by T. A. Grey
Vera let Jacks guide her back to their room. She saw the change instantly in the mansion. Already more guards were lining the halls, roaming. With a loose fugitive out, she wasn’t surprised. Yet it was unnerving as hell. She was no coward though. Right about now she’d like to go one on one with that vampire bitch. From the threat of stealing her land to the killing of innocent men—Ariss needed to be put down.
The bedroom door shut behind her and she jumped, startled at the sound. A violent shiver stole over her. God she was so cold, when had the room grown so cold? She was happy that this had happened, that Kategan land was no longer in danger, but then why was she shaking so cold?
Jacks’ arms came around her, and then she realized she was shivering like she was sitting naked in the middle of a snowstorm.
“Shh, shh. It’s okay baby. I’ve got you.” There were too many thoughts running through her head. Part of her didn’t know what was happening, the other was telling her that she’d never seen someone murdered before. The last time she’d been around a dead body was at her parent’s funeral.
She lost herself in Jack’s embrace. She didn’t know how much time passed, but when her mind finally slowed to a normal speed, she blinked and saw that they were sitting in the chair by the warm fireplace. She hadn’t even known he’d moved. She lifted her face from where it was buried in his neck and saw the evidence of her tears in the wet cotton of his shirt.
“I’m so sorry.”
He chuckled at her and pulled her back into his arms, pressing a gentle kiss to her cheek. “Feeling better?” With his hands running delicious warm strokes up and down her back, it was hard not to. She nodded against him. But when the grisly images of the guard’s throat and stomach popped into her mind, she said the first thing that popped into her mind to get rid of it.
“Do you still talk to your mom?” The hands stroking her paused, then continued on their comforting journey. Vera let go of the breath she’d been holding with a soft whoosh.
“Yeah, I talk to her on the phone about once a week. I see her twice a year and send her cards on all the right days.” Vera giggled, picturing him in a Hallmark store picking out a sweet Mother’s Day card. Somehow it was hard to picture the human marine, who so deftly was sharpening his knife with a whetstone earlier sending his mom a pink, frilly card. Another giggled escaped her, and he squeezed her in warning. “Hey now, none of that. I do what I gotta do.”
“Of course you do,” she said when she had control over herself again. A sudden thought hit her and she pulled back and lifted the sleeve of his right arm. “I almost forgot. I’d seen a glimpse of it when we were...you know, but haven’t taken the time to really study it. Rome has the same tattoo, tell me the story,” she said wistfully.
“Ah, no, come on. You don’t want to hear this. It’s lame.” Vera gave him a quick kiss and pouted, blinking doe eyes at him. He grumbled something about damned women under his breath.
“I met Rome my second year in. We bumped into each other and got into a little bit of a fight.”
“I remember him telling me about that. You know, I gotta say I’ve never befriended a girl I just had a cat fight with.” He smirked at her and grabbed her hand, inspected each fingernail with a sharp eye.
“Baby, I don’t think these pretty hands have ever hurt someone in anger.” She winked saucily at him, but her heart tightened that he could see something so easily about her.
“Okay, so when did you guys decide to get a matching tattoo?”
“Well I guess we’d been friends for about a year and as per our usual Saturday we went into town, got shitfaced, and next thing you know we’re getting matching tattoos.” Vera slapped him playfully on the arm.
“Come on now, I know you’re hiding something. Tell me it all.” The corner of his mouth kicked up making him look younger, more relaxed.
“Well, mind you we were young and stupid, but we got the matching tattoo because...ah shit,” he looked away, his cheeks burning. “We were trying to impress some girls,” he said lamely.
Vera’s head shot back as laughter erupted from her. She couldn’t control it, it just kept coming. When she finally calmed, she was down to hiccupping chuckles. When her eyes met his deadpanned, serious gaze, she couldn’t stop herself and broke into another fit of furious giggles.
“That’s it.” She squealed and held on tight as he lifted her and carried her over to the bed. Her breath caught, the giggles dying, as a hot and delicious thrill swept through her. God she couldn’t remember the last time she felt so light, so happy with someone.
