This is even better than last night. She kisses me slowly, searchingly, like she’s rebuilding something between us with each gentle shift of her lips. Her thumbs stroke my cheekbones, and I melt into her. I’ll keep melting into her for as long as she lets me, savoring each kiss like she’s the world’s best slice of pie.

I let two fingers stroke her bare forearm until she shivers beneath my touch, moans into my mouth, and opens for me. My tongue slides along her bottom lip, and the indomitable, solid Jack Kim-Prescott mewls in my arms.

My brain feels like Pop Rocks, and I’m falling hopelessly headfirst into this kiss, holding back nothing, showing her that I want, I yearn. That I want and yearn for her.

When Jack jerks her head back to break off the kiss, I fall back on my heels. “Elle,” she says, and her voice is raw. “We can’t… I can’t do this to Andrew. I want to”—she trails one hand up my arm like she can’t quite help herself—“Holy shit, I want to. But what kind of monster hooks up with her brother’s fiancée?”

I look up at the tortured expression on her face. I think about the two hundred thousand dollars. I think about her hands still cupping my face. I think about Jack’s dream and my dreams. And fuck it—Andrew can find someone else to fake marry. “I’m not going to marry him,” I tell her.

I watch as the smallest shift takes place on Jack’s face, her mouth, begging to lift in the corner. “You’re not?” she asks, hopeful. It’s the damn hope.

I shake my head. “I can’t marry him when I feel this way about you.”

And then Jack lets loose her terrific smile. Her hands fall to my waist, and she shoves me urgently until my back is against the wall of the cabin, pinning me in place. She doesn’t kiss me right away. No, for a long minute, Jack simply stares at me, and I stare at her, too. Brown eyes and freckles and the tiny white scar. She’s hovering in front of me, close enough that I can see all her imperfections. The small pattern of acne scars on her chin, and the frown lines between her eyebrows, and the pores along the bridge of her nose. She’s so achingly beautiful.

Jack slides a knee between my legs and kisses me again, and this is the best two hundred thousand dollars I’ve ever spent.

We’re kissing with our whole bodies now, Jack pressing me harder against the wall, our bodies lining up like puzzle pieces that only make sense slotted together. The small swell of her breasts under my own. Her wide shoulders and narrow hips; my wide hips and narrow shoulders. Hip bones and pelvic bones, harmony and friction.