though Jack had a difficult time believing anything remained of the love the older man had once felt for his wife. His father just didn’t have what it took to stand up for himself. His mother found it equally as convenient to sleep around without relinquishing the financial benefits and security the marriage provided.
Just growing up in their home, watching the two of them coexist while living their separate lives had aged Jack before his time and made him cynical. After all he’d seen and heard in his youth and later in his career, he couldn’t share Mallory’s optimistic view of marriage or even relationships. She might not think she wanted those things for herself, but he admired her for hanging on to her starry views.
More than likely some man would come along and sweep her off her feet. Jack only hoped she’d be able to maintain the faith, and that same man wouldn’t disappoint her and shatter her illusions.
He hoped like hell
Because as much as his brain told him to head straight to his hotel room and get some sleep, as the car came to a stop outside the luxury hotel, he knew without a doubt he wouldn’t be sleeping alone.
He slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out Mallory’s black scarf, a reminder of what awaited him when he got through this latest family trauma.
Mallory. She hadn’t asked too many questions, but in a calm voice filled with understanding she had said she’d be there when he got back. Jack, a man who didn’t believe in trust, took her at her word. He had no choice. Need had been building inside him all day. Not just desire, but an escalating need for one woman.
For her.
Given all he’d just witnessed between his parents, he should be more alarmed by the realization. He told himself it was because he knew there’d be no long-term fallout from their liaison. She knew the facts as well as he.
So why was he finding it harder and harder to believe the mantra he’d lived by his entire adult life?
Jack signed the car receipt and entered the quiet hotel lobby. He passed the closed shops and the bored desk clerk and headed up the elevator. The trip to the fifth floor took mere seconds but the ride stretched long like the coiled band of desire wracking his body.
He raised his fist, surprised to see his hand shaking. His frenzied state had less to do with worry over whether she’d turn him away than it did with pure unadulterated desire.
Jack leaned against the doorframe and waited. His heart pounded so loudly inside his chest he felt certain Mallory could hear it in her room. In the past when he’d overheard arguments between his parents or watched with silent frustration as his father accepted more than any man should, Jack had no outlet for the emotions pouring through him.
He had that outlet now. His gut told him Mallory wouldn’t turn him away.
Drawing a deep breath he knocked on the door.
MALLORY KNEW without looking who stood on the other side of the closed door. And once she pulled the door open wide, she realized he wasn’t here in response to her invitation as much as he was here because he needed to be.
The blankness she’d seen in his eyes earlier had been replaced by an emotion she’d never seen there before, a need so strong and intense it caused her entire body to shake in reaction.
“Hi.” He leaned against the doorframe, outwardly composed. And he waited.
“Hi, yourself.” She extended her hand, reaching out for him.
His fingers wound tightly around hers and she led him into the room and shut the door. When she turned back to face him, he held her silk scarf in his hand.
So perhaps he was here in response to her invitation after all. She reminded herself to take things light and easy. And she would have laughed at her foolish longings if not for the pain twisting and strangling her heart.
Mallory forcibly shrugged it off. Once she was away from this plush resort and Jack’s compelling intensity, she’d immerse herself in work and put this interlude behind her. But in the meantime, if she was going to have the fantasies she might as well indulge them.
She stepped backward into the room. Jack followed until her knees hit the bed and she fell onto her back. She licked at her dry lips. “Did you make out okay at home?”
His gaze dropped to the rise and fall of her chest, the swell of her breasts visible above one of the silk teddies she favored for sleeping.
His pupils dilated with obvious desire. “We can talk about it later.” It wasn’t a suggestion.
He loomed over her, large and feral, masculine and demanding and she had no wish to deny him anything he wanted. His hands bracketed her head and his lower body cradled hers, pushing her into the mattress. The hard ridge of his erection thrusting through heavy denim nestled between her legs, against the soft silk barrier of her panties.
He stretched her arms out over her head, the scarf still held in one hand. “What did you plan on doing with this?”
She treated him to a sexy grin. “We can talk about it later.” She shimmied her hips upward in blatant invitation.
“How is it you know exactly what I need?” Another question he obviously didn’t want answered because before she could respond, he covered her mouth with his.
His lips were hot, his hands even hotter as he kissed her for all he was worth and explored her body, leaving a branding sensation wherever he touched. Little finesse was involved as he grabbed for the strap on her teddy and pulled it off her shoulders, following a scorching path with his lips and tongue.
All the while she fumbled, trying to free her hands from his grasp so she could reach for the snap on his pants but he held on tight, obviously needing to control and dominate. And though she’d spent most of her career trying
This was Jack and she didn’t mind yielding right now. Not when what awaited her was certain to be worth it.
He released her arms and slid down her body until his lips reached her breasts. He latched onto one nipple through the lacy silk covering, pulling the rigid peak into his mouth. Soft suckling alternated with teasing flickers of his tongue and ended with a soft scraping of his teeth against her sensitive flesh.
She let out a cry of surprise as sensation traveled a direct path from her breast to the moist place between her thighs-the place she needed him most, but he hadn’t chosen that route.
Yet.
Instead he soothed the places he’d nipped with erotic laps of his tongue that were so exquisitely painful she saw white starbursts behind her closed eyelids.
“Better?” he asked.
“Mmm.” Speaking was beyond her. Her body was on fire, an empty, aching raging inferno of need.
He levered himself up on his elbows and met her gaze. “I should slow down.” But from the heat in his eyes and the dark flush on his cheeks, slow was the last thing he wanted.
“Not for my sake I hope.” She let out a strangled laugh. “Any slower and I might die first.”
“Me, too.” He brushed her dark hair off her flushed cheek. “So, far be it for me to deny you.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
JACK LOOKED at her face. No, he couldn’t deny her. Especially when he needed her so badly. He hadn’t realized how much until he’d looked into her compassionate, blue eyes.
He glanced down. Her breasts rose and fell beneath the nearly sheer lingerie and having tasted the sweetness beneath, Jack desired more.
And obviously so did she. He pulled hard on the thin strap on her shoulder and it tore from its binding. He did the same to the other strap and eased the teddy off her, as she lifted her back and hips, all too eager to shed the constricting undergarments.
What he saw was beyond his wildest imaginings. If he’d walked into this room at the boiling point, looking at her naked body shattered what remained of both his reserve and his restraint. “You’re incredible.”
She averted her gaze. “Can we stick to the truth?”
