by Lee, Miranda
Her eyes widened when he bent forward to remove the clip that anchored her hair to the top of her head. He heard her breath quicken, watched her eyes follow him as he stroked her hair down over her shoulders, pulling several strands down over her breasts. But not over her nipples.
When he scraped the hair clip over one, her back arched off the bed, her lips falling apart on a startled gasp.
The sight of her stunningly erect nipples reminded him of his own arousal. But
he was too intoxicated by her responses now to think about his own frustrations.
He scraped the clip over her other nipple, loving the way her suddenly expanded lungs thrust both her breasts up towards him.
‘You like that,’ he said throatily, then did it again, and again.
Her answer was a series of soft moans.
Finally, however, the torment became his own, and he threw the clip away, busying his hands on his own body, stripping off his clothes and tossing them aside.
He watched her watch him undress, her eyes telling him that his body met with her approval.
Jason had been blessed with a naturally masculine physique, his shape due more to Mother Nature than with working out. But he did swim every day, and did a hundred sit-ups, both of which keep the flab away and his stomach muscles well toned.
Jason had always felt confident of his body, as well as his lovemaking technique. Usually, he took his time, spending ages on foreplay.
Unfortunately, Leah’s eyes staring at him with need sent him right back to where he’d been before he’d started stripping her, desperate to be inside her, driven by a force that was as primal as it was urgent.
Within a flash of being naked, he was with her on the bed, his hands moving with rough caresses over her swollen breasts, his head dipping to take her mouth with a kiss as wild as he was. His lips crushed hers, then drove them apart, his tongue sliding deep, then deeper still.
But it wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough. His hand moved down to pull her robe apart, then her legs, and before his brain could catch up with his body he was between her thighs and pushing into her, groaning as her flesh encased his, its soft slickness enveloping his aching hardness.
Her arms might have been imprisoned by her side, but her legs were free to lift and wrap high around his back. Her bottom lifted with it, the angle of her body taking him in even deeper. It was all a bit much for a man who’d been thinking of nothing else all week but Leah Johannsen.
He slowed his rhythm, trying to last, trying desperately to wait for her. But when she started squeezing him with delicious little movements of her muscles, his body gave up the fight and he came with a raw cry, his body shuddering with the force of his release.
For a split second, his male ego threatened to spoil his ecstasy, but then he heard her cry out his name, and felt her flesh tighten around him like a vice.
His sense of triumph was both physical and emotional. Because he hadn’t wanted to be totally selfish. Not tonight. He’d wanted to make it up to her for what that bastard of a husband had done to her. He’d wanted to reassure her that a few scars didn’t mar her desirability as a woman.
And it didn’t.
Peace came to Jason’s body first, leaving him to stare down into her flushed face and watch what his lovemaking had done to her. Her eyes were closed, but her lips were open, panting softly. He felt the last ebbings of her climax.
Finally, her legs slipped from around him on a long, voluptuous sigh, and her eyelids fluttered upwards.
He smiled down at her, and she smiled back, her eyes a little embarrassed now, as nice women often were after their first time with a man.
‘I’m sorry I was so quick,’ he said, bracing his arms on either side of her with his elbows whilst he pushed some strands of hair back from her lovely face.
‘You weren’t.’
‘It’s been a while since you’ve been with a man, hasn’t it?’
‘Two years.’
‘Aah. I see.’
The thought occurred to him that it had only been two weeks since he’d been with Hilary.
Men were different creatures to women. No doubt about that.
He was still tempted to tell her that he’d been thinking of nothing else but her all week, that she was something special to him. But that smacked of an emotional involvement, and he wanted to keep this night strictly physical.
‘I’ll take longer next time,’ he said, deliberately curving his mouth into a wicked smile. ‘By the tenth time, you’ll be begging me to stop.’
She blinked up at him. ‘The tenth?’
‘Didn’t I tell you I was a braggart?’
She laughed. ‘No.’
‘A braggart and a bastard.’
‘I don’t believe you.’
‘You will, beautiful. You will.’
‘Leah…’
Leah surfaced slowly. Dreamily. Happily.
‘Mmmm?’
‘It’s morning,’ she heard Jason say through her fog of contentment. ‘I have to go.’
Leah opened her eyes to find Jason sitting on the bed beside her, fully dressed in the clothes he’d been wearing when he’d arrived the night before.
‘You’re going?’ she said, still a bit sleep-befuddled. ‘But…do you have to rush off? Can’t you stay for breakfast at least? It’s Saturday, you know.’
‘Yes, I know,’ he said, his face somewhat grim.
It was then that it came to her what he was saying. He was going going.
‘I told you last night I wasn’t the man for you,’ he went on. ‘You begged me to stay. So I stayed.’
Leah blinked her surprise. How holier than thou he sounded, as though he’d been forced into staying and accommodating a desperate woman against his better judgement.
‘You certainly did,’ she agreed, her tone tart.
‘I didn’t do anything you didn’t want me to do, Leah,’ he reminded her.
She stared at him, thinking of how she’d given him a lot more than she’d ever given Carl.
