Читать книгу It Started With... Collection - Miranda Lee - Страница 36

‘MUMMY’S got a boyfriend! Mummy’s got a boyfriend! Mummy’s got a…’

‘Yes, all right, Emily,’ Jessie interrupted sharply. ‘I’ve heard you. And do stop jumping up and down on your bed. It’s not a trampoline. Look, go and put a video on. I’ll never be ready in time if you keep distracting me.’

Emily was off the bed and out of the room in a flash. If there was one thing that would successfully shut Emily up, it was watching one of her favourite videos.

Being left alone, however, didn’t help Jessie as much as she had hoped. Her hands kept shaking for starters, and her usually decisive mind could not seem to settle on what she should wear tonight.

Kane had told her in an email yesterday—one of several he’d sent her during the last three days—that she didn’t need to be dressed up. Something casual would be fine.

Jessie had been relieved at the time. Her wardrobe was ninety-five per cent casual. But most were on the cheap side.

The evening promised to be warm, so a skirt was probably a good choice. She pulled out a black and white one similar to the pink floral she’d worn to work the other day, the one which Kane had said made her look good enough to eat.

Oh, dear. She shouldn’t have thought about that. Her nipples tightened and a little tremor ran down the back of her legs.

A glance at her watch brought instant panic. She only had a quarter of an hour before Kane was due to pick her up at seven. She’d already showered and done her make-up since arriving home, but she was still naked under her robe, her hair was a mess and Dora would be arriving any moment with Emily’s dinner.

The darling woman had promised to feed the child, as well as look after her for the night. She seemed just as excited at Jessie having a so-called boyfriend as Emily was. Jessie hadn’t liked to disillusion them over Kane’s true intentions—they both thought he was the ant’s pants—so she let them think what they liked.

Meanwhile, Jessie just kept telling herself that tonight was nothing serious. Just fun and games.

‘Fun and games,’ she repeated as she opened her underwear drawer and pulled out a black satin bra and matching G-string from underneath her more sensible sets. They had been outrageously expensive when she’d bought them pre-Emily, and had rarely been worn. Motherhood had made her breasts larger, so when she put the bra on, her cups really did runneth over.

But oh, my, she did look seriously sexy, with a cleavage deeper than the Grand Canyon. The G-string looked OK from the front. But she didn’t even risk a peek at a rear view. What she didn’t know couldn’t depress her.

A knock on the granny-flat door was followed by Dora’s voice as she opened the door and came in. ‘It’s just me, Jessie, with Em’s dinner.’

‘I’m still not ready, Dora. Can you organise things out there for a few minutes?’

‘No worries. We’ll be fine, won’t we, Emily?’

No reply from Emily.

‘Emily,’ her mother shouted whilst she manoeuvred on the stretchy black cross-over top she’d bought to go with the skirt. ‘Sit up at the table for Dora. I’ve set a place for her, Dora. And her apple juice is in her special cup in the fridge.’

‘Yes, yes, stop fussing. I can manage. You get on with getting ready. Kane will be here soon, you know.’

‘I know,’ Jessie muttered, hurriedly wrapping the skirt around her hips and tying the sash tightly at the back. One thing motherhood hadn’t improved on her figure was her waistline. It was slightly thicker now. Still, her bigger bust and hips balanced that, so the overall look was still hourglass.

Reasonably satisfied with the result—the amount of flesh she had on display in the deep V-neckline gave her a few butterflies—Jessie turned to doing something with her hair, which was a bit of a frizz, due to the humidity in the air. The only thing for it was up, of course. So up it went, brushed back from her face quite brutally and anchored to her crown with a black scrunchie.

Naturally, quite a few strands and curls escaped but guys had always told her they liked that. They said it looked sexy. And sexy was definitely the look she was aiming for tonight.

Her jewelry she kept to a minimum. A silver chain locket necklace and silver loop earrings. Her perfume was an expensive one, a present from Dora for her birthday back in June. It was called True Love.

True irony, Jessie thought wryly as she slipped her feet into the same strappy black high heels she’d worn the previous Friday. Her only regret about her appearance was that she hadn’t invested in some fake tan. No sleeves and no stockings meant that a lot of her pale flesh was on display. But she hadn’t been paid yet and could have only afforded the cheap variety. Better to have no tan than to have orange streaks and oddly coloured elbows and ankles.

‘Kane’s here,’ Dora chimed out a few seconds before he knocked on the door. She must have heard his footsteps on the concrete path which led around to the granny flat.

