AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He’d given up thinking. Given up planning.
There was just this, the pair of them together.
Perfect.
‘Come back to Paris with me.’
Bess’s breathing faltered as the words penetrated her haze of well-being.
She opened her eyes to find Jack lying on his side, watching her. His gaze was bright and in the early morning light she could swear she saw something new there. Something that hadn’t been there when they’d lived together.
Silently she stared back, trying to catalogue his expression. Tenderness definitely, like the light stroke of his fingers on her bare waist and hip. But something more. Something more...profound.
Need?
That was the word that sprang into her dazzled mind.
Was it possible Jackneededher? Not for his business plans, but for something more personal?
Her heart fluttered.
His success in the past year proved that whatever he’d once thought, he was capable of achieving his business goals without her at his side.
‘Elisabeth, you’re not saying anything.’
She blinked. Last night as they made love he’d called her Bess, and something tight and hard inside her had loosened and fallen away. He’d done it when they were as close as a man and a woman could be. It had made her feel that maybe things had changed and they shared something more than sex. That they were building a different sort of connection.
Jack had always preferred her full name. She suspected he enjoyed its formality, the reminder that her family, while impoverished, was aristocratic. After all, he’d chosen her as his bride for her privileged connections.
She stared into his eyes and found them unreadable. Whatever she’d thought she saw a moment ago had gone.
She spoke carefully. ‘I’m just surprised.’
‘Why?’
His hand tightened at her hip before resuming its slow, soothing slide. She felt her body respond. She wanted to arch into his touch as nerve endings tickled and the beginnings of sexual arousal stirred in her sated body.
All week it had been the same. Jack only had to touch her, or sometimes just look at her with that heavy-lidded expression, and she was ready for him again.
That scared her on the few occasions she’d thought about where this week was heading. Most times she’d been too craven to think about it, preferring to tell herself it was a week out of time. For despite what they’d agreed, they’d done little talking. When they did, it was about inconsequential things. As if neither wanted to shatter the magic they shared.
She’d been a coward, afraid that when they did discuss their relationship it would end forever.
She covered his hand with hers and moved it to the mattress between them. She couldn’t think when he caressed her and this was too important for distraction.
‘We only agreed to a week together.’
Already he was shaking his head. ‘You really think a week is enough?’ He paused, eyes narrowing as he dropped his gaze to her mouth then lower and she saw heat spark in those cobalt depths.
One thing that hadn’t changed was their sexual connection. If anything it had grown stronger here on the island. She’d told herself it was because of the time they’d spent apart. But a fear was growing that recent abstinence had little to do with it and Jack had tapped into a need for him that she just couldn’t eradicate.
‘What do you want, Jack?’
‘You.’ The answer came instantly and despite her reservations elation rose. She felt it as a welling in her chest, a tingling in her fingers.
Her reaction scared her. When it came to Jack she felt too much, always had. She shifted, drawing herself up to sit against the bed head, pulling the sheet over her breasts.
‘You need to be more specific.’
