Conscience (The Bellator Saga Book 2) (16 page)

“I bet you have.”

Jack stood up and took her hand. “Are you going to dance with me, or what?”

Caroline got to her feet. “Of course.”

He led her toward the center of the room. It was a giant suite with a decent amount of furniture, but had a clear space suitable for dancing.

“Close your eyes,” he said. “That’s an order from your husband.”

She laughed and shut her eyes. “Yes, sir.”

“I like the sound of that,” Jack whispered, his demeanor changing. He leaned in to nip at her neck. “I want you to say it more often. But I’m not ready to capitalize on it just yet.”

Filthy, dirty man. But he was right. It wasn’t time to be naughty. Not with serious dancing business to be had.

He broke their connection for the briefest of moments, and the room soon filled with music. Caroline recognized it immediately. One of her guilty pleasures. She had many: Jack Jones’ “Wives and Lovers,” “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” from
The Sound of Music
, “Hello” by Lionel Richie (her favorite stalker song), and the selection currently playing, “Someone to Watch Over Me.” She smiled as Jack came over to take her in his arms.

“I know you prefer Ella Fitzgerald’s version of this song the best.” He started to guide her across the floor. “You can open your eyes now.”

She was quite content to keep them shut and lean in, but opened them anyway to find him smiling at her.

“Do you know how happy you make me?” he asked.

Caroline kissed him lightly. “I have a vague idea. How does it feel being married?”

“The first few hours have gone exceedingly well,” Jack said. “I love you, Mrs. McIntyre.”

“And I love you.” She kissed him again. “This lost lamb is completely yours.” She rested her chin on his shoulder as their dancing slowed. “Did you reapply your cologne?”

“I put the bottle next to the iPod. I know it’s one of the fastest ways to get into your pants.”

“You don’t need cologne for that. Although it helps.”

Jack let go of her hand and stopped moving, gently stroking her face. “I will always take care of you,” he said. “Always. Even when you don’t want me to.”

Caroline had done a good job of avoiding too many tears during the day, but she was exhausted. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could control her emotions. “I know.” She swallowed hard. “You saved me, Jack. Me and the girls. I don’t know where we’d be without you.”

“You saved me too.” He kissed her forehead. “Let’s call it a draw.”

She swayed back into him, listening to the song. “I know you’ll watch over me. My shepherd.”

Jack wrapped his arms around her again. “You’re a sucker for these old standards, aren’t you?”

Caroline laughed through her now unavoidable tears. “Don’t tell anyone.”

He brushed the tears away. “Every day I thank God he brought you to me. Every. Day.”

“I’ll always be good,” she whispered. “Just for you.”

Jack chuckled. “You take these lyrics too seriously, sweetheart. You’re getting all sappy on me.”

“I can’t help it.”

“I know you’ll be good,” he said quietly. “Because it’s who you are. I know how precious a gift that is. And I will always protect you, because I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“You saved all the good lines for tonight, I see.” Caroline kissed his fingers, just above his wedding ring. “My romantic husband.”

“I like the sound of that. Caroline Gerard’s husband.”

“Now who’s being the sap?”

“I’ve got plenty more where that came from,” he said, kissing her neck.

The song was almost over. “Is this the only dance I get?” Caroline asked.

Jack pulled her toward the bedroom. “More later, I promise. Right now, let’s engage in some traditional wedding night revelry.”

“Opening our gifts and passing out in exhaustion?”

He picked her up and set her down on the bed. “Try again.” He unstrapped her shoes and removed his tuxedo vest and shirt. “I’m particularly hopeful about the prospect of a night of unbridled passion and unprotected sex.”

“My romantic husband has a blunt way of speaking that endears him to everyone,” Caroline said, to no one in particular.

“You promised me.” He lifted her up off the bed and moved behind her. “I was very understanding.”

“I can’t help it if I’m paranoid.”

Jack began kissing her shoulders. “I had a vasectomy, Caroline. And you’ve got an IUD. It would take a literal Act of God for you to get pregnant.”

“I thought you should have to work for it,” she said, as he slid a hand around her waist. “Gotta take the vows before we go bareback. You earned your prize. Congratulations.”

“Mean woman. Giving me all sorts of ultimatums. Run for governor or I won’t marry you. Use a condom until our wedding night. Don’t buy my children ponies. Stop making my student loan payments. Get a prenuptial for your own protection.  Blah blah blah.”

“That last one was true. It’s not my fault you didn’t take my advice. What if I turn into a gigantic rancorous bitch and take all your money?”

Jack unzipped her dress. “I hid a lot of it before we applied for the marriage license.”

“That’s very conscientious of you.”

“And nice job using a GRE word to describe the type of woman you will never, ever be.”

“I try to keep you on your toes.”

“Caroline, I’d like to get laid at some point. This’ll go a lot easier if you hush up.”

“Not likely. You married a screamer.”

“I know.” He slid the dress off her shoulders and onto the floor.

Caroline turned to face him, tracing the outline of his lips with her fingers. Jack grinned at her with lust in his eyes as she undid his pants and let them fall to his feet.

“Nice garters,” he observed.

She stroked his cock through his boxers. “I figured you’d like them.”

“Yeah, I’m ready to go,” he said. “You got a problem with that?”

She gestured toward the wedding corset she was wearing. It hadn’t been all that comfortable but it looked sexy as hell. “Did this little thing produce that reaction?”

“You don’t want to know all the things you do that produce that reaction. You drove me nuts during the reception. Now you know why I had to spend so much time pretending to sit down at tables and make small talk with people. That contraption is going to look great on the floor next to your dress.” Jack kicked his pants to the side and leaned down to pull off his socks. “But you’re going to have to take it off because I’m at a loss here.”

