Substitute Bride (Beaufort Brides Book 2) (11 page)

Very slowly, his hand moved down until he was stroking her
breasts over her thin top. She gasped in pleasure, and gasped again as he very
lightly flicked at one nipple and then the other.

“More,” she pleaded, losing herself in the sensations and
the intensity of her need for him. She’d been aroused before, of course, but it
had never felt like this—like the lightest of touches would send her falling
over an endless precipice.

He raised his other hand and gave both of her breasts
attention simultaneously, twirling the nipples and cupping handfuls until she
was moaning helplessly.

“Feels so good,” she murmured, tossing her head against the
seat. “I need more.”

Then he was suddenly kissing her, and it was just as deep
and hard and intense as the first time next to the pool. He was leaning over
her rather awkwardly because of the position of the backseat, but he’d cupped
her face in his and was holding it steady as his mouth ravaged her.

She responded eagerly, letting go of any of her normal
reservations. This was too good, too real, too right. She couldn’t talk herself
out of doing it.

Not tonight.

Soon, James’s hands were all over her, feeling her in places
she desperately wanted to feel him. She was so aroused she was whimpering from
it, and she was completely unaware of time, place, or logic as she surrendered
to her need for him.

The only thing that broke through her haze was the feel of
the car pulling to a stop. James pulled back slightly and she glanced outside,
realizing that they’d already gotten home.

And she hadn’t had nearly enough of him.

“Oh, God,” she breathed, clutching at his shoulders.

“Yeah.” He took a deep breath. “Yeah.”

“We should go in. Kelly is waiting. We can’t…” She trailed
off, assuming he’d know she meant they couldn’t stumble inside, halfway in an
embrace, and end up making love on the living room sofa, when Kelly was in
there waiting for him.

“Okay.” James pulled back farther and straightened up,
obviously trying to get himself under control. “We’ll go in. Check on the girls
and thank Kelly. Then, if you still want this…”

“What?” Rose prompted, desperate to hear what he’d say.

“Then come to my bedroom. If you get inside and think things
through and still want this, then come to my bedroom.”

“Okay.” She felt rattled and aroused and rumpled and half-embarrassed
by how shameless she’d been a minute before.

“You go in first. I need a minute.”

It didn’t take a genius to know why he needed a minute, so
she climbed out, still throbbing with arousal but in better shape than he was
to walk.

She went inside and tried to make conversation with her
sister, who teased her about drinking too much.

Better to be thought drunk than horny, she concluded.

James came in shortly after her, and they managed to get rid
of Kelly pretty quickly. The girls were already asleep, so all that was left
was to go to their respective bedrooms.

Rose closed her door and thought for a minute, but
everything inside her wanted to do one thing.

So she did it. She hurried down the hall and knocked on his
bedroom door.

He must have been waiting right in front of it because it
opened immediately. With a rough sound, he pulled her into his arms, shutting
the door behind him.

***

James no longer cared if it was
wrong or not. It couldn’t be wrong. He didn’t care if he was Rose’s boss or if
they’d been thrown together through an unnatural situation that might have
heightened their responses to each other. He didn’t care that they’d both drunk
too much wine.

Rose seemed to want this, and he’d never wanted anything as
much.

The only thing that concerned him was that Rose might be
feeling pressured into this—even though she’d told him she wasn’t—so he made
sure to give her an easy way out, if she wanted it.

He desperately hoped she wouldn’t want it, and he waited
just inside his bedroom door, after they’d gone to their rooms for the night,
waiting to see if she would come to him.

He really hadn’t been sure—even if she wasn’t feeling
pressured, she might have let sense catch up to her and start to question
whether this was the wisest course for them to take—so he was intensely relieved
when he heard the light tap on the door.

He swung it opened and pulled her toward him, unable to hold
himself back anymore.

He was kissing her immediately, and she was clutching at
him, just as hungry as he was. He slid his tongue into her mouth and waged a
duel with hers, sliding his hands down to her hips and pulling her tightly
against him.

He’d had good sex before—plenty of times—but he couldn’t
remember ever feeling so out of control.

They stumbled over to the bed, still in the embrace, and
when Rose’s legs hit the edge of the bed, they both tumbled down onto the
mattress. He moved over her, claiming her mouth again, drinking her in, wanting
to feel her in every way.

