“Do you want me?”
He looked down at himself. “Isn’t it blatantly obvious?”
“That’s not an answer. Do you want me?”
“Yes,” he hissed. “I want you, Amanda. I’ve always wanted you.”
She lowered herself onto him slowly, an inch at a time, feeling very in control—despite being completely out of control, that is—in this new position. She watched his face as she began to move, his expression of sheer awe and aching need. His gaze moved to their intimate connection and he brought his hand down to stroke his thumb over her clit. The small movement was enough to make her cry out and arch her back as another wave of pleasure crashed over her.
He cupped her breasts as she moved up and down his length, feeling exhilarated, feeling on fire, feeling a passion unlike anything else she’d ever known before. A passion for this man, this difficult man who haunted her as surely as the ghosts haunted this house.
“Jacob,” she moaned. “Oh, Jacob, yes. Please.”
“Amanda—”
He pulled her down flat against his chest, and then rolled over so he was on top of her again, pressing her down into the mattress, his body thrusting inside of hers deeper and harder and faster until it felt as if they were one person, no beginning, no ending. There was nothing that existed outside of this moment and their bodies moving together as one.
With another cry, he brought her to another earth-shattering orgasm and followed closely behind, his hips straining against hers as he climaxed, murmuring her name into her ear again and again.
She could hear the tick-tock as the clock began keeping time again. It was over. The spell was broken. They were free to leave the room whenever they wanted.
“I’ve always loved you,” Jacob whispered into her ear just before she fell asleep in his arms.
6
JACOB dragged himself out of the thick fog of unconsciousness.
He must have drunk a whole hell of a lot last night because he had a massive hangover going on. His head felt as if it might split right down the center. Despite that, he actually felt pretty damn good.
That was one hell of a dream.
There was something warm and pleasant in his arms. He was curved around it and it seemed to fit the contours of his body perfectly. Despite the headache from hell, he was quite content to lounge in bed for a while longer. He felt calm, relaxed and strangely happy.
The something warm moved. He pried open an eyelid and glanced next to him. Then both his eyes snapped open as he realized that it was Amanda and he had his arms around her in a tight embrace so her very naked body was pressed firmly up against his.
The realization made him instantly hard. The dream he’d had—the amazing one where he’d made love with Amanda…
It hadn’t been a dream at all, had it? He’d had the dream before, in various incarnations, but this was real. She was here.
She let out a contented little sigh as she absently traced her hands down the line of his spine and back up in a soft caress.
Oh boy.
“Amanda,” he whispered. He wasn’t sure he could move. The pain in his head now fought with shock and arousal. It was an unusual jumble of emotions to experience all at once.
She nestled in closer to his chest and slowly opened her beautiful blue eyes. A small smile played at her swollen lips and she brought her hand up to his face and brushed her fingers lightly along his jawline.
“Good morning,” she said sleepily.
He just stared at her in disbelief.
She blinked, then he watched as realization slowly came over her and her eyes widened little by little until they were dominating her face. Her mouth formed an O as she took in a quick gasp of air.
“What—?” She glanced down at them, covered from the waist down with a thin white sheet, her breasts pressed against his chest, their limbs still intimately entwined. “Oh my God.”
There was a sharp knock on the door.
“Why are you still here?” the owner of the house, Sheila Davis, demanded in a loud voice. “You were supposed to call me at the hotel. It’s ten o’clock in the morning!”
Amanda grabbed the sheet to pull it higher up before the door swung open. Jacob raised an eyebrow. Guess they weren’t magically trapped inside the room anymore.
The spell was definitely over. He exhaled, trying to remain as calm as possible. It wasn’t exactly easy.
Sheila took one step into the room, surveyed the two naked people entangled on the bed and her face contorted and reddened with anger.
“What the hell is going on here?” she sputtered. “This is the most unprofessional thing I’ve ever witnessed in my entire life! I want you out of here now.”
She turned around and stomped down the stairs.
Jacob knew he should feel bad that their client had just found them in bed together, but bad was one thing he wasn’t feeling at the moment. Now that he’d had a moment to process what happened, crazy as it might seem, he was pretty damn cheerful. Being with Amanda, something he’d only fantasized about before, had been everything he’d thought it would be. Magical. Mind-blowing.
He craved her again. Would that be really unprofessional? They’d leave in ten minutes.
Or an hour or two. Time would tell.
Other than pulling up the covers, Amanda hadn’t moved an inch since she’d woken up. He slid his hand around to the small of her back. He wasn’t a cuddler, normally. After sex he usually preferred to be alone if at all possible. But with Amanda, all rules seemed to be thrown out the window.
“She’ll get over it,” Jacob whispered, brushing his lips against Amanda’s ear.
Amanda didn’t say anything to that. Instead, she slipped out of his embrace, turned around, and got up from the bed. He had a chance to admire her beautiful body from a distance now instead of up close and personal. He allowed his gaze to casually take in every delicious inch of her as she quickly grabbed her clothes off the floor and just as quickly got dressed, all without saying a word.
