“You’re shivering. Are you chilly?”
“Oh…no, no, I’m just fine.” Smiling, Meredith did her damnedest to stop picturing him naked. Or to think about that oh-so-satisfying cock of his. The great sex she’d shared with Jack had always been her downfall. His proud cock…the hard planes of his sculpted chest…the sensuous way his tongue would curl around—
“Anyway, as I was saying,” Jack said. And, embarrassed, Meredith realized she had no idea what in the world he’d been saying because her thoughts had been focused on his sexual attributes…and her carnal appetite. “Marrying Becky was a foolish mistake,” he continued. And now he had Meredith’s full attention. “It was a rash and mindless decision. One that I regret wholeheartedly, especially because,” and now Jack dropped his head in a hangdog expression, “because I know how much it must have hurt you, Meredith.” He looked up at her with pleading puppy dog eyes. “And I wouldn’t want to hurt you for anything in the world, babe.”
Meredith realized her expression must have mirrored her thoughts when Jack quickly added, “But, honestly, what could I do? Becky was pregnant.”
Planting both elbows on the table, Meredith rested her chin on steepled fingers and gazed at Jack, doing her best to conceal the contempt that had suddenly obliterated all thoughts of him hot, naked and pumping. “She was lying, Jack. To get you to marry her.”
Jack raised a finger in objection. “Probably, but we can’t know that for a fact. According to Becky, she had a miscarriage while visiting her mother in Wisconsin just after we returned from our honeymoon.”
“Uh-huh. Right.” It was especially painful for her to recall the whole fake pregnancy ploy Becky had pulled, considering how much Meredith and Jack had wanted to have a baby of their own. They’d talked and dreamed about being parents so often. They’d wanted twins, a boy and a girl. All the tests confirmed that they were healthy. There wasn’t any medical reason why Meredith couldn’t conceive, but the pregnancy they’d hoped for never happened. The recollection usually made Meredith teary, but tonight it had a decidedly different effect.
“You know, Jack, little Becky was still pooping in her diapers when we got married—the first time we got married, I mean.” She gave a saccharine smile and sipped from her champagne, only to choke on it.
“You okay?”
The last of her sputtering coughs subsiding, Meredith nodded. She certainly wasn’t about to tell him that it was fleeting thoughts of her own naughty, before-breakfast tryst with a boy who’d been no more than a child when she and Jack married that had caught in her throat. Of course, her situation and Jack’s had one indisputable difference—hers wasn’t a sneaky, behind-the-back extramarital affair.
Jack breathed a sigh. “I know how disappointed you are in me, Meredith. What can I say? I’m a flawed man. You already know that. Becky was just one of a meaningless string of distractions that meant very little to me.”
“Like Lisa the barista you mean?”
Jack rolled his eyes. “I swear, Meredith, I’ve never had the soul connection with any of them that I have with the one and only woman I’ve ever truly loved. With you, Meredith.”
Meredith’s understanding smile hid the fact that the words rotten lying scum-sucking low-life cheating bastard seemed to flash like a bright neon green sign over his head.
“The only excuse I can offer is that I was young and—”
“The Becky incident only happened three years ago, Jack,” Meredith couldn’t help but interject. “You were forty.” Her lip hiked in an insipid smile.
“You’ve got me there.” Laughing, Jack winked and pointed a finger at Meredith, pistol fashion. “Let me amend that from young to inexperienced and weak.” He paused expectantly, and she nodded in accord. “I admit that I got caught up in the lure of young flesh. Being constantly pursued by nubile young fans at my university speaking engagements was intoxicating, addicting. Almost like being a rock star. After those first few appearances on the TV talk shows, all of a sudden Dr. Jack was hot. I’d somehow become a sex symbol almost overnight and had women of all ages throwing themselves at me.” He sucked in a deep breath. “It was tough. I’m only human, Meredith.”
“Poor baby.” Meredith averted her gaze, peering out at the multitude of lights dotting Portland’s hills. “I remember a time when I thought our love was so strong, so real, that it could withstand any obstacle…any temptation,” she recalled, her gaze still affixed to the glimmering lights while her thoughts were miles away. Years away. “A timeless love powerful enough to overcome any odds, including all the glitz and glamour.” Then she turned back to face Jack, locking gazes with him. “And then you dumped me. Not once, not twice, not even three times, but four times—at least that I know about.”
