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‘An adventure into fine dining,’ he pressed.
‘With you footing the bill,’ she said, wincing over the inevitable cost.
‘Why not? It’s my idea.’ Not to mention the desire running hot behind it.
‘It’s like…you’re buying me, Jake.’
He shook his head. ‘Buying your interest, your knowledge. Expanding my own. Say yes, Laura. It will be fun together. As tonight has been.’
Which was undeniable.
‘You’re right,’ she said on a sigh of surrender. ‘It’s no fun alone. I’m sorry I can’t pay my way but I simply don’t earn enough with only a part-time job.’
He waved a dismissive hand. ‘Don’t worry about it. I’ll consider it an investment in broadening my life.’ He flashed her a mischievous grin. ‘You could bring a garden rose for me to smell at our next restaurant. You’re right about the hothouse ones sold by street vendors. They have no scent.’
She laughed, a lovely ripple of sound that was headier than the wine. ‘You actually went out and tried them?’
‘I did.’
‘Well, there’s hope for you yet.’
‘Hope for what?’
‘For being more aware of nature’s beautiful gifts.’
‘I’m very aware of one sitting directly opposite me.’ He reached across the table and took one of her hands in his, lightly rubbing his thumb over its palm as his eyes bored into hers, every forceful atom of his mind willing her to concede to the strong sexual attraction between them. ‘Spend the night with me, Laura. I’ve booked a room in the Intercontinental Hotel. It’s only a short walk from here. Let’s satisfy what was left unsatisfied last Sunday.’
It was blunt.
It was honest.
It promised nothing more than it said.
It had to be this way or no way.
Despite all he liked about her, she was still Alex Costarella’s daughter and that fact would separate them when the time for retribution came. Jake had been moving towards that destination for ten years. Whatever he had with Laura could only be a brief sidetrack.
CHAPTER SIX
A WILD MÊLÉE of emotions pumped through Laura’s heart. The response of her body to Jake’s proposition was instantaneous; her stomach contracting in sheer yearning for the satisfaction he promised, her thighs pressing together to contain the rush of excitement at their apex, her breasts tingling with the need to be touched, held, given the same sensual caressing he was using on her hand.
The simple answer was yes.
She wanted to go with him, wanted to feel how it would be, wanted to know, but the surge of desire was so compelling it frightened her. This wasn’t just curiosity. Nor was it an experiment over which she had control.
And there were other considerations.
She was supposed to be spending the night at Eddie’s apartment. Her brother would worry if she didn’t turn up there so he would have to be told, though she need not actually speak to him. A text message would suffice. Eddie would undoubtedly repeat what he’d said before—make damned sure you keep it at sex and don’t get hooked on him.
Good advice. Except Laura had the fluttery feeling that she was hooked. Deeply and irrevocably hooked. Although if Jake ever demanded too much of her, surely she had enough backbone to walk away. He was offering her great dinners and very probably great sex. It shouldn’t be a problem for her to take both and enjoy both.
His thumb pressed into her palm. ‘What reservations do you have, Laura?’ he asked quietly, the dark brilliant eyes scouring hers for answers, challenging whatever barriers were in her mind.
Pride wouldn’t allow her to admit she was scared of his power over her. It suddenly seemed terribly important to appear brave and strong, not only to him but also to herself. She forced a smile. ‘None. I was just thinking I don’t want to be left wondering, so let’s do it.’
He relaxed into a laugh—a deep rumble of pleasure that thrummed along her shaky nerves, promising all would be well between them. His eyes sparkled delight in her as he said, ‘You are one amazing woman.’
She raised her eyebrows in arch surprise. ‘Why?’
He grinned. ‘Before I met you I was expecting a pampered princess or a calculating miss, used to getting to her own way. It was a surprise to find you were neither. But you are quite strikingly beautiful, Laura, and beautiful women tend to use that power to see how far a man will go for them.’
‘I don’t like power games,’ she said sharply, hating any form of manipulation.
‘No. You’re wonderfully direct with what you think.’ He lifted his glass in a toast to her. ‘May you always be so.’
She cocked her head on one side consideringly. ‘Were you buttering me up with the foodie thing?’
He shook his head. ‘I want more than a one-night stand with you. I’m quite certain I’ll enjoy our adventure into fine dining.’
