Blackjack and Moonlight: A Contemporary Romance (10 page)

“Damn you, just guess,” she hissed. “Because in thirty seconds I’m taking this top off no matter what.”

“What?” His focus had gone soft and he sounded distracted.

Join the club
. She bit back a moan. She shifted on his lap, but it was no good. She couldn’t get the friction she needed.

“Oh, right. Color. Lace. Um, they’re cherry red.” His focus was back and his gaze burned into hers.

Elise honestly couldn’t remember the question. She just knew his answer meant she could start getting undressed. She whipped off her top and reached back to unfasten the bra. When Jack flashed a particularly wolfish smile at her, she looked down. Yup, cherry red. How had he known? Oh, who cared.

“Congratulations,” she said. “Can we get naked now?”

“I thought you’d never suggest it.”

Jack shifted forward to take off his sweater, but she stopped him.

“I’ve been waiting two long weeks to unwrap my present.” She stood long enough to shimmy out of her jeans, then straddled him again. She peeled off his sweater and reached for the shirt buttons.

“I like these,” he said.

“Huh?”

“The panties. I didn’t really get to see the bra, but these are cute. Stand up. I want to see the back.”

She still had several buttons to undo to uncover his chest. “You’re kidding, right?” She looked into his eyes.

Those eyes. Blazing hot and
so
not kidding. Elise froze for a heartbeat, a pulse of desire.

She stood up slowly and turned around. When she faced him again, he was smiling a very Cheshire-cat smile. It made her suspicious.

“What?” she demanded. That reminded her. “How did you know what color they were, anyway?”

“Same color as your silk robe.” His hands cupped her ass, tugging her toward him. “It’s your color. Makes your skin look like warm velvet, your eyes particularly beautiful, and now I know it matches your nipples when they’re really hard. It’s our first sex date—of course you’d wear your best color.”

“Deduction, huh? That’s dirty pool, buster.” She tried to sound annoyed, but he was already kissing her breasts and she couldn’t manage real outrage. That moan—the one she’d been holding in for so long—escaped. His tongue worked on her nipples, licking, soothing, flicking. She bent her head to nuzzle his hair, which was soft and smelled divine.

Wait—she’d been interrupted. She’d been doing something important. What was it again? Oh, right, his shirt. But she couldn’t reach all the buttons. She rubbed her cheek against his shiny black hair.

“I love your hair,” she whispered. Then she realized what she’d said. She’d used the L-word.

She felt him freeze for a second, then he went back to sucking her breasts.

“It’s just a figure of speech,” she blurted.

He pulled away to look at her. She could feel the cool air on her nipples, wet from his mouth. She felt as startled as he looked.

She grinned at him to cover her confusion. “Thank you. Now, about that shirt.”

Good save. She got busy unbuttoning.

He was a fool, Jack realized. Just the mention of the word “love” got his attention. And she knew it.

She was an impressive adversary. Which was an odd thing to think about a woman he both loved and desired to his core.

“You know, if you’d practiced criminal law, we might have met years ago,” he said as she fiddled with the buttons on his cuffs. “I wish we had.”

“So we could’ve had sex that much sooner? Trust me, I’m going as fast as I can.”

He admired the sleek curve of her silver hair. “No. I was thinking how much fun it would have been to oppose you in court.”

She’d gotten his shirt off and was now kneeling to slip off his shoes and socks. Her bright eyes glanced up, then went back to her task. As she reached for his belt, he said, “Of course, I’d have been hard as a rock every time I saw you, but it would have been worth it.”

He loved the sound of her laugh. She tugged his belt from his trousers and was working on his fly. He wasn’t kidding—he’d never been this hard. It was the sweetest pain when she reached into his boxers.

“This hard? In court? Really, Jack? It kind of makes me wonder what was going on underneath that robe during the
Everton
hearing.”