‘Coming,’ Jessie replied, amazed at how nauseous she was suddenly feeling. What had happened to the carefree girl she’d used to be?

Well, that girl was gone, Jessie realised, replaced by a nervous wreck who was scared stiff that she’d be so hopeless that Kane wouldn’t want to see her again after tonight. Which might be for the best. But somehow, at this precise moment, wisdom wasn’t Jessie’s long suit.

Thinking about the girl she had used to be, however, reminded her that she didn’t have any condoms. Still, she was sure Kane would be well prepared. A man who didn’t want children would always be prepared.

‘Kane! Kane!’ Emily’s excited voice reached Jessie.

Jessie hoped her daughter didn’t start chanting to him about his being her mummy’s boyfriend.

‘Won’t be a sec,’ she called out from the bedroom as she hurriedly put her make-up, brush and wallet into her black patent evening bag and headed for the bedroom door.

Kane hadn’t actually come inside. He’d stayed standing on the back doorstep under the light that shone down from above.

‘Oh,’ she said on seeing him. ‘We’re colour coordinated.’

He was wearing a black suit—casually tailored—with a white T-shirt underneath. No doubt a very expensive designer white T-shirt. Not that it mattered. On him, anything looked good.

By the look in his eyes what she was wearing was meeting with his approval as well. It was good that men rarely knew what a woman’s clothes cost. She wouldn’t mind betting that his T-shirt had cost more than her whole outfit. Minus the lingerie and the shoes, of course. They had been expensive.

‘Doesn’t Mummy look pretty?’ Emily said from where Dora, by some miracle, had kept her sitting at the table, eating her dinner. Admittedly, it was spaghetti bolognaise, Emily’s favourite. But Jessie had pictured her daughter hurling herself into Kane’s arms the moment he arrived.

‘Yes, indeed,’ Kane agreed with gleaming eyes.

‘Are you going to ask Mummy to marry you?’

It was just the sort of question Jessie had feared.

She groaned her embarrassment whilst Dora laughed.

Kane, the suave devil, took it in his stride. ‘Would you like me to?’ he said.

‘Oh, yes,’ Emily replied.

‘Your wish is my command, princess. The trouble is I don’t think your mummy’s quite ready to marry me yet.’

‘Why not?’ Emily demanded to know, scowling up at her mother.

‘Kane and I have only known each other a week,’ Jessie said with more patience than she was feeling. ‘You don’t marry someone until you’ve known them much longer than that.’

‘Two weeks?’ Emily suggested, and both Dora and Kane laughed.

Jessie rolled her eyes. ‘At least two weeks. Now, you be good for Dora tonight and go to bed when she tells you to. Thanks a bunch, Dora.’

‘My pleasure, love. Just you and Kane have a good time. And don’t go thinking you have to rush home. Stay out as long as you like. I’ll go to sleep on your sofa.’

‘I shouldn’t be too late,’ Jessie said firmly. More for Kane’s ears than Dora’s. ‘Bye, sweetie.’ She gave Emily a kiss. ‘Love you. See you in the morning.’

‘At least two weeks, eh?’ Kane said as they walked together along the side-path. ‘In that case, we should be engaged by Christmas.’

‘Very funny,’ Jessie said.

‘Who says I’m joking?’

‘Kane, stop it.’

‘Stop what?’

Jessie ground to a halt beside Dora’s prized hydrangeas, which were in full bloom. ‘Stop being ridiculous. You and I both know you would never marry me.’

‘Why not?’

‘For one thing I have Emily.’

‘I think Emily’s fantastic. Cutest kid I’ve ever met.’

Jessie shook her head in exasperation. ‘This is a stupid conversation and I don’t want to continue it.’

‘Good, because I’m sick of talking, anyway.’ Before she could read his intention, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her, right there and then.

Jessie’s first instinct was to struggle. What if Dora came out and around the side of the house and saw them? She even opened her mouth to protest.

Silly move.

His tongue darted inside and she didn’t think about anything much after that for a full five minutes. By the time he let her come up for air, her head was swimming and her body was on the countdown to lift-off. She actually moaned in dismay when his mouth lifted. Her fingers tightened on what she thought was his back, but was actually her evening bag, resting against his back.

‘Now I know what to do with you,’ he said thickly as he stroked an erotic finger over her puffy lips. ‘Every time you start to get stroppy tonight, I’m going to kiss you. So be warned and try to behave yourself in the restaurant. Unless, of course, you’d rather we didn’t go out to eat. We could drive straight to my place if you prefer. I do have food there in my freezer and a perfectly good microwave. Wine too, and fresh fruit. I’m actually quite domesticated. I only turn into a wild beast around you.’