She was fisting her hands in his shirt, and rocking her body
up into his. He loved how eager she felt, how she was so caught up in feeling
that she couldn’t help but respond to him this way. He wanted her to let go
even more.

He wanted her to give all of herself to him, holding nothing
back.

She broke the kiss off by turning her head and taking a few
raspy breaths. “Oh, God, James!”

He grunted out an answer and couldn’t stop kissing her,
moving his mouth in a line down her throat, licking and nibbling and putting pressure
lightly on her pulse point.

“James,” she gasped.

He loved hearing her say his name like that. He wanted to
hear it again, so he nipped her throat again.

“James!” she cried softly, arching up into him.

“Rosie,” he mumbled. He wanted to let her know how he was
feeling, how into her he was, so he said against her skin, “You’re so
beautiful. You feel so good.”

She made a breathless sound, one that sounded like she
appreciated the words, so he added, “No one has ever felt so good.”

“Me too.” The response wasn’t exactly appropriate, but he
knew exactly what she meant. She was tugging at his shirt, trying to pull it
off.

He pulled up enough to help her, mostly because he wanted to
feel her hands on his skin. When she managed to get it off and drop it over the
side of the bed, he took the opportunity to pull off her top over her head.

He stared down at her full breasts in her bra, his body
surging into overdrive at the sight of her.

“James, please,” she said, pulling on his shoulders to get
him lower. “Hurry up.”

He made a choked sound and lowered his mouth to her breast,
teasing it some over her bra until his lips finally reached her nipple. He
flicked with his tongue and then suckled hungrily, loving the sound of her
whimpers of pleasure and the way she clearly couldn’t stay still. While he
worked, he reached behind her to unlatch her bra. He pulled it off her skin,
staring down at her naked breasts with another surge of lust before giving her
other breast equal treatment.

By the time he was through, she was crying out helplessly,
stifling the sound by biting her lip.

“James, please,” she begged, tossing restlessly, her face
flushed deeply and twisting with pleasure and need. “I can’t wait anymore.
Please.”

His head felt like it might explode from the rush of
dominance and pleasure. He slid a hand into her waistband, slipping it under
both her skirt and her underwear. She was warm and very wet, and he stroked her
until he found her clit.

One of her knees bent up with a jerk as her whole body
stiffened.

“I want you to come for me, baby,” he murmured, lifting up
enough to watch her face. He massaged her in tight circles, missing none of the
feelings that were tightening on her face. She gasped and clenched her hands in
the bedding until she was arching up and shuddering through her orgasm, and she
was mumbling out, “Oh God,” as her body relaxed in palpable satisfaction.

She’d let herself go completely, exactly as he’d wanted. He
wanted to see her do it again, but his erection was throbbing painfully now,
and he wasn’t sure he could wait any longer.

She didn’t want him to wait either. She was pulling at him
now, trying to drag him over her. He kissed her deeply as she fumbled with his
pants, and he grunted into her mouth as he suddenly felt her fingers on his
hard shaft.

She stroked him until his vision went white, and then he
forced himself to pull away, so as not to come too early. He sat on the edge of
the bed for a minute, getting enough control to reach into the drawer of his
nightstand and pull out a condom.

He couldn’t help but smile when she took it from his hands
and rolled it on herself.

“How do you like it?” he asked, wanting to please her and
genuinely curious.

“It’s been ages for me,” she admitted. “All I know is I want
it now.”

“Sounds good to me.” He smiled at her dry tone as he
positioned himself between her legs. He bent up her legs slightly, staring down
at how beautiful and lush she was and amazed that she was giving herself to
him. “How’s this?”

“Perfect,” she murmured. She reached up to wrap her arms
around his neck as he positioned himself at her entrance with his hand and then
slowly slid himself inside in a series of thrusts and retreats.

She was tighter than he’d expected—her body clinging to him
so snugly that he wanted to howl. But it also tested his control, so he closed
his eyes as he made the final advance and felt her tightening around him.

“Oh, fuck,” he muttered.

She was stroking his hair. “Are you about to lose it?” There
was the slightest lilt to her tone, like she might be about to laugh.

He opened one eye and gave her a cool glare, which made her
laugh out loud.

“Don’t make me laugh,” he warned her, “unless you want this
to be over before it starts.”

“I’ll be good,” she promised, squeezing around him again.
“But you’re feeling pretty amazing, so if you don’t start soon, I’m just going
to start without you.”

