Yesterday's Roses (30 page)

“Tell me, Dr. Gardiner,” he whispered hoarsely, “do you have a fever deep in your loins? Does your body ache to be touched? Teased?” He tipped his face close to hers. “Caressed?”

Hallie whimpered as the sizzling heat from his gaze made her body burn in its darkest, most secret recesses. He was the fever that simmered in her blood, and with just a look he made her ache where no decent woman should ache. How she longed to feel his hands worshiping her flesh, touching her like a man revering the woman he loved.

Something deep and primitive quickened in her belly at the thought of Jake's fingertips exploring her so tenderly. Oh! To feel the warmth of his skin as he covered her body with his …

Unable to stop herself, Hallie reached up and eased the silk dressing gown from his shoulders. He let it slide down his powerful arms before sitting back on his heels to remove it.

He was glorious in his nakedness—all sleek muscles and sun-kissed skin, his face heart-stopping in its perfection. She was entranced by his masculine beauty. Mesmerized by his potent appeal. And shamelessly, she wanted to kiss every wonderful inch of him. She let out a strangled gasp.
May God have mercy on my soul!
The longer she looked, the hotter her primal fire grew.

With a groan, Jake swept Hallie into his arms and buried his face in the hollow of her neck. He held her close for a moment, simply enjoying the feel of her in his arms.

“Poor Mission Lady,” he murmured, lifting his face to nuzzle her ear lightly. “It seems as if you've indeed been infected with lust. Of course, I'll need to examine you much closer to be certain. Touch you.”

Hallie arched her body against his with a moan, maddened as much by his words as by the warmth of his breath tickling against the delicate skin of her ear.

“Shall I remove your gown and study you closer?” he asked, drawing her lobe into his mouth and sucking on it. “Shall I explore you until I find the source of your ache?”

“Yes,” she panted, feeling as if she would die if he didn't touch her.

Leisurely, he branded her with wet kisses, letting his lips slide from her ear down the side of her neck. Playfully nipping and sucking on her throat in turns, he began to release the buttons.

“Please, Jake,” she sobbed, barely able to endure the exquisite feel of his mouth as he moved lower to kiss each newly exposed area of her skin.

“Patience is a virtue, Mission Lady.” He chuckled, pushing the linen aside to expose her full breasts. With tantalizing slowness, he traced the shape of one soft mound with his tongue, pausing to tease her sensitive nipple. It turned hard beneath his lips and she whimpered in response. As he moved to her other nipple, he felt her hands slide around his hips to massage his buttocks. His carnal response was immediate, and it was his turn to whimper.

With hands made clumsy by desire, Jake reached down to grasp the hem of the nightshirt. In one quick motion, he pulled it up over her hips. She shifted to help him, lifting her arms to let him slide it up her torso and, finally over her head. Impatiently he tossed the voluminous garment aside. Then he rose to his knees to stare down at her.

She was truly beautiful, his sultry enchantress. In the glow of the firelight, her skin shimmered with all the luster of a rare pink pearl, and as he released her hair from its confining braid, it pooled around her head like a halo crowning a Renaissance Madonna.

Hungrily, he let his gaze drop lower, his breath catching in his throat as he admired her unclothed splendor. He'd always suspected that her unflattering gowns hid a fine shape, but he'd never dreamed that she would be quite this breathtaking.

In awe, he let his palms shape the fullness of her breasts and caress the narrowness of her waist. For all her fine-boned slenderness, she was deliciously curved in all the right places. He paused to tease the shadowed indentation of her navel. She shuddered, softly moaning his name. That sound, halfway between a plea and a demand, made his body roar for its release.

Jake sucked in a labored breath. How she ravished his senses! It took every last ounce of his self-control not to thrust himself into her and promptly spill his seed. And considering the way she was squirming beneath his touch, her pliant body begging for fulfillment, he doubted that she would stop him. But she was a virgin and to use her in such a manner could sour her to the act of lovemaking forever. To do so would be unforgivable, for she had more fire, more natural sensuality, than any woman he had ever known.