Her bright head, with its moonlight hair, dipped down so she could kiss his cock, licking the underside of the rim. It felt great—she knew what to do—but Jack wasn’t enjoying it quite as he should. Something about having her on her knees bothered him.

“Elise.”

She licked harder. God, that was good.

He ran his fingers through her hair. “Elise,” he said more firmly. It felt glorious, of course it did, but it didn’t feel
right
.

He tugged gently on her head.

“What?” she demanded. “I was just getting to the good part.”

He had to push her out of the way a bit, but he managed to get down on the floor with her. “Elise. I have people sucking up to me every day in court. Even with you, it isn’t quite the erotic rush you might think.” He kissed her sweet lips to stop her pouting.

“Oh.” She digested this. “Okay. But your appellate court down here might want to review that ruling.” She stroked his length and cupped his balls at the same time.

“You are incorrigible.” He kissed her thoroughly. When he stopped, she looked dazed.

“Bedroom. We need the bedroom,” she said finally.

“I concur. You lead, I’ll follow. I want to keep looking at your ass. I like the way it looks in those panties.”

She chuckled. “Right? I picked them precisely for that reason.” Her hips swayed a little as she headed for the stairs.

Her bedroom was at the back of the house. She’d drawn the curtains already, a wise precaution considering how few clothes they were wearing. She’d also pulled the covers nearly off the bed, leaving a wide expanse of crisp white sheet.

He paused in the doorway. “I have a confession. After our negotiation I was so crazed that I walked five blocks before I realized I’d left my car behind. When I came back, it was all I could do not to storm in, throw you over my shoulder and carry you up here.”

Elise turned to face him. “Why didn’t you? You had to know that’s what I wanted you to do.”

“Honestly? I can’t remember why I didn’t. It can’t have been a very good reason.”

“Your Honor is right, as usual.” Her smile mocked him.

“I’m going to need a thesaurus to find all the synonyms for ‘minx,’ aren’t I?”

“Vixen,” she volunteered. She took his hand, but just stood there, looking at him. “My turn to confess. Ever since our negotiation, I’ve had a hard time imagining you without thinking what you’d look like naked.”

That trick women did, where they had their heads down but were looking up? Very sexy. “Imp,” he said.

“C’mon, Jack, lemme see.” She stripped off her panties, revealing the most delicious pale brown curls.

He shoved his boxers down. “For better or worse, here’s what’s underneath that damned robe.”

Her eyes got very big. “Jack, please tell me I’m the first woman to have sex with the Honorable Judge McIntyre.”

“You will be once you get that adorable ass over there.”

“Yes, Judge.” She nearly leapt onto the bed, rolling onto her side and ending on one elbow, grinning at him.

He shook his head in despair at her irreverence. “If I don’t make it out of here alive, my sister’s number’s programmed into my cell phone. Stacy Pembroke. Call her, will you? Let her know I died happy.”

“Silly man.”

“Keeping your mouth occupied may be the only way to stop you mocking me.” He arched an eyebrow as he joined her on the bed. She just laughed.

Jack pushed her onto her back and straddled her hips. Her eyes narrowed and her eyebrows flexed just a bit. He could tell she was thinking of something smart to say, so he kissed her. And kissed her, and kissed her some more. He kissed her cheek, her chin, the soft skin of her neck, the ridge of her collarbone, those gorgeous breasts—he focused a lot of attention on them—all the way down to those cute pale curls. There he discovered she could be driven so far down the road to distraction that the only sounds she made were breathy little moans and gasps.

He ached to be inside her, but shutting her up was almost as satisfying. Almost.

He brought her to an orgasm with his tongue, lips, and a couple of well-placed fingers. He knew when she was getting close because she reached up to pinch her own nipples. Nearly caused him to come on the spot, seeing her going for what she wanted. What a woman—she was so different, so dynamic, she made him feel like he’d never made love before. This was his first time. His first breathtaking, nerve-rattling, head-exploding time.

And they still hadn’t…

Now. He needed in…now.

