Belle didn’t reply.
She just stared at him, right in the eyes as if she had no neuroses, no phobias, no anxiety, no self-consciousness and lastly, no fear of him.
At this, his unease grew.
“It wasn’t an act,” he repeated.
She sighed then requested quietly, “James, just tell me what you need to tell me.”
He covered the two steps distance between them in an instant.
She didn’t flinch or back away.
His unease shifted to something that felt a great deal like alarm. This alarm drove him to do something about her mistaken impression. Something which he found he couldn’t abide, not for another second.
She was carrying his child and she thought he was a heartless bastard.
Because of this, he found he was willing to do whatever he had to do to disabuse her of that mistaken impression once and for all.
Jack looked down at her as she tipped her head back to regard him and his course, already started, became clear.
“Would you like me to prove it to you?” he asked softly.
He saw anger cross her expression before she said, “The papers think I’m a moron, I know. But you shouldn’t make the same mistake because I’m not. I won’t fall for your game twice.”
“No, you won’t,” Jack agreed. “Mainly because you didn’t fall for anything the first time.”
“Honestly, James, I thought you were busy –” she said and may have intended to say more.
Jack would never know.
Because his hands shot out, closed at her waist and he yanked her body to his.
Then his head descended and his mouth crushed down on hers.
Her hips pulled at his hands but his arms wrapped around her and he held her tight against him.
She felt, he noted immediately, better than he remembered.
But he couldn’t taste her.
She wouldn’t open her mouth and she was pressing at his shoulders at the same time she was pushing her weight against his arms.
She tore her mouth from his and snapped, “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Proving it wasn’t an act,” Jack replied calmly as she squirmed, her soft body moving against his and Jack remembered how good that felt too.
“By kissing me?” she screeched.
“Poppet,” Jack murmured and when he did, she stilled in his arms. “That wasn’t a kiss.” His hand slid up her spine, her neck and into her hair, holding her head steady. “This,” he muttered, “will be a kiss.”
Then his mouth captured hers again.
She resisted.
He coaxed.
She kept resisting and his arm at her waist slid up her back, his fingers curling around and the tips started to stroke the side of her breast. He felt her stiff body begin to melt at his touch, he knew he was making progress and his lips moved a breath away from hers.
“Open your mouth,” he demanded softly.
She shook her head and he wrapped his fist in her hair, pulling her head back gently.
“Open your mouth,” he repeated against her lips.
She again shook her head.
“Poppet –” he started.
But she interrupted by whispering, “Don’t call me –”
She didn’t finish, as she was speaking, he muttered, “There it is.”
And his parted lips took hers, his tongue sliding inside her mouth.
Jack tasted her and remembered just exactly how much he liked that as well.
Like the first time he kissed her, she responded the minute his tongue touched hers.
Her body melted into his, her hands glided up his arms, one arm wrapped around his neck, the fingers of her other hand slid into his hair.
He felt triumph shoot through him at her response and as a reward to himself, and Belle, he slanted his head and deepened the kiss.
She welcomed it, a soft, sexy noise coming from the back of her throat and filling his mouth.
At the sound of it, the feel of it, the taste of it, the memory of how much he liked the noises she made nearly four months before when he was driving deep inside her, he groaned into her mouth in return as his arm left her back.
His hand went under her camisole, slid across the silken skin at her waist and up.
His body gladly absorbed the shiver his hand caused just as one of her hands yanked his shirt free of his trousers and he felt her soft, sweet, shy touch gliding along his own skin.
His fist in her hair tightened as he felt his need for her quicken and he knew in a moment he’d carry her back up the ladder and take her on the blankets where she slept.
And he was looking forward to it.
He was actually aching to do it.
“That didn’t take long.”
Jack’s body froze and he felt Belle’s do the same when they both heard Miles’s voice.
“This is a record for Belle. It’s been a whole week since you two have been under the same roof,” Miles went on as Jack lifted his head and looked into the somewhat dazed but also now frightened eyes of Belle.
She pulled at his hold but his arm grew tighter as he released her hair and contained her retreat by wrapping that arm around her as well.
Miles came to stand at their sides and Jack turned his head to his brother seeing Belle do the same.
“Unless, of course, she’s been sneaking to your room at night, Jack,” Miles noted with a sneer on his mouth, addressing Jack but his eyes were glued on Belle. “But Mum wouldn’t know about that, would she? She just got finished telling me it was all good, all platonic, everything was just swell. Even though she didn’t look like it was swell. She looked like she’d rather you two were going at it like rabbits.” His sneer deepened when he continued, “She’ll be so pleased.”
When Miles stopped speaking, his gaze moved to Jack and Jack clipped, “Are you finished?”
“Want me to leave so you can fuck Belle in the hayloft?” Miles returned, his voice coated with derision.
“Actually, yes,” Jack replied and he felt Belle’s body jolt but he kept firm hold of her as he watched his hit score and Miles flinched.
Then Miles recovered. “Don’t mind me. I just came to ride.” His head jerked to a stall and he went on crudely, “A different kind of riding than you’re about to do, of course.”
Jack barely restrained an urge to shift Belle aside and do bodily harm to his brother.
Instead, he let Belle have some space but kept her in his arms and turned partially toward Miles who was moving toward the tack room.
“I believe I left a message with your assistant asking you to avoid The Point for the next six months,” Jack called to his brother.
“I got the message,” Miles replied carelessly.
Jack felt Belle tremble in his arms, he took away the space he’d just given her and pulled her deeper into his body.
When Miles went on, he sounded like a spoiled child, “However, it is my home and I’ll come whenever I want.”
“It’s my home, Miles,” Jack noted with quiet meaning and he watched Miles’s torso twist so he could look at Jack.
“After Dad died, your name may have been transferred to the deed but it’s still my fucking home,” Miles fired back.
“After Dad died, my name was transferred to the deed, making it my home and I let you stay here when I please,” Jack returned and Miles moved to face him fully as Jack kept talking. “When I don’t, you stay away. And for the next six months, you’ll stay away.”
Miles stared at Jack in incredulity for a moment before he spat, “You must be joking.”
“No,” Jack replied immediately. “I’m quite serious.”
Miles’s eyes shifted to Belle and they narrowed as his face filled with scorn.
“So you’re saying you’re kicking out your own brother so your latest fuck won’t feel uncomfortable?” he asked, his voice snide.