Did he not see the hooks in the back? “What about the garters?”

“Those glorious white specimens stay on. Maybe forever.”

Caroline undid the corset and threw it on the carpet. It wasn’t a particularly difficult task. “I never would have thought a sophisticated, worldly man like you would be bamboozled by a piece of lingerie.”

“I don’t want to ruin it.” Jack traced a path down her breasts. “I’d prefer you be able to wear it again, and again, and again. So that you can take it off again, and again, and again.”

His hands charted their course further downward. Caroline ran her fingers through Jack’s hair as he removed her underwear before kissing a trail back up her body.

“I love you, my darling. My Monty,” she whispered.  She smiled, pulling him up to a standing position. His blue eyes were shining with joy and desire. “You can call me Mrs. McIntyre any time you want.”

“Every day for the rest of our lives.” Jack kissed her deeply, pushing her back down on the bed, easing his boxers off and straddling her waist. He yanked her hands over her head.

“Mine,” he whispered.

“Yours,” she said.

He leaned down to nip at her neck. “All mine. No one else’s. No sharing.”

Caroline moaned softly. “Did you think I was going to sleep with other people?”

Jack pulled back to look at her with a wanton glint in his eyes. Oh, he wanted to play, did he? She could play.

“I belong to you,” she whispered.

He slid down so that the tip of his cock teased her entrance. He wasn’t wasting any time. “Mine,” he repeated, and thrust inside her. “All. Fucking. Mine.”

She cried out and he bit her shoulder. That one would leave a mark, but they were leaving for Rome the next day. It had been a chilly fall. Maybe she could get away with a turtleneck. He bit her again and she whimpered. Pain turned her on.
Really
turned her on. The movement of his hips felt incredible too. Sweet pleasure coupled with a hint of pain.

“I’m not going to go this long without touching you ever again,” he whispered.

Jack moved into the house in Rockville shortly after she accepted his proposal. They promised each other to try to behave during the week before the wedding. It seemed torturous after having the freedom to be with each other whenever they wanted in the weeks leading up to the ceremony. Now Caroline felt like he hadn’t been inside her for months. She was desperate for more. She wanted to say all of that out loud but only mustered a barbarous grunt in response.

“You’re mine,” he said. “Mine to touch whenever I want, wherever I want.” He thrust inside her again, so deeply it almost hurt. Then he did it again. And again. And over and over again, until she tugged at his hair in a futile effort to get closer to him.

“Please,” she gasped.

Jack stopped his thrusting. “Please, what?”

If he didn’t keep up what he was doing, she was convinced that she might literally die. “Don’t stop.”

He released her wrists and wrapped his arms around her head. “Tell me what you want. Exactly what you want.”

The request came rushing out, her lips loosened by too many glasses of champagne. The one she’d wanted to make for weeks. “Fuck me,” she said. “Any way you want, for as long as you want, as hard as you want. The way you’ve wanted to fuck me since the day we met.”

Jack pulled back to look at her again. He was withdrawing from the game, just for a moment. “Are you sure?”

“Anything goes.”

That could mean any number of delectable things and he knew it. He slid inside her again. “You don’t know what you’re asking for.”

She reached up to caress his cheek. “I’ll tell you if it’s too much. I promise.”

He bent down to kiss her. “Woman, you kill me,” he whispered.

She couldn’t help but grin. “I know. Consider it a wedding present to us both.”

He groaned. “By the way, I’m never wearing a condom ever again, unless there’s a very good reason for it. Jesus Christ.”

Caroline smiled. “That good, huh?”

“You have no idea.”

She clenched the bedsheets as he drove deeper inside her again. “You feel good too,” she gasped.

Jack gripped her hair, hard enough to sting. “I won’t stop unless you tell me. Even if you’re screaming or crying or clawing at me. Because I’ll assume that means you like the way I’m fucking you.”

Dirty words filled with dirty promise. “I understand.”

He rocked back and forth against her. “Is this what you want?”

What he was doing felt amazing, but if he was going to do this to her all night she may as well be truthful. “Honestly?” she asked.

He pulled out of her. “I suppose. Unless you want to start issue avoidance now. But I think we should wait until we’ve been married for more than a day.”

She wanted him back inside her as quickly as possible but she recognized the look in his eyes. He wouldn’t be happy until she was screaming with pleasure. “I’d maybe like a little orgasm or two before you destroy me for all other men.”

Jack smiled, kissing his way down her torso until he reached her clit. “I can handle that.” He reached up to snatch the pillow out of her hand. “Don’t. I want to hear every obscene sound you make.”

“We’re in a fancy hotel.”

“I don’t care. All the other guests get to find out exactly what I plan on doing to you on a regular basis.”

“I won’t have a voice tomorrow.”

He slid a finger inside her. “We won’t be doing very much talking over the next few days.”

“I-”

“Be quiet,” he murmured, lowering his mouth to suck on her clit. “You’re allowed to whimper, moan, and say my name, but that’s it.”

He spent an eternity between her legs. Could have been twenty minutes, could have been an hour. She lost track of time, lost count of the number of orgasms, neglected to tell him to slow down or stop. He’d give her a little break, then start in again. She kept tugging at his hair, which seemed to encourage him since he’d growl and speed up his movements each time she did it. Caroline was close to passing out before he even raised his head.

“Please,” she whispered.

He pulled himself on top of her. “Oh, did you want me to stop?”

She’d lost her ability to articulate. “Inside. Now.”

He bit her neck and pushed himself into her. “That’s the last time you get to tell me what to do.”

“Ever?”

“Tonight. We’ll renegotiate the terms of our marriage later.” He thrust up inside her again. “Fuck, you feel fucking incredible.”