The Earl's Outrageous Lover (14 page)

Chapter 11

Jessica stared at the screen but her eyes didn’t absorb any of the information there.  At least her questions about where they would live had been answered.  By the time they’d left the hotel on Sunday afternoon, all of her possessions had been packed up, moved to his house and unpacked by his uber efficient housekeeper.

There were no separate bedrooms she was relieved to know.  But right now, she almost wished she could have her own bedroom.  At least then she’d have some relief from Edward’s constant rigid control.  Thankfully, he never tried to control her except when they were in bed.  Every night, Edward would take her into his arms and make love to her until she was screaming out, begging him for release.  He was relentless in his pursuit of her pleasure, but he wouldn’t let her touch him except towards the end.  He would release her hands and she’d grab his arms or his shoulders while he drove into her and for a few moments, she was allowed to touch him anywhere she wanted.  It was almost as if her touching him would make him lose his control, which is what happened whenever she started to climax.  It was odd, and more than a bit scary.

She was applying for jobs ostensibly, but in reality, she was thinking about her marriage and what it was like to live with a man who was so rigidly in control of his life and his world that nothing ever happened that wasn’t scheduled.  Even when she lost her keys, he always knew exactly where they were.  Yesterday she was searching through her makeup, trying to find her favorite lipstick but because she hadn’t taken the time to set up all of her makeup on the dressing table he’d had built for her in the sunny side of the massively large master bedroom, she couldn’t find the particular color she wanted.  That day she’d been muttering to herself about messes and missing lipsticks when he’d walked up behind her.

“What’s wrong?”  he asked, his hand skimming over her back, his sure fire way to get her attention.  Well, it didn’t have to be on her back.  He really just needed to touch her anywhere and she lost track of what she was doing or thinking and was completely focused on him.  She suspected that he did that at certain times just to see if he could, as if he wanted to know he still had that kind of power over her mind.

That day, she’d told him about the missing lipstick and how she knew she’d put it in her makeup bag last time.  Edward, in all of his cool, calculating and impossibly logical way, peered into her makeup bag, stuck his hand in and then a moment later, pulled out the shade she’d been looking for.

“Is this it?”  he asked.

Jessica had been so irritated she’d almost forgotten to thank him.  He’d walked away chuckling and she’d nearly thrown her brush at his back.  She didn’t because she would have either missed his back completely, which would only infuriate her further because he would laugh at her again, or she’d have lost the brush as it landed someplace she couldn’t see and both scenarios would have irritated her.

He left for work at exactly the same moment each morning, arrived home at almost exactly the same minute each evening, dinner was served thirty minutes after he arrived home, just enough time for him to shower, change and relax with a drink.  To Jessica, it seemed that the only changes in his daily routine were how he made love to her each night.  The man was a genius at that and more creative than she’d ever thought possible.

The rigidity of his schedule was driving her a bit up the wall.  At least she knew she could count on him at a specific time though.

And she was starting to hate the way they made love at night.  It was as if he was filled with an obsession to maintain the same rigid control over himself in their bed as he did in all other parts of his life.  She climaxed with his expertise, but it was starting to feel empty, as if he weren’t a part of their sex life but more like a rigidly robotic male who came to her each night to service her.

She wanted the passionate man back.  The one who ravished her and was as completely taken away by the moment as she was.  Unfortunately, she had no idea how to find him.

She walked over to his dresser, looking at the sparse objects laid out on top.  The man was incredibly handsome, but he certainly wasn’t vain.  He had a comb, hairbrush and a small wooden box on top of his dresser.  She knew that he kept his cuff links in the box, having seen him go through them before when he was getting dressed.

She lifted the lid, wondering how many he had.  Not many, she realized.  They were all good quality, but there was a gold pair, a black onyx pair and a silver pair.  Hmm…she thought.  Just like shoes.  Sort of.  She laughed at how silly she was since she owned about fifty or more pairs of shoes.  She probably had three pairs of black pumps so those already outnumbered his cuff link collection.

