Framed and Hung (11 page)

‘It’s a wonder any of these plants have survived the heat out here.’

‘Aha, there’s a reason for that. Lots of water,’ Jake said, pushing aside the trailing branches of a weeping willow tree. ‘Check this out.’

Zoe stood and gaped. Hidden by the wide canopy of the weeping willow was a lagoon. About 12 feet across and at least double that in length, it was overgrown with brilliantly coloured water lilies and reed grasses.

A family of wild ducks negotiated the weeds, happily fishing for whatever was available to them. A thick layer of moss covered the area under the tree like a blanket, and a pebble path scooted around the lagoon to the other side and led to a smaller replica of the inn itself.

The outside of the house was a little tumble-down and in desperate need of restoring and renovation, but it was built of the same red bricks as the inn and dressed in dirty white fret work on each of the verandah posts.

‘Wow, this is incredible.’ She flashed Jake a quick smile. ‘I wonder if Jessie would allow me to restore this once I’ve finished the inn.’

‘Jessie can’t, but I certainly can.’ Jake moved closer and relieved Zoe of her sketch pad and camera. ‘It’s on a separate title and actually belongs to me. Simon prefers to live at the inn, but I’m getting a little sick of serviced apartments and thought it might be nice to have a real home for a change. You interested?’

‘Oh, you bet. This would be a dream job.’ She stared at the house, visualising it as it must have been when it was first built. There was something so timeless about homes erected so many years ago. A permanence that had been missing in her own life since she was a kid.

She suddenly had a vision of living in this type of home. Maybe standing at the kitchen window, breathing in the scent of lavender and roses, watching children play among the foliage of the weeping willow tree. And it
would
be a home, not merely a house, filled with warmth and love. With laughter tempered with the firm discipline of a mother and father…

Flamin’ cows, girl, what are you thinking?

Zoe shook her head. She couldn’t believe what her mind had come up with. That type of life meant commitment. No way in hell was she going to put her head in that noose again.

She’d vowed and declared no man would ever rule her. Been there, done that, still owned the T-shirt. No siree, not this girl!

It was all Jake’s fault. That little interlude in the Garden Room had set her hormones on a wild rampage through her body. No way was Jake the buttoned-up banker she’d first thought him. Hell, her clit still throbbed. Her breasts were swollen, the nipples hypersensitive.

Damn it, the man had turned her on with his raunchy mind pictures and then left her hanging. Although truth be told, that was Rachel’s fault for running in with the fire extinguisher.

She snorted. She couldn’t help herself. She’d been so caught up in the whole scenario she’d forgotten Rachel was even there. Damn, she’d be a basket case at this rate. Sexual frustration was eating away at her sanity and she needed to bring this to an end…before she turned herself into a doormat and begged Jake to make love to her.

So much for being in control.

Zoe grabbed her camera from Jake and ducked her head, pretending to fiddle with the settings. God, she had to get her mind back on track, because, heaven help her, all she could think of was getting down and dirty with Jake Lord.

‘So how would you like to do this? All formal, standard position? Or kinky and wild, something totally unexpected?’

Zoe bit back a groan.
Oh yes, please, definitely wild and kinky!

She gulped. ‘I thought you didn’t want a standard portrait?’

Jake leaned back against the trunk of the willow tree, fingers hooked through the belt loops of his jeans. The position pulled the denim fabric tight across his front and Zoe could see a definite surge of interest making itself known.

‘Don’t move,’ she muttered, fumbling with her camera. ‘That’s perfect.’
Oh yeah, perfect. Hot as hell and sexy enough to melt your boots.

Zoe pointed the camera and positioned Jake in the centre of the frame. Oh my, he looked good enough to eat. The jeans hugged his hips and muscular thighs, the dark fabric moulding what now appeared to be a stellar erection.

The neck of his cotton shirt gaped open and offered a tantalising glimpse of bronzed skin and the first hint of the dark hair that arrowed down his chest to his nether regions. Zoe had a searing urge to trail her tongue along the column of his throat and bury her mouth in that intriguing vee. She longed to taste his heat, the sweat on his chest, breathe in the scent that was essentially Jake Lord.

Hormones peaked. The blood raced through her veins, her heart tripping along at a furious pace. Moisture pooled between her thighs and her sex clenched in excited anticipation.

