Jackie didn’t think her experience at eighteen really matched this one. It was unfair to compare the two but nothing else even began to measure up. Her body felt as if at any moment it would start giving off steam. His tongue lathed her nipple, teeth occasionally scraping against the delicate nerves and making her groan. Jack moved a hand slowly down her body, his thumb dipping down into her navel briefly. For some reason she’d always been ridiculously sensitive there. Of all the places to be sensitive, it had to be her bellybutton. He paused. Apparently he’d noticed that her whimper hadn’t been in response to the attention he was giving her breasts. For a moment his eyes rolled up to hers and she could see a flash of amusement. Then he moved down. Jackie knew what he was planning and her abdominal muscles tightened in anticipation.
When Liam brushed his tongue across her navel, her entire body shuddered. He was enjoying himself, taking his time, but her honest responses to his attentions made him want to rush. He unzipped her skirt and pulled it down along with her panties and black hose. Jackie helped by kicking them off her feet. While he shrugged out of his shirt and finished the job she’d started with his pants, Liam studied her body. A very real, mortal woman looked quite different to the ones he was used to having. She was long, lean and unevenly tanned. And there on her stomach was a scar he hadn’t seen yet - a thin, precise surgical scar just above the hairline. It stretched across her womb. Immediately he thought of a C-section. Had she had a difficult delivery? If so, why hadn’t she mentioned a child? Jacquelyn did not strike him as the type to ignore her child’s existence. She would probably carry multiple pictures in her wallet and show them off whenever she was able.
He looked into her eyes and realized this was definitely not the time for questions. Liam had felt the material of her panties and she was more than ready for him, as he was more than ready to be in her. So, he ignored the scar and rejoined her on the bed. Jackie reached for him, settling her mouth at his neck and kissing him there. Before that he’d been in control. However, her move provoked the vampire in him and he was too hard to attempt any delicacy.
Jackie was thankful for the short length of her nails. As Jack thrust hard into her body she clutched his back and probably would have shredded his flesh if her nails had been any longer. She let out an unintelligible shout while her warm inner muscles flexed and moved to fit his size. Not small, by any means, but not huge. He felt… perfect. After a moment they found the rhythm, moving together as he thrust in and out of her. Jackie’s long lost friend, the orgasm, began to creep up on her. The tension was delicious. How in the hell had she convinced herself that strawberries and marshmallows compared? Was she nuts?
“Jacquelyn.” His voice was a savage growl against her throat. He was close and he could feel her nearing the edge as well. And he knew, without a doubt, that he was going to bite her. He was going to bite her and then she’d realize her interview had become a little more intimate than she’d probably intended. Liam had not been a gentleman for years. He was more than happy to steal this from her, no matter if she would agree in normal circumstances or not.
“Jack,” she gasped. A quiet fury flooded his system. It wasn’t her fault that he’d given her a false name to cry but all the same it rubbed the wrong way against his territorial side. Sharp canines filled Liam’s mouth and he bit down as he came, drowning out the memory with Jacquelyn’s blood. He could barely hear her impassioned moan through the sudden ecstasy. He could taste her climax in her blood, feel it as she shuddered against him. The full-bodied essence of her life made him groan. He wanted more than he’d taken, than he should take. If he’d been a fledgling he could have easily succumbed to the lure of her blood. Instead Liam forced himself to swallow then ran his tongue over her marked neck.
Like a wild fire, she thought numbly. Powerful, uncontrollable and all consuming. When she’d been right on the edge he’d done something. A brief flash of pain then bliss, an overpowering sensation. It had pushed her into a space where no thought could exist, only the potent burn of completely satisfied desire. “Oh,” she breathed out. That was really the only thing she could put into words. Oh.
“Is that approval I hear?” he asked, voice lowering to a deep purr. Jackie smiled and casually ran her fingers through his soft hair.
“I don’t think you need any affirmations. You know exactly how good you are.” Indeed he did. Liam had not, however, gotten a really honest and simple reaction from a woman in some time. The ones he went after tended to gush, to stroke his ego. Everything they said was true, of course. It just wasn’t always necessary to go overboard with praise.
