Brenda Jackson The Westmoreland Series Books 16-20

by Brenda Jackson

  Bella nibbled on her bottom lip, giving his proposal consideration while trying not to feel the disappointment trying to crowd her in. She had come here to Denver to be independent and not dependent. But what he was proposing was not how she had planned things to go. She was just learning to live on her own without her parents looking over her shoulder. She wanted her own life and now Jason was proposing that he share it. Even if it was on a temporary basis, she was going to feel her independence snatched away. “And how long do we have to remain married?”

  “For as long as we want but at least a year. Anytime after that either of us are free to file for a divorce to end things. But think about it, once we send your father’s attorney proof we’re officially married he’ll have no choice but to release the hold on your trust fund.”

  Bella knew that her parents would always be her parents and although she loved them, she could not put up with their controlling ways any longer. She thought Jason’s proposal might work but she still had a few reservations and concerns.

  “Will we live in separate households?” she decided to ask.

  “No, we will either live here or at my place. I have no problem moving in here but we can’t live apart. We don’t want to give your parents or anyone a reason to think our marriage isn’t the real thing.”

  She nodded thinking what he said made sense but she needed to ask another question. This one was of a delicate nature but was one she definitely needed to know the answer to. She cleared her throat. “If we lived in the same house would you expect for us to sleep in the same bed?”

  He held her gaze intently. “I think by now it’s apparent we’re attracted to each other, which is the reason I wasn’t Mr. Congeniality tonight as you’ve indicated. That kiss we shared only made me want more and I think you know where wanting more would have led.”

  Yes, she knew. And because he was being honest with her she might as well be honest with him. “And the reason I acted ‘cold’ as you put it was that I felt sensations kissing you that I’d never felt before and with everything going on in my life, the last thing I needed to take on was a lover. And now you want me to take on a husband, Jason?”

  “Yes, and only because you won’t have all those issues you had before. And I would want us to share a bed, but I’ll leave the decision of what we do up to you. I won’t rush you into doing anything you’re not comfortable with doing. But I think you can rightly say with us living under the same roof such a thing is bound to happen eventually.”

  She swallowed. Yes, she could rightly say that. Marrying him would definitely be a solution to her problem and like he’d said, he would be getting what he wanted out of the deal as well—co-ownership of her land and Hercules. It would be a win-win situation.

  But still.

  “I need to think about it, Jason. Your proposal sounds good but I need to make sure it’s the right answer.”

  He nodded. “I have an attorney who can draw up the papers so you won’t have to worry about everything I’m proposing being legit and binding. Your attorney can look at them as well if you’d like. He will be bound by attorney-client privilege not to disclose the details of our marriage to anyone.”

  “I still need time to think things through, Jason.”

  “And I’ll give you that time but my proposal won’t be out there forever.”

  “I understand.”

  And whether or not he believed her, she did understand, which was why she needed time to think about it. From his standpoint things probably looked simple and easy. But to her there were several “what ifs” she had to consider.

  What if during that year she fell in love with him but he wanted out of the marriage? What if he was satisfied with a loveless marriage and like her parents wanted to be discreet in taking lovers? What if—

  “How much time do you think you’ll need to think about it?”

  “No more than a week at the most. I should have my answer to you by then.” And she hoped more than anything it would be the right one.

  “All right, that will work for me.”

  “And you’re not involved with anyone?” she asked, needing to know for certain.

  He smiled. “No, I’m not. Trust me. I couldn’t be involved with anyone and kiss you the way I did the other day.”

  Bringing up their kiss made her remember how it had been that day, and how easily her lips had molded to his. It had been so easy to feel his passion, and some of the things his tongue had done inside her mouth nearly short-circuited her brain. Even now her body was inwardly shuddering with the force of those memories. And she expected them to live under the same roof and not share a bed? That was definitely an unrealistic expectation on her part. It seemed since their kiss, being under the same roof for any period of time was a passionate time bomb waiting to happen for them and they both knew it.

  She glanced across the table at him and her stomach clenched. He was looking at her the same way he’d done that day right before he’d kissed her. And she’d kissed him back. Mated with his mouth and loved every minute doing so.

  Even now she recognized the look in his eyes. It was a dark, hungry look that did more than suggest he wanted her and if given the chance he would take her right here, on her kitchen table. And it would entail more than just kissing. He would probably want to sample her the same way she’d done the seafood bisque Pam had served at dinner. And heaven help her but she would just love to be sampled.

  She knew what he wanted but was curious to know what he was thinking at this moment. He was staring at her with such intensity, such longing and such greed. Then she thought, maybe it was best that she didn’t know. It would be safer to just imagine.

  Swallowing hard, she broke eye contact with him and thought changing the subject was a good idea. The discussion of a possible marriage between them was not the way to go right now.

  “At least I’ve paid for the appliances they are delivering next week,” she said, glancing over at her stove that had seen better days. “I think that stove and refrigerator were here when my Dad lived here,” she added.

  “Probably.”

  “So it was time for new ones, don’t you think?”

