Naked Hope (37 page)

“But your place is so close.”

“And we can stay there if you’d rather. Just before Christmas, I booked a suite for tonight and then never cancelled it.” Her gaze flicked down and then back up to connect with his. “I couldn’t bear to. The suite has a number of…amenities.”

This time, Gavin rapped the glass. “And step on it.”

Jill loved the sound of his voice, stoked with laughter and desire. In the expansive comfort of Gavin’s arms, she fought to keep her eyes open, exhausted from the last couple of weeks while they slaved to pull off the most successful gala to date.

“Go ahead and close your eyes, darling,” he murmured “You're going to need your strength.”

A shivery smile graced her mouth.

Moments later, he whispered, “Wake up, Jillian.” To the driver he said, “Where is home for you? Close by?”

The driver nodded. “Couple miles away.”

“Well, drive carefully.” Gavin handed the driver a generous tip, he leaned back into the limo and swept Jill into his arms.

Eyes half-closed, she murmured into his neck, “Key’s at the front desk. I checked us in earlier while you were busy being all showy and taking everyone’s requests.”

Gavin carried her through the lobby. A bellman met them with their room key and offered to ride up with them.

“No thanks. If you’ll just press the button, I’ve got this.”

The bellman pressed floor fifty-one. “The remote on the bed stand has everything you need, sir.”

As the doors closed, Gavin complained, “I have to carry you up fifty-one floors to the top of this hotel?”

Lost in the comfort of his arms, she promised, “You’ll love the view.”

He stepped out of the elevator and turned right.

“No, no. Left.” She pointed, her eyes heavy with desire.

He switched directions and loped to the end of the hall where he struggled with the door. “Any chance you can give me a hand?”

She snuggled deeper into him, reveling in the feel of his hard body.

“Jillian, take the key card from my pocket and put it in the door.”

She yawned. “I didn’t realize you needed so much help getting things to fit in the right places.”

Gavin half leaned her against the wall. “Dr. Cole,” he growled, “this is the third time I’ve hauled you around today. I’m tempted to drop you right here and show you just how much help I need fitting things in the right places.”

She relented, charmed by his teasing and reached for the card.

Gavin lofted her onto the bed and collapsed next to her.

Glad to finally be relaxing, Jill rolled over onto her stomach and stretched out her arms, sliding her hands under the satin pillows.

When she made no further move, Gavin swore lightly under his breath.

She opened one eye.

Gavin towered over her. “Do you have any idea how inviting you look?”

“Do I?”

“You do,” he confirmed, loosening his tie with deliberate moves. He removed his jacket and opened the top two buttons of his shirt.

His movements evoked a feeling of intoxication, and she enjoyed the sensation.

He lay down beside her and propped himself on one elbow. “Looking at you makes me want to do this.” He reached out and removed one of her hairpins. A lock of silky dark hair fell loose and arced across the pillow. “And this,” he said, removing a second pin. More hair cascaded, this time down her back. “And this,” he said again, removing the remaining pins.

He smoothed her hair away from her neck and kissed the area between her shoulders, following the slope of her back with his tongue. His hands locked over hers and drew them from under the pillow, pinning them palms down against the bed. “You have on far too much clothing,” he murmured, biting her shoulder. “I believe I’ll remove them. Do you have a preference as to where I should start?” he asked, raising the hem of her gown.

Jill gurgled into the pillow.

He released one of her hands and lowered the zipper of her gown, drawing it open as if unwrapping a singularly irreplaceable gift.

He turned her onto her back. “Tired?” he asked, kissing the palm of her hand.

“Wake me up,” she invited.

With a cocky grin, he leaped off the bed, removed his cummerbund, slid it under her back around her waist, and raised her off the bed.

Her gown pooled at their feet and her arms circled his neck.

“Believe me, I know just how to wake you up,” he promised, waltzing her seductively around the room in her strapless bra and thong. Each time they passed a light, he flipped it on. He found the remote. One click turned on music, another opened all the drapes. The brightly lit floor-to-ceiling windows against the stark night became a giant mirror. Gavin caught the rhythm of the music and stepped up the pace, twirling her as they danced. Each time he drew her close, he kept her back to his chest so they could both watch their reflection in the windows. Entranced, she wondered what he would convince her body to do next.

