She walked off toward the back of the store, her little pink heels clacking on the marble tile. She was always so elegant and put together, so effortless looking. Of course, I knew the truth about how much effort she put into herself. She was always her own favorite pet project. Until now.
Sigh.
Flipping through the rack, I found one little frock that caught my eye. An eyelet lace sheath cut to mid-thigh. It sounds sweet, but the coal-black color gave it an edge that I loved—plus, black was appropriate to my feelings about the occasion.
I held it up and glanced at myself in the mirror, turning back and forth. The straight lines were not made with my full curves in mind, but it was worth a try. All I had to do was try it on.
Tap, tap. Tap, tap.
I heard a tapping noise behind me on the glass. It was Jack rapping his knuckle against the window, a soft smile on his face. My heart lit up like a pinball machine seeing him there, but I fought against it. He hadn’t called me since our night together. He hadn’t even texted.
A sense of rage and injustice filled me. I knew I couldn’t trust men like Cash, but Jack? Jack was supposed to be one of the good ones. He searched my face and raised his brows, gesturing for me to come out quickly before my mother got back. He was right. This was the only time I’d be likely see him in a neutral setting.
“What is it?” I asked as I stepped outside.
Humid, perfectly still afternoon air hung like a wet blanket over us. He led me a little way down the sidewalk and into a shaded, ivy-covered alley next to the boutique.
“Don’t take me too far or mother will call in a search party.”
“I’m sorry,” he said as he pulled me into his arms. I was stiff as a board against him. The cold anger inside me wouldn’t thaw. He kissed my hair and pulled away as he glanced around the street to see if anyone was watching. “I’m so sorry, honey. I—I couldn’t risk calling or texting. I couldn’t stop by. Not without being obvious.”
He was right. My mother was notorious for checking my texts and calls… she’d know lickety-split if anything untoward was going on. I felt stupid for getting angry at him, for doubting him. At the same time, he could have texted something innocent to show me he was thinking of me. Anything. The silence is what killed me.
“You’re right.” I went up on tiptoes and kissed him lightly on the cheek. So chaste.
A million different things were going through my mind. I wanted to ask his advice and hear him tell me everything was going to be okay. “I know you’re right. I—I can’t stay here long. Mother will be looking for me. We’re shopping and going to the salon.”
“Oh, yeah? That doesn’t sound much like you.” He flashed a grin and my knees went weak. It took everything in my power not to grab him and kiss him. “Special occasion?”
A jolt of panic shot through me. I wanted to tell him that they were making me eat supper with Cash, but I couldn’t bring myself to say the words. He’d lose his mind and do something we’d all regret… but the way he was looking at me brought the words to the surface, and they poured out.
“Mother and Conrad are making me have supper with Cash Jackson. I didn’t know how to say no… mother’s so excited and happy for me. I just… I just don’t know what to do. She wants to buy me a new dress and take me to get my hair done,” I prattled on, wringing my hands anxiously as he stared at me, his face reddening.
“Absolutely not. You will not see that boy again. Cancel it.”
He moved closer and slipped his hand around the small of my back. Just that one little touch brought me back to Earth, brought me balance and calm. I nodded.
“But, what will I say?”
“Say you’re sick. Say you have an exam to study for. Say he tried to hurt you—just say something, honey. I can’t bear the thought of you sitting at the same table as him.”
Tears of rage glittered in his grey eyes as he pulled me close and held me against his strong chest.
People walked past the alley, chatting and laughing. Cars cruised by with music drifting from the windows but it all melted away to the background.
It was just him and me. Just us alone in our own little world. Quickly, softly, he kissed me on the lips, reminding me of who I was and who I belonged to.
Him. Only him.
I’d think of something. I always did.
Chapter 6
The full moon peeked over the horizon, casting gold light over everything. I was stretched out in bed, in the dark, listening for the car to leave.
My mother and Conrad were leaving for a weekend away at the lake. It was Friday night. The third Friday in a row that I’d cancelled dinner with Cash. The third Friday in a row where I’d snuck off to Jack’s cabin.
