As she went to stand, he lurched across the bed and grasped her wrist.
She lifted her hand, trying to wrestle it free of his grasp. ‘Jack, I have to...’
‘Don’t go,’ he said, the request cutting her protest off at the knees. Her hand dropped to the bed, still manacled in his. ‘Stay.’
‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ she said, but she could hear the foolish hesitation in her own voice. What was wrong with her? What was she hoping was going to happen?
And how could the yearning still be there? Now they’d fed the hunger?
Except it didn’t feel fed...not even close. Her gaze lingered on the smooth contours of his chest, the bunch of muscle and sinew, the faded ink.
‘Why not?’ he asked, but then his lips twitched, as if he were holding back a grin. ‘We’re on our honeymoon.’
‘Yes, but it’s not a real honeymoon,’ she countered, still trying to cling to what was left of her common sense. Even as a niggling voice at the back of her head kept saying... Why not stay and find out if there could be more?
Hadn’t they both been running for too long? Didn’t she owe it to their child, his child, at least to try?
He fascinated her—his facets, his mood swings and all the carefully guarded secrets that lurked behind his eyes. She was attracted like a moth to a flame, the danger only making him more intriguing.
He had given her something this afternoon, a small glimpse of himself. How could that be bad?
‘Right now, it feels real enough,’ he murmured, his voice a rough burr of sound that seemed to scrape across her skin like sandpaper.
Sitting up, he turned her body until they sat together on the side of the bed, his thighs bracketing her hips, one large hand resting on the barely-there curve of her belly, his chest hot against her back. He hooked her hair behind her ear to expose her neck and nuzzled the sensitive skin over the galloping pulse.
‘Come on, Katherine. We might as well make the most of this chemistry while it lasts,’ he murmured. ‘What have we got to lose?’
‘But what if it never ends?’ she asked, then realised how gauche that sounded when he chuckled.
‘You don’t have a lot of sexual experience, do you, Red?’
She shifted round, trying to see his face. ‘I have enough,’ she said indignantly.
He skimmed his finger down her nose, the gesture gentle and mocking, but also strangely approving.
‘This won’t last,’ he said, his eyes flaring with fierce need. ‘Nothing this good ever does.’ The echo of regret made her heart pulse hard.
‘But this wasn’t supposed to be real,’ she finally managed to blurt out as the heat gathered and twisted while his lips roamed over her skin, making her tender sex ache all over again. ‘That was the deal.’
Did he know what he was asking of her? What he was risking?
His soft chuckle echoed across her nape before he bit softly into her earlobe.
‘Deals can be renegotiated,’ he said. ‘If both parties are amenable.’
His hand drifted beneath the open fly of her shorts, his fingers delving, exploring.
She jolted as he found her clitoris, still wet, swollen and far too sensitive.
She gripped his wrist, trying to stop the devious, devastating caresses that were turning her into a mass of desperation all over again. How did he do that? So easily? How did he make her forget all her priorities, make her stop thinking and only feel?
His hand stilled, but his voice still held the hint of amusement and the purr of command as it whispered across her neck. ‘Shh, Katherine. Let me prove to you how good this is.’
Her grip loosened, her head dropping against his shoulder as the last of her objections drifted away on the tide of pleasure, the pulse of emotion. He circled the slick flesh—tantalising, tormenting. Tortured sobs issued from her lips as a cloud covered the sun and she saw their reflection in the window glass.
His big body surrounded hers, his tanned hand working against the open fly of her shorts with ruthless efficiency. His mouth suckled and nipped at the pulse in her neck, but the sensation concentrated in her sex. His other hand covered one naked breast, moulding the round weight then rolling and plucking the engorged nipple, sending more darts to her core. She quivered and moaned as her back arched, pushing herself instinctively into the devastating caresses—wanting, needing, more.
‘Please... I...’ she whispered, begging him to take the ache away.
‘That’s it, Red. Come for me again,’ he demanded, just as his fingers found the epicentre at her core. The ache exploded, the earthquake of pleasure too pure, too strong.
She flew again, bowing back, crying out, the climax overwhelming her. And knew, whatever came next, she couldn’t run from him any more.
Later, much later—after a shared shower, an exhilarating ride out into the bay on the motor launch, a meal on the terrace delivered on mopeds by two waiters who disappeared as soon as they had served it and another tumultuous and exhausting lovemaking session—Katie lay in Jack’s arms again and listened to the slow murmur of his breathing.
Somehow she’d agreed to make this a real honeymoon... Or rather, real enough.
The sun dropped towards the sea, the kaleidoscope of red and orange reflected off the dark water, but felt nowhere near as dramatic as the conflagration in her chest.
Had she done the right thing, giving in to her fascination with Jack? How could she not...? When she was so tired of fighting it? Tired of pretending the need didn’t exist? And tired of denying the compassion she felt for the boy who lurked inside the man?
‘Consider the terms of our contract renegotiated, Katherine,’ he murmured against her nape, his hand absently caressing her stomach where their baby grew.
Her heart bumped into her throat.
But when he relaxed behind her, his breathing becoming deep and even against her back, it took her for ever to fall asleep too. Because she knew she’d just taken a step into unguarded, unknowable territory. A step into no man’s land, despite all her best intentions. Just as she had done when she had left her father’s house all those years ago.
On one level it terrified her. The only question now was, could she be strong enough, smart enough, patient enough, resilient enough to find out if Jack might one day take that step with her...or would it be another step she would have to take alone?