When the music slowed even further, he waltzed her over to the window. “On this side of the city, we’re on top of the world, up higher than everything else,” he chanted into the side of her neck.

She shivered as he stopped and held wide her arms.

“Look at yourself,” he murmured as her breasts crested just above her bra. “See what my touch does to you.”

He unhooked her bra, tossed it aside and massaged the sides of her breasts, skillfully avoiding her nipples, his length was rigid against her backside.

Excitement ran over her skin and her belly constricted with desire.

He released her breasts and traveled down her body, past the slope of her hip to rest at the apex of her thighs. He pulled her thong to the side, revealing her sex and stared at their reflection. “You are perfection.”

Her heart beating a wild tattoo, she turned in his arms. His mouth descended slower than time. Their lips met. A fanfare of warmth flooded her body.

“Perfection,” he intoned, placing his lips more urgently against hers and kneading them until their tongues met.

She wrapped her arms around him and returned his kiss, drawing at his lips in a cadence that matched the mounting ache in her body.

Gavin carried her to the bed and spread her against the pillows. His lips teased the hollow of her throat kissing her with increasing urgency.

Jill moaned, her body rocking in an earthy rondo.

“Come for me,” he murmured, catching her nipples in his mouth, while his hands played her like a toccata and his tongue held her captive. He devoured her, whipping her into an inconsolable frenzy with the confidence of a virtuoso until she cried out against the succession of tiny shocks that migrated across every molecule of her body.

Then he held her, rocking in a harmonic interlude until she could catch her breath. When she calmed, he stroked her thighs, his movement as reverent as if he were playing a
pastorale
. “Tell me you love me.”

“I love you,” she whispered it so softly, she wondered if she'd spoken at all.

“I hope to God you do, Jillian because I love you.”

“Come here,” she invited. He didn’t hesitate. She claimed his lips and tugged at the buttons of his shirt, favoring him with a trail of kisses from his chest to his trousers. When she released the clasp of his trousers, he groaned and lifted her so that he could kiss her lips once more, kicking off his remaining clothing. “More,” she breathed.

His mouth hovered over the flat of her belly, then lower still.

Jill arched her back in euphoric ecstasy when he slid his hand between her legs, and his mouth over her, persuading her body into one rhapsodic crescendo after another, all the while whispering words of love.

In the moments that followed, he said, “There is no music without you.”

As they lay naked together, Jill stroked him until every part of his long body stretched, poised like an orchestra awaiting permission to play the opening note. “Now,” she invited.

He entered her slowly, allowing her body to close around him until she knew him once again. At first his movements were slow, bold, but she sensed his desire to increase the tempo and like a well-rehearsed duet, her body let him know she was ready. Together, they climbed the complex harmonies of major and minor chords until they achieved a canon-like effect, their bodies answering one another until the first light of dawn crept across their pillows.

****

Gavin awoke first and watched her sleep, memorizing her every curve. The sheet covered most of her body, but one shapely leg had kicked free. His hand ached to stroke it.

She loved him.

He couldn't resist brushing his fingers against the hollow of her throat. She stirred. He pressed a kiss against her ear, feeling predominantly awake.

Jill sighed, turned, and flung the sheet from her body. She murmured something in her sleep, but didn’t stir again.

Gavin propped himself on an elbow and smiled at the disheveled mass of wavy hair that spread itself all over her pillow—and his. He took in her slender arms and well-defined shoulders. His eyes slid to the deep valley between her breasts then travelled further to the curve of her hips, the flat of her belly, and once again to her legs. He would give anything to be inside her, but for now, he’d let her sleep. He closed his eyes, and was surprised to feel her hand close around him.

“You give up too easily,” she accused, her fingers eddying the head of his penis.

Within seconds, he found himself drowning in a sea of long dark tresses as she gave him a deep-throated kiss and settled herself around him like a siren who intended to ride the slow tide home.

