by Cathie Linz
“You’re late,” Jack said when Kayla stopped by his apartment later that afternoon. He’d opened the door himself and now he was standing there glaring at her.
She glared right back. “Don’t mess with me today,” she warned, putting her hand in the middle of his chest to ward him off as an extra precaution.
His irritation evaporated, replaced by something she hadn’t seen in his eyes before. Concern.
“What’s wrong?” he asked softly.
“Nothing. I’ve brought the movies you wanted from the video rental place. And that perfume you’ve been looking for.”
“It’s for my mom,” he reminded her, in case that was what had set her off.
“I know. You told me that before. What did you do to your couch?” she demanded after taking off her coat, having only now caught sight of the pillows completely askew.
“I was looking for the TV remote control. I can’t find it.”
“Have you looked underneath the couch?”
“With this cast on my leg?”
“Sorry, I wasn’t thinking. Here, let me look.”
The next thing he knew, she was on her knees. The black jeans she wore today cupped her fanny like a second skin as she put her head down to gingerly peer under the furniture. The move resulted in her aiming her bottom in the air. The hem of her fuzzy pink sweater lifted, displaying a strip of the creamy skin of her back. But it was the lush curve of her bottom that really captured his attention and stirred his body.
Jack stood there, propped up by his crutches, and simply admired the view. What was it about this woman that stirred such a fire in his body? He’d known her nearly a month and he still hadn’t figured it out. He thought about her all the time. Fantasized about her. Worried about her. This was different from anything he’d felt before. She was different.
“I don’t see the remote control under here,” Kayla announced. “No dust bunnies either. I expected to find some the size of Montana. Wait, I see something... Aha, here it is.”
In the process of getting up, she smacked into Jack, who was standing in front of the couch.
“Careful,” he said, but it was too late. Kayla had been moving too fast, and the force of her movement sent them both sprawling onto the couch cushions Jack had just returned to their proper place.
He twisted as they fell so that Kayla toppled on top of him. She immediately tried to get up, but he clamped his arm around her waist and said, “Stay still.”
Something about the raspy quality of his voice made her ask, “Is it your broken leg? Did you hurt it?”
“Something’s hurting all right, but it’s not my broken leg,” he muttered.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing that a little of this wouldn’t cure,” he replied, nuzzling her neck even as he shifted Kayla so she was sandwiched between his body and the back of the couch.
“Hey, that tickles!” Laughing, she wiggled against him, ending up rubbing her body against his even more. There was no mistaking his arousal.
“Tickles, huh?” he growled. It didn’t take much effort on his part to gently tug the loose neckline of her angora sweater off one shoulder. “How about this? This tickle, too?” he murmured against her skin before tracing her collarbone with his tongue.
Her gasp of pleasure was his only answer. He could feel the rapid heat of her pulse as he lapped at her creamy skin like a hungry tomcat. She tasted sweet. Like a vanilla milk shake, only warmer, sliding down his spine and making him throb with desire.
Kayla couldn’t believe how quickly she’d gone from normalcy to laughter and now to sensual enchantment. She savored the glory of being held by him, the almost forgotten feeling of being touched by a man who truly wanted her. Jack’s mouth was warm and wet as he blazed a trail from her collarbone around and up to her earlobe and down again, his tongue creating shimmers of heat with every stroke, leaving her in no doubt as to his desire.
“Yes!” she gasped, as if answering some unspoken question he’d posed.
Gently turning her face so that he could see her eyes, he cupped her chin in his palm, his hand so large that the tips of his fingers reached clear to her temple. “Yes, that tickles? Or just yes?” His husky voice poured over her like honey while he brushed her parted lips with the ball of his thumb.
Breathless with wanting him, she said, “Just...yes.”
“Yes is good,” he murmured. “This is good, too.”
His smoky eyes flared with fire, fascinating her, mesmerizing. He had the most incredible eyes. And she could hardly believe that they were looking at her with such an expression of need while his mouth hovered mere inches away from hers.
He was looking at her mouth. No, more than just looking. Touching her with his eyes, devouring her, eating her up like a big bad wolf. But she was no Goldilocks. She wasn’t frightened; she was aroused. And she had no doubt she was studying his mouth just as intently, with just as much hunger.
“I can’t get you out of my mind, do you know that?” He spoke the words, but she seconded the feeling.
“I remember the taste of your mouth...” Dipping his head slightly, he brushed his lips across hers.
“Do you want me to kiss you?” The words were spoken against her mouth.
She nodded, lifting her head to capture his teasing mouth with her own. Pressed together from hip to thigh, she could feel the heat and the passion emanating from his body.
He kissed her, and Kayla was lost...or was she found? She was lost in the heated magic of the moment as reason and caution were swept away. For that moment nothing mattered but the incredible pleasure of every erotic thrust of his tongue, every nibble of his teeth. But she was also found, discovering the perfect angle of her parted lips against his, inviting the thrill of his tongue caressing the roof of her mouth.
Awash in pleasure, she buried her fingers in the rich thickness of his dark hair, welcoming the increased intimacy of their embrace as he nudged his knee between hers. The ensuing contact was electrifying, engulfing her in a firestorm of desire instigated by the driving movements of his body.