The first time I cancelled, I said I had cramps. The second time, I’d gotten poison ivy in the woods. This time, I was sick as a dog. Not really, but it was my excuse.
Oh, there were reprimands and gasps and lots of hand-wringing. Mother was on the verge of tears, but Conrad calmed her down.
She’ll make a better impression when she’s not sick, dear. It’s just a dinner cancellation. Go to bed, honey. Get some rest.
Bless his Sazerac-soaked heart.
Mother hemmed and hawed about whether to cancel their trip to stay and take care of me, or if they ought to go and not lose out on the reservation. True to form, she decided to go. I’d always been able to take care of myself, after all.
I pinned up my hair and took a hot bath. I shaved myself smooth as silk and slathered on lotion. By the time I was done, I looked good, dammit. I’m allowed to think so. I glowed. I even noticed a little more fineness in my sturdy, curvy frame. A little nip in at the waist and some definition in my bum. Turns out sex is exercise.
The parlor’d given my hair caramel highlights and cut it so it framed my face. It fell in lush waves over my shoulders like some Greek goddess. It looked hot. I climbed into bed, careful not to mess it up. I wanted Jack to see it. To see his debutante again.
“Goodnight, honey! We’ll see you Sunday!”
My mother called up the stairs and left without waiting for a reply. When I saw the headlights slide across my wall and disappear into darkness, I knew it was time to go.
I dressed in cut-off shorts, a tank top and long cardigan. It was a warm night but there was still a slight chill in the air when I stepped outside. I strode across the dew-soaked lawn and down the street to meet Jack. He was parked on the corner, just beyond the streetlamp.
The drive to the cabin was long and dark despite the full moon. It was one of those nights when you feel on edge, when it’s unnaturally quiet and still and the air crackles with electricity.
A storm was coming, and it was going to be a big one. Flashes of lightning lit up the trees as we made our way deeper into the bayou. I shivered. There was some weird mojo in the air.
“You okay, honey?”
Jack’s voice brought me back to reality. That, and his hand closing over my knee. My whole body flooded with desire at the melting heat of his touch. I’d been waiting all week to be with him again.
“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just a little spooky tonight, is all. Don’t you think?”
He nodded and winked at me. “It’s nights like this that the rougarou comes out to hunt.”
“The rougarou?”
I had a vague recollection of the word. It was like a werewolf, or something. A cursed person who sneaks around and sucks the blood of sleeping people.
“Mm-hm. You won’t see him, but you can hear him sometimes.”
As he spoke, Jack slid his fingers over the soft, sensitive skin of my inner thigh, inching up toward my core. I shivered. His deep voice rolled like thunder, sending shivers down my spine as he continued.
“He scratches the windows at night, trying to find a way inside. Oh, some people say its just moss sliding against the panes, but us Cajuns know it’s him lurking out there. Waiting to bite into some delicate young thing…”
His nails bit into m
y flesh lightly, making me jump.
“Stop it!” I laughed. “I’m not scared of some old werewolf story. It’s just… I don’t know. Doesn’t it feel strange out?”
“It’s just the electricity in the air. It short-circuits something inside our primitive brains. Makes us feel weird.”
“So, you’re a scientist now?” I laughed and rolled my eyes.
He squeezed my leg again and smiled. I loved to see him smile like that, to see him so happy… but it also pained me. We were living on borrowed time. There was no way this—what we had—could last. I could practically hear the clock ticking down.
“Go ahead and laugh. I’m not a scientist, no. Just someone who knows things. We’re here. Just in the nick of time, by the looks of it.”
The cabin never changed. Seeing it like that, spilling its light into the dark, brought me right back to the night of the debutante ball.
As we pulled up, the first raindrops hit the windshield, big and fat and warm. It was a subtropical storm. A soaker. One that would raise the water high before the night was over. Jack jogged around and opened the door, then scooped me up and ran me to the house. He brought me inside and kicked the door shut behind us, then tossed me on the bed.
