T is for Temptation (48 page)

She loved him.

She said the words.

More than once.

From a business standpoint, this was a no-brainer. So why did his pulse race at the thought of the question? Why did guilt plague him?

He knew why, but that didn’t make anything easier.

Following Tiny down the hall and the stairs to the banquet room, he never noticed the rising sun showering stained glass windows with rainbows and casting figures and forms over the bare stone floor.

Jake found Stephen, Elaine, and Kieran in the enormous great hall. Kieran and Stephen wore identical bemused expressions. Elaine stood on the dais, issuing orders commando style. Servants bustled about.

Elaine spotted him at once and motioned him over. Standing on the dais, his mother stood eye to eye with him, and she patted his jaw, delicate little fingers stroking his stubbled skin. “Jamie, love, I’m glad you’re back.”

She kissed first one cheek and then the other. “I expected you two days ago, son. What happened?”

Jake’s mind whirled. His mother had the ability to make him feel as if he’d stumbled off a spinning fairground ride. “You expected me?”

“Of course. Now that I’ve found you again, I’ll always know when you’re coming and if you need me.” Elaine’s forefinger feathered over his cheekbone. “Now, where is your betrothed? I am anxious to meet my new daughter.”

“She hasn’t actually agreed to marry me as yet,” he warned. “So please don’t call Tee that when you meet her.”

“She will, Son, no mind.” Elaine paused to issue an order to two maids carrying a brace of candles. “We’re having a feast to celebrate your visit tonight.”

“We don’t feast every time I return from abroad.” Stephen’s droll voice startled him.

“Stephen, you know that’s not true. Do not bait your brother.”

“Little brother, you’ve deigned to honor us with your presence. I hear your leman is with you. Tiny says she’s a fetching thing. All brothers are supposed to share. Are you willing?”

Jake’s hands fisted at his sides, and he glowered at Stephen. “Tee is not my leman.”

“Good.” Stephen’s lips turned up in a nasty leer. “Then you won’t mind if I make her mine.”

“Boys, behave. Stephen, stop teasing your brother. He’ll think you’re serious.” Elaine swatted her diminutive, pale hand at Stephen’s shoulder.

“And why would I not be serious?” Stephen’s left eyebrow arched.

“Take your brother to your da.” Elaine shook a finger in their direction. “If I hear of any squabbling, both of you will answer to me. Do you understand?”

“Ah, Mother dearling, I’m prodding the poker. Jamie is too serious for his own good. He has no sense of humor. I’ve decided it’s my duty to teach him how to laugh.”

“Once there’s no quarreling, I don’t care what you do. Now off to your father. He’ll be wanting to spend time with both his sons.”

Hours later, a bruised and battered Jake made his way up the stairs to the attic, wishing fervently for an elevator. Every muscle ached. Somehow, they’d persuaded him to join the rest of the men in practice. After an hour of swordplay, they’d taken up archery.

It looked so easy. Between wielding a heavy-as-lead weapon they called a claymore and twanging an impossibly taut bow string, his right arm was ready to fall off. Stephen’s and Tiny’s snickers echoed in his mind. When he got back to the future, he and Alex were going to become proficient in swordplay and archery before they showed their faces again in 1501.

He met his mother on the second floor landing, and she requested a few minutes of his time. To his delight, she spoke with him about his visions, termed the second sight in this time. Elaine promised to give Tee a tool that would help both of them with their special abilities and seemed to know an awful lot about Tee even though she’d never met her. He marveled at the easy acceptance of supernatural powers by the inhabitants of the sixteenth century. Would that it were so in the twenty-first century, but prejudice seemed to run hand in hand with progress.

He found Tee singing in the shower. His tiredness evaporated. He shed his clothes and slipped onto the wet tiles.

“What happened to the bathtub?” He winked at her. “I liked that thing.”

“I had to wash my hair. It’s much easier in a shower.” She flashed Jake a saucy grin. “Any objections?”

“Noooo, witchy woman. I can think of any number of wonderful things we can do in a shower.” Jake surveyed the enticing woman in front of him. She had shampoo in her hair, her hands tangled in a mass of white froth on top of her head. The action arched her breasts upwards. Foam drifted onto her chest, around her navel, and down to the curls between her legs.

His arousal strained at his belly. He dropped a kiss on her shoulder and took over the job of shampooing her hair. She leaned back, wriggling her bottom against his cock.

“I wished for you,” she admitted. “That feels so good.”

“I can’t wait to make love to you on the beach. You do realize we seem to have a thing about water.” He angled the showerhead onto her hair and washed the soap out of her long curls.

“Mmmm.” She tucked her hands behind her bum and found his thick, smooth hardness.

“Feels wonderful, my sweet little witch. Don’t stop.” His hands dropped to her breast, and his eager fingers circled the peachy-pink areolas.

She spun around in Jake’s arms and draped her hands around his neck. “It’s my turn, darling. Last time you were in charge. This time I get to practice chapter one. I’m doing the honors.”

His shaft twitched on her stomach, and he melted into the impish, sensual light in her eyes. “Do you see me protesting? By the way, I like the darling bit.” He held up his hands. “Go ahead, my lovely witch. Have your wicked way with me.”

