Given

by Riley, Lisa G.

  The old woman made a skeptical sound. “Depending on that much hope can be a mighty dangerous thing.”

  Jacob didn’t answer, but privately, he agreed.

  *

  They arrived at Dr. Patrick Quinn’s house without further incident. Jacob had the two women wait in the trees while he went up and rapped that night’s signal on the veterinarian’s door. He didn’t have long to wait before the door was pulled open by a tall white man whose gray eyes always seemed to be looking at people impatiently.

  Jacob grinned but said deferentially, in case the doctor had the wrong kind of company, “Good evening, Dr. Quinn. I just thought I’d drop by and see how those tables and chairs you ordered from my family are suiting you.”

  “Ah, Jacob, it’s good to see you,” Dr. Quinn said with genuine pleasure and flashed him a charming smile, the one that all the ladies (except for Grace) seemed to swoon over. Grace couldn’t stand the man, calling him a Neanderthal because he refused to work with women on the underground, which to Jacob’s way of thinking, made him a smart man indeed. “Bring them on in,” the doctor told Jacob as they shook hands. “I’ve prepared everything.”

  Jacob gladly turned them over, all the while thinking about Mary Katherine and all the things he had to teach her about the consequences of licking her lips in front of a naked man. They could be all night.

  *

  Dressed in a white muslin nightgown, Mary Katherine sat at her small vanity table brushing out her hair. Totally ashamed of the behavior she’d displayed earlier that day, she could barely look at herself in the mirror. She definitely couldn’t meet her own eyes. “You were a complete wanton, Mary Katherine,” she whispered to herself. The knock on her back door made her pause. This time she did catch her eyes in the mirror, and what she saw worried her. Pure anticipation.

  The knock on the door had nothing to do with helping some poor soul and everything to do with helping herself. She knew immediately that it was Jacob, and she realized that some part of her had been expecting him. He was not the kind of man who would let her get away with what she’d done that day. He’d view her behavior as a promise.

  Now he was there to collect.

  Fingers pressed to her mouth, she rose from her chair in a classic pose of indecision. Should she let him in? She had no illusions. If she opened the door to him, they were going to make love. She knew she wanted to; that was not the problem. Her dilemma was whether it would be worth the risk.

  Knocking sounded again, and breathless, Mary Katherine picked up the lantern and moved toward the stairs. She arrived at the door and, nervous and just a little afraid, froze.

  “Mary Katherine. Open the door.” Jacob’s voice flowed through the wood, soft and seductive, and she closed her eyes against its spell.

  “Mary Katherine. Open the door.” His voice was even softer now, smoothly sliding across her skin like a physical caress. She shivered, and this time her eyes fell shut of their own volition, in the beginnings of surrender. His voice came again.

  “Mary Katherine, baby, open the door.” The tone was beseeching yet commanding. Her entire being responded to both the desire and the strength. It swayed forward as if pulled by a string.

  Mary Katherine opened the door.

  Eyes narrowed, Jacob did nothing but stare for a moment. He hadn’t been sure she’d do what he wanted, and by the time he’d raised his hand to knock the second time, he’d been almost desperate with want of her. The scene from his back porch kept replaying itself in his mind, and he was about ready to kick the door in. But then he’d sensed her standing there on the other side. He’d listened with bated breath for the sound of the door unlatching, and when he hadn’t heard it, he’d almost cried out.

  In the still of the night, he’d felt her nervousness and uncertainty, and he’d wanted to reassure her. But his need was like a raging beast upon him, and comfort had become an impossible promise to make. He’d known that if she let him inside with him in his present state, the last thing an innocent woman like Mary Katherine would feel from him was a sense of safety. So in the end, all he’d been able to articulate was his desire for her to open the door. And face drawn in tense lines of anticipation while the fingers of both his hands desperately gripped the frame of the door, he’d bent his head, and he’d whispered. He’d entreated.

