‘I don’t want to kiss you.’
‘Liar.’
‘Rebecca, this is crazy.’
‘Do it, Jack.’ She twisted his shirt in her grasp a bit more. ‘I dare you.’
Jack held her gaze for several heartbeats before pressing a quick chaste kiss to her cheek, then straightened again, his hand determinedly removing hers from his shirt.
‘You call that a kiss?’ Her tone was deliberately mocking.
‘You told me to kiss you and I did.’
She narrowed her eyes at him. ‘What are you afraid of, Jack? That you might not be able to stop once you start? That the steely control you’re so proud of will tumble down as soon as your mouth touches mine, the way it did twelve years ago, the way it did the other night?’
Jack clenched and unclenched his fist, trying to remove the sensation of her breast beneath his palm, but it was no good, he could still feel her softness. His body was alive with its need of her, his blood already pumping with turbo-charged speed, thickening him almost painfully.
His eyes locked on hers, the air between them crackling with the passion that had taken a grip in the past and never quite let go.
His hands reached for her almost before his brain registered the command, hauling her up against him so her breasts were crushed to his chest, her mouth beneath his.
He was going to kiss her once and let go, he told himself as he tasted her sweetness. One thorough kiss and he would step back from her and walk the short distance to the stairs, delivering a curt goodnight over one shoulder. He swallowed her soft sigh of pleasure as his tongue snaked around hers, and forgot all about stepping back.
Becky felt the full force of Jack’s need pushing against her belly, its hardness against her softness making her pulses instantly soar. Desire leapt from its secret hiding place deep within her and raced along her veins, bringing heat and fire to every layer of her skin. She felt alight with her need of him, burning inside and out for his scorching, thrilling touch.
His kiss deepened and her stomach did a free-fall at the sweep of his tongue above, below and around hers. She felt its smooth glide over the surface of her teeth before it dipped back to connect with her tongue once more, the blatantly sexual action making her legs weaken until she was barely able to stand.
One of his hands slipped down to shape her breast, his palm warm and possessive, his touch somewhere between a caress and a hungry grasp of tightly reined-in need. She dragged in a scratchy breath as his mouth left hers to blaze a trail of drugging kisses along the bare skin of her neck and shoulders, making her almost scream with the need to feel his warm lips on the aching points of her breasts.
He shifted the strap of her dress so that the upper curve of her breast was revealed to his burning gaze, and her ragged breathing halted as his head came down. She felt the rasp of his tongue stroking over her, tantalisingly close to where her tight nipple was pushing against her dress as if in search of his mouth.
She felt the soft slip of fabric against her skin as it fell away from her, and then the hot sucking moistness of Jack’s mouth as it finally claimed its prize.
He surged against her, her hips locked to his as she arched her back instinctively to bring him where she most wanted him. She whimpered as he ground hard against her, the silk of desire anointing her between her thighs, reminding her of how much her body ached for him, how it had ached for him for years.
She pressed her hand down between their tightly locked bodies, her fingers shaping him through the tented fabric of his trousers, her senses skyrocketing at the way his body leapt at her touch.
She could sense Jack was trying to dredge up the willpower to step away from her. She quickly unzipped him and pushed his underwear out of the way to hold him firmly.
‘You want me.’ Her words came out in a wondering sort of whisper.
‘I don’t suppose there’s any point in denying it when you’re holding the evidence in your hand.’ His voice had a rough sexy edge to it that sent her senses into another spinning overload.
She caressed him some more, letting her fingertip linger over the moistened tip as she watched the expression on his face contort with pleasure.
‘Becky…’ he groaned, and leaned into her touch, his hands tight on her shoulders as he tried to anchor himself.
‘You don’t really want me to stop, do you, Jack?’ She held his glittering gaze while her fingers worked their magic.
‘I can’t give you what you want.’
‘Right here and now, all I want is you.’
