by Amy Sandas
Still, facing the flat wood panel of the door, there was a small inescapable fear lodged in her chest. Jude might turn her away. That may have been why her knock was more sharp and persistent than was necessary. And likely explained the electric spark of apprehension that danced over her tightly strung nerves when Jude called out the approval to enter.
Ignoring the whispers of doubt that tried to gain purchase in her mind, she lowered her head and squared her shoulders as she opened the door and passed through. Determination made her steps strong and sure. And she nearly made it to the center of the room before she faltered and came to an awkward halt.
Her stomach erupted with a sudden barrage of nervous butterflies and her heart thudded so heavily that her ribs ached.
Vaguely, Anna heard the door click shut behind her.
The rest of her awareness was completely trapped by the sight of Jude reclining against one end of the large tub with his head thrown back and his bare arms spread out along the top edge. His hair was wet and the ends curled wildly about his face. Every inch of his muscled shoulders gleamed with reflective droplets.
His eyes were closed as he relaxed in the soothing water, but he must have wondered at the sudden silence because he lifted his head and cracked open his eyes. His attention fell on Anna where she stood in the middle of the room. It was the first time since she had left his bed the night before that she felt he actually saw her.
Anna was suddenly, irrationally grateful she had taken the time to bathe and wash her hair. She was dressed in an unadorned cream-colored gown and her black tresses were twisted into a loose chignon at the back of her head. She was not the stable hand or the businesswoman or the elegant socialite tonight. She was simply Anna.
The fervency of his gaze intensified as he looked her over from toes to top. His acute interest, coming so swiftly off the wave of cold indifference he’d displayed earlier, was like the deliberate thawing of frozen stone. The tension within her melted away and was replaced by the heated physical awareness of just how intimately knowledgeable of each other they had become. A blush warmed her cheeks. Her legs went weak and she worried they may crumple beneath her, but she held herself steady with pure stubbornness.
She had come here with a purpose, and intended to see it done. She wasn’t going to allow his mercurial mood swings or her own amorous reactions to distract her.
When Jude finally lifted his eyes to her face, he smiled, as if it were the most natural thing in the world for her to be standing in the middle of his bedroom as he lounged naked in his bath.
“What have you got there?”
His question didn’t register at first. Then Anna recalled the items she grasped in her hand. As she met his gaze, she intended to present a stiff and unwavering resolve, but one glimpse at the raw heat and exposed desire in his gaze had her lashes fluttering down over her eyes and her voice didn’t come out nearly as strong as she had intended.
“I’ve come to check your injuries,” she explained. “I am handy with a stitch if necessary.”
“Yes, I’ve witnessed your skills,” Jude answered with another broad smile.
The subtle reminder of her association with Leif made Anna pause, but there was no malice in his tone or accusation in his gaze.
“Will you let me tend to you?” she asked, deciding for now to ignore the incongruity of his good humor.
“Of course. Though I don’t think it’s as bad as it looked,” he replied as he levered himself upward in the tub, exposing more of his naked chest.
Anna hesitated. She had thought he would want to get out first. She would have turned away while he covered himself. But it looked as though he intended her to see to his injuries now. While he sat naked in the bath.
She came forward. It didn’t matter that he was naked. That the sight of his bare chest and broad shoulders already made her stomach quiver. That she had important things to discuss that needed her full focus. She could handle this.
She kept her eyes trained on his face as she approached, ignoring the small upward curl at the corners of his lips and the beautiful, startling depth of his blue eyes. She came carefully around the tub to his side. She could see where the long wound parted the wet locks of his hair at his temple. Intent upon her task, she knelt down on the soft rug extending from beneath the tub and almost managed to forget how much of his body was within hands’ reach.
Setting the washbowl on the floor beside her, she lifted her hands to his head and gently felt around the edges of the wound with her fingertips. She avoided his gaze as she went about her task, but she could feel his eyes on her the entire time and her body hummed in delicate reaction.
“What decision was made as to Olivia’s fate?” she asked partly in curiosity and partly as a means of distraction from his closeness.
The area around the gash was slightly swollen and bruised, but now that the wound itself had been cleaned, she could see it wasn’t very deep after all. The amount of blood that had covered the side of his head had been somewhat deceiving.
“She will be sent to the continent. I didn’t ask exactly where. But not to worry,” he added with a small sneer of contempt, “she will have an array of servants and companions to keep her comfortable.”
It was exactly what Olivia had been trying so desperately to avoid. But it was fitting punishment. Anna was pleased to find that she felt nothing. Not remorse for the fact that she would likely never see her sister again or even satisfaction that Olivia was finally being forced to accept the consequences of her actions. If anything, there was relief that the issue was resolved and finished.
She threaded her fingers through his hair and felt around his skull. A slight wince was his only reaction when she discovered the large knot on the back of his head.
“Sorry,” she murmured, though she continued to explore the hidden injury with careful attention. The trauma to the back of his head was likely the cause of his loss of consciousness and had probably given him a terrific headache.
