The Love Wager

Jack

Jack took off his jacket and dropped it on the bed, tired and frustrated at the situation.

Hallie was here for her sister’s wedding, so that was the priority, he reasoned as he undid his tie and yanked it off. Of course she would stay and help out, he mused, untucking his shirt with a jerk and undoing his buttons. What kind of a sister would she be if she didn’t?

And the fact that her douchey ex-boyfriend was helping, too, had nothing to do with his sudden foul mood.

He knew it was all part of being a bridesmaid, but as he continued to undress, he had to admit to being selfishly disappointed. The entire weekend had led up to that night, for them, and after hearing her say that she had feelings for him, he’d been champing at the bit to spend the entire night worshiping her in their king-sized bed.

He wanted a whole night before the weekend came to an end.

Jack slid off his belt and was unbuttoning his pants when he heard the knock at the door.

It couldn’t be her. He wanted it to be, but there was no way she was finished with her post-reception tasks. If it was her, it just meant she needed something from the room.

He dropped the belt on the pile of his clothing and walked over to the door.

When he pulled it open, Hallie was standing there. She looked focused. And . . . nervous? He raised an eyebrow. “What’d you forget?”

“That we only have a few hours left.” Her eyes went down to his chest, then his stomach, and he felt her gaze like a touch as she looked at his unbuttoned pants. She took a deep breath, raised her eyes to his face, and said, “I want to feel everything before we go back to normal, Jack.”

He wanted to say they didn’t have to go back to normal. He needed her to know that what he wanted from her was a hell of a lot more than texting and being each other’s wingmen. Instead, he heard himself say, “Don’t you have to help your mom?”

She shrugged and said, “I told them I had to go do something important.”

“Such a little liar,” he said.

“I wasn’t lying.” She raised her chin, and that tiny defiant motion made him feel some kind of way. “And my favorite part of hotel night was when you offered to let me use your toothbrush, by the way.”

“What?”

“We were, um, finished,” she said, stepping into the room as he moved back and held the door, “and instead of passing out or doing whatever a buzzed person might do during a one-night stand, you asked me if I was okay. You looked into my eyes and waited for my answer, and after I said I was fine, you offered to let me use your toothbrush.”

The door slammed shut behind her, and he said, “I still can’t believe you remember that night.”

She said in a breathy voice, “I think about it all the time.”

He felt warm, like he was burning up, and all he could see was her. Hallie Piper was surrounding him, filling him, and he could feel her in his every molecule. His arms went around her, to her zipper, as his mouth came down on hers.

“Jack,” she whispered, and the sound of his name on her lips made him fucking insane. He opened his mouth over hers, needing to taste her, and as always, kissing Hallie felt like some kind of reward.

Hot, wet, and like a gateway drug, her kisses sucked him in with the promises of things he’d yet to feel. Her teeth and tongue responded to him like they’d been jolted awake, and he groaned into her mouth as she made him burn.

He started lowering the zipper on the back of her dress, his fingertips grazing her soft skin, but then he froze when he felt her fingers on the button of his pants.

Hallie

One twist, and the luxurious suit pants fell to the floor.

Her heart was in her throat, not because she was some nervous teenager but because it had never felt this . . . intimate between them before. No tipsiness, no jokes, no rush to the finish; it was just Jack and Hallie, alone in the dark hotel room with their true feelings.

“God. Hal,” he bit out, his voice tight and teeth clenched as she touched him.

As Hallie ran her hands over Jack’s body and his mouth came down over hers, her dress slid to the floor. He wrapped his hands around her waist and led her to the bed, where he was lightning-fast at getting her stretched out on the big mattress, naked.

It was every bit the wild storm of the kitchen and the infamous hotel night, but more intense because of the absolute thoroughness. Jack wasn’t just touching her, he was reaching every single nerve ending in her body with his hands and fingers and mouth. She writhed and arched and sighed and moaned as Jack explored every inch of her.

“Jack,” she said, exhaling his name as his mouth traveled back up her body and hovered above her lips. His eyes were heavy-lidded and sensual, and he looked downright wicked as he traced her lower lip with his tongue and replied with a low growl.

She didn’t want to beg, but she needed him inside her. She scratched her nails over his back and arched up, trying to get closer.

“Hal. Shit.” His eyes closed for a split second and he looked pained, but when they opened, he gave her a dirty smile and then he was there, hot and hard, exactly where she wanted him.

“Yes-yes-yes-yes,” she chanted in a whisper, losing herself in the sinful feel of Jack sliding deep into her body. She moved with him, digging her fingernails into his back as she attempted to hold him against her own body as tightly as she could.

She felt like she was going to go into cardiac arrest from the heat. Not only was it impossibly good with them, physically—so good, holy shit—as he moved inside her, but every movement was enhanced by this overwhelming new emotion she felt for him.

She didn’t know exactly what it was, but suddenly, he felt like more.

His face was dark and full of intensity as he looked into her eyes and moved faster, deeper, and she was having a difficult time reconciling the fact that this fantasy lover was her one-night-stand-turned-best-friend.

“Nothing has ever felt as good as you,” he said, his voice thick and low against her skin as he kissed her neck and his big hands gripped her hips. “As this.”

Nothing in the world had ever felt that good, but she only managed to moan Jack’s name and bite his shoulder in response. She was too lost in him and what he was doing to her body to form actual words and coherent sentences.

He groaned and gritted his teeth, looking slightly animalistic as he slid his hands underneath her, changing the angle and bringing her even closer. She wondered if it were possible to black out from pleasure too intense as he drove her toward that delicious edge between ecstasy and pain.

She might’ve said his name, or screamed it, but the flash of the white-hot ending was blinding in a whirl that removed her from the room altogether.

Jack

“This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever done in bed,” he said, watching Hallie cross the room in his dress shirt and her knee-high socks (as per his request).

She grinned at him and brought the tray over, the combined light of the muted TV and the roaring fire in the fireplace illuminating her approach. “Somehow I doubt that, but I’m honored to introduce you to one of my bedding specialties.”

He shook his head slowly. “This is just a terrible idea, TB.”

“No, it’s not.” She laughed, setting down the room service tray on their bed. “As long as you pull the comforter tight, no crumbs get in the bed. You shake out the top layer when you’re done and you’re good to go.”

He watched her sit down criss-cross-applesauce in front of the tray, and he realized that that was one of the things that made her so . . . whatever the fuck she was that he was obsessed with. Hallie never tried to be cool or anything other than what she was, which, at the moment, was a hungry sex goddess who’d ordered french fries from room service at three in the morning.

“You have to be hungry, too,” she said, taking the heavy lid off the plate. “You’ve been working very hard for hours.”

“As have you,” he said, and she gave him a stupidly huge smile.

He messed up her hair and stole a fry, to which she responded by delivering a stinging hand slap.

They turned up the volume on the TV and watched a rerun of New Girl while they consumed their french fries, arguing about who was the best character. He thought it was Winston, while she thought Nick, but they both teetered on the edge of making Schmidt their number one.

After they killed the food and started getting tired, she led him to the bathroom, where they brushed their teeth side by side because Hallie was convinced the vinegar and sugar in ketchup would rot their teeth while they slept.

Every time she tried gargling, she got the giggles because Jack was watching her and then she choked on the mouthwash. They were both laughing their asses off by the time he threw her over his shoulder and hauled her over to the bed, and when they finally lay down and shut their eyes, he couldn’t remember a time he’d been that fucking happy.