“Elly,” he muttered against her mouth, “I should have done this a long time ago. I should have realized that with a woman like you this is a way to be sure. I handled it all wrong. I see that now.”
“Handled what wrong? Jess, I don’t—” But his tongue probed boldly into her mouth once more, and Elly moaned softly beneath the sensual onslaught.
His strong hands slid down her back, blunt fingers kneading her muscles with undisguised pleasure. When he reached her waist Jess lifted her, pulling her up into the urgent hardness of his lower body.
At least there was no doubt that he wanted her, Elly thought dazedly. She clung to that knowledge as fiercely as she clung to him. If she could make him want her badly enough, perhaps he would let himself love her.
“Sweetheart, you’re still cold. I’m going to take you upstairs and warm you.” Jess cradled her in his arms as he started toward the stairs.
Elly felt the strength in him and relaxed into it. She nestled her head against his shoulder as he carried her up the stairs and down the hall to her bedroom. There in the shadows he set her on her feet while he reached down to yank the comforter out of the way. When he turned back to her she smiled tremulously
“You’re very sweet, Elly Trent. Very soft. And I think the time has come for me to take what you’re offering.” He let his fingertip trail inside the collar of her shirt, following the opening until he came to the first button. Then, quite deliberately, Jess began unfastening the buttons. As he worked his way down to the hem of the shirt, he let his knuckles glide teasingly over her skin.
By the time the shirt hung open, Elly was trembling. She whispered his name a little brokenly and caught his hand. Lifting it to her lips, she kissed his palm with a gentle passion that made him catch his breath.
“When I think of the two months I’ve wasted!” Jess shook his head once, wonderingly and his mouth curved in brief, wry amusement. “Never again, honey. After tonight you’re going to be in my bed every night I can arrange it. And after we’re married that will be full-time.”
“I’m glad you want me,” Elly said simply, her eyes luminous in the shadows. “So glad.” She stepped out of her shoes.
He pushed the shirt to one side, uncovering a breast. “The important thing is that you want me. Tonight you’re going to show me just how much, aren’t you?”
He lifted his gaze to meet hers, and for a blazing moment Elly read the intent in him. “Jess, this isn’t a contest. There’s nothing to prove.”
“Yes, there is.” He stroked her nipple, watching it harden beneath his touch. “Yes, there is.” The satisfaction was plain on his face. When she shivered slightly, he became impatient and pushed the shirt off completely. Then he captured her wrist and guided her hand to the buttons of his own garment. “Help me undress, Elly.”
Obediently she began easing him out of his shirt. It was a difficult task because her fingers were a little shaky. Jess seemed to enjoy her awkwardness. He watched her slow progress with a curiously intent expression.
“Now,” he murmured as the shirt fell to his feet, “put your arms around my neck and hold me. I want to feel you, honey.”
Slowly Elly did as he instructed, stifling a small gasp when her breasts brushed against the crisp curly hair of his chest.
“Harder,” Jess ordered softly, his lips in her hair.
“Oh, Jess.” Elly turned her face into his bare shoulder, shuddering as she pressed closer. Her nipples felt hard and almost unbearably sensitized. The feel of his rough skin against them bordered on the painful. “It hurts,” she breathed.
“Does it?”
“Almost.”
He laughed softly. “Almost isn’t the same thing as actually hurting. If it ever really hurts, tell me. I’ll stop. The last thing I ever want to do, Elly, is cause you pain.”
She curled her arms more trustingly around his neck, and the next thing Elly was aware of was Jess’s fingers moving between their bodies. He searched for and found the snap of her jeans. Then he was pushing the denims down over her hips, letting them drop to her feet. She felt his hands on her buttocks, clenching and unclenching tenderly. Only her striped cotton briefs shielded her now.
“Jess, I’m going crazy.” She pressed more closely against him and heard his growled response.
“That’s just the way I want you. Let yourself go, Elly. Show me how much you want me.”