Sitting back on her heels, Anna dropped her hands to her lap. She eyed his other injuries. The bruise on his jaw was darker, but there was only slight swelling under the skin. There was no indication the bone had been broken. The same was true for the bruise on the crest of his right cheekbone, though she suspected the purple discoloration would likely extend to his eye by morning.
“Not as bad as I feared,” she commented.
“Really?” Jude replied as he flexed his spine and shifted his shoulders. “Because I feel bruised and battered from head to toe. You may need to check the rest of me for injuries. To be thorough,” he added with a flash of wickedness in his smile.
Anna’s skin flushed with heat. The idea of roaming her hands over every inch of his body stopped her breath with delicious anticipation. She met his eyes and a deep pulse of desire flared to full life between her legs.
She pressed her thighs tightly together and glanced away.
His suggestive teasing was having a very specific effect on her, and she didn’t yet know how much of what he said was in jest or if it was to be taken more literally. She would love to believe he wanted to make love to her again, and she hoped to God that might happen later. But right now, his heated gaze and sensual smile threatened to tempt her away from her sincere purpose in coming to his room.
She didn’t just want Jude in bed. She wanted him everywhere, all the time. Forever.
“Jude,” she started with renewed resolve as she returned her gaze to his face. “We need to talk.”
“We do,” he agreed with an appropriate note of sobriety in his voice. “But not now,” he added as he rose from the tub.
Anna’s jaw dropped in stunned amazement. Her eyes flew over the magnificent details of his body displayed as he stood over her like a lord of fantasy. Water ran in enticing rivulets down the toned muscles of his chest and abdomen. A line of hair darker than the hair on his head ran from his navel down to where his erection stood in a full state of arousal.
At the
sight of his obvious ardor, Anna scrambled to her feet and her eyes flew to his face in a near panic even as the tugging ache between her thighs deepened.
“What are you doing?” she croaked.
His only answer was a wicked grin that stopped her heart and flooded her sex with liquid fire.
He stepped from the tub, and before she could back away, he wrapped her in his arms and pulled her up against his naked body, claiming her mouth in a fervent kiss. It took only a split second to recognize that this was no calm seduction. His arms crushed her to him. The heat of his skin and the water that clung to him soaked through her dress, dampening the cotton and plastering it to the sensitive peaks of her full breasts.
His fierce passion surprised her in a way that was delicious and breath stealing. His mouth was insistent against hers, his head tilted demandingly and his tongue plunged past her lips in swift possession. She had no other thought than to give herself over to the passion in the moment.
Her hands curved around his ribcage and she spread her fingers wide over the muscled surface of his back. She shifted, rubbing herself against the ridge of his hardened manhood when it pressed insistently into her low belly. Her movement elicited a groan of pained satisfaction from deep in Jude’s throat and he tightened his arms around her waist, nearly lifting her off her feet.
She broke the kiss with a raw gasp when he walked them back toward his bed.
“Jude…”
He stopped and looked down at her. The ferocity of his passion was only barely contained in his eyes, and she came as close as anyone was likely to come to being consumed by the desirous flame in a lover’s gaze.
“Tell me you don’t want this,” he taunted roughly.
His hands ran down the buttons at the back of her gown, releasing them one by one.
“I can’t,” she breathed helplessly as he tugged her dress off her shoulders.
The light gown fell in a soft hush to her feet. He lowered his head and pressed hot, wet kisses along the side of her throat.
“Talking can wait. Right now I need you,” he murmured against her skin.
Anna moaned as his words chased away all other concerns. He needed her.
And God, she needed him.
She kicked her shoes off and cupped his jaw in her hands to urge his mouth back to hers. This time she led the kiss, sweeping her tongue over his firm lips, darting between them to taste the rich heat of his mouth. They stumbled to the bed, stripping off the rest of her clothes as they went. By the time he turned and half-tossed her atop the mattress, she only wore her stockings.
He paused then, standing between her parted knees as she lay crosswise on the pale blue coverlet. The hunger in his eyes as he perused her bared body left a trail of tingling flesh in its wake.
When he gazed with deep appreciation at her breasts, they grew heavy with wanting and her nipples tightened. As he lowered his gaze to her narrow waist and the shallow dip of her navel, her stomach quivered with anticipation. Then his attention traveled even lower and she thought she might go up in flames in spite of the swift vulnerability that shook her.
Jude stepped forward then and his hands fell to her knees. He rubbed soothing circles into her taut flesh, spreading the circles wider and wider until his fingers smoothed over her inner thighs, nearly touching the sensitive flesh at her core, but not quite. The sight of him standing between her legs, so focused and intent upon his exploration of her body and her response, heightened her need. Anna tipped her head back and closed her eyes, waiting with bated breath for him to extend his fingers to where she most wanted his touch.
He slid his hands beneath the weight of her thighs and gently parted her legs farther, opening her to him. She arched off the bed, anticipating his intrusion and full possession.
Instead, he stepped away from her. But before she could register surprise at his sudden absence or protest his retreat, he pressed back between her legs and in the next instant a lick of the most delicious liquid fire flared against the heated folds of her sex.
