Though she wasn't wearing anything particularly sexy, slowing down the removal of those few pieces turned it into a sensuous striptease. By the time she eased her panties down her legs, his shaft was at full attention and gave her a salute.
He watched her kneel down on the bed beside him and guessed at what she was planning to do. He was wrong.
As light as a feather, she caressed his face with her fingertips. It was so gentle and relaxing, he closed his eyes to focus his entire attention on the sensation. The wispy touch moved to his neck then his shoulders, arms and hands and back to his chest.
She was barely touching him, yet his skin tightened wherever she made contact and he began to anticipate the direction of her stimulation. Her fingers moved in circles and esses, grazing over his chest and arm hair, stroking every inch of him as though he was a gift she'd been given to examine. As her ticklish caress moved lower, he held his breath to prepare for the touch that would make him want to forget all her orders but his preparation was unnecessary. From his lower abdomen, she circumvented the obvious and moved on to his legs. He managed not to utter a complaint.
When she finally reached his toes, he exhaled heavily, thinking the slow foreplay was over. He was wrong again. A different sensation tickled his feet and his eyes opened to identify it. The implement of her new torture was her hair! Now he had to keep his eyes open to see what those strands of red silk looked like draped over his body. The nerves beneath his skin were screaming for her to stop the torment but he made himself hold still as she crawled upward between his spread legs.
Rather than avoid the appendage that was twitching for her touch, she wound a twisted lock of hair around it from the base up. When he was completely wrapped, she placed a kiss on top of her creation then very slowly raised her head so that her hair pulled tight then spiraled away from him. His heart was now pounding as hard as it had when he saw the gun but he would die before asking her to stop.
She let him feel her hair brush back and forth across his chest then began her third act. When she leaned down and ran her tongue between his lips, he prayed that meant the tickling had come to an end but it simply changed form. Without picking up her pace, her tongue covered the same ground her hands and hair had.
Again she made him wait for what he really wanted but when her mouth finally closed over his erection, he decided her game had definitely been worth playing.
And play with him she did. She repeatedly took his entire length into her mouth and sucked hard as she withdrew. All the while, her fingers danced on the flesh below. Several times his hands lowered to touch the veil of hair spread across his abdomen and thighs but each time he did so, she stopped arousing him until he returned his hands to their holding place.
He tried to make it last but she was simply too good. Again, she was the one in complete control. He was about to give in to her power, let her have him however she wanted him, when she abruptly squeezed the base of his erection and raised her head. He couldn't stop the groan of near pain that came up from his chest.
She touched her finger to her lips and rose from the bed. Through the blurred haze of passion, he watched her walk across the room and come back to him with something in her hand.
"You didn't think I was going to forget about chapter five, did you?" With a promising smile, she dropped a towel on the arm of the sofa and crawled back up between his legs again.
With no further explanation, she squeezed the bottle of baby oil over the top of his sex then across her big, beautiful breasts. He could barely keep from exploding as she smoothed the lubricant up and down his length then thoroughly spread the oil all over her chest. The way her nipples contracted let him know she was enjoying this as much as he was. He knew what she was going to do and yet, he still gasped as she enveloped his throbbing shaft between her full breasts and held them firmly in place. She gave him a moment just to enjoy the view... then she moved up and down so that he was being firmly stroked by her cleavage.
Mere seconds later his entire body spasmed with an orgasm so intense he thought his heart might actually stop beating. The climactic waves continued to rock him long after he was spent.
After she quickly wiped her chest with the towel, she tenderly stroked him until every muscle in his body was completely relaxed again. "You can let go now," she said, with an extremely satisfied smile.
He lowered his hands and pulled her on top of him for a kiss. "I hope you realize what you've done to me."
She raised one brow at him. "I have a pretty good idea."
"I don't think you do. I'll never be able to have sex with another woman again. You've ruined me."
She smirked at him though her eyes told him she was extremely happy with that message. "Yeah, right. Knowing you, you'll be ready to go again in a half hour."
He smiled and kissed her nose. "That's not what I meant. You've surpassed all my fantasies, fulfilled every secret desire. I'd never be able to be with another woman again because all I'd be thinking about is you. It wouldn't be fair to her."
She clucked her tongue and rolled her eyes. "That's very flattering but pretty hard to believe. I'm sure if you got zapped back to 1965 and saw Ginger again—"
He cut her off with a hard kiss then said flatly, "I'm not going back. I'm staying here. With you. Until one of us dies of old age and maybe not even then. So stop talking about me going back!"
Chapter 17
Kelly had no idea how to respond to Jack's declaration. He sounded perturbed, almost angry with her, and yet the actual words he had spoken suggested he was offering a lifetime commitment.
He sighed. "I'm sorry. That didn't come out right."
"Would you like to try again? I think I'd like to hear the edited version."
He rolled them both onto their sides so that they were facing each other more comfortably. "I can't explain it. Maybe there really is something to the reincarnation theory. All I know is I feel like I've known you for a lot longer than a week. And I want to spend a lot more time getting to know you even better. The thought of being ripped away from you just when I think I might have found someone..." He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose as he seemed to be searching for the right words.
