Leaning over to her, Jake drew her attention back sharply as he nuzzled her ear, licking the tip of it as she huskily drew breath. “Don’t worry,” he said. “We’ll see it again tonight.”
Assuming he could last that long.
Chapter 17
Anna’s heartbeat had almost returned to normal as they cleared the last of the back rooms and stepped into the glaring bright light of the main reception room. The dinner buffet had been declared open for business. They dutifully got in line, Anna’s eyes widening in surprise as she looked at the appetizer and entrée options tucked in among steamed vegetables and too many breads to count.
“I can’t believe they’re serving seafood here.”
Jake shrugged, grinning as he dropped three enormous peel-and-eat shrimp on his plate. “Keeps the natives in line,” he said.
A renegade wiggle of happiness slid through Anna as she followed him back to their seats. He held hers out for her, and she cocked a brow at him. “A gentleman, too? You’re really going above and beyond the call of duty here.”
“All part of the package, ma’am.” Jake ducked down and kissed her forehead before seating himself, and they greeted their table mates. Kristen, the ultimate party planner, had made sure that her gregarious bunch of friends all mingled with Scott’s side of the family, drawing that shyer group out so that laughter and conversation filled the air all through dinner. By the time the waiters whisked in to remove their plates, Anna’s mouth had begun to hurt from smiling so much.
She looked over to see Jake watching her. “What?” she said, suddenly self-conscious.
“You’re very beautiful, Anna,” Jake said quietly, just a trace of a smile curving his lips. His eyes were dark, filled with emotion and mystery. “That’s all.”
Anna blinked quickly, suddenly off-balance. She picked up her glass to distract him from the flush rising in her cheeks. “Wow, Jake. I must have ordered the deluxe package in mail-order dates,” she teased. If anything, his eyes grew more intense.
“You did,” he said. Then leaning toward her, he brushed one errant curl over her forehead, tucking it gently behind her ear. He spoke again, his voice several decibels lower. “And we haven’t even gotten to the good stuff yet.”
All the moisture was sucked out of Anna’s throat¸ and she sat back in her chair abruptly. Her eyes never leaving Jake’s, she lifted her glass to her lips, draining her cosmopolitan as the band started up.
The call for Kristen and her father to dance went out from the bandleader, and the crowd obligingly stood up to applaud and sigh over the sight. The moment she gained her feet—slightly unsteadily—Anna felt Jake move in behind her, pressing his body up behind her as they watched the father-daughter dance. His chest grazed her back, and his large, strong hands dropped suggestively down the sides of her waist. They lingered at the swell of her hips, tightening there as he tilted his hips against her. A surge of desire swirled low and tight in Anna’s belly, and she closed her eyes against its pull on her senses.
“Jake,” Anna whispered over her shoulder, her voice breaking as his spicy cologne added another assault on her nerves. “What are you doing?”
“You need to come with me.” Jake’s voice triggered a visceral response so powerful that Anna’s knees buckled, her legs suddenly weak as her heart leapt with anticipation. When Jake pulled on her hand, she moved back, drifting with him as he maneuvered easily through the crowd of wedding guests.
Within moments, they were moving through the auxiliary dining rooms, now cleared of guests. Instead of slowing down, however, Jake picked up the pace, his hand twining Anna’s fingers around his own. She felt hot, urgent, and when they stepped into the purple splendor of the jellyfish room, she whimpered as Jake stopped.
Slowly, he pulled her hand to his mouth, licking her fingers down to the delicate vees just above the palm. When his mouth closed over the tip of her forefinger, sucking lightly, Anna swayed against him with a moan.
“Jake,” she said, trying for levity and almost making it. “You have to stop. This is not the time or the place for this. I’m wearing a bridesmaid’s gown. You don’t have sex in a bridesmaid’s gown, it’s just not done.”
His response was to pull her hand away from his mouth, only to use his other arm to haul her to him. He kissed her so fiercely that he stole her breath, then plundered her mouth until she lost all sense of being separate from him. He dropped her hand and cupped her face with both his hands, his eyes boring into hers with black intensity in the supernatural light of the room.
