Chapter Twenty-Five

Blake pushed his bedroom door open with his foot, and shut it the same way. Jewell was so shocked by his behavior that she uttered not a word of protest. And then she was airborne for a brief moment before the bed caught her. She was trying to clear her head, but his scent enveloped her, and all she could do was to inhale the musk of the only man she had ever desired.

Still, he was behaving like a brute, and she thought about trying to stop him — for about two seconds — but then he was on the bed with her, his legs pinning hers down as he pulled off her coat, shirt and bra in a quick sweep, leaving her upper half bare to his view. He moved to the side, but only to yank off her slacks and minuscule panties, and now he was ripping his own clothes from his body.

It was so fast — all of it was happening far too fast.

Before she was able to protest, Blake was stretching his now naked body on top of her, and the feel of his solid chest pressing against her tender breasts made her cry out his name in pleasure.

“Yes, Jewell,” he told her, “the only name you’ll ever say like that is mine.” His lips captured hers, subduing her moans.

His mouth trailed down the side of her throat, where she knew he’d feel the pounding of her pulse, but she didn’t care. He made her burn, and as much as she hated the weakness, she felt too damn good at the moment to have any regrets.

“I can’t believe I kept from touching you for so long,” he said, and he circled her nipples with his lips and nipped the tender peaks before washing them, soothing them with his tongue.

He slowly moved his mouth up between her breasts and then he was kissing her again, invading her mouth with his tongue while his solid erection pressed against her core. She couldn’t help but spread her legs out wider as her body begged his to make her complete.

“Please, Blake, please fill me,” she groaned. She planted her feet on the bed and lifted her hips, urging him to join with her.

It had been too long since they’d last made love, and she wanted fulfillment; she wanted the two of them to be as one, and she wanted it right now. Her passion was overwhelming in its intensity.

Blake didn’t answer her plea; he instead gripped her hair and angled her head just the way he wanted it, the better to devour her mouth, while he rubbed his hardness on the outside of her wet heat, letting it help lubricate him, prepare him for entry.

“Now, Blake, please,” she said again as she pushed up against him.

She raked her fingernails down his back and gripped his muscular behind in her desperation to have him inside her. If he wanted her to beg, she would beg — of course she would — but she would also take all of him that she could take.

“How much do you want me, Jewell?” he asked as he reached for her hands, took them both, and, holding her wrists with one hand, pushed her arms above her head.

“I want you, Blake. I need you. I need you now,” she practically sobbed. To hell with power games. She wasn’t in the mood for anything but completion.

He rewarded her for those words by reaching down between them and slipping two fingers inside her hot core while stroking her aching bundle of nerves with his thumb. She cried out when only a few flicks of his masterful fingers brought her release, her body tightening, her heart thundering.

“Yes,” he sighed. “You are so responsive, my Jewell.” And before she could even think about catching her breath, he pulled his fingers from her and moved them up to cup her breast and squeeze her nipple at the same time as he thrust hard inside her.

Time lost meaning, and something seemed to come over Blake. She felt his thrusts, each and every one of them. Moans tumbled from her throat while he growled words of praise and pleasure almost in time to their frantic lovemaking.

Sweat slicked their bodies as the inferno built higher and higher, and each time Blake ravaged her mouth along with her body, she felt almost as if she were floating above herself, watching this exquisite moment while still feeling each and every thing he did to her.

Jewell knew she was forever lost to this man, because no matter how long they were apart, the instant she was in his arms again, she belonged to him, only him, and it was right where she needed and wanted to be.

“Come for me, Jewell. Squeeze me tight,” he commanded her.

She gave him exactly what he demanded. Her body let go and she cried his name out over and over again as her body convulsed around him and she felt this release in every cell, every atom. He continued pumping inside her, drawing the orgasm out, making her shatter over and over again until she didn’t think she could bear it any longer.

She felt as if she were gliding along in the sky, and during that moment, that moment where the release began to ebb, she heard him cry out as he tensed, buried deep inside her, and then he shook and his own climax washed through him, his hardness sending his seed deep into her womb.

Blake collapsed against her, and their bodies were both burning up. She clung tightly to him, not willing to let this moment go, not willing to free him from her hold. Fear, fear that the moment would end the second they spoke, kept her cleaving desperately to his embrace.

But the moment faded, and Jewell felt almost bereft when Blake rolled off her. Her limbs grew cold, and an ache and an emptiness unlike anything she’d known before filled her stomach.

“You belong to me, Jewell. I won’t share you with other men,” Blake told her. “Do you hear that?” He reached for her again, pulling her closely against his side.

“What are you talking about, Blake?”

“The man at the bar. You shouldn’t have done that.”

“The man at the bar?” Jewell was lost for a few moments in her sex-induced coma. Then her eyes snapped open, and she drew back so she could look at the man who’d said such a thing. “Wait! Was that was this was about? Another man spoke to me, so you had to screw me to show me you’re better?” she asked with horror.

“No,” he said, his voice almost deadly. “I’ve been holding back because I thought that was what you wanted — needed. When you allowed yourself to be vulnerable with another man, I decided it was time for me to remind you I was here,” he told her, not releasing his hold on her. “Ready, and definitely waiting.”

“But … this makes no sense, Blake. We’ve seen each other almost daily for weeks and you haven’t touched me, and then we’ve lived in this house just over a week and still you haven’t touched me. Why would my speaking to another man upset you?”

“I told you, I was trying to give you space. But I’m done with that now. I’m so hungry for you, I can’t even think straight. And you are just as hungry for me. I could hardly miss your response to me just now. We belong together, and it’s time you accept that.”

He rolled back on top of her and pressed his manhood against her core. She wasn’t even surprised when her body instantly responded to his.

“I just assumed you knew that you’d made a mistake, Blake, that you knew it couldn’t possibly work between us,” she told him. Why not? While lying in his arms fully naked, she couldn’t hide any of her body’s secrets from him. She might as well open her heart up too. If he was going to crush her, she’d rather he do it in one fell swoop than keep dragging the suffering out relentlessly.

“You assumed wrong, Jewell. What we have here, so to speak, is a failure to communicate, and that’s going to end right now. I will marry you,” he said, making her heart skip a beat before he continued. “I’ll do it for the business deal and for your brother and because this thirst you make me feel will never be quenched.”

His words hurt her more than she would ever admit to him, but she was also powerless to fight him anymore. She’d already agreed to marry this man, and her future was in his hands. One thing that she had confidence in was that the two of them would be able to please each other well, at least for a while. The fire, though it burned so hot, didn’t appear to be running out of fuel.

Jewell covered up her sadness by reaching for his head and pulling him down to her, by being the one to initiate the kiss this time. When he groaned into her mouth, she felt her sense of emptiness begin to ease. Yes, their relationship was nowhere near perfect or conventional, but it was working, and she knew she was already in too deep to make it out unscathed if he should leave her. So she really had nothing to lose by giving herself to him completely.

“I want you, Blake,” she said, instead of saying what she so desperately wanted to say.

Blake didn’t reply. His body joined with hers, and he loved her again and again until the early hours of the morning.