Easily, leisurely, he turned her around. His hands slid up to her neck and he pulled her face even closer to him. Her gaze traveled down to his beautiful mouth and lower to the open collar of the shirt, long relieved of the bow tie he obviously hated.
She inhaled the musky scents of Dante Cardinelli’s fusion cooking, mingled with a hint of Sydney Lynn’s perfume. She liked taking him from another woman. She liked that he came to her. She loved it, in fact.
“I want you, Jessie.” He closed in on her to take a gentle, languishing kiss, wetting her mouth and teeth and lips. “Tell me yes, baby.”
Tingling and sparking in her deepest center, Jessica responded by pressing herself against him and tightening her lock around his neck as he kissed her. He lifted her easily off the ground and brought her up to sit on the railing, the crotch of her thin, silky shorts rubbing slowly over his erection. He ran his hands along her thighs, down to her calves, wrapping her legs around his waist. With her seated on the rail, they were the same height, face-to-face and eye-to-eye.
He looked right into her eyes. “Are you sure? You have about ten seconds to change your mind.”
Ageless words of love rose in her, but she only nodded, biting her lip to keep from saying something she shouldn’t.
That’s all it took for him. Like a dam had broken, his mouth seized hers, preventing her from thinking of anything but the anxious force of his demanding tongue. Cuddling her bottom, he effortlessly lifted her and turned toward the house, keeping her wrapped around him.
“Where are you taking me?”
“One guess.”
She laughed and kissed his neck. “You’re carrying me there?”
“I like to go fast… until it’s time to go slow.”
Kissing her all the way into her dimly lit bedroom, he finally let her fall softly on the bed and climbed on top of her without ever ending total body contact. With slow, deliberate ease, he pulled her tank top over her head. He dropped it on the floor as his hands roamed over her bare breasts.
“I can’t believe how long I’ve wanted to do this.” He lowered his head to place his mouth over one breast, then the other, sucking gently, sending an achy, torturous longing snaking through her. Her legs clung to his hips as his tongue flicked slowly around each of her nipples, making her want to scream and moan and hold his head tightly to the perfect spot that he’d found.
She started to unbutton his tuxedo shirt but fumbled with the French studs that replaced ordinary buttons.
“I’ll do it,” he said huskily.
He sat up, straddling her, and began to unfix each clip. With every move, his shirt opened more, offering her an unimpeded view of his chest, but he fumbled, too, with the tiny buttons.
“You’ve invaded my head, Jessie,” he whispered as he popped off one stud in frustration. “I’ve wanted you for so long, I can’t think straight anymore.”
“Let me.” She easily pulled him down to her side, then slid on top of him. Her silky boxers slid over his tuxedo pants, tormenting them both as she straddled him and leaned over to finish the buttons.
Her hair fell around his face while his fingers played with every forbidden thing he could finally touch. Sucking her nipples to hardened nubs, he tugged at the waistband of her boxer shorts and inched them over her backside. She took the buttons of his tuxedo pants between her fingers, a ragged breath of anticipation escaping her lips.
“Wait,” he whispered and reached into the pocket. He pulled out a couple of foil packets and dropped them next to them on the bed.
“Always concerned about safety, my astronaut.” She kissed his chin, then opened her mouth to bite it. “Thanks.”
He didn’t respond but placed her hands back on the button of his pants and helped her undress him. Then they tumbled again to find the place that felt just right for their aching bodies.
She touched him everywhere, inhaling the musky scent of masculine sex emanating from every pore, licking the salty skin of his neck, his shoulders and his nipples. He responded to her fingertips like they were lit matches.
“I want to touch you,” she rasped, her hands finally circling him. He squeezed his eyes shut and choked her name, gently lifting her hips toward him.
With quivering hands, she put the condom on him, loving the feel of him. Firm and completely male. She kissed his stomach and tasted his muscles and skin.
He gently tugged her up to him, reaching to touch the soft folds of her. “Now, Jessie. Now.” He inched himself into her body and then plunged all the way inside, making her gasp.
