Winston walked away, not giving her a chance to respond, even if she could have come up with something to say that wouldn’t have sounded utterly ridiculous given his all-too- observant conclusions.
Overall, Addie agreed with Lord Abingdon. Jack did deserve some happiness and she didn’t want him to be hurt, if at all possible. But she did believe that they both wanted this night together. She had seen it in his eyes as well; she was certain of it. And besides, Jackson didn’t want to remarry. He’d said so over and over again. She was just helping him to move on from grieving for Clara. Addie felt a wave of relief wash over her as she realized how freeing this would be for both of them. This was the freedom Madame Lou had communicated as well, wasn’t it? It must be, she convinced herself finishing off her drink. Now she just had to wait for her opportunity and make sure that Jack didn’t get away from her this time.
Lady Eleanor did not appear to be willing to give up her dance partner any time soon, so when the duke approached Addie and asked if she would like to take a turn around the room on his arm, she was agreeable.
“Miss James, would you be interested in a stroll through the garden this evening? I doubt we’ll have weather this fine on our return to London, so we should take advantage of the fresh country air.”
Adeline longed to leave the stuffy confines of the parlor, but she didn’t dare take her eyes off of Jackson. So she begged off, claiming that the champagne had gone to her head and she needed to freshen up in the ladies’ retiring room. Making her excuses to Lord Grafton, she slowly made her way to the other side of the room waiting for the duke to turn away so she could double back and somehow lure Jack away from that audacious woman. Maybe it was just her imagination, but he did appear to be growing impatient to part ways with Lady Eleanor. And when she finally caught his eye, she thought she might have seen him give her a longing look.
Addie bit her lip, wishing she knew how to tell Jack that she wanted him to follow her. But all she could do was watch and hope that somehow he would just know. Sighing in defeat and realizing that her inexperience was no match for one such as Lady Eleanor, Adeline finally gave up and turned to leave. She was halfway to her room when she heard someone approaching. Afraid it was Lord Denbigh, somehow returning unbeknownst to their host, she spun around, ready to fight him off, but it wasn’t the viscount—it was Jack.
“Adeline.” Jackson said hurrying towards her. “I wanted to say goodbye, in case I missed you tomorrow.”
Addie smiled; this was working out even better than she could have planned. “Jack, I’m so glad you found me. I wanted to return your dinner jacket to you. Won’t you come to my room and take it off my hands?”
“I suppose there would be no harm in that.” Jack said with a shrug of his broad shoulders. “Lead the way.”
Adeline could feel the blood rushing through her body in anticipation of what was about to happen if she could manage to actually get Jack inside her room and close the door behind him. She had been practicing what she would say if this moment really materialized. When they arrived outside her door, she stopped and faced the portal, turning her back on Jackson for a moment in order to school her face into calm nonchalance so that he wouldn’t think twice about what she was about to ask.
“Oh, do come in for a moment, Jack. I have something I want to show you.” The words came more easily than she’d first imagined. It wasn’t a lie, really.
Jackson looked up and down the hallway and seeing it was empty, raised one dark eyebrow, then nodded. “Just for a moment, though. I don’t want to be responsible for ruining your reputation.”
“Of course,” Addie said opening the door and allowing Jack to enter first. “Your coat is on the divan.” She entered behind him, closing and securing the door so they wouldn’t be disturbed.
“Why do you have candles lit?” Jack asked, looking around the suite in the dim lighting. “Are the electrics not working? I’ll let one of the servants know.”
“The electric lights are working perfectly, Jack.” Adeline said inching her way closer to him.
“Well, you should tell your maid that the candles are a fire risk and she shouldn’t leave them unattended like this.” He blew out the candle nearest to him and was about to switch on one of the lamps.
“Please don’t, Jack.” Addie said finally getting the man’s attention. She was only a hand’s breadth away from him now as she started pulling hairpins out of her elaborate coif.
