Echoes of the Heart Page 8

  Amanda had already paid a high personal cost when she sold herself to Lloyd in marriage. The week after she’d returned from her stay at Whale Beach, Irene’s doctors had declared she was deteriorating faster than they had expected and it was time for her to move into a nursing home. Having nowhere else to turn, Amanda had decided that despite everything, she would approach Jake and ask him to lend her the money. When she’d called his mobile phone and Sophie Hamilton had answered and told Amanda he was in the shower, Amanda had been too destroyed to go through with speaking to him.

  Lloyd had found her crying at her desk. Out of her mind with her misery, she’d poured out the whole predicament to her boss. Lloyd had stepped in immediately. He realised the wait for care in the public system was too long and that Amanda couldn’t afford to keep her aunt in the private system. He offered Amanda a choice. If Amanda agreed to become his bride, he would use his influence to secure a place for Irene in the very best private nursing facility available in Sydney and he would pay all her costs.

  Desperate to help her aunt, heartbroken and disillusioned after her failed romance with Jake, Amanda agreed to the terms of the marriage.

  Lloyd acted immediately. He’d made the necessary arrangements and married Amanda within weeks.

  Far from being trapped into marriage, Lloyd had done the trapping. Moving swiftly, he gave Amanda no time to reconsider. He caged her so securely she couldn’t break free.

  She’d sold herself to Lloyd in marriage and now Jake wanted to buy her. She gritted her teeth and tried to ignore the ache of hopelessness that welled within her. To be seen as a commodity was soul-destroying, but wallowing in self-pity wouldn’t get her anywhere. If their positions were reversed, she knew Irene would do anything to help her. Her aunt had already made huge sacrifices when she took responsibility for raising Amanda twenty-seven years ago.

  Slowly, Amanda opened her eyes and faced the man who possessed the power to wreak havoc on her heart but who could save her aunt. ‘Damn you, Jake! I’ll go to this blasted health resort, but no more conditions.’

  He inclined his head in acknowledgement of her defeat. No triumph was evident in the gesture.

  ‘One month together,’ she agreed on a whisper. ‘That’s all.’

  ‘One month is all I require,’ he told her tonelessly. ‘At the end of the month, I’ll transfer the money into your bank account. That will conclude our business.’

  Deal struck.

  Transaction over.

  The media magnate was quite clearly in his element, signing off on a contract. There was no room for negotiation. She knew that she was right not to tell him the reason she needed the money. If he knew he would twist it to his advantage. After all, it was his area of expertise.

  Willing her weak legs to carry her to the door with some shred of dignity, she took two steps before Jake’s arms turned her and gathered her against the hard wall of his chest. Immediately, she recognised the determination in his movements. There was a dangerous challenge in his eyes as he lowered his head toward hers.

  Sensuous lips plundered hers, stifling her feeble protests. He ravaged her mouth with the raw, primitive intent of a man hell-bent on revenge. Her body trembled. She felt his anger melt into something even more dangerous—desire. Muscles she had forgotten existed clenched deep within her. Within seconds, she was overtaken by an insatiable hunger that would not be refused.

  His need beckoned to hers, his hands and lips enticed her to relent and allow him to fan the smouldering passion between them into raging flames. Her flesh heated and she pressed closer.

  Cursing her own weakness, she caved, unable to resist his unique male magnetism. Hands that should have pushed him away, reached up to wrap around his broad, muscular shoulders. Her libido exploded like a patient who’d been kicked back into life by an extra high voltage charge of cardiac paddles. As though she’d been saved from a near-death experience, everything in her wanted to embrace this second chance with Jake.

  In that instant, she fully recognised that all this time she and Jake had been parted she’d been merely existing rather than living. Only in Jake’s presence did she feel truly alive.

  As his tongue drove into her mouth to taste her, there was no thought of resistance. On a physical level, Jake was all she wanted. He drew a response from her with pitiful ease. It was so good to be held against him and be able to reacquaint herself with the well-defined muscles of his back. Her hands traced the line of his shoulders, loving their breadth. She trailed them up the strong column of his neck, and then dug her fingers into his thick hair and revelled in the silky texture.

