Jachin narrowed his eyes on her for several seconds before he set his backpack on the ground. When he tugged his wet T-shirt off his body, Ariel averted her gaze from his gorgeous, well-built chest and ripped abs.
Sheesh, wet or not, wouldn’t he need that T-shirt to stay warm? It had been an unusually cool summer and the higher elevation only made it colder. Her attention focused on his hands once he began to shred the black cotton material. What in the world was the vampire up to?
Jachin approached her and squatted down to grip one of her wrists. She tensed and tried to jerk her arm away. “What are you doing?”
He held firm to her wrist and began to wrap a strip of his shirt around it. “You said you needed to rest.”
When he turned her knuckles toward the ground and kept his hold on her wrist as he began to move behind the tree, his intent became clear. She tensed and tried to pull her arm free. “You’re not tying me!”
Jachin gripped her other arm and tugged it backward, pulling her upper body against the tree with a heavy thump. “I trust my instincts more than your word,” he replied while he quickly wrapped the other end of the material around her wrist and tied a knot, locking her to the base of the tree.
Anger formed a lump in her throat. She tugged at her restraints and glared at him after he’d rounded the tree and sat down on the ground a few feet across from her. “Don’t think for one minute I was joking about dragging your good-for-nothing ass into the sunlight!”
Jachin bent his knees in front of him. Resting his wrists on his knees in a relaxed pose, he met her gaze with an unconcerned one. “I have no doubt you’ll do so given the first opportunity.”
As her own heart rate began to slow to a slightly higher than normal beat and her heated body cooled, Ariel stared at the unreadable man before her. Jachin’s gaze was so cold, so devoid of emotion, she wondered if he’d ever had any or if feelings had been genetically filtered out when his race was created.
He sat there half-naked, his chest slowly rising and falling as if he’d just woken up from a long nap. Even though the moonlight reflected on his face, she couldn’t read his mood. His still pose gave nothing away.
Silence stretched between them for several minutes until a cool breeze blew through the trees. She shivered in her damp clothes. Jachin’s gaze drifted to her chest that was pressed outward in her bound position. She glanced down to see her hard nipples against her thin linen shirt. Where’s my bra? she wondered, then remembered it was in the pocket of her jacket…in Jachin’s blown-up car.
Her pulse racing, she jerked her gaze to his and lifted her knees toward her chest to block her body from his view. Despite the cold wind blowing around her, warmth infused her body at the heated look in his eyes.
As cold as she was, her skin had started to prickle for an entirely different reason once she’d seen his hungry gaze locked on her chest. She cast a quick glance across his broad shoulders and down his muscular arms. Smooth skin flexed over toned sinew. He showed no outward signs of being affected by the cold air or otherwise. Damn him!
“Why do you call me human?” she asked, hoping to distract herself from noticing something so detailed about him.
His gaze slitted in suspicion. “Because that’s what you are.”
“You said you’re human, too. So why refer to me as human in such a derogatory way?”
A flash of surprise reflected in his eyes before he masked his reaction behind an unreadable stoic look. “We’re on different levels.”
Annoyed he refused to acknowledge the irony of his logic, she challenged him. “Why? Because you’re a superior human?”
His gaze strayed to the dark woods as if their conversation bored him. “Exactly.”
“At least I have my humanity.”
Jachin’s dark eyes snapped to hers. “I seek the same for my people.”
“I think you seek retribution.” At his narrowed gaze, she continued, “You say you seek a humanlike life, yet you have no problem using violence—”
“I’m a survivor.”
She leaned forward, warming to her subject. “Your hatred of a race you claim to be a part of is palpable. You have no compassion, no conscience. You show no emotions. Do you even experience any? Those are the qualities that ultimately make one human, not one’s genetic makeup.”
His hands fisted on his knees and his lip curled into an angry snarl. “Don’t think you know me, because you do not.”