‘So will I.’
‘Then we’re agreed on our points of contact.’
She laughed, happily giddy with the sense that this wasn’t so much a dangerous trap she might fall into but a course of action that could give her tremendous pleasure. Her whole body zinged with excitement at the points of contact soon to be made.
‘Will you excuse me for a few minutes?’ she said, rising from her chair. ‘I need to go to the ladies’ and call my brother.’
‘Why your brother?’ he asked, frowning over the possibility of third-party interference.
‘I arranged to stay overnight at his apartment. I don’t want Eddie worrying about me.’
‘Ah! Of course! You didn’t want your father to know. He won’t know any more from me, Laura,’ he quickly assured her.
She paused a moment, eyeing him with deadly seriousness. ‘If you don’t keep to that, Jake, I won’t see you again.’
‘Understood.’
A secret affair, Laura thought, liking the idea of it as she made her way to the ladies’ room. Somehow it was less threatening than a relationship she would be expected to talk about. Eddie would have to know but she could trust him to keep it private if she asked him to. They had a solid sister/brother pact about running their own lives—away from their father.
However, she had no sooner sent the necessary text than her mobile phone rang in response. With a rueful sigh, she reopened it, knowing Eddie was going to express concern.
‘You said you weren’t going to fall at his feet,’ he snapped in disapproval.
‘I’m standing upright and walking to where I want to go. Just like you do, Eddie,’ she reminded him.
‘You’re younger than I am, Laura. Not as street-hard. I tell you, that guy knows how to play all the angles. You should be standing back a bit, more on guard.’
She knew it was Jake’s connection to her father making her brother overprotective but she had dealt with that issue. Until it raised its head again—if it did—she was determined on ignoring it and pleasing herself. ‘I want this, Eddie. Let it be. Okay?’
In the short silence that followed she had a mental image of him grinding his teeth over her decision, not liking it one bit but forced to respect it. ‘Okay,’ he said grudgingly. ‘Will I see you tomorrow?’
‘If you’re at the apartment when I come to pick up the things I’ve left there.’
‘I’ll be in. Hope this isn’t one hell of a mistake, Laura.’
‘I hope so, too. ’Bye for now.’
She stared at her reflection in the mirror as she refreshed her lipstick. Her eyes were very bright. Feverishly bright? Earlier this week she had likened Jake to a virus that had invaded her system, knocking her out of kilter. The invasion was much stronger tonight, both physically and mentally, and she didn’t want to fight it. Surrendering to all the clamouring feelings inside her had to be right. By tomorrow she would know for certain if it was a mistake. That was better than wondering.
Jake rose from his chair as she approached their table again. ‘Ready to go?’ he asked as she reached it.
‘Yes. Have you paid…?’
He nodded. ‘And tipped. The service was excellent.’
‘Absolutely. We didn’t have to wait too long for anything.’
He smiled, the sexy simmer back in his eyes as he hooked her arm around his, drawing her into close physical contact with him and intimately murmuring, ‘I’m glad you don’t like waiting.’
Her ear tingled from the warm waft of his breath. Her heart leapt into a wild hammering as the thought jagged through her mind that she was being too easy for him—not waiting, plunging headlong into bed with him. Probably all women were easy for him and she would be no different to any of the others. But did that really matter? Wasn’t she going after what she wanted? She didn’t have to be different. She just had to be true to herself.
She sucked in a deep breath to calm herself as they moved towards the exit. ‘I daresay you don’t have to wait for much, Jake,’ she said drily.
‘You’re wrong.’ He slid her an ironic look. ‘Some things I’ve been waiting years for.’
‘Like what?’
She caught a savage glitter in his eyes before he turned his head away and shrugged. ‘Just personal goals, Laura. I guess you’re impatient to make a start on your career, but you have to wait until you get your degree under your belt.’
‘It will be good to finally strike out on my own,’ she agreed, wondering what his personal goals were and why they sparked such a flow of strong feeling in him. A dangerous man, she thought again, dangerous and driven, but driven by what?
‘I’m sure you’ll find your work-life very rewarding, caring about the environment as you do,’ he remarked, sliding straight back into an admiring expression, shutting the door on what he obviously wanted to keep private.