‘You’re probably premenstrual or something.’ He stared down at the soft bow of her mouth, fighting for control. ‘You’ve been under a terrible strain and your emotions are all over the place. You’ll regret this tomorrow, I guarantee it.’
‘I won’t regret it,’ she said. ‘I’ve wanted this for years. Ever since that day you kissed me.’
‘That was a big mistake.’ He drew in another quick breath as her fingers tightened around him. ‘I should never have done that.’
She smiled as she saw his struggle for control under the ministrations of her hand, the deep throb of his blood pulsing through the pads of her fingers.
‘You have to stop doing that or I’ll…’
‘Or you’ll what?’ she asked softly.
His eyes held hers for a single heartbeat, the air between them heavy with the humidity of need.
‘Or I won’t be able to control myself.’
‘I don’t want you to control yourself,’ she said. ‘I want you to let yourself go and do what you want to do without restraint.’
‘You don’t know what you’re letting yourself in for,’ he said, running an exploring finger over the curve of her breast.
‘I have had sex before, you know,’ she said, sucking in a breath as his mouth moved down to close over her nipple.
He lifted his head after a few deliciously sensual moments, his green gaze meshing with hers. ‘Maybe, but you’ve never had it with me.’
‘You think you’ve got something up your sleeve that none of my ex-fiancés had?’ she asked with a teasing glint in her eyes.
He slowly but determinedly backed her up against the wall, his eyes glinting dangerously as his heaving chest moved in time with hers, his aroused body jutting against hers.
‘Well, for one thing, sweetheart,’ he said dryly, ‘it’s sure as hell not up my sleeve.’
‘It’s still not quite where I want it,’ she said, pressing even closer, her eyes never once leaving the heat and fire of his.
‘Then let’s see what we can do about that,’ he said, and brought his mouth back down to hers.
This time his kiss was slow and deliberately provocative, drawing from her a response she had not thought herself capable of. Her hands clawed at him to get closer but he captured both of her wrists and held them above her head while his mouth moved over her breasts with devastating thoroughness.
She had never experienced anything so erotic in all her life. Her dress slipped to the floor in a pool around her feet, her lacy panties following when he hooked a finger in them to remove them.
She was standing naked before him, shivering with need as his eyes roved over her hungrily, one hand still firm about her wrists.
‘We can’t go any further,’ he said, his breathing uneven.
Becky felt disappointment hit her like a hammer blow, her whole body sagging with the crushing weight of it. ‘Why ever not?’
‘Unless we move upstairs where I have a supply of condoms,’ he added, his eyes still holding hers.
Her mouth stretched into a tiny seductive smile. ‘Then what are we waiting for?’
He let go of her wrists and picked her up and carried her to his bedroom, each step he took towards the bed stirring her into a frenzy of anticipation.
He laid her on the bed while he removed his clothes, not stopping to fold or hang them. Becky smiled as she watched, her stomach fluttering with excitement when she saw how very aroused he was as h
e came down to join her on the bed.
He reached across her, his chest brushing across her breasts as he opened the bedside-table drawer and took out a condom. He sheathed himself and came back over her, his weight pressing her down until she felt as if she was melting from the heat of his body.
His mouth captured hers as he settled between her hips, the hard probe of his erection searching for her liquid warmth. She wriggled beneath him and he surged forward with a groan against her mouth that echoed throughout her body as her muscles gathered around him. He drove forward and retreated, his movements slow at first then gathering momentum until she was riding the crest of a giant wave that threatened to crash around her at any second.
Her back arched as he sought the point of her pleasure with his long fingers, caressing her, coaxing her towards the release she was craving.
She felt herself going over the edge and clung to him, her whimpering, gasping cries filling the silence as the wave hit her full on, tossing and tumbling her wildly, until she floated, thoroughly spent, back to the surface of reality.
With her body still quivering with aftershocks, she felt him come with a deep shudder against her, his large frame suddenly vulnerable in a way she had never imagined he would allow himself to be, especially not with her.