“Then we won’t have sex, Anna,” he said, his voice deep and hard. “We’ll just make love. That sound better to you?”
Her eyes widened as reality tried vainly to break through the haze of desire he’d woven around her. “Here?”
Jake smiled. “No,” he said, drawing away from her. Disappointment stabbed Anna so severely she swayed on her feet. Of course they couldn’t have sex—make love—in this room. It was a public place. There were people here, who could come any minute and interrupt them—
Jake had taken her hand and was pulling her again, toward a rectangle of teal blue exactly the color of the blue cosmopolitans she’d been drinking, perhaps a bit too quickly. Anna followed, trying to clear her head of disappointment and frustration.
When she stepped into the blue light again, with its great wall of sensual, rippling fish, she was so taken with the beauty of the image that she didn’t register what Jake was doing. Ducking away from her, he picked up two brass stands, a length of velvet rope between them. “I’ll be right back,” he said with a cocky grin. Then he disappeared.
Awareness hit her immediately and Anna spun, first to the display window, then to the doorway, where Jake emerged not thirty seconds later, sans velvet rope and stands. Her eyes flew to Jake’s incinerating stare.
“Jake.” Her heart was beating so loudly she could barely hear herself. “Jake, you can’t—”
“This display has been temporarily closed,” he murmured. He was in front of her, his hands suddenly roaming up her body, leaning her back for a kiss that turned into a moan of need shared between them. He pulled his head back slightly, his arms caging her against the display window, then dipped down to lick the edges of her lips with sensual pleasure. His eyes locked on hers, he straightened, loosening his shirt another notch.
“Turn around, Anna,” he said quietly. “I want you to see all of this while I make love to you.”
“What?” She could not have heard him right.
He smiled, his eyes daring. “Trust me on this.”
The roughness of his tone made her reach out tentatively for him, but as she lifted her hand, it brushed across his thighs, until it came in contact with his jutting erection. Jake chuckled as she jerked her gaze to his.
“Jake, I … I mean … I can’t.”
“Anna,” he whispered, touching her lips with his fingertips. His gaze bored into her, peeling away layers of confusion, doubt, and fear, until all that was left was the naked desire to be with him, to feel him, to be claimed by him. “Let me make love to you,” he said, over the roar of her heartbeat. “Here. Now.”
Blinking at him, Anna was lost. Completely lost. In that exact moment, Jake could tell her to gamble her life savings away and she’d drop every cent she owned on the table, without a second thought.
Gently, Jake turned her until she was facing the incredible wall of sea life that drifted and danced in front of her. She tentatively raised her hands, shivering when he laughed softly and took her hands, pressing her palms to the glass. “Just stop thinking, Anna. Feel.”
It was tough not to do anything but feel as his hands moved to her back, then dropped away. The sound of foil ripping caused another burst of sensation to plow through her system, and Anna bit her lip, her eyes filled with the powerfully erotic view, her body tense with the fear of the unknown. She could see the faintest outline of Jake behind her, and it unnerved her, not knowing what he would do next—or what he wou
ld touch first.
“Ahh!” Anna’s body jerked involuntarily as the hem of her satin gown lifted and Jake’s long, rugged fingers slid up the edges of her stockinged legs, tracing the curves of her calves and thighs. She heard his rushed intake of breath as his fingers found her garter straps. Then, with urgent speed, his hands moved up until they came to rest intimately, insanely suggestively, against the rounded flesh of her bottom. He tucked her against him as his head dropped to hers, his teeth grazing the edge of her left ear.
“Kiss me,” Jake whispered.
Anna turned slightly, and their lips met in the filtered blue light. Jake’s kiss was gentle at first, then more insistent, taking everything she had to give and asking for more. Anna sagged against him, her thoughts getting tangled. The strength of him surrounded her as he leaned over, fitting her body perfectly against his, sighing her name as he roamed the curve of her cheek with his mouth. He tasted the edge of her ear, then drifted down the nape of her neck as he urged her to turn and face the display. Her eyes widened as his fingers resumed their daring exploration, sliding up her legs.
