Hidden Currents (37 page)

There was a light sheen of sweat coating his body. His hair was damp and every muscle in his body strained toward her—toward that mouth that was devouring him, milking him. His cock jerked. Pulsed. Swelled until he filled her mouth and stretched her throat. He felt it then, rising, rolling over him like a tidal wave, sweeping him into an explosive release that didn’t seem to stop, the hot semen pumping out of him, jet after jet, the orgasm erupting through his body, until his thighs and belly were so tight he thought he might die from sheer bliss. He heard his hoarse cry—
Elle
—and the guttural, animalistic moans coming from his throat.

She held him in her mouth while he softened and then licked at him gently, lovingly, as he lay there with his heart pounding out of his chest and his lungs fighting desperately for air. She kissed her way along his shaft and then up his belly to lay her head once more on him. Jackson could only lie there, shocked, colors dancing behind his eyes, his body in a state of absolute ecstasy. If there was a nirvana, he had found it.

You have to have the most beautiful, talented mouth in the entire world, Elle. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to move again, but I’m going to die a happy man.

She pressed kisses along his belly, nuzzled him and lay back down, her arms around him and her head pillowed on him. His cock was nestled between her soft breasts and she straddled him, her mound against his thigh.

Jackson may have dozed off, he wasn’t certain, but when he opened his eyes, it was significantly lighter in the room. He was content to lie there, his hands in her hair, her body draped over his. Elle made him whole. Elle gave him peace. She made sense of the world. She took away the ugliness and allowed him to see the beauty in the same way his music did. She brought him so much pleasure he could barely conceive of it.

He tried to puzzle out what was so different about being with her. There had been nothing mechanical about the way she had touched him. Every stroke, every touch, her mouth, her tongue, even her teeth, had all been used on him with love. He’d felt the overwhelming emotion in everything she did to him.
His.
His Elle. She amazed and humbled him with her determination to give him pleasure.

“Elle? Are you awake, baby?”

“Mmmm.”

She sounded drowsy and contented. Like a little cat. He tugged on her hair until she was looking up at him.

“Thank you for making me feel like a human being again.” He frowned, trying to find words that would express how she made him feel when there were none. “More than that, thank you for loving me the way I am. You’ve made me feel far more loved than anyone ever has in my life. You make me feel . . .” He choked out the last word, but no matter how stupid it made him feel trying to articulate emotions, she deserved it. “Worthy.”

She was silent a long time. He felt the breath running through her body, he was so tuned to her. She felt soft and warm draped over him, a living blanket that was everything good in the world to him. His fingers slid through her scalp, trying to massage, to give her pleasure rather than declare possession.

“You’re everything to me, Jackson,” Elle said eventually, pressing her lips against his belly. “
Everything.
And you’re more worthy than any man I know. I was loving you with everything in me.”

“I know you were, baby. I felt it.”

“It wasn’t about proving something to Stavros or to myself.” She pushed up onto her elbows to look at him. “I feel so much better, Jackson. I was so afraid he’d taken everything from me, but he couldn’t take away the love I feel for you or the way I need to express it.”

His gaze drifted over her face. God, he loved her. “You have to expect to have trouble, Elle, with this—with us. Trauma is a strange thing so once in a while you may knock me on my ass again, and if it happens, it will be okay.”

“And you might have a nightmare. I’ll put the weapons under my side of the mattress.” She grinned at him.

A slow smiled answered hers and then he nodded. “It only matters to me that you love me enough that you not only want to bring me pleasure, but that you enjoy it.”

A slow, mischievous smile curved her mouth. “I
really
enjoy the way you say my name.”

“Do you, now? How about hearing it for the rest of your life?” His hands tightened in her hair, stroked little caresses over her scalp. “Let’s get married, Elle. Now. Right away. Invite the whole damn village. No wedding plans, just tell everyone it’s a village event and we want them to come and celebrate with us. Whoever shows up, it’s all good.”

She stared into his eyes for a long moment. “This isn’t an impulse thing? An afterglow from great sex?”

