17. The Breaking Wall #2
She pressed further, leaning in toward him. “What happened to you last night, Jason? One moment you were… present, completely present with me, and then suddenly you were running as if I’d caught fire.”
“I explained—”
“You lied.” The words were matter-of-fact, delivered without anger but with absolute certainty. “You wanted me as much as I wanted you. I felt it. So what are you so afraid of?”
Jason felt his control beginning to fray. The firelight played across Kate’s face, highlighting the determination in her eyes, and the slight flush in her cheeks that was beginning to show already.
“Kate, please. We agreed this morning that—”
“We agreed on nothing.” She stepped closer. “You made pronouncements, and I was too stunned to argue. But I’ve had all day to think about it.”
“And what conclusion have you reached?” The question came out rougher than he intended.
“That you’re a coward.”
This made him smile openly. But Kate remained serious, eyes darting all over his face.
“Does my honesty amuse you, husband?” she asked. “Or is that just the mask you wear when you’re cornered?”
His smile lingered though.
“And what if I told you that I enjoy being cornered by you… wife?” he replied.
“Really? Then tell me—are you going to run away again?” she insisted, tilting her chin up in challenge. “The moment things become real between us?”
They stared intently at each other, while the smile he had worn earlier slowly faded from his face.
But instead of retreating as she expected, he leaned forward, his breath filling the space between their faces.
“No,” he said in a soft voice. “I’m not going to run.”
Kate’s lips parted, as if to say something in return, but before she could form any words, his hands gripped her upper arms, turning her with deliberate force until she was leaning over the desk, palms flat against the desk’s surface.
The papers scattered beneath her hands, but neither of them paid attention to the disrupted calculations.
“Is this what you want then?” he asked, his voice rough against her ear as he pressed close behind her. “Is this the reality you’re so eager to explore?”
Kate’s breath caught as she felt the weight of his body pressing against her back, making her pulse quicken as his hands slid to her hips with possessive certainty.
She closed her eyes. “Yes,” she whispered.
His hand moved lower, gathering the fabric of her skirts with determination. “Are you certain? Because once I start, I won’t stop just because you challenge me to.”
“I’m certain,” she breathed, pressing back against him.
Jason slid his hand beneath the fabric of her skirts, brushing against the soft skin of her inner thigh, just above her stockings.
Kate gasped at the contact, biting her lower lip as he traced a slow, provocative path upward along her hip—grazing the curve of her waist with reverence—before sliding back down again, toward her wetness, beneath her underwear.
Kate closed her eyes once more as she felt the touch of his fingers against her already-damp core; she inhaled deeply as he caressed her sensitive labia, spreading the wetness gathered there toward her aroused clitoris and back. Her knees became weak suddenly.
“Do you want me to stop?” Jason murmured against her neck, raising goosebumps on her skin there, as his fingers moved up and down, taking her to a whole new level with every touch.
“No,” Kate pleaded. “Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”
As his fingers took on an intense rhythm amidst her wetness, she began to pant and moan intermittently, arching her back as a river of sensations washed over her from head to toe.
Jason touched her with mastery—the way he knew how, the way he was learning her—building the tension in her body until he felt her tremble against him.
The sounds Kate made were intoxicating, an enchanting song that bewitched him, leaving Gina with no defenses and no escape.
He pressed her cheek against Kate’s, closing his eyes and savoring the moment as he had never savored anything in his life.
With his free hand, he caressed Kate’s breasts beneath the fabric of her neckline, gently squeezing one of them.
“Is this what you want?” he whispered in a hoarse voice. “For me to make you lose all control of your body?”
“Yes,” she gasped, pushing back against his hand, seeking more contact, more pressure.
He gave her what she sought; his thumb moved in circles over her clitoris, while another finger slid inside her, moving in and out with a rhythm that soon had her calling out his name.
“Jason,” Kate murmured, feeling her entire body tense at his touch, at such delicious torture.
Her moans swelled, raw and unrestrained, her eyes snapping open as a force she didn’t recognize tore through her.
She clutched at his wrist, her grip fierce, her face contorted in what felt like torment yet was nothing but unbearable pleasure.
It was unlike anything she had known so far.
Something new, uncontrollable and consuming.
When it claimed her, she threw her head back against his shoulder, her cry echoing through the room as waves of ecstasy left her trembling.
