by Lori Ryan
If Jack minded, he didn’t show it. “Chicago. We have the right of first refusal on the sale of some shares in a company we invested in, but it looks as if the deal may be going south. I’m heading out to clean things up and make sure we get it under control before it gets out of hand.”
“Do you need any help getting ready?” She didn’t really know what the protocol was for a wife in this circumstance. Should she help him pack? Drive him to the airport?
Jack smiled and kissed her lips in an achingly slow kiss that assaulted her senses and had her weak in seconds. “No, but you can give me a send-off I won’t forget,” he said as he drew away from her lips and began to brush his mouth down her neck and across her shoulder.
He instantly rekindled the burning arousal that had been sated just moments before.
Kelly gasped in wonder, and within minutes of his hands and mouth touching her, she was ready for him again. Her body came to life and she stretched toward him with need, aching and sweet. She was beginning to realize he was the only one who could slake that need in her.
She closed her eyes and let her body sink into his, as his hands played across her body, sending her to places she knew no other man would ever take her.
She closed her mind to the nagging voice that taunted her and told her she would never be happy with another man when her time with Jack ran out. She wasn’t ready to face any of that.
Chapter 43
Kelly carried a pitcher of iced tea and two glasses out to the pool, where Jennie sat sunning herself on a rare afternoon off. This was the first time Jennie had been to the house, so Kelly had taken her for the grand tour before they settled outside by the pool.
Jack had already left for the airport, Mabry was out shopping, and Mrs. Poole was in the kitchen baking, so it was just the two of them for the next couple of hours.
“I still can’t get over this place. I could kick myself for not thinking of proposing to Jack myself. I mean what the hell, why didn’t I think of it?” Jennie laughed and picked up her glass as Kelly settled onto the lounge chair next to her.
Kelly laughed, but was shocked by the hot flash of jealousy that shot through her at her friend’s words. God, she felt almost… possessive of Jack. She wasn’t doing a very good job of keeping her emotional distance and only having fun with him.
In fact, if she were really honest with herself, she had to admit she hadn’t protected her heart from him at all.
Jennie was watching Kelly’s face as if she were trying to figure out the emotions playing across it. “Oh no, Kel. You’re not only falling for him, you’re completely over the edge, aren’t you?”
Kelly felt a slash of pain as her friend spoke. “I never meant to. I didn’t think this would be a problem. I’ve dated a lot of really terrific guys, some for a long time even. They were sweet and fun and things with them were always great, but they never really made me feel…more, you know?”
She shook her head, swamped by the hopeless emotions washing over her. “I never felt this way about any of them. With Jack, things are different somehow. I feel more comfortable with him than I’ve ever felt with anyone. And every time he kisses me….” She broke off as her face turned red.
“I thought I could handle it and keep my distance,” Kelly went on, trying to justify her feelings to Jennie who was listening quietly, “but he’s so much more amazing than I thought he’d be. Every time he takes me to dinner or we curl up on the couch, or go for a walk, I seem to fall deeper and deeper. I just can’t resist him. He acts as if we’re a real couple. I wasn’t ready for that—you know, Jennie? I wasn’t prepared to have to defend myself. My heart, I mean.”
A puzzled look crossed Jennie’s face. “I don’t understand. If this is a phony marriage and Jack knows that, why is he doing all those things? I mean, why would he snuggle with you or take you out places? Are they things he needs to go to for work?”
“Not always,” said Kelly slowly. “Sometimes we just go to dinner or for a walk. When we don’t go out, we eat dinner here and sometimes watch a movie after dinner. There are times when the snuggling is for his aunt’s sake, but sometimes it’s just us.”
“The only way that makes sense is if he likes you. If he wants more.”
Kelly’s eyes started to well up with tears, but she shook her head and blinked them back. “I’ve thought of that, but that’s a far cry from falling in love with me or wanting something more at the end of our deal. Jack’s used to having women around and being able to go out with anyone he wants. Obviously, he can’t go out with his usual floozies during the marriage so he’s taking me out. But that doesn’t mean he’d want to turn this into forever.” Her voice fell still as she realized she wanted forever.
“Floozies?” laughed Jennie, lightening the mood.
Kelly grinned at her friend. “You know what I mean.”
They sat together for a few minutes and stared out past the pool and down the lawn to the sound, watching the water lap at the edge of the beach. Finally, Jennie spoke.
“Have you slept with him?” she asked.
Kelly nodded and struggled to find the right words. “I don’t know how to describe it. It was more incredible than it’s ever been with anyone else. And it’s like we were made to fit together—like our bodies are two parts that make up a whole.”
She looked to Jennie and saw pain in her friend’s eyes. Jennie had known that kind of love once.
Jennie smiled but her gaze remained sad. She reached out and squeezed Kelly’s hand. “Maybe he’s feeling the same things you are.”
Kelly thought about what Jennie was saying and sipped her tea. “I don’t know if you’re right, Jennie, but I do know this. I like the new me I’m becoming. I like being more daring and going for the things that I want. It started when I walked into Jack’s office and I want to keep it going.”
