The Pleasures of Winter (10 page)

He rubbed one hand gently over her bare backside. To her mortification, it felt good on her hot skin. She had to struggle not to lift herself against him, begging him to do it again.

‘And now we’re back to business.’ He smacked her again. This one was sharper, more immediate, the sound of his hand on her bare skin louder in the echoing cave. She howled again.

When she managed to catch her breath, she asked, ‘How many are you going to do?’ She had no idea how many he had given her already, but if she had a number, she could grit her teeth and endure.

‘As many as I think you need.’ He spanked her again, the force of it driving her against his thigh, its solidity a strangely comforting contrast to the stinging heat of her buttocks.

Abbie gave herself up to the spanking. She couldn’t stop it and would just have to endure it until he was finished. She didn’t try to stay silent, but allowed herself to yelp and howl and let the sweat and the tears drip. She was aware she was a wet soggy mess, but no longer cared.

The only sound in her mind was the sound of flesh meeting flesh and her cries in response. There was no thought, only feeling. She was barely aware of her own voice saying, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.’

Something about the spanking changed after that.

The spanks were different on different parts of her bottom. The ones that were higher up were worst and stung in a nasty way. She found herself moving, trying to direct his hand lower, to the point just above where her buttocks joined her thigh. Yes there, if he spanked there, it was almost bearable.

She moved again, raising herself on her toes slightly, trying to direct him without words. She would not beg him.

‘Ah!’ The angle of that spank was different, up rather than down, and it drove her against his thigh and caused a splinter of pleasure to dart through her. She scrabbled to get her toes under her so she could get that angle again.

He spanked upwards again, and this time the splinter was a spike. She cried out. He slowed the pace, spanked her more softly. Rubbed his hand over her burning skin.

She tilted her pelvis, begging without words. He spanked her again on the magic spot, but it wasn’t quite enough. ‘More. Harder.’ She couldn’t believe she had said those words, but he took it for the signal it was.

His hand flashed again, faster and faster, driving the breath from her body and pleasure through it. Abbie was vaguely aware that she was wet with her own arousal, but she didn’t care. She had never felt anything like this before, had no way of coping with the overwhelming barrage of sensation flooding down over her. She gave herself up to it, allowing Jack to drive her higher and higher until, with a wail of pleasure, her climax broke over her, leaving her trembling and panting.

Oh god, oh god, oh god, what have I done?
This had to be a bad dream, it couldn’t be real. But she was still hanging almost upside down over Jack Winter’s knee, his big hand rubbing soothing circles on her exposed backside. She allowed herself to lie there for another few moments, unwilling to face what had just happened.

‘Well, who’d have guessed?’ Jack’s voice brought her back to earth, and the amused satisfaction in it made her stiffen.

She pushed herself up, and this time he made no move to stop her. He even helped her to stand upright. She winced as the movement tugged at the tender skin of her punished rear end. She couldn’t meet his eyes and turned away, trying to pull up her trousers without revealing any more of her assets to him.

‘Abbie –’

She never found out what Jack was about to say to her. A shout outside the cave interrupted him. ‘Hey, are you two in there?’

Abbie fumbled, horrified at the thought of Kevin catching her with her trousers literally around her ankles, and drew them up. She sucked in her breath as the material rasped over the stinging skin. Her buttocks felt twice their normal size. She stared at Jack. ‘Look what you you’ve done to me, I’m a wreck.’ She kept her voice low, not wanting Kevin to hear.

Jack laughed. ‘Relax, it wasn’t that hard. You probably won’t even have bruises tomorrow.’

Jack watched as Abbie spun away, turning her back and trying to fasten her trousers before Kevin arrived. She dragged her hand over her face, wiping away tears.

‘You look fine, he’ll never know,’ he said.

She turned to give him a black look.

Daylight was fading outside, but he could still see the concern on Kev’s face. ‘We’re in here. Everything’s fine.’ Abbie’s dark expression made him want to laugh.

Zeke pushed into the cave and looked from one to the other. ‘Are you sure?’

Jack held his breath. This was the moment when Abbie could destroy him. All she had to do was say, ‘Jack Winter pulled down my panties and spanked my bare ass,’ and his career was finished. He knew it, and undoubtedly, she did too.

