She smiled at him as he backed out of the room, closing the door behind him.
Blowing out his cheeks, Jace headed for the kitchen. Pumping soap and washing his hands, he wondered what the hell he was doing. He didn’t like misleading Nessa this way, pretending to be something he wasn’t. On the other hand, he had the feeling Nessa would probably take off if she had any idea he took this kind of luxury for granted, that his family owned not only this house but the entire damned island.
With a sigh, he turned to the fridge. When Nessa came out, dressed again in her turquoise sundress, she found him chopping peppers and shallots, wielding an expensive chef’s knife with flashing speed. He’d already grated cheese into a bowl and spread a couple of frozen pastry squares with tomato paste and crushed garlic.
“Pizza? Yum.” She stole a piece of cheese and popped it into her mouth. He smiled without looking up from the chopping.
“I didn’t ask if you have any allergies. And do you eat meat?”
“No and yes. Right now I think I could eat a horse.”
“Haven’t got one of those, sorry. How about some nuts?” He pushed a bowl of cashews in her direction before heading back to the fridge and pulling out a package of pepperoni. Nessa settled herself on a stool at the breakfast bar and watched him tear up the pepperoni before sprinkling the cheese, meat, and vegetables on the pizza.
“What would you like to drink? We’re not quite as well-stocked as your bar, but there is some very nice wine.”
“Sounds good,” Nessa agreed. “Red, if you’ve got it.”
“Sure.” He pulled a bottle from a small wine cabinet set into the kitchen counter, opened it, and poured into what she was pretty sure was a Riedel crystal wine glass. Accepting the glass gingerly, frightened of breaking something which probably cost nearly as much as she made in a week, Nessa took a sip of the wine.
Her eyebrows flew up. “Please tell me you have permission to open this stuff.”
“Free rein of everything in the house.” Jace shrugged. In truth, the wine he’d opened for her was probably the least expensive one he had on hand. The wine cellar under the house had much more expensive ones stored in a climate-controlled vault.
“In that case, I shall appreciate every drop. Since it’s probably my only chance ever to drink wine this good. It’s Grange, right? What vintage?”
He put the bottle down in front of her silently, kicking himself for not having thought to pick up a cheaper bottle when he was at the resort. She was a professional bartender; of course she knew her wine. “Enjoy. I’m gonna go have a shower while the pizza cooks. It won’t be long.”
* * *
Jace was acting a little odd, Nessa thought as he left her alone. Picking up her wineglass, she headed over to the open doors leading out to the pool. Maybe he was a little nervous? She was pretty much a sure thing, after their scorching hot kiss earlier. Surely a guy who looked like Jace didn’t lack for women throwing themselves at him, especially in New York. She hadn’t asked what he did, but he had to be pretty successful if he ran in the same circles as people who could afford to own a holiday house like this.
With a little sigh, she propped one shoulder against the doorframe and sipped her wine, feeling the cool afternoon breeze blowing lightly over her warm skin. She wore nothing beneath her dress, and looked forward to shocking Jace with that fact.
“Hey,” Jace’s voice was soft as he approached her from behind.
Nessa smiled but didn’t turn around, feeling his hands curve gently around her waist as he bent his head to kiss her bare shoulder. One thin spaghetti strap had slipped down onto her upper arm, and his fingers grazed her skin lightly as he lifted it back into place.
“Hey yourself.” She set her glass down on the small table just inside the door and turned to look up at him. His shaggy blond hair was still wet, dampening the collar of the crisp white dress shirt he’d put on but not buttoned. A drop of water ran down the center of his muscled chest, and she couldn’t resist the impulse to lick it off.
Jace’s hands came up, one to cradle the back of her head, the other under her chin to tilt her face up to him. His mouth slanted down over hers and this kiss was even better, even hotter, than the one they’d shared on the boat.
Nessa found herself pressed back against the doorframe, her arms coming up to wrap around Jace and hold him closer. One of his legs thrust between hers and she moaned into his mouth, grinding against his muscled thigh. Her nipples pebbled, pushing at his chest through the thin cotton of her dress. He brought one hand up to palm her breast, grazing his thumb over the aching bud.
