They procured appropriate swimwear from her father’s closets for Jack and Francis so they might enjoy the swimming pool as well, though they did so without the ladies as it was considered inappropriate for the opposite sexes to swim together. Though Kitty and Eve would have enjoyed taking their children to the public beach, the family was still in mourning and confined to private amusements within the boundaries of the estate.
Though he was vastly enjoying his time at Kilberry, it was beginning to seem to Jack his summer was going to be restricted to family dinners, innocent walks and eternal frustration, when a knock came on his bedroom door late one evening. Expecting Sung Li with an evening libation, Jack was astounded to find Kitty on his doorstep.
“What is it?” he asked, thinking something must be amiss to bring her to his door. “Is everything all right?”
“Everything’s fine,” she grinned broadly at him. “More than fine, really. May I come in?”
Jack waved her inside, shutting the door behind her. He was uniquely aware of time and location. Very aware Kitty was alone in his room with him. He could smell her perfume. It had an elusive, oaky quality. Arousal swept him as he heard her breath, his, and no others. They were alone as they had not been in weeks. Ever. His bed loomed through the open door of his sitting room. He imagined leading her there, urging her down on the bed. Finally taking what he wanted so badly.
“What?” he asked, as he realized she was speaking.
“There was a telegram waiting in my room from Mr. Jensen,” Kitty beamed up at Jack, her excitement barely contained. “Judge Fulmont signed my divorce petition today!”
Jack blinked at her in disbelief, wondering if his avid imaginings were influencing his hearing. “It’s done then? You are a free woman?”
“Yes,” Kitty laughed giddily, hugging her clasped hands to her chest before clapping in her excitement and hopping about a bit. “Oh Jack!”
Jack caught her in his arms as she flung hers about him, and swung her off her feet in circles as she squealed and laughed. Her joy was infectious and he couldn’t help but laugh in turn.
When he set her back on her feet and found her eyes dancing with joy and excitement, his heart sang for her, knowing how much her freedom from Hayes meant to her. Her life was now her own. He bent, kissing her exuberantly. Just as quickly, that exaltation turned to passion and he took her lips again as heat flared.
His fingers worked with the buttons down the back of her bodice as he licked her lips and tempted her tongue to come out and join his. Only when he was pushing the sleeves down her arms did Kitty think to question his actions.
“May I ask what you think you are doing?” she asked breathlessly.
“Why, I’m getting you naked, my love.”
“Whatever for?”
Her Scottish earl merely raised an amused eyebrow. “Do you have to ask?” Cupping her cheeks tenderly, he kissed with all the pent up passions of the past month. “I have been waiting for the day when you were no longer a married woman so I might seal our bargain. If I take your words correctly, your divorce is final. You are free.”
“I am free,” she sighed.
“Then we’re sealing it right now. I have waited so long for this. Wanted it for so long,” he admitted, running his hands down her sides and coming up to cup her breasts in his big hands. “Now you will be mine. I will wait no longer. So unless you want me to just push up your skirts and shag you against the wall, this dress needs to come off.”
Kitty spun quickly, presenting her back, and Jack swallowed a chuckle at her enthusiasm before feasting his lips on her bare neck. “I am going to make long, passionate love to you, my love,” came the whispered warning in her ear, as he continued to push the dress lower until it fell to the floor. “I’m going to take you again and again.”
“Oh my,” Kitty sighed, when he guided her through to the bedchamber before releasing her. She sank onto the edge of the bed, conscious of the fact she was clad in no more than her corset and underclothes. Those nerves dissolved to awe as she watched Jack begin to remove his own clothing. He did so quickly, yet smoothly and with grace. It did not take long before he was barer than she.
The sight of Jack nude was nearly overwhelming to her senses. His body was large and long, his chest, arms and legs finely sculpted. Broad-shouldered and slim-hipped, he was a buffet of rippling muscles, and she was starving. Each muscle cut more definitively than any statue she had ever seen. To a lover of the arts, he was a joy to view. To a woman in love, he was the key to her complete undoing. Kitty stared wide-eyed in awe, blinking only when she reached his manhood.