Jason held her just so, leaning against him, waiting patiently for her breathing to steady, yet never ceasing to caress her wherever she had turned to liquid.
And he held her tight, his own feminine arousal pressed against his wife’s back, his face briefly buried in the curve of her neck as he inhaled the scent of her skin, the faint traces of perfume mingling with her natural warmth.
Every shiver, every tremor that coursed through Kate’s body, he felt mirrored in his own pulse, a burning desire he allowed himself to feel fully in this intimate experience.
He lifted his head slightly, brushing his lips against her ear. “Well then… satisfied?” His voice was pure honey as he spoke.
Kate turned her face a bit toward him, a smile flickering through her exhaustion. “Not a chance. But I must admit… what you made me feel just now—” she broke off, shaking her head softly against his temple. “I don’t even have words for it.”
His eyes met hers, dark with the intensity of his desire, and without thinking, he leaned in, claiming her lips in a kiss that was hungry and urgent, a wordless exchange of need and lingering heat.
He felt her respond immediately, while his arms tightened around her, the steady press of his body grounding them both in the shared fire of the moment.
When they finally broke apart, breathless, Kate twisted in his arms, searching his eyes. “But I want more. So much more. Don’t you see? I want you, Jason…, as I have never wanted anyone in my life. And it terrifies me—it has me so confused.”
His gaze shadowed with sorrow suddenly.
“But this… this is all I can give you, Kate. I am sorry,” he whispered.
Only then did he draw back, his hands leaving her at last. Kate straightened slowly, suddenly unsteady, while she smoothed her skirts with fingers that trembled against the fabric.
“But why?” she said, her voice slightly breathless still. “Tell me the truth.”
Jason stared at her, conflict warring across his features. The control he maintained seemed to be unraveling thread by thread, and Kate could see the effect she was having on him.
“Kate,” he said, and there was something almost desperate in his voice. “You wouldn’t understand—”
“I understand more than you think,” she interrupted, moving closer to him again.
“I understand that you want me as much as I want you. I understand that you’re fighting it for reasons you won’t explain.
And I understand that whatever those reasons are, they’re not going to make this—” she gestured between them, “—go away.”
She reached up to touch his face, and he closed his eyes at the contact, leaning into her palm despite himself.
“Stop running, Jason,” she whispered. “Stop making excuses. And tell me what you’re so afraid of.”
For a moment, he looked as though he might actually answer. His eyes opened, meeting hers with an intensity that silenced her completely, eyes that glistened suddenly, swelling with unshed tears he seemed too proud to let fall.
Something in that sight pierced Kate in a place she hadn’t known was still soft. It disarmed her anger, tangled her resolve. Whatever secret he carried, it wasn’t simple cruelty or distance. It was pain, deep and consuming.
She wanted to reach for him again, to pull him back before that familiar wall rose between them. But he turned away, shoulders stiffening as if to hold himself together.
“We should retire for the evening,” he said, “tomorrow will be demanding.”
Kate stared at his back, torn between frustration and ache, not only hers, but now also his, even if she didn’t yet understand it, or know what shape that pain took.
The old fury clawed at her chest, but beneath it stirred the faint awareness that he hadn’t shut her out this time, that he had just showed her his vulnerability. And somehow, that felt like progress.
She just didn’t know what to do about it.
Because he had, indeed, given her what she’d asked for, had let her glimpse the passion beneath his restraint, and for the first time, she realized that what frightened him wasn’t her, but what she made him feel. The fragility of his resolve regarding her.
Or at least, that was what her mind could conceive so far.
She was acutely aware, however, of her own new, deepest wishes: she wanted not only his body but also she wanted him to trust her, to give in to whatever demons he was fighting, and finally, endlessly, be with her.
For real. Not for business, not for society.
But for them. As husband and wife, once and for all.
She no longer cared about her previous notions of herself or men.
All that mattered now was this man before her.
More than that, she desired him, in ways she hadn’t understood before.
And though it terrified her, she was willing to surrender to that torturous pleasure, to melt into his arms, and finally, simply be his wife.
“Very well,” she said at last, gathering the scattered papers on the floor. “But Jason? This conversation isn’t finished.”
He said nothing, his back still to her. Yet something in the stillness of his posture, the tension in his shoulders, the faint rise and fall of his breath; told her he knew she was right.
Whatever secret he was guarding, whatever wall he had built between them, it was beginning to crumble.
And they both knew it was only a matter of time before it fell completely.