googley eyes.
     
    Depression threatened to settle over Ellie, but she shooed it away. It really didn’t matter that Jake had a weakness for sex and women, especially when they were combined. It really didn’t matter what his motives were when he’d kissed her—she really couldn’t say he’d seduced her, because one kiss was all it had taken to melt her defenses. It really didn’t matter that in the morning she would just be another notch on his bedpost and their friendship would be irrevocably changed, if not destroyed.
     
    Bottom line was, she was here, he was here, and they’d fucked. It was what she had wanted for so long. Admittedly she would have preferred a relationship to go along with it, but beggars shouldn’t be choosy. She could either lie awake all night worrying herself to death about what it all meant and what was going to happen in the morning, or she could cherish these few precious hours in the arms of the man she loved. She chose the latter.
     
    ****
     
    Ellie lay there quietly a few more minutes. She was intensely aware of the man sleeping beside her. She watched him sleep. His chest rose and fell rhythmically with each breath. His hair was tousled about his face, giving him the look of an innocent boy. Her fingers ached to reach out and touch the smooth muscles of his chest, to tease his nipples into hard little buds.
     
    She held back the desire that had heat pooling in her belly. He looked so peaceful and relaxed; she didn’t want to wake him up. She wanted to prolong the time until he would wake up and they would have to discuss what their making love had meant. She didn’t want to talk about it. She didn’t want to hear him say it hadn’t meant anything.
     
    Then, moaning softly in his sleep, Jake shifted and turned over so that he was lying on his back. The sheet covering his naked body slipped, revealing a large expanse of smooth, taut skin covering hard planes of muscle along his hip and thigh. Ellie’s mouth went dry. In her mind, the sexiest part of a man’s body was the juncture where the hip and leg meet. There was something innately sensual about the way the bones and muscles curved. The sheet that draped loosely over his manhood, hiding it from plain view yet leaving little to the imagination, only heightened the sensuality.
     
    Tentatively she reached out and carefully slid the sheet off of him. She scanned him from head to toe, devouring him with her eyes. He was a beautiful man. Her gaze trailed from his broad shoulders and chest, to his flat stomach, to the distinct tan line where his jeans rode low on his hips, to the column of flesh that had been inside her just a few hours before, making her feel so complete.
     
    Something wild and primal broke loose within her. Heat flooded her body. She had to touch him again, be with him, and have him inside her. To hell with not waking him up! If she did it right, talking would be the last thing on his mind.
     
    Moving slowly so that she didn’t wake him, she moved down the bed until she was right where she wanted to be. It was funny really; sucking cock had never been one of her favorite activities, but right now it was what she wanted to do most.
     
    She positioned herself between Jake's legs and bent down so that her mouth was almost touching him. Even in his sleep his cock was half-hard, and when she flicked her tongue over the head it jerked to life. He tasted so good, so musky and masculine.