Make Me Yours (14 page)

“I like that, Princess,” he said hoarsely, watching her hand over her shoulder. “Spread your lips further, show me your clit.”

His demand thrilled her and she didn’t need any further encouragement to obey. Pushing her damp folds farther apart around his invading cock, she exposed her red, swollen clit to both their gazes.

“Rub it harder against my cock, baby. Let me see the pleasure I’m giving you.” His voice was strained, his breathing rough as his cock jerked in readiness for ejaculation.

Morgan mewled as she used her thumb to press the small bud harder against his drenched cock, then cried out as she exploded in climax. Keeping the pressure on her clit, she managed to use her fingers to continue stroking him as he took her hard, his groan signaling his own release.

“You could very well be the death of me, Morgan,” Jack said as he slowly left the warmth of her body. With a laugh of pure contentment, he kissed her hard, swatted her ass and jumped out of bed. Smiling at the way she was rubbing her red cheek and glaring at him, he warned, “You know what that look will get you.”

“You sure know how to put a damper on the afterglow, Master,” she said sarcastically. Pulling the covers up, she snuggled back down into bed. “You’ve had your fun, now go away.”

The persistent peel of her phone woke her an hour later. Not fully awake, she grabbed the offending object off the night stand and greeted the caller with a terse, “What?”

“Is that any way to answer your phone?”

Groaning, Morgan rolled over, sticking her head under the pillow. “What do you want, Mother?”

“Are you ready to come home yet, Morgan?”

“What do I have to do to get it through your head that I’m NOT marrying Joel? And, if I do come home, it’ll only be to pack my things and return here. I want to be with Jack.” Damn it, for once, why couldn’t her parents be supportive?

“Then you leave me no choice. If you don’t return home immediately and attend your engagement party Saturday night, your father will buy Jack’s loan on that place and then call it in. He and his partner will lose everything.”

“You wouldn’t!” she gasped in outrage as she sat up quickly. Jack and Marc both loved this place and had worked hard to make it successful. There was no way she’d be responsible for them losing it.

“We would,” Kathleen stated implacably. “Your father wants this merger, and since you’re our only child, you’ve left us with no choice.”

“So my happiness means nothing to you?” she whispered as the crushing blow of defeat pressed down on her.

“Really, Morgan, must you be so melodramatic? You can have a perfectly nice life with Joel. After you give him a child or two, you can do as you please, as long as you’re discreet. You can even spend your vacations in the mountains with Jack. After all we’ve done for you, you’d think you’d be grateful enough to repay us by helping out with this.”

Morgan closed her eyes, wishing she could shut out her mother as easily. Her parents had always thought that sending her to the best boarding school in the country, making sure she had gourmet meals and fancy clothes, was all a child needed. Thank God she had had Jack and Agatha, their cook, to show her that someone did care about her, that she was worthy of love. And because Jack meant everything to her, had been there for her when no one else had, she would not allow her parents to destroy his dream. She knew how hard he had worked and saved to buy this place. How could she bear it if she was the cause of him losing it? He would hate her if that happened, and that was the one thing she couldn’t bear.

“I’ll leave today, Mother. Tell Joel I’ll be there in time for the engagement party.” Morgan hung up and then ran into the bathroom. Standing under the shower, she let the sobs come. She had come so close to having everything she had ever wanted. It was only with Jack that she had ever been truly happy and when he had mentioned being together for fifty years this morning, she thought her heart would burst. Now, her future looked so bleak, she didn’t know how she could stand it. Jack would hate her after this, after pursuing him, practically throwing herself at him while assuring him it was what she wanted, he would never forgive her for turning away.

She couldn’t do it, she thought as she struggled to stop the tears. She couldn’t look into his face when she told him she was leaving without telling him why. She could never tell him of her parent’s threat, forcing him to choose between her or the lodge. That would not be fair, and though she had often been selfish in her demands of him growing up, she wasn’t a neglected little girl any more needing him to be there for her. This time, she needed to do what was right for him, no matter how much it hurt.