“Don’t close your eyes,” he said. “I want you to see all of this. To know that I’m seeing you, your beautiful body, your face lit up with the sea.” He was moving his fingers against her now, causing rivulets of pleasure to shoot from his fingertips through the most intimate places on her body. “Open your eyes, sweetheart.”
Anna’s eyes flew open as Jake’s right hand dipped farther between her legs, pushing aside her silk thong. She knew her body was already reacting to his touch, but his appreciative chuckle sent another shiver of sensation through her as he slowly, gently, stroked her sensitive folds, and his voice whispered intimate encouragement that made the ache inside her increase to a fever pitch. As his right hand moved intimately against her, he freed his left from her dress and hugged her close. When his long fingers skated across her breasts, her need spiraled into a tight coil, simmering just out of reach.
Eyes wide, Anna registered the presence of the scene before her, but only felt the movement of the exotic creatures. She could not think, could not track them as separate beings, just one concerted movement, locked in time with Jake’s strokes. Waves of sensation rose within her and receded again, each more powerful than the last.
“I love your body,” Jake murmured, shattering her anew and sending her nearly into orgasm just with his words. Anna could only shudder in response, her last nerve bursting into liquid flame. As he stroked again, she began to strain against his hand, her breath coming fitfully now, her hands fisting on the thick plate glass as the world beneath her fingertips glided and undulated with an otherworldly presence.
“Jake,” she gasped. “Jake, I—”
“Yes, Anna,” he said, his fingers now dipping into her, building a tight ball of sensation that seemed to grow too big, too quickly. Too much, too hot. “Yes, you are, and yes you will.” Jake’s words flowed over her in perfect synchronization with his hand, with the beating of her heart, and with the building sensation that seemed suddenly too powerful to ignore.
His lips came down on her neck again. He kissed her shoulders, her neck, the curve of her jaw with fierce intensity. Another powerful surge of need overwhelmed her, taking her closer. Pressing back into his chest, she turned and found his lips. With a low growl, he plundered her mouth as well.
Anna groaned, her back arching, waves of shattering sensation swamping her. “I, I’m—”
“Anna,” Jake whispered hoarsely. She gasped, caught in a dizzying reaction, unable to think clearly or form the words she wanted so desperately to say, but aware of an intense physical need that superseded any other.
She needed Jake. Now.
“Jake, please,” she moaned, and her body bucked hard as the heat of his erection pressed against her backside a moment later. “Oh, yes,” she said, and Jake slid into her, sending her again into a spasm of sensation as he stroked her deep and hard. Anna’s gown pooled around her, but Jake’s hands were suddenly everywhere, first on her legs, pulling her to him, then sliding up, hard and urgent as they connected with her breasts, thumbing her nipples free of the tight bodice and burying his fingers in the soft skin as he thrust forward again.
They moved together then, in perfect accord, while time seemed to still around them. The beauty of the world before her eyes fused with a sensual explosion so powerful that Anna gave herself over to it, unable to form rational thought. Jake was at the core of those feelings, his powerful presence searing her mind, body, and heart.
Anna was beyond feeling, beyond emotion, beyond everything as her wide eyes again took in the spectacular universe of movement and color that shifted and eddied in front of her, sweeping her over the edge and drawing her back in a rhythm as old as the sea. Time was a concept that tickled the very back of her mind, then was lost again with each succeeding wave of sensation.
Then Jake murmured her name, and she twisted toward him again, giving her lips and mouth to him as she felt him shudder. His body tensed in primal need and she gripped his hands as they covered her breasts, the human contact in the face of so much wildness taking them both over the edge as he exploded within her with a bone-wrenching gasp.
When his body left hers moments later, Anna sagged against the glass, weaker than she’d ever felt in her life. What kept her upright she couldn’t say, but she slowly flipped herself around as Jake straightened.