‘I like the wild beast,’ she heard herself saying in a low, husky voice. But that finger on her lips felt incredible. Before she could think better of it, her tongue-tip came out to meet it. He stared down at her mouth and then slowly, ever so slowly, inserted his finger inside.

Her stomach somersaulted.

‘Suck it,’ he commanded. And she did, thinking all the while that she would do anything he told her to do tonight.

The thought blew her away. This was dangerous territory she’d just entered. But more exciting than anything she’d ever experienced before. Lyall was kindergarten playtime compared to this man.

His blue eyes narrowed as he watched her blindly obey him.

His tortured groan shocked her, as did the way he reefed his finger out, as if she were a cobra, not a woman on the verge of becoming his sex slave.

‘Enough,’ he growled. ‘You are one contrary woman, Jessie Denton,’ he added. ‘You run hot and cold all the time. So what is it to be tonight? You decide. The restaurant, or my place?’

Jessie was way beyond hypocrisy. She was as turned on as she knew he was. Any further delay would brand her a tease and she’d never been that.

‘Your place,’ she said, dropping her arms back to her sides as she took a step back from him.

He didn’t reply, just grabbed her free hand and dragged her out to his car as if the hounds of hell were after them.

‘Belt up,’ he ordered as he fired the engine. ‘And no chit-chat. It’s not that far to my place at Balmoral but the traffic’s heavy going into the city. I need to concentrate.’

Balmoral, she thought, her earlier dazed state slowly receding. An exclusive inner north-shore suburb with an equally exclusive beach. She’d been there once to a restaurant on its foreshores. Very up-market. Very pricy. After the recent housing boom, even the simplest apartment there would cost the earth.

She couldn’t see Kane having a simple apartment. It would be a sleek bachelor pad with a view and jacuzzi. Or a penthouse, with a pool, leather furniture and a king-size animal-print-covered bed.

She was wrong on both counts. First it was a house, not an apartment. Secondly, it wasn’t modern or overtly masculine. It was old—probably built in the thirties—with lots of art deco features and loads of antique furniture. The only thing she was right about was the water-view, which was magnificent from its site up on the side of a hill.

‘Did you live here with your wife?’ were Jessie’s first words after he had led her into the cosy front sitting room. Through the windows she could see the sea down below. And the lights of the restaurant she’d once visited.

‘No,’ he replied. ‘We had an apartment in town. I bought this when we separated. My parents live a couple of streets away. And my brother lives in the next suburb.’

Jessie thought it was nice that he’d chosen to live so close to his family.

‘This is not what I expected,’ she said.

He smiled. ‘I know. That’s one reason why I wanted to bring you here. Seeing for yourself is worth a thousand words. I keep telling you I’m not what you think, Jessie. Now, put that infernal bag down and come here…’

Jessie sucked in sharply. She should have known he’d get right down to it, once they were alone. It was what she wanted too. Inside.

But her earlier decision to come here and jump straight into bed with him had been easy when she was still in his arms, with his kisses still hot in her memory and his finger in her mouth. Not quite so easy standing here in his living room with the lights on and nothing but the sound of the sea in the background.

He frowned at her when she didn’t move. ‘Don’t tell me you’re nervous. Or that you’ve changed your mind,’ he added darkly.

‘No. No, I haven’t changed my mind. But yes, I am nervous,’ she confessed shakily. ‘It’s been so long and I…’

‘How long?’ he broke in.

Jessie was shocked when tears pricked at her eyes. Goodness, what was there to be crying about? ‘I…I haven’t been with a man since Lyall.’

She was thankful that he didn’t act all surprised, or suspicious, over this statement of fact.

‘I see,’ he said simply, then smiled. A soft, almost loving smile. ‘That’s wonderful.’

She was the one who was shocked. ‘Wonderful? What’s wonderful about it? I’ve probably forgotten how to do it!’

He laughed. ‘You haven’t forgotten, sweetheart. You’re a natural. But if you have,’ he said as he walked forward and put her bag down for her, ‘you have me to show you how all over again. But my way. Not Lyall’s way, or any other man’s way.’

‘And what’s your way?’ she choked out as he took her hand and started leading her from the room.

The look he threw over his shoulder sent shivers rippling down her spine. ‘The way which gives you the most pleasure, of course. I have a plan, as usual. But if at first I don’t succeed, then I’ll try, try again. You might be amazed at how many times I can make love in five hours.’

