Chapter 15
S
he did look up then, her expression wry. “I don't think you can be practically a virgin, that's sort of like being almost pregnant. You are or you aren't.”
He didn't agree. Elaine three months pregnant was a whole different proposition than she had been in her final trimester with her first child. There were definitely levels to how pregnant a woman was. Just ask any man who had lived through a pregnancy with one. And there were levels to a woman's move from innocence to sexual experience as well.
“You're very innocent.”
“But I'm learning all the time.” Her smile should have warned him, but it didn't.
So when her hot, silky wet mouth closed around the head of his arousal, he went up in flames. He bucked toward her and she caressed his length with both her hands while swirling her tongue around his head.
“I'm going to come. You've got to stop.”
She didn't let go. She didn't move her mouth. Instead, she sucked another inch inside the heated interior and moved on him with inexperienced, but highly erotic motions.
He felt like the top of his head was coming off, but he wanted to be inside her when he climaxed. It was the sweetest sensation and one that had become an integral part of his complete satisfaction. He forced her head back and quickly lifting her under her armpits he lined their bodies up for his penetration. Her fingers dug into his shoulders as she spread her legs. Locking them around him, she settled onto his aching flesh in one slow downward thrust.
She was making love to him.
It felt better than he'd fantasized and he went over the brink almost immediately. She came with him, her body convulsing around his pulsing sex while her teeth locked onto his shoulder in pleasure-pain.
Panting from the cataclysmic explosion, he hugged her to him with arms like manacles. It was only as sanity returned in slow increments that the different quality in their lovemaking alerted him to a devastating reality. He had taken her without protection. Or rather, she'd taken him. Not that it mattered. His baby-making sperm were swimming inside her right now and that was the only reality he could grasp.
If she got pregnant, there was a chance he could convince her to stay with him
. As quickly as the thought formed, he felt ashamed of it. She deserved something better than to be trapped into a long-term relationship.
Guilt followed the shame as close as one Siamese twin is to another. It was all his fault. She'd never had a lover outside of marriage, was as close to being a virgin as a once-married woman could get. He'd been the one to seduce her in the shower, to beg her to touch him . . . to lose control and enter her without putting on a condom first.
“Baby?”
“Mmm?”
“I didn't use anything.”
She mumbled something against his chest.
“What?”
Suddenly, her head flipped back and she looked at him in shock. “Did you just say you didn't use anything?” Then she shook her head, her eyes wide and slightly wild. “Of course you didn't. We were in the shower.” She looked down at their still-joined bodies.
“Oh, Simon, I'm so sorry.”
Even now, he didn't want to let her go and one hand settled under her behind. “You're not the one who forgot birth control.”
She winced at his tone and he felt worse, but she made no attempt to distance herself from him physically.
“Actually, we both forgot. I didn't give it a thought, but it's all my fault that you did. I seduced you into such a frenzy, you weren't likely to remember anything mundane like that.” She didn't sound as upset as she should.
If he didn't think it was beyond the realm of possibility, he would have said she sounded proud of herself even.
“Protection isn't exactly mundane.”
“Well, it's not on par with making love either.”
“Obviously,” he said wryly. “Is pregnancy very likely?” He had to ask.
She blushed and if he hadn't been feeling so guilty, he would have laughed. She'd taken him into her mouth without a qualm, but blushed when asked about her menstrual cycle.
She bit her lip in a gesture that always made him feel both protective and horny. “Do you want the truth or a peace-providing lie?”
“The truth.”
“If I remember high school health class correctly, we're on the outer edge of the zone.”
He couldn't begin to explain the hope that took root inside him and just would not let go, nor could he explain the sudden surge of lust that had him hardening all over again.
Her eyes widened. “Simon?”
He felt heat in his own cheeks. How did you tell a modern woman who was involved in a uncommitted sexual relationship with you that the thought of getting her pregnant was a major turn-on? “I guess I'd better let you go.”
Her dark brown eyes went liquid with desire. “Um . . . we've pretty much done the damage, haven't we?”
Was she saying she didn't want him to let her go? His arousal grew in response to the thought. “According to statistical averages, the added risk of pregnancy from a second unprotected encounter would be minimal.”
She laughed, her breath hitching when he moved inside of her. “You sound just like a university lecturer.”
“I feel like a man who is on the verge of something earth shaking.”
“You say the sweetest things.”
Amanda was the first woman who had ever seen him as even approaching romantic. “You say too much sometimes,” he growled against her lips before taking them.
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Two hours later, replete from a decadent brunch provided by Jacob, Amanda's hand rested in the warm clasp of Simon's as they walked along the shoreline. She'd been trying to work up enough sangfroid to mention that he didn't need to worry about contracting any nasty disease from her, but they'd both been avoiding the topic of their unprotected sex earlier and she didn't know how to open the subject up again.
She inhaled the clean salt air, enjoying the way it woke her senses. “You know, I can understand you wanting to live on an island. Everything is so fresh here, so clean and so quiet.”
His hand squeezed hers. “I like it.”
