It wasn’t inconceivable. Ordinary people didn’t fall in love in a week, let alone at first glance, but the Wildes were not ordinary when it came to romance.
The possibility that he might be falling in love jolted Jack and made him feel a different sort of panic. He’d never wanted to love anyone. Not even someone as warm and caring and special as Sophie. Especially not someone like her, for the risk of pain would be too great.
He couldn’t issue a rebuttal to her doubts just now, though. He wouldn’t lead her on, for she deserved far better. He didn’t want to hurt Sophie by promising a love he couldn’t give her. Jack swore a silent oath to himself. He badly needed time to think, to gauge the true depth of his feelings for her.
He knew his turmoil was showing on his face. And evidently his silence was damning, for she took his failure to reply as denial.
“I thought so,” she said quietly. She let her gentle hands drop from his face, while sharp disappointment wreathed her beautiful features.
“Sophie …”
“No, you needn’t apologize. I never expected anything more. You should go, Jack.”
“Not yet.”
He didn’t want to leave her like this. Not with matters so unsettled between them. He needed to show her how much he wanted her, if nothing else.
His voice dropped to a murmur. “If this is farewell for us, I want to make the night last.”
She hesitated a long while, her features conflicted.
As she wavered in indecision, Jack took her hand and led her to the bed. And when he kissed her, her lips were soft and warm and eager.
Their mouths locking, he sank with her onto the bed and pressed her down, so that they lay on their sides, legs dangling over the edge. His tongue met hers, coaxing, twining in a sensuous pattern of withdrawal and penetration. He could feel Sophie’s passion as she returned his kiss ardently.
Feeling the same urgency, he cupped his hand over the curve of her buttocks and pulled her to his hardening shaft, capturing her snugly against him. Her breasts branded his chest, her woman’s heat burned his loins.
Trying to go slowly, Jack eased her onto her back and raised the hem of her nightdress to her waist.
When Sophie briefly pulled her mouth away, heat flashed in her eyes even as she resisted. “I shouldn’t be intimate with you …”
His lips traced a burning path down the column of her throat and up again. “Hush, sweeting.”
He took advantage of her hesitation to nudge her legs wider apart. Murmuring endearments, he kissed along her delicate jawline to her ear as he slid his probing fingers between her thighs and brushed the tender bare skin there.
A faint sound issued from her throat, yet she didn’t stop him when he moved higher and found the folds of flesh that hid her femininity.
“Open for me, sweet Sophie.…”
She gave a soft gasp as he lightly circled the bud of her sex. “Jack …”
He seized her mouth again, distracting her from any further protest. His tongue played in an erotic dance while he continued the tender assault with his fingers. Palming her woman’s mound, he teased the swollen nub before his middle finger gently penetrated her cleft. Sophie tensed momentarily at the unfamiliar invasion, so he forced himself to slow the pace of his stimulation, letting her grow accustomed to the feel of him exploring inside her, stroking lightly with his thumb.…
In only a few moments her body surrendered. She was soft and slick to the touch … and unbelievably responsive. When Sophie curled her hips toward him, he sank a second finger into her a little farther, slowly gliding into her damp heat.
She kissed him back wildly, trying to mold her body to his. It was the need to possess and mate, a yearning as old as man and woman.
At her needy little moan, Jack felt such a rush of hunger, he ached with it. He wanted to slide upward into her silky sweetness and claim her fully, but he fought the erotic lure of joining their bodies, knowing he had to restrain his own desire and focus on kindling her pleasure instead.
His lips and tongue alternately caressed and plundered as his hand stroked and fondled in a methodical rhythm. After a short while, her delicate inner muscles tightened around his fingers, while tension gathered in her entire body.
Feeling her heated wetness increasing with her arousal, Jack drew back to gaze down at the dusky triangle between her thighs, watching the play of his fingers in and around her glistening sex.
It was then that he shifted his position. He slid downward to kneel between her parted thighs, much to Sophie’s bewilderment.
Her fingers clutched in his hair. “Jack … what …?”
His breath coming fast, he glanced up at the trembling, sexually aroused woman splayed before him. She had never looked more beautiful—her lips wet and swollen, her lustrous coils of hair spilling across her flushed cheeks, passion blurring the depths of her eyes.