by Miranda Lee
He could haveher for lunch.
Lisa’s stomach crunched down hard at the memory of how he’d done that to her by the pool. Spread her out on the tiles and feasted on her till she’d come several times. He seemed to really like doing that to her. And she couldn’t get enough of it. She groaned at the thought of him doing that to her right now. Making her forget everything but the pleasure of his tongue sliding over her, and into her…
Lisa shuddered, stunned that she was so turned on just thinking about it.
How easy it would be to ring him and tell him she was on her way over.
Easy, but pathetically weak.
Lisa didn’t want Jack to see her as one of those women who came running whenever he snapped his fingers.
Which she could very well become.
Bad enough she was going to his place tomorrow on the pretext of cleaning his study. She knew very well there wouldn’t be much cleaning done. And what about Friday? She’d be back there again, on Friday, once again with the excuse of cleaning his place.
Because no way was she going to let some other woman near him. Most of her cleaners were fairly young and some quite attractive. And sex mad, in her opinion.
A bit like you, came that brutally honest voice.
Her front doorbell ringing startled Lisa.
‘Oh, lord!’ she groaned, jumping up from her desk. ‘Please don’t let it be Jack.’ Not whilst she was hopelessly turned on.
Running from the office, Lisa bolted along the hallway to the upstairs landing, where there was a window overlooking the street below.
The sight of a white van parked outside her house, and not Jack’s black Porsche, brought relief and disappointment, Lisa’s mixed emotions indicative of her torn frame of mind.
As she made her way more slowly downstairs, she wondered who it could possibly be. A lost tradesman perhaps?
No. Someone selling something more likely.
It was a young woman, holding the most glorious arrangement of red roses.
‘Lisa Chapman?’ she asked briskly.
‘Yes. That’s me.’
‘Lucky you,’ she said with a knowing smile as she handed her the flowers. ‘There’s a note attached,’ she pointed out. ‘Have a nice day.’
Lisa stared at the roses as she carried them inside, knowing before she glanced at the note who they were from. Her hands were shaking by the time she placed them in the middle of her dining table and detached the note.
‘For a very special lady,’ she read. ‘Jack.’
Lisa’s eyes immediately moistened.
She could not remember the last time she’d received flowers.
‘Oh, Jack,’ she cried softly as she lifted one of the red roses to her mouth, rubbing the dark, velvety petals back and forth across her lips. ‘If only you knew how much I want to just say yes to anything you ask of me.’
Lisa was in danger of succumbing to tears again when her phone rang. She pulled a face, then pulled herself together. Her mother, no doubt. Not a day went by without her mother ringing her at some stage.
Poking the rose back into the arrangement, Lisa walked back into the family room, where there was an extension on the kitchen bench. Scooping in a gathering breath, she picked up the receiver.
‘Hello?’
‘Did the flowers come?’
Lisa’s heart stopped momentarily before lurching back into a quickened beat.
‘Jack,’ she said a bit breathlessly.
‘The one and only. And the flowers?’
‘They…they just arrived.’
‘And?’
‘They’re beautiful.’
‘Red roses, I hope. I ordered them over the phone first thing this morning. When I told the florist I wanted two dozen red roses delivered within two hours she said she couldn’t promise. But she’d try.’
‘They’re here and they’re exquisite,’ Lisa said. ‘But horribly expensive, I would imagine. Really, Jack, you shouldn’t have.’
‘I told you I wanted to spoil you rotten.’
Impossible not to feel ridiculously pleased. And flattered.
‘I’ll have to hide them, you know. I can’t let Cory see them. Or my mother. She drops in sometimes. Unexpectedly.’
‘I didn’t send you roses for you to hide them, Lisa,’ he said with exasperation in his voice. ‘Why don’t you say they’re from a grateful client? It’s close to the truth.’
‘Two dozen red roses? You think my mother would believe that?’
‘Truly, you’re a difficult woman. OK, but I refuse to let you hide them. Bring them with you when you come tomorrow and we’ll put them to good use.’
‘What on earth are you talking about?’ Lisa asked, perplexed.
‘That’s for me to know and you to find out.’
‘Might I remind you that I’m supposed to be cleaning your study tomorrow,’ she said archly, even whilst her body thrilled to the thought of him doing erotic things to her with the roses.
‘And so you shall. You can even wear that adorable apron of yours. The one with the bib and the tie round the back. Though, of course, nothing else. Except perfume and shoes. Yes, high heels would look good. Stilettos, with open toes. And you should paint your toenails and mouth red. A deep red, like the roses.’
Lisa was horrified by the picture he was painting of her.