  “Yes. And I think we need to get those broken pieces of the teacups off the floor,” he said.

  “I’ll do it later. It will give me something to do after you leave. I’m going to need to stay busy for a while. I’m not sleepy.”

  “You sure you won’t need my help cleaning it up?”

  “Yes, I’m sure” was her response.

  “All right.”

  “I have beer in the refrigerator if you’d like one,” she offered.

  “No, I’m straight.”

  For the next ten minutes they continued to engage in idle chatter. Anything else was liable to set off sparks that could ignite into who knows what.

  “Bella?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s not working.”

  She knew just what he meant. They had moved the conversation from her appliances, to the broken teacups, to him not wanting a beer, to the furniture in her living room, to the movie that had made number one at the box office last weekend like either of them really gave a royal flip. “It’s not?”

  “No. It’s okay to feel what we’re feeling right now, no matter what decision you make a week from now. And on that note,” he said, standing, “if you’re sure you don’t want me to help clean up the broken teacups, I think I’d better go before…”

  “Before what?” she asked when he hesitated in completing the statement.

  “Before I try eating you alive.”

  She sucked in a quick breath while a vision of him doing that very thing filtered through her mind. And then instead of leaving well enough alone, she asked something really stupid. “Why would you want to do something like that?”

  He smiled. And the way he smiled had her pulse beating rapidly in several areas of her body. It wasn’t a predatory smile but one of those “if you really want to know” smile
s. Never before had she been aware of the many smiles a person’s lips could convey.

  In truth, with the little experience she had when it came to men, she was surprised she could read him at all. But for some strange reason she could read Jason and she could do so on a level that could set off passion fizzing to life inside of her.

  Like it was doing now.

  “The reason I’d try eating you alive is that the other day I only got a sample of your taste. But it was enough to give me plenty of sleepless nights since then. Now I find that I crave knowing how you taste all over. So if you’re not ready for that to happen, come on and walk me to the door.”

  Honestly, at that moment she wasn’t quite sure what she was ready for and figured that degree of uncertainty was reason to walk him to the door. She had a lot to think about and work out in her mind and only a week to do it.

  She stood and moved around the table. When he extended his hand to her, she knew if they were to touch it would set off a chain of emotions and events she wasn’t sure she was ready for. Her gaze moved away from his hand up to his face and she had a feeling that he knew it, as well. Was this supposed to be a challenge? Or was it merely a way to get her to face the facts of how living under the same roof with him would be?

  She could ignore his outstretched hand but doing so would be rude and she wasn’t a rude person. He was watching her. Waiting for her next move. So she made it and placed her hand in his. And the instant their hands touched she felt it. The heat of his warmth spread through her and instead of withstanding it she was drawn deeper and deeper into it.

  Before she realized his intentions he let go of her hand to slide his fingertips up and down her arm in a caress so light and so mind-bogglingly sensual that she had to clamp down her mouth to keep from moaning.

  The look in the dark eyes staring at her was intense and she knew at that moment his touch wasn’t the only thing making her come apart. His manly scent was flowing through her nostrils and drawing him to her in a way that was actually making her panties wet.

  My goodness.

  “Maybe my thinking is wrong, Bella,” he said in a deep, husky voice as his fingers continued to caress her arms, making her stomach clench with every heated stroke against her skin.

  “Maybe you are ready for me to taste you all over, let my tongue glide across your skin, sample you in my mouth and feast on you with the deep hunger I need assuaged. And while your delicious taste sinks into my mouth, I will use my tongue to push you over the edge time and time again and drown you in a need that I intend to fulfill.”

  His words were pushing her over the edge just as much as his touch was doing. They were making her feel things. Want things. And increasing her desire to explore. To experience. To exert her freedom this way.

  “Tell me you’re ready,” he urged softly in a heated voice. “Just looking at you makes me hot and hard,” he said in a tone that heated her skin. “So please tell me you’re ready for me.”

  * * *

  Bella thought Jason’s words had been spoken in the huskiest whisper she’d ever heard, and they did something to her both physically and mentally. They prodded her to want whatever it was he was offering. Whatever she was supposed to be ready for.

  Like other women, sex was no great mystery to her. At least not since she had seen her parents’ housekeeper Carlie have sex with the gardener when she was twelve. She hadn’t understood at the time what all the moans and groans were about and why they had to be naked while making them. As she got older she’d been shielded from any encounters with the opposite sex and never had time to dwell on such matters.

  But there had been a time when she’d become curious so she had begun reading a lot. Her parents would probably die of shame if they knew about all the romance novels Carlie would sneak in to her. It was there between the pages of those novels that she began to dream, fantasize and hope that one day she would fall in love and live happily ever after like the women she read about. Her most ardent desire was to one day find the one man who would make her sexually liberated. She wouldn’t press her luck and hold out for love.

  She swallowed deeply as she gazed up at Jason, knowing he was waiting for her response, and she knew at that moment what it would be. “Yes, Jason, I’m ready.”