He didn’t regret spanking her. If ever a girl had needed it, she did. His blood still chilled when he remembered the sight of the jaguar only feet away from her, all because she had refused to do what he had told her. She deserved it, and if she had any sense of justice in her, Abbie would admit that. But she might still out him.

To his relief, she gave a curt, ‘I’m fine,’ and turned her back on Zeke as she managed the catch of her trousers under Jack’s eyes.

Kev gave him a sharp glance, as if aware of what had happened. He probably was. Kev knew him too well.

‘Abbie, are you all right?’ His voice was gentler than usual. ‘I’m going to set up the bedding here. Do you want to sleep beside me?’

‘As long as you keep your hands to yourself.’ She recovered fast, Jack had to give her that. ‘I’m really not in the mood for another difficult male.’

In the bustle of sorting out bedding, arranging mosquito netting and getting Zeke settled, Abbie managed to ignore Jack. He could not ignore her.

He had loved spanking her. His hand still felt the impression of her gorgeous ass. God, that was an ass that begged for a spanking. He wished it had not had to be a punishment. He knew he had broken every rule in the book, because she hadn’t consented to being spanked. But by god she had deserved it and he knew that, whatever she
might say, her body had loved it. Whether she knew it or not, Abbie Marshall was a sub just waiting to happen. He would have loved to introduce her to the joys of going over the knee with an erotic, sensual spanking. Instead, it had had to be all business and no fun.

But she had come. He had heard the animal sounds she made as pleasure flooded her body and felt her shudder in orgasm. He knew it was possible to climax just from being spanked, but he had never made it happen. Abbie Marshall, uptight New Yorker, had come over his knee. He wanted to see her do that again.

She lay down on the far side of the cave, her back turned to him. It didn’t matter; he couldn’t stop watching her until the darkness of the cave blinded him.

Jack tried to sleep, but the erection which he had kept under control all through Abbie’s spanking now tormented him. It rose against his belly, hard and unyielding, and kept him awake and wanting her. All through the night, he relived that extraordinary moment when she had climaxed under his hand.

He turned restlessly, trying to find a position where it would cease to torment him. In the silence of the cave, he couldn’t even use his own hand to ease the ache. As soon as they got home, he would find an experienced sub and work out his frustration. He tried to focus on what he would do, but Abbie’s face kept appearing instead.

He laughed silently. The idea of Abbie Marshall being part of his hidden life was so impossible that it was beyond fantasy. Even if she was a natural submissive who had no idea that she was.

Every time he fell asleep, he was tortured by dreams
of Abbie over his knee, of spanking her, of watching her come under his hand. He couldn’t stand it.

As soon as the first light of dawn crept into the cave, he slid from under his netting and slipped out. The night-time drone of mosquitoes was still loud, but the new day was breaking. He headed down towards the lagoon, and stopped.

There was a boat on it. Some sort of canoe with two men fishing from it. ‘Hola! Help!’ he called. For a moment, he thought they hadn’t heard, then they turned in his direction and paddled over.

They were saved.

Bleary eyed, Abbie made her way through the arrivals hall into Miami Airport. Zeke told her that she was lucky she was in the company of a celebrity, otherwise she would still be stuck in passport control. This whole star thing astounded her. There was no waiting. The airport authorities fawned over Jack and he accepted it as his due.

They hadn’t spoken about what happened in the cave. She was still trying to make sense of it. That is, when she wasn’t trying to shut the memory of it from her mind. How could he have done that to her, made her respond like that?

Jungle fever, she assured herself. Once she was back in New York she would deal with it.

‘Abbie. My god, Abbie.’ A slim blond man strode through the crowd.

William. She had never been so glad to see anyone in her entire life.

‘Darling.’ He swept her up in a hug. ‘Everyone’s been so worried about you. Miffy has been ringing the State Department every hour trying to get news of you.’

His arms loosened and he stepped back, wrinkling his nose. ‘You look a bit … well, you look a bit –’

Sometimes he could be such a pain. ‘Dirty? Smelly? I’ve been in the jungle for the last four days, William. What did you expect?’