She whooshed out a breath. “So, I’m just going to grab onto this year and enjoy it with Jack. If it goes further, that’ll be a bonus. If it doesn’t, I’m going to have to get over it,” she said with all the confidence she could muster… But she knew that getting over Jack Sutton just might kill her.
Chapter 44
Kelly felt wonderfully confident in her decision until a few hours later when Mabry cornered her in the living room. Kelly sat reading a book on the couch when Jack’s aunt walked in.
“It won’t last, you know,” Mabry started in with a sneer on her face. “It starts out like this with the sudden ‘business trips’ and it goes downhill from there.”
Kelly looked up from her book trying to dismiss Mabry’s concerns. “It’s just a trip to save a deal that’s in trouble. I don’t think it’s the beginning of the end of our marriage,” she said confidently.
Mabry’s eyebrows shot up. She’d planted a seed that she knew would fester and grow. “Hmm. I wonder why he was speaking to Caroline Harridan before he left? I thought he was through with her, but I guess not.”
The smile on Mabry’s lips as she spun on her heel and left the room was smug.
Kelly knew what the woman was trying to do but it was hard not to wonder if Mabry’s job was made easy by the fact Jack was really talking to Caroline? Or was it completely made up? Kelly watched Mabry go, feeling a blossoming insecure hesitation at her parting words.
She went upstairs and sat in the room she shared with Jack trying to shove aside the feelings. Jack hadn’t seemed to be interested in Caroline when they saw her at lunch the other day, but if he hadn’t talked to Caroline, how would Mabry know to pull that name out of thin air?
Which meant Jack must have talked to her. Could his blasé attitude toward Caroline at lunch have been an act?
Jack had sworn to her that he wouldn’t be with anyone else while they were married, and Kelly had believed him at the time. He seemed so genuine and sure. But it was well known that Jack Sutton could bluff better than anyone when he needed to. Maybe he was bringing his boardroom tactics home to their bed.
Kelly hated the sudd
en insecurity she felt. She had never been the jealous or suspicious type when dating someone, but as she thought about it, she realized that was because she always knew where she stood with her previous boyfriends.
She had been confident in the status of her relationships in the past, so there was no need to be catty and check up on them.
With Jack, the only thing she really knew was that their whole relationship was based on a pretend marriage. A lie. Where did that really leave her?
She sat on the bed and tried to think of a way to know for sure whether Jack was with Caroline without having to flat out ask him. If she did that, he would know she didn’t trust him. Worse, he might guess the secret she’d been trying to hide—that she was feeling a lot more for him than he was for her in this marriage of convenience.
She bit her lip between her teeth and picked up the phone, dialing the number of the hotel where Jack was staying. She tried to affect a secretarial tone.
When the front desk picked up, Kelly launched into her spiel. “This is Jack Sutton’s secretary. I need to reach his wife right away to confirm some details for a fundraising event that can’t wait. Can you tell me if she checked in there with him? She wasn’t planning on traveling with him, but I’m wondering if she may have tagged along at the last minute because I can’t reach her here.”
Kelly had learned that if you spoke confidently enough and acted as though you expected your questions to be answered, they often would be.
“No, ma’am. I checked Mr. Sutton in myself and he’s traveling alone. Let me double check with the bellhop to see if she came later. Hold one moment, please.”
Kelly waited on the line, holding her breath and chewing her lip as she waited to hear whether Jack had been joined by a woman. It was several minutes before the concierge came back on the line.
“No, ma’am. Mr. Sutton has not been joined by anyone, I’m afraid.”
Kelly breathed a silent sigh of relief as she continued to play her part. “All right, I’ll keep trying to track her down here. Thank you for your help,” she said and hung up the phone.
She was relieved that Jack didn’t seem to have Caroline with him, but that relief was short-lived when the guilt at having checked up on him kicked in. She shouldn’t have done that. The nagging regret in her stomach stayed with her into the evening.
That night Kelly went up to bed early and started a bubble bath to soak. There was nothing she loved more than soaking in water so hot it almost burned, and she filled the tub with bath salts that smelled of jasmine and roses.
Kelly stripped off her clothes and sank down into the heavenly mixture. She sighed as she felt her tension begin to melt.
She had no one to blame for it but herself. She was tense because she felt as if she betrayed Jack by checking up on him, and she was angry with herself for letting Mabry get to her. She knew better than to listen to that hateful old hag.
Kelly sighed as she thought about Mabry. She knew Jack didn’t want to confront Mabry because he and Chad had this overdeveloped sense of protection where she was concerned. In many ways knowing he was like that made her care for him all the more. It wasn’t your average man who would put his family above all else, especially when that family member was attacking him at every turn.
Kelly took a deep breath and submerged herself under the bubbles, floating while the bath salts and hot water worked their magic. Jack’s bathtub was like heaven on earth. It was large and deep enough that she could lay completely submerged without scrunching herself up, and it had excellent temperature control. Thinking that she would turn on the jets for a bit, Kelly came up out of the suds and swiped a hand down her face. Then she opened her eyes.
And screamed. Jack stood watching her come up out of the water.
“Jack! What are you doing here? You’re not due home until tomorrow night,” Kelly sputtered.