She snuggled closer, dropping her hands to his waist so that she could finish undressing him. But she fumbled so with the zipper that Jess finally stepped back to do the job himself.
“Get into bed, honey. You’re still too cold.”
She crawled between the sheets, pulling the comforter up to cover her breasts and watched as Jeff stepped out of the rest of his clothes. In the shadowed light, his body looked lean and smoothly muscled, and when he turned to face her the hard evidence of his desire was so blatant Elly’s glance instinctively moved away from the sight. Determinedly she kept her gaze on his face as he pulled aside the comforter and slid into bed.
“Why the shyness, Elly? We’re going to be married soon. You want me. I want you. It’s all very simple. It would have been even simpler if I’d come to my senses earlier.” Jess put his hand on her flat stomach and let his fingers trail beneath the elastic edge of her briefs. “Lift up, honey and let me take these off.”
“Jess, I’m sorry you were worried about me tonight.”
“I know you’re sorry. I could see it in your eyes. You have such beautiful eyes, sweetheart. My God, I want you. I’ve been walking your living-room floor until I thought I would go out of my mind. Now you’re here and you’re safe. I don’t think I’ve ever been more grateful for anything in my life than I was to see you come through that door tonight. If Carrington had brought you back with him in the morning, I—”
“Hush,” Elly whispered. “It didn’t happen that way. I would never let it happen that way.”
Elly’s briefs came off in his hands, and he dropped them casually beside the bed. Then Jess let his palm glide up the length of her leg until he reached her thigh.
“Open up, sweetheart. Let me touch you. I want to feel you get hot and damp for me.” He bent his head and slightly caught her nipple between his lips.
“Jess!” The exquisite sensation made her arch her head back over his arm, and without any conscious thought her legs parted for him. Elly speared her fingers into the darkness of his hair, gripping with sudden urgency as he probed her softness.
“I can’t believe I denied myself this for two months. You’re on fire, aren’t you, Elly?”
“You’re tormenting me,” she protested, sinking her nails into his shoulders as he continued to stroke her. “And I think you’re doing it deliberately.”
Jess raised his head to look down into her eyes. “Maybe I am,” he admitted quietly. “I like seeing you all soft and helpless. I like seeing how much you want me.”
Through the gathering storm of her arousal, Elly caught the hidden meaning behind his words. “Because it makes you feel in control? Jess, please, I don’t want our lovemaking to be a… a matter of control.”
“What do you want it to be?” He seemed unconcerned as he leaned down again to feather her throat with kisses.
“It should be a giving thing,” she tried to say, but her words were almost lost in her throat as he did something incredibly erotic between her legs. “Jess, please…!”
“I agree, sweetheart. I want you to give yourself to me. No argument. Ah, sweet Elly, you’re delicious, do you know that? If only you could see yourself right now. You’re losing yourself in my arms. You’re going out of control.”
He was right. Elly decided there was no point trying to fight her reaction to him. The passion he aroused in her was unique, unlike anything she had ever experienced. She loved him. What more did a woman need to strip her of self-control? With a soft moan, Elly gave herself up to the swirling excitement of Jess’s lovemaking. She slid her hands eagerly
over his body, exploring the lean, muscled contours until she came into contact with the rock hard shaft of his manhood. Jess’s eyes momentarily narrowed until they were almost closed.
“Oh, God, Elly, yes. I want you. I can’t remember ever wanting a woman like this.”
She sensed that the admission was almost unconscious on his part. Jess, too, was slipping out of control, and the realization set fire to Elly’s own excitement. She put her lips to his chest, nipping him delicately with her sharp little teeth.
“This isn’t painful; it’s almost painful, right?” she dared as he sucked in his breath.
“Thinking of crossing the line?”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
Jess regarded her with burning eyes. “I know. I think I’ve known all along. You’re gentle, Elly. Probably too gentle for your own good. But it doesn’t matter now. I’ll take care of you.”
“Jess?”