They moved in instant, easy, ancient rhythm, kissing in celebration of their union and reveling in each sensation that drove them further and faster.
She lost every ounce of control. Dizzy, she clung to him, squeezed him further inside her.
“Take your time, baby,” he whispered to her. “We have all night.”
“I can’t, Deke. I… can’t.” I have no power over this.
She heard her own breath with each aching push, and she felt his body taking her up and over a cliff that she couldn’t stop racing toward. She looked at his face, dark with passion and lust and that just moved her further, to the point of being completely lost in him as her entire focus centered on the place where he penetrated her. She kissed him and bit his lip so hard she thought she tasted blood.
The shockingly intimate connection threw her over the brink and the pulsing ache exploded, shattering her body into a million pieces as she fell spiraling down the edge in a long, agonizingly wonderful release.
As her electrifying climax throbbed around him, he shuddered and grew harder and fuller inside her. He whispered her name, plunging inside her. Over and over.
Jessie. Jessie. With each syllable he arched into her with raw urgency. As she rode the crest with him, he joined her climax, and holding her entire body as close and tightly as he possibly could, he spilled, just as uncontrolled, into her.
Neither one could possibly breathe a word, finally spent and satisfied.
* * *
The red digital numbers of Jessica’s alarm clock read 3:35 a.m. by the time Deke guided her up to the pillows, and they climbed under the sheet, wrapping their bodies together and drifting in and out of sleep. He quietly got up to extinguish the candles throughout the house and close the sliding doors. Then he slipped back in her bed, loving the length of her taut, bare legs as they curled around his. Her hair fell on his shoulder, tickling him, as he tucked her comfortably under his arm.
“All right,” she sighed. “You are good at everything.”
He laughed softly and kissed her head, drinking in the clean smell of her shampoo. “Nah. But I get great PR.”
Deke closed his eyes and enjoyed the images of her he’d captured during the evening. He pictured her moving like liquid mercury in that luminous dress through the crowds, in the bleachers, at the restaurant. She looked like an angel in his memory. And, now, this. Amazing. Just amazing.
He wanted to tell her but didn’t know the right words. He wanted to reassure her and admire her and consume her again.
“Jess?” He ran his hands over her smooth, soft skin of her stomach.
“Yeah?”
“How old are you?”
She looked up suspiciously. “Twenty-nine.”
“What’s your middle name?” He inched one hand up to trail his finger over the sweet slope of her breast.
“Lynn. Like Sydney.” Even half asleep, she made him smile.
“Where’d you go to college?”
“Boston College.” She leaned up on one elbow. “Is this twenty questions, Stockard?”
He stroked her perfectly smooth flesh, the nipple hardening like magic under his thumb. He could do that to her. He could take her right to the edge of control and beyond. “I just want to know you. Completely. Don’t you want to know that stuff about me?”
She kissed him on the closest piece of skin, which happened to be his shoulder. “I know it all, honey. I wrote your bio, rem
ember? Although I didn’t know your real name was Deacon.”
He wanted to tell her every thought he had about her and far more about himself than what was written in his bio. He suddenly had a powerful desire to uncover the mystery of the woman he had just watched experience a rare loss of self-restraint.
Thinking of her exquisite expression at the moment he took her to climax, he felt himself grow hard again.
He let a strand of her hair play through his fingers for a moment, wondering if the erotic sensation would pass.
“Deke?”
“Hmmm?”
“Did you really think she was boring?”
He laughed and turned on his side so that their bodies lined up against each other, warm flesh touching top to bottom.
“She’s no Jessica Marlowe.” He had to kiss her again, just one more time, a slow and deep expression of the emotion that was tugging at his heart, pulling him deep into dangerous and foreign territory.
* * *
The sun blazed high over the river and sneaked through the cracks of the plantation shutters before Jessica heard the shower and turned to the empty spot where Deke had been in her arms all morning. She ached for him already, stretching like a satisfied cat as she rose. She grabbed a short robe from a chair in the corner and slipped it on before she visited him in the bathroom.