  She couldn’t prevent the moan of longing that passed from her mouth into his.

  In return, his palms left a trail of heat up over her ribcage. She cringed as she realised he would feel each bony rib, but he didn’t let her go.

  She gasped as he captured her breasts in his hands and moulded their shape. Shockwaves of pleasure erupted and rippled outward from her erect nipples, until her entire body was gripped by tremors that would have measured on the Richter scale. Forceful sensations speared downwards to the feminine nub at the juncture of her thighs as Jake unerringly found her nipples and rubbed his thumbs against them, brushing them back and forth. The years since she had been Jake’s lover—since she had last felt this way—slipped away. With acute clarity, she remembered every amazing detail of how he could make her feel—the sexual fulfilment she could find with him.

  She wanted to know that feeling again. Yearned to reach those dizzying peaks of pleasure that he could transport her to. The rest of her life stretched ahead of her like a long, lonely road. Jake was offering her a bright beacon of light to help her through the darkness—a memory of passion to cling to in what, she was certain, would be a celibate future. Celibate, because no other man would ever appeal to her the way Jake did. Having tasted heaven, she could settle for no less.

  His erection pushed against her. The sensation tugged savagely at her. It stirred a compelling need for her to respond. She shifted against him, greedy to satisfy the frustration of her own neglected body.

  Liquid need pooled within her. Her hands captured his and she led them back down to her waist. Tugging her blouse out of the waistband of her skirt, she encouraged him to touch the bare flesh of her midriff.

  ‘Jake,’ she pleaded hoarsely, yearning for him to touch her bare breasts, not wanting the exquisite sensations to be dulled by the barrier of fabric.

  Determined lips kissed along her jaw and dipped to a sensitive place just below her ear. In between kisses and small nips by his teeth, his tongue ran along her skin.

  Consumed by the blazing inferno of his caresses, she lost all sense of reason. She wanted to drown in the pleasurable havoc he wreaked on her body. Impatiently she pulled his shirt out of his trousers and slipped her hands underneath the garment.

  ‘Oh,’ she gasped, loving the taut, hot stretch of his skin over the firm muscles of his back. In the busy schedule of his business life, he must find time to work out. He was still in peak physical condition.

  Her whole body became a seething mass of desire, aching for release. Writhing her hips against him, she groaned in frustration and pressed against his hardness. She wanted him inside her.

  In answer to her need, his deft fingers were at the front of her blouse, rapidly dealing with the small pearl buttons until the fabric gaped to reveal the lacy fabric of her bra. He flicked the front fastening, then his fingers peeled back each flimsy lace cup to release her breasts. The cool air was a stark contrast to her heated flesh. Each touch of his fingertips trailing across her chest sent tingles shooting downward to the spot which ached for his attention.

  ‘You always had such sensitive breasts,’ he marvelled.

  Another deep pull of longing made her press her thighs together. Her hands grasped his shoulders and her head rolled back on her neck as he lowered his head. Strong arms encircled her and provided much needed stability as she arched backwards and offered
her pouting, dusky-pink nipples to him.

  She moaned as he drew one tight nipple into the heat of his mouth, lathed it with his tongue and suckled so frantically that she wanted to pull him down onto the floor, on top of her. No, not just on top of her. She wanted him inside her.

  Deep inside her.

  Immediately.

  ‘Please, Jake.’ She was only vaguely aware of the husky need in her voice.

  When he took his mouth away from her breast she groaned in protest.

  ‘What do you want?’ he demanded breathlessly.

  ‘You know what I want.’ She pressed her hips against his again in an agony of frustration.

  ‘Tell me,’ he urged.

  Her fingers threaded through his hair again, encouraging his mouth back down to her breasts, but he held off.

  The warmth of his breath heated her flesh. ‘You want…?’ he asked huskily.

  ‘You, Jake,’ she gasped. ‘I want you.’

  ‘That’s what I wanted to hear,’ he murmured, urging her head forward, and covering her lips once more with his own.

