Page 35 of Match Made in Heaven (The Cricket Club #5)

S oon after the women retired from dinner, Jack took his leave and made his way to the library, bringing a glass of brandy with him. Along with the bottle.

He knew it was only a matter of time before Ella swept into that room, ready to make an expert decision on what to read to the duke.

Did she know that Oliver preferred biographies over adventure tales?

To be frank, Jack should have told her that if she really wanted to keep the duke’s attention, she should read from the racing or boxing papers.

But even that annoyed him.

Because Jack didn’t want Ella keeping anyone’s attention other than his.

He heard her footsteps. Soft and determined, a short stride, though not hurried. Jack would know it anywhere.

Ella entered the room, making a sharp left. Jack’s irritation pricked. She knew exactly what she wanted and where to find it.

He was only so happy to tell her that she was wrong.

“If you’re thinking to lull my brother to sleep with your dulcet tones and a little Shakespeare, it won’t work. He has never had any great affinity for the Bard.”

Ella shrieked, her feet coming off the ground as she whipped around. Hand on her heart, she braced herself against the bookcase.

Jack grinned at her from his seat on the couch, taking a long drink of his brandy in an effort to stay composed.

This was the first time they’d been alone since returning from London.

He could probably recount the minutes if asked.

Keeping a distance when no one was present to police him was remarkably difficult.

“You scared me!” Ella reprimanded him, brushing wisps of blonde hair off her face. “Don’t do that!”

Jack’s chest tightened. If she only knew how his cock stirred when she gave him those admonishing looks.

He hooked a lazy leg over his knee, admiring the heave of her bosom against her tightly fitted bodice.

Tonight’s dress was annoyingly prim, covering the pale, dreamy swath of skin that he’d licked and sucked so fully the night before.

Had he left marks? Was that why the dress was buttoned up all the way to her chin?

“I didn’t do anything,” he replied. “I was here first. You came in and I made myself known.”

Ella peeled herself off the books. “You knew I would be here.”

His lips quirked. “Perhaps.”

She faced the bookcase once more, tracing the spines with her fingers until she found what she wanted and slipped it from its row with a flourish. When she turned back to him, she wore a satisfied smile, hugging the book to her chest.

Jack arched a brow. “Are you going to tell me?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“I just do.” He patted the cushion next to him. “Why don’t you come over here and show me?”

Ella giggled. It was a short and breathy sound, a nervous reaction when danger was near.

Was Jack dangerous? Tonight, he certainly felt that way.

She shuffled toward the door. “You know I have to go. Your brother—”

“My brother can wait.”

Jack watched her nibble on her lower lip and knew the war waging inside her.

Ella wanted him. Jack could feel the magnetism between them, feel the animal attraction of their bodies across the staid room.

The poor girl only wanted to do the right thing.

Jack needed to reassure her that the right thing would always be him.

He placed his drink on the table and stood up with a sigh. He walked over to her, enjoying the way her eyes grew rounder with each of his solid footsteps.

Again, Ella backed up against the bookcase.

Jack told himself to slow down; he told himself that there was no reason for such jealousy or possessiveness.

But such rationalisms fell on deaf ears and a blind conscience.

Because this woman was his, and everyone in their world was determined to make her someone else’s.

Jack went for the book. After a mild resistance, Ella released it, and he peered at the cover. “ The Odyssey ,” he remarked, unable to hide the surprise in his voice. He glanced up to find her watching him.

Ella shrugged. “I can’t say it’s one of my favorites…” She crossed her arms. “But it makes me think of you.”

She sounded embarrassed, as if Jack had just caught her in some dark, secret act. The vise released in his chest, and he found his first full breath as it struck him that she wanted to think of him while reading to his brother.

Jack was an ass. His jealousy was mad and ridiculous. But most of all, it was childish. However, he was man enough to know it wasn’t going away anytime soon. These irrational fears would stick with him the longer they stayed in this house, hiding their involvement.

