Page 33 of Match Made in Heaven (The Cricket Club #5)

“No!” Ella blurted, squeezing her eyes closed. Nothing was coming out right. Her voice, her body, her thoughts were all completely out of her control. She tried again, a nervous little giggle escaping her when she said, “I think I prefer it. Someone should know what they’re doing.”

The corner of Jack’s mouth quirked up. His hands increased their pressure against her back and roamed up her body on a lazy path.

She trembled as they ventured over the skin of her neck and got lost in her hair, picking and prodding the tight bun until it finally released, and her locks cascaded down her back.

Jack’s eyes flared as he buried his nose in the thick strands, his lungs expanded.

“I prefer you exactly as you are,” he said, voice guttural. “And I like knowing that I’m the only man who’s ever had you.” He nudged her neckline off her shoulder, placing a chaste kiss in its wake. And then another. “And the only one who ever will.”

Ella licked her lips, shivering as if she’d been dumped into a barrel of freezing water, but that didn’t make sense, because she felt like she could combust at any moment. It was like she was in the middle of one of her fevers, out of her body, out of her mind.

And it was that idea that freed her from the torment of the unknown, the embarrassment of not living up to Jack’s expectations.

When Ella had been sick as a child, she hadn’t been herself.

Her family and doctor would tell her about things she’d said and done, knowing it was no fault of her own.

It hadn’t been the real Ella who was tossing and turning on her bed, mumbling incoherent, nonsensical things.

She could apply that logic now. Ella could allow this fever to rage. Let it overtake her, let it rule her mind and body this night. In the morning, she would remember that it was someone else, a different Ella. A character in a story. The woman she could only be with Jack.

Ella liked that idea. She liked it so much that she leaned into Jack, tracing her lips over his, once, twice, before canting her head and kissing him. She smiled as Jack opened his mouth on a slight gasp, then accepted his tongue like the prodigal son, home where it belonged, inside her.

“Get me out of this dress,” she whispered, laughing when Jack immediately did as she instructed.

He spun her around, working on the buttons, hindering his progress by laying sweet, heady kisses against her neck.

Jack couldn’t stop touching her. He’d unhook two buttons before his hands would slide to her front, palming her breasts through her gown, creating a delicious impatience that hummed throughout her body.

“God, I’ve wanted to do this for so long,” he said against her ear, swiping the tender lobe with tantalizing licks, sucking on it as he pressed her bottom seductively along his turgid manhood.

Ella’s mind swirled. A cacophony of sensations swarmed her as she tried to keep up. His hands were everywhere, inciting her. Inviting her. Slow as honey, measured and paced, not doing anything too quickly. Time was lost to Jack as he showered her with this new idea of wicked reverence.

“Jack,” Ella said, finding his hands and prodding them back toward her buttons. His laughter was husky and devious in her ear.

“What?” he murmured.

The vibration of that one word sparked and reverberated down her body. Ella reached behind her, clasping the back of Jack’s head. Twisting her neck, she caught him in a wet, open-mouthed kiss that signaled her growing eagerness.

“Fuck, you feel so good,” Jack murmured.

He broke free, wrenching her gown from her torso.

Corset exposed, he reached inside the top of the stiff structure, palming Ella’s breast, massaging it with the same erotic attention he’d paid to her hands in the carriage.

She had considered that moment the most thrilling. She was wrong.

Ella fought for the words, but the more he caressed her skin, the more he pulled and plucked the tender nipple, the more fruitless the battle became. She was completely enveloped in him, covered and cherished.

She repeated his name. “Jack.” It had become a benediction for her. “I want…” Ella couldn’t finish the sentence. Because she didn’t know what she wanted. Didn’t know what to ask for or if she would ever find the courage to. Her body had ceased to be her own.

Jack licked the corner of her mouth, kissing a path down the length of her neck once more.

With his free hand, he pulled up her skirts and explored underneath, palming the flesh above her knees before wandering north.

“I know what you want,” he said against her skin.

“You want me to fuck you. To take you hard and fast and make you scream like the pirate you think I am. But I can’t do that to you. Not yet.”

Ella jerked straight against him when Jack’s hand found the feathery patch of hair at the crux of her thighs.

He cupped the entirety of her, rocking his hand up and down in a tantalizing fashion that made Ella’s hips move in frightening, uncivilized ways.

As if he were beckoning her with a hypnotic spell, her legs widened and she felt herself opening to him, inviting him to explore.

With two fingers, Jack found the seam of her sex, and he rubbed the slick folds, all the while whispering every wicked thing he planned to do to her.

“You’ll only get the best version of me tonight, my love.

The gentleman that you deserve. When I surge inside you, I will be delicate and careful, giving you every inch of me.

” His smile widened against her neck. “But don’t worry. You’ll still scream.”

He spread her folds and dipped his fingers into her body.

Ella’s body tensed against the invasion.

Jack bided his time, sucking on her ears more, explaining in vivid detail just how big she made him and how good it would feel when he made love to her, all while his fingers continued in their quest to make her comfortable, to help her body understand that he was the man it had been waiting for.

“Shh,” Jack whispered. “Relax. I have you. You have nothing to worry about when you’re with me. This is my job, Ella. Making you come. And you know how serious I take my work.”

Dizzy and panting, Ella grabbed onto his promise, knowing Jack would never lie to her.

She exhaled and defeated her resistance, giving more of her weight to him.

