The music swelled inside her, coursing through her veins. Her heart beat with the rhythm of the drums, exciting, open to every sensation. She arched her neck, closed her eyes and parted her lips, inviting his kiss, hoping he’d accept. He kissed her.
Suspended, dreamlike, the only thing that kept her on the floor was the connection to his lips. The hammering of her heart drowned out the melody from the bandstand and the voices of others around her. As the music ended his lips left hers, but still, she stood with her eyes closed while the kiss went on further, longer in her mind.
Lizzie looked up at Jack watching her with a gentle smile. “More,” she whispered.
A dare flashed in his penetrating gaze, and she met it, refusing to break eye contact.
He knitted his brow and his eyes darkened with an emotion she couldn’t define. “You can’t handle more.”
The band played Lady In Red. “I disagree,” Lizzie countered, grasping his hands in a dance pose. She nudged him so he’d take the lead in the slow dance.
“About what happened at your place…” His voice was barely above a whisper, his warm breath on the top of her head. “…I’ve meant to apologize. I won’t lose control like that again.”
“Oh yes you will. Tonight.” Grinning at him, she thrilled at his stunned expression. She laid her head on his shoulder and pressed her body closer.
He was such a graceful dancer for a large man. She followed his lead with no effort. The flashes of heat at his touch turned into a constant current. The rush of sparks ran through her and inflamed her cheeks with pleasure.
“Come home with me.” He whispered through her hair.
It wasn’t a question. Even if it was, she could only say, “yes.”
****
Unsure where she headed, Jack drove across the Wells Street Bridge, into the West Loop neighborhood. Wherever he was taking her, she was ready to trust him, and she wouldn’t stop herself from doing that again. She had compared him and any other man who got too close to Wallace. What a farce where Jack was concerned. Wallace had never had her floating with just a kiss, never restrained himself from taking whatever he wanted no matter what she wanted.
Tonight she wanted to discover everything about Jack. No more misunderstandings or doubts. To be a guest in his home, in his personal space would be a wonderful exploration.
He pulled the car into the underground garage of a squat, red brick building that looked like a turn-of-the-century factory.
Jack inserted a key into the lock of double doors on the top floor of the building. Lizzie looked around and couldn’t find any other doors on the floor. He opened the doors wide for her to pass in front of him.
The loft had windows covering every inch of exterior space, scarce interior walls boxed in the few rooms. Silvery metal ducts wound across the ceiling eighteen feet overhead. Inlaid dark cherry wood flooring sprawled beneath her feet. Automatically she kicked off her shoes not to mar its surface and padded further into the apartment, the floors warmed beneath her bare toes.
She touched a mahogany table, smooth and satiny beneath her fingertips and marveled at its beauty. A chaise lounge in copper colored leather looked like a molded “S,” and a white leather sofa near the window had seat cushions that undulated in scalloped turns.
Lizzie glanced over her shoulder at Jack leaning against the double doors and found an amused smile on his face as he watched her inspect his place. She noticed the lighting came from the floor, when Jack twisted a knob to the right of the door that brightened the lights.
“That is so cool,” she said, turning toward him. “I’ve never seen anything like this place anywhere.”
“I doubt you will. I designed it all, and made most of it myself.”
“Wow, Jack. I’m honestly blown away.”
He dimmed the lights way down and walked to where she stood in the center of the huge living room. “You haven’t been blown away quite yet.”
His powerful arms drew her into a kiss, his soft full lips melding to hers, parting her lips. Her tongue tangled with his, exploring his mouth that tasted yeasty and sweet. Every thought in her head disintegrated like paper too close to a match. She arched toward him and pressed against the rock hard muscles beneath his tux. She wanted to explore every ridge of his body. No turning back. The thought never occurred to her, and she couldn’t think anyway. Her body throbbed with need.
He kissed her neck and shoulders. The touch of his lips sent chills and scorching jolts through her at the same time. She reached behind her back and lowered the zipper of her gown with one quick jab. The soft green velvet slid down her body and pooled on the floor.