After drying off, she tried to cover the evidence of her tears with make-up and hoped Jack didn’t notice. Dressed in jeans and a sweater, she quickly stuffed her few belongings back in her bag, including Jack’s flannel shirt that she had practically lived in the past week. One week, that was all she had had with him, all the happiness she would ever know. Of course, she had no intentions of staying with Joel permanently. After she produced the required heir, she would file for divorce. She may have lost Jack, but that didn’t mean she was going to spend the rest of her life with that jerk. She’ll raise her child with all the love she hadn’t had, and hope that someday she could tell Jack the truth and that he will forgive her.

Leaving her bag until she could get away without being seen, she padded down the hall towards Jack and Marc’s voices coming from the kitchen.

“Well, look who finally woke up,” Marc greeted her with a smile.

Morgan smiled as best she could but knew it didn’t fool them as they watched her worriedly. Hopefully they’d put her reticence down to embarrassment over their threesome last night and not question her.

Jack noticed the change in Morgan as soon as he saw her and, since she was fine when he left the bedroom earlier, he could only surmise she was uncomfortable around Marc. Remembering what happened between Marc and Cassie, he hoped he hadn’t pushed her too far too fast. She had seemed to enjoy including Marc last night and had embraced the whole encounter with as much enthusiasm as she had everything else he introduced her to – not that he intended to share her often. Maybe she needed to be reassured of that, and of his feelings for her.

“We saved you some banana pancakes, Princess. Come help yourself.” Setting a plate in front of her as she took a seat at the counter, he then poured her a cup of coffee. “Marc and I have to go back to town to pick up some supplies at the Post Office. Want to come?” He hoped having her accompany them with no sexual overtures would help put her at ease.

“No, thanks. I’d rather draw some more,” she replied, thankful that her getaway was being made easy. She needed to leave as soon as possible, before she broke down and selfishly put her own happiness ahead of his.

“Morgan,” Marc said softly, “if you don’t want me to go, I’ll understand.”

“No! I mean, that’s not the reason. I really want to come up with some better sketches for Stephanie.”

“Okay, if you’re sure.” Kissing her lightly, Jack knew something was bothering her. Vowing he’d get it out of her when they returned, he said, “We won’t be long.”

Morgan listened to them joke as they went downstairs and knew she couldn’t leave him without saying one more thing. Running to the balcony that overlooked the lobby and foyer, she called down to him as he opened the front doors. “Jack, I love you.”

He smiled up at her. “I know you do, Princess. I love you too.”

It wasn’t the first time they had said those words to each other, but it was the first time they were said and meant as more than friends. She prayed it wasn’t the last time she heard them.

Jack sat in the unlit club room and downed another whiskey. He and Marc had returned from Bear Creek by mid afternoon and he had known as soon as he stepped foot into the loft that she was gone. A quick search told him she hadn’t left anything behind except a short note simply stating she had changed her mind and was returning home. His first thought had been to go after her, demand an explanation and that she give him another chance. But he couldn’t do it. He had only ever asked one thing of Morgan and that was for her to trust him. Apparently it was the one thing she wasn’t willing to give.

Bleakly, he stared at the empty room and remembered how the little minx had been brave enough to sneak in and spy on the activities she was unaccustomed to seeing, brave enough to risk his wrath and punishment. And then, much to his surprise and pleasure, she had been brave enough to accept her punishment and embrace him and his lifestyle with all the enthusiasm she had always shown for new adventures, especially when they included him. In just a few short days he had put her through the ringer sexually, wasting no time introducing her to the pleasure/pain of sexual domination. And she had took to each new experience wholeheartedly, her multiple orgasms proof of her enthusiastic acceptance. So, why in the hell had she run instead of coming to him with her insecurities? Was it the threesome with Marc that had sent her fleeing back home or was it something else? The only thing she had left him with was a single sketch of his mountainside with her signature, that and heartache.

“I thought I’d find you here.” Marc joined Jack at the bar.

“Sorry, Marc.” Pouring another drink, he offered the bottle to him. “Care to join me or are you here to try to convince me I didn’t fuck up.”

Taking the bottle, Marc capped it and put it out of his friend’s reach. “You didn’t fuck up, Jack. Think about it for a minute.”

