Fires blazed in places she didn’t know existed inside her. Her hands tried to ball into fists. She longed to draw her knees up and tip her pelvis up so he could get deeper, closer to her g-spot that throbbed with the promise of coming relief. As if in answer to her needs, he concentrated on flickering his tongue over her clit, while something sank into her canal, something thick and long and flesh-like. The wet, satiny feel of his tongue, coupled with the fullness inside her, now showed extreme promise of fulfillment. She sucked hard on him, taking him deep into her throat, even as he rammed the object in and out of her. Jewel heard the song of his moans and felt the vibration of them on her nub.
She paused and drew in a breath around his dick when the boundary of the orgasm neared. He yanked his cock from her mouth and perched himself above her as before.
“No! Wait. What are you…? Oh, shit. Oh…oh shit!” She felt his arms shift and heard the buzzing tune right before the object began to vibrate with blessed accuracy, right smack-dab on her g-spot. Able only to lift her head, she peered down the length of her body to see him pumping a fleshy vibrator in and out of her cunt.
“Where…” She couldn’t talk, couldn’t breathe. “Where did you get that?”
“Mm,” he mumbled as he sucked her clit in between his teeth. She jolted against the fire, struggling to hear his words. “Don’t know. Just appeared. The genies, you know.”
Ah, the genies. But she didn’t have time to ponder it, to either thank or blast them for this bizarre event in her life. Her head bobbed while her body remained still. As the white-hot slivers of release shattered around her, she groaned and slowly shut her eyes, soaking in the myriad of sensations as the vibrator slid into her wetness and Vince’s tongue wiggled over her clit.
Her heart thudded painfully in her chest. Sweat dribbled down her neck. The sweltering room came back into focus. “Oh. My. Gosh.”
Vince chuckled and tossed aside the vibrator. He turned back around to settle between her thighs once again. “I second that,” he said, his voice strained. She watched as his eyes darkened to the shade of sin. And knew his intent at that instant, for she suddenly realized she’d come, but he hadn’t yet.
He kissed her on the mouth and she tasted herself there. Something about it stirred up the beginnings of desire once again. But she couldn’t go on this way, further endearing her heart to a man who hadn’t wanted her. It would just end in the same painful conclusion. And she couldn’t take that kind of hurt anymore.
“Jane…you’re so hot, so irresistible.”
God, how she wished he’d quit calling her that. And she wished she could get loose. Looking around, she called out, “Let me out of here, damn it, Luke. You both got what you wanted. Now. Let. Me. Go.” With each word, she struggled against the force, but to no avail.
“I think what they want,” Vince said, gathering her breasts up in his hands, “is for us both to come, and for us to consummate this coming together correctly.”
He rammed his cock into her wetness before she had time to assimilate the pleasant feel of her breasts in his warm palms. Pussy already tingling again with the meaning of his words, followed by his aggressive actions, she groaned aloud. “Oh! Oh, Vinnie…”
Her breath caught in her throat. Vince stilled his movements, allowing them both to become accustomed to his entry. Tears sprang to her eyes behind the lenses of her glasses she refused to remove in order to keep up her façade. To be filled by him again after so long had a profound, painful effect on her heart. Okay, just this once, Jewel. It’s too late to stop it anyway. Partake of it just this one time, savor it, but don’t allow it again. You can’t risk that kind of loneliness and despair anymore. You just can’t.
Resolved to be strong and firm from here on out, she decided to take full advantage while she had him here between her legs once again.
Luke, please, please release me.
For what reason, Jewel Dublin?
A tear rolled down her cheek even as Vince took her mouth tenderly with his. The manner in which he kissed her tore at her emotions and had her breath stilling in her lungs. She could feel the warmth of his body over hers, sense the weight of his hips, the fullness of her core as he filled it. The musky scent of him cocooned her, and his sweet flavor laced by her own syrup burst in her mouth. She longed to hold him to her just this once, to allow herself this one indulgence of imagining that his possession of her transcended her pain, that he loved her.
