Author's Note: I'm sorry for the delay in posting (about 10 days since the last chapter, which isn't TOO bad, right?). I've had a busy time all around. I intend to update Temptation, The Irate Inspector, and If Blood Should Stain the Wattle all within the next week.
Thank you to those who've favourited or followed this story, as well as those who are reading andd/or reviewing. The next chapter will cover Jack and Phryne's return to Melbourne and will see Hugh and Dot join the story.
Just so you know, the title is now relevant twice over: a second heat wave has hit Australia with Melbourne in particular registering 44 degrees Celsius today (about 14 - 17 degrees hotter than their usual summer day temperature) on their fifth consecutive day over 40 degrees. If only all Melburnians could escape to the seaside for the duration of the heat wave!
The feeling of cold steel closing around her left wrist pulled Phryne from a deep sleep. Blinking awake, she saw Jack lying patiently beside her, a handcuff key clutched between his fingers.
Wrapping his long fingers around the soft skin of Phryne's right wrist, Jack indicated the other, as yet unattached end of the handcuffs. "I know we spoke about it earlier but I wanted to check if this was alright?"
Phryne was touched by Jack's concern, especially since she remembered the way his eyes had darkened with desire when she brought up the possibility of bringing Jack's handcuffs into bed. The fact that he had thought to stop and check for her permission to continue…it was so very Jack. She drew him down into a kiss, opening her mouth to him and swallowing his moan as her tongue met his own. Her hand slunk down to wrap around Jack's cock, caressing his growing arousal until he huffed a laugh and gently pulled her hand away.
"You're not trying to distract me are you, Miss Fisher?" he smirked, pressing his hips against her. Phryne adopted an expression of innocence and stretched beneath Jack, letting him feel every inch of her body.
"I wouldn't dream of it, Inspector," she replied in a low voice, wetting her lips and watching the way Jack's eyes followed her tongue.
But the use of his title seemed to have an even more arousing effect on Jack, because his fingers locked around Phryne's wrists and he lowered his mouth to her ear to ask, in a deep growl that spoke of barely restrained passion: "Phryne, I want so much right now to cuff you to the bed and make love to you. Is that alright?"
Phryne gasped and squirmed, Jack's lips nuzzling at her ear as he waited for her reply. Turning her head to brush her lips against the side of Jack's face, she whispered breathily, "Yes."
"Thank God – I don't know what I would have done if you'd said no," Jack grinned, threading the handcuffs around a bar of the wrought iron bedhead before gently locking the other steel ring around Phryne's right wrist.
The clicking of the ratchet mechanism sliding closed sent shivers of excitement down Phryne's spine and the scent of Jack – brylcreem, sweat, wool and whiskey – filled her senses when he leaned over to check that the cuffs weren't too tight. Straining upwards, Phryne licked at the salt on Jack's torso, laughing when he squirmed away with an amused "Phryne!"
She giggled at that, but when Jack raised one eyebrow and backed away to kneel beside her on the bed, Phryne frowned in confusion. "Jack?"
He treated her to a boyish grin that lit up his face. "I want to make the most of this moment. The Honourable Miss Phryne Fisher: in handcuffs and doing exactly what she is told, for once. Besides," he added, trailing a fingertip along the arch of her foot and chuckling when she twitched, "I'm starting to wish I had access to a policewoman's uniform. I seem to recall you once swore I'd never get you in one unless I cuffed you first."
Her amused smile told him she remembered that particular conversation. But now was not the time for reminisces: not when her body was hot and trembling for his touch. "Jack, please. I want you."
At her bare declaration, he leaned in close, hands planted on either side of her shoulders so he could run his nose and lips teasingly across the skin of Phryne's throat and breasts. When he sucked a mark onto the white underside of one breast, Phryne arched against the restraints and voiced a ragged gasp. Jack drew back to inspect the blot, darkly pleased that Phryne would wear his mark for the next few days. The way Phryne trembled and rose to meet him as Jack let his teeth and tongue scrape at her skin, lower and lower, reassured him that she didn't mind his new possessiveness in the least.
Jack stopped to nip at the rise of Phryne's hip bone, hesitant to continue without knowing what Phryne would think of his plans. Lifting his head, he waited until she opened her eyes and met his gaze.
"Would you think it dirty if I used my mouth on you?"
Phryne's lower lip dropped open in surprise and she shook her head emphatically. "Lord, Jack, if that's your idea of dirty then please – be as dirty as you wish."
He gave her that withering look she was so used to receiving from him – good humour wrapped in resignation. Worried he had misinterpreted her surprise, she rushed to reassure him.
"Believe me: I am very glad that you are versed in that particular way of pleasuring a woman and you need never ask me for permission," Phryne smiled, pleased when Jack smiled back. "I just never pegged you for the sort of man who is familiar with the less…socially acceptable activities one can do with a lover."
Jack responded by dipping his head to explore Phryne's slickness with his mouth, enjoying the sound of the handcuffs clanking against the bedhead as Phryne shifted and jerked with pleasure.