There again, he’d given her a lot more than Carl had given her. He’d been incredibly tender and loving that second time. And after that. He certainly wasn’t at all grossed out by her scars. He’d even kissed them on one occasion.
And washed them in the shower.
The memory of their shower together sent shivers down her spine. She’d washed him too, during which she’d been absolutely shameless. This time together had been as wild as their first with her feet wrapped around his hips.
Then they went back in the bed, for long and languid lovemaking that had ended with her gradually tipping into sleep.
And now here she was, wide awake and being rejected once more.
‘You said you had a girlfriend till recently,’ she argued, trying to sound calm when inside, desperation was gnawing at her stomach. ‘Why can’t I be your new girlfriend?’
‘You need a man who can love you, Leah. I’m not that man.’
Oh, how it hurt, his saying that he could never love her.
‘It…it’s not because of the scars, is it?’ she heard herself saying in a pitiful voice.
‘Don’t be ridiculous! Leah, how many times do I have to tell you that your scars don’t bother me a bit? Look, if you must know, it’s because of my wife, the one you and everyone else thinks I married for her money.
‘I didn’t,’ he growled. ‘I loved Karen, more than I could have ever thought possible. Watching her die was terrible. No. Unbearable. I thought I would feel relief when she died. Instead, I wanted to die myself.’
‘I’m s…sorry,’ Leah said, stumbling over the words as she tried to cope with the emotions that his heartfelt confession had produced. Jealousy jabbed at her heart, followed by guilt that she’d judged him so harshly. Finally came the dismaying realisation that the feelings his incredible lovemaking had evoked in her last night would never come to fruition.
Leah knew she could easily fall in love with this man. But what was the point, if he
could never love her back?
She was way past being a fool to love. Or she thought she was.
‘I’m sorry, too,’ he said, and reached out to touch her softly on the cheek.
Tears pricked at her eyes.
‘Please don’t cry, Leah. Last night was very special. But best we leave it at that.’
‘Yes,’ she agreed, bravely blinking back the tears.
For a good minute, they maintained an awkward silence, each with their own thoughts.
‘Are you still going to resign on Monday?’ he asked at last.
‘Yes,’ she said, nodding. ‘Yes, I think that would be for the best.’
‘You’re right. Of course.’
Leah sighed. It was going to be difficult, living through the two weeks’ notice she had to give.
‘I’ll give you a great reference,’ Jason said.
She glared at him for a moment, but then she laughed. ‘You’d better.’
He looked at her for a longer moment, and she could have sworn she glimpsed true regret in his eyes.
‘I must go,’ he said, and stood up abruptly.
She could hardly bear to look at him. Suddenly, she just wanted him to go.
Quickly, before she made a right fool of herself.
His bending to kiss her on the forehead made her cringe. She didn’t want that kind of kiss from him. She wanted the kind he’d given her last night, the hot hungry intimate kind which had made her squirm and moan. She wanted him to stay.
Oh…she just wanted him.
‘Just go, for pity’s sake!’ The words burst from her mouth, sounding bitter and angry.
Leah recalled what he’d said the night before about being a braggart and a bastard. How she wished that he was both! But he wasn’t either of them.
She didn’t watch him leave. But she heard him shut the front door. It was a horrible sound.
Leah rolled over into her pillows, and wept.
Chapter 10
Joachim straightened his bow tie, then knocked on Leah’s bedroom door.
‘It’s seven thirty,’ he called out. ‘The first guests will be arriving soon.
I’ll wait for you in the foyer.’
‘I won’t be long,’ his daughter replied.
Joachim had barely set foot on the soft blue rug that warmed the cold marble floor of the spacious foyer when the voice of the security man on the gate came through on the intercom, announcing the arrival of a taxi.
‘Hope it’s not Pollack,’ Joachim muttered.
He was just about to dash back up and collect Leah when she started coming down the stairs.
The sight of her literally took his breath away.
She was wearing black. Not a colour he’d ever seen Leah wear before. She always said she didn’t like black. But against her fair hair, the black was particularly striking. So was the dress.
It was long, and slinky, and sexy. Yet in a very subtle way, with a deceptively modest top, which was loose fitting and gathered in to a high, round collar.
There was a slit, however, which ran from neck to waist at the front, providing the occasional glimpse of cleavage as she moved. Her arms and shoulders were bare as well, Leah’s pale skin the perfect foil against the black of the dress.
Her only jewellery was the shoulder-length diamond drop earrings, which Joachim had given her for her twenty-second birthday. They’d cost him a small fortune at the time.
‘You look simply stunning tonight, Leah,’ he complimented when she finally joined him on the rug.
‘I’m glad I meet with your approval.’
Joachim heard the edge in her voice and wondered what it meant. Leah had been in an odd mood ever since she’d arrived at the house around three. She confessed she hadn’t been to visit the children’s wards at Westmead Hospital, as she usually did, claiming she’d woken with a migraine that morning.
Yet she hadn’t looked unwell. If anything, she’d looked better than he’d seen her look in ages. If he hadn’t known better, he might have thought she’d been lying to him.