  ‘You’re like wildfire in my blood,’ he rasped against her mouth. ‘Just as passionate as ever.’

  A low groan of frustration escaped her as one of his arms slid down her thigh. He was taking too long to touch her in the place she most needed his attention. One marauding hand lifted up the hem of her skirt, and she felt the heat of it on her bare skin. Shifting slightly, she tried to centre her body against his hand.

  His body eased away from hers a little. As his questing hand gained full access to her scant, lacy knickers he sent her a slow, sensual smile.

  She held her breath and waited for his touch.

  Fingers slid under the elastic of her knickers. In an instant, the garment was eased over her thighs and down, until it wrapped around her ankles.

  ‘Oh!’ Her gasp was throaty with longing.

  With agonising slowness, his fingers stroked the curls at the juncture of her thighs. His fingers teased open the swollen flesh that hid the secret centre of her need. More than ready to break the drought of her celibacy, she shuddered as his expert fingertips felt her damp desire.

  She moved against him again. She wanted him to touch...

  There!

  Finally, he honed in on the most sensitive nub of nerve endings. He touched. He stroked. His fingers rubbed and flicked her clitoris, pressing it rhythmically until she couldn’t stop the weak, whimpering noises escaping from her throat or the shaking of her knees.

  ‘Let go, Amanda,’ he encouraged as he kissed the column of her neck.

  There was no other choice. She could no sooner fight the sensations he was arousing, than she could stop breathing. His caresses left her totally helpless. But for the strength of his other arm around her waist supporting her and holding her upright, she would have collapsed.

  She shuddered against him again. ‘I need this so much,’ she panted, justifying her own behaviour. ‘I want this so badly.’ God, but she was in an agony of longing. Her entire body stretched and strained trying to reach that promised place he’d led her to so many times before when they’d been lovers.

  His other fingers moved inside her. His pace quickened, and then she soared.

  ‘Yes, oh, yes!’ she cried out. Her body bucked and pushed against his hand and her inner muscles clenched as waves of euphoria pounded her body relentlessly.

  Tremors followed the eruption of her orgasm like aftershocks. They were exquisite. Divine.

  Once the spasms finally subsided, she was cradled to him, both his arms holding her tight. Chest to chest, his arousal pressed hard against her abdomen reminding her that he had yet to reach his own fulfilment. But the scorching kisses of possession he delivered on her eyelids, down her cheeks and to her mouth seemed more focused on bringing her satisfaction than sating his own need. He was the consummate, perfect lover.

  Perfect?

  Somehow, sanity reasserted itself. Amanda stiffened in Jake’s arms. She’d given him incredibly intimate access to her body. Her brain had switched off as she’d succumbed to her physical longing. Not only had she allowed it, she’d encouraged it.

  Invited it.

  Needed it.

  The heat of shame scorched her cheeks. She’d begged for it.

  How could she have lowered her defences like that to a man who thought nothing more of her than he would a high-class hooker?

  ‘Oh!’ The single, whispered syllable was pure anguish. ‘That was...’ What could she say? There was no excuse she could offer.

  Embarrassed and red-hot with humiliation, she wrenched away and turned from him. Hastily, she pushed her skirt down and bent to haul her underwear back up into place. She cursed herself for being so weak.

  His voice was husky as he answered, ‘It’s called an orgasm. Maybe you didn’t have any in Bennett’s bed, but you sure as hell had orgasms with me. Multiple orgasms as I recall.’

  She had no wish to recall their lovemaking. ‘What just happened was a mistake.’

  She refastened her bra and did up the buttons of her blouse with shaking fingers.

  ‘Orgasms don’t happen by mistake,’ he drawled. ‘It was quite deliberate,’

  ‘I... I didn’t come here wanting —’

  ‘You could’ve fooled me. You seemed to be enjoying the mistake you wanted so badly and needed so much. Don’t pretend this month together will be any hardship for you,’ he warned.