Pulling back slightly, Jack let his fingers stroke where his mouth had abandoned. His voice was challenging and amused when he spoke. "You imagined, perhaps, that I was inexperienced in the bedroom arts? A man whose knowledge of sexual skills was restricted to the dull and the mundane? A man who would not know how to use fingers and lips and tongue to awaken a woman's arousal?"
The expert use of those very body parts to wind Phryne's arousal tighter served to reinforce his words and it was between gasping pleas for more that Phryne managed to say fondly, "You never cease to be a man of hidden depths, Jack Robinson."
Jack knew that, having invoked Phryne's interest, she would no doubt ask him at exhaustive length about where, how and with whom he had learnt his bedroom skills. But at the moment Phryne was so caught up in the waves of pleasure building within her that Jack wasn't expecting to be facing those questions any time soon.
With a sudden harsh gasp and a cry of Jack's name, Phryne arousal broke into orgasm.
Jack kept up the motions of his fingers and tongue against Phryne's slickness and with a shocked cry she arched into a second orgasm, her spine lengthening and her body clenching against Jack's fingertips. As her breathing began to even out, she hooked a heel behind Jack and used it to tug him upward.
Stretching his body out over Phryne, Jack smiled down at the dazed look on his lover's face.
Laying a soft kiss on Phryne's mouth, Jack asked teasingly, "How are you feeling, darling? Ready to confess your sins and have those Darbys removed?"
It took a moment before Phryne recovered herself enough to speak, but when she caught sight of the smug look on Jack's face, she wiggled beneath him in retaliation and grinned when Jack closed his eyes and groaned at the sensation against his overaroused body. As Jack fought to regain control over himself, Phryne wrapped both legs around his waist.
"I believe I can face up to my punishment for a little longer, Inspector. I'm at your mercy." Her tone had sped right past 'teasing' and had come to a full stop at 'utterly seductive' as she captured Jack's earlobe between her teeth and licked.
"Don't give me ideas," Jack joked under his breath. But Phryne narrowed her eyes in consideration until Jack had to ask: "What insane plan are you thinking up now?"
Having come to a decision, Phryne tilted her head to the side and regarded Jack with clear eyes. "I trust you, Jack. So I want you to move up towards the top of the bed."
Unsure where Phryne was heading with this, Jack nonetheless moved further upward until his knees were on either side of Phryne's ribcage.
"Higher," she commanded softly.
Jack was slower to obey this time, but obey he did. When his knees framed Phryne's shoulders, she smiled reassuringly and wiggled her bound hands to beckon him to learn forward.
"Brace your hands on the headboard," Phryne said and now there was no possible confusion over what she was planning. Jack's heart hammered in his chest as he leaned forward and grabbed hold of the bedhead above the spot where Phryne's hands were secured. In this position, his hips were angled close to Phryne's face and his cock was all but grazing her parted lips.
Holding his body still with great effort as he stared down at her flushed face, Jack managed to wet his lips enough to ask urgently, "Phryne, are you sure?"
Her response was to smile kindly and then open her lips around the head of Jack's cock.
Christ Almighty. Jack knew now just what Phryne had meant by her cryptic remark of "I trust you". In this position, kneeling over Phryne's face, if he were to lose his self-control and thrust into her mouth she would be unable to draw breath. She had put herself in the most vulnerable of positions – restrained and at the mercy of a man for her very ability to keep breathing – and Jack was humbled that the ever-independent Phryne Fisher had put that trust in him.
Jack watched through half open eyes as Phryne took him deeper into her mouth and he was forced to close his eyes when Phryne did something exquisite with her tongue and throat that made Jack's spine tingle.
He was proud of the fact that, even when Phryne began to hum and moan around him, he managed to keep his hips still – though his legs trembled and his knuckles blanched around the wrought iron bedhead.
To be honest, he was a little embarrassed by how quickly Phryne was able to bring him to the peak of his pleasure. Watching the way she watched him as she worked at his flesh with her mouth…a groan broke free from Jack's lips and his entire body stiffened.
"Phryne, Phryne…I'm…"
Instead of pulling her mouth away at Jack's stuttered warning, Phryne swallowed around him as he shook and shuddered his way through an incredible orgasm.
With shaking hands, Jack retrieved the handcuff key from the bedside table and freed Phryne from the Darbys. Flinging them to the floor with a clunk, Jack dropped down beside Phryne on the bed and took his lover's hands in his to rub the circulation back into them.
"I haven't had a night this debauched since the day after I was demobbed," Jack smiled wryly, wrapping an arm around Phryne's shoulders to hold her close.
She chuckled beside him, stroking her fingers comfortingly against his chest. "I hope we have many more nights of debauchery ahead of us, Jack Robinson."
Trying and failing to hide the happiness that bloomed in him at the knowledge that Phryne wanted some sort of a future with him, Jack raised Phryne's fingers to his lips and kissed them one by one, mustering the courage to speak.
"I love you, Phryne Fisher."
A face marked with shock and joy turned towards him and Jack almost made a remark about the miracle of having rendered Miss Fisher speechless for once. But then she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly.
"Well then, I think it's about time that I admit that I love you too, Jack Robinson."