He couldn’t hold back the chuckle at her words, and his
emotions surged up with the physical pleasure. It was so much like Rose.
Understated. Clever. Generous. So warm-hearted.

“Oh baby,” he gasped, pulling back to thrust because he
couldn’t hold still anymore. He wanted to take her, claim her, make her his. As
deeply as he could get.

“Yes,” she breathed, bending up her legs more and adjusting
herself around him. “James, yes.”

It took a few false starts, but they finally found a
pleasing rhythm, both of their bodies moving together. It was exactly right,
exactly what James wanted—and exactly who he wanted to be with.

Rose was rocking beneath him, meeting his thrusts, her
motion growing more urgent. Soon, she was raking her fingers down his back and
biting her bottom lip again as she was clearly on the edge of orgasm.

“That’s right, baby,” he grunted. “Give yourself over to it.
You’re doing so good. Come for me.”

She cried out as she shuddered through what looked like a
hard orgasm. As her body clamped down around him, he couldn’t hold back
anymore. He choked out a helpless sound as he felt the pleasure clamp down and
then release in deep waves of pleasure. He felt himself jerking against her,
heard himself saying something he wasn’t even sure was words.

When both of them came down, he leaned down to kiss her
softly, loving her expression and the softness of her body beneath him.

“That was so good,” she whispered, stroking his back as if
he were something precious. “James, I needed that so much.”

“Me too.” He kissed her again and then relaxed beside her,
taking her in his arms, never wanting to let her go.

And it wasn’t until several minutes later that he started to
wonder what she’d meant when she’d said she needed that.

Maybe she meant she needed him, the way he needed her.

Or maybe she just meant she needed the physical release.

He hoped to God it wasn’t the latter.

Rose woke up at three-thirty the
next morning, sore and overly warm.

She soon discovered why, since she was squeezed between
James’s body and the mattress, and his body seemed to be generating an
unnatural amount of heat.

She raised her head and breathed deeply, and then she eased
herself out from under him. He was still sound asleep and he rolled over with a
mumble, so she sat up on the side of the bed and breathed some more.

Last night had been…incredible. But the night was basically
over now, and she had to come to terms with the consequences.

One of them was the fact that her head was pounding from
drinking too much last night.

Another was a soreness she could still feel between her legs.

And the most serious was sleeping on the other side of the
bed. She glanced back, her heart clenching at the sight of his bare shoulder
and messy hair.

With a weird little gasp, she stood up, gathered up her
clothes, and hurried silently out of the room and down the hall to hers.

She got a glass of water from the faucet in her bathroom and
drank it all down in one go. Then she got right into the shower, trying her
best not to cry.

Last night had offered her everything she wanted, but there
was no guarantee of it continuing. Neither one of them had been in their normal
state, and James had always been clear in saying that nothing about their
professional relationship was going to change, no matter what happened between
them during this interlude.

He wanted his wife back. He wanted the woman who had first
worn that beautiful ring. And, since he couldn’t have her, he wanted the
closest approximation he could find.

That would never be her.

She’d known it all along, so she didn’t let herself fall
apart. She got out of the shower, dried off, put on sleeping shorts and a tank,
braided her hair, and crawled into bed.

She had a few more hours before she needed to get up for the
day, and she wanted to postpone the morning for as long as possible.

Unless James had miraculously changed his mind, then she
would have to act like normal, like nothing had happened between them.

She wasn’t going to humiliate herself with a man again by
begging for something she couldn’t have.

***

The girls were crabby when Rose got
them up later that morning. They’d evidently stayed up too late last night, so
they were tired and didn’t want to get up. When she finally got them out of bed
and dressed, Julie complained about everything while Jill sat there with an
unhappy frown.

Rose talked to them lightly and ignored the bad-temper, but
she couldn’t improve their moods the way she normally could. She was having a
discussion about the quality of the orange juice when James walked in, fully
dressed in a business suit as normal.

Rose could feel his presence intensely, but she didn’t turn
around to look at him. “It’s the same juice as usual,” she said to Julie,
hoping her voice sounded natural.

“It has those lumps in it.”

Rose showed the girl the bottle. “There isn’t any pulp. I
poured it right from here. That’s our normal bottle, isn’t it?”

Julie nodded glumly. “Why are there lumps?”

Rose reached over and took a swig of the girl’s juice, then
made an exaggerated sound of satisfaction. “No lumps. I’ll drink it if you
don’t want it.”