But why would she lie? What had she been doing lately that she felt she couldn’t admit to?
‘Is that dress new?’ he asked as he opened the door in anticipation of his first dinner guest—or guests—reaching it. Not Pollack, Joachim saw with relief, but the Hawkinses, long-time friends of the family. Nigel was an orthopaedic surgeon, Jessica his nice but slightly mousy wife. They’d alighted from the taxi, but were still at the bottom of the wide stone steps that led up to the front porch.
‘No,’ Leah replied. ‘Carl bought it for me on our honeymoon. He thought it looked sexy on me.’
Joachim had to agree with his ex son-in-law. His daughter’s dress might have worried a father if he was of the narrow-minded, or prudish, kind.
Joachim wasn’t. He’d always believed beautiful women like Leah were born to be made love to. And to have children.
But not with any man.
Joachim wanted his next son-in-law to be a man of substance, and character.
He’d had some lingering doubts about Jason Pollack, despite Isabel’s voice urging him on, so he’d made a few discreet enquiries on the Monday morning before issuing the dinner invitation, and now felt reassured that Jason Pollack wasn’t a fortune hunter, despite the rumours about his first marriage.
His source of information—a journalist friend at a well-known newspaper—gave Pollack a glowing recommendation, both professionally and personally.
Still, if he didn’t impress Leah tonight, Joachim resolved to scout around for some other likely candidates to bring into his daughter’s life. He wasn’t about to let his lovely daughter waste herself, just because her first husband had been less than a man.
‘You’ve done something different with your hair,’ he said, noticing when Leah turned away slightly to smooth the long tight skirt over her hips. It was brushed straight back from her face and had been blow-dried dead straight, a shining blonde curtain falling down her back. ‘It looks sexy like that.’
She glanced up at him, her glittering green eyes reminding him of Isabel when she was excited about something. ‘Do you mind my looking sexy?’
‘Not at all. But I thought you didn’t want my mystery guest making a pass at you.’
‘Is he capable?’ she quipped back.
‘Any man is capable of a pass. Aah…here’s Nigel and Jessie…’
Leah rolled her eyes, then put her mind to playing the role her father wanted her to play for tonight.
Her mother had taught her well how to be a gracious hostess. Leah automatically knew the right things to say to please, plus how to accept a compliment without blushing or stammering.
But she had a moment’s worry when Nigel kept staring at her chest. Perhaps she shouldn’t have given into the impulse to wear this dress tonight. And to leave off her bra.
But she’d wanted to feel her bare breasts against the silk lining of the dress.
Wanted to remember what Jason had done to them last night.
Because that was all she was ever going to have of him.
Memories.
Several couples arrived in quick succession, one after the other, all of whom Leah had met before. Her father’s stockbroking partners and their wives. His accountant and his wife. His solicitor and his current partner.
A local politician and his second, much-younger wife made their entrance a few minutes later, soon to be followed by a quite famous television actor with his current live-in lady, along with his agent, a woman Leah’s father knew from way back.
Leah guided them all smoothly into the elegant sunken living room, which ran across the back of the house and where a white-coated waiter circled continuously with trays full of pre-dinner drinks. Some couples chose to sit together on the brocade-covered sofas that Leah’s mother had been particularly proud of. Others wandered out onto the back terrace to stand by the pool and to admire the view of the harbour, which stretched out before them at the bottom of the garden.
By eight-fifteen, everyone, it seemed, had made an appearance. Everyone except her father’s mystery guest. Leah kept mingling as a good hostess should, sipping champagne as she made small talk with her father’s friends and colleagues. She was actually enjoying herself more than she’d thought she would. She was even becoming a little curious over their missing guest. Who was he? she began to wonder.
Someone who thought himself important enough to be late.
‘Maybe your man’s stood you up?’ Leah murmured somewhat mischievously to her father as she passed by him on her way to the kitchen to check if everything was ready for dinner. Her father might have blind faith in catering companies, but Leah’s mother had always said an overseeing eye was necessary for a successful dinner party.
The doorbell rang before she could leave the room.
She turned to glance at her father who smiled, made his excuses and came over to her, taking her elbow and shepherding her back towards the front door.
‘Must be our man now,’ he said on their way. ‘Everyone else is here.’
‘He must be seriously rich to have you this eager. But not to worry. I’m ripe and ready for the old coot. Bring him on, I say!’
Her father laughed. ‘I’m so glad to see you’ve finally recovered your sense of humour. But I think you’re in for a surprise.’
‘Nothing you do would ever surprise me, Daddy,’ she replied, lifting her rather tight skirt a little as she mounted the two marble steps that connected the living room with the foyer. ‘Mum turned a blind eye to your naughtinesses. And your controlling ways. But I always knew what kind of man you were.’
‘Did you now?’
He slanted a smile at her and Leah smiled back. Her father was a bit of a rogue, but a charming and lovable one.
Leah was thinking how much she loved him—despite everything—when he opened the door and there, before her, was the last man she expected to see tonight.
Jason Pollack, dressed in a superb black dinner jacket and looking more devastatingly handsome than she’d ever seen him.