Shrouded in Darkness (Shrouded Series) (20 page)

He whipped his glasses off then pulled off the wig which suffocated and burned into his scalp. It didn’t relieve a thing. Nothing could. Jake had to ride this through to the end, if he didn’t die before that.

Knives licked at his insides, searing into every cell of his body. Jake closed his eyes against it, struggling not to black out. His room. It had a flimsy lock. Margot could come in if she had a safety key. See him like this. Without his disguise—

Jake gasped as a tide of fire rolled through his body. His arms and legs gave way and he fell to the floor. Then as suddenly as it came, the pain subsided. He opened his eyes and focused. Crimson drops stained the white linoleum. Blood. His blood. He wiped his nose with the back of his hand. His glove came away wet.

“Shit.”

This was bad. Real bad.

Death came for him, and he couldn’t do a damn thing to stop it.

Jake wanted to scream, lash out at the injustice. He didn’t want to die. Not now. Everything was slipping from his grasp. He’d taken his mortality for granted. So damn stupid. He’d always thought there’d be a tomorrow. Well, he was living tomorrow with no children, no wife, no one to call his own.

Margot.

If only...

The sudden loneliness bearing down on him seemed almost as debilitating as his attack, and thoughts of Margot didn’t ease the ache. It just made him feel worse. He was coming to love her. Well, it didn’t matter now. He’d caused irreparable damage between them tonight by scaring the hell out of her.

Jake grabbed the edge of the sink and pulled himself up, then snatched a towel from the rack on the wall. He rubbed the sweat from his jaw and back of his neck with one side of the towel, and used the other side to wipe the drying blood from his nose. After tossing the towel down by his feet, he stripped and dropped his clothes and gloves on the floor beside it. Shivering, he showered and dried himself quickly.

Stepping into the bedroom, he found the room empty and the door closed and still locked. Relieved, he crawled into bed and wrapped himself in a warm cocoon of flannel sheets.

Even though mentally and physically drained, Jake couldn’t sleep. His mind raced with thoughts of the formula, Malcolm, Miltonics, but particularly Margot. He couldn’t get her out of his mind.

He heard Margot outside his room. The creak of the stair gave her away as she made her way up to the second floor. Jake lay on his back with his head pillowed by his hands and stared at the ceiling. Her bedroom was directly above his. A few minutes later he heard the shift of the bed through the floorboards.

Despite his weakness, Jake wondered what she was wearing. Damn it. He didn’t care what the hell she wore. He wanted her naked again. Naked and writhing beneath him. He wanted to feel the smoothness of her skin beneath his fingers, smell the scent of her hair against his cheek, and hear her moan against his throat. He wanted her arching beneath him in surrender as he came into her.

He wanted all of her.

Jesus! She haunted him.

Jake pounded his pillow and turned on his side. Nothing was working. Nothing but a miracle would get him to sleep tonight.

Margot woke from a fitful sleep, glanced at the bedside clock and groaned. A little after three in the morning, and she was wide-awake and dead sober. She hated both.

The programmed thermostat had shut off during the night, throwing a chill into the room. Turning over on her side, she pulled the down comforter over her ear and snuggled deeper beneath the covers.

She stilled.

Jake was in her bedroom.

Margot hadn’t heard him come in, couldn’t see him, but she knew he was there. The scent of him, woodsy and all male, drifted to her through the night. She sensed his stillness, his hunger in the darkness. Her breathing quickened and her stomach knotted in anticipation.

Oh, God. No. She didn’t want him here. Not now. She was too raw, too frightened, too everything. And too sober. Without the haze of alcohol, her senses and emotions were far too heightened. She was terrified of who he was, what he was hiding, but most importantly, the power he had over her. She still hadn’t recovered from witnessing his break down.

The rustle of sheets, the sigh of Jake’s breath whispered from behind. At the touch of his palm, warm against her bare shoulder, she stiffened.

“Jake...” Margot didn’t think she had the willpower to say no.

“I tried, but I couldn’t stay away. You smell so good...” His breath touched the nape of her neck, warming her exposed skin and ruffling the fine hairs at the nape of her neck. He nipped at the lobe of her ear, then used his mouth to burn a hot and seductive path along the slope of her neck.