Laura decided not to try probing. Later in the night when his guard was down and he was more relaxed, he might reveal more about himself. It could wait. Or maybe his goals were connected to her father. In which case, she didn’t want to know. Not tonight. Tonight was about exploring something else entirely and she didn’t want anything to spoil it.
As they emerged onto the street she hugged his arm, secretly revelling in its strongly muscled masculinity. Her imagination conjured up images of him naked—the perfect male in every respect. Every woman should be allowed to have one, she told herself, and this was simply seizing the opportunity. This connection to Jake Freedman didn’t have to get complicated. In fact, she shouldn’t let it become complicated. It was much safer to keep it simple.
‘The hotel is about three blocks away,’ he said, his mouth moving very sensually into a teasing little smile. ‘Can you manage to walk that far in those gloriously erotic shoes or shall I flag down a taxi?’
She laughed, giddy with the thought of his mouth moving erotically all over her. ‘I can walk, as long as it’s a stroll and not a forced march.’
‘I wouldn’t force anything with you, Laura. This is all about choice,’ he said seriously.
It was nice to have that assurance, to know she wasn’t at physical risk with him. Strangely enough, it hadn’t even occurred to her that she might be. It was the emotional risk she’d been concerned about. No man had ever affected her as Jake did.
‘Why choose a hotel?’ she asked as they walked towards it. ‘We could have gone to your place.’
‘My place is barely habitable. It’s an old run-down terrace house that I’m in the process of renovating. There’s stuff everywhere. I hope I can make it look great when it’s finished, but that’s not tonight or any night soon. I only have time to work on it at week ends.’
‘You’re doing the renovating yourself?’
‘Not all of it. Only the carpentry. My father taught me all the skills of the trade and I’m enjoying doing the work myself.’
‘Your father was a carpenter?’
‘No, he was an engineer but he loved working with wood. It was a hobby he shared with me in my growing-up years.’
The tone of deep affection told her he’d shared a very special bond with his father while Eddie had only ever known criticism and disapproval from their father and she had learnt to avoid the kind of contact that inevitably led to acrimony. Such different lives…
Possibly working with wood kept the family bond alive for Jake, though he’d also said last Sunday he liked to relax by doing something physical. Going to the gym was not his only outlet, and she liked the idea of him being involved with something creative. Renovating a house was similar to building an environment to a pre-designed plan.
Jake worked for her father but he definitely wasn’t like him.
She would tell Eddie so tomorrow.
In the meantime, she couldn’t resist lifting her free hand to slide her fingers across Jake’s. ‘Your skin isn’t rough,’ she remarked.
He was amused by her checking. ‘I wear gloves for heavy work. You must do, too.’ He caught her hand and held it, caressing it as he had before, smiling into her eyes. ‘Definitely no calluses.’
Laura had difficulty catching her breath he was so utterly gorgeous and her mind was spinning with the wonder of how excited he made her feel. Only belatedly did it click into the line of conversation and produce a reply, the words coming out huskily. ‘My mother’s training. A lady should always protect her skin from damage.’
He stopped walking, halting both of them as he released her hand to lift his to her cheek, stroking it with exquisite softness. ‘No damage,’ he murmured.
His thumb slid under her chin, tilting it up. He un-hooked his arm from hers and wrapped it around her waist. His head bent and Laura watched his mouth coming closer and closer, her heart hammering in wild anticipation for the kiss she had been remembering all week.
It didn’t matter that they were standing on a public sidewalk in the centre of the city with people passing by. Everything beyond this moment with Jake faded into insignificance. The desire, the need to feel what he’d made her feel before, was pulsing through her.
His lips grazed over hers, igniting a host of electric tingles. His tongue flicked over them, soothing, seductively seeking entry, which she eagerly gave, wanting the deeper sensations, the erotic tasting, the rise of feverish passion that would blow away any lingering doubt about choosing to have this night with him.
Eagerly she surrendered her mouth to the intimate connection with his and almost instantly her inner excitement escalated, wiping all thought from her mind, making her super-aware of physical contact with him, the delicious pressure of touching points; breasts, stomach, thighs, a wild vibrancy pouring through her, making her ache with the intensity of feelings that had never been so overwhelmingly aroused.
