He smiled. In answer to the question she couldn’t quite bring herself to ask, his mouth sought hers. That first real kiss since the night before generated the same stirrings, the same exciting anticipation of things to follow. She allowed him unlimited access to her body. He found her secret places and caressed or kissed, eliciting moans of pleasure from them both.
Shyly at first, then encouraged by his soft groans of ecstasy, her fingers traversed the forested chest. Lightly she fanned the crinkly hair. His skin was warm and stretched tautly over contoured muscles which she massaged with fingers suddenly grown talented in the art. Air hissed through his teeth when she encountered the turgid brown nipples. She withdrew quickly, but his hand went to the back of her head and brought her back. Nuzzling her face in his neck, she traced it with her tongue. As she leaned over him, his strong fingers splayed over her hips and pressed her against him to meet his virile force.
“I want you again, Lauren. But I don’t want to hurt you,” he said, anguished.
“You won’t, you won’t.”
Strands of her hair were still wound around his neck as he almost fiercely rolled her to her back. Poised above her, he sought her eyes and demanded, “Say my name, Lauren. Let me see my name on your lips. Say my name, please.”
Reaching up, her fingertips played upon his cheekbones as she whispered, “Jared. Jared. Jared.” The last syllable was a plea.
When he entered her, it was slowly and deliberately. There was a remnant of soreness, but none of the burning pain she had experienced before. Jared moved against her like a well-trained machine whose only purpose was to bring sensuous pleasure.
His hands gently kneaded the fullness of her hips as he lifted her up and forward to meet his sublime invasion. He plunged more deeply than ever before, stroking the walls of her femininity, the gate of her womb, withdrawing to tease and tantalize the portal, only to bury himself within her again.
Lauren felt her spirit rising, floating above the surface of the bed, climbing higher and higher toward some pinnacle still nebulous and mysterious but desirable. It frightened her, this abyss she hovered over. She squeezed her eyes shut.
“No. Lauren, come with me,” he urged breathlessly. “Come… with… me…” He held her tight as his passion, beyond the point of restraint, emptied inside her, laving her with living fire.
He rested only a moment. Then, with a hand on the small of her back, he eased them to their sides. Still entrapped within that honeyed cave, Jared stirred himself arousingly.
“Can you feel me, Lauren?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes.”
“Do I hurt you?” He moved inside her again.
Oh, Lord. “No, it’s… it feels nice.”
“Then why did you stop?” he asked in a solicitous whisper. “You were on the brink of incredible joy. Are you afraid of it?”
Unable to meet his probing eyes, she nodded into his shoulder.
“I see,” he said quietly. Confident of his own abilities, he knew he could bring her to completion even now, but decided she wasn’t ready to accept it. He eased himself away from her, aware that, in spite of her denial, she must feel bruised and battered.
He brushed the hair away from her temples and kissed her forehead and eyelids. “Let’s take another nap.” Turning her away from him, he drew her back against his chest.
He fell asleep breathing in the perfume of her hair.
Chapter 19
Olivia knew immediately upon seeing Jared and Lauren together at lunch that her worst fear had come about. The household staff was buzzing about something, but she had never taken it upon herself to learn Spanish. She didn’t understand their excited whispers.
At the meal, however, the secret smiles, the oblivion to everything around them, and the dark smudges under their eyes testified to her how Jared and Lauren had spent the night.
Damn! How could her son succumb to that hothouse flower? He always preferred boisterous, blowsy girls, girls with scandalous reputations. What did he see in this fragile, ladylike paragon of virtue? Well, it didn’t matter if he slept with the chit as long as he didn’t form a lasting affection. Or—God forbid—if she should conceive a child. Hopefully, Jared was smart enough to prevent this from happening.
She watched them as they excused themselves and started upstairs for a “nap.”
“Jared, could I have a word with you?” she asked quickly, folding her napkin beside her plate as she stood. “Yesterday Parker and I talked over some plans amidst all that insanity at the groundbreaking, and I think you should be kept apprised of the developments.”
Jared looked wistfully toward Lauren, but begrudgingly complied. “All right, Mother. I’ll see you later, Lauren.”
After her daughter-in-law left the dining room, Olivia suggested that Jared follow her into the office. When he was relaxed and seated in a deep leather chair and smoking a cigar, she told him their new scheme.
* * *
“Really, Jared, I think you overreacted this afternoon.”