Horrified, but horribly excited.
‘You don’t honestly expect me to do all that, do you?’
‘Expect? No. But a man can hope…’
‘You’re a wicked man, Jack Cassidy.’
‘Not wicked, Lisa. Infatuated. With you.’
‘Oh…’
‘You took my breath away at the weekend, do you know that? I can’t stop thinking about you. I want you every single minute of the day. I’m going insane with wanting you. I tried to write today but I couldn’t. Because my mind is too full of you.’
‘Please don’t talk to me like this,’ she begged, her head whirling with the wild passion in his voice.
‘Why not? Why shouldn’t I tell you how much I want you?’
‘Because…’
‘Because you want me the same way, don’t you?’
‘I…I…’
‘I know you find it hard to admit. It’s all too new. I could sense that in you yesterday. You wanted to run away from your feelings. You’re scared. But you needn’t be. I won’t hurt you, Lisa. I promise.’
‘Promises are just words, Jack. And words come cheap.’
‘Not with me,’ he ground out. ‘My word is my bond. I never go back on my word.’
‘Then promise me that you won’t try to turn me into some mindless plaything with no will of my own.’
‘Is that what you think I’m trying to do?’
‘It’s what Iknow you’re trying to do. Why else would you suggest my cleaning your place in just an apron and stilettos? If you truly like me and respect me, it should be enough that I’m there, with you. You shouldn’t need to dress me up like some whore.’
The sudden silence from the other end of the line brought a degree of panic. She’d done it now.
‘I…I’m sorry, Jack,’ she choked out. ‘But that’s how it sounded to me.’
‘No, no, you’re right. I keep forgetting that you’re different.’
‘Different from what?’ she snapped. ‘From your usual lay? I suppose you think I’m pretty boring.’
‘I think you’re very special. And not boring at all. But you are still slightly uptight about sex. Making love can be fun. It doesn’t always have to be deadly serious. Dressing up is just a game, Lisa. I’m sorry you took offence at it.’
‘No, no. I’m the one who’s sorry. You’re right. And yes, I am afraid. I’d really like to dress up like that for you, Jack. But I…I just don’t have the confidence. Or the courage.’
‘You have more courage than any girl I’ve ever met,’ he said with flattering fierceness.
Lisa let out a long, shuddering sigh of surrender. ‘You�
��re too strong for me.’
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘Nothing. Everything. Please let me go now. I…I’ll see you tomorrow.’
‘What time tomorrow?’
‘I’ll come as soon as I’ve dropped Cory off at school.’
‘I’m already counting down the hours. Take care, Lisa.’
‘And you,’ she replied, though a bit stiffly.
He hung up before her, Lisa staring into the dead phone for several seconds.
Slowly, and with a worried frown on her face, she shook her head from side to side. Hewas way too strong for her. Sexually, she was already his, till he decided otherwise. Which he would, one day. Men like Jack didn’t stay loyal forever.
All she could do was keep him out of her son’s life till that day came.
That part Ican control, Lisa vowed fiercely.
And I will!
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
‘YOUdidn’t bring the roses,’ was the first thing Jack said when he let her in the following morning.
Lisa swallowed as she gazed up into his eyes. She’d forgotten how good-looking he was. And how big.
He looked even bigger in the loose white trousers and sleeveless black T-shirt he was wearing, clothes which showed off the wearer’s tan. And muscles, if he had them.
Jack had them. Oodles of them.
Despite his casual dress and bare feet, he had shaved that morning, she noted. And was wearing cologne, a sandalwood scent which she liked.
‘I forgot them,’ she replied.
A lie, of course. But how could she possibly put two dozen red roses in the car with her whilst she’d taken Cory to school? He’d have asked her about them. As it was, she’d had to hide them at the back of a high shelf in her walk-in wardrobe before he came home from school yesterday.
Lisa supposed she could have gone back home after dropping Cory off to get them, but she’d wanted to drive straight on here.
She hadn’t, however, forgotten the apron. Or the high heels. White, they were. Backless, with open toes. She was wearing them, along with the same white Capri pants and brown singlet top she’d worn last Friday. She was also wearing her sexiest underwear, a cream satin half-cup bra and matching thong which she’d bought at a lingerie sale not long back and never worn.
Lisa had drawn the line at the red nails and lipstick, however, opting instead for a nice bronze colour.
‘You’ve put your hair up again,’ Jack said disapprovingly.
‘I always put it up when I’m cleaning,’ she told him.
His dark brows beetled together in a frustrated frown. ‘Come with me.’