This kiss was not just a kiss. It was total invasion, possession, wildfire sweeping beyond any control, burning her up with the need to have all of this man. Laura lost all sense of self. She was completely consumed by her response to him, and the response was too immediate, too powerful, too real for her to reason it away.
She wanted him.
More fiercely than she’d ever wanted anything.
It was a dizzying shock when he tore his mouth from hers and pressed her head onto his shoulder, making the separation decisive. Her heart was pumping so hard, the drumming of it filled her ears. Only vaguely did she hear him suck in breath. His chest expanded with it. He rubbed her back, probably an instinctive calming action. Her quivering nerve ends were grateful for it.
‘Shouldn’t have done that but I’ve been wanting to all evening,’ he muttered. ‘Are you okay to walk on, Laura?’
Hotel…alone together in private…bed…uninterrupted intimacy… ‘Yes,’ she breathed on a sigh that relieved some of the tense ache in her chest. ‘As long as you hold on to me.’
A deep sexy laugh rumbled from his throat. ‘Letting you go will be the problem, not holding on to you.’
His words struck a vulnerable chord in her that Laura instantly shied away from examining. ‘Let’s not think about problems,’ she said quickly, lifting her head to shoot him a look of needful appeal. ‘I only want to think about what we can have together.’
‘So do I,’ he answered, tenderly cupping her cheek as though she was something very precious, his dark eyes shining with pleasure in her. ‘It’s not far to the hotel now.’
‘Okay. Give me your arm.’
He tucked her close to him. The shakiness in Laura’s legs gradually lessened as they walked the rest of the way to the Intercontinental. Neither of them spoke. They moved in a haze of mutual desire, impatient for the fulfilment of it, everything else irrelevant.
The hotel had been built around the old treasury building, making spectacular use of its special features. Laura had shared an afternoon tea with her mother there after a shopping day in the city. The main gathering place was The Cortile, a marvellous two-storeyed area covered by a huge glass dome, with colonnaded walkways surrounding it. Tonight, as Laura and Jake headed around it to the reception area, elegantly dressed people were indulging in a late supper, enjoying the ambience and the music being played on a grand piano.
It was a classy hotel and Laura couldn’t help feeling pleased that Jake had chosen it. Somehow it made tonight with him more special. He collected their door-key from the receptionist and as they moved to the bank of elevators, he murmured, ‘I took a Bayview room. It overlooks the Botanical Gardens. I thought you’d enjoy the view over breakfast.’
Laura’s heart swelled with happiness. He’d been thinking of her, planning to give her pleasure. This wasn’t just about sex with him. They were going to share more. Much more. She had made the right decision. A journey with Jake Freedman was well worth having. She no longer cared about how far it might go or where it might end. He was the man she wanted to be with.
CHAPTER SEVEN
JAKE quickly slid the door-key into the slot just inside the room and the lights came on. Everything looked fine—classy, welcoming, and most important of all, providing a private oasis, not touching on Laura’s home environment nor his, completely separate to the lives they normally lived.
It had to be this way.
Bad enough that he was in the grip of uncontrollable desire for Alex Costarella’s daughter. Boundaries to this affair had to be set and kept. He couldn’t allow it to take over too much of his life. But right here and now he could satisfy his hunger for her, and to his immense relief she was up for it, no further delay to what they both wanted.
She walked ahead of him, moving towards the window seat with the view on the far side of the room. He watched the provocative sway of her hips, felt the tightening in his groin, started unbuttoning his shirt, impatient for action. She set her handbag on the desk as she passed it. Jake tossed his shirt on the chair in front of it, took off his shoes, his gaze fastening on her turquoise high heels with their seductive ankle straps. She had great legs and the thought of having them wound around him brought his erection to full tilt.
‘Lots of city lights but it’s too dark to see the botanical gardens,’ she remarked.
‘Won’t be dark in the morning,’ he muttered, unzipping his trousers.
She glanced back over her shoulder. ‘I think I like this view better,’ she said with sparkling interest, her eyes feasting on his bare chest and shoulders. ‘I’ve been wondering how you’d look naked.’
He laughed, exhilarated by the honesty of her lust for him. He whipped off the rest of his clothes, dumping them on the chair with his shirt. ‘Hope you’re not disappointed,’ he said, grinning with confidence, knowing his physique invariably drew attention from women at the gym.
