Suddenly You(58)

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said shortly. “No one is leering at me. I don’t know what you are trying to accomplish with this pretend fit of jealousy, but I assure you that it is unnecessary.”

“I know a leer when I see one.” He drew his hands along the silk-and-velvet bodice of her russet-colored gown, letting his palm cover the exposed valley of her cle**age. “Why did you wear this dress tonight?”

“I’ve worn it before, and you seemed to like it.” She shivered as the warmth of his hand passed over her tender skin.

“I liked it in private,” he muttered. “I never wanted you to wear it in public.”

“Jack,” she began, her stifled laugh cut short when he bent and dragged his mouth over the exposed skin of her chest. “Stop,” she whispered, quivering at the greedy stroke of his tongue in the vale between her br**sts. “We’ll be found out…oh, let me go back before the music begins.”

“I can’t help it.” His voice was soft and gruff, his breath striking her skin in hot exhalations. He gathered her body against his and kissed her, his mouth tasting of brandy as he searched her avidly.

Amanda’s rising panic was swamped in a surge of desire so overwhelming that she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, her body helpless in his demanding hands. He pulled at her skirts, thrusting his hands inside her drawers so roughly that she feared they might tear. She gasped when his fingers slid between her thighs, searching and fondling the soft flesh until she writhed desperately. “Not now,” she said with a faint sob. “We’ll be together in a few hours. You can wait until then.”

“No, I can’t.” His breath quickened as he felt the moisture from her aroused body. Pulling at the tapes of her drawers, he loosened the undergarment and dropped it to her ankles, then fumbled with the fastenings of his trousers. He urged her back against the closed door and kissed her neck, the bristle from his shaven jaw abrading her and making her skin tingle.

“Jack,” she whimpered, tilting her head back even while the fear of being discovered made her heartbeat escalate to a violent clatter.

His mouth muffled her protests in a crush of heat and sensation, and to her despair, she could not resist the wicked pleasure of it. She kissed him back, opening to him eagerly, letting her thighs part as his leg intruded between hers. His erection nudged against her, a thrust of hardness and silk, and her h*ps jerked in an involuntary movement to accommodate him. He pushed more strongly, entering her in a deep, sure glide. Amanda groaned as she was filled completely, her body clamping tightly around the delicious invasion. One of his hands caught her knee from beneath, urging her leg higher against his, and he pushed strongly within her.

She shuddered, her body locked to him, and then a languorous warmth suffused her as she relaxed to his rhythm. Their clothes rustled together, crushed masses of silk and broadcloth and velvet separating them everywhere except in the wet, na**d heat of their loins. She leaned against the door, her body rising with each upward drive. She was utterly possessed by him, no longer caring about the risk they were taking, conscious only of the ecstasy of his flesh joined to hers. Muttering fiercely into the curve of her neck, he thrust faster, creating silken friction that finally drove her into a scalding orgasm. He smothered her guttural cries with his mouth, and began to slide out of her in the way he always did just before cl**ax. But it seemed that suddenly he was possessed by some irresistible primal urge, and instead of withdrawing, he buried himself inside her. His large body shook with the power of his release, and his quiet groan vibrated against her damp skin.

They remained together in the pulsing aftermath, breathing harshly, while his mouth moved gently over hers. Finally breaking the kiss, Jack spoke in a rasping whisper. “Dammit…I shouldn’t have done that.”

Feeling dazed, Amanda could barely manage a reply. Since their affair had begun, they had taken measures to prevent pregnancy, and this was the first time that Jack had left the outcome to chance. She tried to calculate the most likely days for conception. “It’s all right, I think,” she murmured, placing her hand on the side of his face. Although she could not see his expression, she felt the tautness of his jaw, and a terrible sense of unease came over her.

“Sophia!” Amanda exclaimed in disbelief. She hurried across the little entrance hall of her home to where her oldest sister was waiting. “You might have let me know you were planning a visit—I would have made preparations.”

“I merely want to see if you’re alive or dead,” came Sophia’s acerbic reply, making Amanda laugh.

Although Sophia was meddling and bossy by nature, she was also a loving sister with strong maternal instincts. She had often given voice to the family’s sentiments concerning Amanda’s untoward behavior. It was Sophia who had protested the loudest when Amanda had become a novelist and moved to London. Letters would arrive from Sophia, filled with advice that greatly amused Amanda, for they counseled her to beware of the temptations of town life. Perhaps Sophia would not have been surprised had she learned that Amanda had actually dared to hire a male prostitute for her own birthday. It seemed that her eldest sister recognized, as few others did, the streak of recklessness that occasionally surfaced in Amanda’s character.

“I am very much alive,” Amanda said brightly. “Only quite busy.” She glanced at her sister’s familiar figure with a fond smile. “You look well, Sophia.” For years, Sophia had possessed the same soft, slightly round-shouldered figure. Her hair was worn in the same neatly pinned chignon and she wore the same sweet vanilla scent that their mother had favored. Sophia was exactly as she appeared—an attractive country matron who competently managed a dull but respectable husband and five boisterous children.