Ella tried to take the book back, but Jack tossed it behind him on the rug.

Her mouth gaped. “What are you doing?”

Jack ventured to the door, closing it softly. Clicking the lock in place, he answered her, “I’m helping you.”

Coming back to Ella, he reached for her face. Ella covered his hands with hers, her expression panicked. Nevertheless, she didn’t push him away. “We can’t,” she whispered. “Not here. Everyone is in the drawing room as we speak.”

Jack leaned closer, brushing his lips sweetly against her ear. “Then you’ll have to be quiet,” he whispered, flicking his tongue out, biting the lobe.

Ella’s chest heaved; the squeak she worked so hard to temper hummed through her body. “I don’t know if I can be.” Her voice shook.

Jack wasn’t sure if she could either, for that matter. She certainly hadn’t been quiet on the ship, and it had incited him to no end. But it never hurt to try .

He lingered at her ear, using his nose to trace the whirling ridges. “You can because you have no choice,” he continued. “You want to think of me when you read to my brother, yes?” She shuddered. “My method is much more thorough than reading a two-thousand-year-old book.”

Jack lowered himself to his knees, pushing up her skirts with his hands, enjoying the instant way her body reacted to him.

Ella’s legs shook; the natural perfume of her sex lured him like a drug.

Goosebumps erupted when he clasped her ankle and slid up her silk stockings, not stopping until they reached the promised land of milky skin.

Using her skirt as a tent, Jack inhaled the heady richness, his mouth dry, his appetite whetted.

“Jack…” Ella wavered. Her hands dug into his shoulders. “I don’t know—Oh, God!”

“Shh,” Jack said against the soft hair guarding her core.

Using the flat of his tongue, he licked the entirety of her, never knowing anything could taste so good.

When her legs wobbled again, he came out from under the dress.

“Don’t you dare fall. You’ll hurt yourself! Hold on to the damn bookcase.”

For once the woman did what she was told—Ella latched on to the wooden shelves at her back.

With her arms up, her chest arched out, she was the picture of a sacrifice.

His very own Andromeda. Her eyes were closed, her lips wet and pouty.

The bun she wore was coming loose from being smashed up against the bookcase.

Jack cursed himself. He shouldn’t have left the sanctuary of her dress. If a picture was worth more than words, this scene was a book that Jack would carry with him and read for the rest of his life.

He ducked back under her skirts, kissing the inside of Ella’s thighs, tracing a path to her seam. Holding her arse, he lost himself in the act, licking and playing with her folds, using his tongue and mouth to tantalize the little bundle of nerves hidden under her hood, making her slicker.

Ella moaned from his exertions, and Jack didn’t have the heart to shush her again.

The erotic sounds spurred him on, making his lazy, lingering sweeps harder, faster.

The more her legs shook, the more her breath pumped, the faster his rhythm, until Jack realized that he was merely trying to keep up.

No longer passive, Ella undulated in his hands, rocking against his mouth, providing the beat to her need.

Jack was the ship in her tempest, just trying to hold on and stay afloat.

When he felt her tighten, knowing the telltale signs were threatening to pitch both of them over the edge, Jack hopped to his feet, hiking Ella up in his arms while attempting to unbutton his trousers. In his awkward and messy movements, books fell from the shelves, littering the floor around them.

Unleashing his cock, Jack laid his forehead on Ella’s, their chests expanding against one another, their faces slick with sweat.

Jack’s groan vibrated on her lips. “Bring me inside you, Ella,” he said, his words wrecked and guttural.

“I thought I could make you come on my knees, but I’m too selfish for that.

I want to feel your release on my cock. I’ll be better next time, I swear. ”

Ella’s eyes flared, and her mouth opened on a gasp that quickly settled into a confident smile.

Jack’s neck went limp when he felt her timid hands searching for him.

Tightening her legs around his waist, she righted his tip at her opening, nudging his pelvis in wanton invitation.

“Don’t ever be better than this, Jack,” she rasped, tracing his bottom lip with her tongue. “I don’t think I can take it.”

