Legacy of Desire (24 page)

‘Hey, you really are close to coming, aren’t you?’

Swiftly she jerked her hips up, hoping that the brief moment of contact with his hand would be sufficient to trigger her climax but his reactions were faster than hers and he moved his hand away. ‘Naughty!’ he reproved her and suddenly he flicked hard at each of her nipples in turn, causing them to sting and burn. Davina cried out in protest but she realised that the sensation had only increased her desire. She could feel the moisture seeping out of her between her thighs, and her sex lips swelling and parting.

‘Let’s see how you’re getting on,’ murmured Todd and at last she felt his fingers probe the delicate, aroused flesh. He touched her gently, his manner almost detached. Then he swirled a finger round the entrance to her vagina and spread some of her own moisture upwards in one brief touch that caressed her clitoris for a fleeting instant. The caress was bliss, hot
pleasure seared through her, but the stimulation was too brief to allow her to come and she sobbed with frustration.

Todd continued to torment her with the silk scarf and the ice cubes until her excitement was so great, her need so incredible, that she could tell he was in danger of coming himself. Apparently sensing this, he knelt over her upper body. Pushing her breasts up and in he trapped his straining erection between them and began to move his hips. ‘You don’t mind if I come, do you?’ he asked.

‘What about me?’ she wailed.

‘I think I’m gonna make you wait another hour or so.’

‘Please, please don’t do this to me,’ she sobbed. ‘This isn’t what I wanted, this isn’t what I thought it would be like. Please let me go.’

Suddenly the bedroom door crashed open. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ shouted Jay, and turning her head Davina saw him framed in the doorway, his eyes dark with rage. ‘Get off her, Todd.’

‘Hang in there, I’m just about to come,’ said Todd calmly.

Crossing the room in two strides Jay grabbed hold of
his friend by his right arm and pulled him off the tethered Davina. ‘Did you hear what I said? Get out of this cottage now, before I kill you.’

Davina was bewildered by Todd’s reaction. He didn’t seem nearly as frightened as she was and although he began to leave the room he seemed surprised by what was happening, surprised and displeased. ‘What are you in such a state about, Jay? You were in the States, Davina was missing the sex and I provided it. What’s wrong with that?’

‘You and Tanya were my guests,’ snapped Jay. ‘You’ve abused my hospitality. This cottage is Davina’s, not mine.’

‘But Davina invited me in.’

Jay looked at Davina and she struggled frantically, trying to free her wrists. ‘I did,’ she confessed. ‘But I never wanted this to happen.’

‘You mean he tied you up against your will?’

‘No, but … ‘

‘There, what did I tell you,’ said Todd complacently.

‘Damn you, just get out,’ yelled Jay. ‘I want you and Tanya gone by morning. I’m not kidding either, do you understand me?’

‘Sure.’ Todd sounded perfectly equable about the whole thing. ‘We’ll go back to the States. I don’t want to outstay my welcome. What are you doing back here anyway? I thought you were needed in Boston?’

‘That’s none of your business. Now go.’

Davina heard Todd’s footsteps on the stairs and a few minutes later the front door closed behind him. ‘Please untie me,’ she whispered to Jay as he stood staring down at her.

She was certain that he was going to but at the last moment he hesitated and, walking to the foot of the bed, put a hand between her thighs. ‘He’s turned you on,’ he said accusingly. ‘You’re soaking wet.’

‘He was doing nice things,’ whispered Davina. ‘It just got out of control.’

‘How could you?’ asked Jay incredulously. ‘Do you mean you like being taken against your will?’

‘It wasn’t like that. He said he’d release me whenever I wanted and then he wouldn’t.’

‘Doesn’t seem to have stopped you wanting him,’ said Jay, his voice deep with desire. Davina opened her mouth to reply but before she could say anything his fingers were gliding over her frantic flesh. He finally
touched her where she’d been longing for Todd to touch her, and all the pent-up sexual tension that had been driving her out of her mind was released as he lightly massaged the area around her clitoris.

With a groan she felt her climax sweep over her and the delicious ripples of pleasure spread through her whole body. Before she’d even finished Jay was on top of her, fumbling at his trousers and freeing his erection. With no preliminaries and still fully clothed he thrust violently into her, his hands gripping her sore, abused breasts, but his touch was light. As he moved inexorably towards his own orgasm he licked and sucked at her breasts and to her delight, as he came, a second climax rushed through her. She shuddered beneath him, calling out his name in ecstasy.

