Afterwards, we dress and go up the steps hand in hand. I have never felt closer to another human being. Then Dominic calls and I know that once again I will be wiping blood from my body.
Lily
Evening descends and from every corner night fragrances rise. Every living thing, the grass, the trees, the flowers, the people all bring into the leisure of night their own scent.
And that crowd of odors surrounds us as we sit in the open-air restaurant that Jake has brought me to. I raise my glass of wine and take a sip. It is perfectly chilled. I lick the beads of condensation off the glass. They have their own taste. I look up and he is staring at me. I blush.
‘Tell me about your childhood,’ I say to cover my sudden gaucheness.
‘Until my father…died, I was happy. We never had much money because he was an incurable gambler. I remember that my mother kept debts with everyone, even with the butcher who provided her with the cheapest cuts of meat, but even so we were truly a happy family.’
I look at him with surprise. How accepting he is that his father was a gambler. There is no condemnation, no anger, no feeling that he has been deprived. Only a strange and impressive loyalty to family.
‘What about you? What was your childhood like?’ he asks.
I had it all down pat—an alcoholic father, a downtrodden mother, everything, the whole shebang, at the tips of my fingers—but I found I couldn’t say the words. I didn’t want to lie to him! I blinked in surprise. What the hell? I was going to fuck up my first assignment. Make him suspicious.
‘I’ll tell you about my family another time,’ I say, and wanting to distract him I reach out and touch his fingers. Immediately, they move to clasp mine.
I look at our entwined fingers and an old, tired ache of once when I was insane breaks into me and eats at my bones. Its return makes me angry. How pathetic. Sentimental fool. There is no one here I can call my own. This man will never be mine. He will never share my pain. I am here to do a job. I am here to crush him, not to long for him as one does a beloved. I am here to save other people’s sons and brothers from dying unnecessarily because of men like him. I look up at him.
‘Are you all right?’ he asks.
This time I won’t allow myself to dissolve in my own grief. This time I will recognize myself. It is simple. It is beautiful. I am not lost. I am strong. I can do this. I smile. Harden my heart and speak.
‘I’m fine. You want to know about my family? Let me tell you about them. My father was an alcoholic. I’m not sure if he is still alive. And my mother was a downtrodden, weak woman. She let him beat her and me. When I was fifteen I ran away.’
‘I’m sorry,’ he says softly, and begins to stroke the inside of my wrist. The movement is gentle and tender, and suddenly I feel like bursting into tears.
‘I’m so sorry I asked,’ he says.
I look at him. There is an expression of such caring tenderness in his face. Oh, the irony. He thinks I am upset to remember my past. That makes me feel worse. I shake my head. ‘It’s OK. You said you wanted to come here to think. Have you managed to?’
His eyes darken. ‘Yeah, but I’m afraid my plans have been rather turned on their heads.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘My brother, Dominic, you haven’t met him yet, have you?’
I shake my head.
‘He’s a bit of a hothead. He got drunk and went to one of the Pilkingtons’ clubs and challenged Billy Joe Pilkington to a bare knuckle fight.’
‘God! But how does a drunken dare affect your plans?’
‘Billy Joe Pilkington is an animal. If he fights my brother he will do serious damage to him. I cannot allow that. I am the head of this family and they are my responsibility. I will fight on behalf of the Eden family. Maybe that will be the end of this silly feud.’
I stare at him aghast. ‘That’s just barbaric. Nobody fights to settle a dispute anymore. This is the twenty-first century.’
He looks faintly offended, but his voice is calm. ‘Bare knuckle fighting is a noble and proud pastime. For us travelers, family is the most important aspect of life. My mother, my brothers and my wife and children when I have them are the most important things in my life. I will do everything in my power to protect them.’
When he says ‘my wife’ I freeze, my gut constricting with horror. It shocks me to hear him talk about another woman as his wife. The pain is sharper than I can ignore or explain away as a crush or a passing infatuation. How foolish I have been. Of course he will marry some other woman and speak of her possessively. By then I will have ditched all the trappings of this assignment and disappeared into my real life. And then it hits me. Maybe by then he will be behind bars. Because of me.