Liam had one problem now. He liked Jackie. It some strange, twisted way she attracted him. And he was absurdly pleased by how her body writhed beneath his when he bit her. The taste of her mouth, her skin and her blood was too good to pass up. All the obstacles could be dealt with one way or another. He cleaned her blood from his teeth and propped himself up on his elbows to look at her.
“Now, about that job you wanted…”
Chapter Five
HIS EYES WERE COMPLETELY black. If she looked hard enough she could see the slightest trace of brown around the edges. No ordinary human’s pupil expanded like that. Jackie got a good look at his fangs when he spoke and the tenderness in her neck made sense. He’d bitten her. She had willingly gone to bed with a vampire, taken him into her body, given him her blood. How in the hell hadn’t she noticed him biting her?
She thought that over while she stared into his inhuman eyes, fixated. It probably had something to do with adrenaline. What made a racehorse keep running even after they’d shattered their leg. They were too far-gone to care. Jackie simply hadn’t realized what he was doing to her over everything else that she was feeling.
Better question. Why the fuck wasn’t she moving? She jolted, pushing hard at Jack’s chest. No, not Jack. Liam. There was no way this man wasn’t Liam O’Connor. Izzy had been right. He was a good kisser. Jackie pushed that thought away and fought to crawl out from under him.
“Get the fuck off of me before I maim you in a way I can guarantee you’ll remember for the rest of eternity,” she hissed at him. Liam bit back a grin.
“In this state of mind, I think you could. But you’d regret it later.” Still, he had very strong survival instincts and he wasn’t about to hold down an angry woman. Liam watched her scamper off the bed then frantically search for her clothes and couldn’t help but notice she had a gorgeous ass. He’d have to compliment her later. This wouldn’t be the best time for it. “I hope you won’t let this get in the way of taking the job.”
“You’re bright enough to figure out where I’m going to tell you to shove that job, O’Connor,” she growled, quickly pulling on her skirt. The underwear and hose could wait. She wanted her body covered immediately. Jackie could feel his eyes on her, studying the way she moved. If she thought she could manage it before he snapped her arms in half, Jackie would have attempted to gouge those eyes out. As it was, she needed her arms.
“A bit rash, don’t you think?”
Jackie didn’t respond. She was about to put her shirt back on when she felt something warm slide from her neck down to her collarbone. Blood. Her hand had moved instinctively to cup a hand over the apparently bleeding wound but Liam caught it. “Allow me.”
“I can take care of it,” she snapped, glaring at him. He looked human again but there was nothing human about the way he was staring at her neck.
“Of course you can. You’ve treated so many vampire bites before this one.”
And to think she’d liked that he was a smartass. “Just let go.” Jackie was trying to pull her arm away but his grip was like a shackle. There was no breaking it. His head ducked down and she felt his tongue clean the blood from her skin. Jackie clutched his shoulder, the sudden heat making her wobbly. That shouldn’t be happening. She knew who he was. She shouldn’t want him anymore. What a shame that kind of thing couldn’t be turned off.
�
��Twenty thousand a month,” he murmured against her skin. Jackie pulled away from his mouth.
“I thought I was clear about how I felt.”
“And I thought you cared about your ranch,” Liam said quietly, taking in the change in her emotions. The anger had died a fast death once he mentioned the place she was fighting to save. He thought she might react that way. “Twenty thousand a month would help. If you need more, we can discuss it.”
“For blood only,” Jackie said. On this point she wouldn’t negotiate. Sex and blood might work for Izzy but it couldn’t work for her. Having a quick bout of sex with a stranger was one thing. Regular sex with a man who was paying her rubbed her the wrong way. It was funny that she’d never judged Izzy for exactly the same thing. The thought that she’d believed it was just fine for her made her wonder exactly how she regarded one of her closest friends.
“I don’t pay for sex, Jacquelyn. Sleeping with me is optional,” he informed her. A wicked grin curved his lips. “It’s just an option most women enjoy.” Yeah, Jackie could imagine that. The memory of this night would probably come back to bite her in her dreams. Then she realized that she was still mostly naked and he didn’t have a stitch of clothing on him. This wasn’t the time to hash out terms.
