Chapter nine:

Daylight streamed through the single porthole in the third-class bunk. The Gunderson's and Fabrizio had left hours before for breakfast, with Fabrizio singing happily of the Swedish girl he had met and managing to converse with slightly in English during their brief time together. Once ushered out, without a word of Rose's presence beneath the sheets of his own bed, Jack had watched as her legs had discarded the last of the covers, wrapping her legs out of it and the hems of her dress were now around her waist, exposing most of her bare legs. Jack pressed a kiss to a freckle on Rose's thigh before sliding his upper body off the end of the bed. She curled onto her side, flushed and trembling, her slim but shapely, pale limbs drawn tight to her body. Her blue eyes followed his movements, looking dazed and tired at once.

''Good morning,'' his eyes seemed to fill her entire universe.

He had spent the night on the floor resting beside her, then the early morning beside her tangled in the covers. His blood was raging, his erection throbbing from spending the time wrapped about her. His body deeply responding to just the touch of her against him even fully clothed.

''It is.''

Rose pulled herself up, half aware of the bunk above her, she navigated around it then slipped off the edge of the bed. Jack knitted together a frown then a chuckle.

''The things Trudy brought are over there.'' Jack pointed to the corner where a leather bag sat with a black coat atop and another brown leather reticule which belonged to her, assuming Trudy had gathered up the coins and notes which Rose kept inside her jewellery box for safe keeping.

''Thank you.''

Glancing about Rose noticed that his bunk was nothing more than two sets of bunk beds, a single sink with a mirror above it and then a porthole with daylight flooding through. The other passengers' belongings were discarded about the floor and she stepped over them to take the sink, where she found her toothbrush and freshened herself quickly. In the mirror, she caught glimpses as slowly, without a word, he removed his shirts to discard of them into a pile along with his socks and then almost hesitantly he ran his fingers through his hair, catching her watch in the mirror. It wasn't an act of seduction, of anything other than to wash yet her jaw opened slightly ajar on its own accord. If there was hesitance to remove his trousers before then, he yanked open the button of his trousers and pushed them down. Kicking them aside, he took himself in his hand and stroked the pulsing length. Crimson skeins of moisture, her virginal blood-clung to him. She must have bled a little more after their time in the library and then in the backseat of the Renault.

Air. The air suddenly felt completely gone. Dropping her toothbrush in the sink, Rose seemed to have taken a leave of her own senses and yet, though she could see him stood perfectly still, wonderfully beautiful and naked in the mirror, she dare not turn for fear of knowing that it was the reality. How was it that her heart raced so epically in just a few seconds of him discarding of simple things such as clothes.

Jack had pushed her far and fast, needing to take her past the twin hurdles of inexperience and virginity so he could have her as they needed to. He had tried to warn her, attempted to explain, forced himself to give voice to a craving he didn't understand. Small comfort to a woman overwhelmed by her first physical attraction, but then it was perhaps even more overwhelming to him—a man who had experience and yet with Rose, it was all shot to the wind. Jack had taken advantage of that fact, remembering how riotous the flush of first lust was, how ill-considered and desperate it felt. He remembered it well, because Rose made him feel that way again but that was magnified by such extreme measures that any other sexual experience of his own before her felt completely void and worthless. Hot-blooded. Randy. Impatient. With harsh strides, he went to the washstand and grabbed a handful of freshly laundered towels. On the way back to the bed, he caught a bottle of oil which he had bought in Paris. He tossed the towels on the covers of the bed, then poured a small pool of the fragrant golden liquid into his palm. Deliberately, he rubbed his hands together, releasing the scent of bergamot and spice into the air. Rose watched, riveted, as he gripped himself at the root and stroked upward, pulling and stretching, swelling further until he was certain he'd never been this hard and thick. Ropey veins coursed the length of him, making him look as brutal as he felt. She made a soft, anxious noise, her slim hands grasping the sink edge so harshly that her knuckles turned white.

"Are you frightened?" he asked, knowing that this was perhaps the first time she had seen a man entirely naked before her, in daylight at least. Her mind might shy away from his primitive display, but her body understood... and would react accordingly. Her response to him was always to sink beneath him and succumb to the beautiful way of which he kissed her, at times, she was almost in tears. It wasn't frightening, or perhaps it was...