So I can wrap myself around him. Hold him close. So I can love him.
And with that thought, she heard a faint pop. She sighed when her arms relaxed and were able to rise up and wrap around his neck. Gathering him close as he buried himself to the hilt, she tested her legs, pleased when she discovered she could lock her ankles behind him. She tilted her pelvis so that he could reach that spot deep inside her that only he knew intimately. He groaned and dragged her up so that he kneeled in the bed. Jewel clutched him, throwing her head back as he devoured her breasts. The fire in the hearth blazed higher when he suckled at her nipple and gripped the cheeks of her ass, bouncing her up and down on his shaft. Even though he’d sunk himself into her depths, an urge welled up in her to be further impaled. The fullness of him inside her, the taste of his kiss as he moved from her breast to her mouth, the flicker of firelight on glistening flesh, all served to put her heart at risk once again.
But for now, there was one goal. And when he dipped his fingertip in her tight asshole and moaned out his release, she reached that objective with swift precision. Hot cum scalded her core, and her canal walls shuddered around the length of him, milking every drop from his balls. As the song of their simultaneous release died out, he tumbled with her to the mattress, still joined as one.
Jewel took one last moment to catch her breath and savor the feel of being in his arms before she pushed him away. His cock slipped from her, leaving him with the shocked look of rejection in those gorgeous eyes of his. There was an emptiness in her soul that she knew would never be filled by him ever again.
With a heavy, painful weight in her chest, she rolled away from him, cursing herself for opening that damn bottle.
* * * * *
Vince couldn’t shake the shock, even now, thirty minutes later. With her back to him, he watched the rise and fall of her body as she breathed. Her long limbs rested limply as she slept on without a care. His gaze moved back to that spot again, down over the voluptuous curve of her hip…to her ass.
There was no mistaking this was Jewel Dublin. The initial proof had been when she’d called him “Vinnie” right after he’d buried his cock inside her. She was the only woman ever or since, to call him by his nickname. He’d definitely heard Jewel’s voice calling out to him through the raspiness of Jane’s. Instant awareness had nearly caused him to rip himself out of that suddenly familiar, tight tunnel. But wonder and joy at having her back in his arms had overtaken him.
Confession time, Vince. You missed her so bad, you wouldn’t even admit it to yourself until now, until you finally had her back in your arms.
No, he hadn’t been able to deny himself the woman who’d haunted his dreams for four years. And now, further proof that Jane was one and the same as Jewel, stared back at him from the warm, cushy flesh he’d just held in his hands during that phenomenal round of lovemaking. No other woman but Jewel Dublin had a tattoo of his name—first and last—on her ass, at least that he was aware of. The more he’d thought about her deceit as he lay here staring at that telling mark, the more the rage had set in. He squelched the urge to shake and awaken her and to demand to know what this was all about. But instead, he stretched out next to her, calm, calculating his next move, trying to examine her without waking her.
The soft strands of her sexy, faintly layered blonde hairstyle—previously long and black if his memory served him correctly—had fallen away from her neck. That had presented another piece of irrefutable evidence. The oblong, dark brown mole he’d always loved to kiss was there, right below the hair
line at the nape of her neck. The ear that the movement of hair exposed revealed the six tiny holes in a line down the edge of the cartilage, though obviously and curiously, she’d allowed those much-adored holes to grow shut. He blinked and quietly rose on an elbow to study it closer. What was that? There, at the hairline above her ear, and along the ear itself… Scars. When had those scars gotten there, and what had caused them? Puzzled, he reached out to touch them, but jerked his hand back when she jolted in her sleep.
Something…something wasn’t adding up here, but he couldn’t quit put his finger on it. The nagging sense he’d had when he’d first met “Jane” now veered onto a whole new route. He now knew who she was, but something else troubled him. Why she was such a different-looking Jewel than he used to know. And why she’d chosen to deceive him.
