Full Bloom

would you know if you've never had coffee served to you in bed before?"
    "Emily, my sweet, some things a man just knows by instinct."
    "I see." Emily bent her head and brushed her mouth lightly against his. He tasted warm and wonderfully familiar. "How's that?" she demanded lightly as she lifted her head again.
    "If I weren't holding this cup and saucer, I would show you where you have room for improvement."
    "Is that right?" Emily retorted.
    "Damned right." He took a long swallow of coffee. "Fortunately for you, I'm a patient teacher. And you're a fast learner. I figure we're going to get along fine."
    "Who says I have to do all the learning in this relationship?" Emily paused as the word "relationship" slipped out. She was not at all sure Jacob would like the sound of that. She knew from what he had said two years ago that he would never marry again, but she was not certain how he felt about other types of commitments. It would break her heart if he wanted to stay fancy-free and relatively uninvolved while she was trying to conduct an affair with him.
    Jacob was studying her face as if trying to read the thoughts that must have been flickering in her eyes. "Nobody says you have to do all the learning, sweetheart," he said gently. "I'm learning a few things myself."
    "Such as?" she asked breathlessly.
    He hesitated just a fraction of an instant, as if thinking better of whatever was on the tip of his tongue. He smiled instead. "Such as how good you feel in my arms." He set the cup and saucer on a white end table and reached out to pull Emily down across his lap. "So good." He nuzzled the sensitive area behind her ear.
    Emily felt the hardness of his thighs and the unmistakable force of his arousal. Her arms twined around his neck and she snuggled closer. "I'm glad," she whispered. "Because you feel very good, too."
    "Remember the first time I kissed you?" Jacob asked softly.
    "You mean the first time I kissed you. How could I forget? I was shattered when you called a halt right in the middle of things and sent me home." Her voice was quietly accusing.
    She remembered that night with aching clarity. She would always remember it. It had been the night Jacob had finally gotten word his divorce was final.
    Leanna's growing discontent and restlessness had finally led her into infidelity. It was no secret when the marriage went on the rocks primarily because Leanna managed to blow the whole thing into a major scandal. She had taken a lover who was a local politician, and when the affair became public knowledge the newspapers had had a field day. Jacob had been the stoic victim.
    Eventually Emily had learned from a casual remark her grandmother had made that the divorce was final. On the spur of the moment, she had bought a bottle of Scotch and driven over to Jacob's apartment.
    She had found him alone, already a quarter way through his own bottle.
    "I made a very embarrassing pass at you that night," Emily recalled with a sigh.
    "I wasn't embarrassed," he said gently. "I wanted you so badly I nearly forgot all my good resolutions and took you to bed. You'll never know the full extent of the battle I fought with myself that night."
    "I wish you hadn't fought so hard."
    "Putting you in that cab that night was the hardest thing I'd ever done in my life," Jacob said, watching the emotions shift in her amber eyes. "I told myself I had no right to take you then."
    "And now?" she prompted gently.
    He smiled. "Now everything is different." He slipped the robe off her shoulders, revealing her nude body underneath. She was warm and flushed, and her breasts seemed to swell under his palm. His hand moved lower and slid around her hip to cup one curved buttock. Jacob squeezed gently, and Emily turned her head so that she could kiss his throat.
    They sat like that for a few minutes, enjoying the feel of each other and the sweet ache of early-morning desire. But Jacob's aroused state finally demanded release.
    "Come here, sweetheart," he murmured thickly as he pushed back the covers and settled her astride his thighs. "Finish what you started with that cup of coffee."
    "Was it the coffee that did this?" she asked in pretended amazement as she felt his hardness probing her feminine secrets.
    "Must have been." His fingers sank into her flanks as he eased her gently down.
    Emily gasped as he began to enter her slowly and deliberately, as if he were determined to savor every millimeter of the experience. It was an exquisite form of sensual