JakesWildBride (6 page)

“Good one,” Cat Woman said. “Here’s the hotel.”

Ah, hell. That walk had taken maybe five minutes.

“You’re in suite number 205. It’s a great room. Your balcony overlooks Bourbon Street.” Cat Woman handed Lilah the hotel key. Lilah blushed.

“We’ve put together a little goodie,” she snickered, “basket for you. I’ll be back tomorrow morning at ten to pick you up for the carriage ride. Enjoy.”

She dumped the basket into Jake’s hands and disappeared into the night, leaving them standing alone in the near deserted lobby.

“I guess we should, ah, go upstairs.” Lilah turned hesitantly toward the elevator.

"Sure." Jake hefted the basket higher in his arms. They rode the elevator in silence. Jake could see Lilah’s hesitation growing. She jumped when the elevator dinged.

When they walked into the two-story suite, Lilah stopped and gaped in amazement. “Wow,” she whispered.

Jake sighed. “Another never.”

“Excuse me?” She whipped around.

“Nothing.” Jake put the basket down on the cocktail table in front of a sofa and two antique looking chairs.

“I’ve never been in a suite before.” She sank onto the sofa and stared around the luxurious room. French doors led to a balcony. The muted sounds of the Quarter revelry came through the thin glass panes.

Her teeth came out to nibble at her bottom lip and Jake nearly groaned. It was going to be a long night. He grabbed the bottle of champagne from the basket and walked over to the wet bar in the corner. “Want a glass of champagne?”

“Champagne?” Lilah toyed with the neckline of her dress.

Jake deliberately averted his eyes trying not to think about the touch of white cotton he’d seen earlier.

“Yes. Please.”

She was so polite. As if they were at a church social instead of two relative strangers in a hotel room. Together. With the door locked.

“Check to see if there are any glasses in that basket.”

“Oh. Great idea.” Lilah looked as discomfited as he felt.

Jake waited. Over by the bar. Far, far away from where Lilah sat on the sofa and pawed through the contents of the basket.

“Here’s one.” She held it out to him, then snatched it back. “Oh my.”

Her hand fluttered in front of her face and he tried, he really did, not to notice how the action pulled her dress taut against the swell of her breasts.

“What’s wrong? Is there a dirty spot on the glass.”

“What? Oh, no, no.” She giggled nervously. Kind of like she had right before she’d told him they were getting married for pretend.

What had her so flustered?

“Why don’t you just see if there are any water glasses we can use.” She was trying to shove the glass behind a pillow unobtrusively. “You know I’ve always wondered if the glass makers didn’t just invent all these different glasses so they’d have more product to sell--”

“Lilah,” Jake walked over to the sofa with the champagne bottle in his hand. He figured if he had something to occupy his hands he couldn’t touch her. “Give me the glass.”

“What glass?” She lounged back on the pillow, unfortunately the position just thrust her breasts forward. And her nipples stood out in stark relief against the loose rayon.

“Oooh, look at all the other things in this basket. Hey, there are two shirts.” She pulled out a t-shirt proclaiming, Let the Good Times Roll.

Jake sat down on the sofa. Lilah jumped up and practically ran to the wet bar. “I’ll just get those glasses.”

Jake deliberately ignored the sway of her butt, and snatched the glass from underneath the pillow. As he poured the golden liquid into the glass, the reason for her nervousness became apparent.

A man and a woman, naked and entwined, obviously having wild sex were etched in the glass. Christ, no wonder she was nervous. She probably thought he was going to jump her. He could set her straight on that. He wasn’t, even if he wanted to.

“Lilah,” Jake started, as he grabbed the other erotic champagne flute.

Lilah ignored him and poked through the basket. “What else do we have? I declare I’m hungry. Hmm, I see something that looks like a fruit roll up thingy.” She pulled out a pair of edible underwear. The tab said it was cherry flavor and it was a thong.

“Oh. My.” They dropped to the floor.

