“Is that…are you wearing…are those leather pants?”
Jack was trying to keep his raging need to claim under control, but it was building rapidly no matter how hard he worked to contain it. Jesus, he was going to scare her, if he wasn’t careful. So when she brought up the topic of his leather pants, that out-of-left-field comment worked like a pin bursting an over filled balloon. The air rushed out of him and his head dipped down until his chin nearly kissed his chest. Every fucking lifetime she brought up his leathers.
Shaking his head he muttered, “Again about the pants?”
“Excuse me?”
Despite being moderately annoyed with this predictable disapproval of his apparel, it was distracting him from the need to ravage, so he figured he’d use the opportune segue to his advantage. “Go ahead.” He stared at her curled toes, “Tell me how much you hate leather.”
“I don’t hate it.”
“No?” This was new. Surprising, even.
“No. I mean, it looks good on saddles and works well for coats. But I gotta tell you. Leather pants have been out of fashion since the eighties. Between those and that white shirt, you look like a pirate.”
He was eyeing her hands as she strangled the sheet. Worried if he looked her in the eyes, he’d be back to ravishing her again. But then she made a move to get away from him, using her feet against his thighs to push off and he couldn’t let her do that.
He caught her by an ankle and held her still. Both of them quiet as they stared at one another until she stammered, “I-I don’t know why I-I just said that about the pirate.”
“No matter, as I have my own opinion about your fashion sense too. You see? I happen to think linen looks better on a bed than—” with his free hand he grabbed the sheet and jerked it just like a magician would a table cloth laden with a full place setting of crystal and china, “—on my woman.”
“Hey, you can’t do that.”
He tossed the newly confiscated sheet over his shoulder and smiled. “I can and I did.”
“I’m naked.”
“I know.”
Clearly she was at a loss as to what to cover first. Both hands went to her breasts, but then one slid down to her mound. In a flash, she had her other arm over her chest and the palm that was lower shifted from right to left and back again. The affect her useless attempt at modesty had on him was much like a prized bull being confronted by the matador’s cape. So much for not scaring her.
He dropped her foot and went right for her hips. “Settle mia lei.”
“Settle? Wait. What’s…what’s wrong with your voice? Wh-why is it so low and why are you talking formal…a-again? Oh no. I can’t…I can’t breathe.”
He let go of her for just a moment. Long enough to pull his shirt over his head and drop it on the floor. “Then I will breathe for you.”
As carefully as he could, he moved to get on the bed. She was panicking and his heart ached for her even as adrenaline surged inside him. Urging him forward to claim and possess.
He shifted and came down beside her, pulling her into his embrace. Reveling in the soft feel of her against all his hardness. Her skin was like warm velvet and her scent sheer heaven to his long denied senses. Pressing his forehead to hers, he whispered, “It’s time to live intensely. Get lost in the moment. Breathe, that’s right. Nice and deep,” he caressed her brow with his own while he waited for her to catch oxygen. Once he determined she recovered enough, he spoke softly into her ear, “Be my angel.”
“Cinnamon…hot cinnamon. It reaches through my skin. How…?”
That admission made his pulse soar. He pulled her in closer to him. “Let go of reason until all your thoughts disappear. Until there’s nothing left but feeling. Trust me. This is as it should be. I’m going to be rough, so get ready.”
“I don’t understand.”
He leaned back and noticed her eyes were squeezed shut. “Look at me.”
She did and he almost groaned because her shimmering gaze drank him in. To his mind there was nothing sexier than that. God help them. “By the time I’m done with you, blue eyes, you’ll be too tired to speak, but you’ll know how to breathe. I promise you.”
He took hold of her chin, tilting it up and that was the last action he processed clearly before he bent and pressed his lips to hers. The rest of his movements were carried out on pure instinct.