Chapter 45
Jack let his eyes skim Kelly’s breasts where they crested out of the water as if they wanted to give him a very nice welcome home. He didn’t answer Kelly’s question as he honed his sharp gaze on her vulnerable body in the hot water.
She looked guilty as sin sitting there staring at him, and he knew without a doubt that it had been Kelly who called the hotel. He’d stayed in that hotel on a number of occasions, so the concierge was quick to let him know that someone had called to check up on him.
Jack was surprised to find he wasn’t upset or angry with her as he would have been with one of his girlfriends if they had pulled that kind of crap. In fact, he wasn’t even annoyed.
It puzzled him that the moment he saw the confirmation in Kelly’s eyes, he felt nothing but concern for her. He couldn’t imagine what had caused her to feel the need to call, but he planned to find out.
Without saying a word, his eyes on Kelly the entire time, he stripped down to nothing while she stared up at him, eyes wide, her breath now coming in short pants.
Jack kept his gaze locked on her as he stepped into the tub. He pulled her over the top of him so she straddled his lap and plunged into her tight wet heat in one deep stroke, never taking his eyes from hers.
Her legs came around his back and he buried his face in Kelly’s neck as he slowly plunged into her over and over, marveling at the softness of her skin and the way her body welcomed his without question or hesitation.
“So beautiful. You feel so damned right.” Jack whispered against the soft skin of her shoulder.
Kelly put her arms around Jack’s neck and lost herself in the feel of him between her thighs, in the way his body made hers sing with pleasure as if he had been made for her. She moaned and felt his body pour over the edge with his release, and she tumbled after him, completely satiated in his arms.
They stayed locked together…her limp body collapsed on Jack’s for several minutes before they slipped from the tub, rinsed off in the shower and snuggled up in bed together.
She lay in Jack’s arms for a few minutes before she realized he hadn’t answered her question. She raised her head and looked into his eyes.
“You’re home early.”
“I wrapped up the deal and decided to come home. I missed you,” he said with a grin. “Besides, the hotel said that my secretary was looking for you. She needed to confirm some fundraising details with you, so I thought I should run home and track you down for her.”
Kelly let out a small squeak in his arms and he laughed. He curled a finger under Kelly’s chin and tipped her head up so that she looked into his eyes. “Why did you need to check up on me, Kel? I told you I wouldn’t be with anyone else, and I meant it.”
There wasn’t anger in his voice. Just concern.
She flushed feeling the heat she knew would be staining her cheeks scarlet when she answered. “I’m sorry, Jack. As soon as I did it I felt like an idiot, but I let her get to me.”
“Ah,” Jack said. “Aunt Mabry. What did she say to you?”
“She told me you were with Caroline, that she heard you talking on the phone with her making plans. I should have known it wasn’t true.” Kelly shook her head as she spoke. “It seemed so odd that we had just seen Caroline. I figured she couldn’t have coincidentally pulled her name out of the air, so she must have actually heard you.”
“Remember when I said it wasn’t a coincidence that Caroline found us at the restaurant? I’d be willing to bet it was Aunt Mabry who told her we’d be there. That’s the only way she would know to plant Caroline’s name in your head the next day.”
“And I fell for it like an idiot,” Kelly said, burying her head against Jack’s chest.
He smiled and began a careful exploration of her body with his mouth. He spoke to Kelly as his lips caressed her soft, creamy skin.
“I think I like that you cared whether I was with another woman. Not enough that I want you ever to worry about something like that again, but a little,” he said as he kissed along the inside of her thighs.
“You don’t need to worry like that again, Kelly,” Jack said
as he placed his final kiss in the spot she needed the most, and Kelly’s moan was all the answer he got.
Chapter 46
That weekend, Kelly was nervous as she dressed for the party. She and Jack had been ‘married’ about a month, and although she had met some of his friends and business associates, she was anxious about having her friends and family and all of Jack’s friends and business colleagues in one place.
It was enough to send her over the edge. She had hardly been able to eat all day, and her stomach was doing flip flops as she shaved her legs in the shower.
She finished rinsing and stepped out to dry herself. Jack had run to the office for a couple of hours, so she had plenty of time to get dressed and do her makeup.
She toweled off and applied moisturizing lotion before setting her hair. She had decided to use large curlers to give it a soft, bouncy curl for the night. Her dress had an open neckline, and the spaghetti strap style left her shoulders bare so the soft curls would flow down over her shoulders, completing the look.
Kelly applied her makeup while her hair was setting in the rollers, then slipped into the charcoal-gray lingerie she had picked to wear under her dress. She loved the demi bra that pushed up her chest and the thigh-high stockings with garter belt. She had never had lingerie that made her feel this sexy. Smiling, she slipped her dress on over her head, feeling as if she were living a fairy tale.
Fairy tale for a year, she told herself, and commanded her heart to be okay with that deadline. That was far more than she’d ever had before this adventure had started.
Slipping into silver, strappy heels, Kelly buckled the thin straps around her ankles and walked down the stairs. She came into the front hall as Jack was stepping in from the office. He’d arrived home just before the guests were due but had changed into his charcoal suit at the office.