by Penny Jordan
Somer struggled feebly to escape from the crushing grip of his fingers on her wrists, only realising how provocative her movements were when Chase muttered a harsh exclamation, his eyes almost black above cheekbones that burned with darkly aroused colour.
‘You do things to me I thought I was far too experienced to feel,’ he muttered against her jaw. His tongue burned a tantalising line down her throat, his free hand cupping one breast. Her nipples, tautly aroused and deeply pink against her white skin, thrust eagerly upwards, her tormented moan as Chase’s thumb rubbed provocatively against one echoed by the fierce sound he made deep in his throat.
‘Beautiful.’ He muttered the word almost reverently bending his head until it was pressed against her. Her pinioned wrists were released, but Somer was beyond caring. The sight of his dark head against her breasts brought a deep shudder from her body, her fingers curling into his shoulders in mute need when his tongue traced a delicately spiralling pattern round one erect nipple.
A deep coiling sensation erupted in the pit of her stomach. Feverishly Somer tugged at his shirt buttons, sliding her hands over his warm moist flesh, shivering tensely when Chase muttered, ‘Take it off, I want to feel you against me.’
Her fingers moved clumsily over the remaining buttons, her eyes unwittingly betraying her arousal as he thrust the shirt off. His skin was as tanned as she remembered, her own erotically pale in comparison. When his arms slid round her rib cage, pulling her tightly against him until his mouth rested against the curve of one breast her heart started to pound unsteadily. His hand stroked down over the curve of her waist and rested on her hip, his touch burning into her through the fabric of her jeans. As though unable to resist the temptation any longer her finger crept into the thick hair at the back of his neck, eliciting a growl of protest.
‘Somer.’ He groaned her name, roughly caressing her other breast, watching the quivers of pleasure run through her slender body with hungry appreciation. ‘If you react like this with every man who touches you, you must drive them all mad. No wonder he wants you back.’
The words struck her like painful blows, reality intruding into the dream world of desire she had lost herself in.
‘Chase, please, we mustn’t do this…’
He laughed harshly, reaching for the zip of her jeans, and pulling it down. ‘Very proper,’ he mocked, ‘but you want this as much as I do. Your body’s aching to be made love to.’ His hand rested intimately against her brief silk panties. Somer could feel the heat flooding through her and knew shamingly that what he said was true. An unfamiliar sensation spread through her, intensifying the coiling ache she had experienced earlier. She moved uneasily, trying to edge away, but Chase’s hand still rested possessively against the intimate core of her body.
‘You want me to do this…’ His green eyes seemed to burn into her as he bent his head and found her breast again, stroking her nipple with his tongue, ‘and this.’ His hand moved and she gasped, struggling away from him in shocked rejection, but knowing that he was right, and also knowing how much more she wanted than merely his touch.
‘Come on, Somer, don’t play games.’ His voice was rough with warning and something else she couldn’t recognise. ‘You aren’t eighteen any longer, and if it’s any consolation to you, I want you just as much as you want me, feel.’ He reached for her hand and drew it against his body, emitting a soft groan of pleasure as her fingers brushed his tautly muscled thigh. She couldn’t do this, Somer’s mind screamed in shocked protest, she did not have the experience to cope with Chase’s demands, but once again her body overruled her mind, her pulse rate climbing alarmingly as her body registered its own response to Chase’s arousal.
‘Somer, touch me…make love to me.’ His lips burned a fiery trail across her skin, burning the vulnerable skin of her shoulder and throat, her body quiveringly responsive to each kiss. ‘Let me take these off.’
Chase stood up and removed his jeans. Somer felt her throat go dry as she tried to drag her gaze away. She had seen him like this before—well, almost, his underwear was somewhat briefer and more revealing than his swimming shorts had been and then five years ago he hadn’t been so obviously aroused. Unable to stop herself she reached out tentatively, touching her fingertips to the hair-coarsened flesh of his thigh. Lean fingers trapped the soft fluttering of hers against his body.