Something was tucked underneath all the items though.  She bent low and pulled out the smaller wooden box.  When she opened the box, she found a pressed flower.  It was flat and white with brownish edges and it took her a moment to figure out what it was.  When she finally made the connection, her heart almost melted with the love that struck her at that moment.

The flattened whitish object was the rose she’d snuck to Edward the day of his mother’s funeral.  He’d been sixteen, she’d been five and she’d cried for him and for his loss.  They’d watched each other during the funeral and she had sent her aching heart to him, crying those tears for the young man who had been admonished to not show any emotion.

Well he had, and the evidence was right here.  Whether he’d saved this rose because she’d given it to him or because it had been from his mother’s funeral, she didn’t know.  But the rose had been preserved and cared for all this time.

The love for the man she was married to burst in her chest and she could no longer deny how she felt.  The man was impossible sometimes, but he was hers and she loved him for all of his human frailties that he refused to show.  Except with these small gestures, she thought as she twirled the rose carefully in her fingers.

An idea occurred to her and she blushed at the possibility of even asking someone else how to break through this issue.  Would Edward be angry that she’d discussed their personal relationship with another man?  But James was her friend and they’d talked about so many other things over the course of their friendship, wasn’t this just more of their confidences?

They’d laughed and talked about politics and economics, science and numerous other subjects, but this was much more personal.  And she didn’t want Edward to be offended by her talking to someone outside of their relationship.

But she really didn’t want to go through another night like she’d had over the past week.  There was no doubt that he could manipulate her body so that she was a marshmallow when their lovemaking was finished, but it was a lonely process.  She never felt like he was her partner in the sex act.  It was more like he was the maestro and she was the orchestra, making all the music by herself, but somehow separate from him at the same time.

She nibbled on the pad of her thumb, trying to figure out the best way to handle this.  In the end, she couldn’t come up with an alternative.  She reached for the phone and called him.

The following day, Jessica smiled at James as she crossed the restaurant, giving him a big hug before she sat down across from him.

“This was a surprise.  What’s the occasion?”  he asked as he sat down as well.

Jessica took the menu from the hostess and smiled before setting it to the side.  “I need your advice,” she said and leaned forward, crossing both of her arms across her stomach and looking at him intently.

James did the same, his watchful eyes trying to decipher what was going on.  “Okay,” he said and noticed her blush and the way her eyes looked downwards.  “What’s up?”

She fiddled with her fork and opened her mouth to start to speak, but the waiter arrived to tell them about the specials for the day.  Jessica quickly looked at her menu and ordered a salad, then waited while James put in his order.  She was relieved when the waiter finally left them alone once again.

“Okay, spill it,” he said, leaning forward on his arms as he watched her carefully.  “You obviously have something very important to discuss and I’m dying to hear all about it.”  He paused for a moment and stilled.  “Edward isn’t mistreating you is he?”

Jessica shook her head, letting her breath go in a whoosh.  “No.  Of course not.  He’s a very gentle and considerate man.  It wouldn’t occur to him to do anything abusive to me or anyone else.”

James laughed and shook his head.  “You don’t know his business practices.  The man is brutal.”

Jessica grinned.  “Coming from one brutal real estate mogul about a brutal financier?”  she quipped.

He conceded the point with a shrug.  “I don’t let the small things stand in my way.”

She laughed, but moved on, not wanting to critique his business style which she knew to be completely ethical and legal.  Both Edward and James were financial geniuses and if someone else had a weakness of which either man manipulated, that was none of her business.

“No, this is something else I need your advice about.”

“Okay.  Tell me.”

James was nothing if not blunt.  He didn’t beat around the bush about anything and became irritated when anyone else wasted his time while they dilly dallied around the subject.  “I need your advice about sex,” she said with a blush.

James was silent for a moment before he burst out laughing.  “I had it all wrong about the old man I guess.  Not that I thought about it long and hard, but Edward was probably the last man who would need advice on moves for a lady.”

