Stroke of Midnight (6 page)

“Aside from the London townhouse I mentioned, I have a country home in The Berkshires. To the English a man’s home is his castle.” He grinned and shrugged.

“But—”

“And I know the customs and immigration men in the town’s airfield. Carl’s exhausted. If I promise to take you to my place for the night and straight back out to the airport first thing in the morning, I bet they’ll allow it.”

“I’m sorry. I just didn’t think…”

“That’s the point of this adventure, isn’t it? Not to think? No thinking for either of us.” He tipped a finger to her chin and lifted her mouth to his for a deep kiss. She fell into it and nearly off the seat as she strained upward against her seatbelt. She’d forgotten to release the catch. They were both off balance, and grabbing at each other trying to deepen the connection of their mouths when she heard the door to the cockpit open.

Carl cleared his throat. “All set?”

Alex lifted his head. She sagged into her seat.

“All set for The Berkshires,” he said. “We’re going there. And let Mr. Wickham know I need a private word with him when we land,” he said with a gentle smile for Jaye. “We’d never get away with this at Heathrow or I’d take you to my townhouse in London, like I promised.”

“Hmm, well, I suppose I can settle for a visit to an English country home. It’ll be a terrible imposition, of course.” She laughed at Carl’s startled, appreciative grin.

Jaye tried not to gape at the half mile drive that wound through a series of gardens that fronted Alex’s Berkshire home. Carl drove Alex’s Bentley with sedate control. Intrigued by what lay beyond the last gentle curve in the drive, she held her breath. When she saw the elegant stone mansion it reminded her of old British movies where the staff rushed out to wait for the carriages of the fancy pants people coming home from the ball. “Why didn’t you tell me you own a castle?” Jaye demanded.

“Technically, it’s not a castle. It’s a country estate.”

Sheesh.

“Well honey, to someone who lives in the La La Land Mobile Home Park, this qualifies as a castle.” She barely restrained herself from pressing her nose against the window to gawk at the sheer expanse of the building. There were more windows on each floor than she could count. It looked more like a school or a dormitory than a house.

“It’s a good thing we’re not staying here longer,” she said. “If I had more than one night to deal with I’d probably wander down a hallway and never find my way out again.”

“There’s an intercom you can use if you get into a wing you don’t recognize.”

“There are
wings?”
No wonder the immigration people took his word when he vouched for her. He likely owned the land the airport sat on.

“Each side of the front door, and one straight out the back. It’s built like a T. The stables are behind the east wing and the kitchen’s at the base of the T.”

“Stables?”

“No horses, though. I don’t spend enough time here to ride them.”

She closed her eyes and saw her entire living room and kitchen combo in her double wide. She blew out a breath.
No thinking.
Not about this place, not about her own place. Not about his position in the world and certainly not about her own.

“You’d better show me how to use this intercom.”

He laughed.

“I’m serious. I’ll get turned around in there and never find my way out.”

“I won’t let you out of my sight. I promise.”

Carl stopped the car and climbed out to open the rear door for them. She took his hand and suppressed a giggle at the idea of alighting from a carriage in a long gown wearing a tiara.

Like that would ever happen.

Inside the front door, the staff lined up in uniforms awaiting inspection. Her fantasy wasn’t that far off after all. There was the butler who had opened the door, a cook, a couple of maids and a gardener at the end. His hands were rough, callused, but his eyes smiled kindly.

She smiled back. “Hi, how you doing? Mr.…?”

“Jeffries, Miss.”

She shook his hand warmly.

Alex was giving the butler some private instructions so she took a moment to look around the foyer. High ceilings, higher staircases that seemed to wind upward forever and landings on the two floors above. “A girl could get dizzy just looking straight up,” she said.

“Yes, Miss,” Jeffries said with an amused expression.

“I think I’d like to see the stables,” she said. “Could you show them to me later?” She’d never made love in a haystack and she wanted to look for whatever fresh experiences she could find.

“Of course, Miss.”

She looked at her watch, knew with a deep satisfaction that it would be at least two hours before she’d had enough of Alex to want to leave the bedroom. “Thanks, give me a couple hours. I’m going to need a nap. My timing’s all off,” she said.

“Cook will tell you where to find me.” He said with a nod and tip of his cap. He headed off down a long paneled hallway. She tried to see how long it would take him to get to the end, but he turned down a corridor she hadn’t noticed.