“What are you doing, Adeline?” Jackson started backing away from her even as she advanced. “You shouldn’t be doing that with me here. I shouldn’t be here; I shouldn’t have come in.”
“But I want you here, Jack.” The final pin came out and her hair tumbled down around her shoulders. “I’ve been wanting this for a very long time, I think; ever since that night on board the ship, when we were on deck.”
“I know what night you mean.” Jackson said raking a hand through his dark hair and trying to look anywhere except at Addie. “Aren’t you supposed to be marrying one of those titles wandering about downstairs?”
“Yes, and I’ve chosen the baron to marry. But I do not choose Lord Craven for this.” Adeline’s hands went to the back of her dress. She and Emily had purposely picked out a gown for tonight that Addie would be able to undo without her maid’s help. She managed to undo a few of the buttons, loosening the dress so that it gapped away from her breasts, revealing the French lingerie that she wore beneath it. Jack gazed at the skin she was revealing and visibly swallowed.
“Addie,” he whispered her name as she walked the final steps that put her into his arms.
* * *
Jack was amazed by this young woman again. She refused to conform, she refused to follow social rules, and now here she was, insisting that he throw caution to the wind and go along with her mad folly.
She raised her lips up toward him, inviting him to kiss her. For a moment he resisted, knowing he shouldn’t do this, understanding more so than Adeline what it would mean if he gave into this wildly inappropriate whim of hers. All of his upbringing came rushing up to meet him and he thought about what his parents would say and the indiscretion that he was seriously contemplating at this moment. But then he saw Clara and Madame Lou in his mind’s eye, and knew that this moment was somehow destined for him and Addie. And, by God, he wanted it as well. He wanted Adeline and no one else. Not Lady Eleanor, not any other woman or doxy; the only woman who had been tempting his fortitude these days was this one standing before him, offering herself and everything that meant. Adeline wasn’t stupid; she knew that her husband would probably know he hadn’t been the first one to bed his wife. But she was also wise enough to realize that with her wealth behind her, it wouldn’t make a difference to the man either. The baron would probably just believe his new bride was no virgin because she was American and that all colonials were backwards in such things.
Jack realized that he was trying to rationalize the situation and give himself permission to take what Addie was offering. As she came closer and pressed her soft, supple body against his and wrapped her hands around his neck, pulling his mouth in closer, he knew he wanted this, probably more than she did. Finally, he gave in to the immediate temptation of kissing those soft, pink lips. He could stop before it went too far, he told himself, not really believing that. He was fooling himself, of course he knew that, but right now all Jack could think about was the warm, willing, soft body in his arms.
Pulling Adeline against his full length, Jack dipped his lips to hers and drank from their sweetness, gently plucking the nectar from her mouth in soft slow caresses until he could no longer hold himself back from delving fully into the moist hot depths of her parted mouth.
Her response was immediate. Moaning, Adeline pressed her soft breasts into him and tangled her fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck, trying to pull him even closer. Jack responded in kind, deepening the kiss even further, running his hands over her half-exposed back and finding the rest of the buttons
, undoing them as quickly as he could.
What was he doing? His head started to get in the way of what he was feeling. With a moan of anguish, he pulled away from Adeline and held her at arm’s length. She held onto to his biceps, trying to pull him back into her embrace.
“Jack?” she asked, her eyes half-closed in her unfulfilled passion. Licking her lips as if missing the warmth of his, she tried to draw closer, but he held her there. “Please, Jack, don’t stop now.”
“Addie, this is too important for you to heedlessly rush into,” he said, his breathing harsh in his own ears. “You have no idea what you are asking of me. Do you really understand what the repercussions of us doing this could possibly be? Have you thought through all of the consequences?”