‘Somer.’ He muttered her name as though he was fighting to breathe, and Somer quivered in instantaneous response. He really wanted her; he desired her. No one else. Her. An indescribable flood of sensation flooded through her, a heady, delirious delight that found expression in the tentative caress of her fingers within the imprisonment of his.
‘Somer.’ This time he wrenched them away from his body and carried them to his lips, kissing them lightly until his eyes suddenly darkened and he sucked their soft pink tips compulsively, pulling her back on to the bed with him. When he released her she was still shivering with a mingling of pleasure and almost unbearable tension.
‘Take off your jeans.’ She had barely registered the softly spoken command when Chase muttered, ‘No…let me do it for you.’ Her fingers clenched into her palms when she felt the warm brush of his mouth against her thigh as Chase removed her jeans, his fingers stroking seductively against her skin. ‘You’re so beautifully responsive,’ he muttered thickly, coming to lie beside her, one hand resting possessively on her hip, his fingers fanning out against her skin. ‘Normally with a woman of your experience one finds that her responses have been blunted…but with you…it’s as though no man’s ever touched you before.’
Warning bells rang in Somer’s brain. What on earth was she doing letting Chase make love to her like this? She struggled to pull herself out of the deep well of sexual desire imprisoning her, but Chase was tracing light kisses between her breasts and caressing the flat smoothness of her stomach, his fingers drawing fiery patterns on her skin making it impossible for her to think rationally.
‘Somer, touch me.’ He moaned the plea against her skin, ‘or are you deliberately trying to drive me mad?’
His teeth bit gently into her waist and she reacted instinctively, raking her nails in sensual protest against his spine, her own teeth finding the firm flesh on his shoulder. The smell and taste of him overwhelmed her, and without even being aware of it she was lost in a voyage of sensual discovery, her fingers stroking over his body, her lips following them, until Chase dragged her down into his arms and kissed her with savage impatience, his hands moulding her against him, his body arching into the cradle of her thighs and straining against her.
The knowledge that he wanted her physically was like heady wine, too tempting for Somer to resist. With an inarticulate murmur of pleasure, she pressed herself against his body, arching provocatively against him.
‘You make me want you so much.’ Chase kissed her breasts and the tender curve of her waist, kneeling over her as he bent to remove her briefs. Sudden shyness held her immobile, unable to look at Chase, her whole body tensed in expectation of his rejection. His hand covered the soft femininity he had just revealed, his voice raw with male need as he muttered thickly, ‘I can feel your body telling me how much you want me, but I still want to hear you say it.’ He bent towards her, stroking her parted lips with his tongue, teasing a small moan from them as he tormented her. ‘Say it…’
Somer was too lost in her sensual daze to resist. Like someone listening to a hypnotist she murmured huskily, ‘I want you…’
‘Chase! I want you, Chase. Say it, Somer.’
‘I want you, Chase,’ she repeated obediently, tormented by the teasing arousing of his tongue.
‘Now kiss me.’
Her lips parted willingly, brushing his. ‘Not like that,’ Chase protested thickly, ‘like this.’ His teeth tugged hungrily at her bottom lip, his tongue invading the moist sweetness beyond, until she responded with a mindless hunger that shuddered through her body. Her hand brushed against the soft barrier of his briefs, shocking her wi
th the intimacy of what she was doing, reality piercing through the cloud of pleasure engulfing her. She wanted to draw back, but it was Chase who released her, muttering something under his breath.
This was it, Somer realised, tensing in mute resignation. He didn’t want her. She shrank back from him closing her eyes, only to open them again seconds later to the glittering blaze of Chase’s as he dragged her hand against his body and she realised that he had not been rejecting her but simply removing his briefs. The male heat of him was unfamiliar to her, as was his soft groan of pleasure as she touched him.
His body gleamed tautly male and golden in the fading rays of sunshine burning through the curtained windows. ‘Touch me.’ His voice stroked the words raggedly against her ear. ‘You must know how much I want you to, or are you deliberately trying to torment me?’