  Chapter Nine

  She felt his eyes on her. They roamed every inch of her body as if he’d been born with the right to do it, and she stood still and let him get his fill. She waited for him to kiss her, to pull her against his body, to make his move, to do something. And when he did nothing, Mary Katherine whimpered in the back of her throat, his restraint making her already overwrought senses strain in desperation. Her body yearning for physical contact, she swayed blindly toward him, even as her free hand reached up to pull his head to her own. When his mouth met hers, the whimper became one of fulfillment as she kissed him, her mouth opening wide and taking over his as his had done to hers so many times before.

  Slowly she plied his lips with her tongue, savoring the taste of him, despite every instinct that wanted to devour and rush to that implied promise of completion. “Jacob,” she whispered into his mouth. “Help me. I want, I want…” Her brow puckered in confusion as the words wouldn’t come. “Please, Jacob,” she said, almost crying now. “I want you.”

  Jacob took over the kiss then, his tongue greedily slipping into her mouth and trapping hers against the roof of her mouth. “I want you too, Sweet Kate,” he told her gently as he bent to lift her into his arms. Cradling her against his chest, he asked, “Where’s the bedroom?”

  Mary Katherine handed him the lantern and pointed the way out of the kitchen. “Take the stairs and turn right to the bedroom at the end of the hall,” she told him before she buried her face in his neck, taking in his scent and pressing her lips to his skin. She felt hot and achy inside, and she pressed herself against him, her hand clutching at his shoulder.

  “Jacob?”

  Jacob kissed the top of her head, smiling when she nuzzled into the caress. “Yes?”

  “Will you go slowly?”

  They’d arrived at her bedroom, and Jacob paused on the threshold, taking it all in. His lips took on an ironic tilt, and he chuckled low in his throat.

  Her question had come just when he’d noticed her room’s decor, and if the question hadn’t been enough to remind him of her innocence and to warn him to slow things down, then the room certainly was. In a word, it was virginal, and in Jacob’s mind, horrifyingly so. With the exception of the lush mahogany furniture, the room was all white: the bedding, the curtains, the slipcovers, and even the rugs on the floor.

  “What are you laughing at?”

  Jacob walked into the room. He heard the suspicion in her voice, but he also heard hurt feelings, and he rushed to reassure her. Swinging her to her feet, he gathered her hair in his fist at the back of her neck and gently pulled so that her head fell back. “Life’s little ironies,” he told her before he took her mouth once again.

  He took it slowly this time, his lips gently sipping from hers as his tongue made sneaky little forays into her mouth. When she was once again moving restlessly against him, her nails digging into his arms, he lifted her, carried her to the bed, and laid her on it. Panting softly with anticipation, Mary Katherine watched at he stared down at her with hooded eyes focused on her breasts.

  Her breasts responded immediately, her nipples becoming turgid and pushing against the cloth of her gown. Now Jacob knelt by the side of the bed, and gaze still on her breasts, he reached out and pressed his thumbs into her nipples, making them harden even more. Mary Katherine jerked up and cried out in response.

  “Do you like that?”

  Eyes closed and body undulating to the rhythm of his hands, Mary Katherine could only nod as her head fell back. When he used his palms and ground them into her breasts so that the cloth of her gown roughly abraded her skin, she arched her back, trying to get closer to the heat of his hands.
Suddenly his hands were gone, and Mary Katherine opened her eyes, a protest on her lips.

  “Shh, shh,” Jacob murmured as he slid his hands down her sides. “I think it’s time for us to rid you of this nightdress, don’t you?”

  Mary Katherine didn’t know what to say, because now his hands had slipped underneath her gown, and his palms were sliding against her bare skin, raising shivers and sensations wherever they touched. He started with her ankles, his fingers tracing the bones with light, almost delicate touches and making Mary Katherine catch her breath in the process.

  As his hands made their way up her legs and to her knees, Jacob was leaning over Mary Katherine, looking into her eyes. “Untie the ribbon of your gown,” he told her, eyeing the pale pink ribbon that kept the gown tied at her neck. Silently, Mary Katherine obeyed.