****
Jack stood back and looked at her in the dim light. Her fair skin gave off a light of its own. He touched the clasp of her bra and unhooked it with one, practiced movement. She shivered slightly but looked at him steadily, all brazen courage and enticing beyond words. He folded her into his arms, so small, so silky, so Beth.
Pushing his jacket down she helped him yank it off. Their fingers collided and tangled undoing the buttons of his shirt. Rid of the shirt, he clasped her to his chest, skin-to-skin. Her heartbeat was racing next to his as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his. Taken. Taken by Elizabeth Moran.
Her tongue met his again, and he clung to her—sucked into a swirling, dizzying vortex. His body hardened and pulsed as her soft brushing against his erection drove him wild. He lifted her into his arms and cradled her body gently as he carried her to his bed.
Jack intended to caress and explore every tantalizing inch of her spread out below him. But she sat and unzipped his pants. She slid satiny fingers around him and stroked him into frenzy.
Beth took control. He couldn’t stop her if he wanted to, no turning back. She pulled him down on the bed, straddled him and dealt with his clothes until he was naked beneath her. Bending her head toward his chest, she teased his nipple with her tongue.
His quick intake of breath must have encouraged her to do more, and she sucked lightly as his nipple hardened beneath her tongue. She trailed her tongue down his torso, her long hair brushing against his skin like a million soft feathers. Moving down his body she explored with hot breath and flicks of her tongue. He was powerless to do anything but enjoy every sensation. At fever pitch, he grabbed her and rolled to pin her beneath him.
Her body relaxed as she relinquished control. He put his hands and mouth on her breasts as her hips pitched erotically beneath his straddled legs. There was nothing but a lacy triangle of cloth between her and his straining erection. His mouth tasted her rose-scented skin as he laved his tongue between her breasts and pulled at the elastic of her thong with his teeth. He exposed the soft, secret flesh and explored it hungrily, ignoring her gasps until she stiffened and cried out with her release.
He didn’t give her a chance to catch her breath, covering her mouth with his, varying the pressure of his lips on hers. She clung to him, arms wrapped around his shoulders, hands pressing the back of his neck, tongues tangled, moving together rhythmically. She reached for him, stroked him and moved him to where he could feel her heat and how much she wanted him. One thrust and she opened for him as if this were the hundredth time their bodies had joined, instead of the first.
Her hips thrust upward as he plunged deeper inside her. They were perfectly tuned to each other, driving up, up to that blinding place hanging suspended and breathless. Higher still for one piercing second, then a glorious freefall together.
She lay sated and loose-limbed in the arc of his arms with her head resting on his chest. “My God, Jack.” She exhaled. “Oh, my God.”
“Are you okay? Beth, did I hurt you?” He pulled her on top of him with one powerful sweep so he could see her face.
“Oh, no.” Her eyes alight, her smile reassured him. “I have no words for how wonderful that was.”
He laughed and nuzzled her neck. “Not bad for the first time,” he said, suddenly okay that there was no turning bac
k with her.
“We’ll do better the next time as we get to know each other’s bodies better.”
She propped herself over his chest and looked at him with disbelief. “What in the world is left to learn? I’m pretty sure you covered all of my, uh, territory.”
****
Jack rolled her back on the bed and pinned her arms over her head setting her aflame again. He reached above her head, took each of her fingers into his mouth in turn, sucking and pulling gently against her flesh.
Lizzie closed her eyes and let him play with her. Her hips moved toward his body and her breathing became shallow in mounting arousal.
“Let’s see if I’m right and the next time is better.” He didn’t wait for her agreement.
She spent the night in Jack’s bed, much like she had spent every night since she met him, sleepless and yearning. But tonight, she yearned for more of the delights of making love with him, and she lacked for sleep because those yearnings were finally fulfilled. Sometime in the early morning hours of Christmas Eve she drifted off, waking with a start when sun streamed over her shoulder. She lay on her side, facing a closet door.
