17. Jessica
JESSICA
Boys are so easy, damn. The caveman beside me was still fuming a good few hours later, but I was ignoring him. After I iced his hand and got myself a large bowl of ice cream with all the works, my day was complete. He was still holding me hostage in his house, though, so there was that.
“Enjoying yourself?”
Why are you being so grumpy? “Who pissed in your dessert?”
“I’m ready.”
“Ready for what?”
“There was mention of a kitty that needed petting.”
“Yeah, but your paw is broken, maybe next time.”
“Don’t you know anything about men?”
“What about them?”
“After a good fight, the next best thing is a hard pounding.”
“So, go find someone to pound you, what you telling me for? Hey!” He grabbed my face and kissed me like he was trying to inhale my esophagus.
I’d forgotten all about his hand until he placed me on the bed and took a step back, and I saw the damage.
I grabbed his wrist for a better look at his bruised knuckles and became enraged almost immediately.
“That bastard. Where’s your first aid kit?
Does it hurt?” I rattled the words off and started blowing on his hand before I could stop myself.
I felt such anger at the sight, the kind of anger I’ve only ever felt when one of my loved ones was hurt, and if Dale were standing in front of me, I’d have smacked the hell out of him.
It didn’t dawn on me that Julius was watching my reaction, or the message it was sending.
“I’ll get the kit.” What’s with that smarmy tone?
Why did it hurt me to see him hurt? Why should I even care?
I’ve only ever felt this way about my family, that rush of protectiveness coupled with the need to defend.
He came back with the kit, and I got to work tending to the bruised knuckles, blowing on them each time he winced because I couldn’t help myself.
If I had any sense, I’d let him suffer, the jerk.
“There, all done.” He lifted my chin with his finger and lowered his head to kiss me.
Dammit, I meant to bite him, but instead got caught up; he sure does know how to use those lips of his.
I’m not sure how long the kiss went on for, but my lips were swollen by the time he let go.
I saw the smirk before he walked away. I should’ve let his hand rot.
I gave serious thought to sneaking away before he came back, but there was no time, and I wasn’t dressed anyway. I needed to think about the night’s events, but the way he looked when he walked back into the room told me that he had other ideas.
“What’re you looking at? What are you thinking of doing?” I scooted back on the bed until my back was pressed against the headboard. He walked closer, more like stalked, but it was the look in his eyes that posed the biggest danger. He looked… predatory, like an animal stalking its prey.
“Don’t come any closer or I’ll kick you.” My words only fell on deaf ears, and before I knew it, he was there, dragging me down on the bed by my ankle. “You set me up tonight, I demand payment.”
“Who set you up? Did I ask to be kidnapped and dragged off to your lair? You’re the one who got in the way of my plans.”
“Does that mean if I hadn’t brought you here, you planned to go see him alone?”
“Well, duh!” What’s with him and choking me? I pulled at the hand he had wrapped around my throat, but he only tightened his grip.
“If you go see him again, I’ll kill him.”
“You…” His tongue cut off the rest of what I was about to say. How is a person supposed to breathe with a mouth full and their throat locked off? This man is a maniac, but those stirrings; am I a freak? Since when do I like being manhandled?
This kiss seemed to go on forever, and before I knew it, I was under him, pressed into the bed by his much bigger body.
It felt different somehow, but I couldn’t put a finger on it.
Then it hit me, I’m always the one in control.
I never let myself get carried away and have always been able to keep myself distantly removed, even when being touched.
But with him, it was the complete opposite.
He didn’t give me a chance to take over, but instead took me under hard and fast. The kiss packed more of a punch than anything I’d experienced before, and I was drowning.
I remembered that he was public enemy number one and tried to escape his grasp, but it was no use.
He used that hand around my neck to control me and keep me in place.
Things were heating up down there, and I knew it was only a matter of time before the kitty took over and started a mutiny.
She’s so starved she’d settle for anything, the idiot.
It’s only when he lifted his lips from mine that I realized that I, too, had been holding him in place with my arms around his shoulders, so much for being indifferent.
The way he looked at me did something to my heart, I won’t lie. I couldn’t read his eyes, but there was gentleness there, maybe some regret, and I’m not sure what else, because my mind strayed when he started brushing the hair back from my temple and forehead.