Because of me this fine man will be behind bars.
And I feel pain in my gut. My body doesn’t want me to betray him. ‘You are a police officer first and foremost,’ Robin’s voice says in my head.
I grip the stem of the wine glass and swallow a mouthful. It goes the wrong way and I start coughing and choking. He comes around and drops to his haunches next to me and asks with great concern if I am all right. I look at him in shock. No other man would do that. They would worry about what other people would think of them. He doesn’t care. He honestly couldn’t give a shit what anyone else thinks of him. And I clench my hands with rage.
By design this man was made for me, yet I cannot have him.
Chapter 33
Lily
I come out of the bathroom and stand in the doorway. He is lying on the bed totally relaxed. The illuminated wall behind the headboard creates an intimate ambience and makes him appear as if he is on a stage. I walk up to him and he opens his eyes slowly and gazes at me, as if he has been dreaming and has woken up to find himself still in the dream. What he has been dreaming of is impossible to say: the expression in his eyes is unfathomable.
His warm hand slides between my thighs. A secret smile plays on his lips. ‘Mmmn…’ he says. The sound is low, a hum, an invitation.
The hand moves higher.
I take a quick, sharp breath. I am not wearing panties. His fingers touch the wet whorls of flesh, and tendrils of excitement snake across my body. He drags his fingers through the soft, sensitive layers. My head tilts back involuntarily, my eyes half close.
The expression in his eyes changes: gold-green lust shimmers in them.
He pinches the protruding fleshy nub. Quite hard. My eyes widen. He pulls me by my clit toward him. I follow helplessly. He pulls his knees up so his body makes a seat. Awkwardly, with the most sensitive part of me trapped in his firm grasp, I climb onto his body and sit on his crotch, facing him. His penis is so hard it is like sitting on a piece of wood. His eyes are level with my open sex.
‘Wider,’ he encourages softly.
I comply.
He releases my clit and blood rushes to the numbed flesh making it tingle. For a few seconds he studies the blood-engorged bud while I tremble gently with anticipation. ‘For fuck’s sake, start,’ I want to scream.
He grasps the outer lips of my sex and pulls them apart so the secret, pink inner tissue is exposed, and stares at the glistening flesh. I squirm impatiently. My whole body is hot with desire and excitement. To my disappointment he lets the lips spring closed. His eyes rise up to meet mine.
‘Play with yourself.’ His voice is thick with need.
I hesitate. I have never done it with someone watching me.
His expression is enigmatic. ‘I feel voyeuristic.’
Crystal Jake wants to watch. I take a deep breath. Yeah, sure, you can watch, Jake Eden.
I bring my right hand between my legs and move two fingers in a slow circle around my tingling clit. His eyes drop from my face down to the show between my legs. He watches my actions avidly, greedily. I never thought it would be, but it is an incredible turn-on. I feel dirty, and slutty, and shameless, and absolutely fucking vibrant.
My fingers travel in the familiar practiced movement. I know exactl
y how I like it. Exactly what makes me come. But there is a different layer this time. He is watching me. It is almost like when he was watching me dance. I feel powerful. Desired. Wanted. I close my eyes, my hips lifting, my muscles tightening. Small moans of pleasure escape from my lips as I welcome that gathering knot, the bunching muscles, the promise of an impending orgasm. I am so close to my climax… Almost there.
‘Yes, yes,’ I breathe.
Then his hot hand closes over mine.
I open my eyes and stare at him, needy and frustrated. Knowing. He is not going to let me come.
‘No,’ he says softly, and inserting two fingers into me, orders, ‘Take your top off.’
With his fingers impaled deep inside me I hurriedly pull my top off, my movements clumsy. I am not wearing a bra and his eyes latch onto my naked breasts.
‘Come closer,’ he says, in the kind of deep, seductive voice that I have always imagined the big bad wolf using on Red Riding Hood.
Oh, Mr. Wolf, how long I have waited for you.
