Terrie tilted her head, watching the other woman closely. For once, Tally’s dark gaze held no mockery, no laughter.
“No wonder Jesse doesn’t ever know what to make of you,” she whispered softly. “You’re like him, Tally. Unselfish…”
Tally snorted as she rose quickly to her feet. “No way, Terrie. I’m very selfish. When we’re done, you’re helping me get that job at Conover’s. Your man is a lousy boss. Hell, he caught onto his own filing as though he’s supposed to do it himself,” she grunted. “So never fear, it comes with a price.”
Terrie hid her smile. She had never known what a true friend she had. But she did now. The nights Tally had forced her out of the house, getting her drunk, tattooed, pierced. Terrie remembered those bleak days clearly. Days when she had fought to make sense of her life, and who she was. Days she had wondered if Thomas had been right. If she was truly less of a woman than she had ever believed. Never enough woman for a man like Jesse.
“Okay, we can do this,” she announced. “He’ll be here in less than an hour. I’ll get him in the handcuffs, but he’s going to be pissed.”
“Of course he will.” Tally smiled. “That’s the best part.” She rubbed her hands together with mocking eagerness. “Can we blindfold him?”
10
Terrie was waiting for Jesse when he stepped slowly into the bedroom. The house was dark, lit only by the candles that showed the way from the front door, up the stairs and into her room. The bedroom was lit by dozens of the small scented candles, casting his expression in shadow. But she caught a glimpse of his somber expression as he stepped into the room.
Tally was waiting on the screened-in back porch, watching for the bedroom light to flicker. The sign that she could enter. What Terrie had to say to Jesse, she wanted no one else to hear.
She watched as he pushed his hands into his slacks’ pockets, watching her carefully, his green eyes quiet, reflective as she sat on the bed, dressed only in the short silk gown she had donned.
“Why do I have a feeling you want to talk first?” he quipped almost too seriously.
“Because you know me that well,” she said softly, watching him a bit sadly. “You always have. Even when I was too young to know what it meant. And when I was too stupid to accept what it was.”
He leaned against her dresser, watching her quietly. Terrie felt her chest tighten at the flood of emotion that washed over her. He was so strong, even now, as he watched her uncertainly, his eyes brilliant with all the emotions she had never realized were there before.
“You were never stupid, Terrie,” he said quietly. “Frightened. Innocent…”
“And too stupid to know what I was feeling or what I wanted,” she finished for him. “I love you, Jesse. I always have loved you.”
He frowned, his expression brooding, intense. “I know that, Terrie. I always knew that.”
She tilted her head. He wasn’t lying. She could see just how very serious he was.
“And you love me,” she whispered, fighting her tears. “You loved me, before Thomas.”
He breathed out roughly. “Before Thomas, during Thomas, now,” he growled. “Love doesn’t just turn off, Terrie. What do you want me to say?”
It was there in his voice. Husky, controlled, endearingly honest. If there was one thing she knew about Jesse, it was that he would never lie to her about his feelings for her. He might not tell her something she needed to know, but he wouldn’t lie to her.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked him roughly. “Why didn’t you let me know, Jesse, instead of leaving me in the dark?”
“How, baby?” He shrugged, though she saw his fists clench in his pockets. “You were so scared of me you ran damned near every time I tried to get close. You’ve been like that ever since you realized I did want you. You ran, because who I was, what I was, frightened you.”
It wasn’t him. She stared at him in surprise. It had never been his needs that had her running.
She shook her head slowly. “I ran because my own feelings, my own needs, terrified me. Not you,” she whispered. “You never frightened me, Jesse. Ever. But I scared the hell out of myself.”
“Because of who I am. Because of what I wanted,” he said roughly.
“Because of who I am.” She shook her head quickly. “Don’t you see, Jesse? It wasn’t you. It was me. I couldn’t make sense of my own needs, my own desires. I couldn’t understand what I wanted.”
“And now?” He looked so alone, so braced for her rejection.
She rose slowly to her feet, revealing the items she had left on the bed behind her. Handcuffs and leather ankle cuffs attached to chains. She saw his gaze flicker to them.
“Will you trust me to love you, Jesse?” she asked him softly. “I trust you. With everything I am. Everything you need. Will you trust me as well?”
Silence built within the room for long, intense seconds as he stared at the bed.
“I take it those aren’t for you?” He nodded to the items.
She looked up at him from the corners of her eyes, a small smile playing at her lips. “No, they aren’t for me.”
He tensed, his expression darkening with such latent sensuality she felt her pussy creaming in response.
He cleared his throat. “No means no, Terrie,” he reminded her firmly. “I can be man enough to give you want you want, within reason.”
She smiled gently. “You’ve always given me more than I deserve, Jesse. But now, I want to give to you. My gift to you, because I love you.”
He pulled his hands from his slacks, his fingers working slowly at the buttons of his shirt. He looked around the bedroom curiously.
“Why am I suddenly nervous?” he asked her with a half smile. A halfhearted attempt to remind her how dearly he loved being in control.
She moved to him, her hand lifting to touch his chest, reveling in the feel of the hard, warm muscle beneath his dark skin. She felt his breath quicken as she laid a kiss between the edges of his shirt as it fell open. His hands lifted, running up her back as he drew her closer.
“God, Terrie, you make me lose all my control. You know that?” He lowered his head, his lips pressing to her temple, her cheek, then her lips.
Terrie moaned in rising hunger as his tongue swept over her lips, licking at them, tasting her, savoring her as his arms tightened around her.
“That’s only fair, because you do the same to me,” she panted breathlessly against his tongue, then moaned in pleasure as his lips took control of hers, his tongue forging into her mouth in a stroke of heated pleasure.
His fingers clenched on the material of her gown. His body tightened. The small signs of his arousal, his need for her, built her own need higher. She moved against him, reveling in his kiss. His lips were hard, rough, yet incredibly gentle on hers. His tongue thrust into her mouth with forceful strokes, making her hungry for more and more of his taste.
His hands moved to her bare shoulders, smoothing over the flesh, making her tremble from the hot pleasure that streaked through her body. A touch so simple, she thought in awe, just his fingertips, yet her vagina clenched with the sharp darts of lightning-hot sensations they created.
His lips moved over hers slow and easy. So gentle. His very gentleness was at odds with the tension that made his body tighten, made him harder, stronger than ever before. The tenderness never changed. He groaned with rough hunger. His tongue plundered her mouth, mating erotically with hers, yet each touch was so controlled, so light and adoring it made her soul weep with the need it transmitted to her.
“Wait. Wait.” She pulled back, aware that once again Jesse was giving. Overloading her senses, capturing her with a pleasure so seductively erotic she could do nothing but respond.
She couldn’t lose control of herself, she thought frantically. This was for Jesse. His pleasure. His need. She had to return to him the bone tightening ecstasy he gave her each time he touched her.