Elise was still shuddering, so he looked on the bedside table. Yup, condoms. A very large number of condoms. Either she was ambitious, or she was planning on keeping him as her sex slave. He smiled at that image while he slipped one on.

“Mmm. I’m glad it’s big enough,” she murmured. She stroked his latex-sheathed cock.

“Elise,” he warned.

“Judge,” she cooed.

He needed to stop this. He wanted to come inside her, not in her hand. It was now a biological imperative.

He pressed her down for more kisses, then flipped her on top and let her impale herself. Sure enough, she had a crazy-sexy way of doing even that. When he felt like he might lose control, he ran through the docket of cases before the Supreme Court that spring—just to keep from exploding like a rocket.

Elise found her own devilish rhythm. She was exquisite, flushed and tousled. He loved looking at her, loved feeling her tighten around him. She tweaked his nipples, so he played with hers. A worthy opponent indeed.

When she squeezed his cock, he could tell it was time. He pressed his thumb onto her clit, watching her face to see if he was getting the timing right. When her eyelids dropped, he knew he was close. He arched his hips, driving his cock up against her.

She went crazy, pushing them both to climaxes. Her eyes closed, her body froze, and then she collapsed on him. His arms settled around her, rising and falling with her panting torso.

He felt at peace, finally, for the first time since he’d seen her. No past, the future still unknowable. Right now he was happy.

“Elise? Elise, wake up.”

“Wha—” she muttered in annoyance. She’d been having this delicious dream about Jack McIntyre. She’d had her hand on the zipper of his black robe. Somehow she knew he was nude underneath, if she could just get the zipper down. Only someone was jostling her, making it hard to get the zipper moving.

“Elise, I’m going home now.”

The dream Jack was gone and she missed him. She opened her eyes, frowning at the interruption. A wedge of light from the bathroom illuminated the bedroom just enough for her to see. Flesh-and-blood Jack was hunched down next to the bed. He was dressed and even had his jacket on.

“Go back to sleep, okay?” he said softly. “I just wanted to let you know I’m leaving.”

She opened her mouth to protest. He couldn’t leave. She was going to make him killer banana-stuffed French toast in the morning. She squelched the words before they could get away from her. “Fine.”

He kissed her forehead softly. “I’ll call you, okay?”

No, it wasn’t okay, but it was typical. “Yup.” She never bothered to argue with men as they were leaving.
Let him leave.
Wasn’t that what she wanted, anyway?

“Go back to sleep, Elise.”

“Thanks, Jack. Bye.” She closed her eyes. She was considering adding a yawn for verisimilitude when she heard his footsteps and the bedroom door shut.

She doubted she’d get back to sleep. Her body ached in a nice way but she could feel her thoughts revving up, ready to strip away the last shreds of sleepiness. Clamping down on the impulse to dwell on things, she rolled over and grabbed one of the pillows from the other side of the bed. It smelled good.
Just focus on his smell. Deep breaths. Mmm.
Smelled of—

When Elise woke again, it was midmorning. She sat up, shocked that it was so late. She surveyed her bedroom. Looked the same, except for the tidy pile of clothes on a chair near the door. He’d even folded the panties. The least he could have done was take them as a souvenir. She fell back against the pillows, saddened by the lack of a last link between them.

He was gone. He’d left in the middle of the night without even a—okay, so she’d gotten the by-your-leave part, but that was about it. They’d had great sex, eaten some food, had more great sex, dozed, and even managed more sex, although that last time had been so languorous she wasn’t sure if she could label it as great. She stared at the ceiling as she reviewed the evidence carefully. No, it had been pretty great too, just different. Variety was good. As he’d assured her, she didn’t need to race to the finish line every time.

She closed her eyes. She remembered his face as he’d said that. He’d been inside her, moving slowly and firmly. He’d smiled as he resisted her entreaties to speed up, move harder, do something more. It had almost driven her mad, but instead it resulted in a very deep, uniquely profound orgasm.