Hot silk and heaven were what greeted him as he tasted her. With her breasts crushed against his chest and her hands clutching his biceps, he had such an overwhelming sense of belonging right where he was that he growled. Shifting closer, he bent his knee and angled it between her legs. He didn’t hesitate when he grabbed her hips as anchor and gave her a ride. She may not like the look of his leathers, but he knew her well enough to know she loved the feel. And the second the well-worn hide connected with her heat, he slid her back, across the full length of his thigh right to his knee. She moaned into his mouth and he nearly lost it when she tried to straddle him better. Before she could, he pulled her back into him. Bringing the heart—the center of her-right to into his hardness, he ground her against him in a circular motion until she shuddered, then he began all over again. Back and forth. Crash and grind. He couldn’t get enough of her.
The taste. The feel. The easy glide. And when the scent of her desire intimately filled the space around them, he broke contact and leaned back. Surprised to find that both of them were panting. Each of them teetering on the edge of the unfamiliar, but there was nothing he could do about it now. Staring down, his eyes pinned her as she stretched and pressed her sexy curves all over him. She had great hips and when his gaze finally dropped and locked on the slick sheen of her desire covering his leather, saliva pooled in his mouth. His heart pounded under his rib cage and an ache he hadn’t felt in lifetime tingled and burned in his upper jaw.
Soon there’d be no holding back for him. Too soon. Sinking a hand into her hair, he half-pulled and half-massaged as he rasped, “I need your trust.”
He was smart enough to know she wouldn’t do that if he didn’t trust himself first, so he focused in and made failing her not a viable option.
“I—” her eyes connected with his as he waited for her to finish, “—for some reason…I do.”
“Very good.” He tugged on her hair and came down so he was nose to nose with her. His voice sounded gravelly and deep even to his own ears, “I’m going to set your world ablaze.”
He fully intended to make good on that promise until he touched his lips to her jaw and she stiffened. Not exactly the kind of reaction he was expecting after their first kiss, so he dipped lower and trapped her earlobe between his lips. Before he could lick, suck or nip, she cried out and the sound went right through him. Pulling back, he intended to give her some space, but scowled when he saw she wanted more distance than what he offered, as she tried to roll away from him. “Mia—”
“Stop. Stop. Please!”
“No.” He grabbed hold of her in an attempt to keep her calm. She was shuddering so hard her teeth chattered. And on closer inspection he saw how her nipples spiked to very hard points while a trail of raised gooseflesh covered her arms. Her body was in sexual overdrive. Fuck. “Easy, now.” He hauled her in for a hug, pressing her head against his chest as he rocked her.
“Wh-what’s h-h-happening?”
She sank her hands in his hair and instead of yanking to get distance from him—he closed his eyes and let out a relieved breath—she pulled him to her. Desperately clutching him as though seeking his protection. But how could he protect her from the inevitable and do what needed to be done when he little understood this unprecedented reaction from her? To test that he was right about this, he shifted and touched his lips to her skin again.
“Oh, God, don’t.”
He tore his mouth off her and whispered, “Talk to me, blue eyes. What are you feeling? Pain?”
“No.” And to further complicate the matter she flexed her hips into him and ground down on his thig
h. She may have been saying ‘don’t’ but her body was begging ‘do’. He brushed a curl off her temple, ready to talk her through this, when she brought both hands up and laid them flat on his cheeks. Holding his face steady while she worked through a series of pants to say, “When you kiss my skin an ache so bad pierces me right in the…the…right between the legs. Like I’m on a razor’s edge. It’s sharp and deep, but it doesn’t let go. It’s as if I’m going to come apart. Explode with ecstasy, but I can’t. You—do you know what I-I am saying?”
She frantically searched his face, no doubt looking for some understanding while she tried to control her breathing. At the rapid rate she was pushing air through her lungs he feared she’d hyperventilate. Holding himself back clearly wasn’t working, so he had no other choice, but to move them forward. He’d just have to be strong enough for both of them in this moment and every one to follow, until it was done.