Putting her hands beneath his shirt and stroking at his back, Nessa moaned into Jace’s mouth when he pinched her nipple. Lifting one leg, she hooked it around his thigh to try and pull him closer still, not that there was the slightest space in between them. He lifted his mouth from hers only to kiss down her neck, nipping and licking at her throat, his tongue tracing hotly into the delicate hollows of her collarbones.
“Jace.” Her voice was a husky rasp, a plea.
He took it for a request to stop, though, and moved back reluctantly, his hands falling away.
Nessa grasped at his shirt. “Take me to bed.”
He looked down at her for a moment, a muscle in his jaw bunching and releasing, before nodding. “Let me turn the oven off.”
It was a good thing he’d remembered, Nessa thought as he went into the kitchen and flicked a switch before returning to her side and offering his hand, or they’d probably have burned the house down instead of just burning up the sheets. At the very least, they would have stunk the kitchen up with burned pizza. She tangled her fingers with Jace’s and let him lead her back to the bedroom, then draw her over to the beautiful bed with its silken sheets.
Nessa’s long braids swung around her shoulders as she reached down to grasp the hem of her dress, drawing it up and over her head in one smooth movement, revealing she wore absolutely nothing underneath.
“Holy moly,” Jace breathed, standing back to take her in. She stood unselfconsciously, comfortable in her nudity, aware of her own feminine power. Her breasts were high and full, tipped with plump nipples which were almost black on her dark brown skin. A narrow waist flared to gloriously curvaceous hips and down to juicy thighs, which he’d been thinking about having wrapped around his neck since he first saw her in her spectacular red bikini early that morning.
“You are stunning,” he said reverently.
She smiled at him, chin lifted high and proud. “Get naked,” she ordered, and he shrugged hastily out of his shirt, fumbled at the button of his shorts, watching lustfully as she turned her back on him and slid onto the bed, sighing luxuriantly as she lay down on the silk sheets. “Ohhh, this bed is even more comfortable than it looks.”
Jace couldn’t get out of his clothes fast enough, almost tripping as he kicked off his shorts. His cock stood up stiffly, leading him toward Nessa’s lush body laid out on his bed, wanting to worship her.
She beckoned to him with a finger, smiling as he moved to the end of the bed and knelt at her feet, reaching to lightly grasp her ankles. “And what are you planning to do down there?” Nessa asked, hoping she already knew.
Jace’s smile was lopsided, his eyes hooded with lust as he looked up the length of her body. “I’m gonna eat you all up, gorgeous.” Slowly, he licked his lips before bending his head and pressing the first of many heated kisses on her leg. “So just lay back and relax.”
Somehow, she didn’t think she was going to be able to relax, not with Jace’s warm, skilled fingers and his hot mouth working up the inside of her legs, switching from one to the other, nibbling and licking. He started sucking a love bite onto the tender skin of her inner thigh, and the first involuntary moan escaped Nessa’s lips.
“If you don’t like anything I’m doing, just say so. Or shove me off,” Jace lifted his head long enough to say.
“Shut up and carry on,” Nessa commanded, her eyes closed.
<
br /> Jace laughed and obeyed, his fingers sliding further up her thighs. She had strong, muscled legs–he guessed she was on her feet at least eight hours a day in the bar, which required a certain degree of physical fitness even if she did no other exercise. She shivered as he edged higher, goose bumps springing up on her skin; he kissed them, nuzzling at the softness of her inner thighs, tasting her skin. He smelled the salty-sweet tang of her arousal and glimpsed the moisture welling below her neatly-waxed black bush.
As Jace moved higher, Nessa lifted her knees, spreading her thighs wider, giving him tacit permission to do what he liked. His arms slid beneath her thighs, pushing them up onto his shoulders, his hands reaching to grasp her waist.
“You better hold on tight, beautiful.” His voice was lower than usual, a sensual rasp which scraped along her nerves, making her shiver in his hold. “I’m about to rock your world.”