“I have at least a decade of fantasies to try out, darling.” She pushed his chest and pointed to one side. “Sit.”

“What?” His head shifted to the right.

She had conjured up a wide marble bench against the tiled wall. Steam filled the shower stall. Jake sat. His penis jerked in gleeful anticipation.

“Have I ever told you how much I love your hair?” She lathered his locks. “It’s so black and curly. It looks coarse, but feels like silk. Close your eyes.”

“Don’t want to,” he muttered. “The view from here is the second best one in the world.” He reached out to fondle the breasts dancing so close to his mouth.

“Uh-uh.” She edged away. “Only when I say so.”

His mouth burned, and his lips twitched, aching to taste her, lave those rosy nipples..

She washed the shampoo out of his hair and then placed open-mouthed kisses down his wet temple. “On that very first night you came to
Trinidad
, the minute we were introduced.” Nibbling her way down Jake’s cheek, she whispered, “I knew you were dangerous to me. My whole body tingled, and I couldn’t think straight.” She stared into his eyes. “Do you remember when I gave you that glass of whiskey?”

So mesmerized he couldn’t speak, he nodded.

“Your fingers touching mine scorched my skin.” Smudges of pink color stained her cheekbones. “You started a fire in me. By the end of the night, my panties were soaked. I could hardly walk I ached so badly.”

She slipped her tongue along the seam of his lips. They parted immediately, inviting her in. She straddled his legs and let her heels rest on the bench. The move made his balls tighten, and his gaze fixated on the glimpse of pink folds amidst the tawny curls cradling his arousal.

“Now that’s the best view in the universe. Wider, babe,” he pleaded. “Spread your legs wider, Tee my love.”

She let her thighs fall apart, slanted her lips over his, and swept her tongue into his mouth.

He groaned.

Rubbing her smoldering center against his cock, she shifted her hips left and right. The kiss took on a life of its own. The honeyed, warm, fresh taste of her lit the fuse of their passion.

Steam billowed around them, warming and caressing every tingling pore. Her lips left his, and she traced a hot, moist path up to his earlobe. His hands dropped to her waist. She wriggled.

“Uh-uh, darling.” She twirled her tongue into the whorls of his ear and whispered, “That night, when I went back to Greenbriar, I slept naked for the first time ever.”

His whole body tightened in response to her words.

“Hell, Tee.” He cupped her chin and turned her face to his.

“I closed my eyes and imagined you touching me.” She glided his hand across her belly and pressed his thumb against the pulsing pearl center cradled by slick folds. “Here. I touched myself here and pretended it was you, your fingers.”

His penis pulsed against her navel.

“Hell, I was in my hotel room,” he moaned and circled the pad of his thumb on her nubbin, pressing firmly. “Fantasizing about you, consumed with shame because I wanted my partner’s fiancée.”

“I felt so guilty because you excited me, and Tony didn’t.” She brushed her lips against his and cradled his face in her hands. “Tony never, ever made me feel the way I did that night. Then, the next day, you virtually ignored me.”

“Try to understand, my reaction to you was so violent, so out of control, I had to find some distance.”

Jake’s swirling thumb sent her eyelids down, leaving a narrow slit. She took his hand away, interlocked their fingers, and held it to the tiles by his head.

“My turn, remember.” She explored his mouth again. Her slow, drugged kisses sent sparks bursting through his veins. Climbing off his legs, Tee sat on her haunches, nipped her way down his neck, and then lathered soap onto his skin. Leaning across his body to massage his shoulders, her taut nipples brushed against the fine spray of black hair on his chest. Each scrape fed the fever between his legs.

“Did you ever touch yourself again?” He rested his head against the warm tiles, enjoying the pressure of her firm fingers on his sore muscles.

“Hmmm.” She licked her lips. Her eyes strayed to his erect nipples. Flicking hers to prancing attention, she rose off her heels and squirmed, aiming the turgid tips at each other. “Oh my.”

She did it again. “Do you like that?” Her voice came out as a croak.

“Do it a few more times so I can decide.” He grinned at her and scraped his thumb over the tight point of her other breast. “Tell me. Did you?”

The flush on her face crept down her body.

“No.” She bit her lip. “I couldn’t. Not while Tony and I were married. But after he died…” Her voice trailed off.

“I want to watch you.” He ducked his head and captured her lips. He fed on her mouth, his greed growing with every plunge of his tongue, every light bite of her lower lip. His free hand slid to her breast, and he pinched her nipple softly. “Play with this for me,” he whispered. “I want to see you.”

“I think I need a few glasses of wine before I try that.” She wouldn’t look him in the eye.

“Witchy woman, you’re still too shy.” His eyes were half-open. “We can do it together.”

She shook her head. “No. Don’t distract me. This is my turn.”

“Your show, babe.” He placed his free hand next to his ear. “Look, no hands, just don’t torture me too much longer.”

She rubbed a large bar of powder blue, musky scented soap between her hands and massaged large circles of foam onto his chest. Tracing a circle around his dark areolas with her forefinger, she mimicked his actions with her, pinching his nipples and using her fingernails, lightly abrading the stiff points.

His pectoral muscles rippled in response. She glanced up at him and flashed him a gleeful, triumphant smile.