“Hush, darling.” He eased her over onto her back and lowered himself slowly along the length of her. “I’m going to take you now. I’m going to watch you melt in my arms. You said this should be a giving thing. So give, Elly. All of yourself. I’ll take good care of the gift.”
She was too far gone along the sensual road to struggle with the message in his words. Elly closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around Jess’s neck. She could feel his hard, blunt shaft waiting between her thighs, and when he used his hand to push her legs farther apart she didn’t resist. Then he surged against her, and she cried out as he buried himself deep into her body. Jess paused, his body throbbing.
“Painful or almost?” he grated, holding himself very still above her.
“Just almost. Oh, Jess, I’ve never felt this way before.”
“You’ve led a sheltered life.” But she could hear the satisfaction in him. “I can see that.” She opened her eyes as he began to move within her. “I’m glad.”
His face was a taut mask of barely controlled masculine urgency. He held her so tightly Elly couldn’t tell which of them was exuding the fine perspiration that slicked their skin. She felt Jess’s hands under her hips, lifting her, guiding her as he increased the pace of the lovemaking.
The strange tension in Elly began to tighten and condense. She was unaware of the way her legs wrapped around Jess’s waist as she closed her eyes again. The powerful driving rhythm was dominating her senses, and she could only respond to its demands. She was alive with the knowledge that the man who held her so fiercely was the man she loved, and when the shimmering climax shook her, Elly could no longer avoid saying the words.
“Jess, oh, Jess, I love you, love you, love you…”
Jess lifted his head to watch her face as she surrendered to the force of their mutual passion. He realized that the words were the finishing touch. They made it all perfect. She was his in a way no other woman had ever been. No one else had ever given herself so sweetly and completely. She loved him. She loved him.
Then he couldn’t think at all as his own satisfaction washed over him. The release seemed endless and infinite, and at the conclusion he sprawled heavily on Elly’s softness. For a long moment he lay still, luxuriating in the feel of her and then, reluctantly, he rolled to one side. When he gathered her against him, she opened her eyes and met his gaze. He stared down at her, drinking in the sight of her tawny-gold eyes. Then he smiled slightly and picked up a trailing braid that had come free of the coronet she normally wore. He toyed with it as he leaned down to brush her lips with his own.
“No doubt about it. I was a fool to wait this long.”
“Why did you wait, Jess?” The tawny eyes were unexpectedly serious.
He shrugged, no longer interested in his own motivations. He couldn’t begin to explain that a part of him had been wary of the kind of passion he sensed he would find with Elly. Now that he’d found it and discovered there was absolutely nothing threatening about it, that it was, in fact, fantastic, Jess saw no reason to go into the subject. “As you’ve often noticed, I tend to do things on schedule.”
“And you haven’t had time until tonight to fit me into your schedule?”
“Hey,” he said chuckling, “I thought you’d appreciate not being rushed. Don’t I get any points for gentlemanly behavior?”
“It made me nervous.” She dropped her eyes to study his chest.
“Because you were beginning to be afraid I didn’t want you at all. Then when you decided to take things into your own hands last weekend I blew it by seeing that prowler at the window. That was probably Carrington, the bastard. One of these days I’m going to have to do something about him before his mischief gets dangerous.”
“You haven’t answered my question,” Elly persisted. Jess sighed.
“You mean about why I was such a gentleman for two months?”
“Yes.”
“It was because I wanted to be sure of you in other ways, first. You’re sweet and sensible and intelligent. I wanted you to see that we could make a good marriage together, that we were right for each other. I didn’t want to be accused of using sex to push you into anything you didn’t really want.” It sounded reasonable to his own ears.
“Because someone once used sex to push you into a marriage you later regretted?”
“That’s not going to be a problem with us, though, is it, Elly? You love me. You want to marry me. You’ve loved me and you’ve wanted to marry me all along.”
“Yes.”
