She was not exactly sore, but she felt a tingle as he pushed himself in, a reawakening that reminded her of how they had already been hard at it only an hour earlier. Nothing seemed to tire him or put him off. Sometimes she thought he would keep going all day and all night if she let him.
A fork clattered across the table as he thrust, thrust, thrust, his eyes gleaming with their purpose. She held on to his shoulders, crossed her ankles behind his back and pulled herself into him in rhythm. The pace was bruising and intense and soon they were both gasping, feeling the heat of the warm summer morning mingle with their exertions to bead sweat on their brows.
No amount of perspiration would deter Jason, though. When it came to sex, he was single-minded. There would be no deviation from his course. She would get shagged ragged and that was that.
‘Feeling it, babe?’ he groaned. ‘Want it, do you?’
‘I want it, give it to me.’
She was burning up, her throat dry, her bottom sticking to the Corian, but nothing beat the feeling of him, large and thick in her narrow channel, owning it, taking possession of her.
They came in a burst of slapping hands and pinches and growls, Jason sunk as deep as he could get inside her and straining to go still deeper, not that it was possible.
‘Fuck, that took it out of me,’ he panted, kissing her hard. ‘But you could get it all over again.’
After all the LA sophistication and veneer, his simple animal passion was the best tonic there could be. It had revived her, made her see life in colour and depth again, something she hadn’t done since the early days of her relationship with Deano Diamond. She hadn’t had a bruised back or a sore bottom or a raw smart between her legs in fifteen years, but she was certainly making up for it now.
‘This kitchen table is going to break my spine,’ she moaned, only now realising how ill-suited it was to frantic sex. ‘Next time bring a cushion down, eh?’
He withdrew slowly, grabbing a handful of kitchen roll to mop up the mess he’d made of her.
‘That was a bit more spontaneous than I’d planned,’ he said, sheepish now for reasons that were slowly dawning on her.
‘Well, by definition,’ she said, a little sharply, trying to struggle up to her elbows. ‘But you mean . . .?’
‘Didn’t think to bring the rubbers down, babe. Is it . . . OK?’
‘OK?’ She sat up, wincing.
He stood against her, wrapping her in his arms, rubbing her poor back and shoulder blades with an expert touch.
‘You know . . .’
‘I won’t get pregnant, if that’s what you mean. I have the implant.’ She stopped, a stray little pang piercing her from nowhere. She had been going to have it removed, a year ago. She and Deano had discussed having children. She had felt ready. And then she realised that he was too far gone in his addictions and had given up on the idea. It still hurt, even now that they were over and she was with this phenomenon of sex and creative talent.
‘Right. But, even though I haven’t slept with anyone but Mia in seven years, well . . . There were things she wasn’t telling me, and . . . I suppose I ought to . . .’
‘Get tested?’ Jenna screwed her face up in his robe. She didn’t want to think about this. It was too horrible, too real. She’d earned a bit of holiday fantasy time. How dare the mundanities of life intrude on it like this?
‘Just to be safe,’ he said, cradling her head and stroking her hair.
‘Oh, that’s weird,’ she said, looking up at him.
‘What is?’
‘You being the responsible, sensible adult one. I thought that was my role.’
‘Why did you think that? What have you done that’s been sensible since you got here?’
She felt stung, but then she saw the justice of his words. She’d behaved like a cross between a hormonal teenager and a bad amateur detective ever since setting foot in Bledburn.
‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘I’ll make us an appointment. At a private clinic.’ They rested, lulled for a few minutes, in each other’s embrace before she spoke again. ‘Jason.’
‘Yeah?’
‘Do you think it’ll change us? Being “out”? Public?’
‘It’ll be different. But we don’t have to do anything we don’t want to, or see anyone we don’t want to. We can stay tucked up here as long as we like, can’t we?’