When it was over he remained slumped on top of her for a few minutes before reluctantly rolling off and unfastening her wrists. He rubbed the aching skin before putting his mouth to each of her wrists in turn and kissing them lightly, his tongue flicking into the palm of her hand in an incredibly erotic movement that, despite all that had gone before, made her body stir once more.

‘You had no right to ask him in here,’ he muttered, pulling her against him.

Davina felt very safe wrapped in his arms but anger flared through her at his words. ‘You’ve no right to tell me who I can have here,’ she retorted, moving away from him. ‘I pay my rent. Don’t tell me you want to vet my guest list as well as collecting bizarre forms of payment.’

‘Of course I don’t want to vet everyone who comes in and out of the cottage. I’m just saying that what you did was stupid.’

‘Even if it was, what’s it to you? As far as I knew you were in the States.’

‘And that gives you the right to do what you like?’

Davina couldn’t believe what she was hearing. ‘I’ve always had the right to do what I like. You don’t own me or control me, Jay. You’re my landlord, that’s all.’

Jay grasped her chin between his thumb and fore-finger. ‘Is that really all?’

‘I don’t know what you mean,’ she lied.

Abruptly he released her. ‘Then there’s no point in me saying any more. I must say that if nothing else I’m gratified that I’ve managed to free you of all your
sexual inhibitions. You should have seen what you looked like when I came into the room just now.’

‘It was because I was missing you,’ Davina blurted out.

Jay looked hard at her. ‘Was it really? Gee, I hate to think what might happen when I go back to the States then. I guess I’d better take you with me as my wife.’

‘Excuse me?’ Davina wanted to be sure that she’d heard him right.

‘I said, I guess I’d better take you back with me to the States when I go, as my wife.’

He wasn’t smiling at her, his eyes weren’t even soft, and Davina couldn’t believe that this was a genuine proposal of marriage. She was convinced that it was another of his tests. If she refused he’d throw her out of the cottage saying that he couldn’t have her living so near when she’d turned down his proposal. If she accepted he wouldn’t be able to throw her out, but she wondered how he would react. ‘I can’t think of anything I’d like better,’ she said with a smile.

To her amazement he didn’t reel back in horror. In fact, for the first time ever, a look of delight crossed his face and his eyes were bright with excitement. ‘Do you
really mean it? In spite of all that’s happened and all you know about me, you’re willing to be my wife? I think I’d better be honest with you about a few things. The wife of a prosecutor in Boston has a very set role to play. You’ll be able to do it, I’ve no fears about that, but the conventions might irritate you at first.’

‘I’m a very conventional girl, or was,’ Davina reminded him. ‘I think I’ll be able to handle that.’

‘You’re not kidding me, are you?’ he asked, and it was the first time that she’d ever heard him sound unsure. ‘You really do want to marry me?’

It was only then that Davina understood that he was telling the truth, and that he did want to marry her. The fact that he hadn’t told her he loved her, or talked about his feelings for her, didn’t matter. She realised that he wasn’t that kind of a man, but she had to feel free to tell him how she felt. ‘There’s something you ought to know,’ she said softly.

He looked anxious. ‘What?’

‘That I’m in love with you. I know that to you that’s a word that’s forbidden but it’s how I feel. It isn’t just a sexual thing between us, I know that for certain now. It was good with Todd, until we got upstairs, but I still
felt hollow and empty, as though something was missing. What was missing was emotional commitment, or love as I call it. This wouldn’t be a business arrangement for me, Jay. I see now what my uncle was trying to tell me. I never loved Phil, not in the way that I love you. You’re in my thoughts all the time, I can’t think of anything else, not even my work. You have to know this, in case you want a more detached wife.’

‘A more detached wife? Is that how you think I feel about you?’ he asked incredulously. ‘Hell, I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind either. I thought once I was back in the States I could forget all about you but it didn’t work. Do you want to know why I came back tonight?’

‘Yes.’

‘Because Tanya called me and told me that she was worried Todd was getting too keen on you. She said the pair of you were spending hours alone here in the cottage day after day. I’ve never known such jealousy as I felt then. I caught the first plane I could back here and when I got to the house Tanya told me that the pair of you were here, which is why I burst in on you like that.’