She felt Alex’s hot hand at her elbow. “You must be exhausted, Jaye. We’ll go to our rooms for a nap.”

“Rooms?”

He nodded and the rest of the staff scattered like pigeons. “You’re in for a treat,’ he said next to her ear. “I’ve got the best hydrotherapy tub money can buy in my suite.” His hand roved across her belly and up to cup her breasts. “Since you’ve taken up a new sport, you must have acquired some sore muscles. You’re getting the full treatment.”

“What new sport?”

“Making love with me, of course.”

She laughed and wondered what a hot tub could do for the muscles where she felt the most strain. She ignored his comment about lovemaking versus hot sex because she was having a hard enough time accepting that she was climbing the most imposing staircase she’d ever seen to her rooms in an English castle.

“How old is this place?”

“Three hundred years, give or take a decade. It actually belonged to an ancestor. A youngest son went to America to make his fortune and did, but his son joined the Revolution and disgraced the paternal side of the family. He was disowned. It felt like payback when I bought it for back taxes four years ago. Seems the English branch of the family weren’t as industrious as they should have been.”

“So you saved the staff their jobs?”

“I didn’t think of it that way.” He smiled at her observation.

“It’s the first thing I’d think of. Every job counts.”

“You make me see the world from a different angle, Jaye.” He looked thoughtful as he opened one side of a double door entry into a room the likes of which she’d never seen before.

Wide mullioned windows overlooked gardens below. There were window seats and a high ceiling with swirls and naked cherubs carved into the dark wood. Watered pink silk lined the walls. The high dark oak four poster bed echoed the centuries it had been in use. There was a step stool beside the bed so she could climb up into it. “I really am in a movie.”

Jaye stopped three steps inside the room, stunned by the old world luxury. A door led off to another room at the left of the bed. Alex went through the door and seconds later, she heard the roar of water filling a tub.

She followed him. Sure enough, he was filling a bathtub with at least twelve jets in it. But still, it was clear it had only been designed for two people. “I pictured something big enough for more people.”

“I don’t share my women and I have no interest in men.” The look he gave her set her heart racing.

“That’s good, because I don’t share either.”

He stepped up to her, snugged her hips to his and pressed against her. His arousal was strong, every bit as strong as hers.

She kissed him with a butterfly-weight touch of her lips to his. Familiar thrills chased through her at his response. He smelled so good, felt so good, tasted incredible.

While the water rumbled into the tub, steam rose, moistening her skin, warming the air around them.

“Scent. We need something in the water,” he said between heated kisses. He left her to study an array of bottles on a shelf over the tub. He took the stoppers off a couple but put them back.

She walked to him, picked up a bottle of exquisitely cut crystal and lifted the stopper herself. The scent was spice and flowers and sexy innuendo. She loved it.

“This one reminds me of us.”

“How so?”

“Mysterious and sexual but short-lived. The flowery fragrance at the top will be gone long before the other deeper scents.”

“Right.” He frowned.

After a moment of watching the tub fill, Alex lifted the decanter from her hand and poured a stream of the scent into the tub. The froth filled the air with the fragrance of love and yearning.

“This isn’t just sexy, it smells of longing and loss.”

He nodded. “I don’t like it.”

“You’ve never used it before?”

“I’ve never brought a woman here. So, no, when I’m alone I don’t use the tub.”

She sidled over to him, placed her palm on his flat belly and smiled her intentions. “It’s sweet that you brought me here, then, even if it was just out of necessity because I couldn’t get into France.”

He twined his hand into her hair and dragged her face to his for a kiss, powerful and demanding. “I was going to bring you here anyway. From the first moment I set eyes on you, I wanted you here, in this tub.”

She laughed. “Right.” But the serious intent in his gaze kept her derision at bay. She believed him.

“I want you again,” he said. “In here, with the steam rising around us.” He opened two fingers and wedged her left nipple between them, bringing it to a hard bud immediately. He sucked and licked it through her shirt and bra.

She moistened and set her legs on either side of his right leg and began to ride him. “You make me so wet for you.”

He opened her pants with shaking fingers, tugged the zipper down and squeezed a hand down to her curls. “You’re right, you’re already sopping.”

“Just for you. Only for you.”

He knelt before her, the rush of the water filling her head, her belly aquiver in anticipation while he shucked her out of her pants. Next, he nipped her string bikini panties with his teeth and pulled the material along her slit. A riot of sensation buckled her.

