Jess lay beneath him, completely stunned. Their clothing lay in abandoned disarray around them, but nothing else mattered except what they had just shared.
She was horrified, appalled, shocked, and amazed, all at the same time. She stared at the ceiling while her body began to cool, but wasn’t sure what to say, or do now. Everything had changed forever, and in a way that she could never go back and undo.
Did she regret it? She wasn’t entirely sure. Her mind didn’t seem able to function. She had never once contemplated that her body could do such things, but it had, and more besides. It had left her in a daze from which she didn’t seem able to break free.
Unsure what to do, she lay perfectly still and waited for Marcus to move. It was horrifying to think that she barely knew him. She quickly closed out the worry that maybe Lloyd was right in considering her to be wanton, and turned her attention back to the man in her arms when he spoke.
“Are you alright?” Marcus asked huskily.
He placed a kiss on her shoulder and lifted himself onto his arms so he could look down into her face. He had never experienced such raging passion before. In all of his life, he had never met any woman he had wanted to bed so fiercely, so desperately, that nothing else mattered. Even now, with the first flames of desire dampened, his body was beginning to respond again.
When she didn’t speak, he tipped his head to one side. She looked hot and sweaty, which was unsurprising given what they had just shared. She also looked thoroughly wanton, and carefree, which only endeared her to him even more.
You are sunk, Marcus mused thoughtfully but didn’t care one bit.
To Jess, he whispered. “Did I hurt you much?”
“I am fine,” she whispered, feeling slightly vulnerable in the aftermath.
Sensing she was withdrawing from him, he frowned. He didn’t want her to have regrets but struggled to find a way to reassure her. While he couldn’t promise her a future per se, not with his work for the Star Elite increasing threefold by the day, he wasn’t just going to walk away from her either. She had been untried. He wasn’t the kind of man who would deflower virgins and then simply abandon them. However, he had no idea what he should be saying or doing right now to reassure her. Jess was the first woman he had ever deflowered.
“I know I hurt you,” he whispered. “I am sorry. It won’t be like that every time.”
“It’s alright,” she replied. “I just-”
You just what? She didn’t know what she could say.
“This changes everything,” he whispered.
“Does it?” She looked at him fully for the first time, desperately trying to ignore the fact that he was still draped over her so intimately that when he took a breath, she felt it.
“You know it does, Jessica. You are not the kind of woman who indulges in sins of the flesh and then ignores the importance of it. I am not the kind of man who takes advantage of a woman and just walks away. I can’t and won’t.”
“I don’t know you,” she protested. “It’s horrible to have to say it, but I don’t know what came over me. I don’t usually do this kind of thing.”
“I know,” Marcus smiled. “However, it is done now. We have time to get to know each other. Once we have, we can decide where we want to go with this.”
He saw the spark of hope light her eyes, and couldn’t bring himself to tell her that he had no idea how long he would be in the village. In reality, he could leave tomorrow. He would have to face that when he came to it. Until then, he was a resident of Smothey, however temporary, and Jessica’s lover.
“This has to remain between us,” she pleaded, horrified at the thought of what Ben would say if he realised what she had done.
“It is a personal matter between you and me, Jessica. Neither of us will discuss it with anybody else,” Marcus assured her.
She nodded, inwardly relieved that she didn’t have to explain this to anybody.
When Marcus moved, her instinctive gasp drew his attention. He was about to ask her if she was alright again when he saw the tell-tale blush stain her cheeks. Leaning over her, he smiled down into her somewhat shy gaze.
Dropping a playful kiss on her lips, he shifted again until he was lying completely over her.
“I c-can’t,” she whispered, appalled at the waywardness of her body when it began to tingle with sensual anticipation. “Not again.”
Marcus grinned. “I don’t believe I have ever shown you how quickly a body can recover.”
“Oh?” Jessica gasped when he began to do delicious things with his lips again, and set about learning everything her body could do.
Marcus yawned and looked down at the woman beside him. At some point over the last two hours, he had carried her up the stairs to her bedroom whereupon he had set about showing her exactly why he could not walk away.
She was now safely tucked up beneath the sheets, sated, exhausted, and fast asleep.