JACK RUBBED his eyes and inhaled deeply. His family emergency wasn’t over yet, but he’d managed to calm his father down and convince him to let Jack drive him to his sister’s house in Connecticut. Leave it to Jack’s mother to show up to pack her things with current boyfriend in tow.
Jack leaned his head against the seat in the car he’d hired to take him back to the hotel.
His parents’ marriage fell into the category he’d once described to Mallory. Two people who had stayed together out of convenience. His father couldn’t imagine not being married to the woman he thought he loved, though Jack had a difficult time believing anything remained of the love the older man had once felt for his wife. His father just didn’t have what it took to stand up for himself. His mother found it equally as convenient to sleep around without relinquishing the financial benefits and security the marriage provided.
Just growing up in their home, watching the two of them coexist while living their separate lives had aged Jack before his time and made him cynical. After all he’d seen and heard in his youth and later in his career, he couldn’t share Mallory’s optimistic view of marriage or even relationships. She might not think she wanted those things for herself, but he admired her for hanging on to her starry views.
More than likely some man would come along and sweep her off her feet. Jack only hoped she’d be able to maintain the faith, and that same man wouldn’t disappoint her and shatter her illusions.
He hoped like hell he wouldn’t be that man.
Because as much as his brain told him to head straight to his hotel room and get some sleep, as the car came to a stop outside the luxury hotel, he knew without a doubt he wouldn’t be sleeping alone.
He slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out Mallory’s black scarf, a reminder of what awaited him when he got through this latest family trauma.
Mallory. She hadn’t asked too many questions, but in a calm voice filled with understanding she had said she’d be there when he got back. Jack, a man who didn’t believe in trust, took her at her word. He had no choice. Need had been building inside him all day. Not just desire, but an escalating need for one woman.
For her.
Given all he’d just witnessed between his parents, he should be more alarmed by the realization. He told himself it was because he knew there’d be no long-term fallout from their liaison. She knew the facts as well as he.
So why was he finding it harder and harder to believe the mantra he’d lived by his entire adult life?
Jack signed the car receipt and entered the quiet hotel lobby. He passed the closed shops and the bored desk clerk and headed up the elevator. The trip to the fifth floor took mere seconds but the ride stretched long like the coiled band of desire wracking his body.
He raised his fist, surprised to see his hand shaking. His frenzied state had less to do with worry over whether she’d turn him away than it did with pure unadulterated desire.
Jack leaned against the doorframe and waited. His heart pounded so loudly inside his chest he felt certain Mallory could hear it in her room. In the past when he’d overheard arguments between his parents or watched with silent frustration as his father accepted more than any man should, Jack had no outlet for the emotions pouring through him.
He had that outlet now. His gut told him Mallory wouldn’t turn him away.
Drawing a deep breath he knocked on the door.
MALLORY KNEW without looking who stood on the other side of the closed door. And once she pulled the door open wide, she realized he wasn’t here in response to her invitation as much as he was here because he needed to be.
The blankness she’d seen in his eyes earlier had been replaced by an emotion she’d never seen there before, a need so strong and intense it caused her entire body to shake in reaction.
“Hi.” He leaned against the doorframe, outwardly composed. And he waited.
“Hi, yourself.” She extended her hand, reaching out for him.
His fingers wound tightly around hers and she led him into the room and shut the door. When she turned back to face him, he held her silk scarf in his hand.
So perhaps he was here in response to her invitation after all. She reminded herself to take things light and easy. And she would have laughed at her foolish longings if not for the pain twisting and strangling her heart.
Mallory forcibly shrugged it off. Once she was away from this plush resort and Jack’s compelling intensity, she’d immerse herself in work and put this interlude behind her. But in the meantime, if she was going to have the fantasies she might as well indulge them.
She stepped backward into the room. Jack followed until her knees hit the bed and she fell onto her back. She licked at her dry lips. “Did you make out okay at home?”
His gaze dropped to the rise and fall of her chest, the swell of her breasts visible above one of the silk teddies she favored for sleeping.
His pupils dilated with obvious desire. “We can talk about it later.” It wasn’t a suggestion.
He loomed over her, large and feral, masculine and demanding and she had no wish to deny him anything he wanted. His hands bracketed her head and his lower body cradled hers, pushing her into the mattress. The hard ridge of his erection thrusting through heavy denim nestled between her legs, against the soft silk barrier of her panties.
He stretched her arms out over her head, the scarf still held in one hand. “What did you plan on doing with this?”
She treated him to a sexy grin. “We can talk about it later.” She shimmied her hips upward in blatant invitation.
“How is it you know exactly what I need?” Another question he obviously didn’t want answered because before she could respond, he covered her mouth with his.
His lips were hot, his hands even hotter as he kissed her for all he was worth and explored her body, leaving a branding sensation wherever he touched. Little finesse was involved as he grabbed for the strap on her teddy and pulled it off her shoulders, following a scorching path with his lips and tongue.