Nessa’s teeth sank into her lower lip. Reaching down, she wrapped her hands around his wrists, holding on as he’d ordered. Jace made a low sound of approval, right before he pressed his tongue firmly against her clit.
Slim fingers clenched on his wrists and Nessa made a hissing noise between her teeth. Her clit was swollen, wet, under his tongue as he worked it over with slow, steady laps. He listened to her breathing quicken, feeling her thighs begin to tremble as they pressed on his shoulders. Patiently, he kept his pace slow, learning the exact pressure and movements to make her squirm and cry out, make her shudder and say his name in a low, husky voice which drove him wild. Grinding his hips against the bed in an effort to contain his own arousal, Jace kept at his self-appointed task until Nessa made a high, keening noise, her whole body tensing up, her hips lifting off the mattress to push herself harder against his face.
He sucked gently on her clit as she came, listening to her gasping breaths. He brought her down with care until she became too sensitive and let go of his wrist to push on the top of his head.
Leaning back and propping his chin on one hand, Jace grinned up at Nessa. “Feeling good?”
She made a vaguely incoherent noise and beckoned at him. “C’mere. Cuddle.”
“Sure.” He moved up to lie beside her, pulling her into his arms.
She sighed contentedly and reached to kiss him, not minding the taste of her own juices on his lips. Snuggling against him, she held on tightly for a little while. “You’re really good at that,” Nessa said finally.
“I aim to please.”
She giggled at the tone he affected, planting a kiss on his collarbone. “I feel like there’s something pressing I should remember, though.”
“Yeah?” Jace laughed too. His cock was indeed pressing hard against her stomach, shoving urgently at her even though he wasn’t moving.
She hadn’t taken a good look yet, so she moved back a little to eye him up. “Mm, hello.” He was long and thick, flushed with arousal, pre-cum beading at the tip. Reaching down to take him in hand, Nessa swiped her thumb over the creamy droplet, rubbed it gently into the head of his cock.
Jace made a hungry, eager little sound in his throat. Nessa looked up to meet his eyes and found them closed, his head thrown back. Blindly, he reached out to cup her breasts in his hands, tweaking her nipples, rubbing them between finger and thumb as she stroked his cock.
His attention to her breasts renewed Nessa’s arousal, and she reached her free hand under the pillow to grab the condom she’d stashed there after her shower.
Jace opened his eyes as he heard the rip of the packet, smiling to see what she held. “I like a woman who thinks ahead.”
She grinned, rolling the condom down over his straining arousal. “Always prepared, that’s me.”
“Isn’t that the Boy Scouts’ motto?”
“It’s my motto. Call me a boy again and I won’t jump your bones and make you scream my name.”
Laughing, Jace rolled to his back, letting Nessa climb atop him, straddling his hips. “Trust me, beautiful, nobody could ever mistake you for a boy.” His hands described an hourglass shape, tracing the air an inch away from her breasts and hips.
“Good.” Grasping the root of his cock in her hand, she lowered herself onto him, guiding him into her wet channel. They both moaned simultaneously as they came together at last, Nessa’s hips rolling to take Jace deep inside her body.
He grasped her hips in his hands, bracing her as she set up a rhythm, lifting up slow and then pushing down hard. Jace watched with something approaching awe as Nessa rode him, her head thrown back, long braids swinging around her, breasts bouncing as her strong thigh muscles worked, her body driving him hard and fast toward orgasm. He could feel it coming, the tingle of heat spreading from the base of his spine. Wanting Nessa to come with him, to share the ecstasy, he put a hand between them to rub his finger over her slippery-wet clit.
“Oh God, yes!” Nessa stuttered briefly in her rhythm, before resuming it again. She leaned forward to kiss Jace, sloppy and desperate as the tremors raced through her body, making her breasts tingle and her thighs shake. He held her close, working over her clit, his other hand cupping and squeezing her ass. Her nipples brushed against his chest, the final stimulation to push her over the edge, and she wailed his name against his lips.
Jace roared wordlessly as Nessa tightened around him, the hot wet clamp of her pussy sucking his climax from him. His eyes closed, his body shuddering as his seed jetted hotly deep inside her clutching, willing body. Stars burst behind his eyelids with the utter bliss of the release.
