Chapter 5
Chapter Five
She’d probably just made a huge mistake.
The cold air teased her nipples, making them tight, hard peaks. She was completely naked in front of Jake, with goosebumps rising on her skin. Absolutely vulnerable. Her body on full display. Her pride gone because she was offering herself on a silver platter to the man.
And he wasn’t saying a word.
Not really the way she’d hoped this would go.
“Just this once.” Wren licked her lips and hoped she didn’t sound quite as desperate as she felt. “This one time, we can both let go and take what we want.” She wanted him and the oblivion she knew that she’d find with Jake. Her control was too ragged. She was ragged. On the edge. She wanted to fall, and he was the only one who’d ever caught her when she fell.
She needed him.
Pain and grief and fear were going to destroy her if she didn’t get the oblivion that she needed.
The monster is dead.
So what does that mean for me?
What lived and breathed in her? Hadn’t she always been afraid to find out? Hadn’t she always pretended to be good because she was afraid of someone seeing past her careful mask to the true evil that waited inside? But if anyone could understand darkness, if anyone could show her how to face the dark over and over again without letting it completely consume her, that person had to be Jake.
A Jake who wasn’t moving.
Who hadn’t taken his gaze off hers even though she had just dropped her towel. He hadn’t looked down at her breasts. Her body. Just kept staring into her eyes.
He kissed me, and I thought he wanted me. But he’s not moving.
Her own eyes were on his face. A face that she knew so well. The hard angles, the sharp cheekbones. That square, granite jaw. A coating of dark stubble covered his jaw. His dark hair was barely mussed, despite the time they’d spent on the windy beach. And his eyes—those piercing, topaz eyes pinned her in place.
“Most people can’t tell the difference between you and your brother.” She had to keep talking because the silence chipped away at her too much. “I’ve never had that problem.”
He shook his head once. Slowly. No.
“Want to know why?”
His eyes did not leave hers. But he nodded.
“Because you wear your darkness like a second skin. I see it every time I look at you. I see the savagery that breathes in you. The intensity. And I’ve never been afraid of it. Quite the opposite.” Maybe that should scare her. “I want you because, unlike Eb, you don’t pretend that you want to be a normal, good guy. You like the darkness. You like the danger. You like?—”
His hands clamped around her arms. A fierce grip, but one that did not hurt. Jake had never hurt her. Not physically.
The battered pieces of her heart could attest to the fact that he’d shattered her a time or two, though. Oh, those tricky emotions. All the times he’d seemed to ignore her. The times he’d barely spoken to her. The times she’d wanted him to stop. To see her. To want her as much as she wanted him.
“You need to put the towel back on.” Growled. Ordered.
But she could see the cracks, then. Finally. In his gaze as topaz burned. The flare of brutal lust. Could see it in the extra clenching of his already hard jaw. Feel it in the hands that pulled her closer.
So she smiled at him with a confidence she was far from feeling. But hadn’t she warned him that she’d been good at wearing a mask?
Maybe I am my father’s daughter. Her heart stuttered at the thought.
“Wren?” A furrow cut between his brows. “What’s wrong?”
Only everything. “If you want the towel back on me, put it on,” she challenged.
“You don’t know what you’re doing.”
Actually, she didn’t. They’d get to those specifics later. Or maybe not. For the moment, she admitted the obvious, “I’m trying to seduce you. Offering you a no-strings, one-night stand. Isn’t that the kind of sex you enjoy?” She would not hold her breath. She would not show him just how frantically her heart pounded.
“What kind of sex do you enjoy?” Jake threw back at her.
The kind of sex I get to have with you. “Why don’t you find out?” Another challenge. One that was even huskier than the first.
“Don’t. Play.” Gritted.
“I’m. Not.” She’d never been more serious. “You kissed me on the beach. Remember that? You, kissing me. Not the other way around.” She might have been the one to start things in the bar, but he’d been the one to reach for her on the beach.
No denial came from Jake.
“Do it again.” Please, do it again. “We both know you want to kiss me.” Or, technically, she hoped he did. “We both know?—”
He kissed her. Her lashes closed as tears stung her eyes because Wren was so relieved to feel his mouth against her own. It wasn’t a careful, stumbling kiss. It was a kiss full of passion and need and a desire that raged wild and hard.
Her lips parted eagerly. His tongue swept inside her mouth. Took and claimed and demanded, and she met him head-on. She needed this, needed him, more than she needed anything else in the world. Her hands pressed to his chest. To his shirt. She wanted his clothing gone. Needed them to be skin to skin.