“I’ll think about it while I’m putting my clothes back on.” She tugged her arm back and Liam finally let go. He watched the sway of her hips as she walked away from him and shut herself up in the bathroom. There was no way in hell he wouldn’t see that body again. He reserved the right to seduce her at any time as he did with any of his girls. Liam stared thoughtfully at the bathroom door. The idea of Jacquelyn being his was intriguing. And laughable. She wouldn’t agree to belonging to him just because he paid her.
No, Jacquelyn wouldn’t be one of his donors. She would be something very different. Liam couldn’t put a name to it yet. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know. Unlike his friend Jack, Liam didn’t believe in taking human friends. They withered and died too quickly for his taste. However, the first phrase that popped into his head when he thought of his future association with Jacquelyn was ‘friends with benefits’. Strange.
Once she was dressed, Jackie took a long look in the mirror. She’d stopped bleeding but the evidence of what she had been up to was still pretty clear. The two small, neat holes in her neck seemed to be staring at her. ‘Welcome to the rabbit hole, Alice,’ they said. Jackie could only grimace. She did not need crazy voices in her head. Crazy voices, no - twenty thousand dollars a month, hell yes.
She wished she could have stayed mad at Liam longer. It would have pleased her to tell him to shove all that money down his throat. He reminded her too much of a spoiled horse that was under the impression that she was just another weak-willed owner who’d let him laze around the arena. That impression never lasted long. Sadly, she couldn’t afford the indulgence. Jackie also wished she regretted what she’d done. No matter how much she scolded the deeply satisfied feeling emanating from her pleased body, the sensation didn’t stop. If it weren’t for her moral qualms, Jackie wouldn’t have a problem sleeping with Liam again. At least until after a suitable waiting period, anyway. He had lied to her. That deserved a few days of the cold shoulder. Why had he lied to her anyway? Jackie couldn’t figure that part out.
Liam smiled when she opened the door. She looked different from the neat woman who’d walked into his suite. There was a glow to her skin and she was rumpled, a little disordered. That delicious aroma of sex came off her in waves. Jackie looked him over. Liam could guess by the way her heart rate had picked up that she was thinking about how he looked without his clothes on.
“Did you come to a decision?” he asked lightly.
“First I’d like to know something. Why did you lie to me about who you are?” she asked, crossing her arms over her stomach.
“I learned more about you that way,” Liam said honestly. He hadn’t intended to seduce her. Well, maybe it had crossed his mind. That hadn’t been his primary motivation.
“You could have just asked me,” Jackie pointed out. “I wouldn’t have lied to you.”
“No, but you would have given me the bare minimum. Any personal details would have been carefully held back. Am I wrong?” She shrugged, unwilling to let him see how well he’d judged her.
“I have a right to my privacy.”
“And I have a right to be curious about my future employees,” Liam said. “Speaking of which, you haven’t told me what you decided.”
Jackie sighed deeply. “We’re going to have to hammer out some of the finer details but… yes. Fine. I’ll do it.”
“Your enthusiasm is overwhelming,” he replied dryly.
“Look, I need to get going. One of us still has to wake up early in the morning.” Jackie moved toward the door, thinking desperately of her bed. She’d bury her face in her pillow and pretend she never had to face the world again. That sounded nice right about then.
“Jacquelyn,” he called, his casual voice shifting into a darker, more dangerous tone. “You could stay. I have this room until morning.” Jackie hesitated at the door. If she stayed then she would be getting herself into big trouble. The kind of trouble responsible girls didn’t get themselves into.
“Thanks for the offer but I’ll pass,” she said at last, making her exit before she could change her mind.
Midnight had come and gone by the time she pulled up the dirt driveway to her ranch in Topanga Canyon. The trees waved as she passed by, leaves shaking in the breeze. At the fork in the road she turned right. Left was for people heading straight to the barn. Jackie just wanted to be home. At the edge of her twenty-five acres was a cottage. The former owner had built the two thousand square foot home in the hopes of using it as a getaway from her house in Malibu. Instead it had transformed into a sanctuary for misfits like Jackie. In the dark she couldn’t see the brown roof or creamy walls that by rights should have been covered in ivy. The whole place deserved a luxuriant garden but no one had the time. Instead there was just one rose bush that needed pruning and a forest pretending to be a lawn.