They clung together for several long minutes, breathing fast, skin damp with exertion. Finally, Nessa pulled back slowly and flopped down on the mattress beside Jace, moving closer to press her cheek against his side as he held an arm out toward her. He hugged her close, enjoying the way she fit against him.
It had been a long time since he’d felt so relaxed and comfortable. Tired from the day’s exertions, he wanted to stay awake, to savor every moment of being with Nessa, but his eyelids felt incredibly heavy. Just a few minutes, he thought as they drifted closed.
Chapter Six
Nessa knew the exact moment Jace fell asleep. Already relaxed, his whole body went limp, his breathing slowing even further. Smiling, she stayed cuddled up to him for a little while, until her stomach rumbled loudly. So loudly, she feared she might wake him up.
Grinning, Nessa eased out from Jace’s arm and climbed off the bed. Picking her dress up off the floor, she put it back on and headed for the kitchen to see if she could rescue the pizzas. They weren’t fully cooked, so she took them out of the oven and switched it back on again before retrieving the glass of wine she’d abandoned. It was too good to waste. Sipping it as she waited for the oven to heat back up, she looked around the open-plan area with interest. The furniture was minimalist, glass and chrome, but looked expensive. The couch was white leather and a painting hanging above it looked vaguely familiar. Narrowing her eyes, Nessa stared at it for a long moment. It looked like a Georgia O’Keeffe. And she had a sneaking suspicion it was an original.
Well, the house had very clearly been built with no expense spared. The kitchen appliances were top of the line and she was pretty sure the gleaming tiles on the floor were Carrara marble. An O’Keeffe original just fit with everything else. Obviously Jace moved in some pretty exclusive circles.
Sipping her wine and walking around, Nessa peeked through an open door to see a lavishly equipped office, with three computer monitors on one desk. Stock market feeds scrolled silently across the screens.
She’d never asked what Jace actually did, she realized, but a stockbroker made total sense, all things considered. Some sort of commodities trader, maybe. He’d certainly have wealthy friends in that world and be accustomed to the finer things in life, like expensive wine. No wonder he hadn’t blinked at opening a $500 bottle of Grange. He probably drank pricier wine every night in New York.
A photograph on the far wall caught her attention. She glanced around, feeling a little like an intruder, befor
e taking a step into the office to look more closely. The door was open, she justified to herself.
The photograph was of a woman, slim and fair-haired, smiling into the camera. A baby was held in her arms, as fair and smiling as she was. From the fashion of the woman’s clothes and the quality of the image, Nessa thought the picture was maybe thirty years old, but not much more than that. It was taken in Sydney, that much was clear; the distinctive shape of the Opera House was visible in the distance over the woman’s left shoulder.
A ping from the kitchen startled her and she hurried back to find the oven was ready. The pizzas would only take a few minutes to finish off, so she figured she should wake Jace. He was tired, but he needed to eat to refill his energy reserves.
“Hey.” Sitting on the bed beside him, she shook his shoulder gently. “Wake up, sleepyhead.”
“No,” he grumbled, an arm snaking around her waist to pull her back down beside him. “Don’t wanna.”
Laughing, she wiggled to get free, digging her fingertips into his ribs to tickle him. “Come on! Food’s ready and now I’m really starving.”
He groaned and let her up after stealing a kiss. “Alright, I’m coming!” Yawning, he stumbled after her into the kitchen and found himself pressed to sit down at the dining table while she dished up the food. “Hey, this isn’t right. I invited you to dinner, why are you doing the work?”
“Because you fell asleep on me.” She brushed a kiss against his temple before sitting down beside him and reaching for the salad she’d quickly thrown together.
Jace looked guilty. “Sorry about that…”
“I’m not offended.” Nessa smiled at him to show him she meant it. “It’s obvious you’re not quite up to peak condition yet, Jace. I’d probably have fallen asleep myself after that spectacular sex, except my stomach was rumbling too loudly to let me!”
“You thought it was spectacular?” He looked almost shy, like he was desperate for her approval.
The Reluctant Billionaire Page 5