He grabbed her hand and pulled her down the hallway to the study door, which was open.
‘Oh!’ she exclaimed, once she’d looked into the room. ‘It’s all clean.’ Not just clean but also perfectly tidy, with not a scrap of paper on his desk, or a book out of place on the shelves.
‘I did it yesterday after our phone call.’
She turned and looked up into his eyes, her own carrying confusion. ‘But why, Jack?’ She’d spent all night screwing up the courage to clean his study wearing nothing but her apron, thinking that was what he wanted of her.
‘Because I decided I didn’t want you to spend one second whilst you were with me doing anything other than you making love to me.’
Lisa’s relief was short-lived. ‘Did you sayme making love toyou ?’
‘Absolutely.’
‘But…but I won’t know what to do!’
‘You’re a well-read girl, Lisa. Youdo know what to do.’
So it had come to that already.
Lisa tried to swallow the huge lump which immediately filled her throat, without much success.
‘Shall we adjourn to the bedroom?’ Jack suggested.
Lisa knew immediately she couldn’t do this coldly.
‘Would…would you kiss me first, Jack, the way you did the other night?’
Would he kiss her?
Jack suspected, if he started kissing her, he wouldn’t be able to stop. He’d thought of nothing else but being with her since Sunday. By the time she’d arrived this morning, he’d resolved not to play time-wasting games. His intention had been to make immediate love to her, then keep her in bed with him most of the day, breaking only for lunch.
Why he’d challenged her to make love to him, he had no idea. That had come right out of left-field. But the idea excited him so much that he refused to back down.
‘No,’ he said firmly. ‘You kiss me.’
She’s not ready for this, his conscience castigated him when her already vulnerable blue eyes widened appreciably.
Too late, his male ego countered. The game had begun and he was on the field, making the play and thinking excitedly of the results.
If Jack was brutally honest, he’d wanted to break down all her defences right from the start. More than anything he’d wanted to see this beautiful ice princess lose that iron control which she prized so highly, but which had never brought her any happiness.
For a long moment she just stared up at him, but then the most amazing determination entered her wide-eyed gaze. With measured movements, she lifted her hold-all from her shoulder and walked over to put it on his desk. Then she turned and walked back to where he was still standing in the doorway of his study, her eyes having gone a dark, smoky blue. Once there, she startled Jack by taking his hand and leading him towards the bedroom.
‘You’re too tall for me to kiss you properly, Jack,’ she said on the way. ‘You need to be lying down.’
How cool she sounded! How in control!
Exasperation joined his frustration. Wasn’t that just so typical of her?
By the time Jack lay down on the bed, his own normally excellent control was already teetering, his flesh under fire as hot blood pumped through him at a rate of knots.
He watched her with a drying mouth as she kicked off her shoes then stretched out beside him on one elbow, leaning over him till her mouth hovered just over his.
‘Don’t forget this was your idea,’ she said, her suddenly trembling voice betraying her underlying nerves.
She kissed him. Very lightly, her lips brushing back and forth across his.
Such a ridiculously sweet kiss, yet it made Jack moan.
Her head shot up to stare down at him with anxious eyes.
‘Did I do something wrong?’
‘Not that I noticed.’
She smiled a sweet smile, then frowned, as though trying to work out something. ‘I…I think I want you naked,’ she said at last.
Now it was his turn to stare up at her. ‘Naked?’
‘Yes, please.’
She was saying please.
Jack scrambled out of his clothes with indecent haste, smothering a sigh of relief at the release of his pained flesh.
‘Heavens,’ she said when she glanced down at him.
‘More like hell,’ Jack returned drily. ‘Now, how about you?’
She smiled. Not a sweet smile at all this time. A siren’s smile.
‘All right,’ she agreed, climbing off the bed and stunning Jack by starting a slow striptease. Not clumsily, either. Very sexily, lifting her top off first whilst she moved her hips sinuously to some unheard music in her head.
Her cream satin bra was utterly delicious, just covering her nipples. Jack waited with bated breath for her to remove it next, but she didn’t. She let her hair down first, finger-combing it sensuously over her shoulders before she finally unhooked her bra and tossed it carelessly aside.
During his days in the army, Jack had seen quite a few stripteases. Some by skilful dancers with incredibly voluptuous bodies. But none had done for him what Lisa’s simple striptease was doing. When her hands dropped to her white hipster trousers, his loudly thudding heart literally stopped in his chest. By the time she was standing in front of him wearing cream satin panties which were even more provocative than her bra, Jack’s desire had reached the point of no return. How he
was going to stand it when she took that last scrap of clothing off, he did not know.
