The Lady Has a Past (Burning Cove #5) - Amanda Quick Page 0,73

I’ll make sure it’s good for you.”

“Is that so?”

“My mother explained to me that it’s easy for a woman to fake an orgasm. She said sometimes a wife does it just to make sure her husband doesn’t feel that he failed. My sister, Vivian, assured me that there was no real trick to it. Just a few gasps and a moan or two. Men fall for it every time, she says.”

Simon clamped a hand over her mouth. “Don’t say another word. I don’t think my nerves can take it.”

She nodded quickly to show she understood. With his hand firmly plastered across her mouth, he started to move deep inside her. His eyes locked with hers.

“Don’t even think of faking it,” Simon warned.

She nodded again and considered her situation. She was still uncomfortable, but some of the exciting urgency and tension she had been experiencing earlier began to return. Pain and urgency blurred and then tension became the dominant sensation. Once again everything inside her got tight. Intuitively she started to clench and unclench around him.

Simon groaned. His jaw could have been carved from stone. His eyes were fierce now. She knew he was fighting to hold on to his control. He took his hand away from her mouth.

In the next moment she had to squeeze her eyes shut because she could no longer focus on anything except the growing tightness in her lower body. It was once again becoming unbearable. She dug her fingers into Simon’s shoulders and fought him for the release she sensed was almost upon her.

The rippling waves of the climax cascaded through her. She was still trying to cope with the flood of sensations when Simon began moving faster, driving deep in long, urgent thrusts. His back arched. His mouth opened on a low roar. He looked like a man facing heaven or hell. She felt his release crash through him.

She held him close until he collapsed on top of her.

There was a long moment of silence while Simon caught his breath. Then he rolled off to one side.

“Please tell me you didn’t fake it,” he said.

“I didn’t fake it. Please tell me you’re not still mad at me.”

“I’m exhausted,” Simon said. “I don’t have enough energy left to be mad. Ask me again in the morning.”

“It is morning.” She stretched her arms over her head and smiled up at the ceiling. “I wonder if this is how lovers usually talk after having sex.”

“Can’t speak for anyone else, but I can tell you I’ve never had a conversation like this in my entire life.”

The phone rang.

Simon rolled out of bed. “That will be a message from Pell. For once his timing is excellent.”

Chapter 34

Your theory is right,” Luther said. “It’s a kidnapping ring that targets women connected to wealthy families. The bastards take compromising pictures to use as insurance that no one goes to the police.”

“In other words, the ransom isn’t the end of it,” Simon said.

He was in a public phone booth near the tennis courts. He had arranged a stack of coins on the shelf beneath the phone. He had his story ready in the event someone wondered why he was using a phone that was probably meant for the employees, but luckily there was no one else around at that hour.

“Angela Merryweather’s husband has political ambitions,” Luther said. “Every indication is that he is headed for the Senate. If he makes it, those photos will give the kidnappers a hell of a lot of leverage over him.”

“How bad are the photos?”

“Mrs. Merryweather says they were taken shortly after she was kidnapped. She was awake but still under the effects of the drug they used to knock her out before they grabbed her. In the pictures she is nude and chained to a four-poster bed. She is not wearing a blindfold. There is one man visible, the bastard who assaulted her. He’s naked, too, but he wore a rubber mask. Mrs. Merryweather says it’s the kind that are used for facial treatments in spas. It was violet colored.”

“Which means it came from Guppy’s House of Beauty.”

“Presumably. There was a woman behind the camera. She wore a spa mask and a shapeless gown. No distinguishing features except her perfume. The house brand. Violet.”

“Mrs. Merryweather was raped.”

“She says the bastard was never able to penetrate her, which evidently infuriated him. She was afraid he might strangle her on the spot, but the woman behind the camera grabbed his arm and pushed him toward the door. He