Her gasp of shock and amazement was replaced by a deep moan as the velvet flame returned again and again to tease and sooth her pulsing flesh. When Jude closed his lips over the swollen bud nestled within her thatch of black curls, drawing the sensitive flesh into his mouth, Anna nearly jolted off the bed.
Jude pressed his palms heavily up the length of her body, smoothing over her shaking belly. His large fingers closed over the mounds of her breasts and he kneaded their softness, then pinched their peaks delicately as he continued to lavish her sex with the skilled attention of his mouth. Pleasure speared through her body in bright reaching arcs and a humming invaded her blood, spreading ever outwards.
She reached down and threaded her fingers through his damp curls as she unashamedly held him to her. In the next instant, her climax burst from her core in a flash of pulsing white-hot pleasure that stopped her breath and overtook her entire body. The release was so strong and encompassing that her awareness was barely able to reach out far enough to notice Jude rising up over her.
But when he plunged his erection into the still-quivering cavern of her sex, she reacted to the unbelievable satisfaction of finally being filled by him with a deep arch of her back that lifted her breasts up in an invitation he couldn’t resist. As he accepted her offering and suckled the fullness of her breast, he pushed deep into her body. Fully embedded, fully possessing. He held himself there for a moment as he lavished her breasts with deep sucking kisses and wide sweeps of his tongue.
Anna never before felt so completely cherished and powerful at the same time.
Her flesh still hummed with the aftermath of her first climax when it all began building again. Jude braced his hands on either side of her head, lifting his upper body away from her. She felt no shyness when his heated gaze took in the wanton appearance of her nude body sprawled beneath him and the appreciation in his eyes intensified her pleasure.
He moved within her, committing to a slow and deliberate rhythm. Each retreat and advance of his thrusting hips felt like the mingled expression of physical mastery and selfless generosity. Anna grasped his hips in her hands, grounding herself to him. The muscles of his buttocks tensed with every movement of his body that brought her closer to the delirious peak.
Finally, when she was near to being taken away on another wave of immense pleasure, she threw her head back to meet his darkened blue eyes. As she looked into Jude’s fierce expression of passion and restraint as he brought her to a second release, the feeling of communion was too strong to fight. She uttered the words that had been flying through her soul and beating against her tongue for far too long.
“I love you,” she whispered on a gasp of pleasure as the tethers were loosened and the climax overtook her.
Jude responded with a deep guttural groan and he lowered his body to cover her. The weight of his chest pressed her into the mattress and he reached down to slide his hands beneath her buttocks to hold her up to him. His head rested alongside hers and his lips pressed in a hot open-mouthed kiss to the side of her throat.
His thrusts became fast and intense as he sought out his own climax.
Anna’s body was languid and heavy with the receding waves of pleasure when the swift pulse of Jude’s release echoed deep against her womb.
Chapter Thirty-One
“Now we will talk.”
Anna’s mind was totally unfocused, her thoughts in complete disarray, when Jude made the declaration with a disturbing clarity of purpose.
The groan of dismay escaped before she could call it back.
Jude lifted himself from her satiated body and she rolled away from him in defiance, curling onto her side in a pose of slumber.
She couldn’t talk now. Not after all of that.
She could barely remember her own name let alone the very important issues that needed to be discussed. Physically, she had never felt so wonderful in her life. Emotionally, however, she couldn’t ignore the sharp stab of trepidation as she
recalled her revealing little slip of the tongue.
Not that she wished to take back the declaration of her feelings. She had just expected to say that string of three very important words in a manner a bit more planned out, when she felt more secure in his response.
Jude chuckled softly behind her.
“No playing coward now, Anna. After witnessing your actions this afternoon, I’ll never believe it.”
Anna stiffened, preparing to defend herself even though she couldn’t pinpoint what it was about his statement that had offended her. Before she could draw breath to argue, a quiet knock sounded at the door.
“But first,” Jude said, “let’s eat. I requested dinner be sent up after my bath. A day like today tends to work up an appetite.”
Anna shifted on the bed and turned to watch as Jude swept up a towel that had been left near the tub and wrapped it around his hips. When he went to the door, he was sure to only open it wide enough to take the tray of food.
She sat and looked around for something to throw on. A quiet smile flittered across her lips when she saw the clothes he had been wearing the day before tossed haphazardly onto a chair. She would have to make sure they interviewed for a valet, and soon. Her husband desperately needed a personal attendant to keep his things from being ruined.
She was jumping ahead of herself. She knew it, but couldn’t seem to rein in the fantasy.
It surprised her how easily the idea of caring for his needs came to mind. Such a mundane and domestic act, yet the hiring of a servant had a sense of permanency about it.
The physical exhilaration from the lovemaking began to recede and was quickly being replaced by a renewed nervousness that made her insides tremble.
She slid from the bed to retrieve Jude’s discarded shirt. His scent rose up from the garment as she lifted it from the chair, causing her heart to knock against her ribs in a double beat. She pulled the white lawn shirt around her shoulders and slipped her arms into the sleeves. The hem fell to mid-thigh. Not ideal, but certainly more modest than sitting in full nudity.