Then he added the additional seduction of his caressing hands, gliding over her angora sweater to steal beneath the hem. The feel of his work-roughened fingertips against her bare skin left her breathless. In contrast to the leashed urgency of his powerful male body, his touch was exquisitely gentle and deliciously seductive, igniting a trail of fire.
The silky material of her bra provided little protection, instead amplifying the heated brush of his thumb against her nipple. She instinctively arched her back and was rewarded by him cupping her breast in the palm of his large hand, claiming her as his. With nimble fingers he managed to undo the tiny pearl buttons on her sweater, pushing it aside to gain him freer access to her curves.
Kayla dazedly opened her eyes to watch him, watch his hands as he touched her. He was devouring her with his eyes again. She saw that before returning her gaze to his fingers. In contrast to the raw hunger in his look, he touched her lightly, skimming the lacy edge of her bra with one fingertip.
His skin was slightly rough as he followed the lacy trail around one breast down to the shadowy valley between and then up the next creamy mound. Kayla hadn’t expected that the sight of his large hand on her body would arouse her. Nor had she anticipated how his slow caress would fan the flames throbbing deep within her.
He took his time, seemingly fascinated by every inch of her lingerie until finally he released the front fastener. Moments later his hands had replaced the silky material as he cupped her, brushing his thumbs over her rosy nipples in a rhythmic motion that matched the moist heat pulsing inside her. Excitement built and with it came the need for more...more...
She didn’t know if she spoke the words aloud or if he read it in her face, but abruptly he inclined his head. She cried out in pleasure as his mouth replaced his hands, his suckling motion creating a fierce flash of satisfaction as well as a bolt of increased need. Spearing her fingers through his hair, sh
e held him in place as he laved her with his tongue and seduced her with his talent.
As if sensing that she was reaching a new plateau where the pleasure was so intense it was almost pain, he eased back, soothing her as he tenderly stroked her hair off her forehead and kissed his way around her mouth. Then he returned to her breasts, urged there by her eager hands.
His own hands lowered to the fastening of her jeans. His knuckles brushed her abdomen as he struggled to undo the snap. But it proved to be stubborn. Impatient with its resistance he moved on to the juncture of her thighs, where the thickness of the denim seaming crossed over the very heart of her femininity.
Jack caressed her there. First he simply cupped her in the warm palm of his hand, then he began rubbing and rubbing...until that accelerated into a powerfully cadenced caress that had her arching her hips, pushing against his hand to increase the contact.
For Kayla the pleasure took on a harder edge, as the need for completion grew to almost unbearable proportions. Jack’s erotic suckling and rubbing had her spiraling out of control. The taut anticipation grew and had her bucking beneath him. A second later he was gone.
Kayla opened her eyes to find him on the floor beside the couch, swearing a blue streak.
“I’m sorry,” she said as she scrambled to help him, grabbing her sweater and holding it together with one hand while reaching out to him with the other. “Are you hurt?”
Jack was as hard as a two-inch firehose on full throttle. He was frustrated and he was aching. And then there was his leg...
“I’m fine,” he growled as he placed one hand on the coffee table to propel himself from the floor to the couch. He doubted he’d win any awards for gracefulness but at least he wasn’t sitting on his butt on the floor anymore. “But I think we should continue this in my bed—more room,” he added with a roguish grin before kissing her.
But before his lips reached hers, Kayla wailed, “I can’t,” while scrambling to the far end of the oversized couch. “I want to, but I can’t!”
“Why not?”
Instead of replying, she burst into tears.
“Hey, now, there’s no need for that,” Jack said in an alarmed voice. This time his embrace was comforting rather than arousing as he gently put his arms around her and awkwardly patted her on the back. “I hate crying. Don’t cry. I’m ordering you not to cry. Ah, hell.” He rubbed her shoulder as if she were Ashley’s age. “I wasn’t going to force you or anything like that. You weren’t afraid of that, were you?”
She shook her head, but kept on crying.
“Then what’s wrong? Come on, you can talk to me,” he coaxed her. “And you’re welcome to cry on my shoulder all you want. It’s broad enough.”
“Bra bu bin.”
“Bra bu bin?” he repeated in confusion.
“Bruce.”
“Your slime bag ex-husband?”
“He’s a doctor, not a slime bag.”
“He’s got the soul of a slime bag.”
“He wants to take Ashley away from me.”
Jack muttered a few choice curses as he hugged her reassuringly. “No one is going to take your little girl away from you.”
“You don’t know that for sure. And I can’t risk getting involved with you right now. I have to focus my attention on keeping custody of Ashley. If I went to bed with you...Bruce would say I was an unfit mother. And don’t ask me how he’d know, he just would. He’d hire a private investigator or something. Bruce and his wife have lots of money. Tons of it. And Tanya doesn’t work. He said the court would give Ashley to him because of that, because he was married. There was that case in Michigan where the judge did that, gave custody to the father because the single mother was working or going to school or something. Plus Bruce’s in-laws have judges in their hip pockets. It’s not fair! Bruce never even wanted a baby. Ashley was only a few months old when he divorced me. He blamed me for getting pregnant. Said he wasn’t ready to be a father. I didn’t trick him by getting pregnant! So Ashley wasn’t exactly planned, but she’s not an accident. That’s what he called her, you know. She’s a blessing, and I’m not going to let him steal her away from me!”
