Chapter 53

NORA WINCED AS Jack applied salve to her throat with a shaking hand. He couldn’t make it stop, no matter how he willed it so.

“Sorry,” he said softly. “I don’t have a steady hand.”

“It’s not your hand. It’s the rawness of my throat when I swallow,” she replied.

She gently took hold of Jack’s wrist. He slowly lowered his hand, and his jaw clenched. She tugged his hand and held her other arm out to him. Jack slid into her embrace, his face in the crook of her neck, and let out a long, shuddering breath.

“I was so scared,” he ground out, his voice hoarse. “He looked so close to killing you.”

“It’s all right,” she soothed, stroking his hair. “It’s all right now.”

Jack took a deep breath, then leaned back and glared at her, ready to tear into her for being alone, for not killing the man, for anything.

Nora drew in shaky breaths, and his anger temporarily abated again.

“Sshhh,” he soothed in return. “It’s over now. It’s all over. I suppose we were both frightened by it.”

Nora nodded, but stayed within the comfort and protection of his embrace.

Jack was in no hurry to let her go. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw her pinned to the floor, knife in hand, and covered in blood. He had not realized how poorly he would handle her being hurt and in genuine danger and knew now that he had work to do in that particular area. It was something he would need to constantly be prepared for if he was going to be at all effective in caring for her.

Jack gently took Nora’s face in his hands and began to press feather light kisses to the side of her face.

“Jack,” Nora asked cautiously. “When are we going to discuss what is happening between us?”

“Later,” he said softly, running his hands up and down her sides as his kisses moved closer to her mouth. “For now, Nora, I need to touch you. Please tell me I can touch you.”

“Always.”

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NORA WATCHED JACK reach up and gently pull away the pins restraining her hair. He ran his fingers through it over and over until it fell in gentle waves down her back.
He kissed her softly on her forehead, her cheeks, her neck, her collarbone, and finally her lips. Nora sighed against him, content just to melt into him as he gathered her close. His hands ran along the sides of her breasts, making her shiver a bit, and he chuckled lightly.

Slowly, he unbuttoned her dress, his fingers dancing up her back with every inch revealed. He threaded them into her hair, and his lips covered hers. Nora yielded immediately, swept up in the fierce passion and possessiveness of the kiss. The heat flowed from him and filled up every part of her body.

Nora knew he must have coupled with many women be-fore meeting her, yet she could not bring herself to care. It felt right to be with him this way. It felt so right she almost laughed with the joy of it. The way he softly ran his hands over her sensitive skin, up her arms, over her breasts, down her stomach made her feel beautiful. It was as if he committed each inch of her body to memory.

His lips followed the path of his hands and Nora was shocked to hear herself moan. He was so amazingly skilled, and she was so embarrassingly not. So why did loving him, explo-ing his body with her lips and her hands, come so naturally to her then? How did her lips know that he had a sensitive spot behind his ear?

Nora giggled with the danger and mischief of what she was doing, offering her virginity to a man she wasn’t married to, but was destined to be with. As he slowly began to strip away her clothes, she found herself not caring.

He stopped as he rubbed her upper arm where she had been injured from the ambush on the way to Boston, a frown spreading across his features. “It’s gone,” he whispered.
“It looks like it never happened.”

“I told you I would be fine.”

His brow furrowed. Unwilling to break the moment, she leaned in and kissed him again. Jack hesitated at first, as if still thinking of her arm and continuing that conversation, so she poured more passion into her kiss to distract him. There would be plenty of time for that later.

With a quick flick of his hands, her dress pooled at her feet. He made her feel beautiful everywhere and that made her brave. She pulled his shirt free and over his head. Chest to chest, flesh to flesh, they stood and circled their way around to the bed. As they waltzed along, he toed off his boots, and she unbuttoned his pants. Pushing them past his hips, he stepped right out of them while they moved.

Jack kissed down her neck again, along her collarbone, over the swell of her breasts, around every inch of them. Connected, they fell to the bed. She gasped as he took one peak into his mouth and sucked gently. Everything in her body started tingling, pleasure streaming through her.