“I do too.” Which was surprising considering where she was accustomed to living. “The water is cold though.”
They were walking in their bare feet and her toes had gone numb from the frigid surf.
“If it weren't, the beaches would be a lot more crowded along with this island.”
“I guess you're right.” But it would still be nice to be able to feel her toes.
“My swimming pool is heated.” His voice had dropped to that sexy tone that sent messages of delight to the secret places of her body.
“Is it?”
“You haven't been in it since you came.”
“I didn't bring a suit.” She'd packed for a business trip, one she'd expected to be much shorter than this one had become.
He smiled down at her, his usually cool gray eyes warm with the desire that was so much a part of their relationship now. “Swimming without is one of the privileges of owning your own pool.”
“I've never been skinny dipping before.” She'd never wanted to. She'd never had the confidence to want to put her body on display like that, but the idea of doing so with Simon was titillating rather than scary. Still . . . “What if Jacob came down to tell you that you had a phone message or something?”
“I'll tell him not to disturb us.”
“Then he'll know what we're doing.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized how ridiculous they sounded. It wasn't as if Jacob could actually miss the fact she'd moved into his boss's bed.
Simon didn't answer, but with an apologetic look, he lifted his watch and spoke into it. “Yes, Jacob?”
“Master Joey is on the phone.”
“I'll be right up.”
He looked down at Amanda. “It's my nephew. I promised to come and see him this week, but I forgot.” He brushed her cheek. “Things got a little crazy.”
She smiled, loving the way he made her feel when he touched her like that. “You'd better go see him today if you're going to keep your promise this week.”
Simon nodded. “We'll have to put off our swim to another time. Come on, I'd better get up there before he talks Jacob into telling him another Secret Service story. Last time, Elaine was mad at me for a week.”
“Why?” she gasped out, having to jog to keep up with Simon's long strides.
“Jacob's stories can get pretty gruesome.”
She could imagine, the man loved to emote.
They reached the house a few seconds later and she left Simon to answer the phone while she went upstairs to check her e-mail. There was a message from Jill and she answered it. There was also an e-mail from her mother. She'd listed a condo in Amanda's building with her real estate agency and wanted to know if Amanda was interested in selling too.
Amanda deleted the message without replying. It was, after all, nothing but e-mail solicitation and she never replied to junk mail. She ignored the twinge of pain she experienced at the knowledge that that bit of salesmanship had been the first time her mother had bothered to contact her in over six months.
“Can you be ready to go in ten minutes?” Simon asked from just inside the bedroom doorway.
She turned off her computer and stood up. “Go where?”
“To see Joey, remember?”
“I didn't think you'd want to take me with you.”
“Why the hell not?”
“It's a family thing. I'm not family.” She wasn't treated like family by her own parents and brother, why on earth would Simon's relatives want her around?
“You're my girlfriend. That's close enough.”
“Girlfriend?”
“Yes, girlfriend. Do you have a problem with that?” He looked wary.
She shook her head. “I just didn't realize you wanted anyone to know about us.”
He ran his fingers back through the loose strands of his shoulder-length black hair, his expression frustrated. “When have I ever said that? I love sex with you, but you're not just a business associate I happen to be screwing. I thought you realized that.”
“I do.” Their relationship might not be permanent, but he'd never relegated it to merely sex either. She didn't know what to say to get that irritated expression off his gorgeous features. “I'll change my clothes.”
She didn't have a lot of selection to choose from, but she assumed a visit with his nephew would be pretty casual. So, she pulled out her one pair of jeans and a white button-up blouse she usually wore with a suit. She cuffed the sleeves and left the top three buttons undone before slipping on a pair of white sandals.
She turned to face Simon. “I'm ready.”
He had changed into a pair of black jeans and matching T-shirt. His hair was pulled back in a ponytail and he looked positively yummy.
He also looked very serious. “Amanda, are you embarrassed about my cousin knowing we're together?”
“No!” She crossed the room and put her hands on his forearms. “I didn't want to intrude. That's all.”
“It could be pretty awkward with your boss if he realized you were sleeping with the enemy, I suppose.”
Awkward wasn't the word she would use to describe the way Daniel would respond to such news. Glee might be a better candidate. “You're not the enemy,” was all she said.
“No, I'm not.” He stared down at her, an enigmatic expression in his gray eyes. “I wonder if you will remember that, if the merger doesn't go through.”
He didn't give her a chance to reply, but pulled her out of the room. They jogged down the stairs and out through the great room onto the deck.
“Where are we going?”
He tugged her toward the stairway that connected the deck with the yard. “To my cousin's.”
“But the car . . . .”
“We're taking the boat. Eric will pick us up from the pier.”
“Oh.” She followed Simon to the end of the deck where he lifted her onto the small yacht.
“Jacob's at the wheel, but I've got to cast off.” He untied ropes that held the boat to the dock and then vaulted aboard when the last one had been loosened. He took a few minutes securing the rigging before coming back to her.
“It takes a little over an hour which isn't quite as fast as the ferry, but we don't have to worry about missing it coming home either.”