The shower curtain was closed and the room was filled with steam and heat.
“Good morning, Commander,” she said, just loud enough to be heard over the water.
He opened the curtain a crack and grinned, covered with water and magnificently naked. His wet arm reached out and went straight for the tie on her robe. “I was just thinking about you.”
He grinned and tugged, opening the silk panels with one easy movement and making her squeal in surprise.
“Don’t get modest now, sweetheart.” He pushed the material off her shoulders and put his hands under her bare arms to lift her into the tub. “Come here.”
The pounding shower soaked her while his soapy hands lathered her, stopping to concentrate on particularly appealing areas and taking her back to the sensual weakness she’d felt just a few hours ago. He covered her with slippery caresses that made her laugh and gasp until the water splashed in her mouth. Then they dripped back to the bed and depleted each other once again.
“I guess we need some nourishment to keep this up,” Deke mused as they lay together. “Got anything?”
“Eggs. Cheese. Water. Chocolate.”
“All the essentials. Take me to your kitchen.”
Deke delivered two perfect omelets, complete with sautéed mushrooms and gooey Swiss cheese.
“Amazing what a stove can do in the proper hands,” Jessica commented as she savored the taste and the expansive view of the river. The latter was made even more appealing by the man lounging comfortably across from her in a pair of sexy white Calvin Klein boxers and an oversized Dash Communications 10K tee shirt Jessica normally wore for running.
“It’s too bad you didn’t have shallots.” He pointed his fork toward her, making her laugh. “Don’t laugh. Shallots are serious business in an omelet.”
“What meal is this, anyway?” She looked at her wrist for a watch that wasn’t there. “Breakfast, lunch or dinner?”
“I have no idea. Looks like it’s about three by the sun. Could be any of the above, I guess.” He narrowed his eyes and shot her a sexy smile. “I don’t really care. Do you?”
While Jessica put their dishes in the dishwasher, Deke sat on the floor of her living room, going through the few CDs she’d brought from Boston. Suddenly, the soft strains of an old Van Morrison song filled the tiny house, and she smiled at his perfect choice. Then his arms were around her, turning her to dance to “Tupelo Honey.”
“I love this song,” he said as he moved her in a small circle around the galley kitchen.
I love this man. She looked up and found his mouth and tasted the mushrooms and cheese with a bold and inviting kiss.
He sang the words of the love song to her, dancing and guiding her a few feet into the living room where they dropped to the sofa. Slowly, he unbuttoned the silk pajama top she wore and eased his way down her tummy with a stream of delicate kisses. She sighed as he reached her panties, closing her eyes in anticipation of what his tongue would do to her.
Then she heard the knock at the door.
“Someone’s here.” Surprise cracked her voice.
“You have every right to ignore it. This is America.”
She inched up the sofa. “Where’s your car?”
“In the driveway.” As her eyes widened in horror, he shook his head. “In my driveway. I’m a trained military professional, Jess.”
The doorbell rang. “But who could be here?” she demanded.
He closed her top button. “You could always ask.”
“Jess? You in there?”
Oh, shit. Stuart.
Chapter Nineteen
“Oh my God. I think he called before.” Jessica sat up and pulled her panties back in place. “I—I didn’t answer the phone.”
Deke smiled and slipped her second button through its hole. “You were busy.”
Another knock. She jumped from the sofa and stood frozen, staring at Deke. He started to laugh. “You want me to hide?”
For a moment, she considered it. Then shook her head and held up a finger to her lips. “Just be quiet,” she whispered and he started to laugh again. “Please, Deke.”
He nodded and reached up to tug at her top. “Don’t forget the last two buttons.”
She looked down at her half-undone top and underpants. Dear God. Stuart was here.
“Just a second, Stu,” she called out. “I’ll be right there.” With another glare at Deke, she dashed to the bedroom, grabbed a pair of shorts, and pulled them on.