  Having just come apart in his arms, she couldn’t pretend she was anything but completely turned-on by his touch. The only way of saving any face in this embarrassing scenario was in trying to make Jake feel just as cheap as he’d made her. Summoning courage, she turned back to face him.

  ‘You know, Jake. You might be right. You’re a bit older now, but you’re still in great shape and you haven’t lost...your touch.’ She paused. ‘This whole deal may back fire on you. Maybe it’s you who’ll be my gigolo, rather than me being your hooker.’

  When it had cost her so much to utter the bold words and play the unfamiliar role of femme fatale, she was mortified to hear him chuckle.

  ‘I doubt that,’ he said without a trace of concern.

  Her leg muscles quivered in protest as she tried to support her own weight.

  ‘Unfortunately, I don’t have time to make love to you completely,’ he told her calmly. Seeming to be in full control, he took hold of her and eased her back into a chair. ‘I promise, however, the wait for our mutual pleasure will be worth it.’

  The outline of his arousal straining against the fabric of his trousers was the only evidence that he wanted her. While she sucked the oxygen into her lungs like a swimmer who’d resurfaced after spending too long under water, his breathing was now steady. Somehow he managed to look completely composed as he tucked his shirt back into his trousers. She hated him for it.

  As hard as she tried to disguise her humiliation, it ate into her soul. She’d behaved appallingly and didn’t have the experience to carry off any flirtation with Jake. What was it about him? He merely had to look at her to have her completely under his spell.

  ‘That will give us both something to think about over the next couple of weeks.’ His smile was full of anticipation.

  ‘I…’ Her words died away. What could she say?

  The next instant, his expression grew serious, business-like. There was no trace of any of the intimacy they’d just shared. ‘I’m due back in a meeting.’ He flicked a glance at his watch, dismissing her as he would a secretary who’d just finished taking dictation. ‘You can stay here until you compose yourself.’

  How was she supposed to react now?

  ‘I suggest you work on your fitness in the next fortnight, Amanda. I expect to get my money’s worth.’

  Cruel. His words were cutting and impersonal. This was a deal to him. It was all about what he would get for his money. She was just a body. A body he was buying.

  She hung her head, but resisted the urge to cover her face with her
hands as his parting blow made tears well in her eyes.

  ‘One month of fabulous, mind blowing sex, then—finally—I’ll forget you ever existed, Amanda. This time, you’ll be hooked and I’ll walk away leaving you in an agony of withdrawal.’

  Chapter 6

  Could she go through with this?

  Two weeks later, alone in an exclusive, private departure lounge at Sydney’s Mascot airport, Amanda paced back and forth. She fought the urge to chew upon her short, newly manicured fingernails. Instead, she wiped at the fine line of perspiration beading her forehead. The combination of apprehension and anticipation caused her adrenal system to work overtime.

  No other man had touched her heart like Jake. He’d carved his name into it, then carelessly broken it. A month as his lover would be both heaven and hell. She wasn’t sure she could endure it.

  Over the last fortnight she’d tried to forget the way he’d pleasured her in his office and had racked her brains for an alternative to her financial problem, but there was no eleventh hour solution. It was crunch time. She had to go through with this deal.

  She tried to focus on the bustle of activity around a nearby commercial jet so she could forget why she was here. Baggage trolleys whizzed past. Catering trucks unloaded their supplies and a pilot examined the aircraft tyres and undercarriage. Everyone went about their routine business—completely unaware of the earth-shattering events that were about to take place in Amanda’s life when she became Jake’s lover once again.

  ‘Good morning, Amanda.’

  Jake’s voice was way too close. She took in a swift, startled breath and turned to face him. The subtle fragrance of his aftershave had her mind spinning into chaos. It was fresh, tangy and very masculine.

  ‘Jake,’ she acknowledged and was instantly annoyed by the breathy quality of her voice.

  Dressed casually in an open-necked white shirt and denim jeans, Jake looked more like a male model than a high-powered media magnate. At first glance, he seemed relaxed. On closer inspection, she saw alertness in the dark eyes. This man probably wouldn’t miss anything, even in his sleep.