Jackie pulled up in front of the cliché white picket fence and hauled her tired body out of the truck. The fence needed painting. Still. No matter how many times she’d told herself it would be more practical to just get chain link, Jackie always managed to drag out a can of white paint and do touch-ups. It just took her a while to get to it.
She opened the gate and stepped into the yard, listening for a few seconds. Right on cue, the long, soulful howl of a wolf filled the air and was followed by two less dignified barks. Macbeth came running around the house, leading Shylock and Caliban. He came to a halt in front of her, silently alerting her to his disapproval. He would give in eventually but he intended to let her know he didn’t like worrying about where she was. From the time Jackie had picked the little wolf-dog hybrid up from the pound, he’d been loyal but also very protective. Macbeth would do whatever his lady wished, which had earned him his name. Jackie leaned down and held out her hand. His brown eyes glowed softly in the dark as he considered her request. Then his warm tongue licked the palm of her hand and all was forgiven. “Good boy, Macbeth,” she said, ruffling his caramel and vanilla fur. He let out a soft ‘woof’ then made his way back up to the house.
Caliban took this opportunity to jump up on Jackie, begging for attention. He was as much of a mutt as Macbeth but his looks were predominantly those of a Neapolitan Mastiff. He had a big, awkward body and a wrinkled face. Not a pretty dog, exactly, but his adoring eyes made up for it. A few gray hairs from his coat rubbed off on her skirt. Jackie rubbed behind his ears then sent him firmly away. She loved Caliban but he would monopolize all of her time if she didn’t draw any boundaries.
Then there was Shylock with his long-suffering eyes. He was a bloodhound who primarily liked to sleep and be petted. Food was nice, too, of course. “Come on, baby boy,” Jackie said, patting her thigh and walking to the front door. Shylock followed obedient
ly. When she’d gotten him from the pound, Jackie had been told he’d been beaten as a puppy and probably wouldn’t ever be very friendly. Well, he wasn’t friendly. He was a steady presence, accepting the fact that at that moment everything was fine. He just didn’t expect it to stay that way.
The door opened to reveal her only human roommate. Sofie Dietrich was tall, statuesque and gorgeous. With blonde hair and blue eyes, she couldn’t have been more of a German stereotype if she tried.
“Long date, Jackie?” she asked. Jackie didn’t agree with people who said German was an ugly language. Sofie’s voice was soft and when she spoke her native tongue there was nothing ugly about it.
“It wasn’t a date,” she reminded her, following the dogs through the open door. Sofie shivered, her thin blue nightgown not much of a defense against the breeze. “You didn’t need to wait up for me, Sofie. The horses need you rested.”
“Pfft, who needs seven hours of sleep? Tell me what happened.” Jackie glanced longingly down the hall toward her bedroom. Her pillow was in there. So were her mattress and sheets and her snuggly comforter. Sofie sighed, noticing where Jackie was looking. “Oh, all right. Be boring and go to sleep but I want every single detail in the morning.” Jackie smiled and hugged this energetic ‘sister’ she’d never had. “Yeah, you’d better be happy. I was dying to tell you about the murder I saw on the news and now I have to wait to vent my theories.”
“If we weren’t still in financial trouble I’d give you a raise for your patience,” Jackie assured her, not feeling much regret about skipping Sofie’s breakdown of a gruesome murder or how it might be connected to the supernatural. She hurried to her room, passing the bare white walls. After the cottage had been built no one had bothered with the decorating. No one had the time, even twenty years later. Still, it was a comfortable home. There were three bedrooms, two on the right side of the hall and the last far down on the left although at present it was just a storage space. The bathroom was at the end of the hall and, unfortunately, was the only bathroom in the house. The space in there was a bit cramped with two women and three dogs needing baths at regular intervals. Luckily the kitchen and small eating area were connected to the living room, which created the illusion they had more space than they actually did. Sometimes illusions were better than nothing at all.
Animal Instinct Page 4