  “Good, very good,” Jacob said. “Now I want you to pull the sides so that the gown slips off your shoulders.” As he spoke, his fingers were kneading her thighs, slowly making their way toward that spot that no one had ever dared touch before. She felt herself redden, even as she held still in anticipation. She wasn’t wearing any undergarments, and she wondered what his reaction would be when he discovered her nakedness.

  She moved her legs restlessly, unused to the sensual feel of hands on her body. His hands wrapped around her thighs, his palms caressing while his long fingers pressed and kneaded her inner thighs, and she couldn’t help it: she widened them, hoping those fingers would soon reach her mound. She had a feeling that her recent clumsy but enthusiastic ministrations to that area would fall far short of what he could make her experience.

  “Pull the sides of the gown away, Mary Katherine,” he commanded. “Yes, I know,” he said with a smile when she threw him a frustrated look from beneath her lashes, “you want me to touch that honey pot of yours. Trust me, sweet Kate. I’ll get to it. Now open your gown.”

  Again, she obeyed and had the pleasure of watching his eyes close and hearing his breath catch when her breasts were revealed. She knew that they were of an unusually generous size and that for some reason men apparently liked them rather large. She’d realized that last part after having several conversations with men whose gazes never seemed to make it past her chest. She’d tried extra binding but had found that rather painful and gone back to the normal amount, deciding that she’d much rather deal with the discomfiting stares than she would the more literal pain.

  Jacob’s stare, however, made her feel anything but uncomfortable. It made her feel hot and achy again, and his name became something of a plea on her lips.

  In total control, Jacob continued to stare, continued to knead until her nipples were beading and that bundle of nerves at the apex of her thighs was pulsating, as if they both were begging for his touch.

  A broken cry escaped her lips, and Mary Katherine’s hands went to her head to tangle in her hair in complete frustration. “Please, Jacob,” she begged. “I can’t stand it!”

  Jacob only grinned, his hands still working their magic on her thighs while she waited. She could only imagine what she looked like, laid out like a virgin sacrifice: her breasts exposed, but the rest of her body covered to the ankles while Jake leaned over her, his marauding hands traveling beneath the dubious protection the gown offered.

  He leaned in to kiss her, and Mary Katherine eagerly opened her mouth beneath his, snaking her tongue against his and into his mouth and biting at his lips, while the entire time her body squirmed beneath his hands in excited frustration. Suddenly those hot hands were on her buttocks. She felt them pause for a brief second, and then they were there again, stroking and fondling her sensitive cheeks. Mary Katherine whimpered into his mouth and tried desperately to get closer to him, her body angling toward him on the bed.

  “Ah,” she heard him say with a note of surprise in his voice, “You’re naked. Thank you, my sweet Kate.” Her only response was to kiss him again.

  Jacob slowly, with repeated brief pulls of his lips on hers, broke the kiss. “Mary Katherine,” he said into her mouth, “I’m going to suckle you now.”

  That was all the warning she had before he bent his head to her breasts and pulled a nipple into his mouth. At the same time, he ran a finger over her cleft and then slipped it into her sheath, pulling it in and out over and over again. Mary Katherine’s eyes flew open in shock, and her body arched like a bow as she tried to wrap her mind around what was happening and tried to control the sensations that were rolling through her body.

  Her hands searched for purchase as she lost control of her senses, and they finally settled on the smooth skin of Jacob’s head as she held it to her body, tacitly encouraging him to continue his gentle torture. He sucked her nipple to the roof of his mouth, gently plying it with his tongue. When he took it between his teeth, Mary Katherine’s vision grayed, and she feared she was going to go blind, for at the moment that he was biting down on her nipple, he was pressing his thumb against her clitoris, taking it in slow oscillations, while still sliding a finger in and out of her hungry opening.

  Mary Katherine wanted to die, the pleasure was so great. She was wet and slick, and as his fingers slid easily over and into her, she heard the slurping sounds her body made. She tried to spread her thighs wider, kicking her legs in an effort to get free of the gown.