Jessica shook her head.  “Not that way,” she whispered.  “Edward is very…..adept,” was the only word she could come up with.

“So he always leaves you satisfied, right?”  he asked with his usual bluntness.

Jessica wasn’t exactly sure how to respond.  “Yes,” she started off.  “Well, no, not really.”  She sighed and shook her head.  “It's more complicated than that.”

James covered her hand with his, trying to reassure her.  “What’s on your mind?”

She looked into James’ kind eyes and took a deep breath.  “Well, you see…Edward…”

When she still had trouble forming the words, James took pity on the lovely woman and urged her on, trying to be open and honest about a subject many found embarrassing.  “Because of our previous comments, I’m guessing this has something to do with sex, am I right?”

She nodded her head.

He tried to hide his amusement at her blush as he continued probing.  “Something about it you don’t really like.”

She nodded again.

James laughed softly and squeezed her hand.  “I can’t guess any further.  You’re going to have to give me some specifics if you want me to help you out.”

Unfortunately, the waitress arrived with their meal at that moment and Jessica took the time to figure out exactly how to ask him the question.  By the time the woman had left after offering fresh pepper and grated cheese, both of which were impatiently declined, Jessica decided to go about this a bit differently.

“So…if I wanted to make a guy crazy, what would I need to do?”  she asked, picking up her fork and stabbing a tomato almost violently.

James was looking down at his plate but her words caused his head to snap up.  “Are you telling me that Edward isn’t interested in you?  Because if that’s the case, I’ll definitely have words with him.  I thought he was more intelligent than that.”

Jessica quickly shook her head.  “It's without doubt nothing like that.  He’s very interested.  Almost too interested in….well, you know, satisfying me.”  She sighed and took a long swallow of ice water.  “It’s not right,” she finally got out.

He looked at her curiously.  The images that popped into his mind regarding sex that might not be ‘right’ were disturbing because everything he did regarding sex was definitely ‘right’.  He knew that there were some troubled people in the world though.  “What’s not right?”  If Edward was doing something that made this woman uncomfortable…well words would not be adequate to appease the rage he was feeling at the idea.

Jessica sighed and put her head down on the open palm of her hand.  “The way he makes love to me now.  It’s not….passionate,” she finally got out.  “He’s so focused and intent.  So precise about the whole process.  But before we were married, it was passionate and crazy and wonderful.  Now it’s just….controlled and almost methodical.”  She grimaced and put down her fork.  “I want to know what I can do to drive him crazy, so I can get the other lover back.”

There was still a moment of confusion, but as she spoke, understanding dawned in him and he smiled, intensely relieved that there wasn’t anything dysfunctional going on.  “So Edward likes to control the situation and he’s not letting go and enjoying the fun, is that it?”

Jessica raised one shoulder.  “Well, I’m pretty sure he enjoys everything, just not with the kind of…wild abandon he used to have.”

“And you want the crazy lover instead of the controlled one.  Am I right?”

“Exactly.”  She sighed, enormously relieved that James finally understood even though she’d completely jumbled the explanation.  “So what can I do to change this?”

James sat back and stared at the lovely, vivacious woman who was nervously playing with her fork.  He had gotten to know Edward over the past couple of weeks and was already working on a business deal with him so he had a great deal of respect for Jessica’s husband.  He didn’t want to intrude, but he also knew that he had to help Jessica with her problem.  And hopefully help Edward as well.

“Not to get into details, but have you thought about doing something to get him into that crazy passion before he touches you?”

Jessica thought about that for a moment.  “No, not really.  There’s not much of a chance to do that,” she explained carefully.  She didn’t want to reveal too much about her personal life, but she wanted James to be clear about what was happening.

James nodded, having the same issue whenever he was around Julianna.  And he really loved breaking her out of that cool, composed façade she liked to portray to the world.  When he got beneath her control, she was like a different woman and he loved it!