“Dominari est tueri,” he whispered.
Her eyes darkened to a stunning navy as she frowned. “I don’t remember what that means.”
“Have faith, mia lei. In yourself, but more importantly in me. I’m going to take you somewhere you’ve never been. I’m going to be nasty and rough. Wicked and mean. I’m going to use my mouth on you in—” he caught himself before he really upset her and simply said, “I’ll try to go slow, baby.”
“No.” She dropped her hands to his shoulders and pushed. “I need help. There’s something wrong with me. I can’t think straight.”
He caressed her hip before he slid his hand over her belly and stomach, trailing upward until the tips of his fingers rested right under her left breast where her heart steadily pounded. “I don’t want you thinking. I want you feeling.” He brought his palm up and moved it in small circles over one hard tipped peak. Speaking softly he encouraged, “You’re amazing. This is going to be amazing. Don’t be scared.” Damn, those eyes of hers shimmering in the hazy light… “It drives me crazy when you look at me like that.” He held her stare as he took her nipple between his forefinger and thumb and squeezed. Not too hard, but hard enough. “Tell me you trust me.” He applied more force to get her to stay focused. “Say it.”
His gaze raked her from shoulders to ankles and when he spied how sexily her toes curled with the solitary pressure he exerted on her nipple, raw lust blasted through him. He bent down and spoke against her ear, “Soon, whether you do or don’t becomes immaterial as I won’t be able to stop forcing you. I’m going to strip you of everything, mia lei. Everything but your trust in me, that’s all I’ll let you keep. That’s all you’ll ever need from now on as I own all your tomorrows.”
“Jack…”
His eyes slammed closed as he fought to calm the raging fires that seared through him, daring him to take. Simply take what was his. What he owned. Her body, heart and soul. Ravenous need clawed at him while his blood pumped fast as if he’d raced a hundred miles. “Believe.”
“No. Please, I-I need to think.”
He opened his eyes and pulled back. “If you insist, then think about this. I’m your tyrant, torturer and liberator come to life. I put you on your knees and I’m the only one to raise you up off them. I’ve earned this right as you are mine and I am yours. I demand this right as I’m your knight in weathered armor that’s tarnished by the thousand tears I’ve shed for you from one lifetime to the next. I deserve this right as I am the one who bears the pain of losing you each and every time you leave this world…and me, behind.”
She gave him that look again. The one that said, “I am yours. All of me. Everything. Yours” and suddenly the delicate fragrance of forget-me-nots filled his senses. Clean rain. Sunshine and another scent too. Hers. Hot and sweet and this time he didn’t deny his instincts.
“Jesus, I need another taste of you.” He wasn’t soft or hesitant in the way he treated her. He pulled and yanked on her hair when he swooped down and fit his mouth over hers.
Finley was caught, somewhere between his earlier words and the maelstrom of sensations that rocked through her, when he shoved his tongue inside her mouth. The intimacy of that wet heat stroking her. Demanding and devouring stole her breath. Her reason. Her sanity. And just when she feared she couldn’t gain a breath, the taste of lush cinnamon poured over her. Into her. Reaching through her skin, touching her in every imaginable place until she tingled with low humming vibrations. And when he broke from her mouth and trailed kisses down to her shoulder, she thought she was going to pass out. The ache between her legs, in her breasts and—
It was too much. The dull vibrations of a moment ago became stronger and turned into acute erotic tremors that rushed through her veins. She could actually feel her blood moving. Pumping. God, pooling in the spot on her collarbone where he laved. A swirling sensation built beneath her flesh as though her very blood surrendered to him, and she didn’t care. All she wanted was this heavenly hell to continue. To pull her down with it. To forget everything that came before.
Heart hammering.
Pulse speeding.
Ears buzzing.