She gasped, bit her lip to contain a breathy moan.
Ahh, to hell with this, Zoe. Are you going to take the next step or not?

‘Undo…’ She stopped and cleared her throat. ‘Undo the next few buttons of your shirt, Jake.’

He raised his eyebrows at her, a slight grin curling about his lips.

‘Well, you wanted a casual shot, didn’t you?’ she responded. ‘An unbuttoned shirt tucked into jeans should do it.’

Jake chuckled. ‘Hmm, wonder what mother would say to a portrait showing my manly chest. But I have a better idea.’

His eyes twinkled as he unfastened the rest of the buttons and slipped the shirt from his shoulders. Then he undid the snap on his jeans and lowered the zip an inch or so. When he tucked his thumbs back through the belt loops, the strain on the denim caused an immediate reaction, the metal teeth of the zip giving up their secret one tiny bit at a time.

Jake ran one hand in a lazy sweep across his chest. ‘Soo…this turn you on?’

Oooh, baby, sex on legs!
She’d opened her mouth to make a smart comment when she saw the look on Jake’s face and the slight twitch to his lips.

Damn it, the man knew exactly what he was doing to her. He thought he was a master of manipulation, did he? It was time he learned he’d met his match in her. More than that, it was time for
her
to take control.

After clicking off a series of quick shots of Jake, Zoe moved in close and lowered the camera onto a bed of moss beside the tree trunk. Then she leaned forwards and licked her way from one side of his chest to the other, gratified when he struggled to catch his breath.

‘Soo…what turns you on, Mr Lord?’ She flicked the tip of her tongue across his nipple. ‘This?’

She gifted his other nipple with a similar caress before kissing her way down the centre of his body until she could probe at the waistband of his jeans with her tongue. ‘Maybe this?’

Jake groaned. ‘Ahh, Zoe, I — ’

‘Or maybe you’d prefer this.’ Grasping the metal tab between her teeth, she eased the zip down. Before Jake could say anything, she grabbed his jeans and whipped them down. Her eyes opened wide when his erection sprang free.

‘Well, well, who would have thought it? The very upright Mr Jake Lord likes to go commando. Hmm, I wonder how many of your customers at the bank would appreciate that little snippet of information.’

She trailed the tip of her finger across the bulbous head of his cock before she took him in hand. Hot, hard, jerking as Jake moved his hips in reaction. ‘Ohh, what a pretty little boy,’ she cooed.

‘Enough of the little, lady.’

Zoe ignored him. She’d spotted something else that made her gurgle with laughter. ‘Oh my God, your horn is an itty bitty unicorn.’

He snorted. ‘That, Ms Smart-mouth, is
definitely
a horn.’ He jerked his hips so his cock brushed against Zoe’s cheek.

‘Oooh, he’s so sweet.’

‘Sweet?’ Jake yelped.

Zoe chuckled. ‘Your unicorn, dummy! I’m not maligning your manhood.
He’s
actually quite impressive. But this is cute.’

She bent her head and licked at the little tattooed fellow, circling it with the tip of her tongue. ‘What on earth possessed you to choose a unicorn? It’s so whimsical I just can’t see it appealing to you.’

‘Don’t tell my mother, but I had this done in a fit of rebellion when I was 18. For a while there, I wanted to buck the trend and do something else besides banking.’

She nuzzled the colourful unicorn, gratified when Jake sucked in a sharp breath. ‘So what would you have done if you could have chosen for yourself?’

‘Hey, don’t get me wrong. I could have studied anything I wanted. Banking was the family business, but the parents wouldn’t have forced me into it if I’d really objected. Nah, I was just being a grotty teenager and to be quite honest, figures and finance were what I was good at.’

‘So you don’t regret it?’ She trailed her fingers over the little unicorn, brushing closer and closer to his rock-hard erection.

‘The only thing I’ll regret is if you stop now,’ he said, his face a study of seriousness. He speared his hands through her hair and tilted her face up to him. ‘Zoe, make certain you know what you’re doing. I want you too badly to fool around and then walk away.’

‘Oh, I’m way past fooling,’ she quipped. ‘Now it’s time to get serious.’

He snorted. ‘Serious? Lady, this feels more like teasing.’

