Truth or Dare (20 page)

Oh!
  Her shyness was burned away to cinders as heat and desire flamed through her.  If anticipation could kill, she'd be terminal before the wine was poured.

She made it through the meal in a daze, her passion held tightly in check but threatening to burst forth and consume her at any moment.

Ignoring her protests, Jared helped clear the table and clean up the kitchen.  Then he poured them each another glass of wine and pulled her down next to him on the living room sofa.  She sat stiffly at his side, her hands shaking from just being so close to him.

His voice came softly, hesitantly, from only inches away.  "Do you want me to leave?"

"What?" she gasped, jerking her head around to look at him.  "No!"  She searched his face and found it unreadable.  "What makes you think that?"

"You haven't said more than a dozen words to me all evening.  You're obviously uncomfortable with this whole situation.  If you want me to leave
—
"

"Jared
, no.  I don't want you to leave.  Not at all
.  It's just . . . I guess I'm just
a little . . .
a little
nervous, that's all."

His expression softened immediately.  "Me, too."

"You are?"

"Did you think I wouldn't be?"

She tried to smile.  "I guess I did."

"Why are you nervous?"

She shrugged and stared at a tiny spot of light on the lip of his wine glass.  "I've . . . never done this sort of thing before.  I'm not quite sure what to do, how to act."

"Never done what sort of thing?" he asked softly.

Rachel stood and stepped away.  "Had an affair."

"Is that what we're having?  An affair?"

She tried to laugh, but it came out more like a croak.  "Unless I've totally misread what's been happening between us, I think we're about to."  She looked at him over her shoulder, her breath caught in her chest.  "Aren't we?"

He started to answer, then something changed in his eyes.  "What do you mean, you've never had an affair?"

Rachel felt herself blushing.  "A little old fashioned of me, isn't it?"

"How long have you been divorced?"

She sighed.  "Five years."

Jared set his empty wine glass on the coffee table.  "Not that it's any of my business, but surely in five years there's been a man or two in your life."

She did laugh then, nervously.  "I don't know quite how to break it to you, but you're only the second man I've even
kissed
since I was seventeen."

A dozen questions ran through Jared's mind.  The least appropriate one came out.  "Is it because you were attacked?"

She shuddered.

"I'm sorry.  My timing stinks.  I shouldn't have brought it up."

"No," she said.  "It's all right.  I mean, that's not why I haven't
 
.
 
.
 
.
 
there just hasn't been anyone, until you."

Jared rose and stood behind her, not touching her, but close enough for his breath to fan the hair at her temple.  "Does that mean you don't want me to leave?"

"No.  I don't want you
to leave.  But . . .
"

"But what?"

She pressed her fingers to her forehead to still the sudden throbbing.  Her harsh bark of laughter came out more like a sob.  "It sounds ridiculous, after being married all those years, and having two children, but, I'm not really . . . very . . . experienced."

Warm, strong hands tenderly cupped her shoulders.  She jerked in surprise.  He pressed his chest against her back and she nearly moaned aloud.

"Do you honestly think I care, Rachel?  Do you think you'll disappoint me?  Is that it?"

She trembled against him.  "It's been known to happen."

Jared stilled.  "What are you talking about?"

Rachel swallowed.  "My
 
.
 
.
 
.
 
my husband, Hank."  She swallowed again, trying to ease a path for the words.  If she couldn't yet be honest with Jared about everything, she at least had to tell him this.  Had to give him the chance to change his mind.  "Hank said
—
"

"Hank was a damned fool," Jared said with a growl.  "You couldn't disappoint me in a million years.  I want more than just to take pleasure from you.  I want to give it.  I want to give you more pleasure than you've ever known.  But you're not the only one with insecurities.  I might disappoint you, you know."

Rachel turned slowly beneath his hands, her heart soaring at his words.  She cupped his face in her palms.  "The only way you could disappoint me is by leaving."

"Rachel," he groaned.  His arms came around her in a crushing embrace.  His hands stroked feverishly up and down her back, separated from her tingling flesh by soft, warm silk.

"I'm not going anywhere.  I'll never leave you."

Rachel gazed into his fiery green eyes.  "Love me, Jared.  Just love me."

He moaned, clutching her even tighter.  "I do.  You know I do.  And I will."  His hands roamed her body, touching her everywhere through the silk.  He groaned again.  "Have you got anything at all on under this thing?"

Feeling her mood lighten, she chuckled and buried her face at the curve of his shoulder.  "Not much."

He kissed her then, for the first time that night.  Tender at first, then hard, hot, demanding.  He consumed her, heart and soul, with his lips.  His body trembled against hers, and her spirit soared.

By the time they came up for air, they were both trembling.  She smiled and took his hand in hers.  "Come," she whispered.  She led him down the hall to her bedroom, her steps quickening along with her heartbeat.  At the flip of a switch, a dim, golden glow lit the room.

Jared's breath caught in his throat at the sight of the sheets turned down so invitingly on the bed.  He squeezed her hand and searched her eyes.  "Still nervous?"  His voice was husky with emotion.

"Only a little."

He took her in his arms, tenderly, lovingly, and whispered, "Don't be.  We'll be good together.  So damn good."

His words and the promise in his eyes unleashed a flood of emotion from her heart.  Oh, how she loved him.  With her hands around his neck, she pulled his head down until their lips met.

He took over all her senses then, and she ceased to think.  All she could do was feel.  She felt the heat of his lips, and the tug on the tie at her waist.  Strong, tender hands brushed the caftan from her shoulders.  It fell to the floor, leaving her standing before him wearing nothing but a thin strip of ivory lace at her hips.