Everything went in slow motion as he pushed her up on the mattress. He lifted her right hand and pressed a kiss into her palm before he brought her arm up over her head. Then he repeated the process with her left one. But when his lips touched this palm a surge of sensual energy careened through her. From his mouth right to her core. Penetrating so deeply she automatically squeezed her thighs together and savored the zing as her body spilled a warm and intimate welcome for him.
“Hold on tight.”
When he spoke everything stopped. The hammering and buzzing quieted so fast it was as if those things were afraid of him. Maybe they were. Shouldn’t she be? That idea came and went the instant he left her to stand by the bed. Through half closed lids she admired his daunting physique. The first thing she thought of was a triangle as his shoulders were impossibly broad and tapered down to svelte hips. In between was the tightest eight-pack she’d ever seen. Vaguely she wondered how his skin tone could be the burnished bronze color it was, given the time of year, but then he started to unlace his second-skin pants and she forgot all about his tan. She forgot about everything. At this point she wasn’t sure she was even breathing, as she followed the hard outline of him beneath the leather. And when he pulled that material apart and exposed a thick patch of black hair nestled against more hard, tight and tanned skin, she had her answer. She had been breathing before, because all the air in her lungs chose this moment to abandon her in a whoosh.
Breathlessly she watched as he stripped and when he was naked, only three words came to her.
Fierce.
Proud.
Commanding.
“Don’t let go of the bars.”
Her breath returned. Yeah, commanding and she couldn’t have let go even if she wanted to as right now those rails on the headboard were her lifelines. Grounding her so she could…grind. God help her, that’s what she was doing right in front of him. Flexing her hips. Bending her knees and using her feet to lift the lower half of her body toward him. Begging. She couldn’t stop. The ache. The desire. The need for him was overwhelming as she tossed her head from side to side, trying to keep her sanity.
“Easy, blue eyes.” He took hold of an ankle with one hand and placed his other big hand on her abdomen, pushing down. “Be strong.” He pinned her to the mattress and hotly examined her. “Make me proud.”
That last sentence brought her back to center and she went completely still. Waiting for him to look her in the eyes. The intensity and heat of his stare when it came calmed her as deep down she knew, somehow, she’d be all right. That he’d take care of her. That this—this moment was as it should be.
“Welcome me.” It could have been either the huskiness of that order or the feel of his thumb shifting in a rub across her anklebone that caused her to shiver and shake. She wasn’t sure. But she was paying close attention when he whispered, “Give me the words I’ve waited a lifetime to hear.”
The silen
ce was deafening while it seemed the world, her world, stopped moving and became devoid of all light and importance. This man standing naked over her, so hard and fierce in his manner, was all that mattered to her now. All that she needed for her eternity.
She didn’t know where the words came from, but she said them anyway, “I give you my body, my blood, my life...my love.”
“Very good.” He lifted her foot and bent to meet it as he placed a gentle kiss on her instep, before he whispered, “Parum est ut sis nocte sum tui liberarentur.”
She would have been more stunned by the fact she understood his Latin, if she weren’t completely horrified by what that one sentence conveyed.
Tonight I'm your torturer so you may be liberated…
Chapter Four
Jack held her steady as he put down her right foot and picked up her left. With his head angled downward, he captured the very same spot on this delicate limb and gently sucked until she shifted restlessly and moaned.
“Please…”
The sound combined with that one word stroked him. “Trust me,” he said, hoping the deep and gravelly tone of his voice didn’t frighten her. But he knew that it did the second her gaze met his. Her fear was palpable as she attempted to pull her foot out of his grip.
“Easy, babe,” he whispered, willing her to calm down, while taking his own advice and relaxing his suddenly tightened hold on her. The hand he had on her stomach was another matter, as it remained forcefully locked against her. And when his gaze slid lower and he saw the exposed treasure between her legs, saliva furiously pooled in his mouth. Damn. This wasn’t going to be easy for either one of them. “Commit and don’t despair. This kind of bad is good.”
Love Of A Lifetime Page 5