I lay my palms on either side of him and lean forward until my back is arched like a bow and my breasts are almost brushing his lips. He captures one swollen nipple in his mouth and swirls his tongue around it.
‘’Yes,’ I encourage.
He starts sucking the tip gently and with such a soft mouth that I groan. Shockwaves of pure pleasure course through me.
‘Offer me the other,’ he commands.
With unseemly haste I fit the other tip into his warm, wet mouth. So gentle. The way I imagine a toothless baby would take a nourishing nipple. I let out a long breath of satisfaction and start grinding my sex against the heel of his palm. He lets me until the tremors begin shaking my whole body, and it is clear that I’m going to climax. Then he pulls his hand away and catches my nipple between his teeth. I look at him. I am almost screaming with frustration and the sadistic fucker is enjoying this.
‘Let me come, damn you,’ I groan.
He lets go of my nipple and smiles slowly. ‘Persuade me.’
‘There is this,’ I say, and lifting my hips away from his crotch, I unzip his trousers. His erection is straining against the waistband of his boxers.
‘That’s the most persuasive argument I’ve heard all day,’ he says.
‘Wait till you hear the rest of my argument.’ I slide my hand around his shaft and it swells even more.
‘Can’t wait,’ he mutters.
‘Get your knees down,’ I order suddenly.
His eyes flash at my strict tone, but his voice is even: ‘Done.’ He flattens his legs.
I lift myself off him and on my knees walk along his body up to his face and then carefully turn around so I am facing his feet. I lower my sex until it is suspended a few tantalizing inches away from his mouth.
‘Smell me,’ I command. I hold still while he lifts his head and sniffs me. I know what is coming next. And it does. His tongue flicks out. I allow one lick. It makes me shiver with pleasure. The desire to let him carry on is immense, but I control myself.
‘Who told you to lick me?’ I ask sternly, and lift my hips away from his mouth. ‘You’ve ruined it. You’ll just have to wait until tomorrow now.’
He moves so fast I register the sound of his muffled laughter before I realize I am immovably trapped between two hard hands around my hips.
‘You wait till tomorrow if you want to. I’m having you tonight,’ he growls and suddenly I am sprawled awkwardly on his body with my legs spread, my pussy opened on his mouth, and his tongue thrust into me.
‘Hey, I’m supposed to be in charge,’ I protest as I try to push myself up on my hands.
‘Cock teasers don’t get to be in charge.’
His hand comes down around my waist to force me down while the other slips underneath my body. His fingers work my clit in exactly the way he learned from me earlier. In that exposed, helpless position, him devouring my pussy, and his fingers doing exactly what I love to my nub, my orgasm comes so fast and so hard, my nails claw into his thighs.
When it is all over, I find myself lying with my cheek on his belly and panting hard while he is still sucking my swollen folds softly. It’s very, very delicious and unspeakably decadent, but I lift my cheek, turn my head, and find myself looking at a very beautifully decorated, very erect throbbing penis. Clear liquid is running down it.
On my belly I shimmy toward it and extending my tongue follow the body of the snake all the way to its open mouth.
‘Oh yeah,’ he encourages hoarsely.
With my lips held in a tight pout, slowly, inch by hot inch I swallow that deliciously bulbous apple, and then as much of that thick and twisting snake as I can. I bob my head faster and faster, not even stopping when I feel one long finger slide into me. It occurs to me then—the kind of view he must have of my open pussy with its gaping, glistening hole begging to be penetrated. I squirm encouragingly and he fits another finger in and starts pumping into me while I suck him as furiously and as fast as I can.
Suddenly, he grabs me by the waist and pulls me off his shaft. My mouth comes off with a wet, slurping sound. Before I can say Jake Eden I am put on my hands and knees. Threading his fingers into my hair, he pulls my head back, as he rams into me.
‘Ahh…’ I scream, my head jerking back.
‘That’s what I was missing. Watching my cock disappear into you,’ he says, pushing himself in so hard I shudder.
He fucks me harder and harder, forcing his cock deeper and deeper, and I start to feel the verge of another climax.