“You are perfect, Nora,” he murmured, taking the other rosy peak into his mouth. Another moan sprang from her when she felt the slight prick of his teeth.

“I bet you have said that to many girls.”

He picked his head up and looked right in her eyes. “I won’t lie to you, Nora. I have had sex with women hours after I have met them. I have had sex with women when I did not know, nor care, what their name was. I have never taken one by force. I won’t apologize for my life up until I met you. Nothing meant anything until now, do you understand?”

Breathless, Nora nodded her head, “I feel so much. It is scary and exciting.”

His body looked like it had been sculpted with an artist’s hands—smooth and solid. She ran her fingers over and over his chest, getting herself acquainted with the terrain.

She kissed along his broad shoulders, over the faint scar there, and ran her tongue along his chest, swirled it around his nipples. Her hands ran up and down his stomach.
The way he moved under her fingers made her think he enjoyed it. He hissed in some spots and groaned in others. The more noise he made, the more empowered she felt. The rest of her clothes fell away until she was naked beneath him. She blushed furiously as he gazed at her from the top of her head to the tip of her toes, drinking in all that God had given her.

“Perfect,” Jack whispered again, leaning forward to kiss her. She melted at the words that had slid right off his tongue like silk. “You are beautiful.” His hand glided from her hip, up over her stomach, rounded her breasts, and came to rest on her shoulder. Nora’s whole body seemed to calm under his hands. After that, she had no more awkward hand movements.

However, she did have concerns when she saw the size of him.

“Oh Jack, are you sure this is going to work?”

She watched wide-eyed as he cupped her and began to stroke. Her hips moved instinctively with his motions and she arched her back, offering herself up to this delicious new pleas-ure.

Nora’s hands slid down the plane of his back, her fingers tracing lazy circles around his waist as he moved his hand. As her hips continued to move, her eyes shut as the most amazing feeling swelled inside her. Nora’s hands fell away from him and grabbed onto the sheets, leaving her body completely open to him. She threw her head back and nearly screamed her release, but Jack caught it in a kiss.

He began to slowly kiss down her body. She felt the heat begin to settle around her, a nice, gentle rise in temperature, warming her slowly like an oven. The lower Jack went, the warmer the glow. He pressed a soft kiss on the inside of each of her thighs, and her breathing began to speed up. She thought she would explode with the first flick of his tongue. Pleasure wafted through her in waves, and it felt like fireworks danced in her blood. Whether the explosion of pure bliss was his or hers wasn’t entirely clear to her, and she didn’t care. Her fingers dug further into the blankets, and she chanted his name over and over like a prayer. Nora’s vision blurred, and the orgasm hit her so hard she thought she might go blind, intensifying the little pinpricks of lusty satisfaction that frolicked lazily through her body.

She smiled as she drifted in that wonderful place between the post-coital zenith state and slumber. Not remotely finished, Jack kissed, nipped, and licked his way right back up Nora’s body, stopping to spend time with each of her breasts. When he was above her again, his fingers fanned out to push the hair from her face. The satisfaction intoxicated her and height-ened her senses, every caress running through her body like lightning.

His lips moved along her jaw to her lips, murmuring all along to her in a language she did not understand. She had no idea what he was saying, but it sounded like music. With Jack, Nora felt cherished, like she was everything and could be anything. Everything or nothing, it didn’t matter as long as she simply was.

How could this heartbreakingly beautiful man be meant for her? A man who could go to emotional extremes in seconds but could look on her with what she saw as love. It never seemed real, and yet, each day she woke up, he was there.

“Nora,” Jack whispered. When she opened her eyes, she saw him perched above her. “Do you trust me?”

“With my life,” she sighed.

“Good.”

He slid into her then, gradually, inch by wonderful inch. Nora didn’t think it was possible that all of him would fit, but when he stopped and whispered, “So sweet,” she felt her eyes well up with tears with the beauty of the moment. He waited while she grew accustomed to him inside of her. Little aftershocks from her first orgasm shot through her as the pain slowly ebbed.

“Look at me, love,” he whispered. She turned her head and met his eyes, and he plunged inside her again. Nora’s legs locked around his waist as she took him in as deep as she could.