"Yes," she answered softly.

"Face the other way."

Breathing through her entire nerves, Rose turned slowly so that their eyes met, not through the mirror. She marvelled at how still he stood when she felt like an absolute bundle of nerves, with a throbbing urge to throw herself to him and feel his skin bare against her own, in daylight, without a need to stop.

''Will-will we not be interrupted?''

''The door locks from inside here, too. They won't be back until tonight.''

Rose let go of the sink, to attempt to stand using her own two legs. She felt boneless, floating somehow. The entire morning felt like a dream.

''Do you need to wash?''

Rose nodded, silently as she gave him her back. On the surface, she appeared as to not be as affected as she was. As soon as his fingers touched the nape of her neck to undo the first of the many buttons, she felt the burning of something start in her spine, curling about in her stomach and then crackling outwards to her entire body, radiating and glowing onwards.

"Are you alright?" he murmured, joining her and pressing a kiss to a cluster of freckles on her shoulder as he exposed them slowly. ''I love your freckles.''

''Yes,'' she closed her eyes, half induced by the sleepy state and violent response her body had by been in close proximity to his own. A man taking a wash should not have been the most beautiful sight a woman could behold, yet, he had reduced her to a quivering mess once more. The way in which he had removed his clothes had not been sexual in nature, yet she responded so. ''I just feel-''

The dress pooled at her feet revealing nothing but her nakedness beneath it. It was hard to remember how it felt to be so constricted by a corset and the rigid measures women endured in daily life. Not when she felt the most exhilarated right now.

"Everything?" Jack wrapped his body around her, pulling her against his chest with an arm around her slender waist. He sensed her nerves, her need to cover herself with something. "Is it so hard to believe I might have my own preferences? You seem had have self doubt. "

"For freckles and large buttocks?" She wished to add that until just mere days ago, she didn't know how to be a sexual being. How to react to a riotous adoration. How to not be so unsettled when his eyes washed over her in such awe that it stole her breath.

"You, Rose. All of you." He inhaled sharply when she leaned into him, and he became further inflamed by the smell of her. "My feelings for you," he confessed hoarsely. "I can't stop them at all.''

''How so?''

''How I fall in love when I look at you even more. How I want to show you the entire world because I know I can never give it to you. Will you trust me to do that?''

She looked at him over her shoulder. Her lower lip was caught between her teeth and her eyes were shadowed, but she nodded.

''Are you going to make love to me again?''

With no further preliminaries, Rose was upon the bottom bunk, he atop her and naturally her legs fell about his waist. Rapidly breathing, his hair fell into his face, watching her and gauging her reaction as he took himself in his hand and arched his hips forward. Her breath hissed out when he tucked the thick head against her and slid upward, just how he had in her own bed after drawing her. Up, then down. His watery gaze didn't leave her own, as he kept himself propped upward without hitting his head on the bunk above. Her legs tightened around his waist, her thighs squeezing a silent urge for him to continue. The bedroom twice...the library and the Renault and now, here...

Was it ever going to be enough?

Jack restrained her with a hand at her breast, fighting his turbulent need to pound into her and spew violently, expending his lust in a violent taking that would slake his craving. The sense of desperation was nigh intolerable. The apprehension that she was here, was his and would be with him when this journey ended seemed...implausible. A man like he was never supposed to encounter a woman like her and yet she had unlocked every buried emotion within that hadn't been exposed since he had lost his parents. He had fallen in love. A woman like her was never supposed to know this, feel this—passion, the earth-shattering way in which they came together in both body and mind.

Rose's hand covered his. Her nipple pebbled into his palm, tightening as he felt its sensitivity when he kneaded the whole of her breast. Her entire body trembled, and her hips pushed back. Her legs parted, one foot hooking behind his calf, giving her leverage to undulate against him. She was finally unrestrained, and it was better than he'd imagined. She whispered his name. He pulled back, finding the clutching entrance to her body. There was a moment of hesitation; a brief second when reason reminded him that she was above him in station. Too good for him. His jaw clenched.

"Rose," he hissed, seared by the heat of her. The delicate muscles inside her bore down on the sensitive head of him and a violent shudder wracked his frame. Rose's head thrashed against his chest. Her nails dug into the forearm he pinned her with. Her movements altered, writhing away instead of into him. She tried to close her legs, but he blocked her, moving his hand from her breast to her below in a lightning-quick lunge.

