The drawled endearment should have enthralled her, but instead a quiver of fear pierced the sensual haze swamping her mind. Jake flung one long leg over her trembling limbs, holding her fast, his soft body hair, the hard heat of his arousal pushed against her thigh and she half closed her eyes, fear forgotten, at the lightning speed at which her body shook with want and need. Through the thick fringe of her lashes she saw Jake’s harsh face lower to within inches of her own. Her lips
parted for his kiss.
‘I am going to make love to you—’ his lips moved against her mouth and away again ‘—until every other man who ever had you is banished from your mind. Until the only name you ever cry is mine. My magnificent, mercenary little wife.’
‘Mercenary...?’ she murmured. He had called her that before...
‘That and more, but I can forget it all when I have sated myself in you.’
Lexi’s eyes widened to their fullest extent as she gazed up into his taut features and she trembled at what she saw there, in the stark, bright morning light. It wasn’t love, not even lust, but something more sinister...
Dazed with passion, she tried to think. Mercenary...he kept harping on that and yet she had never taken a penny from him. Then, with a flash of insight, she remembered their parting in London; she had pretended, to save her pride in the face of his infidelity, that she would rather have half his wealth than him. She smiled, and opened her mouth to reassure him.
‘Jake...’ She stopped herself just in time. If she explained why she had acted mercenary, he would realise just how much he had hurt her, how much she had loved him! It was the last coherent thought she had for a long time...
‘Yes, Lexi; I know.’ And releasing her hands, he stroked the length of her arms, the curve of her breast and her flat stomach; his strong hands curved over her hips, his long fingers trailing towards her inner thighs, but not lingering as they stroked right down to her feet and back up again.
Her heartbeat accelerated like a rocket. She felt how a cat must feel being stroked; she wanted to purr, and rub herself against the source of the pleasure. She clasped her hands around his broad shoulders, her body arching, writhing against his in wanton invitation.
‘Easy,’ Jake said, his voice ragged. He looked down at her sensuously flushed face, the softly parted lips. ‘I’ll give you what you want.’ His dark head lowered and he was kissing her swiftly, repeatedly, on her mouth, her eyes, the slender line of her throat. ‘I’m glad you haven’t lost all modesty,’ Jake murmured lifting his head. His dark eyes gleamed down into hers. ‘There are a few interesting white triangles here.’ One long finger traced the soft curve of her breast. ‘A mathematician could have a field-day working out the angles,’ he husked as he bent his head, his tongue tracing the slight outline in her flesh where her bikini top had left its mark, then, cutting across, his tongue laved the burgeoning tips of her breasts.
Lexi moaned her need, her mouth sought him, she kissed the back of his hand, biting on his forearm that lay across her breast-bone, holding her down. The taste of him was in her mouth, the male scent of him filled her nostrils; she was lost in a sea of tempestuous emotions she had thought never to experience again. Her hands grasped his hard flesh, clinging to his broad shoulders; her nails dug into his satin-smooth skin as he licked and kissed his way down her body.
She was aflame; everywhere he touched was transformed into million points of pleasure. His long fingers found the third curling red triangle, and she cried out his name, ‘Jake...’
He looked into her face as one strong hand gently urged her legs apart, opening her to his final possession, while his fingers stroked erotically. She watched his eyes darken to black pools, and he was shaking with the same wild desire that consumed her.
It was as if her body had been in prison for five years and was suddenly given its freedom. She was free to experience everything, to relish once more Jake claiming her, but he didn’t. His dark head bent and she quivered from head to toe as his touch, his tongue, became so intimate she thought she would die. She felt the tremors start in the heart of her womb, the tendrils reaching in ever widening circles.
Jake slid up her body, his mouth finding hers, his teeth and tongue biting and tasting her full pouting lips. ‘You’re hot, so hot,’ he murmured, as his hand slid between her thighs, tangling in the soft, red curls and finding the soft, feminine folds again.
She trembled wildly on the brink while Jake looked down at her, his smile a mixture of savage triumph and fiercely held control.
‘Tell me what you want, Lexi.’ His fingers stroked.
She reached for him, needing his weight, his body over her, in her, as red-hot need scorched her innermost being.
‘Say it, Lexi,’ he growled, his deep voice shaking as he lifted himself into the cradle of her thighs.
He wanted it all; Jake wanted her to beg. She hated him, but desire overwhelmed her. The brush of the hard hot length of him against her was too much. ‘Jake, I want you.’ Her voice broke as her love-starved body quivered like a bow. She arched up to him, her shapely legs curving around his thighs. ‘Please, Jake...’
Jake rubbed against her again but stopped just at the edge of taking her. ‘You do it, Lexi. Convince me, lover...’
Her deep purple eyes clashed with Jake’s. His skin was pulled taut over his high cheekbones; his dark eyes glittered with a violent light as he fought to control his own need. He brushed lightly against her once more, teasing, almost penetrating and with a sigh of surrender she gave him the triumph he demanded. Her hand slid eagerly between their sweat-slicked bodies, her fingers crawling over his flat belly and lower, finding the satin-sheathed steel of him. He jerked reflexively, and there was no need for guidance as he drove deeply into her.
Lexi’s hands curved around his back, clinging as he drove deep and deeper; their bodies, hot, wet and wanting, moved in frenzied rhythm. Lexi felt the widening circles flinging her out into infinity, breaking in wave after wave of tumultuous relief. She sobbed his name, then his mouth ground down on hers, as, with one final thrust of body and tongue, Jake shuddered over the edge into oblivion with her.
‘I’m too heavy for you,’ Jake’s rasping voice declared prosaically, and, rolling off her, he lay flat on his back, an arm flung across his eyes, as if shutting out the light.
Lexi glanced at him, his great chest heaving in the aftermath of passion, but the space he had put between them was more eloquent than words. ‘Jake?’ she queried, reaching out to him.
‘No inquest, Lexi. You enjoyed it as much as me,’ he drawled callously, not even bothering to look at her.
She briefly closed her eyes against the shame while admitting that Jake was right as usual. They had made love countless times in the past; it was nothing new, she told herself. But never had she felt so totally possessed. She tried to convince herself it was just good sex. She was more mature and could accept it as such, after all, he was her husband! Why not? That excuse was the most pathetic of all, and she knew it.
Jake sat up, and, glancing sideways at her naked sprawled body, his gaze finally rested on her face. ‘You wanted me, Lexi! Thanks! You convinced me most satisfactorily.’ His lips quirked in a mocking smile. ‘I think we will get along just fine.’ And, swinging his long legs off the bed, totally happy with his nudity, he walked around the room collecting his clothes.
Lexi flinched as though he had struck her, unable to respond. Five years’ abstinence had been ended by Jake’s sophisticated expertise in the art of making love. He had done it quite deliberately, reduced her to a mindless wanton in his arms. Before, she had believed Jake’s lovemaking was the ultimate expression of his love for her, until she had caught him with Lorraine... Now he had demonstrated graphically that his lovemaking had nothing whatsoever to do with love, but everything to do with possession, ownership. Jake decided he wanted her back, for whatever devious reason, and dismissed the past five years of her life as though they had never existed. Bed the woman! Back to the status quo! Reconciled! Jake was right, she had wanted him, but now, looking at him strolling around the bedroom all arrogant, smug, self-satisfied male, she wished she’d castrated the swine.