“It was only twice, sweetheart,” he offered with an apologetic smile.
“Yeah, while we were married.” Meredith’s eyes narrowed. “You’re conveniently forgetting the two times you broke off our engagement so that you could sow your wild oats with Amy and Cookie.”
“Okay, okay,” Jack said, raising a hand. “Point taken, but—”
“There are no buts. You did this to me after I had supported you by working two jobs so you could go back to school and take,” she held out her fingers to count, “elocution lessons, drama, public speaking and all the other classes you said you needed to become a successful motivational speaker. In fact, it was while you were in school that you dallied in your pre-marital oat sowing.”
“You’re absolutely right, Meredith.” Jack bobbed his head up and down, nodding his agreement and looking just like one of those bobble-head toys on a car’s dashboard. “You’ve always been an angel. My sweet, precious, hard-working guiding light. And I was a thoughtless bastard. I treated you horribly. Abominably. You certainly didn’t deserve that. Any of it.”
“You promised me the world, Jack—the moon, the stars and villas on the French Riviera. And all I ever wanted was your love. I would have been satisfied with that and nothing else.” Hearing a distinct catch in her voice, Meredith felt tears rising to the surface and squelched them down. She took a deep breath and worked to regain her composure. “Well…that,” she added with a smile, cognizant of the fact that she needed to lighten up a bit, “and the lifetime supply of chocolate you promised me.” She indulged in a little polite, nervous laughter and Jack followed suit.
The waiter’s arrival with their hideously expensive dinners of artfully prepared but miniscule portions of Pacific Northwest-style gourmet food interrupted their conversation. And it was just as well because Meredith needed to maintain her cool if she wanted her scheme to work. Being argumentative at the risk of alienating Jack just wouldn’t be prudent.
Once the cool, efficient server had departed, Jack admitted, “You’re right about everything, Meredith. All of it. What we had was pure and genuine and beautiful, and I spoiled it because I couldn’t keep my dick in my pants.”
He gifted her with an adoring gaze and Meredith marveled at the way the flickering candlelight made the flecks of color in his eyes sparkle. And when he brought her hand to his lips again, she allowed him to kiss it.
She breathed a lengthy sigh as cauldrons of inner turmoil roiled in her gut. The ravenous appetite that usually overtook her when she was nervous was curiously absent. Instead, she mindlessly picked at her food through dinner, barely eating or really tasting much of anything. Her plan had seemed so perfect, so simple…but adding Jack’s magnetic presence to the equation threatened to skew the outcome.
Lack of appetite hadn’t seemed to be a problem for Jack. He’d all but licked his platter clean. “What say we have dessert and cognac in my suite?” He leaned forward, his hand caressing hers. “We have a lot to discuss, Meredith, and after that,” his lip curled into a beguiling smile and he shrugged, “who knows?”
“Right.” Meredith returned the smile and then finished the champagne in her glass. “Who knows?” She knew—because she had it planned, every step of the way. And she�
��d be damned if she was going to allow her traitorous libido to get out of hand and louse things up now.
With a smile clearly designed to bedazzle, Jack offered Meredith his arm and led the way to his suite. Oh yes. He clearly had a night of carnal decadence in mind.
And Meredith wouldn’t dream of disappointing him.
Chapter Four
Meredith had promised herself that she wouldn’t gawk when she caught her first glimpse of the Columbia’s Astoria penthouse suite. That she’d be nonchalant, cool and collected, as if strolling through an opulent suite of rooms that dwarfed her entire apartment was an everyday occurrence—but gawk she did.
It was the kind of fairytale suite that she and Jack used to dream about back in their salad days. Its splendor even dwarfed that of the fabulous Chicago hotel suite they’d stayed in that one magical night twenty long years ago.