  He didn’t say anything for the longest time; he just stood there and stared at her. For a moment she wondered if he’d heard her. But his darkened eyes, the sound of his breathing alerted her that he had. And his eyes then traveled down the length of her throat and she knew he saw how erratically her pulse was throbbing there at the center.

  And then before she could blink, he lowered his head to kiss her. His tongue drove between her lips at the same time his hand reached under her wrap dress. While his tongue relentlessly probed her mouth, his fingers began sliding up her thighs and the feel of his hands on that part of her, a part no other man had touched, made something inside of her uncoil and she released a breathless sigh. She knew at that moment the heat was on. Before she realized he’d done so, he had inched her backward and the cheeks of her behind aligned with the table.

  He withdrew his mouth from hers long enough to whisper, “I can’t wait to get my tongue inside of you.”

  His words sent all kinds of sensations swirling around in her stomach and a deep ache began throbbing between her legs. The heat was not just on, it was almost edging out of control. She felt it emitting even more when his fingers moved from her thighs to her panties.

  And when he reclaimed her mouth again she moaned at how thoroughly he was kissing her and thinking her brain would overload from all the sensations ramming through her. She tried keeping up as his tongue did a methodical sweep of her mouth. And when she finally thought her senses were partially back under control, he proved her wrong when his fingers wiggled their way beneath the waistband of her panties to begin stroking her in a way that all but obliterated her senses.

  “Jason…”

  She felt her body being eased back onto the table at the same time her dress was pushed up to her waist. She was too full of emotions, wrapped up in way too many sensations, to take stock in what he was doing, but she got a pretty good idea when he eased her panties down her legs, leaving her open and bare to his sight. And when he eased her back farther on the table and placed her legs over his shoulders to nearly wrap around his neck she knew.

  Her breath quickened at the smile that then touched his lips, a smile like before that was not predatory and this time wasn’t even one of those “if you really want to know” smiles. This one was a “you’re going to enjoy this” smile that curved the corners of his mouth and made a hidden dimple appear in his right cheek.

  And before she could release her next breath he lifted her hips to bury his face between her legs. She bit her tongue to keep from screaming when his hot tongue slid between her womanly folds.

  She squirmed frantically beneath his mouth as he drove her crazy with passion, using his tongue to coax her into the kind of climax she’d only read about. It was the kind that had preclimactic sensations rushing through her. He shoved his tongue deeper inside her, doing more than tasting her dewy wetness; he was using the hot tip of his tongue to greedily lick her from core to core.

  She threw her head back and closed her eyes, as his tongue began making all kinds of circles inside her, teasing her flesh, branding it. But he wouldn’t let up and she saw he had no intentions of doing so. She felt the buildup right there at the center of her thighs where his mouth was. Pleasure and heat were taking their toll.

  Then suddenly her body convulsed around his mouth and she released a moan from deep within her throat as sharp jolts of sexual pleasure set ripples off in her body. And she moaned while the aftershocks made her body shudder uncontrollably. What she was enduring was unbearably erotic, pleasure so great she thought she would pass out from it.

  But she couldn’t pass out, not when his tongue con tinued to thrust inside her, forcing her to give even more. And then she was shoved over the
edge. Unable to take anymore, she tightened her legs around his neck and cried out in ecstasy as waves after turbulent waves overtook her.

  It was only when the last spasm had eased from her body did he tear his mouth away from her, lower her legs, lean down and kiss her, letting her taste the essence of herself from his lips.

  She sucked hard on his tongue, needing it like a lifeline and knowing at that moment he had to be the most sensual and passionate man to walk on the planet. He had made her feel things she’d never felt before, far greater than what she had imagined in any of those romance novels. And she knew this was just the beginning, an introduction to what was out there…and she had a feeling of what was to come.

  She knew at that moment, while their tongues continued to mate furiously, that after tonight there was no way they could live under the same roof and not want to discover what was beyond this. How far into pleasure could he take her?

  She was definitely going to have to give the proposal he’d placed out there some serious thought.

  * * *

  Jason eased Bella’s dress back down her thighs before lifting her from the table to stand on her feet. He studied her features and was pleased with what he saw. Her eyes glowed, her lips were swollen and she looked well rested when she hadn’t slept.

  But more than anything he thought she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. He hoped he’d given her something to think about, something to anticipate, because more than anything he wanted to marry her.

  He intended to marry her.

  “Come on, walk me to the door,” he whispered thickly. “And this time I promise to leave.”

  He took her hand in his and ignored the sensations he felt whenever he touched her. “Have breakfast with me tomorrow.”

  She glanced up at him. “You don’t intend to make my decision easy, do you?”

  A soft chuckle escaped his lips. “Nothing’s wrong with me giving you something to think about. To remember. And to anticipate. It will only help you to make the right decision about my proposal.”

  When they reached her door he leaned down and kissed her again. She parted her lips easily for him and he deepened the kiss, finding her tongue and then enjoying a game of hide-and-seek with it before finally releasing her mouth on a deep, guttural moan. “What about breakfast in the morning at my place?” he asked huskily.