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  Vindicated!

  At long last.

  Now, what he didn't expect, however, began to happen. His cock began to rise like the Phoenix from the ashes.

  Jade watched it grow and met his eyes with wonder.

  "Strong like bull,” he said, teasingly.

  She gave a solemn nod.

  Ian had obsessed about this woman for so long, he wouldn't be satisfied after only a single time inside her. He wondered if he could ever get enough of her. If being with her was always like he'd just experienced, he'd be in deep trouble if he couldn't win her heart. Instead of getting over her, he discovered she was his drug of choice. He couldn't get enough, fast enough, and the high she gave him didn't compare with any life experience in his thirty years.

  Jade took hold of his hand, leveraging up to her feet, then pulled him in the direction of the stairs. He followed, feeling the gentle sway of her naked hips when they brushed against him. She brought him into a spacious, dimly lit bedroom, smelling of exotic fragrances. Jasmine and something he couldn't name spoke of seduction. She lit candles, giving the room a shrine-like feel.

  "I need a shower,” she said, pulling him toward the glass shower in the candlelit corner of the bathroom.

  She adjusted the water and nudged him under the gentle rain, coming from a showerhead the size of Rhode Island. When she started to remove his condom, he wanted to protest. But the second it came off, she tossed it aside and fell to her knees in front of him.

  Jade kissed the head of his throbbing cock with her open mouth. While water poured down upon them, she ran her tongue along his seam, first one way, then the other. She nibbled on the tag of skin under his sensitive head, flicking it with her tongue. He watched her in fascination. Only when she started to swallow him did he look away. The sight of his cock disappearing into her mouth nearly sent him over the edge. He leaned toward the back wall, touching his forehead against the cool porcelain tile while trying to breathe calmly. She eased him in and out of her throat several times before he knew he couldn't last another siege of her constricting gorge. He tried to push back, but she only sucked harder in response.

  Ian exploded with a vengeance, while Jade milked him dry.

  Eventually he found his voice. “I wish you could understand what you do for me. You are the Ginger to my Fred, the Bacall to my Bogie. You complete me like nobody can. I'm in the dark without you."

  Still on her knees, Jade stared up at him. Her expression showed how uncomfortable his declaration had made her.

  Ian didn't know what to do. He hadn't meant to speak so soon—much too soon. Damn!

  He looked away from her eyes, trying to pretend he hadn't foolishly spoken out of his ass. “About our date tonight, it's a concert at Alton Park. I'm late for rehearsal, so I'll send a car.” He opened the shower door and reached for a towel. “I hope you can come ... I know you can come, I meant I hope you'll be there."

  He left her sitting on the floor of her shower, her green eyes wide and questioning.

  * * * *

  An hour later, Ian couldn't remember how he'd gotten out of Jade's house. If she didn't come to his concert, he wasn't certain he could keep himself from going back to grovel at her feet. He'd shown her what they were missing, now she had to meet him halfway.

  "Where do you want these flowers, Mr. Swift?” his young assistant asked.

  "Let's put them on either end of the platform, and the corsage should be delivered to my guest in the front row, if she's able to com—attend. Is everything else ready?"

  "Your guest may not come, sir?"

  There was that word again. “I'm not sure."

  "I'll watch for her."

  "There's no need. I've sent a car for her. The driver will call if she can't make it, and if that happens, I'll let you know."

  "Thank you, Mr. Swift."

  The same time his assistant left, his manager, Charlene, walked inside his trailer. “How did it go with the love of your life?"

  "I wish I had good news. I'm not sure. It certainly didn't go like I imagined. I wanted to tell her about my plans for the evening and she thought I was there to start up where we left off years ago, or maybe I led her to that conclusion. Anyway, I didn't correct her."

  "I don't like the sound of this. Ian, if you get your heart broken again, I'm going to be pissed with this foolish woman, whoever she is. I don't do pissed well."

  Ian looked at his watch. “If she wasn't going to make it, I would have already heard."