Davina opened her mouth to tell him that she and
Todd hadn’t been spending endless days together, that tonight had been their first time, but then she changed her mind. She realised that Todd and Tanya must have plotted this in order to make Jay confront his feelings, and felt a surge of affection and gratitude towards them. Without their help she doubted if Jay would ever have admitted how he felt to himself let alone her. ‘What about Pattie?’ she asked.

‘Yeah, I’ve been thinking about her. She ain’t gonna be heartbroken. Sure, she wanted to be a Bostonian wife, but I can’t see it, can you?’ He laughed.

‘Not really,’ agreed Davina.

‘In any case, from what I hear she and Phil are an item now. Since you and I will be in the States a lot of the time, I thought we’d leave them in charge of the house and cottage. That should make Phil happy. He seems to think he should have inherited it in the first place. That way it will always be ready for us when we want to return.’

‘Have you mentioned this to Pattie?’

‘Nope, not yet. I’ll talk to her this evening.’

‘You’re very confident that you can arrange other people’s lives, aren’t you?’

Jay shook his head. ‘Not any more. It’s a pity about Todd, he and I were good friends but …’

‘Why can’t you stay friends?’ asked Davina. ‘He wasn’t doing anything wrong. You’d have behaved in exactly the same way. He wasn’t to know how you felt about me, unless you’d said something to him.’

Jay shook his head. ‘I never admitted it to myself, so I certainly wouldn’t have admitted it to Todd.’

‘Then you can’t really blame him, can you? All of you have spent your lives having sex with each other whenever you felt like it, and as long as it was simply fun nobody got hurt. How was Todd expected to know that this was different?’

‘I guess you’re right, but it’s gonna take me a while to get over what I saw.’

‘What happens now?’ queried Davina.

‘I guess I’ve got some sorting out to do back at the house. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, I’ve got another month here and then my sabbatical’s over. Something’s come up which means that we’ll be leaving by the beginning of September. Is that okay?’ he added.

Davina laughed. ‘You see, it isn’t that difficult thinking about other people’s feelings as well, is it?’

He gave a wry grin. ‘I’m sure I’ll get used to it.’

‘Don’t worry,’ said Davina, resting her head against his chest. ‘Early September sounds fine to me.’

On the first Saturday in September, Davina and Jay walked out of the church where Davina’s Uncle David had been buried, the church where she’d first set eyes on Jay, as husband and wife. The wedding had been a very low-key affair, with less than a dozen guests because of the haste with which it had had to be arranged. Davina wasn’t bothered. She was more fulfilled and self-confident now than she’d ever been, and had no fears about her ability to be a good wife to Jay. After the reception at the house she went upstairs to the master bedroom where so many extraordinary things had happened to her during the summer and began to change into her going-away outfit. As she was dressing, Tanya came into the room.

‘You look great, honey,’ she exclaimed, looking at Davina’s cream suit with its ankle-length pencil skirt and the jacket that fitted at the waist and then flared over her hips. ‘Jay’s a lucky guy, but I think he knows that.’

‘I’m lucky too,’ said Davina. ‘Never, in my wildest dreams, had I imagined meeting a man like him. I know it’s not going to be easy in the States, but Jay’s promised that if it all gets too much for me we’ll come back here and retreat from the rat race, recharge our batteries as it were.’

‘In Boston you’ll have to live a conventional life,’ Tanya cautioned her.

Davina nodded. ‘I know, Jay’s already warned me. Leading a conventional life doesn’t seem to have stopped him having fun with you and Todd though.’

‘You just have to be careful,’ explained Tanya.

‘Pattie and Phil are happy too,’ said Davina. ‘I sometimes think this house means more to Phil than it does to me. How about Jay and Todd? Are they getting on all right again?’

Tanya nodded. ‘Yeah, although Jay’s still a bit cool with Todd. We don’t mind. He must never ever guess that we set the whole thing up, that would ruin everything.’

‘Don’t worry, I won’t tell him.’

Tanya kissed Davina lightly on the cheek. ‘I know we’ll be meeting up again in America, but until then
have a great time and remember, no matter how detached he seems, Jay really is madly in love with you.’