The words were rushing from her fast and furious like water over Niagara Falls.
“Shh now,” he soothed her. “Just calm down and take a deep breath or you’ll hyperventilate here.”
In the ensuing silence Jack tried to come to terms with the roller coaster ride he’d just been on. His body was still throbbing, both from falling on the floor and from sexual frustration. He hadn’t planned on things getting so out of control when he’d first touched her. She’d melted like hot wax in his arms. While no novice where women were concerned, he’d never been so wrapped up with one that he’d completely forgotten what planet he was on. She’d blown his mind.
When she’d bent down to look under his couch, he’d wondered what it was about her that so intrigued him. He still didn’t know, but he did know that her tears tore at his heart, that her pleasure increased his tenfold, a hundredfold.
He didn’t want her leaving when his cast came off. He didn’t want her leaving, period. He wanted her in his bed. Since his accident the thought of settling down and raising a family had crept into his mind. Maybe it was no coincidence that those thoughts had started right about the same time Kayla had come into his life.
“So your slime bag ex-husband is trying to steal Ashley from you. What does your attorney say?”
“I haven’t talked to her yet. She’s on vacation.”
“What about your family? What do they say?”
“The only family I have is my mother, who lives in Arizona. She thinks it was my fault that Bruce left me. She loved having a doctor in the family.”
Then Jack heard himself saying, “What about a firefighter? How would she feel about one of those in the family?”
The moment the words were out of his mouth he realized that there was no going back now. Even more startling was the fact that he didn’t want to.
He wanted to tie Kayla to him with bonds so tight they could never be broken. He wanted to be the one who wiped away her tears and slayed her dragons. And he wanted her in his bed so badly that he thought he might die from the affliction.
Kayla leaned back to gaze at him with startled eyes. “What do you mean?”
“Bruce told you he had a better chance at getting custody because he was married and you’re not, right?”
“Right.”
“So you could change that. You could marry me.”
Her mouth dropped open. Her look of surprise became tinged with a hint of suspicion. “Are you running a fever or something?”
“I’ve been hot since I met you, but I’m not running a fever and I’m not delirious.”
“Marry you?” she repeated with a dazed shake of her head. “If this is your idea of a joke...”
“It’s not.”
“But why? Why would you want to marry me? I mean, we’ve never even dated, let alone...”
“Dating is highly overrated,” Jack interrupted her to say.
“You’ve done more of it than I have.”
“What about Valentine’s Day?”
“What about it?”
“For our first date.” If she needed dating, he could give her dating. He could give her passion. He couldn’t give her love. But she wasn’t looking for love. She didn’t need that. She needed a husband. She needed him. And he’d prove it to her. “We could go out to dinner.”
“Valentine’s Day is only two days away. It would be practically impossible to get a reservation at this late date.” She focused on the minutiae of his last comment rather than thinking about the larger issue of his proposal.
“A buddy of mine runs a great new restaurant. He owes me a favor, I’m sure we could get in there. What do you say?”
“That you’re crazy.”
“I’m perfectly serious.”
“You hate commitments. Why would you even suggest marriage?”
“We’ll talk about it over dinner.”
Two days later Kayla had all but convinced herself that she’d imagined that afternoon on his couch and Jack’s out-of-the-blue marriage proposal. The letter she’d received from Bruce’s attorney had pretty much taken control of her thoughts.
“Bruce practically bragged that he’s got a couple of judges in his pocket,” Kayla told her attorney, Jean Simon. “I mean, we are talking about Chicago here. It wouldn’t be the first time a judge was bought off.”
“Don’t panic. At least not yet, okay? As you know, Bruce has filed a request for modification of custody based on his changed circumstances.”
“The only thing that’s changed,” Kayla retorted, “is that he’s got a rich wife who can’t have kids of her own!”
“The fact that he hasn’t made good on all the visitation rights he already has would normally make a judge toss his request right out of court. But as you say, his in-laws are powerful people and it wouldn’t do to underestimate them. Usually the court is still inclined to grant a woman custody if she’s been the primary care giver and is not guilty of behavior that would harm the child.”
Guilty of behavior...fooling around with Jack on the couch didn’t count, surely, Kayla frantically thought to herself. “The court is inclined?” she repeated.
“All I’m saying is that when a case goes to court and a judge has to decide, the mother isn’t necessarily granted automatic custody.”
“Especially a judge who is friendly with Tanya’s family .”
“I’ve got a few contacts myself in family court. There has to be a judge who won’t be influenced, and we’ll do whatever legal machinations we have to in order to get him or her.”
“Would it help if I was married?”
“Depends who it was to. If you married a jerk, then no, it wouldn’t help. If you married a knight in shining armor, who knows? It probably couldn’t hurt,” Jean said with a teasing wink, obviously thinking that Kayla’s question hadn’t been all that serious. “Today is Valentine’s Day, is that what got you thinking about marriage?”