  Jacob lifted his head, and her nipple popped out of his mouth. “Here,” he said as he took his hands out from under her gown to grip it at the hem. “Let me. I want to see you, anyway. Lift your bottom,” he told her as he rolled the gown up and past her hips. She complied, and then she sat up, raising her arms so he could take it completely off. Strangely, she did not care about her nakedness, and she lay back down, watching him and waiting for him to do whatever he was going to do next.

  He stared down at her nether lips, and she surprised herself by opening her legs farther so that his view was unimpeded. When he looked at her, she smiled shyly at him but kept her gaze locked on his. “Please, Jacob.”

  Jacob took his gaze back to her cleft, and she watched as he licked his lips. “There’s no doubt about it, Kate,” he finally said in a low growl. “I’m going to have to taste your pussy.”

  Mary Katherine had never heard of pussy before, but she could well guess what he was referring to, and her body jerked in hungry response. And even as her skin flushed in embarrassment at what she was about to allow him to do, she shamelessly nodded her head.

  Jacob took her waist in his hands, turned her, and positioned her so that her buttocks were almost at the edge of the bed. “Open your legs and keep ‘em open, sweetheart,” he told her as he knelt in front of her. “Yes, that’s it.” Satisfaction was evident in his voice as he slipped his hands beneath her ass, bent his head, and buried his face between her thighs.

  He started out slowly, his tongue taking deep forays into her slit and licking up every bit of juice as it leaked from her body. As if he had all night, he took his time with her, at turns sucking her lips into his mouth and then treating her clitoris to a light tonguing. Instinctively, Mary Katherine’s hands went to her nipples, and she pinched them lightly between her fingers to add to her pleasure and excitement. Her hips undulated clumsily, her ass rising and falling as her body responded to his sweet torment.

  When he sucked her clit into his mouth, Mary Katherine bent both legs around his wide shoulders as she grabbed the back of his head for leverage and pushed her pussy into his face. Broken cries escaped her throat to keep rhythm with her gyrations. That elusive feeling he’d kept just out of reach all night was now within reach, and she raced to meet it, her body furiously bucking against his mouth.

  When it came, the pleasure was all-encompassing, swallowing her whole and making her scream out his name as it took her completely under.

  Jacob wasted no time, and she was still experiencing small aftershocks when he laid her fully back on the bed, opened his pants, and knelt between her legs. He positioned his thick length at her sheath and, leaning down, took her mouth just as he pushed, oh
so gently, into her body. “I’m sorry, baby,” he said gruffly into her mouth. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I’m afraid I’m going to.”

  In answer, Mary Katherine twined her arms around his neck and greedily sucked his tongue into her mouth when she discovered that it was herself she tasted on him and she liked the flavor. When he reached between their bodies to finger her clitoris, she felt her sheath automatically stretch around him as more of her juices dripped out onto his cock. She raised and bent her knees, and her hands slipped into his pants to stroke and sink into his ass as his penis sank into her body. The breaking of her hymen was barely noticed as she felt the whole of him fill and stretch her almost to pain.

  She liked the sensation, and she began raising her hips to take more of him, matching him thrust for thrust. She looked up into his eyes and raised her hand to gently caress the side of his face. “Kiss me again, Jacob. Please kiss me,” she demanded as she felt that same brilliant wave of pleasure coming on again. She wanted to be fully connected to him when it happened.

  Jacob did as she commanded, possessing her mouth as he possessed her body. Their bodies moved in tandem now, clashing against one another as they strove toward orgasm. As he plunged into her one final time, he caught her scream in his mouth and broke the kiss as his orgasm flashed through him, taking him so swiftly and completely that he threw his head back and roared his pleasure.

  *

  “Talk to me,” Jacob said.

  “About what?” Mary Katherine lifted her head from his chest to look at him.

  “Well, to begin, you were quite uninhibited. That in itself is surprising.”

  Blushing, she hid her face against him. “I wasn’t that bad.”

  Jacob smiled as he took his fingers through her hair. “You misunderstand me; I’m not saying it’s bad. In fact, I think your boldness—” He broke off, chuckling when she pinched him.