But, of course, it wasn’t, and he knew it.
Then again, Jack could be such a teaser. He was probably just playing his part as her groom to the hilt.
The main thing was, they had to come out of this as still being the best of friends.
So far, so good.
Now if she could just make it through the next part of her plan—which, of course, was the sex part. It wouldn’t be long now before she would know for sure, one way or the other.
But she and Jack had to get through the reception first, and then they had a two-hour road trip to New Orleans by limo. According to her calculations, “D” Day was only a few hours away.
Soon she and Jack were cutting their wedding cake, while posing for the photographer every step along the way. Jack told her that she would be glad later on to have these pictures to show her child, and Beth agreed.
The next thing she knew, Jack was telling her that the limo he’d hired to drive them to New Orleans was waiting outside. They went into her bedroom and quickly changed into the outfits they planned to travel in. With the constant flow of interruptions at Beth’s bedroom door, they hurriedly shed one set of clothing for the other without worrying too much about the intimate nature of getting undressed in front of each other. They did it automatically, without any thought.
A short time later, loaded up with their luggage, a couple of bottles of champagne and a few sandwiches from their reception table, they climbed into the back seat of the white limousine while their parents and friends practically drowned them in birdseed. It was a relief when the limo door finally closed and she and Jack were suddenly alone. But no sooner had they settled themselves than they were waving goodbye to everyone from their rearview window as the limousine pulled away.
Beth was both exhausted and exhilarated, from the day’s events. She leaned back in her seat and took a deep breath.
With a grin on his face, Jack popped the cork on the first bottle of champagne and poured them each a glass. “To a long and happy mating season,” he said, clicking his glass to hers.
Beth smiled at first, but when she realized what he had said, her mouth dropped open.
“Go easy on the champagne,” he stated a moment later, completely ignoring her expression as he took her glass from her hand. “I want a conscious, consenting woman on my hands when we reach our hotel.”
“Jack, for heaven’s sake...”
He took one of her hands into his. “Hey, I can see that you’re nervous. Your fingers are like ice.” He rubbed them briskly between his two hands.
He was right. She was a nervous wreck.
Now that all the commotion of the wedding and reception was behind her, she had nothing to think of but what lay ahead of her in New Orleans. And what lay ahead of her was... well... their honeymoon. Maybe if what they were going to be doing together once they got there wasn’t such a planned thing...maybe if she hadn’t known that everything they had done so far centered around that one particular happening, it wouldn’t have been so nerveracking. But as it was, she was a mess.
Her eyes lifted to meet his, and he flashed her one of his infectious smiles. And, somehow, it made her feel more relaxed.
“You’ve come this far, Beth. Don’t worry, you’ll make it through the rest of it, too.”
She felt breathless. “I know I will. I’m just so glad you’re here with me, Jack.”
He laughed lightly. “Don’t you worry,” he said, slipping his arm around her shoulders. “I plan to be with you every step of the way.”
That, needless to say, was the reason she needed his help in the first place. This level of her plan was, indeed, turning into a catch-22. Suddenly it seemed that where Jack was concerned, she was damned if she did and damned if she didn’t.
“Look,” he said, “let’s forget about, you know, the sex part for right now and just enjoy the ride. We’re on our honeymoon, for heaven’s sake. How often does that happen in one’s lifetime? In mine, it’s going to be a first and last. After I’m done with this marriage, I plan to stay a bachelor.”
“Good for you,” Beth said, taking back her glass of champagne from him for a long swallow. Truthfully there was a part of her that didn’t want to think of him belonging to another woman in that way anyway. Jack was her friend. And for the time being, at least, he was also her husband. She handed Jack back her empty glass, snuggled up in the seat next to him and placed her head on his shoulder.
“Sleepy?” he asked, looking at her with a tender expression on his face.
“Mmm... Just a little tired.”
He placed his fingers under her chin and then kissed her lightly on the lips. “Then close your eyes and rest for a while.”
“I think I will,” she mumbled, shutting them.
And without realizing it, she fell asleep.
Jack glanced down at his bride and smiled knowingly to himself.
That was one way of getting Beth to their hotel room in New Orleans without her becoming a complete basket case in the process, he thought.
Now if he could just keep himself from being overly anxious to make her his own.
It won’t be long now, he told himself, hoping to pacify his growing desire.
Only it was too late for that. He was beyond help.
He had been waiting for this moment his whole life.
He hadn’t really known it until now.
Beth was damned lucky she had fallen asleep. Otherwise, he might have decided to take her right here and now. Some friend he was turning out to be. And then it hit him. He wasn’t just her friend. He was her husband.
Beth’s eyes fluttered open at the sound of her name.
“Beth...” she heard Jack say again. “We’re at the hotel now. It’s time to wake up.”
Wake up? Beth thought, coming straight up in her seat. She stared wide-eyed at her surroundings, now cloaked in darkness except for the streetlights overhead and the few neon signs she saw scattered down the block. Sure enough, the sights...the smells...the whole atmosphere told her that they had arrived at their destination. There was no other city in the world quite like New Orleans. It was all one big cocktail, where the old mixed in with the new, where the supernatural mixed in with reality and gave the city a mythical heartbeat all its own.