‘It…it’s already half past seven,’ Jessie blurted out, trying to stop herself from totally losing it. But dear heaven, he meant to make love to her for the whole five hours?

‘So I’ll be a little late getting you home,’ he said as he drew her through a doorway, switching on a light as he went. ‘I’m sure Dora will forgive me.’

The room was, naturally, a bedroom. A huge bedroom with polished wooden floorboards, high ceilings, antique furniture and a wide brass bed covered in a silvery grey satin quilt with matching pillows. The lamps each side of the bed had brass bases with white shades and long fringes. The chandelier overhead was crystal and brass. Lace curtains covered the long windows on the wall adjacent to the bed. In the opposite wall was another door, which was open and led into an en suite bathroom. The light shone in just far enough for Jessie to see it was more modern than the rest of the house, being all white. Possibly a recent renovation.

It was a beautiful bedroom, only the colour of the bedding betraying that a man slept here, and not a woman.

Although, of course, women could have slept here. With Kane. His ex-wife perhaps. And others Kane had forgotten to mention.

Jessie didn’t like that thought.

‘What’s wrong?’ Kane said immediately.

‘Nothing,’ she lied.

‘Come, now, Jessie, don’t lie to me. You looked at that bed and something not very nice came into your mind. What was it?’

‘I guess I didn’t like to think of you having been in there with other women.’

‘But I told you. There have been no other women since Natalie.’

‘What about Natalie?’

‘What about her?’

‘You slept with her recently. I know you did. I overheard both of you in the office the other day. I went to thank you for the book at lunch-time that day and you were discussing her pregnancy and she said you weren’t to worry, because it wasn’t yours.’

Kane stared at her. ‘Why didn’t you say anything before this?’

‘I…I didn’t want to.’

‘You just kept it to yourself and held it against me. Hell, Jessie, I wish you’d said something.’

‘Would it have changed anything? You did sleep with her, didn’t you?’

His grimace showed true anguish. ‘Look, it was three months ago and only the once. We’d met up in her flat the night our divorce papers came through. She’d offered to cook me dinner as a kind of celebration, to show there were no hard feelings. We had too many glasses of wine over dinner and she said how about it, for old times’ sake? If I hadn’t been drunk and lonely it would never have happened. I can’t tell you how much I regretted it afterwards. So did she, I think. It wasn’t even good sex. We were both plastered. I didn’t mention it because I didn’t want you to think I was one of those guys who get rid of their wives and then keep sleeping with them when they feel like a bit, as a lot do. I’m sorry, Jessie. I wasn’t trying to deceive you. I just wanted you to believe me when I said on that first Friday night that I wasn’t in the habit of picking up women. You were a one-off, believe me. You still are. I want you, Jessie, more than any woman I’ve ever known. And I know you want me. Please don’t keep finding excuses to push me away.’

Jessie knew he was a good talker. A clever persuader. But there was a sincerity in his voice and his eyes that touched her. Surely, he had to be telling the truth.

‘You really haven’t been with anyone else?’ she asked.

‘Cross my heart and hope to die.’

‘I wouldn’t want you to die, Kane,’ she murmured, stepping forward and snaking her arms up around his neck. ‘I want you very much alive.’

He groaned, his mouth crashing down to take hers in a kiss of mind-blowing hunger. Their tongues met, danced, demanded. Their bodies pressed closer, and closer. Their hips jammed together, then ground against each other.

‘No, no, not that again,’ he gasped as his mouth burst free from hers. ‘I haven’t waited the last three days for that.’

Her head was spinning but she concurred wholeheartedly. That was not what she wanted, either. She wanted him naked, and inside her. She wanted it all.

She reached round behind her back to untie the bow.

‘No,’ he said swiftly. ‘Let me…’

Kane started undressing her as no man had ever done in her life. So slowly and sensually, his eyes smouldering with desire, his hands not quite steady. First to be disposed of was her skirt, leaving her standing there before him with nothing below her hips but that skimpy G-string.

‘Arms up,’ he ordered, then he took her top by its hem and began to peel it upwards over her head.

The action covered her eyes for a second or two, Jessie quivering in her momentary darkness, turned on by the thought of how she must look with her arms up, her face masked, but her body being more and more exposed to his gaze. She’d never thrilled to a sex-slave fantasy before but she did so now, imagining herself having been bought by him, being a helpless prisoner to his passion, with no other purpose than to be an instrument of pleasure.