She stroked her hands along the length of his muscled back, her heart swelling with the need to tell him of her feelings.
‘Jack?’
‘Mmm?’
She waited a beat or two as she garnered her courage.
Jack raised himself up on his elbows and looked into her eyes. ‘If you’re going to say what I think you’re going to say, then don’t.’
‘How do you know what I was going to say?’ she asked, her tone instantly guarded.
‘I’ve seen that look before,’ he said. ‘Just about every woman I’ve ever slept with gives me that look.’
‘What look?’
‘The how-many-bridesmaids-and-groomsmen-do-you-think-we-should-have look.’
She set her mouth, annoyed that he had spoilt one of the most precious moments of her life. What they had just shared had been beyond anything she’d ever experienced before. Her previous relationships had certainly been intimate but not completely satisfying, a fact which she had always blamed on herself. With Jack, every pulse in her body had come alive, the love she felt for him making the pleasure she’d felt all the more exquisite. And now he had trashed it, turning it sour.
‘Well, you’re wrong,’ she said, pushing him off her roughly. She picked up his shirt off the floor and put it on to cover her nakedness, glaring back at him. ‘I wasn’t thinking of saying any such thing.’
He got off the bed, disposing of the condom before stepping into his trousers. ‘What were you going to say, then? That you’ve suddenly discovered that you love me?’ He gave a rough snort of cynicism and added, ‘Of course that’s the other predictable outcome of spontaneous sex. Most women, in spite of all the ground they’ve made up on sexual issues over the last few decades, still seem to need to rationalise their pleasure by confessing to emotions they don’t really feel.’
‘Right at this moment I don’t feel anything for you but unmitigated dislike.’
‘Good. Better keep it that way.’
Becky inwardly seethed as he bent down to straighten the bed, repositioning the squashed pillows as if he wanted to remove all trace of her from his room.
‘Do you treat all your lovers with the same disdain or is this just a one-off speciality for me?’ she asked.
‘Look, Becky, we had a brief moment of madness but it’s over. The itch has been scratched and hopefully now it will go away.’
‘Is that how you see it?’
‘You and I would never work.’ His eyes shifted away from hers. ‘We’re not compatible.’
‘Apart from sexually,’ she pointed out wryly.
His eyes came back to hers for a moment. ‘Yes…apart from sexually.’ He turned away to give the bed covering one last twitch.
‘Must you keep doing that?’
‘What?’
‘You’re decontaminating your bed of my presence. Do you have any idea how offensive that is?’
‘I’m doing no such thing. I’m simply remaking the bed.’
Becky took hold of one end of the cover and pulled it off the bed, throwing it on the floor to land in a crumpled heap. She gave the cover a kick with her foot, her flashing brown eyes sending him a challenge. ‘Now you’ll have to make it all over again.’
Jack knew what she was doing. He’d known her long enough to know she liked to press his buttons and wouldn’t be happy until she made him lose control.
He was very close to it, probably much closer than she realised. Although he’d said the itch had been scratched, his was still burning for more of her touch, his body hardening even further as he watched her stomp towards the pillows and toss them one by one on the floor.
‘You are being extremely childish,’ he said through tight lips.
She snatched up the last pillow, but before she could turn around to throw it at him he removed it from her grasp and tossed it on the bed. His fingers were suddenly like steel around her wrist, his body jamming up against her, shocking her into immobility.
‘I know what little game you’re playing,’ he growled down at her. ‘It’s called push-Jack-until-Jack-cracks. You do it all the time. You’ve been doing it for years, haven’t you, Becky?’
She compressed her lips, refusing to answer him.
‘You’re playing a very dangerous game, sweetheart,’ he warned her silkily. ‘One day very soon you’re going to get a whole lot more than you bargained for.’