As he threw her on to the bed and glared at her with laughter in his eyes, she knew she loved him. Stupid, stupid, fool. This was the very last thing she’d expected to happen to her while on this trip. Yet she wasn’t surprised that it was Jackson Marsh who pushed her heart open so easily. From the first moment she met him, she’d noticed him. The only other man she’d noticed like that was Dmetri, but even then it was different. Meeting Jacks had made her hackles rise, she’d thought stupidly at the time it was because he was a human--and she just plain didn’t like humans much. Now she knew it was something so much scarier, so much better. She liked him. She really liked him.
He crawled over her, his strong hand cupping her cheek and playing with the fringe of her bangs. “What’s wrong, you look sad?”
“Nothing, I was just thinking.” She reached up and trailed her hands over his short hair. The short cut looked good on him, fit the fact that he was a marine perfectly. She had a sudden thought of him wearing his dress uniform and she had to bite her lip to keep from moaning. Damn the man was sexy.
“Now you’re thinking wicked things. Do you know how I can tell?”
“How?”
He trailed a finger over her bottom lip, his gaze hot and possessive. “Because you gnaw on your bottom lip right here when you get turned on. You do it when I pinch your sweet nipples, too. And your cheeks flush a pretty red. When you come your chest flushes too, right here,” he said stroking from tops of her breasts to her neck. “It’s beautiful. I could watch you come every damn day.”
Suddenly he stopped, a tic pulsing at his right eye and Vera realized he’d said something he hadn’t wanted to. His words had her shaking, panting below him, desperate for more. She didn’t want the sweet moment to end so she kissed his mouth until it softened against her.
“Tell me more,” she whispered. His eyes darkened.
“How about I show you?” She was still shaking her head yes, when he started pulling her clothes off her.
She wanted to forget all about what she saw and just let the relief of the matter with Ariss pass. Jacks’ touch was the perfect way to escape that reality.
His touch was gentle but possessive. He took off her shirt but stopped to reverently stroke her stomach, the creamy skin of her breast. Her jeans came off and he slid his big hands up her inner thighs, lighting a fire inside her as his fingers teased the edge of her panties before pulling away. Strong, loving, demanding touches all over her until he finally worked her thong down her thighs and off her ankles.
He stood back and simply gazed at her naked body, with that smoldering, dark look in his eyes. Vera felt like a goddess.
This time was different between them, already she could tell. There wasn’t that rushed urgency that had driven them before. Though she still felt the same intense passion searing between them that had been there since day one.
Her legs scissored as he continued to watch her. Even now, he took in all the details. Her hardened nipples, the blush in her face, her hands fisted in the cover, the scent of her wet sex filling the air. He closed his eyes for a minute as if in pain, then reached at the back of his neck and pulled his shirt over his head. The expanse of his chest was breathtaking and sexy as hell. His chest was hard with a dusking of hair that disappeared into his jeans.
Nibbling her lip, Vera watched him reach for his fly and open it. His movements seemed slower as he unbuttoned his jeans them achingly slow pus
hed them down inch by inch. Vera held her breath until finally, his cock popped free. A flood of creamy, hot heat spilled out of her at the sight.
“Come here.” Vera pulled her eyes away from his turgid cock to meet his eyes. He stepped back a foot from the bed and pointed to the floor. More delicious heat swam through her. Was he testing her issues with being controlled? Because she had news for him, she was falling in love--if he asked her to suck on his toes, she’d do so with relish.
Vera climbed off the bed and knelt before him. His cock bobbed in her face and she smelled his warm, masculine scent. She licked the tip and opened her mouth to take him in, but his hand wrapped in her hair and jerked her back.
He tilted his head at her in warning, then cupped her chin with his other hand. She allowed him to part her lips. He slid the head of his cock over her lips and darted her tongue out to taste him. The hand in her hair pulled back in another warning--not hard enough to hurt, just enough to tell her no.
“Open for me and take me deep.” Vera relaxed her jaw with a sudden eagerness to please him. He slid in, over her tongue and touched the back of her mouth. He pulled back on a groan as his cock rubbed through her soft lips, over her wet tongue.
The hand in her hair tightened, and then his thrusts were no longer gentle. He fucked her mouth like he had her pussy. Vera moaned and grasped at his powerful thighs. The muscles bunched and flexed hard as he worked himself inside her. She’d never felt anything like it. It was as though he craved doing this, needed to take her this way. And her body was responding with soft, wet acceptance that was shocking.
He moaned above her, his breaths coming heavy and short. She tasted the salt of precum and then he was fucking her faster, rocking against her, and pushing the head of his cock until she swallowed over it.
