Then bending nearer, he murmured against her ear. “I want to be your lover always, Sophie. I want you in my bed every night as my wife.”
Turning her head, she stared back at him, her expression soft but conflicted. She wanted him, Jack knew, but he was less certain that her ardor matched his. The urgency inside him had grown more intense over the past few days, as had the nagging fear that he would lose her.
When he slid his hand upward to cup her breast, the breathy sigh she gave made warmth stir in his groin. Then Sophie turned fully in his arms and met his lips with an urgency of her own.
Jack felt a rush of desire powerful enough to make him shudder. Wanting lashed at him. He wanted to undress her at once and explore her with his mouth. He wanted to spend countless hours bringing her to ecstasy. He wanted her beautiful eyes dazed with passion, her body frenzied as he took her.…
Reaching up, he unbuttoned her bodice to bare her breasts and then laid her back on the quilt. His senses feasted on her … the glorious cloud of dark hair … the alluring curves of her breasts … the pale, smooth skin that blushed golden in the sunlight.
There had always been a sensual grace about Sophie, a natural radiance that had drawn him from the first, but her glow was even more pronounced now.
Needing to touch her so badly that he ached with it, Jack raised her skirts, exposing the sleek length of her thighs, the evocative swell of her hips, the soft nest of curls between her legs, the beckoning mound that hid her damp sex.
She was already aroused and swollen, he discovered upon touching her. He rubbed her ripe softness, then slid his fingers inside
her, finding sleek wet satin. Sophie arched up, straining against him, hungry for more. Determined to oblige her, he bent down and kissed her mouth again, drinking of her sweetness as he stroked, teased, wooed.
In response to her soft whimpers, he moved his fingers deeper to heighten her pleasure, surging and withdrawing rhythmically … until she shuddered in a heated rush and gave a final wild cry deep in her throat. He held her secure as she came apart for him.
Afterward, he soothed her with his lips, inhaling the scent of her skin, relishing her passion.
Long moments later, when her trembling faded, Sophie watched him with dazed eyes as he unbuttoned his breeches.
“You have the most splendid eyes,” he marveled. “Sometimes sapphire, sometimes violet, always beautiful …”
The contented, almost shy smile Sophie gave him made his heart soar. Easing over her, Jack pressed his cock between her thighs and filled his hands with her bare breasts.
Her nipples peaked against his palms as he slowly thrust inside her. He felt her glide lusciously around him, then held himself still, gazing down at her. This thing between them … this most basic and primal of human needs … was something exquisite. Something precious. Being inside Sophie made him feel a sense of rightness, of completeness.
She felt it too, he realized as he stared into the blue depths of her eyes, which were dreamy and a little drugged. Increasing his rhythm, he stroked in and out of her. With each thrust, he claimed her, marking her for his own, his urgency intensifying. He couldn’t get enough of her. Wanting filled his entire body. So much heat and need and pleasure, he thought as she began to convulse again, this time around him.
Feeling her ripple and contract in her ecstasy gave Jack a sense of triumph. Sophie was his now, whether she realized it or not.
He would win her surrender in the end, he vowed to himself. It was a battle he had to win. For he couldn’t endure the thought of letting her go.
With gasping breaths, Sophie returned to awareness to find Jack’s hard length still lodged deep inside her. His eyes were heavy and black with desire as he stared down at her and repeated his proposal.
“Marry me, Sophie,” he urged in a hoarse whisper.
It was an emotionally charged moment, as powerful as she could ever remember. She wanted with all her heart to give in to him. Hot rivulets of desire ran through her when Jack began to shake with his own release—but then suddenly, he withdrew from her body.
As he pulled away, she was shocked by the fierce disappointment that filled her in his place. A foolish notion, considering what could happen if he spilled his seed within her. An ironic notion as well, considering that they both were engaged in helping unwed mothers.
Yet Sophie was stunned by the sudden realization of how badly she wanted Jack’s children.
He didn’t leave her entirely, however. Instead he let his seed gush harmlessly on the grass, then returned to her side and wrapped one arm around her waist.
His eyes were tender and warm as he gazed back at her. Seeing that rare light there, Sophie froze, her heart trapped by his spell. She knew that Jack’s reasons for marrying were far more rational than ardent. Yet she had no doubt what she was feeling. Desire. Love. For him.
Another bright shock flashed through her. Jack had lured her into love, despite her best efforts to resist him. She couldn’t help herself. He’d reached deep inside of her with his sweet seduction, his sensuality and tenderness, his reckless passion. And she had responded with her heart, not her head.
In truth, her strategy to cherish their final days together had failed utterly. She’d indulged her forbidden fantasies so that she could face a future without Jack, but the lines between fantasy and reality had blurred.
They were still blurred. How could she continue to refuse to wed him when she loved him? Because he doesn’t love you in return, came the unbidden answer.
Sophie flinched away from that painful thought, preferring instead to credit her instincts. When Jack touched her like this, when he looked at her with such incredible warmth, she felt loved, whether or not she was fantasizing.
Besides, there were perfectly rational arguments to be made in his favor, clamored an insistent voice inside her head. Even without love, he was making an enormous commitment to her by choosing the formal act of marriage. He was also exposing himself to the immense pain of reconciling with his father. Jack’s willingness to put her welfare above his own humbled her. Didn’t she owe him the same consideration?