victim.
Eventually Emily had learned from a casual remark her grandmother had made that the divorce was final. On the spur of the moment, she had bought a bottle of Scotch and driven over to Jacob's apartment.
She had found him alone, already a quarter way through his own bottle.
"I made a very embarrassing pass at you that night," Emily recalled with a sigh.
"I wasn't embarrassed," he said gently. "I wanted you so badly I nearly forgot all my good resolutions and took you to bed. You'll never know the full extent of the battle I fought with myself that night."
"I wish you hadn't fought so hard."
"Putting you in that cab that night was the hardest thing I'd ever done in my life," Jacob said, watching the emotions shift in her amber eyes. "I told myself I had no right to take you then."
"And now?" she prompted gently.
He smiled. "Now everything is different." He slipped the robe off her shoulders, revealing her nude body underneath. She was warm and flushed, and her breasts seemed to swell under his palm. His hand moved lower and slid around her hip to cup one curved buttock. Jacob squeezed gently, and Emily turned her head so that she could kiss his throat.
They sat like that for a few minutes, enjoying the feel of each other and the sweet ache of early-morning desire. But Jacob's aroused state finally demanded release.
"Come here, sweetheart," he murmured thickly as he pushed back the covers and settled her astride his thighs. "Finish what you started with that cup of coffee."
"Was it the coffee that did this?" she asked in pretended amazement as she felt his hardness probing her feminine secrets.
"Must have been." His fingers sank into her flanks as he eased her gently down.
Emily gasped as he began to enter her slowly and deliberately, as if he were determined to savor every millimeter of the experience. It was an exquisite form of sensual torture for her. Her nails made small half circles in his shoulders, and her eyes closed in anticipation as her body adjusted to the slow, thorough invasion.
"That's it, honey." Jacob's voice was husky with desire as he carefully completed the union, filling her completely. "That's perfect. Absolutely perfect. You feel so good."
He moved one hand from her hip and reached down to stroke her intimately. Emily cried out and clung to him as she had so often during the night. Her whole body contracted with passion.
"Jacob, oh, Jacob…"
"I know." He stroked her again. "Open your eyes, sweetheart. Look at me. I want to see the way you look at me when you take what I can give you."
She did and found herself gazing into the cloudy depths of his own gaze. She wanted to tell him she loved him but knew it was much too soon for such a declaration. She kissed him instead, wrapping her arms around him as he guided her into the slow, compelling pattern.
For long moments Emily hovered on the brink. The slow, taut sensation created by Jacob's movements was driving her wild. And then he touched her one last time with unerring skill and she gasped. Her whole body went briefly rigid, and then the waves of release washed over her.
She was aware of Jacob surging deeply into her as his own body tautened, and then she heard her name in a hoarse shout of satisfaction.
The morning was golden.
For the next few days Emily hugged her newfound happiness to herself. Diane told her she positively glowed with it. Emily's world had never seemed so right. She and Jacob were together constantly. He had not yet moved out of the hotel and into her apartment, but she knew it was only a matter of time before the subject arose. She worried a little about that because if Jacob moved in with her it would be very difficult to keep her family in the dark about the relationship.
But she decided she would deal with that when the time came. For the moment she was contented to explore her own happiness.
The golden days came to an end within a week. Jacob had just finished making slow, lazy love to Emily
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