  Charlene wished him luck and left, shaking her perky blonde head. Ian agreed he needed luck. If only he wasn't in love with Jade Thiele, his life would be perfect. She, however, had ruined him for any other woman.

  His assistant opened the door. “Show time. And she's here. She's beautiful, but not at all what I expected."

  Ian smiled, enjoying a temporary reprieve and a spark of hope. He checked himself in the mirror, then walked outside. Tonight he would play for Jade.

  Only her.

  With the lights in his eyes, he could see only her shadow in the chair. He sat at his piano, stretched his fingers, then began to play. Music flowed from his heart and out through his fingertips. When he finished after two encores, he could honestly say he'd never played better.

  "And I thought you were good years ago,” Jade said once the crowd around him thinned and he could get to her. “I didn't have a clue."

  "I was inspired. Would you like to see my tour bus?” She was a vision. And, he wanted her. Right now.

  She raised a delicate ginger brow and moved closer. “You get straight to the point, don't you? Will that make me a groupie?"

  "I'm not the one to ask. I've never invited a woman on the bus who wasn't already a co-worker, and never for intimate reasons."

  Jade gave a single solemn nod and accepted the hand he extended to her.

  Once inside his spacious bus, she immediately slid into his arms. Ian smiled—she got straight to the point, too.

  "You really were wonderful,” she said, “and not just the music. It's been so long since I've been close to anyone, I'd forgotten ... no that's not really true ... I never experienced what you did to me earlier today. And then as you played, I didn't just come close, I came—I almost fell out of my chair. Wouldn't that have been lovely?"

  He wanted to tell her he played only for her, but he was afraid to get too serious and push her away again with sophomoric declarations of affection. “Our experience earlier was my inspiration. I pretended to touch you, and the keys were magic for me."

  "Touch me and see if you can play me like that,” she offered, running her hand along his jaw and back to the leather tether holding his hair. A tug sent it spilling down his back.

  Ian locked the door, wishing for a “Do Not Disturb” sign to caution anyone from interrupting them. She was giving him another chance to swing her around to his way of thinking. Another chance to do the impossible—to win her heart by using her responsive body against her. The body that first showed him what it meant to be a man.

  "Your pleasure,” he told her, “is at your command. Tell me exactly what you want and I will do my best to deliver."

  Her green eyes darkened as she considered his words while running her fingers through his hair. “No foreplay. Your music was all the foreplay I needed. I want you quick and hard, filling me until I don't know where I begin and where you end."

  "Perfect.” He shrugged out of his loose-fitting shirt, tossing it aside.

  She wore a little, black sleeveless dress, which fit her like a silky glove. After turning her shapely butt to him, she lifted her thick red hair. “Unzip me?"

  His hands trembled. It wouldn't be good for her to see. She might guess how much this meant to him. Maybe too much. It scared him to think of how much, of how his music could be affected if she rejected him again.

  The zipper slid down without a hitch, and she undulated out of the dress, allowing it to drop around her high-heeled mules. His breath caught in his throat. She was naked und
er the dress, her pale skin translucent and begging to be explored. The tiny dimples at the top of her ass wanted kissing. He dropped to his knees, grabbing her hips with both hands, and placed an open-mouth kiss there.

  "No,” she told him and turned to face him. “You have to hurry, Ian. I need you now. Right now."

  He stood, releasing his zipper and stepping out of his loafers and pants in a fluid motion that he wouldn't have been able to accomplish if he tried twice. His cock bobbed in the air between them for only a second before he stabbed it where he wanted to bury it. At the same time, he caught her under both ass checks and lifted. Her arms flew around his neck as she arched into him. Without hesitation, his cock found her sweet core, and he thrust upward while allowing her weight to carry her down. The feeling of skin against skin almost undid him.

  How could he have forgotten a condom?

