Predatory Game (37 page)

“Do you?” Her chin lifted, eyes flashing. “Do you really? Or are you just lying to yourself?”

Something dark and dangerous flickered in the depths of his eyes. His mouth hardened perceptibly. “I don’t lie to myself.”

“Really? What about your ‘friend’ Eric? Or the fact that you allowed them to talk you into the bionics program, or that they’re using Zenith on you? Did you think I wouldn’t recognize the signs of that drug? That was in Whitney’s file, the one in plain English, not math code. It was his suggestion Zenith be used in small dosages, did you know that? You sold me out to them, whether you intended to do it or not.”

“Bullshit, Saber. You’re picking a fucking fight with me so you can leave.” He knocked the ashes from his pipe into the ashtray beside him and tossed the pipe aside. “I would never sell you out, not for any reason. I had you investigated, like I was supposed to. It would have been criminal of me not to, and you can’t condemn me for that. I have no idea how Eric found out about you, but it wasn’t through me and it wasn’t through Lily.”

“How would you know? Because she told you that? Of course she told you and you believed her. But you didn’t believe me when I told you he knew.” She backed away when he glided closer.

“Damn it, Saber, we have no chance of straightening anything out between us if you’re going to insist on behaving unreasonably.”

“Unreasonably?” Saber echoed it, her voice swinging out of control. “You think I’m unreasonable because I don’t like it that my past is known by all your little friends? That your friends think I’m a freak and a monster? God! What the hell do you want from me?” Tears sparkled on her lashes. “You want unreasonable? I’m out of here, Jesse!”

Saber whirled around and ran through the house, heedless of the dark, of the furniture. Ignoring Jess’s hoarse yell, she swung the kitchen door open and rushed outside onto the grounds. She had no idea what she was doing but she had to get out of the house. Her lungs burned for air and she felt like the walls were closing in on her. Outside, the grass was squishy and wet beneath her bare feet. She ran into the middle of the backyard and paused to look wildly around her, not really comprehending what she was doing, where she thought she was going. The world around her was crashing down and everything she dreamt of was lost.

The night was as turbulent as she felt. Trees swayed in the wind. She turned up her face to the dark ominous clouds, allowing the rain to mingle with the tears on her face. The shirt molded itself to her soft curves and became nearly transparent.

Jess followed her into the tumultuous night, something wild and savage rising up in him to match the elements. “Saber!” His voice carried across the distance separating them, harsh, hoarse, commanding.

She spun around to face him, frightened, untamed, beautiful in the unrelenting storm. “I can’t stand it, Jesse.” It was a cry torn from her heart, her soul. She was so lost and there was no way out, no way back.

Above her, the sky ripped open, a jagged white streak cracking across the dark rolling clouds, for a moment throwing the grounds into sharp relief. Jess caught a glimpse of her, the shirt nearly nonexistent, plastered to her body and emphasizing her breasts, the darkened, erect nipples, the narrow rib cage and flat line of her stomach and the dark V at the junction of her legs. She looked like a pagan sacrifice, her slender arms outstretched to him, her pale face strained and vulnerable.

His body hardened. Not a subtle, enjoyable change but a savage, painful jolt, the need so intense, so ferocious, it was like nothing he’d ever experienced. “Come here.” His voice was rough with lust.

Saber looked across the yard at him, at the raw hunger etched deep into the lines of his face. Desire glittered in his eyes, dark and rough. His body was starkly aroused, the bulge thick and impressive, tenting his robe. The breath stilled in her chest and every stomach muscle tightened and bunched. Spasms went off in her womb, little bursts like sparkling rockets. He was a dark obsession that drew her beyond control.

She came to him, he to her, meeting on the edge of the lawn. He caught the back of her legs in his hands, slid his palms up her unexpectedly hot skin to her firm buttocks. His grip was strong, possessive, as he kneaded flesh.

Saber moaned as his exploring hands urged her closer. Not bothering to remove the thin, transparent material covering her flesh, Jess bent his dark head to her nipple. His mouth was hot on her aching breast, the shirt abrasive. It was wildly erotic, sending waves of such urgency through her body she could barely stand. Cradling his head to her breast, she lifted her face to the wild sky, allowing the rain to wash away the tears.