Ariel mentally cringed at the furious intensity in his voice, but she refused to let him intimidate her. “I’ve felt your anger, experienced your disdain, but if you’ve felt anything else, I’ve yet to see it. So if we’re keeping score in the true humanity category, I’m far superior.”
While tension ebbed between them like a cobra bobbing back and forth, waiting to strike, her stomach chose that moment to let out a loud rumble.
Jachin raised a dark eyebrow at the obvious sound of hunger. “I hear how superior you are.”
His sarcastic jibe knotted her stomach in fury. As he unzipped his backpack, Ariel curled her own lip, wishing her hands were free so she could wipe that smug look off his face. She glanced away, mumbling, “Shut up.”
“Such hateful looks from someone who’s supposed to be so humane.”
Jachin’s amused voice sounded as if he were right next to her ear, while his exotic scent seemed to envelop her. When Ariel turned and saw him sitting in front of her, invading her personal space, she sucked in her breath.
He took advantage of her gasp of surprise and slipped a small piece of dried bark past her lips. A plethora of spices exploded in her mouth, invading her senses, making her mouth water.
“Chew,” he demanded, a fierce expression creasing his forehead.
Before she could spit out whatever he’d shoved in her mouth, he pressed two fingers over her lips, holding them shut. “You need to eat. This is packed with nutrients. Chew.”
She didn’t like to be mocked, and this man obviously enjoyed reminding her of her body’s weakness. Ariel shook her head, knocking his hand free.
A low growl erupted from his throat as he grasped her chin in a firm grip and pressed his lips against hers.
Chapter 6
A riel froze, inhaling deeply at the intimate press of his lips against hers.
Jachin’s appealing smell of outdoors and musk washed over her in a wave of seductive aromas. As her heart began to thud again at a rabbit’s pace, his hands clasped her face and his voice entered her mind. I won’t remove my mouth until you swallow, you stubborn little human.
He was mocking her again, but she couldn’t think with his mouth covering hers and his naked chest mere inches from her own.
His sexual magnetism seduced her unlike any man she’d ever encountered. Shocked at her reaction to his nearness, she began to chew the bit of food in earnest, desperate for him to remove his mouth and his warm, hard body from her personal space. The dried bit of food tasted like mint, cloves and other spices and herbs she couldn’t decipher.
When she swallowed, his thumb leisurely followed the food’s descent down her throat. His fingers continued downward, massaging the back of her neck in an intimate caress until his thumb rested in the soft hollow at the base of her neck.
He pressed against her skittering pulse, and her breasts swelled and her nipples tingled in response. She ached to brush her curves against his chest, as naked as he. Jachin applied persuasive pressure against her mouth, his lips slanting over hers in dominant demand for entry.
As she opened her mouth and accepted the possessive thrust of his tongue against hers, Ariel became very aware of her vulnerable situation, tied to a tree. His hard thigh pressed against her hip, while his large body towered over hers in complete dominance. And what excited her most: there was nothing she could do to stop him.
Her heart thumped as she realized the out-of-control situation made her hot all over. Maybe it was because her morals couldn’t come into play or because the absence of a physical cho
ice allowed her to disregard them.
Ariel arched her neck and twined her tongue with his, responding to Jachin’s kiss—a kiss that held a depth of intimacy and passion she didn’t think he possessed.
Jachin’s fingers feathered down her neck, sliding across her chest until his hand palmed her breast. Following her instincts, their sheer sexual attraction, Ariel strained against her bindings and pressed her breast against his palm, encouraging his touch.
A low growl rumbled in his chest, and he ran his thumb along her hard nipple before tweaking the responsive tip between his fingers. Delicious pleasure radiated from her nipple, splintering throughout her body.
Ariel heard herself moan as her arousal built to a desperate pitch. Her sex began to throb and she lowered her knee, pressing her thigh against his…asking for more.
When Jachin’s hand trailed down her blouse, then skimmed her stomach, taking them down a seductive one-way path, she had to mentally remind herself this man didn’t care for her. He wasn’t interested in keeping her for his own but in delivering her into the hands of another.