“Do you burn deep and low, sweet Hallie?” he murmured, bending down to lick her navel. With his tongue, he traced the silken contours of her stomach until he came to the triangle of curls at the junction of her thighs.

“Jake!” she gasped, as he parted her legs. “What are you doing?”

“Intimately examining you, of course.” And as his fingers parted her passion-slick flesh, he felt her tense at the intimacy of his invasion.

“J-Jake,” she moaned, involuntarily thrusting against his hand. Though she knew she should be mortified by her shamelessness, she was powerless to deny the desperate urgency burning in the part beneath his touch.

Gently he explored her until he found the hardened bud of her desire. “You're very swollen, Mission Lady,” he murmured, lightly stroking the sensitive area.

“No!” she whimpered as she felt an embarrassing rush of moisture drench the pulsating source of her desire. She moaned and buried her cheek against the silken pillow of her hair. With every touch, her body was sucked deeper and deeper into the vortex of new sensations until she was lost to the insistent demand of her body's need. “I—I …”

“Ache?”
He
certainly did. In fact, he was perilously close to losing himself then and there. Jake let his tortured groan echo hers. Beneath that prim exterior, he had guessed his Mission Lady to be capable of great passion. He just hadn't realized the depth of her hunger, nor had he expected the volatility of his body's answering response.

Trailing warm, wet kisses up her inner thigh, he whispered, “Shall I soothe you? Shall I show you how a man doctors a woman in this condition?”

Hallie's hips thrust in wordless reply. Yes, her body begged. In answer to her mute appeal, she felt his lips replace his stroking fingers, and as his tongue probed the scalding fire of her womanhood, she was taken to heaven and back.

Waves of pleasure washed through her, drowning her in the ecstasy of her release. She arched up again and again, crying out as she was swept away by surge after intense surge of glorious sensation.

When the fury of her passion was at last spent, Hallie could only lie in weak, trembling awe, stunned by the power of her release.

Jake groaned as he felt the spasm of her climax pulsate against his lips. Dear God! She was sweet in her rapture! Her moans of pleasure vibrated through his body, and like a youth in eager anticipation of his first sexual experience, he could feel his manhood harden until it was throbbing against his belly.

Breathless with desire, he rose to cover her body with the long line of his. Balancing his weight on his elbows, Jake stared down into her passion-softened features.

“Do you know how you make me ache?” His voice was hoarse.

Stroking his rigid length, she sighed, “Then let me soothe you, darling. Show me how a woman doctors the man she loves.”

He moaned, his whole body jerking at her touch. With a strangled noise, he pulled her hand away from his inflamed flesh.

Parting her knees with his leg, he whispered, “Open for me, sweet Hallie.” And like a blooming rosebud, unfurling its petals, she parted her thighs. Reaching down, he let his fingers slide inside her. He felt another rush of warm moisture and his control splintered further at the evidence of her desire.

Panting now, he positioned himself between her legs. “Sweetheart,” he murmured, pressing his face against hers. “I'll be as gentle as I can, but there's still going to be pain.”

“I know.” Her voice sounded breathless as her hips rose up to meet his straining hardness.

Fighting to contain his eagerness, Jake gently eased himself inside her. As he became sheathed in Hallie's warmth, he could feel her muscles contract in protest to the unfamiliarity of his invasion. With great effort, he forced himself to remain still until he felt her begin to relax around him.

The feel of her, so moist and welcoming, was almost more than Jake could bear. Catching his breath sharply, he shifted his hips to resume his penetration. At his slight motion, Hallie's supple flesh tightened around him in an erotic embrace, and he struggled desperately to regain the last fraction of his restraint.

Gasping with pleasure, Hallie arched beneath him, urging him deeper. It felt wonderful, having Jake inside her, stretching her so intimately. Never in a thousand years would she have guessed that it would be like this. She wanted to feel every last wonderful inch of him moving inside her.

Drawing a deep breath to steady himself, Jake complied, pushing himself deeper until he came to the fragile barrier of her maidenhood. Claiming her softly parted lips with his in a tender kiss, he made one hard thrust that easily tore the delicate membrane. Then he plunged his full length into her, stifling her sharp cry of pain with his mouth.