Lizzie knew where she was in the strangely silent room. Left alone. Like Wallace left her. She turned, fearful, toward the window and braced to find Jack missing beside her.
He slept, his face beautiful and peaceful with his legs splayed, his black hair curled against the white pillowcase and his chest uncovered. She brushed her fingers in his soft, black chest hair and marveled that this was the way she was starting her Christmas Eve day.
“Greedy, are we?” He opened one eye.
She had disturbed a hibernating bear. He may be sleepy, but he could rear up any minute. What the heck, she’d play with fire. She plunged her hand beneath the covers and got his full attention.
He lifted her on top of him and the heat built fast. She straddled him, guiding him inside her. A piercing climax came at the same time he groaned and released. Lizzie slid softly down to the reality of the cocoon of his arms, and smiled tenderly at him. “I love you, Jack.”
He searched her eyes as if to make sure he had heard right, and when she didn’t take the statement back in word or in gesture, he kissed her long and hard. Then he whispered, “I love you, too.”
****
Lizzie couldn’t stop smiling all the way home. Suffering aches and twinges as she slid into the cab, she didn’t mind the soreness—like taking a reminder of the glory of being in Jack’s arms wherever she went.
He was such a gentle, giving lover as if it were her first time. In a way, making love to him was her first time, and her second, and third. Jack was amazing. Nothing that had happened with Wallace could compare. She had experienced the sacred mystery of cosmic sex. With Wallace she had been little more than a receptacle. With Jack she was a partner who got as much as she gave. Wallace had sex. Jack made love with her.
She daydreamed about being with Jack again later for a quiet, intimate Christmas Eve celebration. She heard the phone ringing as she unlocked her door.
She expected to hear Jack’s voice when she answered it, so it took her a moment to realize that it wasn’t him on the line.
Chapter Nineteen
“Mick, what? What? Mick, please slow down. I can’t understand you.”
“Liz you have to come. I’m losing her.” Mick sobbed into the phone.
“Mick, please. Tell me what’s happening!”
He took a deep, shaky breath like wind in her ear. “The hospital called. Kay started hemorrhaging. I got here as soon as I could, but I didn’t get a chance to see her before she went into emergency surgery. Oh God, Lizzie, I should have stayed overnight with her. She’s still in the operating room, and no one has told me anything. Lizzie, I had to decide whether to save my wife or my babies if it came to that. God, help me…” His cries for help tore her open.
He gasped and choked out the rest. “God forgive me, but I chose Kay. I can’t live without her. But I can’t lose our children, either.”
He broke down again. “Please, Liz, can you come? We need you. I don’t know what I will do if anything happens to her.”
“You’re not going to lose anybody.” Please God, let me be right. Watch over Kay and her little ones.
“I’m on my way. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Let me call the airlines, and I’ll call you back to let you know when. Is anyone else there with you?”
“Our families are on their way.”
“Okay, hang in there. Kay will be just fine.”
“Thanks.”
Lizzie’s heart rate accelerated as she tried to overcome panic and take action.
Dear God it’s Christmas Eve. Please, please, please let me find a way to her. She hoisted the heavy Chicago Yellow Pages directory off the shelf of her kitchen cabinet, but before she had a chance to locate any airlines numbers her phone rang.
“Elizabeth. It is Wallace.”
Shit. “I don’t want to talk to you, goodbye.”
“Wait!” The phone was three inches from her ear already, but his yell got her attention.
“What? I have no time to talk,” she yelled into the phone.
“I know. I was at Mother’s when she got the call from Kay’s mom. I know you well enough to know you would be moving heaven and earth to get to Boston. Trying to get a flight on Christmas Eve will be impossible.”
“I know, but I have to try. Goodbye.”
“Go to Midway Airport. There is a chartered plane waiting for you.”
“What?”
“I called and chartered a plane for you. It is waiting. Hurry.”
Relief coursed through her, and she let out a rush of air realizing she had been holding her breath for the past few minutes.