“You’d think we both would have learned our lesson with Cassie, wouldn’t you?” Jack asked, his voice laced with sympathy because now he knew first hand how Marc had felt all these years.

“What happened with Cassie wasn’t the same. I screwed up big time with her and I admit it. I was so fucking obsessed I let that blind me to her youth and inexperience. Hell, Jack, I had only known her for a few weeks, only seen her at the club. We had no relationship before I railroaded her into letting me top her on beginner’s night, and the few nights after. If you’d quit wallowing in self pity, you’d see the difference.”

“If it wasn’t the sharing that made her leave, then what was it?” he demanded.

“That’s what you need to figure out. Have you tried calling her?”

“No, and I’m not going to. I asked her to trust me, Marc, and she didn’t. That girl isn’t shy, not with me. You’re right, we’ve known each other for twenty years, told each other everything, nothing was off limits. There is nothing she couldn’t talk to me about, nothing we couldn’t work out together. She chose not to and I’m not going to chase after her like a love sick puppy. This is exactly why I didn’t want to cross that line from friendship to lovers,” he finished bitterly before downing his drink.

Marc grinned ruefully. “But you are a love sick puppy.”

“Fuck you.”

“Nah, you’re not my type.” Sighing, Marc rose, and returned the whiskey under the bar. “When you sober up, think about something. All her life, she’s run to you, thrown herself at you, risking her heart in the process. If I were to guess, her leaving probably had something to do with protecting you rather than herself. Maybe, for once, you ought to be the one that runs to her.”

Jack cleaned out his glass and then stumbled upstairs. Without bothering to change, he fell into bed and cursed when he automatically reached for her and she wasn’t there. God damn it, he swore. Tomorrow, he was going to chase that girl down, demand an explanation and then beat her ass for pulling this latest stunt.

The next evening, Jack was just finishing packing a bag for his flight the following morning, when his phone rang. Recognizing Agatha’s number, he snatched it up quickly, hoping she had news of Morgan. He had tried all day to call Morgan, but she either wasn’t answering or she had packed her phone where she couldn’t grab it while driving. It took over fifteen hours to drive from Denver to Chicago, and now he had to worry about her being on the road alone, which just pissed him off more.

“Hello, Agatha.”

“Jack, thank God I got hold of you. You’ve got to get here as soon as possible.”

Agatha’s frantic voice sent a chill through him. “Calm down and tell me what’s wrong. Is Morgan all right?”

“All right?! She’ll never be all right if she goes through with her parents demands. That poor girl showed up here an hour ago looking exhausted, her eyes swollen from crying. And what did they do? They simply said they were glad she came to her senses. I swear, those two are the coldest people I’ve ever met.”

Jack started to pace, knowing from past experience that he had to let Agatha vent before she could get to the point. “Agatha, do you know what’s going on, why Morgan returned home so abruptly?”

“Of course I do. I held the poor girl while she sobbed her heart out and told me how they were blackmailing her into following through with this ridiculous sham of a marriage. They threatened to buy up your loan on your lodge and then call it in, ruining you. Poor dear, she couldn’t bear it if they caused you to lose that place. And now they expect her to attend this engagement party tomorrow night as if everything was fine. You aren’t going to let our girl go through with this, are you, Jack?”

Jack cursed, wearily rubbing his face as he realized how easily this could have been avoided if Morgan had simply come to him. The loan Marc and he had on the lodge and the surrounding acres was at a small bank, privately owned by another Army buddy of theirs and also a frequent visitor. There was no way Jeremy would sell him out.

“Of course not, but I want your word that you won’t let on to Morgan that I’m on my way there. She’s going to face me and the consequences for not trusting me, before I tell her her parent’s threat is futile. They can’t hurt me.”

Morgan snatched another glass of champagne from the server as he walked by. Kathleen and George Tomlinson’s home was filled with Chicago’s elite, all there to celebrate her engagement to Joel Norris. The huge ballroom, which was usually kept closed off, echoed with the sounds of laughter and the melodious strains coming from the small orchestra in the corner. A sumptuous buffet ran the length of one wall, while the opposite side of the room opened out onto the patio. People mingled, smiled, danced and congratulated her, and she was oblivious to it all.