His touch was featherlike, soft and sweet, which, when added to that look, only confused me more. How did we go from strangulation and forceful kisses to the gentle giant? Is he trying to confuse me? Because it’s not going to work.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart.” The what now? This bastard, don’t you dare. “Don’t, please don’t.” I had no idea what he was talking about until he kissed the first tear away from my cheek. Why am I crying again? This time, when he lowered his head, his lips were like butterfly wings.
Instead of choking me out, this time, he held my head in place with both hands as he took me under once again, this time with the gentlest of kisses. My poor heart was in turmoil, something only he has ever been able to do to me.
I wanted so badly to give in, but there was a lingering fear holding me back, keeping me in check.
But my stupid body and mind were being tempted to the dark side.
I followed his lips with mine without intending to, and that gave him the go-ahead, I guess, because his hands were soon roaming over the hills and valleys of my poor being.
If I’d been in control, I might have stood a chance. Foreplay has never been my thing because sex has never been anything more than a quick release, but he had to go and change the game on me. He teased my lips gently, and that only made me hungry for more, until I was the one chasing his tongue.
I was the one holding on to him, keeping him there where I wanted him.
He was so thoughtful, keeping most of his weight off of me while he explored my body with his fingers.
When he broke the kiss and went on an exploration with his lips and tongue, starting at my neck and making his way down to my chest, I almost forgot to breathe.
Why is he being so soft? Where is the caveman from a minute ago? If he’d kept that up, maybe I would’ve stood a chance, but he was playing with my senses, knocking down those walls that I had carefully placed since the last time I saw him years ago.
Usually, any reminder of that time would be enough to bring me back to earth, but this time I was struggling. “Concentrate.” How does he know I wasn’t? He had his damn face buried in my neck.
“Ouch!” He bit me, sucking the flesh between his teeth. Damn vampire. Why does that feel so good? Why does it make my body tingle? It’s obvious that I’m losing my mind because I didn’t want him to stop.
JULIUS
Why does kissing her always feel like I’m losing part of my soul? And her scent that drives me insane. It’s not perfume or soap, nothing artificial, but very intoxicating. It’s as if her body inhaled all the elements and somehow cooked up a cocktail unique to only her and meant to enrapture me.
I went back and forth between kissing her lips raw and sucking her flesh between my teeth until she was marked from her neck down to her chest. But no matter how much I did it, it wasn’t enough. The hunger just kept growing, like an unfulfilled chasm that nothing could satisfy.
It was like this the last time as well, but I foolishly thought it was a fluke, or because I hadn’t been with anyone in a while, but this seems like way more than that.
Maybe it’s a byproduct of the family annoyance, this feeling of being sucked into something much deeper than the norm.
Whatever it is, it only happens with her.
It was all a distraction, though, or at least it was supposed to be.
I needed her out of control, at the point of no return, before I took her, but somehow I was the one losing my senses.
I climbed into bed with her, keeping her body pinned beneath mine but making sure to keep my cock away from her for now, which was torture.
When she moaned into my mouth and moved beneath me in heat, I finally forsook her lips and made my way down to her breasts, which were begging to be kissed. I took my time teasing those morsels of flesh, nibbling, suckling, biting, until her writhing almost threw me off the bed.
“Behave!” I whispered in her ear before nipping the lobe, which made her complain, but she did calm down some. She let me know what she wanted by mewling like a kitten until I took her lips again, sending us both over the edge.
I knew she wouldn’t behave for long with that temper of hers, but it was for her own good.
No matter what I do, she is going to be hurt, but I had to at least try to make things as easy on her as possible.
Anyone else, I wouldn’t have cared as much, but this was my Jessie, my forever girl.
There’s no way I could treat her like anyone else.
I followed her scent all the way down between her thighs and almost lost my mind. The heat between her thighs only seemed to intensify that pleasing aroma that seemed to seep into my very being and draw me in.
She’s so responsive, so wild once she lets go. I should’ve been enjoying her reaction to me, but instead, my mind chose now to latch onto something else. Her eyes snapped open when I climbed back up her body and grabbed her throat again. “Were you like this with him?”
She started to say something as she opened her eyes, but I think the look in my eyes stopped her. “Answer me.” For the first time in my life, I think she was at a loss for words. Her mouth opened and closed as the look of fear grew while my hand tightened around her neck.