“No protests, my dear? No witticisms?” Jack moved smoothly towards her, the strong muscles in his chest and legs bunching and stretching with the movement. He pulled her up to him, tilting her chin until he looked directly into her eyes. “Have you nothing at all to say?” he whispered to her lips, before brushing his softly back and forth across them.
“Why don’t you show me the rest of what this is all about? Perhaps I’ll find something noteworthy to comment on.” For all the cockiness of her words, Kitty’s voice wavered slightly as his bare body brushed against the length of her.
Starting at her wrists, Jack ran his open palms up the length of her arms to her shoulders, then over and down her back. Turning her, he unlaced her corset and dropped it to the ground. Cupping her bottom firmly in both hands, he moved upward again, roughly pushing her chemise off her shoulders and down, untying the laces for her drawers as he went. Deftly, he followed his downward course until she was nearly as bare as he. With a hot, calloused hand on her smooth belly, he pulled her back against him, loosening her hair while he kissed and nipped on her slender neck.
His hands rose up to cup her breasts, enjoying the size and weight of them in his palms, enjoying her shudder of pleasure when she arched back against him. He growled huskily in her ear. “I’ll show you noteworthy.”
Turning her, Jack pulled her up to him and claimed her lips in a fiery kiss even as he lifted her and lay her in the center of the massive bed. Kneeling on the edge, he peeled off each of her stockings, trailing kisses down her thigh, knee and calf as he went, until she was completely naked.
Jack looked up at Kitty’s face. Her thick, honeyed hair was in wild disarray about her shoulders, her eyes wide, and lips moist and parted. He thought he’d never seen her look lovelier, more wanton. Her body was slender but her breasts and hips full and tempting. Gripping her hips in his big hands, he pressed a hot kiss to her belly, just below her navel. His lips traveled up to her ribcage and to the underside of her breast, stopping to suck lightly on the tender flesh there. Still farther up his lips and tongue caressed her, over the tip of her breast to her neck.
He levered himself over her, brushing the length of his body against hers, savoring the feel of her smooth flesh beneath his, and relishing her shiver of delight when the springy curls on his chest chaffed at her sensitive nipples. His thigh separated hers as he met her lips again, allowing some of his weight to push her into the lush feather mattress and allowing her to feel his searing desire. For a moment, their bodies melded together from chest to thigh as he held her, his face buried in her neck. “Oh, my bonny wee Kitty,” he said, in a low voice she felt from the rumbling of his chest. Touched by what seemed to be a very emotional moment, more affectionate than passionate, Kitty tentatively ran her fingers through his dark hair. Encouraged as he squeezed her closer, her hands ran down his shoulders and arms, and up once more over the smooth firmness of his chest.
His lips began to move again, teasing her neck, the lobe of her ear. His hand came up to cup her breast, his lips moved down to worship it. Repeatedly, his lips, tongue and teeth toyed with the sensitive peaks until Kitty was sure she was going to burst from the swelling of feeling building up inside of her. She never before imagined anything could feel so…so good! Wonderful!
His lips nipped at her breasts once more then moved lower until, pushing her thighs apart, his tongue
darted into her cleft. Squealing in surprise, she couldn’t stop the moan that followed as his tongue probed and his lips suckled. Her fingers curled into his shoulders, kneading the thick muscle there. She threw back her head, eyes closed, biting at her lower lip as her hips arched unconsciously towards him. He slid a single finger into her moist heat, multiplying sensations with that gliding and curling digit. The aching tension grew and grew, her entire body tensed with wondrous anticipation, and panic.
“Jack…” She gripped his hair to pull him away but he held tight. She moaned in torment. “Jack…no-o-o…”
He ignored her completely, running one hand up her bottom and around her hip. He drew his head back and looked up as she whimpered. He parted the dark blond curls between her quivering thighs and with his thumb circled her throbbing center while his finger thrust once more.