Much, much later, they lay in the aftermath of their lovemaking, as peaceful as the fresh February snow that continued to fall outside.

“I've been thinking,” he said, watching the snow’s mesmerizing descent.

“Me, too.” She rubbed her belly. “I've been thinking I'm starving.”

He raised his best Gavin-style eyebrow. “Hungry? After all I've done to satisfy you?”

“Coffee, orange juice. And maybe some bacon.” Jill got out of bed, taking the sheet with her.

Gavin caught the edge and whipped the sheet out of her grasp. “Too late for modesty, now,” he teased.

“I was cold.” She pointed to the window. “It’s snowing.” She scrambled back into bed, taking control of the covers. “And you do seem to know how to keep me warm,” she added agreeably, taking his ready body into her mouth.

Later, he said, “It almost killed me, you know.”

Jill leaned across him to set down her coffee cup, and curled back against his chest. “What?”

“Being away from you. I couldn’t sleep at night because the sea called your name. The loneliness quite literally chased me home.”

She placed his hand over her left breast. “I’m forever grateful to that sea. Although as the years go by, I somehow think you’ll be telling a different version of the story.”

Gavin chuckled. “You mean the one that goes something like, “There I was, getting my head together and this pest of a wench sent me a text begging me to come home.”

Jill pulled away. “Wench?”

“Makes for a good story,” he said, grinning

She got out of bed and placed her hands on her hips. “You can tell that story any way you wish, but I’m pretty sure everyone will believe my version.”

His eyes crinkled when he grinned, enjoying the sight of her naked, hair tumbling in every direction. “Oh? And how will yours go?”

“You showed up at my door unannounced on Valentine’s Day, hauled me up in your arms despite the fact that I beat your chest, and yelled for rescue. In short, you kidnapped me.”

“And I suppose I plied you with diamonds.”

She grinned. “Makes for a good story.”

“Come back here.” He crooked his finger and patted the bed.

Jerking her chin, she flounced her hair and turned to walk away.

But he leaped out of bed and caught his hand in her hair, persuading her to return to the bed. “I see things much clearer when you’re here next to me.”

She sighed. “You make me sound like an ophthalmologist.”

Inching his way inside her, he chuckled. “I have a responsibility to see to the matter of you, love.”

A loud rapping at the door accompanied by the sounds of the shower awakened him. Through the door, he heard a muffled, “Room service.” Gavin pulled on his trousers, opened the door, and waited while the water rolled in an elegantly laden cart of food. He gave the waiter an insanely large tip, stripped out of his trousers, poured two glasses of juice, and walked to the bathroom to join Jill in the shower.

“You’re insatiable,” she accused, splashing water at him.

“Are you complaining?”

“Right now, I want orange juice almost as much as I want you.”

“No reason you can’t have both.” Gavin whipped open the shower curtain and handed her a small glass of freshly squeezed orange. “Maybe that will sweeten you up.”

“And eggs. I want eggs, too.”

“They’re in the warming tray on the cart. Waiting their turn.”

“Their turn?”

He took the glass from her hand and grinned. “I got here first.”

His hands grazed her belly and continued their descent, gently invading the soft folds of her body as he moved inside her amazed to realize this woman moved him even more than music.

Chapter Thirty

Jill took a bite of bacon.

Mid-crunch, he said, “Come with me to Whitesands Bay. Now. While you’re between terms.”

She set down her bacon. “Drop everything and go? Just like that?”

He grinned. “Everything but me.”

Jill wiped her mouth with her napkin and studied him. “You’re saying just up and go.”

Gavin pushed away the cart with one hand and pulled her onto his lap, kissing the corner of her mouth.

“Hey, maybe I wasn’t done with that,” she objected, stretching her fingers toward the cart.

“Is it so hard to be spontaneous with me?” he murmured into her hair.

She started to laugh.

“You’re laughing at my invitation?”

She shook her head but couldn’t stop laughing.

He blew out his breath. “You say no, but you are clearly laughing at me. Why?”

Still laughing, she held up her hand. “Wait.” She gave in to another round of laughter. She went in search of her phone, found it, and handed it to him.