Then he spent the next hour showing her things she’d want to see not things he wanted her to see.
And he knew straight away she wasn’t a people person and didn’t judge her. Nor did he force her to stand at his side while he introduced her to person after person necessitating that she make small talk, her most hated thing in the world (outside of the media and their microphones and cameras, she hated them more than small talk, loads more).
Instead, he protected her, took her away from the crush to someplace safe. Someplace she liked to be.
And he asked her questions and listened to her answers like not only was he interested in her responses but as if he cared.
And he’d given her three orgasms.
Three unbelievable orgasms.
She’d never had one induced by a partner.
Not a single one.
And in one night, Jack had given her three.
Belle read romance novels but she always thought all that rigmarole about passionate, mind-boggling sex which could sweep you away on a fiery hot wave was all fiction made up by extremely imaginative women.
But it wasn’t.
It was real.
And it was fantastic.
And she wanted more of it, lots more (if it was with Jack that was).
Furthermore, he said she could trust him.
And she believed him.
There was no way not to believe him, the way he made his promise. His voice was all low and rumbly, his arm was tight around her, his eyes were looking straight into hers.
After Calvin, Belle knew better than to trust anyone ever again, or at least not a man.
But she couldn’t help it, she trusted Jack.
It was a risk. An uncalculated, spur of the moment, outrageous risk but for the first time in her life Belle wasn’t the least bit frightened.
Because somewhere during their middle of the night, moonlit talk she realised she was safe with him. She could be herself with him and he actually liked it.
Criminally Handsome James Bennett liked her, Belle “Meek and Mild” Abbot.
He liked her a lot.
She could tell. It was hard to miss with all of the sex and cuddling and moonlit conversations full of promises.
Lastly, he called her “poppet” and it wasn’t like Miles calling her “gorgeous”.
Belle understood why she wasn’t fond of endearments uttered early in a relationship.
Because they were empty and meaningless.
When Jack called her “poppet”, it was different. It wasn’t empty nor was it meaningless.
It was warm and full of the possibility of something rich and rewarding.
She finally knew why she had that strange, thrilling feeling of expectation before she joined the party last night.