“And this.” Her watch pin was covered by a hand that came around her and pressed against her breast. His hands slid over her breasts and met at her waist where he began to pull her blouse from the high waistband of her skirt.
“Then I was going to do this.” His hands moved slowly to her back and began unbuttoning the bottom buttons on her shirtwaist. He only released about half of them before his hands slipped under the blouse and moved to her front. Brushing past eager, quivering breasts, he untied the decorative bow at the top of her chemise. Feeling his way, he unbuttoned the tiny buttons, pulling the diaphanous garment down with agonizing slowness until her breasts spilled into his hands.
Lauren had not spoken, but leaned back against his hard chest and purred pleasurably as his fingers caressed her, bringing her nipples to hard peaks by rotating his thumbs over them.
“Tell me when you lose all composure,” he whispered challengingly. His breath became uneven. The lips that nibbled at her neck became more impassioned, the tongue more adventuresome.
Hands, too, ceased to be teasing and became imploring. “You feel so good, Lauren,” he rasped as he stroked her. “Silk… no, satin. Cool. Warm. God, I don’t know,” he groaned, as he gently rolled the dusky pink crests of her breasts between his fingers.
A fumbling, clumsy hand finally waded through the material of her skirt and petticoats, over a silk stocking and a lacy garter, to find her linen-covered thigh. The skin beneath the sheer covering trembled as the searching fingers smoothed up the length of her thigh until, even through the light fabric, he discovered her prepared for his love. “Oh, God,” he groaned.
One hand left her to unfasten the remaining buttons on her back and slip the blouse from her shoulders. Then he pulled the pins from her heavy hair and buried his face in its cascading waves, drinking in the lavender-water fragrance of it.
Turning her slowly toward him, he rested her shoulder against his chest and looked down at her disheveled state. “Just as I imagined. You’re ravishing,” he whispered huskily.
She suddenly realized she was seeing him through the lenses of her eyeglasses and raised a hand to take them off. He trapped her hand in his and said, “Uh-uh. They’re part of the fantasy.”
His fingers followed her collarbone and moved down her chest, adoring the tips of her breasts, tormenting her by not touching what she craved to be touched. She arched her back at the same time she tangled her fingers in his thick hair and drew his head to her.
He cupped one of her breasts, brought it up to his descending face, and nuzzled it with his nose and beard-roughened chin before closing his lips around the center bud and raking it lightly with his tongue. When she moaned into his hair, he raised his head and smiled in devilish satisfaction before melting her lips with an ardent kiss.
He pulled back in shock as he felt her slender fingers working with the buttons of his shirt. Playful lips and a darting tongue tormented his nipples until they were turgid. Then her mouth followed the path down his chest and stomach that her fingers charted. She snuggled down his body until she dropped to her knees between his thighs. Staring up at him boldly, she peeled away the chemise and slipped her arms free, completely baring her breasts for his avid inspection. Her raven hair cloaked his thighs as she rested her cheek against his lap.
“I’ve had some fantasies of my own, Mr. Lockett,” she whispered as her fingers deftly unfastened his pants.
She said something else as her hand closed around the swollen shaft, but he couldn’t hear her over the pounding of his heart. And when the love-moistened tip of his sex felt the sweet brush of her tongue, his ragged breathing drowned out every other sound.
* * *
Much later, they lay on the rug before the fireplace where Jared had struck a match to the logs already stacked there. He lay on his back, hands folded under his head, a cheroot clenched in his teeth, brazenly unconcerned by his nakedness.
Lauren was curled up on her side, staring into the fire, her cheek resting on folded hands. He had covered her with his shirt, long ago discarded along with the rest of their clothes.
“You’re very quiet, Lauren. Is something wrong?”
She was glad that he was sensitive to her mood, but reluctant to disclose the worry niggling at the back of her mind. She felt him turn on his side toward her, felt his eyes on her, though she didn’t look at him. “What is it? Tell me.”
He could barely hear her, she spoke so softly. “I enjoy… the things we do, Jared. I… it’s wonderful, but…” She stopped speaking, closed her eyes in embarrassment, and continued, “I don’t think ladies are supposed to… to participate. I’m afraid you’ll think me wanton if I do… if I…”
His laughter boomed in her ear as he drew her around to face him. Between guffaws, he covered her face with light kisses. When his amusement subsided, he said tenderly, “Lauren, you’ll always be a lady. You couldn’t be anything but a lady. And no matter how often we make love, or how we make love, or how much you enjoy it, you’ll still retain that aura of innocence that first attracted me. It set you apart from any other woman I’d ever met.”
He traced her high cheekbone with a gentle finger. “Wanton? I’m surprised you even know the meaning of the word.” He chuckled again before his mouth claimed hers.
The kiss was deep and telling, and when it ended, his lips remained on hers as he said, “However…” The shirt was moved aside. His index finger began at the base of her throat and traveled down the length of her torso, between her lush breasts, over the smooth skin of her stomach, past her navel and mons to disappear between her thighs. “As long as we’re on the subject of wantonness…” He touched her knowingly and was rewarded by her ready response.
She sighed in mock-despair. “I’m no better than a common prostitute.”
He smiled even as he kissed her. “Yes, you are. Much better.”
She wanted to admonish him for his impudence, but his swift and certain possession robbed her of the initiative.
Chapter 23
They came out of the office arm in arm into the wide hall. There they met Olivia. She looked at their wrinkled clothing and mussed hair and assessed the si
tuation correctly.
“I heard you had come home early today, Jared.”