“NO!” Kitty screamed, jerking away, but the flood gates parted anyway, bringing with them an explosion of pleasure that set her core into a rhythmic throbbing such as she had never experienced. It radiated out from her center, sending its pulsing heat through her entire body. Opening her eyes, she saw him looming over her on his knees. His golden eyes were no longer teasing but hot. Scalding. Molten.
He knew what he had done. Knew he had taken her somewhere she had never before gone. She could see it in his eyes, so dark with satisfaction. Knew there would be no living with him now. As he pulled himself over her between her parted legs, Kitty pressed her hands to his shoulders to push him back. “Can’t we just stop now?” she whispered hoarsely.
“Now, I don’t think so,” he answered in a rough, husky tone. His hand trailed up her thigh as he lowered his weight onto her, lifting her leg to allow him greater access.
“But I don’t want…” Her words faded off as his fingers found her again, stroking and fondling. “I don’t…” she tried again, her eyes closing against the sensations flowing through her body with his every touch.
“You do want,” Jack murmured into her ear. “Tell me you do.”
“Oh, Jack, I do.”
“I do too,” he growled. His chest pressed up to hers and she could feel the rapid beat of his heart matching the frantic pace of her own.
Jack entered her slowly, pulling her legs about his waist. Her heart beat even faster. He moved against her, his entire torso moving across hers with every slow thrust. Her entire body tingled from the friction of his movements as his hard chest chaffed her tender breasts. His rippling stomach caressed her soft one. His thighs warmed hers over again.
“My God, Kitty, you feel so good,” he murmured hotly in her ear, his brogue thick with feeling. “So hot, so tight. Come wi’ me, my love.”
His pace hastened and his rising excitement flowed into her, bringing her back to the brink of the ecstasy she discovered just minutes before. She could feel it building, tempting her even as Jack pushed himself up, lifting her bottom in his big hand. His rhythm increased until he was pounding into her over and over again. She arched wildly against him as the tension exploded inside of her, white hot and dazzling. Kitty could feel the scalding liquid heat of him pour into her, as Jack strained against her with a growl of animalistic pleasure before falling limply on top of her. She felt weak, boneless, and simply heavenly. Her legs fell from around his waist tiredly and she ran her hand down his back, marveling at the sweaty wetness of his skin.
His head bent, nuzzling her neck as she stroked him, running a hand up his spine and into the damp hair curling at his neck. Down again her hands stroked, until she gripped his firm buttocks in her hands and squeezed, thrusting her hips upward, grinding them together. Their moans mingled as she felt Jack harden inside of her once more. Lazily, he drew back and slowly thrust once more, pulling himself up onto his elbows to grin roguishly down at her. When he spoke, his deep brogue was thick. “Aren’t ye a greedy one, my love.”
“Again?” She raised her brows in question as he moved in her once more with agonizing slothfulness.
“I have been consumed by frustration for weeks.” His accent was so thick with desire Kitty had a hard time making out the words. “I could fook ye ’til dawn an’ still want to be takin’ ye again an’ again. Ah, me luv!” He thrust deep, with a strangled groan. “Don’t be lettin’ me down.”
Pushing his hands under her bottom, Jack lifted her hips as he raised himself and leaned back on his heels. Holding her steady, he pulled back and leisurely thrust once more, watching his lover’s face as she bit her lip against the burgeoning sensations, tightening her muscles about him as he plunged over and over, pulling deeper. Soon, she was pushing her hips up against his thrusts, frantically begging him to go faster, her head thrashing from side to side, her hands – unable to reach him – tangled in the sheets at her side.
Jack rubbed a palm across her belly, feeling the muscles there quivering, feeling the tension in her thighs. God, but she was as passionate and sensual as he had known she would be. She tested him, challenged him, dared him to control his own raging desires long enough to satisfy her even when he was on the verge of spending himself.
Biting the inside of his lip, Jack wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand and prayed for self-control. Unable to hold back any longer, he pulled her legs high around his waist and dropped back onto his forearms. Giving into her pleas for haste, he pounded into her searing depths again and again, capturing her cries with his kiss. Those passionate cries carried him higher and higher until she grasped him to her, her thighs tight around his hips, as she screamed out her release into the night. Done in by her pleasure, Jack thrust into her once more with a hoarse shout of his own, his hot seed rushing out with relief.