"Trust me," he said gruffly, pushing deeper. "Breathe."

Registering the tremendous strain in Jack's voice, Rose tried to nod, gasping air into seized lungs. He slid deeper, despite the panicked clench of untried tissues. She understood the use of the oil now. It gave her body no traction to deny him, no means of resistance and the ability to have been in every deepened part of her. Her eyes closed on a shuddering exhale. Her mind filled with the vision of Jack standing beside the bed fully naked, skin gleaming with the gorgeous tan of the sun. He withdrew a scant inch. She sucked air into her burning lungs, and his hips lunged forward, tunnelling his rigidness into her. She made a broken sound, unprepared for the feeling of being so utterly possessed.

"Rose." He stilled, panting, his chest working like a great bellows against her own. His cheek nuzzled against her temple.

"Am I hurting you?"

"No..." Stretched to the point of aching, but she was not pained.

"If you need to stop-." His fingers rubbed between her legs, starting a hot, sweet trickle of sensation in her core. Eyes stinging, she gave a tentative, tiny swivel of her hips. He slid a fraction deeper.

''No.''

She forced her taut frame to relax, sagging back against his supportive chest and deliberately modifying her breathing. Slow deep breath in. Steady breath out. She concentrated on his touch, the way he played with callused fingertips, urging pleasure outward across nerve endings. On her next inhale, he thrust, sinking into her until his thighs were pressed tight to hers. Her held fell forward on a low moan.

"Rose."

He pulled out with painstaking slowness, then filled her again. With every withdrawal and return, his movements became more fluid. Practiced. His expertise became apparent. He knew just how far to pull out, how leisurely to push in, how deep to penetrate to drive her mad for the feel of him inside her. Her enjoyment grew, until she sought the pleasure purposefully, writhing into his thrusts to feel the fullness she craved. She struggled against him, resisting the position he kept her in that prevented her from increasing his depth and pace.

''How can it be like this?'' She whimpered in torment, aching every time he pulled out and left her empty. "But..."

"Because I love you, because we have come to feel-" His tone was rough and deeply sexual. "everything.''

It wasn't just physical. It was mentally. A bond. A tie that would never be severed. Through the darkness of her life, there had never been a light until Jack came. In the light of the morning, she was almost blinded by the beauty of his eyes, the way he softened when he watched her whilst making love to her in the most primal yet loving way. Wasn't this supposed to be the boring part of a marriage? Or maybe the forbidden factor was the attraction.

"Yes, everything.''

Heat washed over her. His pace increased, the flat of his palm applying just enough pressure to stimulate her on the outside as well as within. Sweat coated her skin and his, making them slide along each other, releasing the fragrance of the oil and Jack's scent into the air. The room became hot and the covers of the bed damp, creating a lush humidity that intensified the experience. He whispered praise, his words slurring with pleasure, his abdomen and thighs flexing powerfully. Tears filled her eyes, the tension so fine she felt as if she might break at any moment.

"Don't," she sobbed. "Don't let me go."

Whether she was meaning now or ever, he didn't care as he pulled her to him, cradling her neck with his hand at her nape before she buried her face within the crook of his neck. The arching of her back enabled him to gain entry more, and she placed a single kiss there at the sensitive point of his neck. It was sweet, loving and beautiful...causing him to come apart just a little more.

"I never could," he groaned, holding still at the deepest point and grinding against her, screwing into her another fractional bit. She arched violently. The climax hit, her vision narrowing until it blackened completely. Her mouth opened in a silent cry of pleasure. Inside, she convulsed, tightening on him in the most intimate of embraces. Blood roared in her ears, drowning out all sound. A thick wash of heat flooded the depths of her. Jack cursed and jerked against her, shuddering in unison with every wrenching spurt. Rose felt her name on his lips as he emptied himself inside her, his mouth moving against j shoulder in a sweetly broken litany. Feeling the weight of him, the serenity which filled the minutes after their orgasm and how their hammering hearts seemed to become one became a dreamlike state for them both.