Julie peered at her glass suspiciously and deigned to take a
little sip.

James had been getting his coffee, and Rose had no choice
but smile and tell him good morning since he came to stand beside her on the
kitchen-side of the granite island.

It felt like he was watching her, so she made sure to keep
her face relaxed. If he wanted last night to be forgotten—the way he’d wanted
the kissing to be—then Rose could deal with it. She’d never let him see that it
crushed her. She wasn’t going to strip herself emotionally naked with a man
again, not like she had with Richard, not when he’d offered her no reason to
expect differently.

She would only do that once in her life. She might not
always be smart, but at least she could learn from her mistakes.

“Are you not talking this morning?” James asked Jill, who
was glowering down at her cereal bowl.

“My head hurts.”

Rose prayed the girl wasn’t getting sick. When one of them
got sick, both of them got sick. The worst was when they threw up. She always
dealt with it without complaining, but cleaning up vomit was Rose’s least
favorite part of being a nanny.

“Where does it hurt?” she asked, walking around the island
to where Jill was sitting.

“I don’t know.”

Rose put a gentle finger on her forehead. “Here?”

Jill shook her head.

Rose moved her fingers to her cheekbones. “Here?”

“That’s my cheek, not my head.”

“Sometimes people have headaches there, if they have sinus
issues. Does it hurt there?”

“No.”

Rose moved her hands to the sides of the girl’s head, making
a light circle of her scalp. “Here?”

“No.”

“Then where does it hurt.”

Jill raised one hand and pointed to the very top of her
skull. “Right here.”

Rose glanced over and met James’s eyes, and they clearly
understood each other. While it was possible that Jill hurt right there, it
wasn’t a normal spot for a headache, so it was more likely that the girl was
faking.

Rose went and poured out a glass of cold water. “Here you
go. Water is good for headaches. Drink all of this, and then we’ll see how you
feel later. Be sure to let us know if it gets worse.”

Jill was still scowling but she obediently started
swallowing down the water.

In the silence that followed—broken only by Jill’s gulping
sounds and the scraping of Julie’s spoon against her cereal bowel—Rose was
suddenly acutely aware of the fact that she’d had sex with James last night.

She peeked a look over at him and saw that his eyes were
resting on her. He looked mostly normal, just a little thoughtful.

She had no idea what he was thinking.

Surely he would say something, the way he had about the
kissing. Even if he wanted to forget the night had ever happened, he would at
least address the fact that it was one-time drunken fling in order to get the
issue off the table.

Surely he wouldn’t have made love to her the way he had last
night and then completely ignore the fact that it had ever happened.

What kind of a man would do that?

Once the girls went off the school, he would say something.
And, if he didn’t, then she could always say something herself.

But then he would think she was asking for something, that
she was hinting around for it to continue. Her stomach churned at the thought
of his believing that she would beg to be his girlfriend, his fiancée for real,
his wife.

She was never going to do that. Not again. If he didn’t say
anything, then the issue would go unspoken for perpetuity.

And that was just the way it was.

***

James didn’t say anything when the
girls went off to school. He went into his office to work for an hour like
normal. Not a word—not even an expression—hinted that anything had happened
between them last night.

Rose stared down the hall at the closed door of his office
and felt for a moment like crying.

She wasn’t helpless in this. She had choices. She could
always walk down the hall and knock on the door and ask him what he was
thinking about last night.

That wasn’t going to happen, though. She resolved herself on
this decision yet again silently as she stood in the hall.

If he wanted to be a coward and pretend it had never
happened, then he was more than welcome to do so. She didn’t want that kind of
man, anyway.

She did want James. That much was obvious. But she couldn’t
have him and she wasn’t going to dwell on that fact. So she went upstairs to
shower again and get dressed for the day, and pretended everything was normal.

She did some errands and picked up all the old Beaufort
clothes they’d gotten cleaned, and then went over to her grandmother’s house to
start getting them organized.

This was who she was. It was who she’d always been. And
spending one night with the man of her dreams wasn’t going to change that.

She was trying to button the ball gown up on the dress form
when Kelly came bursting into the room. She’d been at class this morning, so
she must have just gotten home.

“You’ll never believe it!” Kelly’s face displayed obvious
excitement, as if she were bursting with news.

“I’ll never believe what?”

“Genevieve has eloped!”

For just a moment, Rose’s heart sank like a rock all the way
to her toes. Had she eloped with James? Had Rose lost him for good?

