Legal Ease (Sutton Capital Series) (13 page)

The longer he stood there, the more Jack realized he didn’t want this to end any time soon. He liked having Kelly around the house. He liked spending time with her and making her smile and laugh. He liked spoiling her with presents and he liked finding new ways to make her scream out his name in bed.

Maybe I’ll ask her to stay through law school. It wouldn’t hurt her to have a home to live in and Mrs. Poole to take care of her while she studies and gets her degree. And then there’s the bar exam to study for and maybe a clerkship to get through….

Before he knew it, Jack was wondering if he could convince Kelly to continue their arrangement for another five years or so. What could he offer her to convince her to stay? He’d have to make it worth her while but the thought of offering her money made his stomach churn. He knew he couldn’t buy Kelly. Before he could fully realize what was bubbling up to the surface in his head, Kelly stood up and Jack forced his thoughts to the side.

***

Kelly found the pot she wanted and stood up and noticed Jack watching her. He watched her with an intensity that made her start to tingle and she found that she couldn’t come up with a single word to say. In her head, she knew that ‘good morning’ might be appropriate but her mouth had apparently stopped functioning.

Jack silently walked over to her and took the pan from her hands, setting it aside on the stove. Kelly had about two seconds to realize that she was about to be treated to another one of Jack’s incredible kisses, but this time, he didn’t just kiss her. With his mouth still on hers, Jack walked them backward until they hit the island in the center of the room. Jack lifted her onto the cool granite countertop and slipped in between her legs before kissing her.

He didn’t start out with his typical gentle exploration of her lips. There was no feeling Kelly out to see if she wanted him to kiss her. There was only heat and passion, hard and strong that made Kelly tingle from her belly down to her toes and sent her breath from her body. Kelly felt her arms wrap around Jack’s neck and she grabbed handfuls of his soft hair, fisting the dark curls as she leaned her body into Jack’s and answered his passion with her own.

Jack’s hands slid down her sides and brushed the curves of Kelly’s breasts, causing her nipples to tighten. As they moved lower, skimming down her hips, he pulled her more tightly around his body fitting her to him like two pieces of a puzzle. Just as Jack was about to lift Kelly up into his arms and carry her upstairs, he heard someone clearing their throat in the doorway of the kitchen. His head in a fog, he couldn’t process who would be in the kitchen with them until he heard his Aunt Mabry’s shrill, “Good morning.” He quickly broke away from Kelly. Kelly blushed and buried her head in his chest as he turned to his aunt.

“Good morning, Aunt Mabry. I was just helping Kelly make breakfast. It’s Mrs. Poole’s day off today.” Jack wore a wide grin as he greeted his aunt.

“That’s an interesting cooking style you have there, dear,” Aunt Mabry said and for a minute with her joking smile and casual manner, she sounded like the Aunt Mabry he remembered from long ago. Unfortunately the moment flashed past as her face resumed its pinched state and stared in reproach as Jack slid Kelly off the counter and let her get back to work on breakfast.

Jack sighed and went to the fridge where he pulled out eggs, bread, sausages, and fruit and placed them on the counter for Kelly. Kelly grinned at him as she started to crack eggs into a large mixing bowl and whisked them together.

“Scrambled eggs with sausage on the side, French toast with sausage on the side, or an omelet with cheese and sausage inside?”
Kelly asked.

“Anything works for me, beautiful,” Jack said, and looked expectantly at his aunt.

Aunt Mabry scowled. “Scrambled is fine. No need to be fancy.” Mabry turned to Jack. “Jack, dear, I saw a picture of that actress you used to date in today’s newspaper. That one with the stunning black hair and the green eyes. What was her name? She was nominated for an Oscar. Kelly, you should see some of the women that your Jack dated before he found you.” Aunt Mabry smiled her nasty sneer at Kelly as she continued.

“There were so many models, weren’t there, Jack? You seem to be partial to models.” She continued on. Kelly saw Jack go still, ever so briefly, before he brushed off his aunt’s words and took the bread from the counter.