As the reality of what they’d just done—and where they’d done it—struck her, Anna fought an insane urge to giggle. Jake’s eyes were filled with amusement as well, and she struggled to keep from bursting into hysterical laughter as they hurriedly righted their clothes. Her heart hammered as they both swept their gazes around the room a final time. “Okay,” she said, “I think we’re fine.”
Jake grinned, touching her arm. He pointed to the tank.
A hundred shocked fish eyes stared back at them.
Weak with held-in mirth, Anna was still fighting a roil of emotions when she and Jake came across restrooms just before they rejoined the party. She closed the women’s door behind her with relief. Thank heavens she’d have a chance to fix the damage her adventure had done to her appearance!
Then a glance in the mirror stopped her cold.
Her dress was fine. Her hair was no worse than it ever was. Her lipstick wasn’t even smeared, thanks to Jake’s, ah, positioning. But something was wrong with her face, something she couldn’t fix with blush. She looked … soft. Vulnerable.
She looked like she was in love.
Gulping, Anna ran cold water over her wrists. “Pull it together, Anna,” she said to herself. But it was too late. Her eyes in the cold, glass reflection looked like they belonged to that careless fifteen-year-old she once had been. The kind of girl who’d thought her biggest worry was who might ask her to homecoming, who’d rolled her eyes at her mom when she’d gently suggested Anna might start working at a fast-food restaurant, all the while not seeing the signs, not recognizing the red flags. She was that girl all over again, the girl on the brink of disaster, completely clueless about what was coming. She’d worried this was happening, steeled herself against it. But Jake, without even realizing it, was shredding her most carefully constructed defenses and pushing her toward the edge.
Okay, she’d just have to work harder now. Nothing had really changed, after all. He hadn’t, for sure—he was still happy-go-lucky Jake, out for a good time. She hadn’t, not really. She still knew the score, still agreed with all of her perfectly logical conclusions regarding Jake, herself, the weekend, and their nonexistent future. Nothing had changed.
Anna straightened, smoothing her hair back into place, her lips firming as she considered that the evening was still relatively young. Jake would be leaving tomorrow, and he’d just quite effectively set the tone for the rest of his stay. She had only herself to blame if she didn’t enjoy him thoroughly while he was still around.
“It’s just for the weekend,” she said to her reflection, her
smile stronger now, resolute. “But it’s for every bit of the weekend. Remember that.”
Anna and Jake emerged back onto the dance floor to zero notice, and she almost wilted with relief as their return to the civilized world garnered no attention. She shook her head as they wandered over to the bar. Jake ordered a club soda and smiled at her with a flash of pleasure when she ordered a Bloody Mary without the vodka. She furrowed her brow at him, and he shrugged.
“I’m glad you’re making sure your head is clear. I don’t plan on letting you sleep anytime soon.”
“I don’t plan on needing to anytime soon,” she responded, her mind leaping ahead to the evening still before them. The subtle shift in the room reached her moments too late, and she stiffened, whirling to scan the band area.
“Crap.” She should have paid closer attention.
Kristen stood on the dais with a handheld microphone, and her gaze found Anna at the same time that Anna saw her. “Okay, all you unmarried ladies, and that means you, Anna Richardson. I want you all up here right now!”
About a half-dozen heads bobbed forward through the crowd, and Anna groaned, turning to Jake to hand him her glass. “Normally, I’m out of the room by now.”
“Go get ’em.” Jake grinned at her. “Make me proud.”
She shot him a glare, but dutifully trudged to the front of the crowd with the other unmarrieds, standing back as the group of bubbly women stood talking to each other in excited tones. They all had face glitter swept on their cheeks, and to a one their hair had been done up with little butterflies or flowers or sparkly rhinestone things. Anna shook her head, edging another step back. They could have the bouquet and all that went with it. She didn’t need the pressure, and she didn’t have a prospective beau lined up anyway.
Jake flashed through her mind so vividly she gulped, shaking her head hard. “Quit it, Anna,” she admonished herself again, her eyes on Kristen beaming over the crowd. C’mon Kristen, she chanted to herself. Turn around and throw the damn thing so we can get this over with.
Fake It Page 15