“There are no consequences that I cannot live with, Jack.” Adeline said, sounding perfectly calm and composed. “I want this, for myself and for you. This is the last time I get to choose something just for me. Starting tomorrow, when I give my father the name of the titled lord who I will agree to marry and bear children for, I will no longer be the master of my own body and how it is to be used. Don’t you understand, Jack? I want you—the way a woman wants a man—and I don’t know if I’ll ever feel that for any other man again. Certainly not for any of the men courting me; believe me, I tried! So if you deny me this last opportunity to experience real passionate desire in the arms of the one man who actually makes me feel something when you just look at me, I will spend the rest of my life wondering—no, yearning for your touch. Is that what you want, Jack? To leave me trying to imagine what it might have been like to lie in your arms and make love with you? Can you honestly say you won’t regret abandoning me here tonight and never knowing what might have been?”
Jackson had to turn away from Adeline and her extremely persuasive arguments. He couldn’t look at her lips, swollen from his kisses, or the expanse of her creamy skin that had been exposed when her dress had dropped in a pool around her feet. He paced to the other side of the room and looked through the open connecting door that led to the bedchamber. It looked very inviting, with a single candle casting a seductive light over the four-poster bed. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a crystal decanter of brandy and two cut crystal glasses. Walking over to where they sat on a silver tray, he poured them both a glass and handed Addie one. She took it and sipped the strong liquor, watching him like a predator.
Jack took a long swallow of his drink before looking back at her. He wanted this—badly. And he no longer felt the overwhelming guilt that had plagued him all those months ago. But he still felt some hesitation about seducing his deceased wife’s friend, not to mention a woman who was as good as affianced to another man. But she was right, this was her choice and she had the right to make it, especially with what she would be giving the baron in exchange for not being a virgin on their wedding night. He would have her fortune and the rest of her life, as well as claim to any children she had.
“What if you become—with child—after tonight?” he asked her, taking another drink.
“I suppose the wedding will have to happen sooner then,” she responded, slowly walking toward him. “And I should hope it’s a girl so that Lord Craven will let me keep her. I would enjoy raising your child, Jack.”
Adeline had no idea how erotic her simple statement was. “What if it’s a boy?” Jack whispered, suddenly wanting a son. He had never even considered the possibility before, since Clara and he had been together ten years but she had never been able to go full term after conception.
“I don’t think the baron would allow me to keep him in the same house as his own heir.” She said, hesitating in her advance.
“If you do conceive, and it is a boy, would you let me raise him?” Jack had to know.
“Nothing would make me happier.” Adeline said, as a tear fell from one of her blue eyes. “Jack, will you make love to me tonight? Will you do this for me? And I promise, I will never ask anything else from you again. And you may ask me for anything in return.”
Throwing back the rest of his brandy, Jackson set down the empty glass and stared intently at Addie. He did want this, possibly even more than she did. All his life there had only ever been one woman who he cared about or wanted—Clara. And now that his wife was gone from this world and he’d had time to imagine a life without her, he found that it loomed long and empty ahead of him if he continued without someone to comfort and love him. Maybe that someone wasn’t Adeline, but maybe, God willing, a child could fill that void in his life. Of course, there were no guarantees that a union tonight would in fact produce a son, but he could hope. If he could only have Addie this one time, this one night, he would at least make it as memorable as possible for both of them.
Instead of answering her, Jackson came to Addie and took the glass from her hand. He set it next to his discarded one while lacing his fingers through hers, gently pulling her towards the big inviting bed. Lying back on the mattress, he pulled Adeline with him so she lay on top of him, with her satin-covered thigh straddling one of his.
“Anything?” he asked, grinning slowly while placing gentle kisses on her long neck that stretched out above him. She arched her body against his and moaned erotically as one of his hands cupped her bottom, pressing her more firmly against his groin.
He knew she was past responding to him verbally, as well as beyond any sort of reasonable thinking. She was only feeling now, experiencing myriad new and most likely previously- unknown sensations as his hands skimmed her part-silk-clad and part-exposed body.