‘Yesssss…’ I push into him, my muscles clenching and tightening as we climb the heights together.
He wakes me up in the night.
‘Want to go for a midnight swim?’
It is too dark to see his expression, only the bulk of his naked shoulder, the way it rises out of bed, strong and full of power. ‘Yes,’ I whisper.
We pad down to the swimming pool. He dives in. I dip a toe in. The water is cold. But it is OK. Under the stars we swim together like two carefree eels, sparks flying whenever we touch. Later his body is warm as it moves on top of me.
Chapter 34
Lily
I wake up alone and touch the indent on the pillow where his head has been. Then I roll over to his side and bury my nose in the scent of his shampoo.
‘Oh, Jake,’ I whisper.
I get out of the bed and walk to the living room. The house is very quiet. For a while I think he has gone out and then I know where he is. The sliding doors are open. I walk around the swimming pool and stand at the edge of the cliff and far away in the ocean, much farther than he went yesterday, I see him, swimming furiously. He only came back yesterday because of me.
Once again, I am beset by gnawing fear and worry.
I go into the kitchen and open the freezer door. Other than a couple of trays of ice it is filled with bags of breadcrumbs. I take a bag and go down the steps. I go into the water and feed the fish. I watch them as they frantically snatch at the crumbs and it is a beautiful thing, but I feel restless and distracted. Suddenly, impulsively, I decide to swim out to him. I know I won’t be able to swim that far, but perhaps I can meet him halfway on his return.
I strike out toward him. I must have been swimming for a good ten minutes, and yet he seems even farther away. I realize that I am already very tired. I stop and start treading water. I look back at the shore. It looks dauntingly far. It was a stupid idea.
I holler out to Jake, but my voice doesn’t carry. I have a little moment of panic. Suddenly, as if he has somehow felt my distress, he stops, turns, sees me, and immediately begins swimming powerfully toward me. I tread water and watch. He is a fine swimmer, sleek and fast. He dives under and pops up in front of me, water sluicing down his hair and face, as ageless and as at home in the sea as a seal.
His eyes are thunderous. ‘What the fuck are you doing so far from the beach?’ he demands furiously.
I feel stung by his anger. He has never spoken like that to me bef
ore. I stare at him in astonishment.
‘Don’t you know how fucking dangerous it is?’ he snarls.
‘Fuck off,’ I spit at him, and begin to swim toward the beach. He grabs me from behind. His body is hard and slippery.
It is a relief to stop kicking and simply relax into his body.
He nuzzles my neck, his breath warm. ‘Can you make it back on your own?’
‘No,’ I admit reluctantly.
He catches me under my arms, and slowly we make it back to shore.
We lay at the water’s edge, naked. I look up at the wonderfully blue sky and feel the heat of the sun penetrating my skin. ‘It was a stupid thing to do, I’m sorry.’
He turns his head and our eyes meet. In the sunlight they are bright and intense, dizzying: the color of spring grass. His eyelashes are all long and dark and stuck together with seawater, like a child that has been crying. ‘I’m sorry I shouted at you, Lil. But you scared me.’ He blinks. ‘If anything had happened to you, I would have been too far out to do anything to help you.’
I raise my hand and lay it on his flat stomach. He takes his hand and traces my mouth and desire starts to stain his eyes. He moves forward and leans his forehead on my shoulder and takes a deep shuddering breath. ‘Oh, Lily. What am I going to do with you?’
I wriggle myself so I am underneath his body, sweat seeping into my skin. ‘I have an idea,’ I say, focusing on his brutally masculine chest.
He looks down on me. A hint of that which is centuries old, plain ol’ human lust, shines in his face. Fire explodes in my skull. I am so addicted to this man.
‘I really like the way you think.’ His amused whisper slides into my head like a little mind trick.
Some may call it love. I don’t.
‘Hungry?’ I ask.
‘Starving.’
We toss a coin to decide who is to make breakfast. He loses and to ease the pain I promise to make dinner. I stand against the counter and watch him put a pan on the stove.
The Heir: A Contemporary Royal Romance Page 34