Suddenly You(55)

She stood quietly, allowing him to cleanse and soothe her, and apply more hot compresses between her legs. When he was finished, he pulled her with him to the bed, and lifted her to the linen-covered mattress. Her heart knocked violently against her ribs, and the walls of the room seemed to disintegrate, leaving only darkness and firelight and the warm tangle of their limbs.

“Jack,” she whispered as he stretched her out beneath him, the stiffly bobbing weight of his arousal brushing against the inside of her knee. Her hands found his bu**ocks, squeezing the densely textured flesh like a cat kneading with its paws, and Jack gasped against her hair. Emboldened, she slid one hand to his sex and touched him, her fingers closing tightly around the pulsing shape. He moved to his side to give her more access to his body, letting her touch him in any manner she wished.

Gently she cupped the fuzz-covered pouch at the base of his sex, which felt cool and soft in comparison to the turgid shaft. Her fingertips traced over the ridges of veins that led all the way up to a broad tip. Experimentally she drew the pad of her thumb over the satiny bulb, and he clenched his hands in her hair and groaned.

“Does that please you?” she whispered.

It appeared that he found it difficult to speak. “Yes,” he finally managed with a smothered laugh. “God, yes…if you please me any more, I will probably explode.” He tilted her head back and brought their faces together, his features shimmering with a mist of sweat, his eyes ablaze with blue light. His large hand covered hers, helping to guide the head of his shaft to the thatch of soft, wiry curls between her legs. His palm moved to her thigh, hitching it over his hip so that she was spread open for him. “Rub it against yourself,” he murmured.

Amanda’s entire body turned crimson. Slowly she took the head of his shaft in her fingers and brought it to the damp furrow between her thighs. Her breath rushed in harsh surges as she rubbed the tip of his organ over her intimate flesh, until the moisture from her own body made him slippery.

“Jack,” she moaned, pushing his sex against the wet cove of her body, “take me now. Please. I want you inside me. I want—”

He interrupted her with a deep kiss, his tongue playing with hers, his hands folding over her br**sts. “Turn around,” he whispered. “Lie on your side, and hold your bottom against me.”

Amanda groaned as his fingers gently pinched her ni**les. “No, I want—”

“I know what you want.” His mouth slid over her hot face. “And you shall have it, my love. Just do as I tell you.”

Amanda obeyed him with a sob, settling so that her back was pressed against his chest, and his body was wedged behind hers spoon-fashion.

She felt the rise of his erection against her bu**ocks, and she writhed against him, her need so acute that all shame had vanished. He kissed and bit the nape of her neck, and murmured instructions, urging her to part her legs and arch her back. To her surprise, she felt him enter her from behind. She gave a guttural moan as he drove deeper, filling her until she was stretched tightly around him. Although he was gentle, she felt a pinch of discomfort, her body still unaccustomed to this intimate invasion.

“Does it hurt?” he whispered against her earlobe.

“Yes, a little,” she gasped.

His big hands coasted over the front of her body, stroking her br**sts, her quivering stomach, then moving to the aching peak of her sex. His clever fingertip rested close to the tingling flesh without quite touching it, teasingly elusive, sliding away each time Amanda strained to push herself against it.

He tormented her until she began to writhe, desperately working for the stimulation he held just out of reach. Each time her h*ps surged forward, he followed the movement, thrusting deeper into the grasping depths of her body. The soreness disappeared as each liquid glide sent a rush of delight through her, and the exquisite tension climbed higher, higher, until she bit her lips to hold back a scream.

“Jack, please, please,” she moaned, her every limb stiff, her skin sweating until even the roots of her hair were wet. She clawed at the gentle hand between her legs, straining to reach the cl**ax he withheld.

“All right, my love,” came his dark voice in her ear. “You’ve earned your pleasure.” She felt him pinch the throbbing little nub between his thumb and forefinger, and he gently stroked the silken flesh even as he thrust hard and straight inside her. It seemed that the world exploded in sensation and fire as her body clamped on his invading hardness with spasms of ecstasy. The rippling of her inner muscles brought him to the same rocketing cl**ax, and he withdrew from her with a groan, spilling his seed on the sheets.

Exhausted, satiated, Amanda rolled to face him, her arms sliding around his back. She felt the slight ridges of scars from long-ago beatings, and her hands lingered on the marks, fingertips softly stroking. Jack went very still, the cadence of his breath changing. His lashes lowered, concealing his thoughts from her.

She stroked the small of his back and then moved her hands up the powerful length of his spine. Finding the scars once more, she touched them lightly, as if she could soothe them away. “Mr. Fretwell once told me that you took many beatings meant for other children at the Knatchford Heath school,” she said. “You tried to protect the smaller boys from harm.”

His mouth tightened with annoyance. “Fretwell talks too damned much.”

“I was glad that he told me…I would never have guessed you were capable of such sacrifice.”