His hand skimmed up her inner thigh, moved higher to caress hot, moist velvet. Saber moaned again, needing, wanting, a sudden frenzy of hunger she couldn’t control. Jess lifted his head, dark eyes burning black. He caught the front of her shirt and as another bolt of lightning ripped across the sky, he jerked brutally, parting the material so that the light exposed her creamy rain-wet skin. The shirt fell unnoticed, a rag in a pool of water at her feet.

Jess caught the nape of her neck, dragged her to him, fusing their mouths together, dominating, barbaric, taking, demanding her compliance, her submission. His body was burning, a painful unrelenting arousal. Saber’s soft little throaty cries, her wandering hands, and the sweet taste of her did nothing to appease the pain—it only fueled the fire already burning out of control in him.

She tore her mouth from his, her hands pushing aside his robe, exposing the magnificence of his hard, masculine body. She knelt, wrapping her arms around his waist, her lips on his skin, tasting rain, moving sensuously over every defined muscle, exploring, taunting, deliberately feeding the desperate urgency she could sense in him.

Jess cried out hoarsely, caught two fistfuls of her silky hair, bunching the mass in his large hands, his body trembling, fighting for control. He jerked her head back. In the bright streak of lightning they stared into each other’s souls.

“I’ll never let you go,” he warned softly, implacably. “Be certain, Saber, if you come to me like this, you’re mine. If you do this, you’re mine.” Because she was going to destroy him. Utterly destroy him with her mouth and body. She was already taking him to a place he couldn’t come back from.

“I have to have you, Jesse.” The admission was stark and raw, and she dropped to her knees in the wet grass as he scooted his hips forward, bringing some relief to his aching body.

Her entire body was going wild with need, her control nearly gone. She wanted it gone. She wanted this—Jess—his body needing hers, burning for hers. She craved the dark possessive lust building in his eyes and the way his body responded with such heat, growing thick and long and hard with his need. She didn’t care about his friends, or what they thought, only Jess and the way he looked at her.

She was hungry for the taste of him. She needed to feel the hard length of him filling her mouth, watch his eyes go opaque and glaze over, hear his breath go ragged and see his chest rise and fall, hear his voice turn hoarse with pleasure. She cupped his tight sac in her hands, ran her fingers in a caress over his hard shaft. Watching his face, she leaned forward and ran her tongue over the mushroom head, tasting sex and lust and love mingled together.

His cock jerked. “Damn it, Saber. We could both be in trouble.”

She wanted to be in trouble. She wanted him wild and rough. Still keeping her gaze locked with his, she leaned into him with a long slow lick, curling her tongue under the base of the flared head.

His eyes went hot and his fingers bunched in her hair, forcing her mouth toward him. A muscle ticked in his jaw as she blew warm air over him. She opened her mouth to accept the demands of his body, her tongue moistening her lips in anticipation. He made a sound somewhere between a growl and a groan and dragged her head to him.

Saber took him in, inch by slow inch, deliberately prolonging his agony, her gaze locked with his as she drew his thick shaft into the silken heat of her mouth. He tasted of sizzling passion, rich and male, and she needed more. She watched him as he drew in harsh breaths, as he jerked at the robe, shoving it down until it bunched behind him. All the while his hips thrust in an almost helpless rhythm.

She could feel him pulsing against her tongue, filling her mouth, stretching her lips. The power was incredible—that she could do this to him, this sexy, virile man, that he could trust her and want her so that he couldn’t take his eyes from the sight of her, so that groans rumbled in his chest and his body shuddered with pleasure.

She licked at the underside of the broad head, and then sucked hard. His thrusts became more urgent, deeper, the hands in her hair controlling. She drove out his control, so that his hands were rough in her hair, tugging at her scalp, sending delicious little currents of electricity down her breasts to her groin. Her womb clenched every time he thrust deeper, each time a groan escaped. She learned to keep rubbing her tongue on the sensitive spot on the underside at the head of his shaft. The more she did, the more she swallowed him and sucked, the more the reward. His breath hitched in his lungs and his cock jerked and throbbed in anticipation.

“You’ve got to stop, baby.” He used her own hair to pull her away from him. “If you don’t, we’re going to have a major problem.”