Rose pushed up, stealing his wits with the unexpected view of her perfect breasts, he rolled to one side so that he laid beside her and when she sat back on her heels with her hands on her knees, he found himself speechless. Then, her eyes widened and she bit her lower lip. Red faced; she made a move as if to leave the bed.

He caught her wrist. "What is it?"

"I need a towel," she whispered.

Sitting up, he grabbed one he'd thrown on the bed earlier. With his other hand, he gestured for her to widen her kneeling stance.

"Jack..." Rose was clearly mortified.

"It's all right," he said, tapping his shoulder in a silent order for her to put her hand there for balance. "Let me." He hardened at the visible evidence of how explosively he'd climaxed. She was soaked with his semen. Thick trickles of it coursed down either thigh. He could hardly believe he was ready for her again. By all rights, he should be drained dry. He cleaned her as gently as possible.

"You knew to have towels ready," she noted breathlessly, as he parted her delicately and dried the dark red curls between her legs.

''I knew that you would be needing a wash,'' Jack hesitated a second, ''I never expected for this to happen again.''

Glancing at the sincerity within his face, Rose diverted her gaze for just a second. ''What about the first time?''

''No, nor the second or the last.'' Jack told her, with a nervous edge. ''I-I usually take precautions.''

"It was my responsibility to do that. It's my body."

Jack exhaled deeply. ''No, Rose. I was not thinking, never rational when I am about you.''

Her chin lifted. "Does your body react the way it does just like mine?''

''Yes. As though you belonged to me somehow.'' He trod carefully, never wishing to think of her as a possession of any type but knowing how she was truly ingrained into his entire being.

''Do you belong to me?'' Rose arched a brow in a small tease.

"Clothed and unclothed, for as long as you'll have me." If he had his way, even longer than that. Nerves fluttered about in his own belly, his own head had become lost in the last week and he was now feeling the nip of reason. Jack looked her in the eye. "I always used French letters, they were hard to come by and expensive at times but I haven't gone without one since I was young and too ignorant to know better. I assure you, that was many years ago."

"Did you forget tonight or the other nights? Or find you lacked—"

"I never forget." He paused in his ministrations. Her fingertips dug deep into his shoulder. ''It was never intentional and if you should find out that you are carrying our child, then I would love-''

''I love you,'' the words which she had said to him once, last night was wonderful to hear her speak, it broke him off mid word. Dropping the towel, Jack caught her at the waist and tugged her against him. He knew some of her feelings were inspired by the aftermath of orgasmic bliss and gratitude for it, but some of them were more deeply rooted. God knew he had never expected nor wanted anyone to love him.

''I would do anything for you. Break any law, violate every damned rule that society has ever set.''

Rose's tongue followed the curve of her lower lip. Her eyes had grown heavy-lidded, betraying how well she enjoyed touching him so intimately. Or perhaps it was what he'd said. Jack reached up and cupped her breast, his thumb and forefinger surrounding the delicate peak and tugging. She made a soft noise of pleasure.

"Lie atop me," he said hoarsely. , as slowly she draped her slim body over him. Cupping her nape, he pulled her lips down to his. He kissed her with open-mouthed hunger, drinking her in with deep draws on her tongue. She kissed him back with equal fervency, her lips slanting across his, her hands clutching the counterpanebed covers on either side of him. Не groaned, feeling ravenous but wanting no more than this for now. It wasn't enough and yet it was too much, the act of kissing both erotic and sweet. The feel of her slight weight stretched across him was one he adored, and the sudden smattering of tiny kisses she pressed all over his lips made him laugh with delight. "I'm sorry," he said again, knowing he could never give up this intimacy. He was willing to grovel to keep it. "I will make mistakes. I don't know how to do this, how to be what you deserve."

Rose kissed him quiet. "We'll show one another how to be what the other needs," she breathed. "We can learn together, can't we?"

''Yes.''

Jasper thrust his fingers into her hair and took her mouth in a long, deep kiss.

''I do respect you, for God's sake, I just forget everything. I would marry you in a second. If you had a child then-'' He had no notion of what else to say and she didn't care. It was more than an infatuation. Rose loved him.

Rose kissed him quiet. "We'll show one another how to be what the other needs," she breathed.

Jack thrust his fingers into her hair and took her mouth in a long, deep kiss. He had no notion of what time it was, and he didn't care. He just knew he didn't want it to end.