Page 50 of The Promise of Jenny Jones

Jenny decided she’d had enough teasing, tormenting, and fiery torture to last a lifetime.

All week long they had touched and caressed and stroked and inflamed.

She could not stand another minute of it.

Squirming away from him, she wiggled out of the apricot-colored satin and flung it away from her.

“Hurry up, hurry up,” she panted, jerking and yanking at her undergarments.

When she looked up again, cussing and frustrated because the corset hooks would not yield to boneless fingers, Ty was naked. “Oh my Lord.” A long, moist gasp broke from her throat, and her fingers flew to her cheeks.

Never in her life had she expected to admire a naked man. But he was so beautiful. Utterly splendid. So lean and hard and wiry-muscled, so pale beneath the dark feathery hair narrowing from chest to rampant need. “Oh Ty.” She spoke his name mindlessly, like a sigh, like a plea. “Ty.”

Flinging her arms around his neck, she locked her mouth to his in a long, hot, ardent kiss that made her mind sing and her body quiver.

His hands roughly circled her waist like a brand, claiming her, possessing her, and she nearly sobbed with the relief of knowing that tonight, this time, she would not have to return to her own bed without truly knowing him.

This time they would not have to be quiet or circumspect in movement.

And they weren’t. They toppled onto the bed, wound tightly together from lips to thighs, rolling and thrashing, unmindful of squeaking bed ropes or their own gasps and groans.

Ty’s fingers were more nimble than hers, and he had her corset opened in a moment, flung aside the next.

And then, oh Lord, and then his lips were on her breasts, sucking, licking, driving her mad with waves of sensation that crashed one over another like stormy tides, drowning her in hot pleasure.

There could be no waiting, not when their bodies trembled at fever pitch. They came together in panting, gasping, titanic need and urgency, and Jenny cried out his name when he entered her and she rocked up to meet his first deep thrust.

She expected a few thrusts, and then it would end, but it didn’t happen that way.

Her eyes flew open in surprise and her fingers tightened on his damp shoulders when he kissed her again and again as their bodies meshed and thrilled to an exciting rhythm that built rather than diminished.

And it was unlike anything Jenny had ever known.

There was no pain, no thought for anything but Ty and the sensations he aroused with his mouth and body.

There was only the rapture of awakening to her own body and to his, the fainting tension of feeling inner forces build and build and build until she could no longer contain the earthquake that gathered between her thighs.

When the blissful eruption ended, she collapsed beneath him, only dimly aware that he withdrew before his shoulders convulsed, and he gathered her to his chest with a low groan. “Jenny… Jenny.”

For a long while they did not move, but held each other close, waiting for pounding hearts to quiet. This, too, was new to her. In her experience, the man took his pleasure, withdrew, and buttoned up as he left. And that was that. But not tonight, not with this remarkable, hard, and splendid man.

After a time, they roused and Ty lit cigars for them both. They smoked in contentment, her head on his shoulder, and she didn’t even wonder that they lay together naked and unembarrassed. She didn’t let herself think past the moment, and the moment was one of the best in her life.

“Would you like anything?” he inquired, his voice heavy with satisfaction. “Coffee? Tequila? Wine?”

“No,” she said after deciding there was nothing on earth that she needed this minute except to be here, with him. “Good cigar.” She wasn’t sure if it was or not, and she didn’t care.

“You’re like I imagined you would be,” he murmured against the top of her head. “Milky white where the sun hasn’t been, and brushed with flame down there. Am I what you expected?”

“Oh yes, you’re beautiful,” she said matter-of-factly, puzzled when he laughed. “But…”

“But what?”

“Well, I guess I’m a little disappointed that we didn’t do the licking all over.

I was kind of looking forward to that,” she admitted, squirming against him.

Every time she thought about the licking all over, she couldn’t remain still.

“It’s such a peculiar and strange thing that I’m sort of glad we didn’t do it, but at the same time, I never licked anybody or had anybody lick me and I guess I just—”

“You thought we were finished?” His low chuckle cut off her words, then he took the cigar from her fingers and stubbed it out.

“Jenny, honey… we’re just getting started,” he promised gruffly, kissing her temple.

“There’s going to be licking all over. And kissing in places you haven’t even thought about. ”

“There is?” Her eyes widened and her heart leaped into her throat before diving toward her stomach. “ All over?”

“ All over,” he said hoarsely, turning her to face him.

He started with her lips, teasing with his tongue, not letting her kiss him when she frantically tried.

Then he tasted her throat before his head dropped to suck and tease at her breasts.

“I love your breasts,” he murmured before his head dropped lower.

And lower. And then lower. She thought she was going to die from the shock and pleasure of being licked and kissed all over.

And when it was her turn, she thought sure that he was going to die when she kissed and licked him all over.

When dawn crept over the city, they returned to their own room, dazed and stumbling, gazing at each other with awe and wonder and the puzzlement of blissful new emotions both denied feeling.

At the door of their room, Ty cupped her face between his hands and kissed her gently, tenderly. “Thank you for an evening I will never forget.”

“I look like hell, don’t I?” she whispered, trying to smooth her hastily assembled clothing.

Grinning, he leaned to insert the key in the lock. “You look like a woman who has been well loved.”

It was the first time the word “love” had appeared in any conversation, and they both ignored it.

Once inside the room Ty shook Senora Jaramillo awake and saw her to the door.

Then, wonderfully unselfconscious, he stripped, donned his long johns, and gave Jenny a light kiss before he dropped onto the bed. In a moment, he was snoring.

Smiling, she moved in the pearly predawn light, hanging up her gown, folding her undergarments, searching for her nightshift. Before she climbed into bed beside Graciela, she moved to the window and glanced up at the sky, seeking Marguarita’s star before it ceded to the dawn.

I did you wrong, and I apologize. I thought you were an idiot to give yourself to Robert and risk catching a baby. I figured you got what you deserved for being so stupid. I thought I was better than you because I had more sense than to ever do such a damned fool thing.

Well, I was dead wrong. I didn’t know how it could be between men and women, Marguarita. If Robert made you feel like Ty made me feel tonight, I can see why you’d risk everything to be with him. I’m sorry I judged so harshly. I didn’t know.

She started toward the bed, then returned to the window and Marguarita’s star.

Marguarita? I hope Robert licked you all over. It’s just the damnest thing! I’d hate to think you became an angel without first getting licked all over. It’s probably not proper to talk about this, but I think you would have liked the licking a lot.

She yawned and stretched. Good night, my friend. Tomorrow night I’ll talk to you from El Paso. From there we start the final leg of the journey.

As she climbed into bed, she wished she hadn’t mentioned that last part. Curling protectively around Graciela’s small body, she inhaled the clean sweet scent of the child’s hair, and smiled at the sound of a light baritone snore emanating from the other bed.

She wished it could be like this forever. The three of them together. Suddenly her stomach cramped and her throat closed, and she felt a sting of sadness behind her eyes.