She climbed out of the limousine at the curb on Esplanade Street and led the way inside the lobby of their small hotel located just off the French Quarter’s mainstream. Jack followed closely at her heels while directing the bellman where to place their luggage. The young Creole woman at the front desk giggled the whole time she registered them as newlyweds, and for Beth it brought the whole dire situation back into focus for her. She and Jack would soon be going to bed together. She couldn’t help but wonder when the time came who was going to be the one with enough courage to make that all important first move?
Looking at Jack, no one could have guessed what lay ahead for them. He was completely relaxed. Apparently the seductive pulse of the city had already gotten to him. Placing his arm around her shoulders, he gazed at the young desk clerk and said, “My wife and I are hoping that she’ll be pregnant by the time we leave here in two days.” Then he gazed down at Beth with a mischievous grin on his face. “We’re anxious to get started with our family, aren’t we, dear?” he added, giving her shoulders a light, playfullike squeeze.
Anxious, indeed, Beth thought.
The young desk clerk giggled even more than she had when she had learned they were newlyweds. “You know what?” she said. “I’m gonna give y‘all the honeymoon suite. Y’all are lucky, too. It’s usually booked.”
She quickly jotted something down next to their names and then looked up at them and smiled. “It’s said that every bride who has ever entered that suite with her groom on their wedding night has left it the following morning pregnant with her first child,” the young woman boldly stated, obviously very pleased with herself for having imparted that bit of information to them.
“You don’t say,” Jack repli
ed in awe.
A shiver passed down Beth’s spine. She just hoped that she would turn out to be that lucky.
The clerk bent down under the desk and then came back into view a second later with a room key that she gave to the bellman who was waiting nearby. Then she bestowed Jack and Beth with an allknowing grin. “Just follow Bains upstairs. He’ll show y’all to your room.”
The honeymoon suite turned out to be one of the most romantic bedrooms Beth had ever seen. It was all ruffles and lace of antique white and country blue with a hint of rose every now and then for added color. It had a high canopy over the bed and mosquito netting that was held back at all sides. Obviously the mosquito netting wasn’t necessary. It was there for effect.
Their linens were made of one hundred percent bleached cotton, and someone had starched, ironed and then carefully folded each one. The pillowcases were trimmed in Battenburg Lace, as was the top sheet, Beth soon realized, after checking it out for herself.
The bathroom had a footed tub with a shelf overhead that was well stocked with old-time fragrances like lilac, honeysuckle and gardenia soaps. Large paintings of magnolias and one of a Live Oak tree garden hung on the walls. To Beth, it was a suite created for making babies. She had no idea how she and Jack had ended up staying here for their honeymoon, but she was very glad that they had.
“I’ll get some ice and chill our last bottle of champagne,” Jack said.
“I think I’d like to take a nice, leisurely bath,” Beth replied, eyeing the bathroom one final time before turning back into the bedroom where he stood.
“I’ll pin your hair up for you,” he said.
“But I thought you were going downstairs for ice,” she replied, giving him a surprised glance.
“I’m going, only I’ll pin up your hair first.”
When they had been kids, Jack used to comb her long hair all the time, but somewhere along their journey to adulthood, she had cut her hair shorter and he had stopped brushing it so often. In fact, she couldn’t remember the last time he had. Years, probably. Surprisingly, it pleased Beth a great deal to know that he was still interested in her hair. She got the combs she always used when bathing from her suitcase and handed them to him. Then she sat down on a stool and watched his reflection in the mirror in front of her as he carefully pinned each strand of her hair in place on top of her head. She couldn’t help but notice how straight and tall he was. How handsome...and sexy, too. Where had she been all these years? He was really a hunk. And now that she was giving it serious thought, he easily put the likes of Franko Malone to shame.
Finally Jack finished his task. But before letting her up from the stool, he placed his hands on her shoulders, bent down and kissed her lightly on the back of the neck.
“Thank you, Jack,” she said, inspecting her new hairdo in the mirror in front of her. Her stomach quivered at the tantalizing feel of his lips on her neck. He looked up and their eyes met. If ever Beth had any concerns about his ability as her best friend to make love to her when the time finally came, they quickly dissolved into nothing. Suddenly she no longer had any doubts as to which one of them would have the courage to make the first move. To be sure, in his own way Jack had just let her know that he was already in the driver’s seat. She was simply his passenger, going along for the ride.
Which, of course, was just fine with her. He was a lot better at this than she was anyway.
“I’ll be right back,” he said in that deep, coffeerich voice of his.
Beth’s pulse points throbbed as she watched him turn and walk out the door, closing it behind him.
Even after he was gone, it took her several moments to gather her equilibrium. Finally she stood, walked into the bathroom and turned on the water in the tub. She went to her suitcase and found the short silk alabaster white gown and matching robe set that Karen had talked her into buying a couple of days ago for her wedding night.
Well, no doubt about it, this was her wedding night.
She returned to the bathroom, found a decorative jar of foaming bath crystals on the shelf above the tub and poured a generous amount into the flowing water. An accumulation of lush bubbles gathered rather quickly at the foot of the tub, and the smell of gardenias filled the air. Shedding her clothes, Beth stepped into the warm water and slipped down beneath the bubbles floating on top until her body was completely submerged.