He gently tugged the quilt up to her hips, but stopped when she stirred in her sleep. Halting the need to move up closer behind her, he fought the urge to tuck her into the crook of his body. The touch of the blanket against her skin brought a contented sigh from her, and she rolled over onto her back, one arm flung above her head. Free to examine her naked torso, he noted she’d obviously gone on a diet. Though he’d loved the plumpness of her former body, she now had a healthier shape. Not at all bone-thin like the models he’d bedded lately, but voluptuous, wholesome and well-nourished, without carrying the health risks of obesity. Ah, yes, the heavy frame had transformed into a curvy, solid and oh-so luscious package. Her abdomen wasn’t flat and tight, but supple and soft. The waist wasn’t tiny either, like the ones he’d grown accustomed to since she’d walked out on him. But it was small in comparison to her flared hips, accentuating the very womanly, hourglass figure. And those breasts! Much smaller than they’d been before, they were still an overabundance for even his large hands. His cock throbbed, remembering the feel of them against tongue and palm.
Vince sighed. Oh, no. Down boy. Can’t let that override the sudden priority here. Take it if you can get it, yes, but this whole dream, or whatever the hell it is, has become much more complex than you even imagined. Priorities, Vince. Just remember the main goal here.
He went on to study her sleeping form. From his angle, her face was outlined by the firelight illuminating the room. Dark brown lashes fanned high cheekbones. His gaze followed the profile of the nose, small but marred with a slight lump that hadn’t been there before. Even now, and even during their lovemaking session, she’d worn the spectacles. Mental images of her previous face filled his mind. He shut his eyes and struggled to compare this woman who now wore glasses, to the woman who’d never once worn them in all the time he’d known her. The vivid, green twin orbs blinked behind his lids. He saw them in his mind’s eye, and suddenly he remembered…she’d always worn contacts. The sparkly look of her eyes, the almost unreal shade of green, the sometimes-bloodshot whites and excessive blinking at times. She’d worn them almost obsessively, so much so that he’d totally forgotten she’d had a sight deficit.
Vince combed a hand through his hair in disbelief and self-disgust. What an idiot you were, Vince! There she’d been, right before your eyes, right beneath the palm of your hand, even in your arms, and you didn’t see the real her, this woman. Her hair had been dyed to black, her eyes disguised with brighter colored contacts and her body burdened with a good excess forty to fifty pounds. But wait a minute, he thought, placating his ignorance. She didn’t wear a drop of makeup anymore, but back then, she’d worn it like a mask. That alone could fool any man, right? And her voice. Hell, all that coughing and choking she’d done when she’d arrived here. Must have made it gruffer, more difficult to hear the usual honey voice beneath the deep hoarseness.
He folded his arms behind his head and studied the beams in the ceiling. So many things about her were different, and so many still the same. Grinning, he thought of her temper and quick wit. Then there were the volatile, swift-changing emotions, the tender, easily bruised ego. And the fiery, passionate lover she could be. Yes, he thought, flicking a glance over at her scrumptious body. Some things hadn’t changed.
But the real Jewel Dublin lay next to him. Like a butterfly, she’d shed her cocoon and bloomed. Inside and out, she’d stayed the same, yet grown into a stronger, more beautiful woman, adding layers and depth to her base.
And he supposed, he thought with regret, that it could be attributed to shedding Vince Santiago from her life as much as to the changes in hair and weight and contact lenses, and whatever else had been included in her unbelievable makeover.
But knowing her, he’d never be able to confront her and demand to know why she carried on this farce. He’d lose her all over again. Steel walls would go up in a second. Wise to her now, he knew his best trump card would be to play dumb until she slipped up or let the cat out of the bag with her temper. He chuckled to himself. Which would be the most likely scenario.
Damn, it was getting hot in here. Vince sat up slowly, so as not to awaken her, and slung his legs over the side of the bed. Rising, he crossed to the door and swung it open. Darkness met his eyes. Blinking, he stepped out onto the small porch and waited for his vision to adjust.
He glanced around, looked down at his bare feet.