All the while she fumbled, trying to free her hands from his grasp so she could reach for the snap on his pants but he held on tight, obviously needing to control and dominate. And though she’d spent most of her career trying not to be submissive to any man, this was personal.
This was Jack and she didn’t mind yielding right now. Not when what awaited her was certain to be worth it.
He released her arms and slid down her body until his lips reached her breasts. He latched on to one nipple through the lacy silk covering, pulling the rigid peak into his mouth. Soft suckling alternated with teasing flickers of his tongue and ended with a soft scraping of his teeth against her sensitive flesh.
She let out a cry of surprise as sensation traveled a direct path from her breast to the moist place between her thighs—the place she needed him most, but he hadn’t chosen that route.
Yet.
Instead he soothed the places he’d nipped with erotic laps of his tongue that were so exquisitely painful she saw white starbursts behind her closed eyelids.
“Better?” he asked.
“Mmm.” Speaking was beyond her. Her body was on fire, an empty, aching raging inferno of need.
He levered himself up on his elbows and met her gaze. “I should slow down.” But from the heat in his eyes and the dark flush on his cheeks, slow was the last thing he wanted.
“Not for my sake I hope.” She let out a strangled laugh. “Any slower and I might die first.”
“Me, too.” He brushed her dark hair off her flushed cheek. “So far be it for me to deny you.”
13
JACK LOOKED at her face. No, he couldn’t deny her. Especially when he needed her so badly. He hadn’t realized how much until he’d looked into her compassionate, blue eyes.
He glanced down. Her breasts rose and fell beneath the nearly sheer lingerie and having tasted the sweetness beneath, Jack desired more.
And obviously so did she. He pulled hard on the
thin strap on her shoulder and it tore from its binding. He did the same to the other strap and eased the teddy off her, as she lifted her back and hips, all too eager to shed the constricting undergarments.
What he saw was beyond his wildest imaginings. If he’d walked into this room at the boiling point, looking at her naked body shattered what remained of both his reserve and his restraint. “You’re incredible.”
She averted her gaze. “Can we stick to the truth?”
“Absolutely.” She obviously still didn’t believe in her beauty or worth and given what he’d learned of her history he understood.
But when she was with him, dammit, she shouldn’t have to doubt. He drew back and stood, stripping quickly, divesting himself of his clothes until he could join her again on the bed. Heat arced between them, hot and powerful.
Her eyes bore into him, watching his erection. “You see what you do to me.” She was seeing him naked yes, but she also saw inside him, deeper than any woman had before.
A wry, yet adorable smile twisted her lips. “It’s a known fact men don’t always think with their…well you know, when they’re looking to get lucky.”
He laughed at her forthright response. That was his Mallory, the honest woman who didn’t hold back what she was thinking. “I wouldn’t call it getting lucky if it was just an easy lay with someone I didn’t give a damn about.”
Her lashes fluttered, showing her uncertainty. “Well it’s also a known fact men will say many things in the heat of the moment and mean very few of them.”
“We’re not in the heat of the moment.” He eased forward until he could push her legs apart and kneel between. “Yet.” He kept his gaze on hers but bent lower, his lips inches from paradise.
She let out a slow exhale of air. “You talk a good game.” And her husky voice told him how much she liked his talk—as well as his obvious intent.
“It’s no game. If all I wanted was any woman, I wouldn’t be here now.” Because she was too damn complicated, too compelling, too everything as far as he was concerned.
If he lost himself inside her to forget the pain of the day, he risked losing himself to her forever. But he was here and too far gone. He wasn’t running away.
“And sweetheart, if all I wanted was any woman, I’d be inside you by now, taking care of my needs instead of doing this.” He dipped his head and licked her, tasting her femininity, feeling her heat and fueling the dewy dampness.
“Believe me now?” he asked.
A shuddering moan was her only response. Her hands gripped the bedding by his side and her hips jerked upward. From her liquid heat Jack knew she was close to the edge and he couldn’t wait any longer. Good thing he didn’t have to worry about readying her for the next step.
She caught him off guard, toppling him over onto his back, straddling his waist. He barely saw her reach for the drawer or rip open the foil packet, but he most definitely felt her ease the moist plastic sheath over his penis, and pause for deliberate handling that went above and beyond merely donning protection.
The desire to drive himself inside her was strong. The need to watch her as she lowered herself onto him and accommodated his width and length even stronger. But he couldn’t stop himself from touching her, from taking his fingertips and parting her feminine flesh and from placing himself at her opening.
He grabbed for her hips at the same moment she released her restraint. He slid inside her heated core, feeling her slick and moist passage close around him.
“God.” The word erupted from him in a guttural groan. Her body’s initial resistance was his tight consummate pleasure. He’d never felt anything so hot, so right, so perfect, he thought, and their fit brought a choking sensation to his throat.
And because he’d promised himself he’d watch, he forced his heavy eyelids open and pushing himself up on his elbows, he glanced down. Big mistake, he thought as he viewed himself cushioned inside her body. If he thought he’d be a goner before he knew he was lost now.