‘Not one bit,’ she answered emphatically, examining all his bits, which raised the already high level of Jake’s excitement.
She lifted an arm and hooked the long tumbling fall of her black curls away from her neck, her other hand reaching for the top of the zipper at the back of her dress, obviously intent on removing her own clothes.
‘Let me,’ Jake said hastily, finding the bared nape of her neck incredibly erotic and wanting the pleasure of slowly uncovering the rest of her, visually feasting on her lush femininity.
A few quick strides and he was taking over the task, opening up the snugly fitting bodice, exposing the satin-smooth, elegant slope of her back, which, delightfully, was uninterrupted by a bra. The line of her spine created an intriguing little valley that compelled his finger to stroke the lovely length of it. His touch raised a convulsive shiver of pleasure and he smiled, knowing her body was as taut with excitement as his own, every nerve alive with sensitivity.
Eager to see more of her, he unzipped the top of the skirt and peeled it from her hips, letting it fall to the floor. The sight of a sexy black G-string encircling her small waist and bisecting a totally luscious bottom sucked the air from his lungs and blistered his mind with urgent desire. He barely stopped himself from moving forward and fitting himself to the tantalising cleft.
Better to remove the last scrap of clothing first. He hooked his thumbs under the waistband and glided it over the soft mounds, down the long, lissom thighs and the taut curves of her calves, every millimetre raising the raging heat in his blood. The flimsy fabric caught on the straps of the erotic shoes. Couldn’t leave them on. The stiletto heels could do him a damage in the throes of passion and Jake was already envisaging a huge amount of fantastic activity in bed.
‘Sit down, Laura. Makes it easier to take your shoes off.’
He was still crouched, ready to free her feet when she swivelled around and sat on the window seat. The eye-level view of her beautiful full breasts was a mind-blowing distraction. She leaned back so they tilted up at him, large rosy aureoles with peaked nipples shooting temptation. He stared, captivated for several moments before gaining his wits to lift his gaze to see if she was deliberately teasing him.
Her thickly lashed blue eyes looked darker than before, simmering with an inviting sultriness. She wanted him enthralled by her fabulous femininity, wanted to drive him wild for her. Whether it was a deliberate exertion of her woman-power or not, it reminded Jake of who she was and how careful he had to be not to become ensnared by this woman.
He fixed his attention on the shoes, forced his fingers to undo the ankle straps. In a few moments he could take all he wanted of her, revel in having it, and he would, all night long, but come the morning he had to be sane enough to walk away from her and keep her at a mental distance until the next time they were together.
Shoes off.
They were both completely naked now.
He stood up, and the act of towering over her triggered his sense of man-power. He was in charge of this encounter. He’d brought her to this cave and he would control everything that happened between them. With a surge of adrenalin-pumped confidence he leaned over, gripped her waist and lifted her off the window-seat, whirling her straight over to the bed, laying her down, positioning himself beside her with one leg flung over hers, holding her captive so he could touch the rest of her at will.
‘Kiss me again,’ she commanded, her voice huskily inviting, her eyes glittering with the need for passion to blow them both away.
‘I will,’ he promised, but not her mouth, not yet.
The rose-red nipples were pointed up at him, hard evidence of her arousal and he wanted her more aroused than he was. He closed his mouth around them, drawing on the distended flesh, sucking, his tongue swirling, lashing. She wrapped her hands around his head, fingers thrusting through his hair, dragging on his scalp, her body arching, aching for a more consuming possession.
Not yet… Not yet…
He swept a trail of hot kisses down over her stomach to the arrow of dark springy curls leading to the most intimate cleft between her thighs. He could smell the wonderfully heady scent of her desire for him as he dipped his mouth into the soft folds of her sex, intent on driving this centre of excitement to fever pitch. He exulted in tasting her hot wetness, exulted even more as she writhed to the rhythm of his stroking, crying out at the frantic tension building up inside her, jack knifing up to grab his shoulders and tug his body over hers.
He was ready to oblige now, knowing her entire being was screaming for him and he was still in control, though bursting to unleash his own knife-edge desire. As he lifted himself up, her legs locked around him, her hips already rocking, and there was no more waiting. He surged into the slick passage to the edge of her womb and dropped his head to ravish her mouth, wanting total invasion, absolute domination of this intimate togetherness.
