Suddenly You(81)

“No. But I can make both of us feel a hell of a lot better.”

Her hands came up to his arms, gliding over the muscular shapes covered in thin shirtsleeves. “Is there anything else that you have lied to me about?”

His blue eyes stared directly into hers. “Nothing,” he said without hesitation. “Just that minor, inconsequential difference in age.”

“Five years,” she moaned in renewed discomfort. “Good God, every birthday will be an agonizing reminder. I can’t bear it.”

Rather than look remorseful, the scoundrel actually had the temerity to smile. “Let me ease your pain, darling. Just lie still for a little while.”

Amanda would have liked to prolong her disgruntlement for at least a few more minutes, but his mouth covered hers gently and the clean, salty spice of his skin teased her nostrils. Her body arched upward as a current of pleasure hummed through her. It felt strange to be held bare against his clothed body…she was more exposed, far more vulnerable, than if he had been naked, too. A small sound rose in her throat, and she plucked at the layers of fabric that concealed him from her.

“No,” Jack whispered, moving downward to kiss the firm angle of her collarbone. “Put your hands down.”

“I want to undress you,” she protested, but he caught her wrists and pressed them firmly at her sides.

Amanda closed her eyes, the rhythm of her lungs quickening. His breath touched her nipple like a waft of steam, and she pushed upward with a muted groan when she felt the exquisite flick of his tongue. “Jack,” she panted, reaching for his dark head, but once again he took her hands and brought them to her sides.

“I told you to lie still,” he murmured, his voice caressing. “Be a good girl, Amanda, and you’ll get what you want.”

Perplexed, aroused, she tried to relax beneath him, though her hands clenched in an effort to keep from reaching for him again.

Murmuring his approval, he bent over her br**sts, softly kissing the space between them, the tender undercurves, the resilient plumpness at the sides. Her ni**les tightened into aching peaks, and she felt a mist of sweat break out on her skin as she waited, waited, until finally he covered one tip with his mouth and tugged. Searing delight coursed from that one point of contact to the rest of her body, and her loins swelled in eager preparation for him.

One large hand came to rest lightly on her belly, just above the triangle of auburn curls. She could not prevent the pleading undulation of her hips, and Jack pressed firmly on her stomach, keeping her flat against the mattress. “I told you not to move,” he said, sounding amused rather than threatening.

“I can’t help it,” Amanda gasped.

He laughed softly. His thumb circled her navel, exciting the responsive skin. “You will help it, if you want me to continue.”

“Yes,” she said, beyond pride or dignity. “I’ll be still. But hurry, Jack.”

Her shameless pleas seemed to delight him. Perversely, he became even slower, if possible, covering every inch of her skin with lazy kisses and nibbles. She felt him touch the curls between her legs, his palm brushing as gently as a breeze, and she wanted his fingers against her, inside her, so badly that she could not prevent a pleading moan.

His lips searched through the curls, found her, and the strong, immediate suction of his mouth caused her breath to catch sharply. Delight shot through her, scalding and relentless, and she felt his fingers stroking into the crease between her thighs. His wet finger traveled lower, too low, softly delving between her bu**ocks in a way that made her start uneasily. “No,” she whispered. “No, wait…”

But his finger slid inside her, in a place so strange and impermissible that her mind went blank from the shock of it. The gentle glide continued, and she tried to push him away, but somehow her body trembled and yielded, and the pleasure enveloped her in a hot, saturating cloud. She cried out again and again, thrashing, arching, until finally the sensation eased and she breathed in frantic bursts.

While her limbs still twitched in delicious aftermath, she felt Jack unfastening his trousers. He came into her deep and hard, and she wrapped herself around him, moaning, while he plundered and possessed her. Amanda kissed his taut face, his mouth, his shaven cheeks, loving the heat of him inside her, the way he groaned in the manner of a man who had been thoroughly sated.

They lay wrapped together for several minutes, her na**d thigh hooked over his trouser-clad one. Amanda felt so exhausted and replete that she doubted she would ever move again. She rested a hand on her husband’s taut belly.

“Now you may go to work,” she finally said.

He laughed low in his throat and kissed her thoroughly before he left the bed.

Although Jack Devlin was not a scholarly man, he possessed a combination of intelligence and instinct that amazed Amanda. The sheer weight of his business concerns would have crushed a lesser man, yet he handled them with cool competence. It seemed that his range of interests knew no bounds, and he shared his many enthusiasms with her, opening her mind to ideas that had never occurred to her before.

To Amanda’s surprise, Jack discussed business matters with her, treating her as if she were an equal partner rather than a mere wife. No man had ever accorded her such a mixture of indulgence and respect. He encouraged her to speak freely, challenging her opinions when he did not agree with them and acknowledging openly when he was wrong. He urged her to be bold and adventuresome, and in this pursuit he took her everywhere with him, to sporting events, taverns, scientific exhibitions, even to business meetings at which her presence was received with frank astonishment by the other men attending. Although Jack must have been aware that such behavior was not condoned by society, he did not seem to care.