  The momentum as she plunged down hard brought him to a throbbing, near-painful precipice. The tight walls of her hot pussy gripped him like a vise. He instinctively wanted to pound into her, but he needed a second or he would come right then. His balls bunched up so tightly against his body, it hurt. Somehow he walked the few steps to the rear of the bus and sat on the bed with her still tight against him, buried to the hilt. He worked backward on the top of the bed, trying not to come prematurely. Trying to slow his erratic breathing.

  "A condom,” he breathed.

  "Too late,” she whispered back.

  Once she had leverage, she began to move on top of him, and finally his balls loosened to where he knew he wasn't about to embarrass himself. When he gained confidence he wouldn't come too soon, he flipped her over and began to hammer into her.

  "Yes!” she screamed. “More. Harder. Perfect."

  He gave her more, so much more than he would have believed, considering how badly he started. She got off in seconds, but he didn't slow until he felt her contracting two more times. The third time he went with her, pumping his seed deep into her womb, as close to heaven as he'd ever come.

  He rolled over with the walls of her tight sex still holding onto him, clutching and milking him. He wanted to stay there forever.

  * * * *

  Jade awakened to feel Ian growing thick and hard inside her. His steady breath made her wonder if he was still sleeping or he realized what was happening again. She squeezed with the strong walls of her sex.

  He groaned loudly. “I think I'm dreaming. Nothing in this world has ever felt this fine. It must be a dream."

  Jade agreed. Nothing had ever felt so good. Too good. The kind of thing that would mess with her mind, and make her want this—him—forever. Impossible under the circumstances. He had to know they didn't have a future.

  Nothing had changed in the past seven years. If anything, it would be worse for Ian if she allowed herself to think of a “forever after” now.

  His long, thick cock grew so hard, she felt impaled, yet it was so right, perfect. The most uniquely faultless and sublime feeling she'd ever experienced. She would miss this—and him—as long as she lived. If only...

  He turned her over and began to move, leisurely pulling the length of his root out of her, then easing it back again. And just like that, the pressure to climax was there for her, so exquisite it was painful pleasure. Hot tears leaked out the corners of her eyes as she exploded.

  And she thought she didn't need a man? What a fool!

  CHAPTER 3

  Sunday

  Ian would be leaving in the morning en route to his next concert in Nevada. Jade didn't want to think about it. She'd been with him for almost twelve hours straight before they came up for air. Then they toured the city and wound up back at her house, where he gave her another private performance on her father's grand piano. She didn't think he could top his first one, but somehow he managed to surprise her.

  He was upstairs still sleeping as she made breakfast for him. Another first. She didn't cook—ever—if she could avoid it. Now, she didn't mind. She told herself it was only to keep up his strength so he could give her more of the same in the time they had left. But that wasn't it. In fact, she didn't know if she could handle more. In the past thirty-six hours, she'd gone from multi-orgasmic to off-the-charts orgasmic.

  "Is that bacon I smell?” Ian's voice gave her a start, in more ways than one. Who knew?

  She turned to look at him, fresh from a shower with a towel wrapped around his muscled waist. His gorgeous long black hair hung in wet ringlets against his tanned skin. Jade felt her heart thump inside her chest.

  "Karen stocked my refrigerator yesterday while we were otherwise occupied. I don't know what she was thinking ... she knows I don't do domestic. She's playing match-maker."

  "Maybe she knows you better than you do yourself. Sometimes friends are insightful like that."

  "Are you hungry?"

  Ian rubbed his long skillful fingers across his thickly whiskered jaw. His silver-blue eyes darkened and he ran his tongue over his full lips. “Famished. How about you?"

  Jade couldn't believe it, but she wanted him to ravish her right then across the kitchen table. It took all the power she had not to turn off the stove and jump him. “I want you to eat this food before anything else comes up. You need to keep up your strength."

  Ian leaned back and pulled aside the bath towel. “Something has already come up. It would be a shame to waste it."

  Jade watched his beautiful cock jutting into the air. She had to get closer to it. To touch it, to wrap her fingers around it. “Yes, it would be a shame."

  She reached for the dial at the back of the stove...

