He met her gaze in the shadowed gloom of the backseat. That focused intensity she was so good at projecting washed over him with the same arousing effect of feeling a gush of warm, wet response between her legs spill over his fingers. Do you think I need a reminder? No. But I like making you dependent on my will. He considered that. She'd worked one foot even deeper beneath his thigh, and the movement of her toes teased the flat base of his testicles constricted in his jeans. It's a long trip, my lady. It is at that. How long do you think you can stay hard for me? When do I ever stop? Though her mouth curved, she continued her peeling. Offered another slice. This time after he took it, he captured her wrist in his hand, held her there. They stared at each other in the darkness. Slowly, he moved his mouth to her palm, feeling her nails curve in, the points pressing against his eyelid and the soft, vulnerable tear duct as he suckled her pulse, let his thumb stroke the same terri- tory, the network of highly sensitive nerve endings he knew were there. He'd tried not to make the first move, but this maddening prox- imity to her was more than he could resist. Since that explosive com- ing together after Carl, she'd been withdrawn. The intensity of that night had been far over the top of what he'd ever been with a woman, and he'd realized it had broken new ground for his lady as well. When they next came together it would be there, this different level between them, and she apparently hadn't been ready to face that. She'd kept him busy with preparations and the handling of her day-to-day affairs. That level of activity was all that kept the hunger for her at bay. He'd had the overwhelming desire several times to as- suage it in the quiet darkness of his own room, usually in a half sleep when his hand moved to himself without conscious thought, dream- ing of her body, her touch. Oddly, it was worse when he was away from home. She'd sent him on a couple of out-of-town trips, for he was now accepted as her agent, her assistant to the highest level, and not just to the perception of her vampires.
She trusted his judgment without requiring her consultation on most things, simply allowing his voice to become her own. Now, with her pulse pounding beneath his hand, he wouldn't deny the savage need anymore unless she refused him. Fortunately, he sensed she was ready to embrace it as well, whatever form it would take between them. I'm curious, Sir Vagabond. Did you . . . Assuage often? My mind is open to you, my lady. You know all. He felt her there like her hair or lips, brushing him in light, pro- vocative touches. You didn't. No, he hadn't. He'd pulled his hand away from himself, chosen a cold shower when he'd needed it. You seem surprised. You've never demonstrated such . . . A submissive characteristic before. Waiting for your Mistress's permission. It was that. But it was more than that. I wanted only you, my lady. After experiencing the wet, hot silk of your pussy, my cock finds my rough hand a woeful substitute. "I do not find your hand that way at all. " Lifting it, she pressed her face into his touch. Her left eye,most of her nose and half her lips disappeared behind the cover of his palm and fingertips. He noticed then the screen was up, likely raised by a compulsion she had sent Mr. Ingram or just the man's perceptiveness. "When our flight lands, it will be daylight and I'll sleep on the plane. But when we rise at sunset, I have to meet with the Council first thing. Without servants present. " She cocked her head. "The Council and several other high-ranking vampires meet on the first night to discuss issues of more confidential concern to our kind. It's a courtesy, mostly an overview of the things we'll hear over the next three days and those things we won't, but will manifest themselves. " A slight smile touched her lips. "A briefing, if you will. " "I remember, my lady. " He moved his touch to her calf, his fingers teasing under the hem of the skirt, finding her knee. Her gaze held his steadily, but he noted her lips parted at the provocative touch.
"When you go to our rooms to get us settled, " she said, her voice throaty, "you will . . . Assuage your need. I want to see you in my mind with your hand on your cock, stroking yourself to release. " Enough was enough. He was only human, after all. Ignoring her breathless laughter in his mind, he reached out and dragged her across the seat to him, clamping down on her mouth with his own. He knew that was what she wanted, though he didn't know if it was his psychic intuition, their mind link or just the bond between the two of them. Soul mates. Those disturbing words again, planted by Thomas. He didn't know if it was true, but he couldn't deny it seemed like he knew her mind better than his own. Raising his head, he met her gaze. "My lady . . . " "Sssh. Give me what I need, Jacob. It is just us here. Soon I shall have to be very different, very cold. I'll have to remind you that you belong to me in ways that are not comfortable to you. It is our way. But for now, take my woman's heart. Hold it for me so I'll be able to find it again after this is all over. " Dropping his hand to her waist, he curled his fingers under her shirt, felt the soft skin stretched over the smooth valleys between her ribs. Moving up to the satin of her bra cups, he brushed them with his thumbs. When he took the shirt over her head, he watched the way her clipped-back hair formed a twisting spiral as it funneled through the neckline and then fell back to her shoulder, down her now mostly bare back. Spanning her skin with his large hands, the tan skin against the pale unblemished, he put his lips on the top of one curve, his jaw brushing her. Her breath held, her teeth biting down on her lips as a distracted smile of pleasure curved them. Her fingers rested on his shoulders. For once they didn't dig in, just held as if she were seeking an emo- tional anchor.
Her skin was so sensitized that if he teased one small part of her with tiny touches of tongue and lip, he knew her body would begin to quiver, like ripples in a lake that expanded and be- came a wake on a shore from that one minute disturbance. She knew how to draw an extraordinary level of sensual enjoy- ment from the simplest acts, and he'd been a good student. He could bring her to climax with this one contact because of how deeply she could focus on it.
But that wasn't what she needed now. He put his hand between them, freed himself from his jeans and found her beneath her skirt, bringing it up to her hips so he could slide his finger under the band of the silk panties she wore, move the crotch aside and test her wet- ness. She was slick and warm already. When he guided her onto him, she sank down on his length with a noise between an animal sound of acceptance and a murmur of contentment, completion. She tightened on him, inch by torturous inch. When he had her fully seated, he put his arms around her, pressing her against him, her head down to his shoulder. Her arms shifted to wrap around his shoulders, almost like a child being carried home in an adult's arms. Following instinct, he began to rock, slow, sliding strokes up inside her. Wrapping a complex dichotomy of desire and comfort tightly around their bodies, a lullaby of searing sensation. Her hips moved on his, circular desire, tightening, releasing, lifting, lowering. He nuzzled her neck as she moved her grip to his hair, his trimmed beard making friction across the top of her left breast, eliciting a soft, shuddering sigh. He'd never wanted anything to go on forever so much, this mag- ical journey through the night in the quiet solitude of a moving car, baptized by the lights of the passing vehicles. The soft sound of In- gram's preferred slow groove station came through the back speak- ers. Jacob's release built with hers on every stroke as they moved in perfect harmony on a star-kissed sea of their own world. It was a sweet ride, holding her body close, feeling her move with him, her cheek pressed against his hair, her grip there alternately tightening and stroking. He was sure Mr. Ingram knew what was happening back here. Somehow, despite the fact he'd never formally taken Lyssa's offer of a job, Elijah had become part of the journey they were on, a journey Jacob was all too aware had an end. Mr. In- gram knew it, too, and maybe that was why he was with them still. Sometimes, despite all the reasons a man's mind told him he needed to avoid a situation with a woman, his heart overruled him. No mat- ter the pain or danger, this was the course that called to him.