“This is me wanting you to be my wife. Now. I don’t want to wait. Let’s just make it official. We can get a license and be married right away. And fuck Gratsos. Let’s get married on the beach.”

She laughed. “You’re so crazy, Jackson. You don’t even like people around, yet you’re going to invite the entire village?”

He turned on his hip, propping up his head to better see her expression. “You and your sisters are a huge part of Sea Haven. I know your older sisters want a big white wedding, but we’re beach people. This”—he waved his hand to encompass his house and hers as well as the beach and the sea—“this is who we are. The village worked to get you home, praying, lighting candles, doing everything they could think of to try to help find you. Let’s not hide, baby. Let’s throw it in his face and be happy.”

“I don’t know the first thing about planning something like that.”

He grinned at her. “That’s the best part. We don’t need to plan it. We just need to call one person.”

Her eyes widened. “You’re going to call Inez?”

“The moment you say yes to me.”

“If you call her, Jackson, you’ll never be able to back out, you know that, don’t you?”

He wrapped his arms around her, rolled over, pinning her down just long enough to give her a kiss, before releasing her and rolling to the other side of the carpet. “I’ll give you the first phone call. Tell Sarah and then I call Inez.”

“They’ll all come over.”

He shrugged. “They will anyway. And I want to see Abbey and make certain she’s all right. So go call.” He leaned over her and bit her luscious butt. He wanted her sisters over because he was going to make certain Kate tried to help heal Elle’s talent. They were going to need her at full strength.

“Ow!” Elle rubbed her bottom and glared at him. “Fine, I’ll call her. You can go make us something to eat.”

“I just fed you, greedy little thing.” He brushed a kiss on top of her. “Don’t worry, I’ll make certain I take care of you like that every morning.”

She couldn’t help the color that swept up her neck to her face. “I’m telling everyone you play the piano.” As a snappy comeback it wasn’t the best, but it was all she could think of when he was looking at her like she was candy and he was about to devour her. He could make her insides melt with one look, and she grew damp and needy when his hot gaze moved over her.

Jackson gave her one warning look, snagged his jeans and went to take Bomber out while she called Sarah. She rolled over onto her back, savoring the feeling of the soft carpet against her back as she stared up at the ceiling, smirking a little as she replayed the sounds Jackson made and the intensity of the pleasure in his mind when she’d brought him to a climax. He hadn’t believed she could do it either.

Maybe he’d think twice before he underestimated her powers again. She laughed to herself and looked around the room. She loved the room. She was tempted to use her talent, just to see if she could, just do something simple like snuff out the flames on the candles . . .

Don’t even think about it. And stop feeling so smug.

I deserve to feel smug.
It did hurt to use telepathy, but she didn’t bleed and she took that as a good sign.

“Knock it off, Elle,” Jackson snapped, sticking his head in the door and glowering at her.

“You started it,” she pointed out and stretched her arms over her head. She loved the feeling of freedom.

“Do you have to be so damned beautiful and sexy?”

He sounded so irritated with her, Elle laughed. “Go away. I’m calling Sarah and then taking a shower.” She forced herself to get up when she could have spent the day languishing there on the carpet.

Sarah didn’t seem in the least bit shocked at her news, but then Sarah often had precognition and sometimes knew events before anyone else. Elle took a leisurely shower and dressed carefully knowing her family was coming over after breakfast. Even with Jackson making her feel as if she was the most beautiful, desirable woman in the world, she still felt ashamed that she had been taken prisoner.

She had extensive training, and she had tremendous psychic power. She had relied so much on her psychic abilities and her training that she hadn’t believed anyone would be able to fool her. Her own arrogance had made her vulnerable. Facing her sisters, knowing that they knew, at least on an intellectual level, the humiliating depravities Stavros had inflicted on her, was so difficult. She didn’t understand why she could face Jackson, and yet be so ashamed when her sisters were close.

She bit her lip and stared at herself in the foggy mirror. Whoever she loved could certainly be in danger and no matter what Jackson said to her, she knew that if Stavros could fool her for as long as he had, if he could keep her prisoner, then he was an extremely dangerous and powerful opponent. She wasn’t about to underestimate him again, or overestimate her own strengths.