“Where the hell’s the snow? And the freezing cold?” He leaped from the stoop and stood in the clearing. Sultry night air just tinged with an ocean breeze rustled around his naked body. A night owl hooted deep in the forest. Off in the distance, back through the thick forest and mangroves, he could hear the faint rush and pull of the tide as it crashed against the shore. The click-click of saw palmetto fronds fluttering against one another precluded the sudden gust of the scent of oranges mixed with sea.
“I’ll be goddamned.” Vince sighed, wondering what could be next from that asshole friend of his.
“Vince?”
He spun at the sound of her voice, now slightly less hoarse than it had been. But apparently, she hadn’t noticed her cover was blown. She continued to speak.
“I…what’s going on here?” He watched as she moved down the steps toward him, the blanket wrapped under her arms and tied in a knot at her cleavage. “The snow, it’s gone. And I’m about to bake.”
“No kidding. And it might help if you took off the thick quilt.”
“Don’t start with me.” She lifted her chin, and by the intermittent moonbeams that sliced through the overhead trees, he could see the gleam of her anger magnified through the lenses of her glasses. “Just because I slept with you doesn’t mean—”
Something caught his eye behind her. A flash, a flicker. “Oh hell…”
“Oh hell, what?” She paused, but went on when he merely stared at the space beyond her. “What? Vince, what the hell are you looking at?”
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”
“You’re making no sense.” Jewel whirled around, promptly gasping. “Oh no. Oh God, please, no.”
They stood together in the moonlit jungle and stared at the spot where the cottage had been. Like Jennie and Luke, it had vanished into thin air, leaving the two behind without shelter.
He jammed his hands on his hips and looked up into the cloud-puffed, tropical night sky. “Goddamn it, Luke. Now what?”
Chapter Five
Jewel gawked, removing her glasses in order to rub her eyes. Squinting, she knew there was no mistake. The bungalow where they’d taken shelter from the snowstorm, where she’d allowed Vince to make love to her just one more time, no longer existed.
“What are we going to do?” She hated the desperate note in her voice, but there was no stopping the panic that rose up and caged her in. “Where will we go? What if it rains or snows again, or there’s a tornado or a hurri—”
“Jane.”
“Hurricane?” she continued. “We could drown or…or die.”
She rushed toward the spot where the cabin had been.
“Jane. No, wait. Don’t—”
Maybe, just maybe it was there, but she just needed to get closer in order to see it.
> “Jane! Goddamn it, I said…”
She tripped over something in the darkness. The humph of the wind whooshing from her lungs came out with a grunt.
“Don’t,” he finished with a sigh.
Pain sliced through her ankle across the very spot she’d scraped before. Only this time, excruciating fire shot through her leg. As if that weren’t enough, she heard the sickening crack of plastic. Her glasses. God no, please don’t let it be her glasses. He may recognize her without them, which would start a whole new round of tension-filled conflict. Sprawled on the sandy earth, she groped in the moon-dappled shadows. Her hand brushed something, then another object.
“Oh no. Oh no…” she groaned.
He was at her side before she could rise. His warm hand, no longer steady as it had been upon her flesh during lovemaking, now trembled as he gripped her upper arm.
“Are you okay?” He combed his hand through her hair, skimmed it over her body checking for injuries. She ignored the tender gesture, disregarded the fuzzy, breathtaking goo that wrapped about her heart. Her hair stood on end and she suppressed the instinct to sigh and nuzzle into his hand.
Remember, Jewel, you’re someone else to him. His concern is not for you but for “another” woman whom he had no problem bedding. The cheating rat!
She shrugged away his hand and pulled herself to a sitting position on the forest floor. “Oh, fine and dandy. I scraped my ankle”¾she touched the gash and hissed at the throbbing pain of it¾“and broke my glasses in two.” She glared up into the night sky. Insects and tree frogs buzzed and chirped around her. Fruity scents glazed by salty wind currents drifted in on a balmy night breeze. “Thank you so much, Luke.” She couldn’t hide the sarcasm in her husky voice. “And Jennie, too. This lovely little tropical vacation getaway is just what I needed.”
Me Tarzan, You Jewel Page 8