She leaned over and grabbed his jeans and threw them at him.
“Where’s the fire?” he asked, sitting up so the sheet fell across his lap.
“No fire. Get dressed.” The last word was more of a hiss.
He tried to keep the shit-eating grin off his face. “Come on, it’s not that bad, is it?”
“Yes, it’s that bad.” She turned to look at him and her gaze moved over his bare chest to where the sheet draped over the rest of his nakedness. She brought her hands up to her temples and rubbed. Maybe she had a headache like he did.
A magical sex hangover.
Totally worth it, he decided. One hundred percent.
“This shouldn’t have happened,” she said firmly.
“But it did.”
She threw the rest of his clothes at him. “We’ll forget about this. Never mention it again.”
His smile faltered. “We will?”
She nodded, and he watched as she became more composed and in control with every word she spoke. “Nobody needs to know. Ms. Davis was right. It was totally unprofessional. The clock,” she shot it a withering glare as if the inanimate object cared that it was being blamed for the previous night’s festivities, “is cursed. It made us do…something…we normally never would have done in a million years!”
He was getting the strong sense that maybe he was the only one in the room who was okay with what had happened. Amanda obviously wasn’t. At all. In fact, she looked ready to throw up or possibly tear her hair out by the roots at the thought that they’d slept together.
Talk about a buzz kill.
“I thought maybe—” he began.
“Jacob, listen to me,” she interrupted. “This is bad, okay? We were under a malicious spell. It made us do something that neither of us is proud of. I don’t blame you, really I don’t. It’s best we completely forget it ever happened.”
A cold chill slowly filled his veins, effectively dousing the heat of his previous arousal. I
f there was one thing he was good at in life it was taking a hint from a woman who obviously didn’t want him. “Good idea.”
“Nobody can ever know about this.” There was a bit of panic in her voice now. “I can’t screw things up. I’m with David and he’s wonderful. I’m going to my new job next week and my new life. That’s what I want and if anything goes wrong then I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“Fine.”
“Luckily the…the spell seems to be over. I feel totally normal again.”
“Me, too.”
He got out of bed and tried not to flinch when Amanda purposefully turned her back so she wouldn’t have to see his nude body.
It was like having a glass of ice water thrown in his face. She was rejecting him soundly and hell if he would give a damn one way or the other. The raw emotions that had ventured close to the surface retreated back deep inside of him where it was much safer to hang out. The headache remained and he held on to that pain. It was something solid to concentrate on as he got dressed.
He forced a grin onto his face. “It wasn’t any big deal for me, anyhow. Just another Friday night. Consider it already forgotten.”
He was sure it was only his imagination and wishful thinking that the statement made Amanda wince a little.
DAMMIT. It was supposed to be a simple haunting investigation. That was it. In and out in twenty minutes. Now more than ten hours had gone by—not including drive-time—most of which had been spent unconscious. The rest of it was spent—
Amanda gritted her teeth and stared out of the window as Jacob sped down the highway on their way back to Mystic Ridge, cursing her own lack of self-control. That’s what it was all about, wasn’t it? When you were a psychic like her it was all about control. Otherwise, she’d have ghosts hanging around her all the time trying to get messages to the living. She couldn’t deal with that. It was bad enough dealing with the level of power she used to do her job.
She wouldn’t think of last night. She wished the memories would magically fade away, but if anything they were getting stronger as the minutes ticked by. Forget about being haunted by spirits, she was going to be haunted by memories.
Of Jacob.
I’m just one more notch on his bedpost, she thought dryly. She flicked a quick glance at him. He kept his eyes on the road and he’d barely looked at her since they’d gotten in the car. The drive was even more uncomfortable than the ride up. His impossible-to-ignore presence next to her had only been uncomfortably distracting then. Now…well, now was another thing altogether. Now it was torture.
Maybe some of the clock’s magic was still at work, because part of her wanted to touch him so badly her hands ached. But she wouldn’t. She’d sit calmly next to him with her hands in fists on her lap and will herself to forget how he felt inside her, how good he tasted, how delicious he smelled.
Sure. That would be totally easy.
Luckily, he seemed to be having no problem forgetting. He’d said as much in the room before they left. Just another Friday night.
After all, the guy wasn’t exactly hard up for a date. He could have any woman he wanted.
Then she thought about David, which actually made her feel sick to her stomach. He’d never know about this. It wasn’t as if she’d really cheated on him.
She cringed at the thought. Her future with him was still set in stone. It was what she wanted. He’d never understand enchanted clocks and cursed ghosts. He’d simply see it as a breach of trust, especially since he’d suggested they wait to consummate their relationship until after she moved to Manhattan. He was probably the most traditional guy she’d ever gone out with.
She hadn’t had sex for a very long time. She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed it.
But sex with Jacob wasn’t exactly the same as anything she’d ever experienced before. It was…well…beyond.
Beyond. Sure, that was a great way to describe something that never should have happened in the first place. Stupid enchanted clocks!
She bit her bottom lip so hard she nearly drew blood.