Kelly smiled a tight smile and began to pour the eggs into the heated pan and scramble them as they set. She took out another pan for the sausage while Jack popped several pieces of toast in the toaster but she found herself blinking her eyes to hold back tears as Aunt Mabry’s words sank in.

Jack turned to his aunt and then smiled at Kelly. “And they all bored me to death. Until I found Kelly, I was bored to tears, Aunt Mabry.”

Kelly and Jack walked into her mother’s kitchen for Sunday dinner and Jack had the odd sensation of utter belonging and acceptance, as if he had always been a member of this family. Kelly’s brother Liam was pulling a beer out of the fridge when they entered the room. Without missing a beat, he tossed one to Jack before he cracked his own beer open. Kelly’s mother kissed and hugged Kelly and then turned immediately to Jack and pulled him into her embrace for kisses and hugs as if he were one of her own.

Jack was surprised to find himself hugging her back as if he had been hugging her at Sunday dinners his whole life. Life with Kelly was starting to be one big revelation after another. When he told Mabry that he had been bored by every woman he had dated before Kelly, Jack had immediately realized the truth of that. His life with Kelly, despite its fake beginning, was never boring. He never had that usual let-down feeling when he realized that there was nothing under the surface of a woman. With Kelly, the surface was, well, it was only the beginning, just like it should be.

As Kelly and her mother finished the dinner prep, Jack and her brothers set the table while Kelly’s dad sat at the table and joked with everyone. Kelly’s sister Jessie came in shortly after Jack and Kelly arrived and Jack found that he was happy to see her also. The room buzzed with the easygoing chatter of the family catching up on the week’s events. They all laughed easily when Kelly’s mom told Jack that she had looked up his company on “the Google” and was very impressed by all that he had done.

It struck Jack that he had always wanted this, this feeling of family. Even though he had loved his parents more than anything and he always had Chad around growing up, he had always wished he had siblings.

As he looked around, he saw the room was awash with warmth and familiarity and caring. Jack wanted to spend Sunday dinners here forever. And that’s when it struck Jack. He wouldn’t. He would only spend a year as a member of this family and then things were scheduled to end. Like all this had an expiration date. And then his new siblings, new parents, would likely hate him.

Once again, Jack found himself wanting more with Kelly. Wanting to somehow erase the expiration date that mocked him every time he thought of it.

This visit to Kelly’s parents’ provided just one surprise after another for Jack as he realized that the temporary nature of his marriage to Kelly was beginning to leave a very bad taste in his mouth. He couldn’t imagine resuming the life he’d had before Kelly.

***

Jack walked into the bedroom that evening, well after nine o’clock. He had been down in his office working later than usual but Kelly was still up reading a book in bed with the pillows propped behind her back.

Jack slid in beside her and laced his fingers through her soft hair at the back of her neck before leaning closer to the warm skin of her neck to trace a pattern of kisses from her neck to her jaw line. Kelly’s thoughts weren’t on the book for long as she turned to nuzzle against Jack and open herself to him. It never ceased to amaze Kelly how quickly Jack brought her body to a frenzied state with just a kiss or a touch.

Jack reached over and closed Kelly’s book, then put it on the end table on her side of the bed. Slowly, he stripped her body of the tank top and pajama pants she wore. Jack traced lazy patterns with his mouth and tongue from Kelly’s shoulders to her stomach, down her legs and back up again, before giving in to her pleas. Jack quickly grabbed a condom and sheathed himself before he entered her, making her cry out his name over and over.

“God, Kelly, how do you do this to me?” Jack thought he would lose his mind when he slipped inside Kelly. She felt like no other woman ever had to Jack. Like she was made for him, made to fit him like a glove. He couldn’t get close enough, deep enough.

With Kelly’s soft pants and moans in his ear, Jack buried his face against her soft neck and plunged deep into her soft folds, rocking his hips over and over until they both cried out together and climaxed on an endless wave of pleasure and heat.