A moan built in her throat as his hands slid down her arms. Those warm, strong hands moved to curl around her waist. Slightly callused fingertips skimmed over her bare skin. Then those fingertips…
His right hand traveled a bit more down her body. Eased in front. Dipped down, down?—
She pulled back, her eyes flaring open, before he could touch her core.
“Changed your mind, Wren?” Now he was the one to taunt and dare.
Cute. No. She shook her head. Caught his hand and pressed it between her legs.
She saw the lust blaze ever brighter in his gaze. Saw his face become brutally savage.
“You were just being too slow,” she told him, again, speaking with a confidence that was not real. He doesn’t know. He can’t know. Not yet. She needed him past the point of no return. “Thought I’d, uh, help you out.” She rose onto her toes as she guided his hand. Pushed him to stroke her just where she wanted him.
A gasp shuddered out of her.
“You’re wet.” His words were guttural. So thick and heavy with lust.
She managed a nod.
“Hot. Wet.” A muscle flexed along his jaw as his gaze devoured her. “ And tight. ” She wasn’t guiding his fingers any longer. He’d taken over and two fingers had thrust into her. Stretched her. Owned her.
She was still on her toes. Her body so tense and eager. Every part of her ached with a ferocious hunger. His thumb raked over her clit, again and again, even as those wicked fingers of his thrust into her and with shock, Wren realized she was about to?—
His fingers pulled away.
Dammit! She was about to be seriously disappointed because he had not finished. “Jake!”
“Yeah, fucking Jake. ” He swept her into his arms. “How about we make you scream that name?”
What? Really? This was happening? They were doing this? “Excellent plan.” She curled her arm around his neck even as she pressed a kiss to his throat. “Make me scream.” Then she licked his neck. Sucked a little. Felt the growl that rumbled in his chest right before he dropped her on the bed.
A hard drop because she bounced and frowned at him, but in the next moment, he’d caught her bare legs. Dragged them to the edge. Spread them far apart.
His gaze was on her sex. Locked on the V he’d created with her widely spread legs. She’d never been more exposed in her life. Wren could feel heat stinging her cheeks. Maybe if they turned the lights off this would be easier? “Jake, the lights…”
“I’ll see everything. No way I miss it when you come for me.”
Then he was on her. Right between her legs. She’d kind of expected more foreplay. Maybe some kisses. And he, uh, was kissing her.
Just not on the mouth.
His tongue slid over her clit. A delicious lick that had her hips surging off the bed, but his hands clamped around her and held her in place as he feasted. Licked. Sucked. Took.
Her head tossed against the bed. She grabbed for the sheets and fisted them in her hands. Wren held on for dear life as Jake went down on her. Jake is going down on me. Hello, fantasy.
Only this was way better than a fantasy. His wicked tongue worked at an expert level. He stroked and tasted, and one strong hand freed her heaving hips so that his fingers could join his mouth. Those two fingers thrust back into her again even as he licked. Wren was completely helpless because all of her control had disintegrated and there was no stopping the pleasure that flooded through her body. Did she scream?
Yes.
“ Jake!” The orgasm thundered through her. So much more powerful than anything she’d felt before. Her body shuddered and pulsed. Her hands clenched around the covers so tightly that she couldn’t believe the bedding didn’t rip. Her whole body arched as pleasure consumed Wren.
“Fucking beautiful.”
Her eyes snapped open.
His eyes pinned her.
Her breath shuddered in and out. Her breasts rose and fell.
“Do you always come so fast?” A careful question. A deep and dark one and something feral seemed to blaze in his eyes.
Her head moved slowly against the bed even as she fought to bring her breathing back under control.
“No?” A hard smile curved his lips. “Guess I’m special.”
Oh, Jake, you have no idea.
“I’m going to fuck you, Wren. There will be no going back.”
Did it look as if she was trying to go anywhere? She was currently just trying to breathe like a normal person again. Her body felt utterly limp.
And why did he still have on all of those clothes? The clothes needed to go, immediately.
He stood by the bed.
She missed his hands on her.
In her.
He yanked off his shirt.
Hello, muscles for days. She sometimes thought that Jake must spend every spare moment in the gym. The man was built. Had been, for years. Abs for days. A powerful chest. Shoulders that could block out the sun.
A few faint, white lines cut across the tanned expanse of his chest. Scars from attacks, from danger, that she’d never been told about. He’d always kept his secrets.
Just as she’d kept hers.
He kicked away his shoes.
She sat up on the bed. Then moved to crouch on her knees. Her breath still came too fast.
He tossed his phone on the nightstand, and then his hand went to the waist of his jeans. “Change your mind?”