Jack hadn’t been with a virgin since the first time he and Clara had made love so many years ago. He had been so young and his only experience with a woman had been a friend of his parents visiting the family one summer. She’d been older and experienced and had enjoyed teaching young Jackson the ways of lovemaking. But the moment he’d seen Clara at her father’s tavern that next fall, he had never even looked at another woman. And now, he was here with Adeline. After having Lady Eleanor try to take him to her bed in the months following his wife’s passing, Jack had wondered if he would ever enjoy the sexual act again. He was pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong on that account; because right now, he couldn’t imagine wanting anything more than having Miss Adeline James exactly where she was—in bed, half undressed and ready to be ravished.
Rolling over and taking Addie with him, Jackson moved so he was leaning on his elbow with one arm and had his thigh nestled between her legs. With his free had, Jack began to explore Adeline’s softness. He skimmed his fingertips over the gentle slopes of pale flesh above her still-fastened corset, and when she tried to undo the constricting garment on her own, he pushed her hands away. There was much work to be done before he laid her naked before him. He started with kissing her exposed skin, then teasing her with his tongue. She tasted slightly salty from dancing in the stuffy music room. Then he moved to her covered breasts, caressing them over her underwear. She tried again to remove the offending garments, but Jack kept pushing her hands away. He was enjoying this too much to hurry it along, even though he could feel his own urgent reaction to Adeline’s eagerness.
“Turn over,” he purred in her ear, nipping at her soft lobe. Addie gasped at the new sensation, and obeyed him, obviously completely trusting Jack in this matter.
Giving her back and shoulders the same attention he’d focused on her chest a moment ago, Jack then began the pleasurable task of finishing undressing Miss James, starting with the stays on her corset. Enjoying himself more than he’d imagined, Jackson took his time, teasing little sounds out of Addie as he touched her in ways he knew she’d never before known. After he had the laces undone and pulled the ridiculous torture device from her body, Jack turned her over again and began to slowly expose the rest of Adeline’s skin, one inch at a time. His own need was growing in direct proportion to the sounds and movements Addie was making, and it took an extreme act of willpower on his part to get his own responses under control. He couldn’t rush this, not if h
e was going to give Adeline the night she wanted—a night to remember forever.
* * *
What Jack was doing to her was exquisite and unbearable. Adeline had never known these sensations could even exist, let alone that she could experience them. It was a combination of heat and blood rushing, and a tingling, shivering deliciousness that thrummed through her body over and over again, building into something that was so far beyond her realm of experience, she could only wait expectantly for its culmination.
“Jack, Jack.” Addie chanted, tossing her head back and forth on the pillows. His hands were stroking her breasts and her stomach, and then his mouth was on her nipples, causing them to stiffen into hard pebbles and making them even more sensitive to his ministrations.
“Do you like that?” he asked hopefully, not expecting an answer. But she was afraid he would stop if she didn’t respond.
“Oh, yes!” Addie cried, arching her back, trying to get closer.
Adeline’s eyes flew open as she felt Jack suddenly stop what he was doing and move away from her. She tried to reach for him but he was standing next to her, removing his own clothing now. His eyes roamed over her naked flesh which had nearly the same effect as when he’d been physically touching her, making her writhe with pleasure under his blatantly carnal regard. But as his clothing started to leave his beautiful body, Addie found herself fascinated by what he revealed. First his firm, rippled chest with a smattering of dark hair scattered over the surface and forming a line that disappeared below his waistband. Then his muscled shoulders and biceps that didn’t appear to have an ounce of extra flesh on them. The muscles in his arms flexed with the simplest of movements. And then his hands moved to his belt and the fastenings of his trousers. Adeline had never seen a man’s naked chest, let alone anything lower. It had been Jack’s naked backside she’d witnessed all those years ago. A few times when she’d been attending to the labor protests, some men had removed their jackets and rolled up their sleeves, so biceps were nothing new, but this—this was uncharted territory. Sitting up on her elbows so that she wouldn’t miss anything, Addie licked her lips, waiting for Jackson to remove the last layer separating them from what she had brought him here for.
Heaven Bound (A Blakemore Family Book: Madame Lou Series Book 2) Page 20