“Look at you,” he growled with a roguish smile on his face as he climbed over my body. He loomed up above me, big and strong and impossibly handsome. My Jack. “You’re all done up. Your hair…”
He ran a lock of hair through his fingers, plying it like silk. His fingers slipped around my neck and brought my face to his. Again and again, he kissed me. He held me and stroked my whole body, exploring every curve and dimple. I felt like fresh dough in his hands as he kneaded me.
“I missed you,” I whispered into his mouth as he pulled off my sweater and tumbled me over so I straddled him.
He felt so big and strong between my legs, like a wild stallion. I arched against him, grinding myself against his rapidly hardening cock.
“I missed you, too, baby.” He smiled and gripped my hips, guiding me as I rode him. “I swear you’ve put a spell on me. I’ve never craved something like I crave you.”
“No?” I said with a smile. I was pleased. I really was… but I was having a hard time concentrating. Cash kept popping up in my mind. And the strange, creepy feeling I’d had all evening. Every little gust of wind, every skitter of leaves across the tin roof, made me jump.
“No. Never. C’mere.”
He pulled me down so my hair fell like a curtain around his face. Kiss after kiss landed hot and steaming on my neck and breasts.
He undressed me as the rain started to fall harder. It pounded against the windows and roof like pebbles, filling the whole world with white noise.
Jack pulled off my shorts and tossed them aside, then buried his face between my legs. He drank me down like a starving person, consuming me as I plunged my hands into his thick auburn hair.
“Oh, Jack!”
I moaned as he slipped his fingers inside me, filling me up. The combination of his fingers and the soft, lazy swirl of his tongue brought me right to the edge.
I hadn’t realized how tense and distracted I’d been until I exploded with pleasure. I cried out and shuddered, my whole body constricting like a snake as the rhythm of his mouth and fingers brought me over the edge. A thunderclap of pleasure echoed through my brain, bringing me into the moment and exorcising all the stress I’d been feeling for days and days.
“Oh, god… Oh my goodness, that was so good.”
“Yeah, it was. You taste like melon. Like a fresh slice of garden melon.”
He kissed me, and I could taste it. The faintly sweet, musky taste of me on his lips and tongue. I reached down for him, groping for his hardness, but he pulled my hands away.
“Give me your mouth, baby.”
My whole body melted in the heat of his voice. I slipped down between his thighs with my knees digging into the hard floor. Eyes locked, I lowered my mouth and took him inside me, sliding him along my tongue deep inside. He groaned and stroked my cheek as he filled his hands with my hair, holding it up and letting it fall as I worshiped him with my mouth.
“Oh, god, baby… that’s so damned good.”
He clenched his eyes shut as I pushed him all the way in and pulled free with a smack of my lips. I ran my tongue around him again and again and again in an endless circle until he was gasping with pleasure.
“Do you like my cock in your mouth?”
I moaned a little and pulled free, leaving a string of saliva from his rock-hard cock to my swollen, sensitive lips.
“I love your cock in my mouth,” I said softly.
It was all new to me. Sex and all its accessories. The words felt natural, but saying them still made me blush. He blushed too. We were like newlyweds together, learning each others’ bodies, but everything was so familiar, so loving, that it was like remembering something a dream. Like deja vu.
He groaned as I took him in again, sliding his hardness over my tongue deep, deep inside.
“Mmmm… keep going…”
He thrust gently into my mouth, releasing a gush of salty, musky liquid onto my tongue. I swallowed it down greedily, tasting his desire. It made me drunk. Dizzy.
I was pulsating with pleasure, begging to be filled up. It was a hunger so intense, I couldn’t ignore it. I pulled free and looked into his eyes. He was mine. All mine.
“I want you inside me. Now.”
“Goddamn,” he groaned as he stood up and lifted me onto the table like I was light as a feather. He forced himself between my legs and pulled me right to the edge of the scarred wooden tabletop.
He ran his finger down the cleft of my freshly trimmed mound. Feeling his fingertips made me shiver with pleasure all over. He ran the tip of his cock around my clit again and again, stimulating it as he pinned my arms above my head. I wanted to grab him, to pull him into me, but I couldn’t. I was at his mercy. It was a sweet state to be in; total abandon.