Jack surged inside her. With one harsh thrust, he sheathed himself in her opening, muffling his shout in her hair.

Ella molded to his body, tucking her head under his chin, where she panted and made scratchy noises from the back of her throat, biting the thin skin of his neck whenever a sound threatened to be too much.

There could be no restraint in this coupling. Ella’s taste was on his tongue; her juices coated his shaft. Jack loved her with every fiber of his being…

But this was not the time for loving.

With one arm wrapped around Ella’s lower back, Jack used the other to brace them against the bookcase.

The weight and push of his hips kept them up and rocking as he plunged into her again and again, working them each to a nerve-shattering frenzy.

Jack had never been so out of control, but all thoughts were forsaken.

His body was merely a tool, used to bring her satisfaction.

She climbed his body with her release, as if the very feel of the explosion made her think to fly.

He was lucky she came first. Hearing her voice catch on that fateful moan, Jack felt his stomach clench, and he remembered to grab a cloth from his pocket, withdrawing from her just in time.

They stayed like that for long minutes, each recovering from the sensations, catching their breath and sanity. Ella was the one to bring him back to the present, taking his head and lifting him until they were both staring at one another again.

Jack grinned ruefully, a shyness barreling up through his wasted body.

Up until then, their lovemaking had been controlled and measured, led by his discipline and experience.

But there was nothing disciplined about fucking his woman against the wall.

However, there was divine in the uncivilized, and Jack was positive he’d just experienced it.

Ella rubbed his hair off his face. It was unnecessary with his hair clipped so short, which made the act’s intimacy even more apparent.

Righting his trousers, Jack leaned back for a quick, no-nonsense kiss that inevitably led to another, much longer one. Releasing her lips took a supreme act of will—alarming, since he could still see the tiny red marks on her neck from his wayward teeth.

“Do you feel better now?” Ella asked. Her smile was wide, her eyes knowing, and his embarrassment came back headfirst.

“Yes,” Jack grumbled.

“Are we going to do this every time I have to visit your brother?”

Jack tilted his head, making a meal out of considering the question. He squinted while tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear. “Maybe?” He laughed at his fragile ego. “Would you mind?”

Ella’s smile dimmed, and she worried her lip. “Why don’t we just talk to your family? I’m ready to tell them the truth. I know you’re trying to protect me—”

“Shh, sweetheart, no,” Jack said, wincing at the creases marring her brow.

“I’m protecting you and the family. Oliver isn’t as healed as my mother likes to believe.

” He exhaled, rubbing his forehead. “I’m sorry to ask this of you, but can you hold on for just a few more weeks?

Please? Then the house will be so overjoyed by his recovery, they’ll be more understanding of us and everything else. ”

Ella nodded, but he could tell she was putting on a brave face for him. Jack felt lower than a snake for causing her this suffering, especially after what they’d just shared. His throat tightened. “I promise I won’t be pulling you into the library the entire time. If you’re worried about that…”

A smile tugged at the corner of her lips. “Oh, I don’t think I would mind. Especially”—her pale lashes fluttered timidly—“if you do that again.”

Jack’s heart skipped. “That?”

A pretty flush bloomed up Ella’s neck, masking his love bites, going all the way to her hairline. She looked down pointedly. “ That. ”

Fuck , Jack was hard again. He had to create a rule that they could not discuss lovemaking after lovemaking had finished for at least thirty minutes—for self-preservation’s sake.

“You liked it?” He already knew the answer, but he wanted to hear her say it.

Ella’s neck snapped up. “Oh, yes,” she replied. Her face wasn’t pink anymore, more a lobster fresh out of the pot red. “I liked it. Very much.”

Jack held the back of her neck and kissed her with all the intention and promise his body had to give. When he pulled away, Ella’s embarrassment had faded enough for him to chuckle. “Adam and Eve,” he murmured. And then he kissed her again, not stopping until the redness was gone for good.