‘Oh no, this is teasing.’ She licked up one side of his cock, lapped at the bead of moisture on the head, and then down the other side. ‘And this is getting serious…’

She lowered her head and fitted her lips around his swollen shaft. She sucked him deep, tongue wrapping around his girth. With a slow glide, she reversed the procedure, probing at the opening. The salty taste of the little bead of moisture settled on her tongue, driving her to greater exploration.

She teased. Nibbled. Licked from his testes to the tip. Then she sucked hard, drawing a guttural groan from Jake. As if he couldn’t prevent it, he jerked his hips in time to the movement of her mouth. Every thrust pushed her on. Every hard-drawn breath sent the blood spinning through her body. Her heart pounded. Body temperature peaked. God help her, she was ready to explode. Watching Jake get turned on was pushing her own sexual tension to an all-time high.

‘Bloody hell, woman!’ Jake tightened his hands in her hair. The breath shuddered from his chest with a loud wheeze.

Zoe cupped his testes in her hand, released his cock and trailed her lips across his balls. Gentle kisses. Delicate flicks of her tongue. The teasing scrape of her teeth.

She glanced up at him to see his head thrown back against the tree trunk, eyes scrunched closed and the breath rasping from his throat. Oh yeah, definitely the way to turn him on. She could feel how close he was. Problem was, she was so highly charged from pleasuring him,
she
was in danger of losing it.

With her free hand, she undid her shorts and pushed them to her knees, underwear following. She didn’t want to deprive herself of the taste of Jake’s cock so she squirmed about until she could push the fabric under one knee and then the other, until she pushed them off altogether.

Her clit throbbed. Moisture gathered, seeping from between the lips of her sex. Unable to stand the tension any longer, she slid one hand down until she cupped the aching centre of her core. And with every movement of her mouth on Jake’s cock, she stroked her clit until she thought she’d explode.

Jake’s hands clutched at her hair, pulling at the fine strands and she didn’t mind one bit. The flash of momentary pain mixed with the hunger riding her pushed the tension higher, driving pleasure throughout her body. Her pulse resounded in her ears. Her body shook with the need for release. Sensation pushed her towards the crest and she knew she couldn’t last much longer.

Lifting her mouth, she pressed a heated kiss on Jake’s lower belly before raising her head to look at him. ‘Please, please, tell me you have a condom secreted away somewhere out here.’

Chapter Eight

Jake opened his eyes and shook his head to try to clear his thoughts. His legs trembled and his knees felt like wet strands of spaghetti. He dragged in a deep breath and engaged his thigh muscles so he wouldn’t end up on his ass in the moss.

It took a few seconds for Zoe’s question to get through the mush that filled his head. Then he looked down at her and his brain immediately seized.
Holy fuckin’ shit!

Zoe still knelt at his feet, her top on but her bottom half beautifully, erotically naked. When had she shed her shorts? He had no memory of that happening. The only thing his brain could conjure up was the feel of her mouth clasped around his cock.

It wasn’t her half-naked state that snared his gaze though. It was the hand insinuated between her thighs, the fingers playing over the thatch of blonde pubic hair, probing at the swollen lips of her pussy. When she became aware of him watching her, she spread the lips and trailed her fingers across her clit before plunging two fingers deep inside.

Jake groaned. ‘Damn it, lady, do you know how much that turns me on?’

At his words, Zoe moved her hips, working her fingers in and out of her core. She moaned and caught her lower lip between her teeth. The breath rasped from her throat and a ruby flush stained her cheeks.

The sight of Zoe pleasuring herself sent a shaft of primal heat driving through Jake. His cock jerked. The muscles in his stomach clenched and his knees threatened to give way again.

‘Condom, Jake,’ Zoe gasped. ‘I am so close to coming.’

‘Not without me,’ he responded, the words a gravelly growl from deep in his chest.

He sank to his knees in front of Zoe and captured her lips in a deep, drugging kiss. Her hand continued to move between her legs as he nipped at her bottom lip before sending his tongue questing, eager to sample every tantalising flavour of her mouth.

Red-hot hunger blasted him. The blood raced through his veins and his cock hardened even more. The hormones driving throughout his body demanded he throw Zoe down and bury himself deep in her heat, fuck the daylights out of her until she cried out his name in the ultimate surrender. He reined the flash of testosterone-fuelled thoughts in and struggled for a degree of control.