And he was a vampire.
As his fingers slid across the top of her thigh, her sexual desires tried to override her rational thoughts, but reason prevailed.
One thing was certain: this particular vampire didn’t scare her as much as her surprising arousal at his touch. She’d never been more turned on. By a vampire, no less.
That frightened her.
Ariel protected herself the only way she could.
When Ariel bit down on his tongue, Jachin pulled back and glared at her. Damn, the woman bit hard. His tongue throbbed as if it’d been cinched in a vise.
She strained against her bindings and leaned as close to him as she could, snapping her teeth together. “Never forget—we all have an agenda, Jachin.”
Furious at himself for being so thoroughly duped, Jachin fought the desire coursing through him, the beast that urged him to touch her again despite her obvious act of revenge. Was she angry at him for making her want him? He hadn’t imagined her elevated heartbeat, her breathlessness or the way she’d leaned into his touch.
She’d wanted him.
He gave her a dark smile, displaying his fangs in all their glory. “Never forget—I bite harder.”
Ariel’s mocking expression faded and the color of arousal quickly drained from her face. She might not be afraid of him as a man, but she definitely feared his fangs. He almost felt guilty for playing on her fears.
Almost.
Jachin moved to settle himself against a tree across from her once more. In her current position, her perky breasts strained against her soiled linen shirt, the tips showing dark through the wet material.
His cock strained against his pants, an uncomfortable reminder of their unfulfilled passion. Ariel’s aroused response to his kiss surprised the hell out of him, but not near as much as his own ravenous reaction to her soft, warm mouth. “Tell me why you wrote your book.”
She stared at him for several seconds. “Tell me why your own vampire clan is trying to kill you.”
The woman was so willful. “I was banished from the Sanguinas a decade ago.”
“Why?”
“For following my emotions.” His lips quirked upward at the irony, considering her earlier assumptions about him. “Why did you write a book about vampires?”
Ariel’s gaze strayed to his chest as she answered. “I’m terrified of vampires…have been ever since I was a child, when I attended my grandparents’ funeral.” Tears glistened in her eyes when she returned her gaze to his. “It was a closed-casket ceremony, but I wanted to say goodbye to my grandmother and grandfather. I opened my grandmother’s casket.” She paused and her voice quivered as she shook her head, her gaze faraway. “I’ll never forget the scars on her neck.”
“You said your grandparents’ funeral?”
“Yes, they were both killed—slaughtered by a vampire.”
Shocked disbelief weighed heavily on Jachin’s chest. It was unprecedented for a vampire to go after more than one person at a time. “Both your grandparents were attacked?”
“My whole family.” She sniffed, trying to hold back tears. “After my grandparents’ deaths, my parents moved our family to another side of town, but that only delayed the inevitable. While I was spending the night at a friend’s house, my parents were murdered. I wasn’t allowed to see their bodies. And my brother Peter…” She trailed off as tears streamed down her cheeks. “A godparent took me in and raised me until I was old enough to be on my own.”
He fisted his hands as swift, vengeful anger washed over him at her story. No wonder she had a deep, abiding fear of vampires. “Did a vampire come after you?”
She shook her head. “Not long after I lost my brother, the vampires all started getting sick. I’ve always dreaded a vampire would come for me, finally finish off my family.” Shivering, she blew out a steady breath. “But I told myself vampires were extinct, and if I ever wanted any kind of life, I had to move on. I couldn’t live in fear forever. I wrote the book as a kind of therapy. I needed to overcome my phobia, to live my life without constantly looking over my shoulder.”
A giddy self-deprecating laugh escaped her lips. “And now look at me. Maybe I should become a psychic.”
