by Orla Bailey
The ones that were delivered with the beautiful bouquets. “I’m sorry I insulted your flowers.” I sound a bit sheepish. I feel it.
He smiles. “Did you like them?”
“Adored them. Especially the words on the cards.”
“That makes me happy.” Jack smiles indulgently.
“You make me happy.”
His lips twist. “When I’m not making you mad.”
“Sorry.”
“You can make it up to me, kitten.”
“I promise.”
We simply look at each other and the world settles around us. A bit like I imagine things might feel after an earthquake ends. You feel blasted, but incredibly, vitally, safe.
“What if Amanda had told you she couldn’t come at such short notice?”
The look he gives me makes me laugh. “Really? You think I didn’t already know what she wanted?”
My stomach turns at the obvious truth. “She wants you.” That problem hasn’t gone away.
“Then she wants what she can’t have. Ever again.” His expression questions if I’m satisfied yet with his explanation.
“At least you know she’s hunting.” I gain a grim sort of satisfaction from that.
“I always knew.” He gives me a telling look. “What if she isn’t the only one?”
“Are you deliberately trying to make me jealous?”
“Is it working yet?”
“Absolutely.”
He smiles. “Thank you, kitten. I’m afraid it seems to go with the territory.”
His wealth? Power? Public image? Those hot, sexy looks? I’ve seen women staring after him when he passes them in the office and on the street. I’ve witnessed that Irish charm he exudes whenever he interacts with them; the macho attitude when he makes demands. Women go weak at the knees. I know I do.
“Think you can handle it?” he asks, grinning.
“Men look at me too,” I brag.
“Plenty,” he growls. “I’ve seen them and I’ll kill any one of them if they do any more than look.”
My heart lifts. “Jealous?”
“Absolutely!”
We grin at each other.
I begin to feel a bit foolish. All this misery and upset for nothing. Once again I’ve played right into Amanda’s devious hands and I swore I never would.
“Amanda still intends on causing trouble.”
“She won’t be able to if you trust me.”
Guilty as charged but I’m not the only one to blame. “Nor if you don’t keep secrets from me.”
He puts his hands up palms outwards. “I admit it. I was wrong.”
“Yes you were.” I speak on a sigh. “Me too.”
He dips closer to his camera. “What was that? I didn’t quite catch it.”
“You heard just fine.” I give him the eye. “I said me too.”
“I thought that was what you said.” His blue eyes glitter with humour.
I offer him a coy smile.
“Four years apart is perhaps too long to know each other as well as we ought to,” he says.
The worry he might be telling me we have no future, terrifies me. I couldn’t bear to lose him now. Not after everything we’ve endured.
I’m not letting him run. “We may be half a world apart, Jack Keogh, but I’ve never felt closer to you than I do right now. This is the sort of intimacy we need between us. Sharing our thoughts and feelings. Concerns. Not relying on sex to bring us close together.”
“What’s wrong with sex to bring us close together?”
“Nothing’s wrong with it.”
“Good to know because you’re heading for a dirty weekend, remember?”
“I remember.” I smile contentedly. “Where are we going again?”
He waggles his forefinger. “Leave it alone. It’s not a secret but it is a surprise.”
“Jack?”
“What is it, kitten?”
“Do you think you can fend that female predator off for another twenty-four hours until you come home to me?”
“It’ll be pretty hard, I admit. She’s got such a determined way about her. And that perfect body…”
I glare in horror. Did he just say that to me? She’s got perfect everything and I know it.
He knows it too. He laughs at my incredulity. “It’s your body I want, not hers.”
“Is that your clumsy way of telling me I don’t have a perfect body, but what the hell?”
“It’s picture-perfect. You have the most beautiful body I’ve ever seen.” His eyes run to the limits of what he can see on the laptop.
“Now you’re just reminding me how many other women you’ve slept with. Can you stop it, please?”
“I’m reminding you, that you surpass all of them. I really want this weekend with you, kitten. You’ve no idea how much I’ve missed you.”