“So…what?” Jacob said after several more minutes had gone by, and Amanda tried to focus on anything else. “You’re not talking to me now?”
“I guess I feel like there’s not much to say.”
“So, what’s the plan?”
She eyed him suspiciously. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I figure the homeowner is not going to go quietly into the good night. She’ll be on the phone complaining to Patrick about how she, uh…found us.”
Her stomach sank. “You’re right.”
“So it’s not like we can keep it completely between the two of us.”
“Obviously Patrick will understand if we tell him what happened.”
“And what was that again?” He raised an eyebrow. “Just so our stories are straight.”
“We were investigating a clock that might have something to do with the curse the spirits are dealing with, and we got…got in the crossfire of its magic. And we were temporarily enchanted ourselves and luckily nothing more dangerous occurred.”
“Temporarily enchanted. That’s a good way to put it.”
The sarcasm was not lost on her. “I don’t know what you want me to say to that.”
He shrugged, still keeping his eyes on the road. “I don’t know. I was just wondering if any of it could have been remotely real.”
She swallowed. “Real? It was a spell.”
His eyes flicked to her for a half second. “You seemed pretty into it. In fact, I believe I was the one who wanted to stop, but you basically threw me on the bed and had your way with me.”
Her cheeks were on fire. “I’m not having this conversation. It was a spell. A stupid, ridiculous spell and the kind of thing I will happily be getting away from when I quit PARA and move. It meant nothing. Now I would really appreciate if we could change the subject entirely so I can try to forget it.”
“Try?” His lips twitched.
Her eyes widened slightly. “You think this is funny?”
“Believe me, LaGrange. Funny is one thing I don’t think this is.”
“That makes two of us.”
The edge of amusement in his expression faded and there was a flicker of something else in his eyes. Anger, or…was it frustration?
Before she could figure it out, a flash of pain filled her head so unexpectedly that she yelped. Jacob gasped with pain as well and swerved the car off the road where they came to a stop in a cloud of dust and crunching gravel.
“Damn,” he said, holding his head. “What the hell was that?”
“I don’t know. It felt like the same thing that happened last night at midnight. The clock…”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking.”
Oh, no, she thought with a steadily sinking feeling. It’s not over, is it?
It felt as though a lightning bolt had ripped through the soft tissue between her ears. She closed her eyes and gingerly rubbed her temples.
“What does it mean?” he asked. “We’re nowhere near the clock right now.”
“No idea.”
“Are you okay?”
“Fine. Now I am, anyhow. The pain’s gone. You?”
“Just dandy.”
She jumped a little and grabbed his hand when he brushed his warm fingertips over her forehead.
“What are you—?” she began.
But she couldn’t finish the sentence because he kissed her and in the next moment she was kissing him back as if she didn’t have any other choice. It was a compulsion. A compulsion that brought back the events of last night in Technicolor splendor, every detail, every nuance filling her mind, wiping her thoughts away as his tongue slid against hers and her senses were filled with the warm, sexy scent of him. She pulled at his shirt so she could touch his skin and his hands were already up under her sweater cupping her breasts.
The sound of traffic thundering past where they were parked cleared her mind for the briefest of mo
ments, at least until Jacob undid the front of her jeans. His left hand moved down and under her panties to slide between her legs and almost all thought vanished from her mind.
“It’s the clock’s spell,” she gasped, shifting herself closer to his hot touch. It felt way too good to stop him. “We’re still enchanted.”
His mouth was on hers again and she forgot everything but the pleasure that kissing Jacob brought with it. He felt so good, so right against her. His mouth, his tongue, his hands doing things to her that she couldn’t resist. After a brief struggle with her stubborn clothing, her jeans slipped down to the floor and she hazily realized that she was now sitting astride him on the driver’s seat.
“Amanda…” he managed. “We’re at the side of the road in my car. In public.”
“I don’t care.”
And she didn’t.
He let out a dark groan when she undid his zipper and pulled him completely free from his jeans, finding that he was hard and ready for her.
“Condom. Quickly,” she urged.
He fumbled for a foil packet. “This is the last one I have on me.”
“Hurry…please…”
He sheathed himself, his gaze wild and filled with need as he met her eyes again. She lifted her hips up to position herself properly then in one smooth stroke, took his full length inside her.
“Damn—” Jacob swore through clenched teeth. She traced her fingers along his tight jaw, feeling the rough stubble there. “Amanda, you feel so good. So good.”
She leaned forward and cut off any more conversation, such as it was, with an openmouthed kiss.
The steering wheel bit into her back painfully but it didn’t make her want to stop. She wasn’t sure anything would make her want to stop. She needed this, needed him inside her. How could something so wrong feel so completely right?
Her name was a harsh sound from his lips against hers as he began thrusting up into her. He pushed the fabric of her sweater aside and the lacy edge of her bra, to swirl his tongue around her right nipple. The combination of sensations made her arch her back as a shuddering current of pleasure rocked her. It was only a few moments later when he softly cried out her name again, pressing his face between her breasts to muffle the sound of his release.
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