“Please,” I gasped as he teased me. I felt so wet and swollen inside I knew I’d be tight as a glove when he slipped inside. I wanted to watch him melt as he entered me, to be totally overcome with how good I felt. “Give it to me. Now!”
“Goddamn it, girl,” he grunted as he sank into my flesh, his face slackening from the absolute mind-melting pleasure of being inside me. That’s what I loved; seeing how good I felt to him. Knowing how perfect he felt to me. “Goddamn you’re tight.”
His eyes clenched as he bottomed out, stretching me wide with his girth. He hit some deep secret sweet spot inside me, releasing a strange flood of pleasure that traveled up my spine in a scintillating wave. He pushed my knees wide and started to thrust slowly and deliberately, watching each time as his cock disappeared inside me.
“Is that good, baby?” he asked as his thrusts got faster. His face was all flushed and his lips were red and swollen.
I nodded. It was better than good. His shirt was up and I could see the tense and release of his abs and the beast-like curl of his hips as he thrust into me.
“Mmm,” I moaned in response, nodding and gasping as he kissed me. “I love your big cock inside me. Yes… yes! Oh, god. It’s is so good!”
“Fuck!”
His thrusts got faster and harder. He pounded into me, shaking my whole body, making my heavy breasts sway. He gripped them suddenly, gathering the flesh up and pressing it together as he sucked my nipples. I loved seeing them get all red and wet from his mouth, hard and shiny as rubies. He worshiped them, sucking them again and again as his cock pummeled me. Each sweet suck sent a jolt of pleasure rocketed down my spine to meet the ecstasy throbbing between my legs.
His bulging shaft seemed to swell inside me, to expand between my walls as his breathing quickened. He was close. I was close.
I wrapped my legs around him, pulling him deeper inside as me as I clenched around him, fluttering with electricity. My orgasm was building and building like a static charge. The air between us crackled as it heated up.
“Ooohhh, yes. Yes, yes, yes! Don’t stop!”
Words poured from me as I started to ascend, as I left all sense behind. I arched off the table as I came, as the orgasm sucked me into oblivion. A wordless hiss escaped me as he lifted my ass and fucked me harder, working me against his cock.
“That’s it—that’s it! Oooohhhhh! Jack…”
My eyes fluttered open and fell on the window just as a flash of lightning lit the cabin, throwing it into stark black and white for an instance, blinding me.
Jack groaned and shuddered as he came inside me, his cock pulsing as he emptied his pleasure into me. His mouth latched onto mine and our breath joined together as he filled me up.
Despite the chemicals of pleasure swirling in my brain, some part of me was counting, waiting for the thunder to come after the lightning… but it never did. The only sound was the rain pelting the roof.
That strange, prickling fear I’d felt all evening returned, only stronger. I wrapped myself around my big, strong man and tried to push it from my mind. I was safe. I was with Jack. Nothing could harm me.
You’re just being paranoid, I thought as he carried me to the bed, his cock still buried up to the hilt in my sensitive sex.
That’s what comes from sneaking around—paranoia. There’s nothing to be afraid of, not as long as you have Jack.
Chapter 7
“You look gorgeous, honey,” my mother cooed as I stepped into the parlor.
I was primped and dressed in my cute little black frock and ladylike heels. She circled me like a pastel vulture, picking up any and every defect. Little white hairs from my cat and an off-center seam. A loose thread here, an eyelash on my cheek there. She was truly a Picasso of pickiness, but instead of a paintbrush she wielded a lint roller and a pair of tweezers.
“With your coloring… oh, never mind, honey. You like lovely.”
“‘With my coloring’ what, mother?” She’d tell me eventually. I just wanted to get it out of the way.
“Well, a little color’d do wonders for you. Black is so… draining on a girl like you.” She leaned back and eyed me like a half-painted canvas, her eyes narrowing behind her glasses. “Still, black is slimming. And we could all use some help in that department.”
The Debutante Page 5
