“Victoria!” He’d been planning to give her the journal but it went against his grain that she had already slick-talked her way to it.
“Yes, dear?”
He turned away. “I’m going home to Alix.” All he could think about was seeing her. He wanted her sanity, her calmness, the way she didn’t try to manipulate everyone she met. He just wanted to be with her.
Chapter Twenty-seven
Alix leaned away from the computer, put her arms behind her back, and stretched. It was getting late and Jared hadn’t returned. But then it was as though a little electrical current went through her and she looked toward the door. She wasn’t surprised when Jared threw it open.
What was surprising was the look on his face: raging, hot desire.
He had a bag in his hand that he dropped on the kitchen counter, then, without a word, he opened his arms to her.
Alix didn’t hesitate as she ran to him. He bent a bit as he caught her, his hands going under her seat to pull her up. Her legs went around his waist as he opened his mouth over hers, tongues touching, arms, legs, bodies intertwining.
She pulled away a moment. Over the pounding of her heart, she said, “Mom wants us to meet her for lunch tomorrow.”
Jared gave a brief nod and put his mouth over hers as he started for the bedroom. When a chair got in his way, he threw it to one side.
“Oh, my,” Alix said, but then Jared began kissing her neck and she forgot about words.
He tossed her onto the bed so the covers and pillows went flying upward.
Wide-eyed, she began unbuttoning her blouse, but Jared tore it apart, his lips following his hands. The rest of her clothes came off in an instant and for just a moment he paused long enough to look at her. “You are so beautiful,” he whispered.
Alix pulled him down to her, smiled at the weight of him on top of her, loved the way his clothes felt against her bare skin. His hands ran down her body, came up the inside of her legs, his fingers entering her. She gasped, her head back, eyes closed, as his lips touched her breasts.
He brought her to a crescendo of desire, kissing her, his hands and lips working together. Just when she thought she could bear no more, he rolled off her and in an instant was nude.
It was Alix’s turn, as her hands and lips wandered over his body, settling at last at his core. Jared leaned his head back as she moved downward. Minutes later, when he could stand no more, he pushed her onto her back and entered her with all the force of his desire. Alix put her hands up to brace herself against the headboard and gasped at each of his vigorous thrusts.
When they reached the peak, she clasped her legs about his waist, her arms around his neck, and let him lift her high. She couldn’t help the scream she gave.
He collapsed on her but didn’t move away, just held her so tightly she could hardly breathe. But who needed air with a sweaty, heavy man on top of you?
“You okay?” he whispered in her ear, his voice soft and concerned.
“More than all right.”
He rolled off her, but held her close, moving her leg so it was between his.
It took her a while to recover from what they’d just done. There had been an urgency to his lovemaking, a need that had never been there before. She wanted to ask him questions but she didn’t. Instead, she waited for him to speak.
“I didn’t hurt you?”
“Far from it,” Alix said.
“I missed you a lot today.”
She didn’t want to point out the obvious, that he’d only been away a few hours, but then she’d missed him too. Working on plans without him wasn’t nearly as much fun as with him. “What did you do?”
He hesitated. “I had a fight with my grandfather.”
“Oh,” Alix said, trying to be calm even though she knew that his grandfather was a ghost. She swallowed. “What about?”
Jared couldn’t tell her about his fears for Victoria. “I didn’t like that he showed himself to you that way.”
“He wanted to tell me about Valentina,” Alix said, then gave a little laugh. She was defending a ghost.