She moved tentatively, tensing as she heard the hoarse groan he suppressed deep in his throat. ‘It’s no good, I can’t wait any longer, I want you too much.’ His hand slid between her thighs stroking them apart, his thumb describing erotic circles against her tense skin until she felt herself relax and shiver with pleasurable anticipation, and it was only when Chase covered his body with hers and she felt the hardness of his thighs pressing into her softness that Somer panicked. She was still a virgin! She couldn’t endure the humiliation of Chase finding out; of him knowing that he had hurt her so deeply when he rejected her that she couldn’t endure another man touching her.
‘No…’ She moaned her denial out loud, tensing her body automatically and arching her spine against him in an effort to push him away.
‘No?’ A dark, ugly tide of colour swept up under Chase’s skin, his voice bitterly incredulous. ‘Oh no, you aren’t playing that game with me. I won’t be treated the way you’ve treated your other lovers.’
Other lovers? Somer arched frantically. Didn’t he understand there hadn’t been any other lovers? His fingers bit into her arms, holding her body prisoner, his thighs pinning her to the bed. ‘Chase, please, you don’t understand…’
‘Oh, I understand all right,’ he muttered furiously. ‘You’ve had your fun and now you want to back out, leaving me as frustrated as hell. Well, not this time. This time you’re not going to be allowed to back out…’
The driving male force of his body was something she couldn’t fight or evade. She made a strangled protest deep in her throat as she felt the world explode in fiery pain, crying out incoherently.
‘Somer.’ Chase called her name roughly, disbelievingly, she recognised, willing herself not to cry out a second time. ‘Just try to relax, I didn’t…’ He muttered something she couldn’t catch and his body shuddered climactically against her, her own racked by tremors of pain and a dull empty ache that still clamoured for relief, even after Chase had withdrawn from her and was sitting on the edge of the bed with his back to her.
‘Somer…’
‘I don’t want to talk about it.’ Her voice was high-pitched with shame and agony.
‘Why didn’t you tell me you were still a virgin?’
‘Why should I? Our marriage was supposed to be in name only, remember.’
She saw him wince, almost as though he had suffered a physical blow. ‘All right then,’ he said evenly. ‘I’ll ask another question. Why are you still a virgin?’
‘Why?’ She fairly spat the word at him. ‘You can ask me that after…’
‘All right, you don’t need to say anything more. I suppose I ought to have guessed when I saw you with Hollister this afternoon. You’re still in love with him, aren’t you?’
For a moment Somer was almost too astonished to answer. On the point of denying his allegation she hesitated. If she denied it Chase would want another answer to his question. As she looked at his taut back the truth hit her, almost numbing her thought processes. She had wanted Chase to make love to her. Not Andrew, not anyone else, just Chase. But that must mean that she loved him. Impossible, she told herself.
CHAPTER SEVEN
SOMER studied her reflection in the mirror applying her make-up with a decidedly shaky hand. If Chase had broadcast it through the medium of his television station he couldn’t have made himself plainer, she reflected. The lovemaking which had started out, as far as he was concerned, as a form of punishment had ended with him repudiating her—finding her wanting, just as she had known he would. That blazing look of anger in his eyes before he had turned away from her, to sleep in the bedroom which had been hers, had told her how much he regretted his brief moment of weakness. He hadn’t been in their suite when she woke up. She had sensed his absence in the thick, unnerving silence. She had ordered and then toyed with a breakfast she couldn’t eat, her stomach nerves clenched in nervous dread, wondering where he was and when he would return.
As she replaced her mascara she heard the outer door open. Schooling her face not to betray her she picked up the lightweight jacket that matched her skirt and walked out of her bedroom. He was sitting in a chair, apparently absorbed in a paper, which he lowered as she walked towards him. His eyes skimmed her slender frame, resting enigmatically on her face. Hadn’t the make-up she had applied so carefully hidden the faintly purple shadows beneath her eyes after all?