What? Change her mind? Ha. Forget that. She reached for him. Unhooked the jeans. Lowered the zipper and she barely heard the hiss over the sound of her pounding heart. She shoved down his black boxer shorts—she just wanted them out of her way—and, acting purely on instinct, she lowered her head, and her mouth closed over the broad head of his dick.
“Fuck, Wren. ”
She was trying hard to get the man to fuck her, yes. That was the goal. But now she was licking and tasting, and this was way better than she’d imagined.
Except, in a blink, she found herself back on the bed. Correction, on her back, on the bed.
“Unless you want me coming in your mouth, don’t do that again. ”
Well, she didn’t hate the idea.
But he’d finished stripping. He’d hauled a condom from his wallet. Of course, he’d be the prepared type. Just another thing to love about Jake.
No, stop. Do not go there. Don’t you dare.
“Wren? What’s wrong?”
She blinked. Smiled brightly. Too brightly? “Just wondering why you aren’t already in me.”
Maybe that hadn’t been the right thing to say. Because before she could pull in another breath, he was on her. On the bed with her. On top of her. Her legs were spread wide beneath him, and his dick lodged at the entrance to her body. He kissed her, his tongue thrust deep, and then his cock slammed hard inside of her. Wren could not hold back her quick, startled cry of pain.
So much for hiding that secret any longer.
He froze. That powerful body stiffened over her. Against her. And his head shot up as if he’d just been electrocuted with a powerful shock. “Wren.”
Probably not the moment to say… surprise, surprise. He definitely did not look like a man who was in the mood for a surprise. Even though he’d clearly just gotten one. He suddenly didn’t even look like a man in the mood for sex. Before, he’d appeared ravenous, and now, he looked…horrified and…
A slow smile curved his lips. “You don’t know what you’ve done, do you, sweetheart?”
Just because this was her first time, it didn’t mean she didn’t understand how things worked. Her hands grabbed for his broad shoulders. Her head tipped back against the pillow as she stared up at him, and, deliberately, she tightened her inner muscles around his cock.
“Fuck.”
Yes, good. Maybe they could get back to the business of fucking and forget all about that quick flash of pain.
And, good, he was moving, pulling out. Driving in. Only…
His fingers were between them. Working her clit mercilessly. And his mouth was on her breast. Licking and sucking and she wasn’t feeling any more pain because need and desire rose within her again. She heard herself pleading with him. Demanding. Urging him on and he thrust over and over. Her nails dug into his arms.
Then an orgasm hit her again. This time, it was even more powerful. He didn’t stop thrusting. If anything, the drives of his hips became more powerful and that just made her feel better. Wilder. Control was gone.
For her.
And, as she stared up at the brutally handsome lines of Jake’s face, she knew control was gone for him, too.
Her rigid Jake. Always holding back. Always so strong. Always with that control of his firmly in place.
His control had shattered.
His hips pistoned against her. He plunged deep over and over again. One hard hand grabbed her leg and hauled it up higher so he could slam deeper. She was completely open to him, her orgasm still pulsed inside of her, and he was not done. He was frantic and consuming. Owning and taking. There would never be a chance to go back from this. She would always remember this moment.
Always remember him.
His eyes glittered with ferocious intensity as he stared down at her.
Am I coming again? Desire built. So much need. No pain. Just pleasure that filled her and wiped out everything else in her world. No more pain or fear or sadness.
She bucked beneath him. Her nails raked down his arms.
He came inside of her.
She cried out his name.
She heard thunder. Wren figured she should crack open an eye and check for a storm. Except she didn’t really feel like it.
The thunder continued. Only, maybe it slowed.
Seemed softer.
More controlled.
“Wren…”
Jake’s low voice.
He pulled out of her body.
The thunder came back.
Oh, wait. That thunder is my heartbeat. No storm.
She really should crack open an eye. But she didn’t. She settled more comfortably against the bed. Then she felt a hand on her hip. “Wren.” More demanding.
Her eyes fluttered.
“Wren…what the fuck?” Anger burned in those deep words.
Now her eyes were fully open. She stared at him and decided to be one hundred percent honest. Why not? Surely, there was a first time for everything. “I’ve got to say, Jake. You were worth the wait. One hundred percent.”
Shock flashed across his handsome face.
She yawned. There was a whole lot more talking they should do. She got that. Definitely needed to give the man an explanation. But… “No strings.” That had been the deal. If he was worried that she’d go back on that promise, she could reassure him of that before sleep claimed her. “A one-night stand with no strings. Even with my, um, surprise, that arrangement still stands. No worries on that score.” That should make him feel better. Her lashes began to sag closed.
“Oh, trust me, sweetheart, there are strings.”
She shook her head. “One night…” That was all he ever did. She knew the rules.
“We’ll fucking see about that.”