Jake put a hand on her arm to stop her fluttering and slid his palm down to capture her hand. God, her skin was soft. “Lilah. Let’s get something straight here.”

She took a deep breath. Jake restrained a groan. Did she have to do that when he was right there?

“I am not going to jump you.”

“You’re not?”

He couldn’t have heard disappointment in her voice. Could he? Wishful thinking. “Of course not. You’re in an emotional state right now. I’ll take the sofa and you take the bed.”

Bed. He tried not to think about her wrapped in a white sheet and nothing else.

“You’re wrong.”

“Wrong how?”

“I’m not emotional. I’m completely and totally rational.” Lilah took a giant gulp of champagne. “I want to you know.”

Jake started to sweat. “We don’t have any protection.”

“Yes, we do.” Lilah pulled out a jumbo pack of Trojans, in colors no less.

Christ, he wanted her naked and sweaty. “I don’t want you to be sorry.” He really didn’t. In a few short hours, he’d come to admire her spirit and her strength.

“I won’t be sorry.”

“This isn’t a good idea.”

From the basket, she grabbed the picture taken when they were singing to each other. “What do you see?”

“I see a woman, a beautiful, sexy woman who needed to let off a little steam. But who doesn’t want the steam to go too far.”

“And what about you?”

“What?”

“What do you see in yourself?”

He shrugged. “I see a guy who tried to help.”

“Okay. Can I tell you what I see?”

“Sure.”

“I see a woman who has tried her best and still it wasn’t enough. And now she is relieved of those responsibilities for a few short hours before she has to go back to being good again. She isn’t ready to go back to being good again just yet.”

Jake brushed a stray piece of hair from her neck, tucking the strands behind the veil she still wore. He understood what she was telling him. “Lilah--"

"I’m not finished. I also see a man who has his own set of betrayals to work through and who tried to give me something he thought I needed. Because when he needed it, no one was around.”

Her words touched a chord in him.

When he had said that his fiancée’s leaving hadn’t really hurt. He’d lied. He’d lied to everyone, even himself. Deep down inside, in a place he allowed no one to see, it had hurt, deeply, intensely. He had given all he knew how to give and that still wasn’t enough.

Still, Jake hesitated. “Why?”

Lilah couldn't believe it. “Are you crazy? You’re supposed to be this wild boy. You’re not supposed to ask why.”

Sheesh. This seducing a man was harder than she’d anticipated. If she could just get this wildness out, then it would all be all right. She knew it. Besides, her body was still quaking from that kiss.

“What can I do to change your mind?” Lilah unbuttoned the top button at the scoop in her neckline.

Jake stood up so fast he spilled champagne down the front of her dress.

“Christ, I’m sorry.” He grabbed the cloth napkin wrapped around the champagne bottle and dabbed at her breasts. The damp fabric was cool against her already aroused nipples.

Lilah bit back a moan.
Ladies
did not moan. She was sure of it. A small breathy sound escaped.

Jake stilled suddenly, as if he’d just realized where he’d been touching her. He dropped the napkin, and held his hands up, like a criminal stopped by the police. But his gaze hadn’t left her breasts.

Her nipples tightened almost painfully at the heat in his eyes. Jake licked his lips. “This is a really bad idea.” One hand dropped down and hovered above the opened button at the top of her dress. He let one single callused finger touch her collarbone in a feather light caress.

Lilah’s breath caught. The rest of his fingers brushed across the exposed swath of skin above her neckline and her whole body tingled. Another breathy sound escaped. She tried to still it, but couldn’t.

Oh, the anticipation. She wanted him to touch her. To really touch her.

He watched his hand as if it was attached to someone else’s arm. Lilah was afraid to breathe. Afraid to move. In case he stopped. His fingers curved around the side of her breast, and caressed her through layers of rayon and silk. The touch was so sensual she stifled another moan.