I try to look measured but I’m not done with my nonsense yet. I like fun Jack a lot and intend encouraging as much of him as I can get.
“Well, you’ve had a few days away with an ex chomping on your hide. It’s only fair the leftovers are shared with me.”
He throws me a totally sinful look. “I plan on feeding you a much larger share of my over-heated carcass than she ever got.”
“Are you boasting about your portion sizes again?”
He smirks. “Just presenting the special menu to whet your appetite.”
“I’ll happily lick any succulent morsel I find on it.”
He growls. “I’m hard here just thinking about getting my hands on you for a whole weekend.” He gives a devilish grin. “Especially after that preview you gave me.” His eyebrows wiggle.
I lift my top to flash him again. “Goodbye, Jack.” I see his hand dip below my line of sight and can only imagine what’s kicking into action down there.
“Taunting little witch. You’re going to work off every moment you make me agonize.”
I toss my half fallen out braid haughtily. “Good. Keep suffering so I know you’re staying away from that bitch’s attractions.”
“Attractions? She’s costing me a king’s ransom in Champagne and truffles.”
I frown quizzically.
“Well I have to provide some compensation for the fact she can’t have this.” He yanks up his shirt to flash me back making me laugh as I stare greedily at his taut, lightly-tanned, and well-toned torso, imagining licking him into complete submission.
I groan when his lips quirk in sexy triumph over my involuntary reaction to his body whilst I crumble like a moth in a candle flame, singeing and burning. My eyelids refuse to blink. I don’t want to miss a second of seeing this incredible man I’ve missed so much.
Does he feel the same when he looks at me?
My breathing grows laboured as my nipples tighten and expose themselves through my cotton top. I’m aware of the insistent throbbing between my thighs. I want Jack here, right now, doing unspeakable things to me.
“I hate you, Jack Keogh.”
He winks at me and slowly – oh, so slowly – lowers his shirt. “I love you too, baby. And you’re still not allowed to do anything about it because I want all that there waiting for me.” He blows me a kiss. “Until Friday, kitten. Be good.” He severs the connection.
I fall backward onto the bed with a moan, clamping my palms together between my thighs to ease the aching. I feel so relieved, a little bit foolish and so damned horny and this bed feels much too empty without Jack filling it.
Like my world would be.
Chapter Fourteen
At first I think it’s just another part of the dream.
It takes a heart-stopping moment to understand the phone is trilling. With it pitch black in Jack’s bedroom, I grope blindly, half re-playing the gentle erotic fantasy I’ve woken from; clinging to wisps of pleasure as they disappear like grey smoke in the darkness. Only the physical echo of a delicious sensation remains.
“Mm ’llo.” I frown, my eyes shut tight, wondering if I’m only dreaming som
eone is calling me in the middle of the night.
“Sleepy, baby?”
I’m alert in an instant struggling onto one elbow, fumbling for the light in vain. “What time is it?”
Jack chuckles. “Here or there?”
I flop back down and puff air to blow out the tension of being woken abruptly from sleep. “Doesn’t matter.” I smile into the darkness as my eyes adjust. “Hi, Jack.”
“Hi, kitten.” His voice is breathy, raw and so gentle. Sexy. “Missing me?”
“Like crazy.”
“Well you’re a crazy girl. And I’m missing you so much.”
“I need a drink –”
“Not going there, baby,” he growls.
“– of water.”
“Want me to send Blackstock over with a bottle?”
“Don’t you dare.”
We both chuckle, sleepily. Me, because Blackstock’s possibly curled up in bed with my best friend.
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” He pauses and his voices roughens. “Are you naked?”
I feel around at my tatty, twisted up PJs. “Near enough.”
“What a lovely thought.” His breath comes softly down the line into my ear. “God, Tabby, I need –”
“Water?”
“You.”
“Equally lovely thought.”
The silence lengthens. “Want to have phone sex?”