Margot shuddered and closed her eyes against the hunger. Her veins burned with it, her stomach ached with it. Desire raged through her body. The way Jake’s body cupped her from behind, the way his skin seared through the thin silk of her gown chipped away at her resolve.

“Jake—I—”

“Don’t, Margot.” He urged her on her back with gentle hands and pressed a finger against her lips. “Don’t tell me to go. I need you tonight. I need you like I’ve never needed anyone in my life.”

She looked up. The night, thick, black and total hid his profile from view, but she heard the desperation in his voice. How could she turn him away when she would be denying not just him but herself?

“Why?” Her throat tightened, making speech difficult at best. “Why are you doing this to me, Jake?”

Jake cupped her cheek and caressed the line of her jaw with the pad of his thumb. “When it comes to you, I have no control.”

His deep voice sounded emotionally charged. “I can’t stay away. I know I should—for the both of us. I—” He inhaled sharply. “I’m sorry Margot. I just can’t leave you alone.”

His words and their honesty touched her like nothing else could. “Then don’t.”

Jake caught her parted lips with his mouth and slid over her, covering her body with the hot, hard length of him. Then raking his fingers through her hair, he anchored her head against the pillow and opened her lips wider with his mouth and tongue. Margot clutched at his shoulders, digging her fingers into the naked flesh of his muscles. His kiss deepened, took and devoured until she was a mindless mass of sensations, unable to deny him or herself.

Sweet heaven. He tasted wonderful. Pure sin and pure pleasure. The desperation, wildness in his touch excited her that much more. Margot couldn’t get enough of his mouth, his tongue, his hands. Oh, Lord, those hands of his touched her in places that made her hunger for him that much more. She wanted him, all of him, around her and in her.

Jake dragged in a breath of air. Lust. But far more than that. His feelings were involved, deep feelings of love and devotion. For Margot, he’d do anything, be anyone. He’d protect her, even from herself or die trying.

Easing her legs apart with his knees, Jake sank back on his heels and tugged roughly at her gown with shaking hands, drawing it up over her hips. She arched, freeing the fabric and helping him pull the garment from her body. Jake tossed it aside. He needed to touch every naked, satin inch of her, to feel her legs wrapped around his hips, to hear her cry out as he moved inside of her.

He couldn’t see her. Though, he could hear her shallow little pants, the rustle of sheets as she moved restlessly against the bed.

He wanted to see her in the light, see her dilated eyes and her ivory skin flush with desire.

Clasping her knees, Jake drew them further apart. They quivered beneath his fingers as she tried to close them, but he wouldn’t have it. He wanted Margot vulnerable, open to him. He wanted her complete surrender.

“Jake. I don’t think—”

“Sssh... For once don’t think,” he whispered. “Just feel. Let me make you feel.”

When her muscles relaxed beneath his hands, Jake slid his fingers over the silken flesh of her inner thighs, inching his thumbs up higher and higher, inch by slow inch, until he reached the apex of her legs. Then he stroked her with his thumbs. She was wet, ready for him.

Damn it. Sweat formed on his brow as he fought the urge to take her right then and there. Control. He needed control. Not a quick tumble. Granted, his body screamed for it, but he wanted the moment to go on and on. He wanted tonight branded into Margot’s thoughts. He wanted her to think of no other man but him. Only him.

Mindful of his rough jaw against her skin, he followed the same path across her inner thighs with his lips. When he reached the juncture of her legs, he touched her clitoris with the tip of his tongue, a light, fleeting caress, but he soon grew bolder and took her with his mouth.

She gasped and shifted against the bed. Encouraged by her excitement, Jake didn’t stop the pressure of his tongue or mouth as he slid his hands over her hips and belly until they covered her breasts. He molded them beneath his palms, grazing his fingers again and again over her hardened nipples.

She clasped his head between both hands and drew him deeper against her as she arched against his mouth and cried out.

Jake’s own excitement turned hot with hunger as she came against his mouth.

He didn’t give her any time to recover, but rose up and slid deep into her, clutching her butt with both hands and pulling her to him. Groaning, she wrapped her legs and arms around his body.