Minutes passed, and then she heard when Jack returned to their suite. A few moments later, the bathroom door opened and he entered, carrying two stemmed glasses. “Chilled champagne. Compliments of the house,” he said, walking over to where she was and handing her a glass. “I went ahead and chilled the bottle we brought with us for later tonight,” he added.
Without rising from beneath the thick layer of foamy bubbles that covered her naked body, Beth took a sip from her glass of champagne, then laid her head back on the rim of the tub. A few strands of her dark hair had come loose and now clung against the wet bare skin on the back of her neck. A light bead of perspiration dotted her forehead. The atmosphere in the small room was soft...cozy...alluring. “Mmm...” she groaned, deep and throaty. “This is the life, isn’t it?”
Suddenly Jack plucked the glass she held from her fingers and placed it alongside his on a wooden stool nearby. Her eyes popped open at the abruptness of it all, and she saw that he had already removed his jacket. Now he was rolling up the sleeves of his shirt.
“W-what are you doing?” she asked, her heart beginning to pick up tempo.
Kneeling down at the side of the tub where she lay so helplessly naked beneath a mere layer of soapy bubbles, he grinned. “I’m going to give you a bath,” he said.
The very idea of him doing such a thing was so sensual in nature that it sent an enormous heat surging through her body. The warm water she lay in...the soapy foam surrounding her... the heavy fragrance of gardenias...the chilled champagne she’d drunk...the thin layer of steam on the bathroom mirror—they all mingled together now to give her a light, heady sensation.
He picked up the bar of soap she had chosen for herself only moments ago and began to make a thick lather in the palms of his hands. Finally he said, “Sit up, Beth, so I can soap your back.”
But that meant exposing her breasts, too, right?
Beth gave it only a moment’s thought and then sat up. Soap bubbles slid down into her cleavage and over the mounds of her breasts. She looked up at Jack to see what he was doing and found he was watching the soap slide and grinning. But there was a certain light in his eyes and Beth had a feeling she knew exactly where that light was going to eventually lead them. There was no turning back now. But then, she didn’t really want to anymore. This was all part of her plan.
His hands were slick, soapy, and doing wonderful things to the tense muscles in her shoulders and neck. He worked his thumbs up and down and in small circles, and it was driving her completely over the edge. Beth closed her eyes to savor the moment. She was beginning to think she’d died and gone to heaven and hated the thought of ever having to open her eyes again.
But then his hands slipped over her shoulders and down to her breasts, and he gave them the same tender, loving massage that he’d given the muscles in her neck and shoulders. Beth thought surely that the pleasure was going to be more than she could bear. Frankly she didn’t think life in that moment could have possibly gotten any better.
But soon, it was all to clear that she was wrong. It did get better—and quickly. The moment his hands slipped farther down her body and found the pivotal point of her womanhood, her whole world exploded into a million—zillion—sparkling pieces. “Oh, Jack,” she moaned. “I think you’d better stop now.”
“Beth, honey,” he drawled, leaning in close enough to kiss the side of her face, “I’m just getting started.”
In the next moment he lifted her out of the bathtub as though she weighed less than a feather, carried her back into the most romantic bedroom she’d ever been in and placed her wet-soaked body across the softest
bed she’d ever slept on.
“Jack, what are you doing?” she asked. Her breath caught in her throat when he gazed down at her in a way that told her exactly what he was planning to do.
Within seconds, he stripped off his clothes and was completely naked. Then, with his hands on his hips and that heated look still on his face, he said, “Beth, don’t you think it’s time you stopped asking so many questions?”
A moment later Beth watched in awe as he lowered himself on top of her.
“But, Jack...” she said, her breath stalling at the feel of his naked skin suddenly pressed against her naked skin. Her heart began to pound.
He took her lips in one long, leisurely kiss. When finally he ended it, he looked deep into her eyes. “What do you want to ask me, Beth?”
“I...I...uh...just wanted to know one thing. I—is this just going to be foreplay between us right now? Or are you planning for us to go all the way with this?”
“You want a baby, don’t you?” he asked, as though she needed to be reminded of that fact. But, of course, she didn’t.
“Yes.”
“Then what do you think?”
“I...uh...I think we’re going to go all the way.”
“I think you’re right,” he answered.
And then her best friend claimed her lips again, only this time even more passionately, driving her need to have him to the point of desperation. His hands worked their magic on her, and with his strong body he gave her what she wanted most from him. He gave her a chance at being pregnant with the child she had always wanted.
“Thank you, Jack,” she whispered later that night, right before dozing off in his arms for what seemed like the twentieth time. He’d already awakened her so many times that night to make love to her that she was exhausted from the sweet agony of it all.
He tightened his arms around her and kissed her lightly on the temple. “My pleasure,” he drawled in a voice so deep, so rich with passion that even with her body completely sated, chills shimmied down her spine. He settled himself comfortably beside her, and soon they both fell into a deep, exhausted slumber.
Shotgun Groom Page 11