Contrary to common sense and better judgment, Meredith’s thoughts drifted back once again to the early years of their marriage. She remembered several evenings when she’d come home from work so bone-tired she couldn’t see straight and Jack had swept her into his arms and bedded her, ignoring her sleepy, half-hearted objections. He’d massage her sore muscles while painting lush verbal pictures of their future life of luxury together. While he spoke, incandescent hunger blazed so brightly in his eyes that it excited her beyond all reason. Because she knew the hunger wasn’t for money…it was for her. And after soothing her muscles and tendons, Jack confirmed it by feasting generously on her weary, aching body until that certain area deep within her belly wound tightly with an almost unbearable coil of anticipation. He’d speak to her of gold and satin and diamonds and silk as he finger-fucked her. Then he’d lick her juices from his fingers as if her taste was the finest of gourmet treats.
Forcing herself back to the present, Meredith realized why Jack had chosen this ornately furnished suite with its massive gilded mirrors, exquisite furnishings, mile-deep carpeting, yards of Italian marble and the other extravagant touches it offered. It was the epitome of their youthful dreams and aspirations come to life. He was letting her know that it was what she could have if she took him back again. But he’d missed the mark this time. It was never money and riches that she yearned for, not really. Oh sure, it was fun to think about being fabulously rich but she didn’t need that to be happy. All she needed was Jack—body and soul. True and loyal and loving her forever. Alas, that had proven to be far more elusive than material wealth.
And that’s exactly why she was here tonight.
“You’ve certainly come up in the world, Jack. The past three years have been very good to you.”
Dropping his gaze to his feet, Jack shoved his hands into his pants pockets and shook his head. “Only monetarily, Meredith. I lost the only treasure of any real value through my own stupidity.” When he raised his head again their gazes locked and Meredith sucked in a breath hoping that Jack hadn’t noticed the pulse in her throat quicken. She watched his jaw muscle twitch as he studied her in silence, his commanding gaze boring into hers. She broke the spell by clearing her throat and strolling over to an ornately framed painting, feigning interest.
“Does this remind you of anything, Meredith?” She turned to find his arm waving in a sweeping gesture around the living room. “Remember those talks we used to have when we were just a couple of hungry, starry-eyed kids? The enchanting fantasies we shared? The trips we longed to take?”
“I remember…everything, Jack.”
His expression was so fixed she began to fidget. His chest expanded with a deep breath and he finally looked away. “Take a look at this,” he said, motioning to one of several rooms.
Meredith wasn’t at all surprised to discover that the room Jack pointed out was the bedroom. Its focal point was the biggest most elaborate bed she’d ever seen. It was cloaked in yards of shimmering gold satin and topped with a veritable explosion of gold-trimmed and tasseled ecru linen, velvet and lace pillows of all shapes and sizes. The massive, ornately turned wrought iron bed would never fit in her bedroom at home but it was perfectly proportioned for this huge, stately room. Her eyelids fluttered shut briefly as she pictured herself with Jack, naked, sliding and rolling around its broad expanse as his talented tongue found its way to her inner lips, slipping inside to lave her needy clit. Stroking…lapping…bringing her to—
“Come on.” Jack plopped onto the edge of the bed, bouncing as he patted the rich satin spread. “It’s like a cloud.”
Startled out of her imaginary revelry, Meredith blinked. Her seeming inability to keep the task of Jack’s payback primary in her thoughts was really becoming a problem.
She watched him springing up and down like a kid and smiled. At that moment he looked for all the world like the carefree, spirited young man she’d married. Unable to resist the temptation to join in the fun, Meredith primly sat on the edge of the bed, loving the way it firmly supported her while allowing her to sink at the same time. She glided back a bit further. No doubt about it, the bed was an open invitation to bounce. And she did, tentatively at first and then laughing freely as her bottom connected over and over again with the golden satin, unmindful as her long hair flipped up and down with each bounce. She glanced at Jack and saw that his gaze was locked on her jiggling breasts. Good. She rebounded a few more times, making sure to give him a substantial eyeful of what he’d forfeited.
