“As you wish.”
His hand curving over hers, he wrapped her fingers around the pulsing crest of his manhood. “Tighten your fingers around my cock.”
“Like this?”
“Yes.”
“Now squeeze my sacs.”
She was faintly titillated by his command. “It won’t hurt?”
“It will only hurt if you don’t.”
She obeyed, gently kneading.
“Harder,” he urged. When she complied, he groaned audibly. His eyes had darkened further, if that was possible.
A fresh surge of sexual awareness came over Sophie. Deliberately she bent down to press her lips against his erection and touch him with her tongue. He jerked perceptibly. She flicked at the tip, much as he had done her cleft their last night together in England. She could tell Jack was laboring to hold himself still, so she closed her lips over him, rolling her tongue over and around the smooth head in a slow rhythm.
By now he was breathing hard, and when she began to suckle him, he gave a strangled groan and lifted his hips from the bed, straining against her mouth.
A feminine sense of power flooding her, Sophie almost smiled, knowing she was affecting him so strongly.
After another few moments of enduring her arousing attentions, though, Jack abruptly took command again. With a finger under her chin, he raised her face from his rod and clenched his hand tightly around hers, increasing the pressure, making her strokes faster and harder.
The blatant hunger on his face was unmistakable as he thrust himself against her palm. And then he lost all control. His body shuddering and quaking, he issued another harsh groan as his seed spurted and gushed into her cupped hand.
He was still shaking with his release when he reached up and hooked a weak arm around Sophie’s neck to draw her down to him again. He pressed his forehead against hers as the tremors subsided and his rough breathing slowed.
The silence drew out, interrupted only by the quiet crackle of the fire in the hearth. After a long moment, Sophie untangled herself from Jack and went to the washstand, where she rinsed her hand in the basin. She returned to the bedside with a damp cloth so that he could wash his loins.
Seeing him sprawled so blatantly naked, she felt a little shy until she met the burning intensity in his eyes. Relishing the lingering passion she spied there, she dropped the cloth on the nightstand, then gathered the courage to rejoin him in bed and draw the covers up over them both.
“You are right,” she murmured. “We should try to sleep. I am weary from the long drive this evening.”
Jack’s gaze narrowed on her, as if he was trying to puzzle out her motives.
If she thought he would obediently remain on his side of the bed, however, she was badly mistaken, for he drew her close and cradled her against his nude body.
Sophie rested her head contentedly on his shoulder, yet her thoughts were far from restful. Thus far, she was mostly satisfied with her plan to lull Jack into complacency. She intended to teach him a much-needed lesson in humility in the morning. For once she held the upper hand, and she meant to wield it.
But by then she would have to determine her response to his ultimatum. Jack was adamant that he wouldn’t continue on to Navartania without her. It wasn’t fair of him to put the burden of deciding on her, yet she couldn’t abandon him now. He needed a friend. And even if she never became his bride, he needed to face his father and resolve the long-festering issues between them. Jack had bottled up his feelings for so long, the bitterness inside him was like a putrid wound that begged to be lanced.
Moreover, she wanted Jack to be able to claim his rightful inheritance for her own sake as well as his. Deep down she still hoped for a miracle, Sophie admitted to herself. Her father might just relent if she could marry actual royalty. And Jack might possibly come to love her someday. This could be her one last chance for happiness, and she had to seize it.
Sophie closed her eyes as a fresh wave of longing flooded her. With Jack wrapped around her, it was easier to believe they could find a solution to their impossible dilemma. Absently she pressed a tender kiss to his bare shoulder—
Recognizing her weakness, Sophie glanced up at Jack in the soft glow of firelight. Although he hadn’t fallen asleep, he had shut his eyes. He looked so oddly vulnerable with his long dark lashes fanning over his cheeks.
She knew better, of course. Jack was a wicked devil who broke all the rules. His audacity both vexed and awed her. She had to admire the fact that he constantly challenged conformity and acted decisively instead of accepting the whim
s of fate. Even if he’d turned her life upside down by abducting her. Even if he’d filled her up with recklessness tonight and transformed her into a complete wanton.
If she were to accompany him to Navartania, though, she would have to lay down some strict rules.
The first concerned his secretiveness. She didn’t want to open old wounds for Jack or hurt him any more than he’d already been hurt. But if he kept all his darkest feelings concealed from her, buried along with his horrifying past, if he didn’t trust her enough to share his most important confidences, then how could he possibly trust her enough to give his heart?
The second concerned his maddening high-handedness. He would have to beg her forgiveness if he expected to win her trust ever again.