Not her own.

Suddenly, her own pleasure seemed irrelevant. This was all for him. Her lord and master. Her soon-to-be lover.

Even when her top was thrown away, she kept her eyes shut, enjoying the sensation of being outside herself, looking in on what was happening with her mind. She heard him gasp. In admiration, she hoped.

And then his hands were on her again, still soft, but just as knowing. He took her G-string off first, which surprised her. She wobbled a bit when he picked up first one foot and then the other. She stiffened expectantly when he straightened, sucking in sharply when one of his hands stroked over her belly. Her eyes squeezed even more tightly together when it drifted lower, a startled gasp torn from her throat when both his hands slid between her thighs. But he didn’t touch her there, just eased her legs apart.

‘Yes, like that,’ she heard him say.

And then his hands were gone, only to be felt again on her bra clasp. When it gave way and her breasts were finally naked before his eyes, she felt no embarrassment, only the most all-consuming craving to have them touched.

But he didn’t touch them.

‘Open your eyes,’ he told her forcefully.

Of course she obeyed. How could she not? It was the voice of the master.

Opening her eyes, however, brought a wave of dizziness.

‘Watch it,’ he said, and grabbed her shoulders to steady her swaying body.

Once she was still, his hands moved up to dispose of the scrunchie, letting her hair tumble in wild disarray around her shoulders.

She had never been so turned on, or so compliant.

‘I want you to just stand there like that,’ he murmured, ‘whilst I get undressed.’

Of course, she thought. What else would I do?

He stripped off his own clothes much faster than he had hers. And he took off everything, displaying the kind of body she’d imagined him to have. Muscly and hard, with not too much body hair, a broad chest and a six-pack stomach.

Jessie tried not to stare when he collected a condom from the bedside chest and drew it on.

But she did lick her very dry bottom lip.

‘No, not that either,’ he snapped, misinterpreting her action. ‘Not yet. Later.’

Whatever you want, she almost said. Whenever you want it.

He walked around her a couple of times, just looking at her, standing there in nothing but her high heels. Only when she was at screaming point did he touch her, coming up close from behind, pushing her hair away from one shoulder and bending his head to kiss her neck, softly at first, then more hungrily.

The wild beast swiftly emerged again, and soon he was sucking on her throat whilst his hands ran roughly up and down her arms. Her back automatically arched against him, the action lifting her breasts in wanton invitation. This time he obliged, cupping them in his hands and squeezing them together whilst his thumbpads rubbed rather cruelly over the already stiffened nipples.

Sensations shot through her like a series of lightning bolts, sizzling with electricity, leaving her burning with a fire which she knew could only be erased one way.

His mouth covered her ear, hot and heavy with his breathing.

‘Don’t close your legs,’ he commanded on a raw whisper.

And then he took her hands in his and stretched them out in front of her, bending her forward till her fingers reached the nearest brass bedpost.

‘Hold on to that,’ he advised.

Very good advice. Because she might have fallen otherwise. Or fainted.

No man had ever made love to her like this before, in this position. Jessie’s head whirled. But there was little time to think before he was inside her, holding her hips captive whilst he ground into her body.

She had never experienced anything so decadent before. But it felt so delicious this way. Wild and wicked and wonderfully wanton. Her mind swiftly joined her body in quest of nothing but more of the pleasure which was rippling through her entire body. She started rocking back and forth against him, tightening her insides in response to each of his forward thrusts.

‘Oh, God,’ he groaned. ‘Yes, yes, that’s it, sweetheart. That’s the way.’

He let go of her hips and took hold of each of her nipples with his thumbs and forefingers, squeezing them and pulling them downwards. The combination of sensations was way beyond pleasure. It reached the outer stratosphere.

Jessie cried out, then splintered apart with the most intense orgasm she had ever had. By the time Kane followed her several seconds later, she felt as if she’d fallen into quicksand. She clung on to that bedpost for dear life, knowing that if she let go she would surely sink to the floor.

And then she was sinking, but somehow she didn’t hit the floor. Instead, Kane scooped her up in his arms. How could he do that? her befuddled mind tried to grasp. He was behind her, deep inside her still throbbing flesh. She could still feel him there. But, no, it seemed he wasn’t there any longer. She was being carried, and being lain down on top of his bed, his very soft, very comfortable bed. He started stroking her hair and her back and her legs, and that wave of exhaustion which had been hovering at the edges of her mind floated softly down over her. She mumbled something. It might have been ‘thank you’. She yawned.

Then everything went black.