Second Chances

Brian kissed her again, and Jenn felt her resistance crumble in a flood of emotion so powerful, she nearly cried out.

And instead of backing away, she kissed him too.

He kissed her deeply, taking possession of her mouth, thrilling at the sound of pleasure she made as he pushed her back onto the bed with him.

She molded her body around him, tightly gripping the leg he thrust up between hers, pressing herself against him. He was everything she’d ever wanted, everything she couldn’t truly have.

Brian ran his hands up underneath the edge of her shirt and cupped the softness of her breast in the palm of his hand, caressing the tantalizingly erect nub of her nipple and arousing her even further.

She knew she should stop. Brian didn’t belong to her. He never could. But when she tugged at his jacket, he helped her pull it off. And when she pulled at his T-shirt, that, went up and over his head. And then he kissed her again.

She’d unbuttoned her shirt and he pushed it off her shoulders, exposing the lace of her bra and the smooth expanse of her stomach. He kissed the tops of her breasts, ran his mouth and hands along all that glorious skin as she reached for the top button of his jeans. Her fingers brushed against him and the reality of what they were going to do—of what they were doing—was too much. She lifted her hand. “Brian….”

He knew what she was thinking. “This is right,” he told her. “We NEED this.” He lay down on top of her, and she cradled him between her legs as he kissed her again. “I need this. I need you, Jenn.”

Her skirt was gone. Somehow she’d managed to free herself from it. She lifted her hips, pressing herself intimately against him, and Jenn knew she was only kidding herself. Even if she had wanted to, there was no way she could stop what they’d started. And God help her, she didn’t want to. She reached for him again, unfastening his zipper.

He pulled back, swiftly kicking his legs free from his jeans and his boxers, even as she unfastened her bra and skimmed her own panties down her legs.

She wanted to stop time, to freeze this moment, to step back and just look at him, Brian Littrell, standing naked by the bed, wanting her. It was her dearest fantasy come true.

Jenn reached for him even as he lunged for her, and together they fell back on the bed, skin touching skin, soft flesh against taut muscle.

Brian wanted to touch her everywhere at once and he skimmed the softness of her skin with his hands and mouth, stroking, caressing, reveling in her sweet smoothness. He explored her most intimate place with his fingers; she was slick and hot and so ready for him.

“This is right,” he said, pushing her back against the pillows and leaning forward to kiss her on the mouth. “And THIS is right!” he shifted his hips, and with one smooth incredible thrust, he was inside of her.

“Brian---God!” He was bigger than she was, stronger, yet she was powerless to stop him, enslaved by her own needs. She wanted him, needed him.

She loved him.

She lifted her hips, pressing him even farther inside of her, and they both cried out, their voices intermingling.

He wanted to make love to her slowly, to make this moment last forever. But she urged him on, faster, harder, deeper. He drove himself inside of her filling her again and again, as the world blurred around him.

She cried out and he felt the beginning of her release. It was completely consuming, wildly overpowering. She clung to him, writhing beneath him, her fingernails sharp against his back.

Her release pushed him over the edge and he exploded in an eruption of pleasure that cannonballed through him. All coherent thought vanished, and there were only feelings, only warmth. “I think I love you,” Brian whispered, his mouth brushing lightly against her face.

And just like that, she was back. Her eyes opened, and reality clicked back in to focus. Her scientist’s brain was back on-line, and she felt a sinking sense of dread at his words.

He thought he LOVED her.

She felt him watching her, felt his eyes studying her face, and forced a smile. God, what she would have given to hear him say those words anytime over the past few years. But now…..He COULDN’T love her. He had to love JENNIFER. But she was Jennifer, she reasoned. Maybe this wasn’t such a terrible thing. If Brian could love her, as scarred and jaded as she was, then surely he could love Jennifer. It only made sense. She knew damn well she couldn’t give him what he wanted. She couldn’t bring herself to open up to him. God, she hadn’t even been able to tell him that she loved him.

But that was the least of it.

Twenty-four hours. Fewer now. If she failed, in less than twenty-four hours she would be dead.

And if she succeeded…if her plan worked, if Brian could convince Jennifer to switch her career to medicine, then time travel would never be invented.

And Jenn’s current life and the path she’d taken to get here would be instantly erased. Her life as she knew it would simply cease to exist.

And Jenn herself would vanish.

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