I practically come right there. “Don’t you want me to wait anymore?” My fingers instantly brush over my thinly covered, erect nipple and I stir to the languidly sensuous tremors it sends dancing along my nerves.
“Yes, but I can’t.”
I like the idea of any sort of sex with Jack very much. Moreover I like the idea he’s resolving his needs by calling me. “Are you hard for me, Jack?”
“Remember that rock guy in Fantastic Four.” The low moan I hear makes me think he’s touching himself already. He’s been pleasuring himself but he wants to include me.
“Let me ease that for you,” I tell him.
“I wish you could, baby.”
“Take your hand away and cover yourself with the sheet.”
“Kitten?” He groans. More separation isn’t what he had in mind at all.
“Do it, Jack.” I order firmly. I catch my lower lip between my teeth and wait.
“Only for you.” He sounds tentative but intrigued.
Being in the dark like this, on the other end of a phone line, is like being blindfolded and hand-cuffed. Every sound has infinitely more meaning. I detect each rough exhalation of his breath and imagine what is happening to his body.
“Wrap your hand around yourself over the sheet. Gently,” I coax. “Imagine my hand is inside yours. Work my hand over your skin, Jack. Direct me to please you exactly the way you like it but do it a little more softly than you really want. More slowly than you need. Feel the drag of my hand under yours.”
He moans again.
“Now even slower. You’re just guiding my hand, remember? I’m the one touching you and I want to take it slow. Real slow. Much slower than you want me to.”
“Where’s your other hand, baby? Down in your own sweetness, right?” His breathing turns clipped and ragged.
“Playing in amongst your fingers there, Jack. It’s so soft and warm inside. So slippery but I want you to tease me with your fingertips.”
“I’m doing it, baby. So gently. Teasing you. Making you want a lot more contact but I’m not going there.”
“I’ll just arch up towards your hand. I need more pressure but you’re backing off until I settle again. Don’t Jack.”
“You’re in my control. I want you there always.”
“Anything you want, Jack. I like it, so much. I’ve waited too long for you to touch me, I’m so aroused, I’m moving my hand tighter over your hard length. I can’t help myself. Now a little faster. I need to go faster.”
I hear his breath falter and restart.
“Yeah, that’s it. So good. You’re beautiful.”
I groan as a shiver of electricity darts up my spine. “You’re making me moan, Jack.”
“That sound you make is so hot. It makes me even harder. God, I want to be deep inside of you.”
“I’m uncurling my fingers and gently teasing you. I’m running my fingers so lightly over you that you thrust up into my hand. You can’t help yourself. You’re demanding I take hold again but I change and balance you in the palm of my hands, massaging with a little more pressure until you rest still and hold your breath. Oh God, Jack.”
“You feel so good, kitten. My fingers are up inside you. They’re deep up inside you, right?”
“So deep, Jack. Such long, lovely fingers. But you remove them and make me wait again. Why are you tormenting me? It only makes me want you more.”
“That’s why.”
“You’re slicking my juices over me until I’m twitching around, so close to coming.”
“And I pinch your tight nipple, right? Drag you right up close to the edge.”
I pinch my own nipple and whimper. “It hurts, Jack, but I like it. I want more.”
“More what, baby? What do you want more of?”
“You Jack. My hand’s tight round you again. You’re jumping at my touch.”
“I am… I really am… I want to come. I need to make you come for me now.” His voice is gravelly. Tight. I know he’s barely holding back.
“I’m… so… close, Jack. I’m swollen. Will you suck me hard?”
“Oh, God, yes. Feel my mouth on you, kitten. Drawing your sweetness up inside me. Tonguing you. Oh God, I’m going to come. Come for me, baby. Damn it. Come now!”
I keen beyond speech. I grind into orgasm as I hear his hit. His elevates mine higher as he comes hard. Loud. So hard. He grunts and I feel his moment of orgasm right through the centre of my brain.
“Jesus, girl.” He gasps out something in Gaelic.
“What does that mean?” I pant through the aftershocks as the waves travel on and on.
