"Sorry," she muttered, suddenly aware of the not-rocket pressing against her.
Jack frowned and looked her over slowly. "Your eyes are dilated, your breathing heavier, and your ni**les are erect. You liked it too."
Carolyn flushed at the frank assessment, but assured him quickly, "I did like it. It was-"
"Nice," he finished with a grimace when she cut herself off. Dissatisfaction crossed his face, and then he shook his head, released her, and turned to leave, only to immediately swing back. "On a scale of one to ten, what would you have rated that kiss?"
"Ten," Carolyn answered honestly, because really it had been nice. She'd been kissed by more than just Robert, although not by scads of men. But there had been the occasional flirtation at office Christmas parties or such. On that scale, Robert had been a one, but some of the others had reached maybe five or so. Jack was definitely a ten in comparison to them.
He nodded as if she'd verified something, and then asked, "And band boy's kisses rate where?"
Carolyn sighed. "I can't compare his, they're... " She shook her head helplessly and admitted, "When he kisses me the world slips away. I can't hear or breathe or see anything but him, and my body just explodes with a pleasure so overwhelming I-"
"Jesus, look at you," he muttered with fascination, moving back to examine her more closely. "You're on fire just thinking about it... and you're trembling."
Carolyn swallowed and lowered her head, then raised it again and blurted out, "He did more than kiss me last night."
"He bedded you." Jack didn't seem at all surprised.
"Six times," Carolyn admitted shakily. "And each time I fainted at the end. It was just too overwhelming and I passed right out every single-What are you doing?" she asked with surprise when he grabbed her hand and suddenly turned to drag her up the walk.
"Doing you a favor," he said grimly. "Where's he staying?"
"Why?" she asked warily.
"It's the villa above yours, isn't it?" Jack asked tugging her up the road.
"How did you know?" she gasped with surprise.
"Because you kept looking up there before and after I kissed you," he said dryly.
Carolyn grimaced. She had looked several times, but there had been nothing to see. The villa was dark.
"He's not there. And I don't understand what you're doing anyway."
"Like I said, doing you a favor."
"What favor?" she cried, stumbling along behind him.
Pausing, he turned abruptly, catching her arms to steady her when she nearly crashed into him. Staring down at her solemnly, Jack said, "Sweetheart, I've been with more women than I can count and have never come close to what you just described. In fact, your kiss was about the hottest I've ever enjoyed and it was nothing like that. And," he added heavily, "I have never, ever heard of sex so powerful the woman passes out or faints. If you have that with him, then you should be with him no matter who, what or how old he is."
"He passes out too," Carolyn muttered with disgruntlement and glanced up with surprise when he cursed and growled, "Lucky son of a bitch," as he turned to continue dragging her along.
"But he's not there," she protested again as they hit the turnaround and started up Christian's road.
"Oh, he's there," Jack assured her. "I'm pretty sure it was him standing up there with a bunch of others watching from the windows as I helped you into the van when we left earlier."
"He saw us?" she asked with dismay.
"Yes. He's probably been sitting up there stewing and waiting for you to return ever since," he said. "Besides, I could feel his scowl scorching the back of my neck while I kissed you."
Carolyn bit her lip, but asked, "A kind of prickly heat up the back of your-?"
"Yeah. That's it. Felt it every time I touched you on the boat too. That's why I recognized it."
"Damn," Carolyn breathed, and then began to tug at her hand in earnest. If Christian had seen them kissing...
"I can't go there."