She wanted to ride that furious wave far out into the ocean so when it melted back into the sea, she'd be left in a place of quiet peace and wild beauty, where nothing was required but simple existence.
He made it easy to imagine such a resting place. As she forced herself to come down in convulsive shudders, her body jerking, he overlooked nothing. He kept going, slowly suckling her sex, alternating with teasing licks, nursing her through the aftershocks and then cleaning her with his mouth, making sure he took every drop of her juice before he gently pulled the crotch of her panties back in place, kissing her over top of them in a way that made her close her eyes, shudder again. Even then he didn't just pull away and leave her immediately without the close heat of his presence. His mouth drifted back over her thigh, down toward her knee as his hands followed the same path, straightening her skirt as he came from beneath it.
She couldn't let herself get so far offshore. Off balance. She had to regain control. This was happening too fast. This wasn't a dinner she'd picked up in a bar.
"Keep your head bowed. Don't look at me."
She could tell the quick snap of the command startled him as his head began to rise. But she didn't want him to see her in this half-reclined pose, her legs open to him as a woman would with her lover, showing him how he'd taken her to a boneless aftermath.
"Did I not please you, my lady?" He obeyed her, though she noted the tension in his shoulders, the splay of his fingers taut on his thighs as he dropped out of the squat onto his knees. He kept his spine straight and shoulders back even as he bowed his head. A warrior being deferential to his queen, but not necessarily submissive. She was aware of the difference, and it confirmed what she'd sensed. Thomas had taught him the proper motions, but Jacob did not truly understand what it meant. Only she could teach him that, If she accepted him.
A human servant could be a lover when she wanted one, someone who met her needs large and small. This man, physically powerful by mortal standards but helpless as a newborn to a vampire, nevertheless had a quiet confidence that made her feel feminine. As if she didn't always have to be strong, the way a woman was supposed to feel around a man she trusted. Yet she could lift him with a finger or rip him apart as she'd threatened.
It had been a long time since she'd felt a violent desire that could drive her hunger to a pleasurably uncomfortable level. But his words, those blue eyes, his impudent caresses, even that inappropriate need to smile so often, were rousing a different sort of hunger. One she'd been willing to forget and do without. Until now.
She was going to take him home.
Damn you, Thomas.
Chapter Four
She didn't fall into daydreaming, losing sense of place and herself. She didn't act on impulse. Despite those warning signs, she impulsively reached for him now, curling her nails into the firm skin of his biceps, exerting pressure.
She wanted to know how he'd respond to a woman's desire without her commanding it. She almost wished he would fight her, struggle, but he gave her something as satisfying. More so.
Without hesitation, he surged up from the floor. Taking her by her upper arms, he lifted her to her knees on the chair as he erased the distance between them, closing his mouth over hers in a hard, demanding kiss.
All that desire he'd kept banked roared over her in full, raging force, goaded she was sure by the things she'd made him do against his nature.
As a woman, she'd missed this. God, how she'd missed this. She avoided the intimacy of lips when taking a man for her meal. Their kisses came off weak, disappointing, giving her dinner a distracting, unpleasant taste.
This was distracting, but not the least bit disappointing or unpleasant.
Kissing her way deeper into his mouth, she let him feel the shape of her fangs against his tongue, a deadly expression of pleasure. As she raked her nails up his back, there was the satisfying gouge into flesh. Cutting into one of the lash scars, she found the river of life that flowed beneath it.
His breath was hot in the cavern of her mouth, his tongue tangling with hers as his hands gripped her hair. He pressed her body between the back of the chair and the pounding of his heart.
Tracing his lips with her tongue, she opened her eyes to look up into his. They were open as well, filled with desire and determination both. Glory yes, he was a dominant man. In his touch, in the way he held her, kissed her, she felt it. It was instinctive to him to take over, lead and protect. He would whisper things in her ears only fit for a creature of the night to hear. Dark desires, ways he would try to claim her. For a moment she imagined it, trembled with the feel of it, even knowing her own desires were even darker, her will stronger than any mortal man's.
But for this moment there was only dizzying sensation. Waves of it turning colors in her mind, overwhelming her. Tightening his hold on her hair, he yanked her head to the side and gripped her throat with his teeth, his tongue licking a pulsing artery.
She stiffened against him, her fingers digging into the gouges in his back she'd made as her body rippled in uncontrolled response.
"Jacob." When she spoke his name in a breathless whisper, his hand slid down her back, molding over the curves of her ass before he slid between her braced thighs, seeking her heat. Just the tips of his fingers brushed her clit as he sealed his palm over her throbbing cunt, her skirt bunched up between his touch and her skin. The heel of his hand pressed against the sensitive base of her buttocks.
He didn't break her skin, but he kept that hypnotic hold on her throat. His blue eyes blazed fire over the fragile skin of her face. Her fingers were sticky with him and she wanted that blood in her mouth. Wanted him in her bed. Accessible for play, for a snack, for a full-course meal… She yearned for his arms to encircle her in the middle of the night.
A companion.
"My lady." His voice was a hoarse rumble against skin as he eased his bite. She closed her eyes, sliding her hand up so it cupped his face even as her body quivered under the touch of his slowly kneading, clever fingers.
She could send him through a window and rolling into the street. She could lay her hands on his skull and crush it with a thought. But at this moment she reveled in the way his hands held her, so powerfully. He had the suggestion of Rex's strength, but none of the cruelty that had kept her from completely surrendering to the passion of her husband's embrace.
Colors. Spiraling colors. She'd ignored the warning sign as well as the dizziness because she'd been impatient for the sensation of the climax, of Jacob's kiss. But now the disorientation was increasing exponentially, clearing the sensual haze over her mind with the cold wind of apprehension.