She took one last satisfying swipe with her tongue. She loved the look on his face, the raw pleasure, the stark desire. He tugged her to her feet, his hands gripping her hips, urging her to climb on him.

All around them the storm raged out of control. The rain beat down. Thunder crashed and occasional flashes of lightning lit up the sky. The series of storms was just getting started, bringing in winter with a vengeance, but it did nothing to cool the raging heat between them.

Her body slid enticingly over his, soft skin against the hard muscles of his thighs as she wedged her knees on either side of his hips. Deliberately, her gaze locked with his, she lifted her body above his. “I really do love you, Jesse. So much I don’t know what to do with it,” she whispered.

He loved her with everything in him. Everything that he was. “Don’t cry, baby, you’re still crying.”

He cupped her bottom, thumbs caressing, his body straining, aching, demanding. She was a white-hot, tight sheath urging his possession. He urged her over him, driving up through her feminine channel, wanting to shout as pleasure burst around and through him. Jess forgot everything he had ever learned about control. He matched the fury of the storm, unrestrained, turbulent, fiercely wild. The cool rain, her hot body, the lightning flashes, the crack of thunder, it all became mixed with their union. The storm merged with the wild pounding rhythm of their bodies.

He didn’t ever want to see that look on her face again. So torn. So sad. So afraid. “I’m going to love you forever, Saber.” He gripped her harder, gave her a little shake even as he surged deep inside her, locking them together. She was fiery hot, gripping him tightly, the slick silken walls rippling, clamping down and milking him. He leaned forward, pressed his mouth against her ear even as his body coiled tightly. “If you never trust anything else, trust in how I love you.”

He exploded, the hot release jetting deep inside her while her muscles convulsed around his. She cried out, threw her head back, and wept with the night. He called her name, but his voice was lost in the whipping wind.

When the tremors had subsided, Saber lay against his chest, exhausted, spent, unable to stand, unable to move long enough to separate their bodies. In spite of the cold, the heat rising between them caused little beads of perspiration to mingle with the drops of rain on his skin. Jess’s heart pounded with alarming force, and he had to fight to control his breathing.

Still locked deep in Saber’s body, Jess spun around and glided out of the storm with sure powerful thrusts on the wheels of his chair. The kitchen door was standing open, evidence of their fast departure. He closed it gently, sliding the bolt in place, the sound very final. Saber hadn’t moved, clinging to him, her eyes closed.

As he glided through the house toward the master bath he could feel his body rippling with the aftershocks of her pleasure. He smiled, rubbed his chin on the top of her head, and just held her, thankful to have her. They might have all kinds of things to settle, but she’d committed to him and he couldn’t ask for more than that.

Jess rolled the chair right into the wide, specially built shower stall, adjusted the water, and turned on the spray. The warm water felt wonderful, dispelling the cold of the night rain.

Saber slowly, reluctantly untangled her body from his. Jess’s hand cupped the side of her face, pushed wet strands of raven hair from her cheek. She couldn’t look at him, couldn’t believe she had behaved so wantonly, couldn’t understand how her body could have felt so much pleasure in such a savage act. She stared down at her bare toes. She was totally nude, no robe, no clothes, in the shower with Jess. His wheelchair was dripping wet, a faint smear of mud being washed away from where her feet had touched the back. His terry cloth robe was soaked and scrunched around his bare thighs and back.

Saber blushed, not quite believing the evidence of their wild, abandoned behavior. Jess caught her chin firmly, his smile infinitely gentle.

“Loving,” he whispered, his thumbs caressing her fragile jaw, openly reading her thoughts. He kissed her forehead, skimmed his mouth over hers. “I was loving you.”

C
HAPTER
16

J
ess stared down at Saber’s face. She lay curled up, sound asleep, exhausted, one hand flung out toward his pillow—and him, he hoped. The small lamp beside the bed spilled light across her face. Her skin was soft and luminous, her lashes long, lying like fans against her skin. He held her close, his body around hers, his hand under her breast, his cock pressed tight against her buttocks. And God help him, he was as hard as a rock.

He laughed softly, the tightness in his chest finally easing. Patsy was in a hospital being taken care of and Saber was in his bed where she belonged. He bent his head to brush a kiss in her hair before shifting to slide from the bed to his wheelchair. Saber needed the sleep and he needed to get busy and finish the investigation.