  * * * *

  An hour later, the bacon was beyond help and the coffee too strong, but Jade couldn't have cared less. Ian stood at the stove in his towel, cooking something that smelled delicious. If she could get off the floor, maybe she'd take a look.

  "Here,” he said, finally reaching for her. “You look like a puddle of flesh."

  "A puddle of ‘spent’ flesh. You are ruining me. I'll never forget this weekend as long as I live. I had no idea it was even possible to have so many orgasms."

  "For a woman whose job it is to study human sexuality, you live a very sheltered life."

  Jade thought about it. Ian was right. She was a first-class nerd. No wonder she'd never married. Never even considered it, except maybe once, when she had first met him. “You've given me a lot to think about."

  He huffed and pulled her naked body into his arms. “I'm glad you noticed how hard I've been trying to get your attention."

  "You get my attention any harder and I don't think I'll live to see another day, big boy."

  "You are exaggerating, but keep it up. I like to hear it."

  "Ian, you don't need me to stroke your ego. I've seen how women throw themselves at you. I imagine you could fill books with all of your sexual exploits. A person doesn't get as good as you are in bed without lots of practice."

  "I admit, after my first ... after I became popular and starting touring with my music, I went a little wild. I enjoyed what was freely offered to me. But in the last two years. I've been unfulfilled, unhappy leading a life of decadent excesses. I don't expect you to understand. I'm not sure I do."

  Jade was afraid of where the conversation might be heading. Except for right after they'd made love in the shower the other afternoon, Ian had refrained from becoming too serious. She wanted to hear “serious,” yet at the same time, she didn't.

  Ian lowered his head and captured her lips with his. His kiss at first was gentle and reassuring, but a sense of urgency having nothing to do with sex replaced his easy touch. He forced her lips apart and thrust his tongue into her mouth, his accompanying moan traveling down her throat and along her spine. This kiss opened her. Not only her mouth, but she felt it in her deepest parts—her cells—her soul. In that moment, she understood she'd never be the same again. All her life had led to this one perfect pinnacle of time and space. Everything else that followed would be anticlimactic.

  She l
oved him. Not just loved him; he was her missing half, the piece of the puzzle she hadn't known existed. Until now.

  Right then.

  Forever.

  "Marry me?” he whispered.

  Jade thought she'd imagined the words. She opened her lids to see his eyes blazing into her. Yes! She wanted to marry him. Yes! She wanted to spend all of eternity at his side!

  "I can't."

  The pain in his eyes choked her, overwhelmed her. Tears started to slide down her face as she watched him blink—wince, really—and pull away. She didn't let go until he pushed harder. Ian kept his face from her as he walked out of her kitchen and up the stairs.

  She wanted to race after him to tell him she was sorry.

  She was.

  So sorry it ate her heart out of her chest. The very physical pain of it took her breath away.

  She sank to the floor in the spot where she'd stood in his arms. If only she had the strength to say yes. She wanted to marry him. If only she could without hurting him in the end.

  When Ian came back downstairs, he paused in the kitchen doorway. His face was ashen, his eyes unreadable. “I don't understand how you can do this to us. You know I can't stay here to pursue you at leisure. Evidently, I can't reach you. You are my soul and I'm nothing more than a weekend diversion. I'd say ‘one last fuck for the road,’ but I don't think I'd survive it."

  Jade agreed. If he so much as touched her, she would confess she loved him and beg him to take her with him. She'd be his groupie, his sex slave—anything.

  When she didn't say anything, Ian looked away, but not before she saw his eyes mist over. She couldn't hold back the scream of pain. As he walked away—out of her life—forever, she collapsed on the cold tile floor in hysterics.

  * * * *

  It was hours later before Jade pulled herself from the floor, making her way to the upstairs bathroom. At her beautiful, red, claw-foot tub, she picked up the handheld showerhead she adored so much. In a fit of rage and frustration, she smashed it against the faucet, over and over until the top clanged off into the tub.