Pregnancy of Revenge (6 page)

The only trail he was really interested in exploring was every curve of her delectable body, every hill and hidden valley, until he sated himself in her. But he wasn't crazy enough to tell her so.
Though if he did not have her soon, he very well might, and that
really
worried him.

In the early hours of the morning Charlie had decided to pursue her relationship with Jake and see where it led, and all day she had fallen deeper and deeper under his spell. Now, with the impact of Jake's deep eyes burning down into hers, and his huskily voiced desire to see her again echoing in her head, she knew it was the moment of truth. He had told her last night he would never marry, so either she had to accept what he was offering, an affair for a couple of weeks, or walk away. With blinding clarity she
realised
she did not have a choice. She could no longer deny her basic sexual instinct, an instinct she had only just discovered she possessed, an instinct she knew deep down inside she would only ever feel with Jake.

Charlie drew in a slow steadying breath. 'I've done enough walking for one day.'

'Me too.'
Reaching for her hand once more, he linked his long fingers through hers and led her into the hotel.

On one level Charlie couldn't believe what she was doing as Jake ushered her into the lift and the metal doors closed on them. But on another purely sensual level the feelings were so immense she could not deny them, however much she tried. She stole a surreptitious glance at him through the thick veil of her lashes. He was so ruggedly attractive, so overtly masculine, simply looking at him made her heart beat faster. It wasn't just his looks, though; she had seen men with more classically beautiful features. It was some unfathomable intense connection she could hardly believe was real. But every atom in her body was telling her it was.

'This is it,' Jake said, dropping her hand and splaying his palm across the small of her back, his powerful body tense as he urged her out of the lift to a door directly opposite. A quick flash of the card key and she was in his suite. He fought the instinct to simply sweep her off her feet and into the bedroom. Instead he shrugged off his jacket as he headed for the bar.

'What would you like to drink?' he asked, turning back to look at her, and stiffened. Damn it, but she was gorgeous, and the way she filled that pink sweater had been causing him agony all day.

Standing where he had left her Charlie glanced around the elegant room. It was as luxurious as she had expected. But Jake's
behaviour
was not what she had imagined. She had thought he would sweep her into his arms, and make mad, passionate love to her. How naive was that?
she
castigated herself. Jake was a sophisticated man of the world, a man of discernment; of course he would never behave so crassly, she thought. But she was wrong again.

'I'll—' She was going to ask for a glass of juice, but she never got the chance.

'To hell with a drink,' he growled and in a couple of lithe strides he reached her and hauled her hard against his chest. His expert mouth swooped down to capture hers, a soft moan escaped her, and, taking full advantage, his tongue slipped between her parted lips with devastating effect.

Charlie did not know what hit her. Before his kisses had excited her, but had ended abruptly and left her aching for more. This time Jake showed no such restraint. His tongue swirled around hers, igniting a passion that was red hot. His arms were tight around her, pressing her against his aroused body, telling her without words how much he wanted her. Her slender hands lifted to his broad chest, a finger catching on his shirt button.

She felt his smile as he murmured against her lips, 'Go ahead,
take
it off for me.' His dark eyes gleamed down into hers, an invitation explicit in the black depths.

Feverish
colour
flooded Charlie's face, and she was stunned to
realise
he actually thought she was experienced enough to undress him without a qualm. Her body burned and her finger flexed against his chest. Dared she? Yes— this was what she wanted. She freed one button, and her stomach somersaulted as her fingers scraped the hot skin beneath.

'Don't stop now,
cara,'
Jake husked, his hands sliding caressingly up and down her back. 'Or perhaps you prefer I undress you first?' His sensuous mouth swooped down to taste hers again, and went lower to nuzzle the elegant curve of her neck, and Charlie stifled a frustrated groan when he broke the connection.

'Patience,
cara,'
he teased, a knowing smile curving his firm mouth. 'First let me get rid of this damn belt.' One strong hand slid around her waist. 'It could do a man a
serious injury,' he added, his fingers deftly unfastening the buckle, and the offending item fell to the floor. 'Now tell me what you want, and I promise I will oblige.'

What she wanted was Jake, and her fingers, with a dexterity she did not know she possessed, swiftly unbuttoned his shirt. Then she stopped, her blue eyes widening to their fullest extent at the sight of a wedge of broad tanned chest, and the dusting of soft black curls that accentuated his powerful pectoral muscles. She swayed against him, her hands tentatively splaying on his naked chest. She could feel the heat through her palms, and her awed gaze lifted to his. 'You are beautiful,' she murmured softly.

'I think that is my line,' Jake mocked, but his eyes glinted with a hint of masculine satisfaction and something more. His dark head bent and his lips brushed across hers as he gathered her hard against him, and kissed her long and deep. So deep that when he suddenly eased her away from the heat of his great body, she was breathless, her legs felt like rubber and she could hardly stand.

But she didn't need to.

CHAPTER FOUR

'T
HIS
is not the place,' Jake said and swept Charlie up in his arms. 'And we have too many clothes on,' he added with a teasing grin as he strode into the bedroom and lowered her down against him onto her own feet, before stepping back, kicking off his shoes and shrugging out of his shirt.

The partial view of his broad chest had not prepared her for the awesome beauty of his naked torso.
Mesmerised
, she simply stared. His shoulders were wide, his chest broad and tapering down to a lean waist, his skin gleaming like burnished gold in stark contrast to the mass of black curling hair
arrowing
down his strong body. His long arms were hard and muscular and had their own dusting of hair. His hands...his hands were unfastening his trousers. Charlie gasped, her heart skipping a beat.

