undressed slowly, seemingly casual and confident in his actions, but inside he was going through hell. Never had a woman watched him so intently as he removed his clothes. There again, never had he done such a deliberate strip for a woman.
Jake knew he had a good body. Mostly God-given, but also because he looked after himself, having always worked out regularly. There was a gym and a swimming pool in the apartment complex which allowed him to keep fit nowadays with the minimum of effort. So he had no reason to be embarrassed once he was in the buff.
He had to confess that he could not recall being this turned on before. Yet he hadn’t even kissed her.
Drawing on protection at that point was premature on Jake’s usual standards, but it seemed a good idea to be prepared. Jake had an awful feeling that once he started any form of foreplay with Angelina, he would enter the danger zone. It proved strangely awkward, with her watching him with those almost awestruck eyes of hers.
He was relieved to join her on the bed, stretching out beside her and propping himself on one elbow so that he had one hand free. His right hand.
‘Wait,’ she whispered, and before he could stop her she wriggled out of her panties and tossed them away, her face flushed by the time she glanced back up at him.
He didn’t dare look down there. Or to think about how much he wanted to slide over between her legs and just do it. Now. Without preliminaries. He ached to be inside her, to feel her hot wet flesh tight around him.
At least he could touch her there. And his free hand stroked down the centre of her body and slid between her legs.
Her moan echoed his own feelings. Already she was panting, her legs growing restless, her hips writhing as a woman’s did when release was near. The selfish part of Jake wanted to stop so that he could be inside her. But experience warned him that things didn’t always work out that way for a woman. Better he give her a climax this way first.
‘Jake,’ she cried out, her eyes dilated and desperate.
His mouth crashed down onto hers, smothering her cries as she came apart under his hand. He kissed her with a desperation of his own, his tongue echoing what he would rather be doing to her with his body. Its job done, his hand moved to play with her breasts, his still wet fingertips encircling her taut nipples. Jake kept kissing her, and playing with her nipples, elated when in no time her back began to arch away from the bed in that tell-tale way. Moaning, she clung to him, her left leg lifting up onto his hip, inviting him in.
Jake needed no further invitation, groaning as his flesh slid home to the hilt. The sensations as he pumped into her were a mixture of agony and ecstasy, for he could not possibly last very long. Yet he wanted to, wanted to feel her come again with him inside her.
Her muffled moans were encouraging, as were the movements of her body. She followed his rhythm, her hips rising with his forward surge and sinking back when he withdrew. He stopping kissing her and cupped her face instead, looking deep into her glazed eyes.
He didn’t say a word, just concentrated on her, slowing his rhythm appreciably but going deeper with each stroke.
She gasped, then groaned.
‘Good?’ he asked.
She nodded, then grimaced.
He was in his stride now, no longer balancing on that dangerous edge, determined to make her come again. She drew in more sharply with each successive stroke, her mouth falling even wider apart. Her hands tightened around his back, her nails digging into his flesh.
He felt no pain, only pleasure. The pleasure of pleasing her.
Her climax was imminent. He could feel it, deep inside. The tightening. The quivering. The rush of heat that always preceded the first spasm.
‘Jake. Oh, Jake,’ she cried out, and then she was there. But so, astonishingly, was he. Instantly. Brilliantly.
Poets often spoke of stars exploding when two people in love made love. Jake always thought that was just so much crap.
But this time, it was not unlike stars exploding. His body trembled and his head did cartwheels. His mouth found hers again and he knew that this was where he wanted to be for the rest of his life. With her. No one else. Just Angelina. And he didn’t mean living together, either. He wanted her as his life partner. His wife.
Angelina Winters. Till death them did part.
It didn’t occur to Jake till much later, when he was lying quietly with her sleeping form in his arms, that Angelina might not be altogether cooperative in his achieving that goal.
‘I might not want what you want, Jake,’ she’d said to him earlier that day.
Jake thought about all she’d told him about herself so far. Her insistence that she was independent-minded career woman. Her claim to not want marriage and children.
And then he thought of her eyes today as he’d carried her into this bedroom.
Bulldust, he decided. All of that other stuff. Dorothy was right. Angelina had marriage and motherhood written all over her. She’d been burnt, that was all, by the wrong kind of man. Some sleazebag, probably. All it needed was the right kind of guy to come along, someone who really loved her.
‘Me!’ he pronounced out loud.
Jake still wasn’t sure about becoming a father, but heck, he hadn’t thought till now that he’d ever fall in love, or want to get married himself. But he did. And when Jake wanted something, he made it happen.
Angelina Mastroianni was going to be his wife, no matter what she thought she wanted. Because Jake knew what she really wanted. He’d seen it just now. And felt it. What he needed to do was make her feel it again. And again. And again. He had one weekend to cement his position in her life, and in her heart. Given that was a pretty short time span, Jake decided that the best way he could achieve that was through her body; her warm, luscious, possibly neglected body.
That pathetic boyfriend of hers hadn’t been doing the right thing by Angelina. Jake was sure of it. Which was fine by him. It gave him an advantage.
Just thinking about making love to her again turned him on. Retrieving a condom from where he’d shoved a few under the pillows, he slipped it on, amazed but pleased to see that he was as hard as he’d been earlier, confirming his belief that this was a once-in-a-lifetime relationship.
Scooping her naked body back against him in the spoon position, he gently stroked her breasts till she stirred in his arms, then his hand slid slowly further down her body.
‘Oh,’ she gasped when his fingers started softly teasing the centre of her pleasure.
But there was nothing soft, or gentle, in Jake’s mind. It was full of hard resolve, as hard as his desire-filled flesh.
As soon as she moaned, and began wriggling her bottom against him, he eased himself inside her from behind.
Angelina stiffened for a second, only to melt as soon as he started rocking back and forth inside her. She would never have conceived of making love like this, on their sides, with him pressed up against her back and his hands on her front, playing with her.
It was nothing like last time; that tender and romantic position where Jake had kissed her all the while and held her like a true lover. This was entirely different. This felt…decadent. Yet oh, so exciting.
Her head whirled as a wanton wildness overtook her.
‘Harder, Jake,’ she bit out in a voice she didn’t recognise. ‘Harder.’
He groaned, then increased his tempo.
‘Yes,’ she groaned, her body immediately rushing towards the abyss. ‘Oh, yes. Yeesss!’
CHAPTER TEN
ANGELINA knew she was in trouble the next morning. Deep, deep trouble.
It was not long after sunrise, Jake was still