Yet she met the attack of his kiss with an assault of her own, a fusion of heat that turned aggression into a melting pot of exploding sensations and he lost every vestige of control. Her legs goaded him into a series of fast thrusts, clamping around him at the point of deepest penetration as she moaned at the intense satisfaction of it, then rolling her hips around the hard heated fullness of him as he withdrew to plunge again, driven to hear and feel her pleasure in him over and over, wildly intoxicated by the sense of being drawn from peak to peak, each one raising the stakes to a higher level of fierce feeling.
It was like riding a storm, hurtling towards the eye of it at breakneck velocity, their lives hanging on holding on to each other until they reached beyond the violent shattering that threatened every escalating moment and landed in a place where they could peacefully return to themselves again. Jake didn’t care how long that took…minutes, hours.
It was a fantastic journey—her response to him, what he felt himself, a host of primal elements whipping them towards a final crescendo. The breakthrough was a totally cataclysmic moment, both of them crying out as the storm released them into a free fall of exquisite delight and they floated down on a sweet cloud of ecstasy, still clamped together as they shifted into a more relaxed embrace, prolonging what they had shared as long as they could.
Even just cuddling her close to him was sweet, smelling the scent of her hair, winding strands of it around his fingers, rubbing his cheek over its silkiness, feeling the rhythm of her breathing in the rise and fall of her breasts against his chest, the sensual stroking of one of her legs between his, knowing she was still revelling in feeling him.
Eventually thoughts drifted through Jake’s mind, carrying a need to make sense of why this sexual experience with Laura had been so incredibly intense. Never before had he been completely locked into having a woman like this, driven to take, driven beyond what he’d previously known. His liaisons with other women had been more casual pleasures, enjoyable, relaxing—what he’d considered normal. Why did the animal chemistry go deeper with Laura Costarella?
She was definitely the most beautiful woman he’d ever taken to bed. Had that heightened his excitement? Somehow he couldn’t quite believe that would affect him so much. His mind kept niggling at her family connection to Alex Costarella. Was it because of who she was, linking her to the passion for retribution, which had consumed most of his life for the past ten years? Or did the fact that she should have remained forbidden to him cause the difference?
Impossible to pin it down. All he absolutely knew was he couldn’t allow this affair to escalate into a serious relationship. If he kept to that, surely he could simply enjoy what she gave him—her companionship over the dinners he would arrange, and the intense physical pleasure they would share in bed together afterwards.
Settling on this determination, Jake shut down on the questions, intent on making the most of this night together. ‘Feeling good?’ he asked, wondering what she was thinking, if she was happily satisfied with her decision to set aside her reservations about him.
‘Mmmh…very good.’
There was a smile in her voice.
He didn’t need to know any more. He smiled his own contentment with the situation.
She began an idle stroking of his body—slow, erotic caresses, which instantly stimulated him into touching more of her, lingering over every voluptuous curve, loving the wonderfully sensual feel of her womanliness. Touching moved into kissing as they explored each other in intimate detail, arousing the need to merge again, to feel all that could be felt between them.
It was marvellous, less frenzied this time but still incredibly exciting with the mutual abandonment of all inhibitions. It left Jake feeling flooded with pleasure, and the gradually ebbing waves of it lulled him into a deep untroubled sleep.
Laura woke to morning light. They’d forgotten to draw the curtains last night, too consumed with each other to think of anything beyond the sensational intimacy they’d shared. She rolled over to look at the man who had taken her to heights of pleasure she had never even imagined, let alone known.
He was still asleep. Despite the brilliant dark eyes being shut, his face was still strongly handsome and his body… She sighed over how perfectly manly it was, just the right amount of muscularity and everything ideally proportioned. Absolutely gorgeous. Sex appeal in spades. What a fantastic night she’d had with him! No regrets, that was for sure! Whatever happened next between them, this was one experience she would never forget.
Careful not to wake him, she slid off the bed and padded quietly to the bathroom, wanting to freshen up and look good when he did open his eyes. She grabbed her handbag off the desk in passing, glad that it contained a small hairbrush and lipstick. With no change of clothes to wear, it was a relief to find bathrobes provided for guests. She could lounge around in one of them until it was near time to leave the hotel.