***

Kelly lay in Jack’s arms after they made love and thought about how content she was with the new status of their relationship. She didn’t know where this was going, but she was happy for now and for once she was just going to focus on being happy in the moment and not worry about what might happen down the road.

Jack pulled the covers up over them and wrapped Kelly in his arms and legs, snuggling closer to her as they lay together in bed.

“How are things at the clinic?” Jack asked as Kelly relaxed in his arms.

“Good. I like the people a lot and I’m seeing a range of different legal issues. There’s a new volunteer that’s really nice. Denise. She’s thinking of applying to law schools so she wanted to volunteer to get some experience to put on her applications. We’re going to go to lunch so I can give her some tips on the LSAT and her applications.”

“That’s nice of you to help her,” Jack said as he ran his hand idly up and down Kelly’s back. “I always thought law school students were supposed to be cutthroat competitors, hiding books from the other students in the stacks and vying for the best study groups.”

Kelly laughed. “Well, I’m not there yet. Besides, the LSAT can be kind of intimidating. I wish someone had just taken the time to describe it to me before I walked in there. I would’ve felt better, I think.

Jack smiled down at Kelly. “Oh, before I forget, I have to go away for a work thing tomorrow afternoon. I’ll fly out in the afternoon and be back Tuesday evening.”

“Oh, okay. Where are you going?”

Kelly almost kicked herself for asking. She hadn’t meant to sound like a nagging busybody of a wife and she didn’t really know if she had any right to ask, after all. I mean, Jack had said he wouldn’t see any other women while they were together but that didn’t mean she had the right to know everything about him.

Jack didn’t seem to mind, though, so Kelly breathed a silent sigh of relief. “Chicago. We have the right of first refusal on the sale of some shares in a company we invested in but it looks like the deal may be going south. There are some issues with the wording of the contract so I’m heading out to clean things up and make sure we get it under control before things get out of hand.”

“Do you need any help getting ready?” Kelly didn’t really know what the protocol was for a wife in this circumstance. Should she help him pack? Drive him to the airport?

Jack smiled and kissed her lips in an achingly slow kiss that assaulted her senses and had her drowning and weak in seconds. “No, but you can give me a send off I won’t forget,” Jack said as he drew away from her lips and began to brush his lips down her neck and across her shoulder, rekindling the burning arousal that had been sated just moments before. Kelly gasped in wonder and within minutes of his hands and mouth touching her, she was ready for him. Her body instantly sprang to life and stretched toward him with need, aching and sweet and crying out
to Jack because he was the only one who could slake that need in her.

Kelly closed her eyes and let her body sink into Jack’s as his hands played across her body, sending her to places she knew no other man would ever take her.
She closed her mind to the nagging voice that taunted her and told her she would never be happy with another man after her time with Jack ran out.

Kelly carried a pitcher of iced tea and two glasses out to the pool, where Jennie sat sunning herself on a rare afternoon off. This was the first time Jennie had been to the house so Kelly had taken her for the grand tour before they decided to settle outside by the pool.

Jack had already left for the airport
, Aunt Mabry was out shopping, and Mrs. Poole was in the kitchen baking so it was just the two of them for the next couple of hours.

“I still can’t get over this place. I could kick myself for not thinking of proposing to Jack myself. I mean what the hell, why didn’t I think of it?” Jennie laughed and picked up her glass of iced tea as Kelly sat down on the lounge chair next to her.

Kelly laughed but suddenly realized how jealous that remark made her. God, she felt almost…
possessive
of Jack. Kelly suddenly realized that she wasn’t doing a very good job of keeping her emotional distance and just having fun with Jack. In fact, if she was really honest with herself, she had to admit she hadn’t protected her heart from him at all.

Jennie was watching Kelly’s face as if she were trying to figure out the emotions playing across it. “Oh, no, Kel. You
’re not just falling for him, you’re completely over the edge, aren’t you?”