"You don't make sense to me, Jonas," she whispered. "What are you trying to do to me?"
"Complete you. Protect you." His voice deepened as it speared through her heart.
Rachel kissed Amber's forehead gently, smiled as the baby pursed her lips as though to kiss her back, then laid her back amid the incredibly soft blankets that covered the mattress.
Turning to Jonas, she passed him, moved back into the office and felt his presence as he followed.
"I have to return to D.C. tonight," he told her as she moved back to her desk.
"Running away?" She stopped at her chair and turned back to face him. "Isn't that what you accused me of, Jonas?"
"My running is the only thing that will save you," he informed her, his voice turning to ice once more. "Never doubt that, Rachel. If I stay here tonight, I won't have the control not to take you. Now get everything ready--"
"No." Adrenaline raced through her as though she were facing losing something, someone. Jonas would be back, she knew he would, but something inside her couldn't bear to see him go.
Reaching out, she gripped his arm and held on tight. "You wouldn't let me run, you won't let me hide. Why should you be able to?"
"Because of this." His finger touched the mark he had left on her: the small scratch his incisors had left on her neck. "I drew blood, and for a second, love, I nearly licked over the wound. Do you know what would have happened, what I would have done to you, had I done that?"
She shook her head as she fought to control the pain that tried to twist her expression.
"The mating hormone would have infected the wound. Within hours, it would have moved into your system. A few more hours and you would be begging me to f**k you. Screaming for it. That's what's going to happen if I stay."
Rachel jerked away from him. Raking her fingers through her hair, she fought to make sense of her emotions, her needs, her confusion.
What was he doing to her?
She remembered, so many years ago, seeing his face on a news interview. She had watched his eyes, the swirl of color, and had felt her heart clench. Over the years, nothing had changed. Each time she saw a glimpse of him in the news, she had watched, absorbed by the sight.
Meeting him had produced a stronger reaction. It hadn't been simple attraction. It hadn't been mere interest or even absorption. From that first face-to-face meeting, Jonas had inspired emotions inside her that she hadn't wanted to face.
"Rachel." His voice rasped across her senses as he moved behind her.
His hands gripped her hips, held her to him as he laid his cheek against the top of her head.
"I don't sleep because I can do nothing but hunger for you," he whispered. "I smell your scent, heavy with arousal, and it burns inside me. I see you and I want nothing more than to taste you, every inch of you. I'm a strong man, baby, but I'm not that strong."
His hands stroked up her side, moved around, cupped her br**sts.
She breathed in sharply and arched into his touch.
"I sat in that office, fighting for control, and the scent of you drew me back. Do you know I can smell the wet heat of your pu**y clear into that f**king room? All I can think about is spreading your legs." His fingers found her ni**les, stroked them, gripped them between fingers and thumbs before rolling them firmly.
Her head fell back against his chest as her back arched in pleasure.
"I can't keep my hands off you."
Did she want him to keep his hands off her?
She didn't.
Her breathing roughened as sensation sizzled across her nerve endings. His hands moved, his fingers flipping apart the buttons that held her blouse together.
"Do you know what mating heat does?" he growled.
She shook her head. Merinus had evidently neglected to give her a lot of information.
"The pleasure is unlike anything you could imagine," he whispered at her ear as he parted her blouse, his fingers moving to the clasp of her bra between her br**sts.
The pleasure was unlike anything she could have imagined. Rachel lowered her head, watched as his large hands cupped her br**sts, caressed them, his fingers stroking across her ni**les.
Biting her lip, she fought to hold back the whimpers of pleasure that fell from her lips, and failed.
This was incredible. It was unlike any pleasure she had known in her life.
"All it takes is a kiss," he whispered. "Or a lick. I could taste the sweet heat of your pu**y, push my tongue inside the tight little muscles there, and you'd go crazy for the pleasure, Rachel. You'd beg, but you wouldn't have to beg. I'd give it to you. All night, all day. Over and over again while your body begs for more, demands more."
His hands slid from her br**sts, down. He flicked open the button to her pants, slid the zipper down and pushed his hand inside the silk panties beneath.
"Is this mating heat?" she gasped.
She could feel her juices spilling over his fingers, the swollen folds of her sex parting beneath his fingers. The sensations were exquisite, heated, rife with such longing that she wanted to beg for possession.
"Not yet." He breathed out, his chest laboring at her back as they both fought for air. "Not for you."
But it was killing him. She felt it now. The tension in his body, the primal rasp of his voice. This wasn't the cool, logical, in-control Jonas that she knew.
His breathing was heavy at her ear, a groan tearing from his chest as his fingers met the swollen bud of her clit. A groan that mingled with her whimper of need.
"Then something's wrong." Her hand moved to her thighs, pressing against his as the need for a firmer touch surged through her body. "Jonas, this is killing me."
Then what was it doing to him?
According to Ely, it was thousand times worse for him.
He growled behind her. A sound so reminiscent of the animal he shared his genetics with that she shivered.
"Tell me . . ." She had to swallow tightly to continue as his fingers eased through the lush collection of heat between the folds of her sex. "Tell me, Jonas, what this does to you."
His head buried against her neck as his large body seemed to shudder behind her.
"Heaven and hell," he groaned. "I want to go to my knees and beg, Rachel. I would beg for just a taste if I knew you wouldn't hate me once you realized you were tied to me forever. And from all we know, mating is a long, long time."