“I don’t know why you did this, but thank you.” Then her adrenaline kicked in again. She had to move. “I’ve got to go.”
“No thanks needed. I do care for you, Elizabeth. Get to the airport. Kay needs you.”
Lizzie needed to stay connected with Mick, so she dialed his cell phone number as soon as the cab started rolling. There was nothing new he could tell her, but just hearing his voice helped her to stay grounded. He seemed calmer, but she fell apart after she hung up. Trembling all over, tears fell unchecked; she could easily slip into hysteria. Brushing the tears away with the back of her hand, she forced some control over her emotions. Mick needed her to be strong. Kay needed her to help him.
Settled in a cushioned, captain’s chair on the most luxurious plane she had ever seen, she dialed Mick’s cell again. Her third time. She told him she was on her way and that she would see him soon. A quick disconnection from Mick’s line, and then she dialed Jack’s phone. Jack. Just thinking his name was like being wrapped in a blanket to keep out this terrible, cold fear. It seemed like a long time since he had held her in his strong arms. The battery in her cell phone started to beep the ‘low bat’ signal. Just as his recording sounded, it died.
“Damn thing!” She threw the useless phone in her purse, longing to hear Jack’s voice. No choice but to wait and call him from the hospital because she didn’t remember to bring her charger with her.
Feeling like a rock star, she disembarked the plane when it came to its berth at Logan Airport, and climbed into a limo parked at the foot of the stairs. The car whisked her directly to Mass General.
****
Jack walked up the circular driveway in front of Beth’s building. Balancing two Starbucks cups on a cardboard tray, he swung a bag of scones whistling as he walked, not a care in the world because Beth loved him.
The words had resonated deep inside him, and he knew he loved her, too. He had never said those words to a woman before and was still amazed that he had. His world was bigger somehow, brighter. He didn’t think that he had it in him to love a woman exclusively and believe that she’d be faithful to him.
Jack had never understood why it was so hard for his dad and Charlie to go on with life after the loss of their wives. Now he unde
rstood how a man was helpless to do anything else but love his woman. His Beth.
In such a short time, she had become part of him, necessary as every breath. Loving her was worth the risk of losing her. He wanted her with him today and every day. Since he couldn’t wait until tonight to see her, an impromptu coffee delivery got him to her building.
Jack pushed through the revolving door as a little girl walked through the other side with a dog on the leash she held. Recognizing the little, wiggling terrier on the other end of the leash, he continued to follow the door around back outside.
“Excuse me. Isn’t that Marty?”
The little girl held the leash tighter. But Marty reacted to Jack’s voice. She wagged her nub tail, plopped down on the grass and offered her pink belly for a scratch.
“Marty knows me. I’m a friend of Miss Moran.”
“You know Lizzie?” The girl still looked wary. She started to inch back toward the door.
Darla, ever watchful inside, came out from behind the counter and through the revolving door.
“Mr. Clark, hello.”
“Hello, Darla. How are you today? I was just saying hi to Marty. Is Beth home?”
The little girl’s gaze darted back and forth between them.
“No, sir. She left in quite a hurry,” Darla advised him. “She had me call a cab for her, and she left over two hours ago.”
The little girl piped up. “She is going to be an aunt. She left for the hospital. She doesn’t know when she will be back, so I am going to take care of Marty for her.”
Jack crouched down and looked at the young girl at her eye level. “Well, that is a big responsibility.”
“My mom is helping me.” Marty pulled the girl closer as she tried to get pets from Jack.
“I’m sure Beth really appreciates the help.”
Jack waved goodbye as Marty tugged the little girl toward a walk.
Concern for Kay—since Beth had left in a hurry—had him calling his secretary at home. Even on Christmas Eve she assured him that everything would be ready for him when he arrived at the airport. What would he do without Eileen? Her salary would be making a nice jump in the New Year. He hailed a cab and headed to O’Hare airport knowing that by the time he got there, Eileen would have everything lined up.
Reunion for the First Time Page 17