He bites back a sudden joyous laugh. “Not for your ears, kitten. You’re a lady.”
“I was no lady just then, Jack.” I mewl softly as I continue to torment my slick, hotly sensitive flesh with another delicate touch, clamping my thighs together to contain the fire.
His voice grows hard. Resolute. “You’re always a lady and never forget it.”
“Jack?”
“What is it, kitten?”
“There’s no-one to hold me.” I want him beside me.
He growls. “There better not be, baby.”
“Stop teasing.”
“I’m not teasing. I’m your man and you’re my woman. Less than twenty-four hours and I’ll prove that to you. I’ll make all this up to you.”
“Make the time go faster.”
“You can ask a man so much, Tabitha –”
“– and no more.” Wow. I’m finishing sentences for him now. My lips curve upwards.
“Right.”
We listen to each other’s breathing, as we recover our senses. I feel close to him even though we’re miles apart. I want to know everything about him. Want to absorb him. I feel like I finally have his trust and he has mine. This deadlock between us has been broken.
“Will you tell me the whole story of you and Amanda?”
“She’s not important to us but if you need me to share my past with you, I will. Soon enough. Give me this weekend first, okay? That’s just for you and me. I don’t want us falling out over her anymore. I want to be with you. Only you.”
“Where did you say we were going?”
He sighs, sounding so gratified. “Nice try, Tabby. Get a guy in a totally euphoric state and go for it, is that it? Well this is me, baby. It won’t work. The weekend is still a surprise.”
“What would you have done if I hadn’t believed you about Amanda and refused to come away?” I’m of a mind to explore the hypothetical from the safety of my adored position in Jack’s world.
“I would have
worn you down until you came to your senses.”
I smile into the darkness. “How would you have done that?”
“With this body, baby.”
My smile grows sleepy and contented. I yawn.
“Go to sleep, Tabby, you have work in the morning and an insatiably horny man to keep happy and satisfied all weekend.”
I give a mock groan. “A working holiday then.”
“You are so going to get spanked for that one. Sleep! Remember, Blackstock is picking you up at six, straight from work. I can’t wait to see you. Can’t wait to touch you. I need you in my life, kitten.”
“Need you too.” My voice quietens.
Jack is just a whisper in my sleepy head. “By the way, kitten, you do great phone sex. I’ll be monitoring all calls from here on in.”
“Don’t you do that already?”
His momentary silence is my answer. “Only protecting your interests, baby. Goodnight, kitten. I love you. Hang up now.”
“I love you too, Jack.” I stab at one or two of the buttons until I think I’ve hung up and drop the phone on the pillow beside my head.
I don’t remember another thing.
* * *
Lenuta wakes me in the morning, drawing back the sliding windows onto the balcony to let in the sunshine and the sounds of the river. There’s a steaming latte beside the bed and I’ve slept right through my wake-up call but I’m not worried. Stretching languidly, I feel as content as a well-fed kitten.
Lenuta takes one good look at me and calls it correctly. “You and Mr Keogh have made the peace? Cat is skinned?”
I sit up and sip hot coffee to wake myself. “We sorted everything out. I don’t think Amanda will be able to create any more trouble between us.” I’m going to fix the place my head is at, so she can’t penetrate it any more. I’ll only trust Jack’s word from now on. He loves me.
Lenuta stares sceptically. “She will try. Mark my words. When cat sinks claws in, she doesn’t let go.”
“I think Jack has her cornered.”
She huffs loudly. “Cornered cat is most dangerous of all.” She leaves me to get up and shower. When I come back through into the bedroom wrapped in a towel, she’s packing a suitcase for me. “I prepare clothes for weekend with Mr Keogh. Tell me anything you want me to pack.”
She seems to know what she’s doing and I wonder if Jack has let her in on our secret weekend location. I smile to myself deliciously. As a potential source of information, she’s a goldmine. Jack’s secrets have driven me insane with jealousy but this one has me captivated. Some secrets can be good ones.