Then she came to her senses and realized he’d never do
anything like that without arranging care for his girls. So Rose could breathe
again as she asked, “Eloped with who?”

Kelly was trying to keep a straight face, but her eyes were
dancing with hilarity. “With Morris Alfred Theobald III!”

Rose gasped. Morris Alfred Theobald III was a plain,
slightly annoying man who used to have a thing for Deanna. For a while, their
grandmother was trying to make a match there—or maybe she was just playing some
sort of a game.

Rose had no idea that Genevieve even knew the man, and she
couldn’t ever picture them together.

“They eloped? How do you know?”

“Mrs. Loomis down the block told me as I was walking home.
They took off for Vegas this morning. I guess it’s the best gossip to come out
in ages. It’s completely overtaken the story of your fake engagement with James”

“By why would Genevieve want to marry him?”

“Well, he’s rich. Richer than James. Richer than Mitchell,
even.”

“I know that. But still. He’s so…so…”

Kelly obviously understood what Rose was reluctant to say.
“I know. But sometimes money trumps all. I guess she finally resigned herself
to never having James. It must have been the fake engagement that did it.”

Rose wasn’t so sure. Genevieve wasn’t the type to give up so
easily. While she certainly hoped that the woman was out of James’s life for
good, something made her very nervous about this story. “Maybe.”

“You should be happy, shouldn’t you? I mean, Morris Alfred
Theobald III! What a perfect match!” Kelly studied her sister’s face with
obvious confusion.

Rose shook her head. “I don’t know if I’m happy or not.”

Kelly must have noticed something about her expression
because her face suddenly sobered. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.”

“Well, obviously something is wrong.”

Rose sighed. “I’m just kind of blah today. Nothing to worry
about.”

“You didn’t do anything stupid, did you?” Kelly asked.

As far as Rose knew, Kelly had never been in love before,
and the girl had absolutely no patience for the way women often acted foolishly
for men. Maybe one day she would understand.

As it was, Rose was reluctant to admit it to her, but she
also didn’t want to lie. “I don’t know. But I do know I’m not going to do
anything even stupider.”

Kelly thought about this for a minute and then gave a little
nod. “Good for you. No reason for us to be stupid if we can possibly help it.”

***

James worked late that evening, and
he didn’t act unusual when he finally came home after seven. He talked to the
girls about their days as he ate his supper—Rose and the girls had eaten earlier—and
then he and his daughters went to read a book together.

Rose usually didn’t join them in the evenings, since the
family needed to spend time together alone, so she puttered in the kitchen and
caught up on some email until it was bedtime.

After they put the girls to bed, James paused in the hall.

Rose’s breath hitched, suddenly hoping he was going to say
something about the night before.

“You heard about Genevieve?” he asked softly.

Rose managed not to droop in disappointment. “Yes. The news
is all over.”

“I have no idea what to make of it. It seems too easy.”

“That’s what I was thinking too.”

“But I don’t know what trouble she could be up to—since
she’s all the way across the country at the moment.” James looked very tired—so
tired her heart went out to him, despite herself. He rubbed his jaw, as if it
were hurting him again. “I guess we’ll just go with it and hope for the best.”

“Should we do anything else, about the engagement?”

James shook his head. “I was thinking about that. If she
actually gets married, then I think we can just lay low for a while—not go out
in public together and not put out any more gossip. In a month or two, we can
tell some folks the engagement has ended, and just not make a big deal about
it. It will just go away.”

That sounded so easy and simple. Rose wondered if it could
possibly be so.

She sure as hell knew that her feelings about the whole
thing wouldn’t just go away so smoothly.

“Okay. We’ll wait and see then.” Her voice was light, as if
her emotions weren’t a painful uproar about seeing James standing in front of
her like this, looking clever and handsome and deep and sexy and everything she
wanted. “Oh, I should give you back the ring then.”

She wasn’t wearing it. She wasn’t planning to ever wear it
unless she had to go out in public with him again.

His forehead wrinkled. “You don’t have to.”

Her lips parted in surprise. “Of course, I have to. I can’t
keep a ring like that. And, if we’re going to lay low, then we won’t really
need it again. I’ll leave it in your room later today.”

He hesitated for a moment, his eyes searching her face. Then
he gave a weird little nod and turned to walk into his room.

And that was evidently it. Nothing that happened between
them last night evidently mattered in any way.