“I'm sorry,” he murmured, gathering her into his arms and pressing soft kisses all over her face. “Relax. The pain will be gone soon.” And he forced himself to remain still while she adjusted herself to his size.

Hallie squirmed uncomfortably, desperately trying to ease her pain. It hurt. She felt as if she had been torn in half and now that he was fully inside her, his manhood felt as enormous as it looked.

Burying her face against his throat, she mumbled, “You lied.”

He stared down at the top of her bright head in wonder, momentarily forgetting how he was about to explode with need. “How did I lie?”

“You really are abnormally large. Otherwise I wouldn't hurt like this.” She gave her pelvis a tentative undulation. It was beginning to feel better, although he still felt awfully big.

Jake sucked his breath between his teeth at her sensual movement. He was close to the edge—too damn close. His body screamed with protest as he fought to deny it its quickly approaching climax. If only she would stop moving like that.

With desperate appeal, he groaned, “Hallie. Please … don't.” He wanted her first time to be special, perfect. He wanted her to find her woman's pleasure with him buried deep inside her and to feel her throbbing around him as they found their release together.
Damnation. If she would only lie still for a moment.

Yes. Now the ache was beginning to subside.
Hallie tested his length. It felt good. She arched again. Very good. There was just the slightest pain now, but it was quickly becoming replaced by the pleasure mounting deep inside of her unmentionable places.

“Now, Jake,” she pleaded, reaching around him to grasp his tightly flexed buttocks, rubbing herself against him with wild abandon.

It was too much. With a hoarse scream that would have roused the house had the walls not been so thick, Jake thrust once and promptly spilled himself. Tears rolled down his cheeks at the exquisite violence of his long-denied climax. His body convulsed uncontrollably, heaving, as his senses exploded with an ecstasy that was far more intense than anything he had ever experienced.

Again and again his body jerked, unconsciously driving himself deeper and deeper into Hallie's eagerly embracing depths. So possessed was he by the turbulence of his release that he barely heard her shriek of rapture as she joined him in paradise.

Then his body spasmed one final time, and he collapsed on top of her, his face drenched with his tears.

“Hold me,” he pleaded, his voice raw with emotion. “Please. Just hold me.” And as she hugged him fiercely, he buried his face between her breasts, sobbing. They lay like that for a long while, she holding him tenderly and he clinging to her as if she was his salvation.

When he at last lay still, his breathing even, Hallie lightly kissed the back of his neck. “Are you all right?”

He raised his head to stare into her face. “Are you?”

She nodded with a tender smile. “Never better.”

“Thank God,” he sighed, rolling off of her to sit up. He sat very still, his cheek resting on his bent knees and his arms wrapped around his legs.

Hallie moved to snuggle up behind him. With her legs around his hips and her arms around his chest, she molded her front to his back, propping her chin on his shoulder. She tickled his stomach lightly, trying to make him smile. Nothing. She tried again, this time more insistently. He didn't move a muscle.

“Did I do something terrible?” she finally asked.

“Good God! No!” He turned his head to meet her troubled gaze. “You were magnificent. Amazing. It was I who was terrible.”

“I don't understand.” Suddenly a dawning light flared in her eyes. “If you're feeling bad because you took my virginity, don't. You didn't take it. I gave it to you. I love you.”

Jake shuddered and hid his face against his knees. Never in his life had he felt so inadequate—or unworthy. What had happened to him over the years? He had once been considered quite the lover, never failing to bring his partner the ultimate pleasure before finding his own. But now he was a pathetic shadow of his former self, either spilling his seed prematurely or unable to perform at all.

Drawing a ragged breath, Jake propped his chin on his knees and stared into the fire. “Your first time should have been wonderful. Memorable. It should have been with someone tender and patient. Not with some fool who spills himself after one thrust,”

Hallie was stunned by his words. “But it was wonderful,” she declared honestly. “And I couldn't imagine doing it with anyone more tender or patient than you were.”

He raised his head and stared at her. She looked so earnest. He shook his head with a sigh. “That's because you don't know any better. A man should be able to give a woman pleasure from his body.”