‘I won’t ask if you slept well,’ he said grimly at last. ‘I imagine neither of us did that. Somer, I didn’t realise when we married that…’
That she was still a virgin, he was going to say; and Somer couldn’t bear it. She rushed into impulsive speech before he could finish, her eyes betraying her despair. ‘Chase, please, I don’t want to talk about it. I’m sorry you had to bear the burden of…of everything. I know how you must resent…what happened, but it’s over now and I don’t want to talk about it.’
‘Over? Can you tell me that it won’t happen again?’ he taunted, his mouth bitter.
Had he expected her to stop him? Numbly she remembered telling him that their marriage was to be in name only, and his saying that he could stick to the rules, but doubting her ability to do so. Had his lovemaking been a test, a means of showing her that he was right and she was wrong?
‘So, no answer, then I must take it that you can’t.’ Chase’s coolly ironic voice interrupted her thoughts. ‘Well then, I’ll have to help you by removing at least some temptation out of the way. We’re returning to London on the afternoon flight.’ He saw her flinch and laughed harshly. ‘If anyone asks, we’ll say they needed me at the studio—it isn’t entirely untrue. We’re negotiating to buy an American series and the deal’s causing a lot of problems.’
They were going home. Numbly Somer stared at him, the colour draining from her face. She wanted to laugh in hysterical disbelief. What temptation did he mean? That of sharing a suite with him? Did he think she had so little pride that she would throw herself at him, invade his privacy and beg for his lovemaking? A sob of self-disgust rose in her throat to be choked back, her chin lifting proudly. Well, if that’s what he thought, she would have to show him otherwise. She would have to show that he was not going to get the opportunity to taunt her as cruelly as this again.
‘No objections?’ Chase taunted. ‘No requests that we stay so that you can…renew old acquaintances?’
‘What would be the point?’ she asked coolly. ‘If I object no doubt you would simply threaten to blackmail me again.’
‘But I didn’t need blackmail to have you in my bed, did I, Somer?’ he asked with mocking cynicism.
She was already half way back into her own room, but she paused, turning to face him, trying to compose her features.
‘What happened, Somer? Did you suddenly get tired of saving yourself for a man who married someone else?’
‘I could ask you the same question,’ Somer told him bitterly. A veil seemed to drop over his features, hardening them into a tight mask of rejection, and as Somer stepped into her own room, her head held high, she heard the door slam closed behind her. Leaning against it she gave way to the shivering tremors convulsing her, as she fought for self-control. The t
ruce was well and truly over.
* * *
‘WELL, Mrs McCleod, that seems to be everything.’ Somer sat back on her heels surveying the packing cases and boxes littering the room, with a faint sight. Since her return from Jersey she had spent more time in her father’s house than she had in Chase’s. She used her father’s imminent departure as her excuse and was cravenly glad to discover that Chase seemed to want her company as little as she wanted his. He worked long hours at the television studios often not returning until late in the evening. Most nights Somer ate alone, retiring to her small sitting-room to work on the various contracts she had in hand, before going to bed. If the cleaner Chase employed to take care of his house found it odd that newlyweds should sleep apart she managed to conceal it from Somer.
‘You’ll want to be getting home,’ Mrs McCleod remarked. ‘That husband of yours must be a very patient man. There’s not many days you haven’t spent round here since you came back from Jersey.’
‘Chase understands that I want to make sure everything goes smoothly for Dad.’
‘Aye well, only a couple more days now.’
‘Yes,’ Somer smiled uneasily. How on earth was she going to fill her days with her father gone? And worse, how on earth would she sleep at night without the physically hard labour of the last week or so to tire her out? Already there were nights when she simply lay sleepless, listening to every slight sound from Chase’s room, remembering the feel of his hands against her skin; the wild pulsating torrent of pleasure his touch released in her body, and worst of all the unnerving moment of discovery when she realised that she loved him.