“Now that’s the Meredith I remember.” He grinned, tearing his gaze from her breasts with obvious difficulty. “Happy, fun-loving, ready to have a good time at the spur of the moment.” In a move she hadn’t anticipated, Jack scooped Meredith into his arms and held her close. She flattened her hands against his chest—his big, broad, warm, expansive chest—and pushed, with all the effect of trying to topple a brick wall with a toy hammer. He hugged her tighter. “I missed that joy of yours so much, Meredith. God, I missed you so much.” He captured her mouth with his, seeking entry into her sweet depths with his probing tongue. She resisted at first. She really did. But the second their lips met and she felt his passion and hunger, she was lost. As they kissed they fell against the mattress and rolled until Jack was positioned atop Meredith.
“That was very sneaky, Jack,” she managed through ragged breaths. And, oh God, it was hot and delicious and— Oh no, no, no. This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all.
He kissed the tip of her nose. “As they say…all’s fair in love and war…”
“Yeah, well if you don’t get off of me this instant I can guarantee you it’s going to be war.” She pushed against Jack to no avail. And he had the nerve to grin down at her as he pinned her in place while she struggled. Of course, the flood of hormones raging through her system, flushing her skin, prickling at each nerve ending and making the region between her legs all hot and balmy probably weren’t helping to make her protests very convincing.
“Oh, sweetheart, I want you back,” Jack said, securing her firmly against the gleaming satin. “Desperately. All the fame and fortune in the world can’t fill up the void that’s been with me ever since I was stupid enough to let you go.” He kissed her again and she felt herself falling deeper under his spell. “I need you, Meredith.” Another kiss. “I want you.” Another kiss. “I love you. I cherish and adore you.” Kiss, kiss, kiss. “I simply cannot live without you.” This last kiss was more insistent, more forceful as he mashed his mouth against hers and pressed his erection against her thigh, evidencing the effect she had on him.
Willfully tuning out the drumming pulse beating in her ears, Meredith listened to Jack’s declaration of undying love. The words she’d been yearning to hear for three long years had her breathless and her pussy drenching with need. She fought valiantly to keep logic at the forefront but the sweet pressure of Jack’s cock nestled against her leg was too powerful a reminder of their sensational lovemaking sessions over the years. Oh, the undulating waves of wild, raw, shuddering, quaking, mind-bending joyous, rapturous pleasure. The way she’d suck his cock at the same time
that he was eating her pussy.
She licked her lips, quickly losing the battle against those damned treacherous hormones of hers. And then Jack’s hot wet tongue was in her mouth again, thrusting and urgent. He cupped her breast, pinching her nipple through the fabric. An impassioned moan erupted from somewhere deep inside her being. Her nipples had tightened almost to the point of pain and she craved his talented touch…ached for the feel of his mouth on her breasts, nipping, sucking, tugging. And then she felt his hand caress her pussy, gently at first and then clamping more firmly…rubbing, pressing… She trembled at the way he took command of her body, as if he still had the right. As if…
Oh what the hell. So what if she chose to indulge in a teeny bit of casual fucking before she got down to the business of payback? Would it really be so terrible? It was her birthday after all. Didn’t she deserve to treat herself to a great big juicy birthday orgasm with the one man who knew precisely how to drive her wild?
Well, of course she did! Naturally she’d never be able to tell Karyn about it. Ever. Karyn would absolutely—
“Meredith…Meredith?”
“Huh?” It wasn’t eloquent but it was the best Meredith could do, considering what she been pondering.
“You seemed to be a million miles away just then. What were you thinking about?”
“Love and war…and us.” Meredith smiled, biting her bottom lip to keep from breaking out in a full-fledged grin. “Fucking each other senseless the way we used to when we were kids,” she said huskily as she reached for his cock and squeezed it. “Getting all hot and sweaty and musky together.” She stroked the length of his cock firmly. “Sending each other to the moon. Remember?” She licked her lips slowly, luxuriating in the way her blood simmered with need for him.
“Oh, baby…” With a primal groan Jack rolled onto his back, yanking her flush on top of him. He practically squeezed the life out of her as he wrapped his arms around Meredith and crushed her against the hard muscled planes of his physique. She soon found herself staring down into darkening eyes that gleamed with carnal intentions. She knew that heated look so well.
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