His palm cupped the heavy weight of her in his hands. Her nipple had tightened to a near painful peak. And finally he touched her. His thumb brushed across the swollen bud, once, twice, then again as she swayed toward him.

He continued the gentle torment. And brought his other hand to cup her waist, searing her through the silky material with his heat. His head bent.

Finally, he’ll kiss me again. Kiss me as if I were his salvation.
As he had on stage in front of a screaming crowd.

But instead, he passed her lips and lowered his mouth to the curve of her collarbone. The hot lick of his tongue shocked her and she curled her arms around his shoulders to pull him closer.

Jake’s mouth continued to lick along her collarbone, and his late night stubble rasped along her tender skin. Then he changed attack and suckled her flesh in the sensitive curve where her neck and shoulder met.

The hand cupping her waist moved around to her bottom and pressed her closer. Heat and desire pooled low in her belly. Lilah fisted her hands in his hair and held on. Oh, this terrible pressure was building inside.

“Jake?” Her breath oozed out in a molten sigh.

“Hmm?” His mouth slid up her neck, and nudged aside the netting from her veil. His tongue began toying with her ear. With the hand on her bottom, he pulled up her dress and slid his warm fingers along the back of her thigh and then toward her bottom. Each sensuous slide brought his hand closer and closer to the hot, pulsing warmth of her feminine core. His thumb was almost…there.

“Oh my gosh,” she whispered. There. Oh my.

Her body strained toward his hand as her hips rocked in motion with the slide of his fingers. Each rock pushed her deeper into the curve of his body. His arousal pressed against her from the front as his fingers slid along the cleft between her legs from the back.

He pinched her nipple.

“Oh my.”

His finger pressed in some magical spot, and sent her over the edge.

And she screamed.

Bright colors flashed inside her mind, like a fireworks finale on the fourth of July, and bursts of pleasure bombarded her body.

Lilah’s knees nearly gave out.

Jake held her against him as her body pulsed from a mind-blowing orgasm.

“Oh. My. Gosh.” Lilah clung to Jake, sure if she let go she would fall to the floor in a puddle of satisfied female. “I, I can’t stand up.”

“Then we’ll sit.” His voice rumbled in her ear. Shivers of pleasure touched on all the trembling parts of her body.

Christ, Jake didn’t think he could get any harder. Just standing in the middle of a hotel room and responding to his touch, she’d blown his mind. She’d had an orgasm. A good one, from the sounds of it.

Who would have thought Miss Priss was a screamer?

“I’ve,” she swallowed and started again. “That’s never. And you never even kissed me.”

Never?
He pressed a fierce kiss to her lips and tried not to notice the hard points of her nipples drilling into his chest. “So you don’t usually scream?”

A fiery blush spread over her. “We didn’t even take our clothes off.”

Damn, he’d been trying not to think about her naked or he’d go off in his pants like a teenager.

“Let’s not talk about you naked right now.” Jake groaned.

“You’re right. Let’s not talk about it.” Lilah stepped back from his embrace. Her fingers went to the buttons on her dress and she began to slowly slip them out of their holes. Her fingers moved down the front her dress languidly.

When the buttons were open far enough, Jake slid the rayon dress down and pushed the straps of her slip off her shoulders. A slip. Who in this day and age wore a slip? The slip caught on the thrust of her oh so, sensitive breasts. Jake reached out to slide his fingers under the material, right over her erect nipples, and scraped the peaks with his nails, then dropped the dress and slip into a heap on the floor.

She arched her back and pushed her breasts, still covered by her sensible white cotton bra, into the pressure of his hands. And he thought he might explode. Christ, she was responsive.

Jake bent his head to take one nipple into his mouth, and nipped at the bud through the material. Lilah reached behind her to unhook the staid garment. The movement pushed her breasts forward. Jake opened his mouth further, and pulled more of her breast into his mouth. He used his tongue to press her nipple toward the roof of his mouth and sucked, drawing a deep moan from her.