Jack answered by releasing her breast and cupping her face once more, dragging it to his lips, where he filled her with his tongue, kissing her with a sweet passion that felt like a drug that Ella would never be able to live without.

Still, his fingers worked her, slowly at first, and then deeper and faster.

He used his thumb to circle the small, hidden pearl of nerves, and Ella cried out in his mouth, the electricity of the act staggering her so much that she couldn’t participate anymore.

Jack continued to hold her face, but even with her eyes closed, she knew that he watched her.

Watched her open her mouth, watched her keen, cry, and shudder as something beautiful and blinding coiled and tightened deep within until there was nothing else for it to do but shatter.

The overwhelming sensations sailed to every corner of her body, riding on the waves of her release.

It felt like she’d died.

It also felt like she’d never been more alive.

Limp and still in shock, Ella could only wait on her knees as Jack made short work of her clothing. With a few more flicks, he turned her to face him and slid the gown all the way down, lifting her out of it. He tossed it off the bed. Her chemise followed.

Jack’s movements were still languid and unhurried, but Ella didn’t think that would last. His hands shook as he settled her against the mattress.

His color was high, his temples dotted with sweat as he rid himself of his trousers.

Feasting on him wasn’t an option. Jack spread himself over Ella, covering her completely.

The soft hair of his legs tickled her calves, and his chest made her nipples pucker and strain.

His size was daunting, but Ella tucked her fear away.

Jack held himself back, balanced on his elbows, but Ella wrapped her arms around his waist, pulling him closer. She wanted to feel that weight. Any opening between them was too much.

Ella’s breathing had balanced out. She smiled at Jack, hoping to erase the divot that had developed between his eyes.

Was he in pain? His member pulsed and throbbed between her legs as if it were more impatient than Ella.

She undulated her hips and heard him hiss through his teeth.

“I won’t break,” she teased. “You don’t have to worry.

I’ve always been a quick study. I’ll catch on fast.”

Jack’s frown turned pensive. He smoothed the hair off her forehead, not speaking again until every last strand was taken care of. “You only have one first time,” he replied quietly. “I want it to be right.”

Using the backs of her hands, Ella caressed the flushed skin beneath his eyes. She had to do something. If he continued saying such wonderful things to her, she might cry. “It is right,” she said, holding his gaze, “because it’s you. It was always supposed to be.”

Jack’s expression darkened. He captured her lips for a blistering kiss, pulling her knees up on either side of him. His thrust was swift. Holding Ella’s mouth against his, Jack embedded himself inside her, filling her utterly and completely.

Ella cried out. She froze from the abrupt pain, her body burning and contracting in defense.

She lay underneath him, hating the way it felt like she’d been cleaved in two.

Ella panicked. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

She was supposed to love making love to him.

This was supposed to be an earth-shattering revelation! Had she got it all wrong?

“Stay with me,” Jack rasped, lifting himself onto his arms. He kissed the tears Ella didn’t know she was shedding off her face. “Just stay with me. To the end.”

Ella could only nod. But the pain wouldn’t let up. It continued to throb even as Jack stayed motionless inside her. Frustrated by her poor aptitude for the act, she just wanted him to get it over with so she could fall asleep in his arms and burn this memory from her thoughts.

But Jack had other ideas. He kissed her, tugging on her lips until she giggled and kissed him back.

He followed her neck down to her breasts, capturing a nipple in his mouth, swirling it with his tongue.

And through all that, he kept peppering her with words.

Telling Ella about the first time he’d seen her, about how hard his cock became whenever she’d scowled at him in her mother’s drawing room.

He told her that she’d ruined him for sherry, because every time he smelled it, he thought of drinking between her legs, eating her until she bucked and screamed.

And when Jack finally withdrew from her, Ella resisted the urge to stiffen.

The pain began to ebb until she locked her arms around his middle, not wanting to endure the emptiness anymore.

His body crashed into hers, creating a dance so seamless and infinite, Ella was reminded of water.

They ceased to be two people. Their love, their coupling, was elemental, purely of nature.

And the more she relaxed, the more she could lose herself in the transformation.

Jack rode her easy. Slow and measured, long and languid, he surged inside her each time like she was a holy site and he was making an offering.

They became lost. Every few seconds one of them would blink and then they’d remember to kiss, but mostly they watched the other for changes, for insights, for details of pleasure to be stored away for future use.

Ella held Jack’s head, keeping him close, fusing their souls just as completely as he’d fused their bodies.

Their love was peaceful for as long as it could be. And then it wasn’t.

It was Ella’s doing. She hadn’t expected that spark to happen again.

She’d thought this part was about Jack’s fulfillment.

But as his hips gained speed and he thrust between her legs, Ella’s lower body pricked with knowing.

Something grew. And grew and grew until her hips were pumping into his with more force and need. It couldn’t be helped.

“Oh, God, Jack,” she moaned. And he kissed her in response, making harsh, deep sounds in the base of his throat, also searching, beckoning for that ephemeral, cataclysmic end.

Ella arched off the bed as she screamed.

Jack didn’t kiss the noise away this time.

She saw a pained smile before he roared his own scream, withdrawing from her body in time to spill himself in the sheets to her side.

His back convulsed and swayed, all the strain and pressure seemingly evaporating as Jack found his release.

He collapsed on top of Ella, no energy to keep his weight from crushing her. She couldn’t have asked for anything more. She hugged him, kissing his head when he let out an involuntary shiver as if he, too, had recovered from a fever.

Ella fell asleep thinking one thing: they’d absolved each other.