'Something wrong,
mia bella
Charlotta
?
His hands settled on her waist and Charlie was glad of the support, shaken by the intensity of her own desire for him.

'No,' she murmured.
'Never more right.'
She strove to match his sophistication but her voice shook ever so slightly.

'But you still have too many clothes on,
cara
.'
A slow, sensuous smile curved his wide mouth, his eyes gleaming beneath black curling lashes. 'Let me help you,' he suggested throatily as his fingers caught the edge of her sweater and he eased it up from her hips.

Hypnotised
by the intensity of his dark gaze, like a puppet on a string, Charlie raised her arms and he slipped the
sweater over
her
head.
His hands stroked down her naked back, and her bra went the same way as the sweater.

'Magnificent,' Jake husked as his hands swept round and up to cup her high, firm breasts.

Charlie sucked in a feverish breath, her breasts suddenly heavy, the small nipples swelling and tightening into pinpoints of pleasure. She had never imagined she could stand brazenly half naked before a man and, lifting her eyes, she felt her cheeks flood with
colour
at his intent masculine scrutiny.

'You have nothing to blush about,
cara
.' His smoldering gaze met hers, his voice fracturing a little. 'You have perfect breasts, and I can't wait to see the rest of you.'

'Nor me you,' she mumbled inanely, and she got her wish.

Jake lowered his hands from her breasts, but not before rubbing her tight, swollen nipples with skilful fingers as he kissed her again with erotic thoroughness before pulling back from her and calmly stripping off.

Faced by a totally naked Jake, she could not stop staring. He was all hard muscle, and sleek golden skin, from his broad chest down to his taut, flat stomach, and lean hips. A ribbon of paler skin circled the top of his powerful thighs. So he didn't
sunbathe
nude, she thought, and it was her last sensible thought.

Eyes widening, her face burning along with every other inch of her body, for the first time in her life she was confronted by a magnificently virile aroused male and she could not tear her gaze away.

'You're lagging behind,' Jake said with a husky chuckle. As she hastily lifted her head her entranced blue eyes connected with sensuous black and she couldn't say a word. 'Here, let me help you,' he added and skimmed her trousers and briefs down her hips with a deftness that spelt of years of practice. He gathered her up in his arms and laid her on the bed.

'Unbelievable,' Jake murmured, staring down at the silky softness of her creamy skin, and the rosy-tipped peaks of her lush breasts.
For a second embarrassment overcame Charlie and she lifted her hands to cover herself from his scorching gaze.

'No, don't,' Jake growled. Sitting down beside her, he took her hands and pressed them onto the bed, one each side of her head. His dark gaze swept her. Her body was curvaceous yet toned to perfection with firm, beautifully shaped breasts, a narrow waist, flaring hips and fabulous long legs. 'You are absolutely stunning,' he said throatily, his gaze roaming back up over her incredible body and lingering on tight rosy nipples before lifting to her face.
'And so very sexy.'
And he covered her mouth with his own.

The feel of his long hard body against hers, and the magic of his firm, sensuous mouth, his tongue tangling with hers, the taste of him... Charlie lost her every last inhibition. She tried to pull her hands free. 'Please. I want to touch you,' she said with a naive honesty.

'Feel free.' Jake grinned and let go of her hands, his heavy-lidded eyes gleaming into hers. 'I certainly intend to touch every part of you, my sweet Charlotte, in every way.' Dipping his head, he trailed kisses down her throat, sucking on the tiny pulse racing beneath her silken skin, before moving lower and licking and nipping the rosy nipples with his teeth and tongue, while his hand stroked down the curve of her waist and traced her inner thigh.

Charlie buried her hands in the thick dark hair of his head, her spine arching up to him, and she groaned out loud at the exquisite sensations lancing from her breast to the apex of her thighs. He kissed and caressed a sensuous path from her breasts to her navel, and traced the line of her hip and thigh right down to the soles of her feet with a hungry, erotic thoroughness that made her wriggle and squirm in feverish delight, before returning to her mouth and kissing her with a driving, possessive passion that she met and matched with helpless abandon.

She wrapped her arms tight around him, on fire for him. Her hands swept over the wide muscular shoulders, traced the indentation of his spine, and splayed over the strong shoulder blades. She pressed up into him and, with an eroticism she had never dreamt she was capable of rubbed her achingly sensitized breasts against the hard wall of his chest, glorying in the excitement the friction aroused.

It was as if some other female had taken over, a sexy, liberated female, and she nuzzled into the hard curve of his shoulder, and moaned as his fingers toyed with her breast once more. When the hand on her thigh slipped ever closer to the centre of her femininity, she shivered in delicious anticipation. She was damp and hot and aching for him and her legs moved apart instinctively. Her head burrowed lower, looking for a taut male nipple, one hand sliding over his lean hips searching for something else.

Jake's hand tangled in her hair and urged her head up. 'Not so fast,
cara
.'
He laughed softly, his face inches from hers. 'I want to make this good for you, to make it last.'

With passion-dazed eyes she looked into his face, the
smouldering
black eyes, the
dishevelled
hair that she was responsible for, and the wickedly sinful mouth smiling down. It was the smile that goaded her even as her insides were melting like hot treacle. Daringly her slender fingers inched around his hip and touched the long velvet shaft, and she heard him groan. 'Why wait?' she prompted breathlessly, her sapphire eyes widening to blaze with a need and knowledge as old as Eve. 'We can always do it again.'