One thrust and Jake thought he’d come right then and there. She was hot and tight and...perfect. She squirmed beneath him, trying to set the pace, but he grasped her hips and slowly drew out, then back in, using short, deliberate thrusts to tease, to tempt again and again. Then he drove deep, once, twice. When he sensed her nearing the edge, he paused deep inside.

“Jake, please—”

Her nails bit into his shoulders and her legs tightened around his hips.

“It’s okay, baby. I’ve got you.”

“But I—want—I want—”

Margot used her body to try to throw him to the side and take over, but he dug his knees and elbows into the mattress, holding her tight against his body. He caught her mouth, delving deep. She matched him with equal passion, twining her fingers into his hair to hold his head steady as she mated with his tongue.

Jake broke the kiss, nipped at her bottom lip, and ran his tongue gently, ever so softly over the same spot. With some primitive urge goading him, Jake found the pulse above her collarbone and suckled, marking her as his.

Margot was no one else’s. She had to see that. She had to see that he loved her. Yes. He loved her, loved her more than any other woman in his life.

Drawing her legs from around his waist, he slid them up over his shoulders. He grabbed the extra pillow and nudged it under her bottom while rising to his knees, impaling himself deeper inside of her.

“Oh—” She gasped.

“Am I deep enough now?”

“Yes—” She said between hard, ragged breaths. “Oh, yes.”

Grasping her hips, he withdrew and plunged into the warm, tightness of her. “You feel so damn good.”

He closed his eyes and grappled for self-control. She was so feminine. He loved the curves beneath his hands, the long, length of her legs, and the way she responded to his every touch.

Jaw clenched, Jake quickened his pace—each thrust deliberate as he moved faster and harder. He stroked her hips and waist, urging her on. “Come for me, baby. That’s it. Feel the rush.”

Beneath his hands her body tensed, grinding against his hips as she arched off the mattress. Her cry of release broke the night.

Jesus. Jake lost it then. Heart pounding, he clutched at her hips, his own bucking and straining above her as he came inside her. He shuddered. His climax went on and on, draining the life out of him. Careful of Margot’s legs, he eased gently down beside her and curved an arm around her, drawing her snuggly against his chest.

“I didn’t hurt you, did I?” Jake stroked her damp hair from her brow.

“Hurt? Never that.” She laughed, a deep husky, even sultry sound. “But I’m weak, all wobbly. If I got up right now, I’d embarrass myself and land flat on my face.”

Smiling, Jake glided a thumb tenderly along her jaw line. He tightened his free arm and drew her soft curves even closer to his length.

“You’re not the only one. With you I’ve never... I mean it was more than hot sex.” He cleared his throat. He’d never been good at explaining his feelings. “It was beautiful. You’re beautiful.”

“Beautiful?” she asked, a smile in her voice. “I like the sound of that. Keep the compliments going, and I just might let you stay the night.”

With Margot cuddled in the circle of his arms, her cheek against his shoulder and his mouth by her brow, Jake closed his eyes.

Her scent drifted to him in the darkness. She smelled of him. He smiled once again and drifted into an exhausted sleep.

Margot woke to something soft stroking her cheek. She wrinkled her nose and pushed it aside. Another gentle swipe brushed at her mouth. She opened her eyes and found Marmaduke hunched inches from her face. As she opened her mouth, he decided then and there to rub up against her face and present her with a mouthful of cat hair.

“Yuck.” She rubbed her mouth with the back of her hand and pulled him up against her stomach. “I don’t exactly like eating cat hair. And what are you doing up? It’s too early yet, stupid. You’re going to have to wait for breakfast.”

The sun hadn’t yet risen over the horizon, but moonlight now seeped into the room and thrust the furniture into varying shades of gray. Lifting her head from her pillow, Margot looked to the empty space beside her and slipped her free hand over the cool sheets.

No. Not again. Jake had left before sunrise.

Margot let go of the cat, who scrambled off the bed and disappeared into the hall.

She knew he’d been with her most of the night, having woken up a few times with Jake’s leg over her own and an arm curved around her waist. But now he was gone to God knew where.

So he’d left. Margot told herself she shouldn’t be hurt by it. Otherwise, that would mean she was vulnerable—a weakness she’d promised never to allow herself after Malcolm.