‘Now, don’t be like that, chipmunk. I’m thrilled to have you back safely.’ He gave her another, stiffer hug. ‘I’ve reserved a suite at ONE Bal hotel so you can get cleaned up. And you might want to tell that newspaper of yours that you are safe, they keep pestering us.’

She nodded, already planning what she would say to her editor.

Abbie stole a last glance at Jack, who was surrounded by reporters and photographers. Even with several days’ growth of beard and a sweat-stained shirt, he was breathtaking. But like the jaguar in the jungle – rare, exotic – he was far too dangerous to keep. It was time to put Honduras behind her and move on.

There was a sudden burst of laughter from the crowd surrounding Jack and she turned. Their eyes met and he gave her one of those stares. A Jack stare that made her insides quiver. She linked her arm through William’s and turned her back on him.

Jack stared after Abbie’s retreating back. It was ridiculous to be jealous of a wuss like that. Presumably he was the fiancé that Abbie had constantly waved in his face while they were in the jungle. Just one look was enough to tell Jack that the blond drink of water would never be enough for a passionate woman like Abbie. But it infuriated him that the other man was the one who could kiss her and take her home with him.

Jack wanted to kill him.

Then the blond bastard kissed Abbie, stepped back quickly and said something that made her mad. Jack was
too far away to hear but by now he knew her body language. The other man had really pissed her off.

Jack grinned. Looked like he wasn’t going to get lucky later. Just to make sure, he broke away from the gang of reporters who were popping camera flashes in his face and walked over to the pair. He tapped Abbie on the shoulder. ‘Hey, haven’t you forgotten something?’

‘I’d love to forget everything.’ Her expression was as stiff as her back.

‘Even this?’ He handed her the rucksack with her laptop inside it, and watched her face light up. For one moment, he hoped she would throw her arms around him and kiss him. Then dweeb wrinkled his nose and said, ‘I don’t believe we’ve met.’

Jack stuck out his hand. ‘I’m Jack Winter. I’ve been sleeping with Abbie for the last four nights. Who are you?’

He watched the other man battle his reluctance to shake hands, but manners won out. He barely touched his fingers to Jack’s. ‘I’m William Dillard, Abbie’s fiancé. And that joke was in very poor taste.’

‘Will Dullard. Got it.’ Jack stepped back before the other man could react. He didn’t want to watch Abbie walking away again. Jack turned back to the press mob and flashes exploded in his face.

‘Jack! Jack! How are you feeling?’ Microphones were stuck in front of his face. God, he really hated this part of his job. The acting he loved, but he despised the whole publicity machine. But he knew how it worked, so he forced a smile on to his face and a twinkle into his eye and gave them the Bad Boy Jack Winter that they expected.

‘I’m feeling just great now that I’m back in America, but
I’ve got to say, I can’t wait to get home and have a cool glass of Guinness.’ He winked at a female reporter and she blushed. ‘Fancy keeping me company while I drink it?’

None of them had ever seen him drinking Guinness, but they were all convinced he got drunk on it every night.

There were a couple of questions about how they had survived in the jungle. Jack praised the survival training he had received when he was making
Jungle Heat
. Then a reporter asked, ‘Is it true that you nailed Abbie Marshall when you were in the jungle?’

The question took him by surprise, and he responded with the stock Hollywood answer. ‘No comment.’

The buzz increased and more camera bulbs went off in his face: as far as they were concerned, ‘no comment’ meant yes.

Abbie would never forgive him.

Abbie winced when she saw the pristine white cover on the bed. Everything in the luxurious suite was white, including the chairs. She couldn’t even sit down to write her story.

‘Everything OK?’

‘Of course. Everything’s fine, but I …’ She glanced down at her mud-stained clothing.

‘You’ll be fine as soon as you wash and change,’ William assured her.

‘I don’t have anything to change into.’ And she wasn’t going to go out looking like this. ‘William, if I write down the sizes, could you go to the hotel shop and buy me something to wear?’

‘Me?’ William looked baffled, but he managed to smile at her. ‘Of course. I’ll get you something suitable.’

Abbie repressed a shudder at what he might buy, scribbled a quick list of sizes and closed the door behind him. She couldn’t stay in these filthy things any longer. Maybe she could file the story naked before she climbed into the shower.