She reached behind for support and found the edge of the rapidly filling tub.

Clouds of steam heightened the scent he’d used in the bath.

For long moments he smoothed the material across her outer lips and turgid clit. Thighs quivering, her knees shook with the strain of staying just where he wanted her, just where the material could tease and rub against her sensitive flesh.

Finally tiring of the torture, he helped her stand then turned off the water faucet while setting the jets to work. The roar turned into a low rumble and vibrations rose through the floor.

He stripped off his clothes. “Get naked then get into the tub.”

She stripped quickly and followed him into the water. Her breasts bobbed on the surface, light and loose and free.

Alex pulled her to straddle his lap and his hard cock probed along her pussy trench. She adjusted herself so her lips cupped the length of him. “Like a hot dog in a bun,” she said and rocked her pubis against his.

Signals flared between their bodies and he held her to the position and ground against her. “I can’t enter you in the water, so don’t let me in.”

“Why not?”

“It’s not healthy. Hot tubs are great for foreplay, but anything more should be done out of the water. I’d never do anything to compromise your health.”

“Oh.” A warmth spread through her at his concern. She already knew he didn’t cheat, that this time with her was not hurting some unsuspecting significant other, and now he refused to take advantage of her lack of experience. He could tell her just about anything and she’d believe him, but still, he was treating her with respect and caring. A potent combination from an incredibly potent man.

“I designed this tub with a special jet you might like.”

“Special?” Heat hotter than the water pooled between her legs, bathing the rod she felt hard between her lips.

“Like this.” He shifted away from her and turned her toward the side of the tub. Then he aimed one of the jets upward to burble and bubble at the surface.

He pulled a pile of fluffy towels toward the edge of the tub and placed her knees into soft cups set high in the side wall. In this position she could lean forward on the towels, with her pussy against the gentle swirl of the jet’s stream while he could play all he wanted from behind her.

The gentle pressure from the water on her clit aroused her beyond anything she’d experienced. One hand slid from her belly to her breasts, capturing each nipple in turn with exquisite pulls. The distended head of his penis prodded and probed at her lips. She arched back toward his cock, grunting her demand.

But he denied her.

Instead, she felt the flick of something that wasn’t his tongue. She had no idea what he was using on her pussy. “What is that?”

“Guess.”

“I can’t. It’s too light.”

“I’ll increase the pressure, then.”

The swirls increased, the prickles along her nerve endings caused a riot of sensation, but still she couldn’t tell what it was, had no idea where he’d strike next.

She opened her legs wider so the water could swirl and tease her clit even more but the incredibly light sensations he created along the line between her pussy and her ass made her squirm. There was a slight scratch, then an ever-so-light swath of sensation wafted along her aching flesh.

She imagined his face, dark, intent, watching as her pussy lips quivered with each pass of the mystery tool. His touch on her buttock was firm and he opened the crease wider, exposing her ass to his view. He wanted to see everything, she knew. Never wanted her to keep her secrets.

Suddenly, the light feathery feeling was there, too, as he tickled and tortured her back side. “Do you like this?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t know.”

He let go of her cheek immediately. “Then we won’t play there.”

“Maybe if…”

“Jaye, it’s all right. Gives us something to look forward to. Besides, I think it’s time you guessed for me.”

“A washcloth is too heavy so that’s not what it is.”

“Correct.” His tongue tipped into her channel and sent shivers to her womb.

“I can’t think when you do that.”

“Good, I’ll do it again. Have I ever told you how you taste?”

She shook her head, unable to speak, the sensations were so wild, coming from several directions at once. The funny little tool was skimming her clit while his tongue danced along her outer lips. She arched back to open wider.

“Good girl, I like you open like this. You taste like salty cunt and sweet nectar, you smell like sex and you fuck like you can’t get enough. I love it.”

His words put images in her mind that took her higher toward the place she wanted to go. The little tool was gone now so she pressed her clit to the burbling stream of water and cried out with the deep clenches of her inner walls. “I’m coming—”

“Not yet,” he commanded. He cupped her mons to block the water stream against her. “You haven’t guessed.”

Her quivering pussy screamed with the interruption of pleasure.

“Fuck you, you prick, let me come.” She crooned and swayed from side to side, helpless against the man who held the power.

“Sh, Jaye, trust me.” He chuckled beside her ear. “I’ll get you off. Like this.”