When he stood back to look at her, she went weak from the flame in his eyes.

"God, you're beautiful," he whispered.  "More beautiful than anything I ever imagined.

With a hand behind her knees, he lifted her in his arms and carried her to the waiting bed.  He sat next to her, leaning over her, and ran the tip of one finger from the hollow of her throat to the edge of the ivory lace.  Her breath turned ragged at the simple, provocative touch.

She opened her arms to him, wanting, needing his weight pressed against her, and he came to her.  His sweater was soft and prickly against her breasts.  She squirmed, trying to get her hands beneath the fabric so she could push it away.  She wanted his skin.  Had to have it beneath her fingers, covering her breasts, surrounding her.

Jared pulled from her arms and she whimpered at the loss of his warmth.  In seconds he was back, gloriously, totally bare, stripping off her tiny swatch of ivory lace.  When their bodies met, chest to chest, belly to belly, thigh to thigh, they both gasped.

It was heaven.  Somehow, sometime in her life, she must have done something right to be allowed to feel his flesh against hers.  To feel the hardness of his desire pressed against her hip.  To feel his lips burning a path down her throat to the tip of her breast.

His tongue flicked out to tease, and she sucked in her breath.  His lips closed over a nipple.  When he sucked, he magically tugged on invisible strings that ran from the taut peak to down between her legs.

"Yes," she murmured.  "Oh, Jared."

He left a trail of fire from one nipple to the other, turning her into a mindless, quivering mass of sensations.  She buried her fingers in his hair, moaning almost continuously now, unable to stop the movement of her hips.

Jared's hand trembled on its way to that triangle of pale gold curls between her legs.  He had to fight for every ounce of control, for her response, as it had always done, was driving him over the edge.

His fingers delved gently into the secret folds of her flesh, searching, finding the entrance he craved. 
Oh God, oh God.
  She was so hot and moist and ready.

When she cried out his name and thrust her hips against his hand, it was all he could take.  He slipped his hand away.

She moaned in frustration and tossed her head from side to side.  "No," she cried.  "No.  Don't leave me."

"Ssh.  I'm right here."

He kissed his way from her stomach to her lips, sliding his thighs between hers.  He braced himself on his elbows while his hardness sought entrance to her softness.  Her hips raised toward him.

"I'm right here," he murmured.

Then he slid into her, slowly, slowly, holding his breath, stealing hers.  Slowly.  Slowly.  Until he was firmly planted.  It was heaven.  She was everything he had imagined, and more.

He had every intention of being as gentle with her as possible.  But Rachel had other ideas.  She clutched his hips and rotated hers, and he was lost.  They moved together then, faster and faster, to that secret rhythm that comes from within.  Faster and faster, until
—

"Jar
–
red!"

Her nails dug into his flesh at the same time that he threw back his head for one final, earth
–
shattering thrust.

He collapsed on top of her, trying to keep some of his weight on his elbows.  It was several long minutes before either could draw a halfway calm breath.  Jared rubbed his cheek against hers, still stunned by what had just happened between them.  Then he stiffened.  Her cheek was wet.  Too wet.

"Rachel?"  He pulled back to look at her in the dim glow of the bedside lamp.  Her eyes were dark, liquid pools, with tears streaming from the corners.  "Did I hurt you?"

"No," she croaked.  She shook her head from side to side and wrapped her arms tightly around his back.  A deep sob racked her body.  "No, you didn't hurt me."  After another sob, she pressed her face against his neck.  "I'm sorry.  I don't know why I'm crying.  You didn't hurt me.  You didn't.  I think I'm just a little . . . overwhelmed."

Jared held her close and eased them over onto their sides, still face to face, bodies still joined.  Relieved laughter rumbled in his chest.  "Only a little?" he teased.

Her husky laugh echoed his.  "You're not getting another word out of me."

He cupped her face and wiped the tears away with shaking fingers.  The laughter faded from his eyes, replaced by a look of wonder.  "You're not the only one who's overwhelmed.  I thought I knew it all, had felt all there was to feel, until tonight.  Rachel, I've never experienced anything like what we just shared.  Never, in my entire life.  Nothing has ever felt so right as this, here, now, with you."  His lips grazed hers.  "I love you, Rachel Fredrick.  I love you."

From his voice, his eyes, there was no way she could doubt he meant it.  Tears threatened again.  All her fear of disappointing him disappeared.  She would have answered, except she couldn't for the huge lump in her throat.  Then his lips were on hers again, and he moved within her, stoking the fires that had not totally cooled.

*  *  *  *

Sometime during the night they fell asleep in each other's arms, only to wake and love again.  And again.

He stayed until dawn.  He would have stayed longer, but they both knew he couldn't be there in her bed when her children came home.

After he was gone, Rachel crawled back into the rumpled bed and sighed a long, contented sigh.  She hadn't known it was possible for a woman to be so happy.

Then a shadow crossed her heart.  She was going to have to tell him, and soon.

CHAPTER NINE

Rachel didn't sleep after Jared left.  She lay on her back and stared at the flecks of light cast on the ceiling by the rising sun.  How was she going to tell him?  What was she going to say?  And how was he going to react?  She rolled to her side, frustration, doubts, and fear eating at her insides.

When she finally got up she was worn out from loving and worrying, and she was no closer to a solution to her dilemma.  The only thing she knew was, she had to tell Jared.  She couldn't put it off any longer.

And if her worst fears were confirmed
—
if he wanted nothing more to do with her
—
well, she'd had one night with him.  A night she could treasure for the rest of her life.