And I’m going to deliver you to an entire vampire clan. Guilt curled within him, making his stomach burn. He’d hoped she’d written the book because she secretly harbored a desire to be with a vampire. To discover the opposite…
Jachin set his jaw and strengthened his resolve. He refused to give in to the remorse that raged in his gut. Setting the Sanguinas on the right path was his main concern, not the emotional stability of one human.
Even a desirable one.
And, despite his contempt for her race, he did desire her…more than he had any woman.
As another cool breeze whipped through the forest, Ariel’s trembling turned to uncontrollable shivers. She closed her eyes and laid her forehead on her knees as if trying to hide the fact she was freezing.
Jachin withdrew his leather coat from his backpack and laid it out on the ground. Without a word, he walked behind the tree and ripped the binding that held Ariel’s wrists together. When he came around the tree, her teeth chattered as she wiped her eyes with the wet cloth still attached to her wrists.
A primal need to protect her rose within him, searing a hole in his chest.
Jachin scooped her up in his arms. She tried to protest, but her voice sounded so tired as he walked over to the coat. Lowering to one knee, he laid her on the makeshift bed.
He was glad she refused to meet his gaze. Her emotions were too raw, the relaying of her fears too recent. “Trust me to provide the warmth you need. Rest for now. We’ll resume our hike in an hour.”
When he lay down behind her and wrapped his arm around her waist, Jachin expected resistance. What he didn’t expect was for Ariel to let out an exhausted sigh and press her slight body closer to his, seeking his warmth.
Her display of complete trust in him, despite her family’s past, both enchanted and troubled him. Once he’d removed the bindings from her wrists, then settled his head near hers, the intriguing scent of rain, peaches and sweet almonds teased his senses.
The desire to bury his nose in her damp hair was strong, but he didn’t want to break the temporary trucelike spell that had settled between them. She’s weak and vulnerable…and so damned feminine, he thought as he inhaled deeply, reveling in her alluring scent.
His action made him want her all over again. Jachin blew out a harsh breath to tamp down his arousal and reached in the backpack behind him for another piece of hay ash.
Breaking a four-inch-long piece, he handed the food supplement to Ariel. “Rub this across your teeth to clean them, then eat it. Get some food in your belly so you’ll feel warmer.”
She took the flat piece of dried food from his hand and rubbed it against her teeth before biting off a section. As she slowly chewed, she bu
rrowed closer to his body and mumbled, “This doesn’t mean I like you.”
His groin reacted to the stimuli, his erection instantly filling with blood. Jachin shut his eyes and gritted his teeth to keep his body from jumping to full-on arousal. Throwing his leg over hers to keep her from squirming, he whispered in her subconscious, Sleep, my little lioness.
She kissed him hard, pressing her tongue deep into his mouth. The sensation of her fangs scraping his lips only made him hotter. Jachin pulled her closer, mumbling against her mouth, “Why do you stay with him, Viv?”
“I’m not with him. I’m with you.” Her heated breath brushed across his throat while she ripped his shirt open in one swift tug.
As her fingers dug into his shoulders, his groin tightened, reacting instantly to her aggressive action. Jachin grasped her waist, lifting her body against his until her neck was on the same level as his mouth.
She moaned and wrapped her legs around his hips. Gripping his neck, she yanked his mouth close to her throat and began to gyrate against his stomach.
Jachin palmed her well-rounded ass and sank his fangs deep into her neck. When he began to suck her blood, Vivian mewled and moaned, clutching him closer.
A thundering crash behind him made his heart jerk. Jachin quickly withdrew his fangs from Vivian’s neck and turned to see Braeden standing in the library’s doorway.
Braeden’s hands were fisted by his sides, his expression thunderous. “Put her down, you traitorous bastard.”
Jachin looked at Vivian, anticipating some reaction. She averted her eyes as she wiggled for him to release her. When he set her down and she stepped away, refusing to meet his gaze, he realized he wouldn’t receive any support from her. Regret made his chest tighten. He didn’t want her as a mate, but he did want her to see there were other men who would treat her better than Braeden had.
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