When she came back, Deke still sat on the sofa, watching her like she was performing in a sitcom. She slipped around the wall that blocked the living room from the doorway.
Opening the front door a crack, she feigned a yawn and a sleepy wipe of her eyes. “Late night.” She smiled guiltily. “What’s up?”
Stuart frowned and glanced at his watch. “It’s four thirty, Jess. You okay?”
She nodded and fake-yawned again. “Just tired. I decided to take a nap. Is something wrong?”
He glanced beyond her, obviously waiting for an invitation in. She leaned against the doorjamb and offered none.
“Well, I called earlier. Didn’t you get my message?”
She shook her head.
“You haven’t seen the Times?” He couldn’t hide his surprise as he stuck a newspaper in her hand. “Have you been online? The AP photo has him front and center!”
She couldn’t quite match the enthusiasm in his voice, but she tried. “Oh, that’s great.” She glanced at the picture of Deke and Sydney Lynn in front of her. “I, well, I actually haven’t seen the coverage yet.”
“I can bring the rest of it tonight,” he offered.
“Tonight?” Jessica frowned at him.
“Did you make other plans?”
She had no idea. Her only plans included sex. A lot of it. “Ah, well…”
“You didn’t forget tonight is the Colonel’s New Year’s Eve party, did you? I think you’re expected to be there.”
New Year’s Eve. Of course. New year, new decade, new millennium.
New man.
Behind her, she heard that very man stir. Oh God, let him stay put. She inched the door closed. “I—I guess I’ll try and drop by.”
She saw him glance beyond her and her heart stopped. She was terrified that she would turn and see Deke in boxers and her tee shirt, grinning from ear to ear. Stuart had to have heard the same noise she did. She didn’t dare look.
“By the way,” Stuart said. “Nobody can find Deke. Jeff said he’s called him all day, but no answer. Think he’s still with Miss Hollywood?”
“Who knows?” She shrugged with enough nonchalance to beat
Sydney for an Oscar. “They seemed to hit it off last night.”
Stuart started to say something, but she held up the newspaper. “Sorry. I gotta go. I’ll see you later, okay?”
He nodded and his gaze dropped a little. “Sure, Jess. See you tonight.”
When she closed the door, she thought her legs would surely buckle under her. Only then did Deke come around the corner. They stared at each other.
“Did you forget about the party tonight?” he asked, amusement tugging the corners of his lips.
“I was preoccupied.”
“You could be my date.”
“I could not.”
“Then we’ll have to just throw knowing glances across the room. You don’t just blow off the We Survived Y2K party at the Colonel’s.” He smiled and stepped closer to her and tugged the collar of her pajamas.
She rocked into him. “But we haven’t survived it yet.”
“Just how long do you think you can hide this?”
She shrugged. “As long as it lasts, Stockard.”
He flipped the button open. “That could be a while.”
* * *
They’d stayed together until the very last possible moment, when Deke left Jessica’s house and promised to behave when he saw her at the party. Of course, after the Colonel greeted her at his door, the next person she saw was the one she’d spent the day making love to. As he promised, the sexy smile melted her from across the room.
“You finally got dressed.” Stuart’s comment made her jump.
“Sorry if I seemed a little out of it, Stuey. Rough night at the premiere.”
He smiled and handed her a stack of newspaper clippings. “But the coverage is awesome. Good work.”
“Has Deke seen these?” she asked casually.
“I don’t think so. He just got here. And he sure ain’t sayin’ where he’s been all day.” Stuart flashed an evil grin.
He knew. She put the papers on an end table with her evening bag. “Let the poor man have some privacy. We’ve invaded his personal time enough.”
“We sure have.” Stuart laughed, leaving her to wonder just what the heck he knew or didn’t.
She deliberately avoided the stare she felt from across the room and went through the living room to the patio. She wasn’t cut out for subterfuge.
Space in His Heart Page 18