She wished for him to say what he had not been able to tell Ginger, even though she knew it was foolish of her to even let the thought enter her mind. When he looked at her again, his heart was in his eyes but he didn't give her the words she'd hoped for.
"Someone so... special. What if it's just a matter of you wanting me to stay?" He frowned a little. "You do want me to stay, don't you?"
She smoothed the wrinkle between his brows with her finger. "Yes, I would like you to stay... if that's what was meant to happen. I promise not to bring it up any more but until more time goes by, without your disappearing, I won't be convinced that I was wrong about you having some sort of mission to accomplish."
He leaned forward until his lips were a breath away from hers. "What if the mission is to make sure you go to sleep every night with a smile on your face?"
She smiled softly and rubbed her nose against his. "If it is, I can assure you that I'm going to be very cooperative... and grateful."
His hand cupped her breast and gently kneaded the soft flesh. "There's no question that I really enjoyed that last round but I don't think it was all that smile-producing for you."
"Hmmph." She sat up and pushed him onto his back. Repositioning herself with her bottom resting on his thighs and a knee on each side, she poured a few more drops of oil over the fingers of her right hand. She answered his unspoken question by slowly sliding those fingers over her own sex. Her back arched as she reawakened her own desire and prepped herself for his easy access. Her reward was a very appreciate grin and a nearly instantaneous physical response. As her body took in his generous offering, she said, "You look surprised. You must not have read all of chapter five."
* * *
"Ooh, that was a close one," Jezebel hissed snidely. "Tell me, Gabriel, how
does it feel to have victory snatched away when you're so certain you can't lose?"
"There are still two weeks left," he said firmly.
"That's true and I'll concede that he is more infatuated with her than he has ever been with another woman. But, our deal hinged on his actually telling her he loves her then being willing to die for her. In case you weren't paying attention, Kelly has abandoned her plan to investigate Ginger's murder."
"As usual, Jezebel, the way your mind works eludes me."
She huffed and a storm cloud rose from her den. "By agreeing not to continue asking questions around Charming, she has effectively eliminated the one chance she had of being in a life-threatening situation. Unless she steps in front of one of the few vehicles driving through that little village, there will be nothing dangerous for Jack to save her from."
"A lot can happen in two weeks," Gabriel replied with more confidence than he felt. "That is the beauty of the free will system."
* * *
"You're fired."
Dillard was stunned. "Just because I didn't come back with the answer you wanted to hear—"
"You're fired because you are an idiot. I can't begin to imagine what you thought to gain with such a ridiculous story but I'm not paying you for the time it took you to make it up."
"I didn't make up these reports."
"No? Then whoever did is just as big of an idiot as you are. There is no way in hell Duke McCoy and Jack Templeton are the same man."
Dillard had had enough. He gathered up his papers but when he reached for the photos, his client slapped his hand down on top of them. "Those are mine, unless you want to pay me what you owe me."
"Sue me," the attorney said with a feral smile. "Or better yet, why don't you go to Reid O'Neill with your story. I'm sure he'd be willing to pay you some of his millions to have you point out the man who killed his wife fifty-one years ago."
As soon as the investigator left, Bruce Hackett squinted at the photographs one by one. He would have given up a fortune in legal fees to be the man administering that spanking to Kelly. But short of that, he would still have given a sizable amount to have been the man peeking through the kitchen window with a camera. As it was, he would have to settle for keeping the erotic pictures.
At least it was something in return for the advance retainer he'd paid that phony detective. Rather than use someone from the private investigative firm he usually employed through his legal practice, he had called an unknown in hopes that his surveillance request would remain confidential and separate from his business. How could he have guessed that he'd chosen a complete incompetent?
When Evan Dillard had called and sounded so mysterious, he'd agreed to a personal meeting in his office that morning since no one else was due in. The visual proof that Kelly had indeed taken a lover was disappointing but he figured he could put an end to that once he had some good dirt on Duke McCoy.
Instead of finding out that McCoy was a suspected drug dealer, a convicted child molester or at least a married man, that idiot, Dillard, had come to him with an outrageous fairy tale about McCoy actually being a man who was executed for murder in 1965.
His parting shot echoed in his mind and Bruce admitted that it wasn't the most professional thing he could have said. A man like Dillard actually might take the sarcastic suggestion seriously and use it to extort money from O'Neill. And it would be his fault for giving him the idea.
The wheels in his head turned this way and that until another idea occurred to him that would not only salvage the situation but could get him a legal foot in the door of the prosperous O'Neill corporation. He mentally rehearsed what he could say to make it sound like he was doing O'Neill a favor by warning him of a possible problem before it happened, blaming the scheme entirely on Dillard, of course.
When he was sure he was ready, he called information and, though the discount store mogul's residence was unlisted, he got the number for the executive offices of O'Neill Enterprises. He tried calling it, on the off-chance that someone was in on Saturday but all he got was a recorded message instructing him to call on Monday.