He tipped up her chin, enjoying the honesty in her eyes. “I should have known. I should have guessed how deeply you felt. If I had, I wouldn’t have waited two months to make love to you.”
“Now you know how I feel,” she began carefully.
“Umm.” He felt the satisfaction welling up in him, and knew it probably showed in his eyes. Jess didn’t try to hide it. There was no need.
“I’d like to know how you feel, Jess.” Elly studied him intently.
“Damned good.” He stretched and yawned.
“That’s not what I meant.”
Something in her persistent tone finally got through to him. He blinked lazily. “What do you mean?”
She swallowed, seeking the right words. “I want to know if you love me,” Elly whispered starkly.
Jess experienced the first flicker of uneasiness. She looked so serious and concerned. Tenderly he played with her braid. “Elly, honey, I’m going to marry you. I’ll take care of you. I think you trust me, and you know that I want you. I know for certain that you want me. Isn’t that enough for you?”
“I don’t know. Is falling in love with me anywhere in sight on that schedule of yours? Or is this all I’m going to get?”
The uneasiness began to change into anger. “What, exactly, do you want from me, Elly?”
“I want you to tell me that you love me,” she said with stubborn pride. “That you’re giving yourself to me as completely as I’m prepared to give myself to you. That you’re passionately, irrevocably, inescapably, deliriously in love with me!”
“Why?”
“Why! ” She freed herself to sit up against the pillows. “Why? Because that’s the way this whole thing is supposed to work. That’s what getting married is all about. I love you. I’d like some assurance that you love me.”
He eyed her for a long moment, taking in the sight of her emotions so openly displayed in her face. “Last weekend you said you wanted the assurance that I could feel genuine passion for you. I’ve given you that assurance and now you want more. How much more, Elly?”
She flinched as if he had struck her. “That’s not fair, Jess. I’m only asking that the man who claims he wants to marry me also does me the honor of telling me he loves me. But you’re not going to do that, are you?” She edged toward the side of the bed, her eyes blazing. All the warmth of the passionate aftermath of their lovemaking had changed to feminine resentment.
“Elly, come back here. Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Alarmed and irritated,
Jess sat up.
“You’re afraid to let yourself love me, aren’t you?” she challenged, stumbling to her feet beside the bed. She dragged the comforter with her. “After that disaster with Marina Carrington, you’re not about to risk loving another woman.”
“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about! I felt a lot of things for Marina, but not love.” Jess exploded off the bed, catching Elly by the wrist because she would have darted toward the bathroom. “Now calm down and stop throwing a temper tantrum or so help me I’ll…”
“You’ll what? Beat me?” She glared at him.
Jess relaxed, his mouth curving slightly. “No, honey, I won’t beat you. I’ll take you back to bed and make love to you all over again. This time I’ll try to do the job right so that you don’t come out of it spitting like a scalded cat.”
She was beyond caution now. “Maybe you can’t do the job right. The only right way to make love to me, Jess Winter, is to be in love with me.”
“Damn you, Elly!” Unexpectedly Jess lost his own temper. Gray eyes darkened with masculine intent. Clamping her around the waist, he lifted her so that she was eye to eye with him. Hastily she braced herself with her palms on his shoulders. Her gaze was gold with the fire of her feelings. “You little witch, I’ll teach you to provoke me. I’m going to lay you back and make love to you until you admit I not only give you what you need in bed, but that you won’t ever want it from anyone else! Do you hear me, woman?”
Elly heard. She heard all too clearly. She paled at the words. Witch. She’d heard him call her a witch, and with that all the fight went out of her. She was not another Marina, not another witch who would deliberately bait and torment him. The fear that she had acted in a way that reminded him of the other woman swept through her. Impulsively Elly threw her arms around his neck, sinking into him, pleading with him silently to forget the outburst.
“I hear you, Jess. You don’t have to prove it.” She smiled tentatively into his shoulder. “But if you’re intent on doing so, I won’t argue.”
Cautious Lover Page 8