“Come eat, Elle,” Jackson called.

Elle took a breath and let it out. She was going to call into work and let Dane know she was alive. It was the right thing to do. She didn’t have much information to help anyone break the human trafficking ring, but she had enough to at least confirm suspicion that Stavros was involved and that his brother was alive and probably responsible for kidnapping women. Law enforcement would have to find a way to take them down and it would take time, but at least she would have contributed.

Jackson looked up from the table when she entered the room. She knew by his lack of expression and his dark smoldering eyes that he’d been in her mind, reading her thoughts. She sank down into a chair and reached for her teacup.

“No.”

He’d made the tea just the way she liked it, with milk. It tasted delicious. Elle looked at him over the rim. “I don’t want to argue, Jackson. You know I’m going to have to call Dane and let him know I’m alive. I can’t hide forever. And it isn’t fair to him.”

“Once he knows, Gratsos will know. Gratsos bought the police. Hell, he probably bought his share of police around the world. The minute your report is filed, he’s going to know you’re alive for certain and he’ll move heaven and earth to find you. We’re not ready for him,” Jackson pointed out.

“He’s attacking us already.”

“He’s attacking anywhere psychic energy shows up,” Jackson said. “You know he is. And I’ll prove it. I’ll go on the website today and look up strange events around the world. I’m willing to bet several areas had undertows where there are no undertows and jellyfish that shouldn’t have been there, everything that happened yesterday. So just wait until you’re at full strength.”

“We can’t know I’ll heal all the way, Jackson. The longer I wait to file a report, the less time the authorities have to shut down this ring. I need to know that what happened to me will at least help someone else.”

He set down his fork and leaned toward her, locking his gaze with hers. “Then you let Kate try today.”

Elle pressed her fingers to her eyes and toyed with the eggs on her plate. “I’ll try, Jackson.” When he didn’t respond she looked up at him. “I really will. I’ll need you to help me, but I’ll try to let her.”

He reached across the table and covered her hand with his. “We won’t let anything happen to her.”

“He scares me, Jackson. I know you think he’s not all-powerful, but look what he’s done so far.” She didn’t want Jackson underestimating their enemy. She’d done that once and paid the consequences.

“When your family gets here, and I presume they’re on the way . . .” At her nod he continued. “We can discuss Gratsos. Right now I think you should hear what Inez had to say.”

Her mouth fell open. She stared at him. “You really called Inez and told her we were getting married?”

He shrugged, but she caught the gleam of amusement in his eyes. “Not precisely. What I said was, we wanted to get married immediately with the village invited to a beach wedding but we had no idea how to go about it.”

She covered her face with her hands and peeked out at him through her fingers. “You didn’t.”

For one moment his teeth flashed at her and then he recovered and kept sober. “And then I called the Dardens on Inez’s instructions. Apparently they operate some kind of village event calendar that can activate immediately and brings in all sorts of volunteers, which Inez said she will need.”

“I’m trying not to hate you right now.”

He picked up the tea mug and drank, unsuccessfully hiding his grin. “You liked the idea this morning.”

“In the after-sex glow! Inez? Do you have any idea what you’ve let yourself in for? She’ll put on the event of the year. She’ll have you in a tux and top hat.”

He openly smirked. “It’s a beach wedding. She’ll have you in a bikini.” He leered and wriggled his eyebrows. “I’ll be in board shorts. We’ll both be barefoot.”

“Dream on, my man. Inez is going to knock your socks off all right, but it won’t be anything like you think.”

The smile faded to be replaced by a small frown. “I’ll have a little chat with her.”

“You’ve had enough little chats with her. I’ll be talking to Inez.” She gave an indignant sniff.

“We’re getting married, Elle, and I don’t much give a damn if we do it here with the dog as our witness or in front of the entire world, but it’s getting done. So get your birth certificate and have it ready. We’re getting the license.”

She rolled her eyes. “I see big bad Jackson needs another lesson. You need to be taken down a peg or two.”