It seemed that he was always having to wait for what he wanted, whether it was the business coup of a lifetime or the woman of his dreams.
Fortunately, he was a very patient man.
* * *
Kelly's fingers hovered above her keyboard waiting for instruction from her brain. She was well past the halfway point on her story outline by Sunday afternoon and knew exactly where it was going. She should have been rolling right along toward the finish but she was having trouble concentrating on work and it was all Jack's fault.
Not that he was doing anything disturbing. He had been on the couch reading or writing notes since he woke up Saturday morning. He didn't insist she pay attention to him and, from personal experience, he already knew better than to try to talk to her while she was creating. He even fixed most of their meals, so she wouldn't have to break her train of thought.
The problem was not what he had done yesterday or today, it was what he did last night, after they'd set their projects aside. Her mind automatically drifted back to re-examine what had happened.
It had started as usual, hungry kisses and groping hands, the careless shedding of clothing in order to feel as much of each other's naked bodies as soon as possible. They had fallen onto the bed in a tangle of legs and arms, fully aroused and ready for a good hard ride.
Suddenly, wordlessly, they both stilled their movements and looked into each other's eyes. Something—she didn't know what—had changed. His lips brushed over hers, gently, sweetly. His fingers stroked her cheek and combed through her hair as his kiss deepened while remaining incredibly gentle.
For the first time, they savored all the sensory pleasures being exchanged, without rushing to an explosive conclusion.
And for the first time, when the conclusion did occur, it was simple and unhurried, wonderfully peaceful rather than mind-blowing.
There had been no kinky game. It hadn't been sex for the sake of sex. He had made love to her. Love. Beautiful, tender, sweet, magical love.
Kelly wasn't sure if he realized it but the difference had been very obvious to her and what was left of the protective barriers around her heart had melted away.
She glanced his way and he instinctively looked up from the book he was reading to wink at her.
She was completely, totally, head-over-heels in love with Jack and she didn't know whether to sing or cry about it. Despite his determination to stay with her in this time period, she couldn't erase the feeling that he was only here temporarily and that something was about to happen that would cause him to be whisked away again.
Scenes from a time-travel movie she'd once watched kept popping into her head, as though there was an important clue or message in it that she needed to remember. Unable to move forward on her own story, she replayed the highlights of that movie in her mind, until she realized what it was that had been tiptoeing around the edges of her thoughts.
When someone goes back in time and changes an event, it can cause a chain reaction of changes into the future.
If Jack went back to 1965 and prevented Ginger's murder and she was still alive today—and if she was in fact the reincarnation of Ginger—she, Kelly, would not have been born. She would simply not exist. That scenario did not bear thinking about.
On the other hand, if they were separate souls, whether Ginger died or was rescued, she would have been born and continued on with her life exactly as it had proceeded originally. Except for one thing. She would not have been researching the case of Ginger's murder or Jack Templeton's execution.
And if he hadn't been electrocuted, he would not have been zapped forward to her.
In other words, if he changed events in the past, she would never meet him in the future. Thus, it was probable that she would have no memory of him whatsoever, although he might remember everything.
Continuing along that line, she wondered what would happen if he
found a way to return to the present after fixing the past in his favor. After last night, she was certain he was falling in love with her, even if he wasn't yet ready to say the words. Surely he would try to get back to her.
And she would think he was a crazed fan or a lunatic. He would have a heck of a time convincing her that they had ever met, let alone been lovers.
There had to be something she could do to smooth the way for him if such a situation came to pass. Assuming that everything that occurred after Jack appeared in her life might change if he altered history, she couldn't just leave herself a message. However, if she was right about his being able to remember everything, her best solution seemed to be some sort of password for him to use that would make her listen to him.
With that in mind, she switched back to pen and paper to jot down some ideas.
* * *
As much as Jack was enjoying the book he was reading, he couldn't help but notice that Kelly had been doing more daydreaming than creating most of the day. Then suddenly, she got a burst of energy. Probably a new twist in her plot that would keep her occupied for a few more hours.
He really wanted to talk to her about his own ideas but he could make himself wait until she was ready to call it a day. So far, he had read two of her romantic suspense novels, the rest of the time travel romance and a straight mystery. He now understood how men could think they were in love with her after reading her books. To his surprise, he liked reading the romantic stories but he wasn't sure he could write one. The mystery felt more comfortable and with his background, it would probably come together rather easily. He had even written down a few ideas about a crime-solving reporter.
He wanted to ask her opinion of those ideas but was also anxious to discuss what he could do with them. If she was willing, he thought they could make it a joint effort. He would write it and she could sell it under a pen name. That way, he could earn a living that wouldn't require him to rely on false identification or credentials.
As he realized he was thinking about long-term future plans, the words he said to her Friday night came back to him. He wanted to be with her for the rest of his or her life. Though the words had been said in the aftermath of incredibly great sex, he knew he could comfortably repeat them this afternoon, sitting across the room from her.
Out of Time (Lovers in Time Series, Book 1): Time Travel Romance Page 24
