Stormy Vows - Iris Johansen [161]
“You don't think that you may regret it later?” Jane persisted, a worried frown on her face. “I don't think I could stand it if it didn't last.”
Jake's face was unusually solemn as he said, “You're my first love, my last love, and my only love, Jane. I didn't even think the emotion existed, until you walked into my life and turned it upside down. I'll never be able to do without you now.”
He released her hair and reached over her head to pick up the phone receiver. Holding her close with one arm, he gave the order to get underway.
After he hung up the receiver, he slid his other arm around her and lowered his head to kiss her with a honeyed sweetness. Pushing aside the beach coat, his hand slid inside to caress the bare satin flesh of her waist and back. Then suddenly his lips were no longer sweet but hot and hungry, parting her lips with his tongue to probe and explore with suffocating passion. Jane instinctively arched to meet his body's arousal, and his hand wandered down to cup her rounded buttocks in his palm and bring her up against his thrusting loins.
Suddenly she pressed both hands against his chest and pushed, wriggling out of his arms at the same time. “No,” she gasped breathlessly, her face flushed and her golden eyes clouded with passion. “I want to talk.”
Surprise at her sudden rejection was mirrored in Jake's eyes, and his face reflected the temptation to ignore her verbal plea and attend only to the message that was still emanating from her aroused body. Then his own body relaxed slightly, though his eyes were glazed and hungry as they fixed on her full, swollen breasts in the tiny peach bikini.
“There's distinct evidence that you have ambivalent emotions on that score,” he teased. “But I'll let you get away with it for now, redhead. Talk!”
Jane closed the beach coat hurriedly and backed away from him, her cheeks pink. She walked over to the brown leather couch in the center of the room and sat down. Tucking her feet under her, she looked over the back of it at Jake, still standing by the bar. She patted the seat beside her invitingly, and he obediently strolled over and dropped down beside her.
His dark eyes were dancing with mischief as he said softly, “Now you really know that I love you, sweetheart. I've never stopped at a moment like that in my entire life.”
“How long have you loved me?” she asked eagerly, folding her hands before her on her lap. An expression of warm tenderness lit up Jake's cynical face; it would have astounded those who thought they knew him.
“Forever,” he said simply.
“No, really, Jake,” she demanded.
“I suppose that I knew for sure that night in San Miguel when I ran out the door and saw you buried under that pile of men,” he said, grinning. “I didn't know whether to beat you or pick you up and run away with you. I'd never felt like that before, and it scared the hell out of me.” He reached out to rub a finger along the sensitive curve of her lower lip. “Before that I was aware that you affected me more than any person I'd ever met—man, woman, or child—but I wouldn't admit that it was anything more than liking and a strange sense of protectiveness.”
“Why didn't you tell me?” Jane asked indignantly. “I told you the very day that I found out.”
Jake shook his head, his mouth twisting. “For the first time in my life I decided to be noble. I knew damn well I didn't have any right to you. I'm seventeen years older and have forgotten more wickedness and deviltry than you could ever imagine. I knew I should have sent you away the minute I realized what had happened to me, but I convinced myself that I could keep you near me and at least have these two months for myself.”
His fingers slid down to rest in the hollow of her throat, stroking the sensitive pulse point sensuously. “Then