Or was he actually found? Shaking off the intense thoughts in favor of intense pleasure he began a steady thrusting motion that intensified every sensation rocketing through his body.
Mallory nearly screamed from the incredible heat and dizzying friction they were creating. She was wet silk surrounding hardened flesh. Though she thought she’d steeled herself against an overload of emotion, she’d been wrong.
What she felt for this man was so powerful and strong, it would remain with her long after they were no more, something she didn’t want to think about yet. She clenched her muscles tighter around his hard, straining erection, knowing her climax was in sight.
Her grinding met with his thrusting resistance and the tantalizing waves grew stronger. Jack grabbed on to her hips and she opened her eyes to meet his clouded but steady gaze. “Let yourself go, sweetheart.” He lifted his hips, bringing her so close. And he waited.
She tried to breathe and a needy cry came out instead. “Then you take me there—and come with me.” She swiveled her bottom in a slow circular motion. Her pelvis gyrated into his hips and he penetrated so deep the word joining took on a whole new meaning.
“Aah, God. Now.” He thrust and she tightened her muscles around him.
Swirling waves of unending pleasure swamped her. She looked into his incredible face and meeting her gaze, he pumped harder. She couldn’t think let alone breathe. Their bodies moved together in unison, his thrusting movements coming faster and faster until her grinding resistance became the focal point of erotic pleasure.
“Yes, yes…” She let out a cry of pleasure in a voice she didn’t recognize as her own.
“Yes.” He echoed her words as he came, bursting inside her as he shook with the power of his orgasm.
And the world as she knew it fragmented into millions of pieces of light, blindsiding her—not by the release itself, but because this time they came together—and the beauty brought tears to her eyes.
Her breathing came in shallow gasps as she dropped her body weight onto his. “I love you.” The words escaped before she could stop them and considering what had come before, she couldn’t call them back even if she wanted to.
She didn’t. And that scared her most of all.
MALLORY LAY on top of him, breathless, sated…and expecting an answer, if Jack’s hunch was right. But he had nothing to say. Nothing she’d want to hear, anyway.
Before Mallory, Jack had always had sex. He’d had a damn good hunch as he walked into this room, that this was much more. He’d been right. She wasn’t the only one falling.
Years of preconceived notions and divorce statistics told him they didn’t stand a chance, yet for the first time he considered the other statistics. The marriages that survived. The people who stayed together for reasons that transcended convenience and security. He was willing to look the idea of a soul mate in the eye and not run for protection.
He didn’t miss the irony. The one time in his life he was willing to face the future, he didn’t have one.
Mallory exhaled and he felt the whoosh of air against his cheek. “I won’t lie and say I said it in the heat of the moment, but don’t worry, I don’t expect you to say I love you back.”
“I do care.” More than was prudent. “And I wish I could say the words.” But he couldn’t acknowledge he might feel the same because to do so would jeopardize everything she wanted out of life.
Jack was the least selfless person he knew, yet protecting Mallory and the things she held dear had become his priority. Her career most of all.
“Hey, wishing doesn’t make things happen and we both knew the rules going in.”
Jack didn’t buy her lighthearted tone. “Rules change.”
“But outlooks don’t. And we both know yours.”
He forced a laugh he didn’t feel. “Yes, it parallels yours. Career first. Everything else second.”
“Right.”
Yet suddenly faced with the thought of returning to his empty New York City apartmen
t didn’t feel as invigorating or liberating as it once had.
But he’d already made partner, already achieved his dream. Whatever her reasons for wanting to make partner, and regardless of whether it would alter her relationship with her parents, that was her goal. One she’d worked and strived for. One she’d suppressed her sense of self to achieve.
I love you.
He couldn’t admit he felt the same. Couldn’t confront his own demons and decide whether to take the risk and trust Mallory with his heart. He had no choice but to push the truth away.
For her sake.
From violating the no-office-romance policy to playing around on the job, the old guard at the firm would view Mallory’s actions with disdain. They wouldn’t fire Mallory—they couldn’t without risk of a lawsuit—but they could stall her partnership and make her miserable until she left on her own. They wouldn’t mourn the loss of their only female associate. Meanwhile Jack would get a reprimand, a slap on the hand and maybe even a ribald joke about controlling his baser urges. But he’d have his partnership and his career intact. Unfair, but true.
“Jack?”
He rolled to the side, taking her with him. Her flesh pressed against his, warming him. He glanced into her worried face and admitted to himself he cared about her too damn much. “I’m here.”
But he didn’t love her, Mallory thought. Her heart twisted with regret. Even if fate dictated they had no future, she wished he felt the same. But she figured he was too used to the line to take her seriously anyway. No matter how much her pounding heart already belonged to him.
“What happened at home?” she asked, changing the subject.
He visibly winced. “My parents are getting divorced, finally.”
“So your father stood up for himself. You must be pleased.”
“Pleased doesn’t begin to describe it. My mother went home to pack her things—boyfriend by her side.”
Mallory cringed. “That’s insensitive.”
His expression turned shuttered and blank. “That’s my mother.”
Erotic Invitation Page 16