‘You think you can scare me, Jack?’ she taunted him recklessly. The highly charged atmosphere between them was sending sparks of desire to her very toes but she couldn’t control the urge to push him just a little further. ‘If so, you’re going to have to try a little harder.’
He held her defiant glare for a long moment before speaking, his voice low and husky, the gravel-against-silk sound sending a shiver of reaction right down her spine. ‘Don’t say I didn’t warn you.’
One small gasp escaped from her lips before his mouth swooped down and covered hers, his hands going to her hips to lock her against him in an embrace that bordered on the thin edge of control. She could feel the simmering anger pulsing between their bodies, anger that was looking for an outlet.
He tore his shirt from her body as her fingers ripped at his trouser fastenings, their mouths locked in a battle of crash-and-burn need as they fell on the bed in a tangle of hungry, searching limbs.
Becky’s heartbeat escalated as he left her mouth to move down her quivering body, his lips leaving a trail of fire wherever they touched her.
She drew in an almost painful breath when his warm breath caressed her intimately, his lips and tongue discovering her, tasting her, delighting her, bringing her to the brink before backing off again until she started to beg unashamedly.
‘Please, Jack—oh, please…’
He came back up over her body and held her fevered gaze for endless heart-kicking seconds as the sensual silence throbbed between them.
‘Please!’ Her single word came out on the back of a broken breath as she writhed restlessly beneath him.
Becky felt her stomach give a flutter of something that hovered somewhere between excitement and fear of the unknown, when with one last burning look from his passion-fired eyes, his strong hands flipped her over so she was on her stomach.
She sucked in a deep scalding breath as he entered her in one deep stroke that nudged her womb, sending a riot of sensation from the very soles of her feet up to where each hair on her head had lifted in sensual reaction.
There was no way she could stop the tumult. Each deep determined movement of his body sent her closer to the precipitous edge until she was finally flung over, her body shaking with the shock waves of release which triggered his own free-fall into paradise.
She f
elt the expulsion of his life force, the great shudders of his body behind hers joining them in a way she had never experienced before, the sheer eroticism more than she had even imagined her body could cope with.
It had not only coped with it, it wanted more.
Jack had awakened needs in her twelve years ago that in spite of time and distance her body still recognised, the deep throb of need sending her blood with scalding heat through her system every single time his eyes came in contact with hers.
‘Jack?’
He eased himself away and gently turned her back to face him, reaching out to brush a strand of wayward blonde hair off her face, his touch surprisingly gentle, his green eyes shadowed with something she couldn’t quite identify…was it regret?
Please, don’t let it be regret, Becky mentally chanted as the silence stretched endlessly, awkwardly—painfully.
CHAPTER TWELVE
‘TELL me I didn’t hurt you, Becky,’ Jack’s voice sounded rough around the edges. ‘That was not my intention, no matter what I said.’
‘You didn’t hurt me.’
His eyes held hers for what seemed a very long time.
‘You are the most exciting lover I’ve ever had,’ he finally confessed, although, it seemed to Becky, a little reluctantly. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever felt that way before.’
‘Neither have I,’ she answered with complete honesty.
He traced a fingertip over the upper curve of her mouth, his chest rising and falling in time with hers.
‘Jack?’
His thumb and index finger gently pinched her mouth closed.
She tried again, ‘Jaffft.’
The corners of his mouth kicked up in a little smile. ‘You know, I could get really used to this, having you quiet for once.’
The telephone jangled by his bedside and, without letting her gaze go, he reached out with his left hand and picked it up to answer it.
‘Colcannon.’
‘Jack?’ Ben’s low urgent whisper sounded in his ear.
‘Yeah…hang on a sec.’ Jack released his hold and got off the bed to put some distance between the phone and Becky. He mouthed ‘Excuse me’ to her as he moved to the other side of the room, out of her hearing. ‘Sorry about that,’ he said into the receiver, his voice low. ‘I’m not alone.’
A Surgeon Worth Waiting For Page 13