It could have been several minutes or an hour later when Jack finally stirred, lifting himself off her. Pulling himself up on his elbows, he grinned with lazy satisfaction down at her. “Infinitely noteworthy experience, wouldn’t you say?”
Exhausted by the amazing pleasure Jack had just given her – twice! – Kitty stared up at him in disbelief as he wiped at his dripping brow with the back of his forearm. She was boneless with contentment, her body still humming with bliss, and that was all he had to say about it? A noteworthy experience? Was that all it was to him? An opportunity to prove a point? A splash of reality cooled her more rapidly than their passion had risen, with the dreadful thought he had not experienced what she had. That this…lovemaking of theirs was just sex to him! Another noteworthy experience to add to his tally!
This was not how their affair should to be. Not a heartless exchange of sex. She thought all the affection he expressed to her over the past weeks would translate into tender moments. Being held against his heart as they lay speechless in the face of the wonder of their union, as she had been only moments before. Heartfelt moments to start a lengthy affaire de coeur that would carry them for some time to come. Moments she could embrace in the years ahead that she would face alone.
Not merely a noteworthy experience in his mind.
She didn’t know how she expected him to think of these moments exactly, but that descriptor certainly wouldn’t have been her first guess. Such a blasé reaction made her realize it truly was nothing beyond a casual affair to him. A mere meeting of bodies. She but another in a long line of lovers. If that was how he chose to think of it, what recourse did she have? None, she thought irritably. She might love and long for more, but couldn’t demand it from him. Couldn’t expect it. Damn, it made her mad she couldn’t have it all, because that was what she wanted from Jack.
Everything.
“After all the stories I’ve heard of your prowess, I would have thought it would be a wonderful, even earth-shattering, experience. But, as you say, it was merely noteworthy.” She turned her head away from him and tried to squirm out from underneath him while attempting to hide her hurt and anger. “Do you mind?”
Surprised, Jack rolled off her, but continued to stare at her as she hastily pulled on her scattered clothing. “So it wasn’t?”
“Wasn’t wha
t?”
“Earth-shattering for you?”
Kitty turned around to find him reclined on his back, propped up on one elbow. His bare chest gleamed with sweat, the hard muscles tempting her to return. The corner of his gorgeous lips turned down in a frown. If she didn’t know better, she might think he was upset about that. Of course he was! The conceited ass simply could not imagine a woman not being overwhelmed by his expertise! “No, did you find it so?”
Jack watched as she frantically pulled on her dress and gathered her undergarments in her arms before she fled the room without a backwards glance. The door slammed behind her. “Aye, my wee lass, I did. The earth moved, the heavens trembled and the gods bowed their heads in shame. And I know you felt it, too. Aye, I know you felt it, too.”
Chapter 29
Kitty was restless, irritable and didn’t really need to wonder why. Jack’s casual attitude to their lovemaking rankled well into a sleepless night. She knew she shouldn’t be angry with him, but she was. Fury and frustration echoed through her mind and heart. Her romantic imaginings had gone many different directions in the past few weeks when anticipating their affair, but in none had Jack been as cavalier as he had seemed the previous night.
She knew her secret hopes influenced her expectations. While her mind argued the facts – that the affair would be temporary and physical in nature – her heart simply hoped for more. Hoped Jack might turn over a new leaf. That he might feel as she did…as if he couldn’t get enough of her. Wanted to infinitely experience every moment of the previous night. Even now, she wanted him again.
She should have known she couldn’t change who he was.
Reluctant to face further disappointed by morning-after disinterest from Jack or make a cake of herself by panting after him like a love-sick girl, Kitty kept to her room and the nursery this morning, taking her breakfast with Hannah and dismissing her maid so she might wallow in her miserable turmoil alone afterward. She tried to concentrate on a book but thus far was unsuccessful in turning a single page.
A Question of Trust Page 24