He swelled in her mouth, grew hotter, the thighs under her hands shook it the power of his release, and then he shoved in deep and hot, creamy cum filled her tongue and mouth.
“Swallow it all,” he said hoarsely, watching her with glossy, possessive eyes.
She was thorough and cleaned off every last drop of seed . He popped free of her mouth, and then he grabbed her by the waist and threw her back onto the bed. She was a full of arousal, a hard empty ache that bore a dark hole inside her. She certain if he thrust once into her she’d fall apart in the greatest orgasm of her life.
He stood at the edge of the bed and ran his hands over her legs again and again. Each time he reached higher and higher. She didn’t know if it was his touch or the way his eyes claimed her that made her mad with lust.
His hands left her, only to be replaced by his mouth at her knee. Soft, wet kisses against the back of her knee, on the top of it, then up each side of her inner thighs. Closer and closer to where she wanted his mouth until her hips were rising and falling off the bed like a wave.
The first touch of his tongue against her was like pure ecstasy. But too quickly it was gone and he was back to kissing her thighs, stroking her legs. A feral growl rose up in her throat. Her beast was stalking around in its cage, its tail lashing out at the metal. When she looked down at him, she knew her eyes glowed.
He met her gaze, a sensual promise in his eyes. “Don’t worry baby, I’ll make you come. Then I’m going to have your ass.”
# # #
Jackson wasn’t a man who took a job lightly. And Vera had never been so grateful for something in her life.
He settled between her legs, grabbed her thighs in a hard grip , and held her open befo re settling in on her pussy. His tongue licked, tasted, and learned each lip and fold like he was trying to memorize it. He skirted around her clit, and even after she clawed his head closer to her throbbing need, he still danced around her with lips and flicks.
Sweat formed over her body in a sheen. Her hips danced against his mouth over and over, yearning for his touch to be firmer . Her heart was beating so loud that the only thing she could hear was it and her choppy breathing.
“Jacks,” she moaned, her stomach quivering. He pulled back and blew a cool stream of air over her swollen, aching clit. Then he looked at her. The look hit her like an arrow in the heart. It was Alpha. The demanding, possessive look she’d only seen between Vane, Rome , and their mates. A look that said : This is mine.
Her body acted on its own. She was slave to it.
Vera threw back her head, lifting her body into an elegant arch, and spread her legs open. Giving herself to him, offering her obedience to her Alpha.
Jacks groaned, and then his tongue fell on her. Swift, excruciatingly intense pleasure that bordered on pain and brought liquid fire boiling in her blood swept through her in a pulse . She came in seconds, her pleasure pouring out from her mouth, her pussy in moans and waves of liquid heat.
She moaned as he pet her, murm ur ing husky words of approval of how beautiful she was, and then he turned her over gently. Vera’s body was so loose she couldn’t lif t her arm if she had to.
Strong fingers coaxed into the muscles around her spine. A soft sigh teased past her lips. She was more than content to let him massage the muscles of her back.
His touch was s trong and sure, almost reverent . The first touch of his lips to her spine sent chills through her body. He trailed kisses, nips, and licks down the length of her back until finally coming to rest at her buttocks . His hands boldly cupped and shaped the flesh , spreading the cheeks wide, then up.
Vera turned her cheek to the side and closed her eyes, simply feeling the pleasure of him touching her. She’d never felt anything like it , had never had a man worship her with his hands and mouth, and that’s exactly what he was doing. He was paying homage to her body like she was the most the beautiful woman in the world.
The first touch of his finger in the cleft of her cheeks was like lightning in her body. Wild, forbidden, exciting. She held her breath, squeez ed her eyes shut and let her body feel.
She felt the excitement in his hands to be touching her like this; they were gentler than usual but shook enough for her to feel it.
He reached between her legs and spread them open in a vee. Two fingers dove into her pussy eliciting a gasp of pleasure from her. He rocked his fingers insider her, curled them, spread them, then finally pulled them out. She heard a wet sound and opened her eyes to find him licking her cream away like it was forbidden fruit.
His eyes never met hers, were focused on her cleft and sex. He looked mesmerized. Predatorily . When his fingers returned, they rubbed over her clit, pushed back into her pussy then finally rubbed over her tight hole. The first touch sent her ass thrusting back at him.
He chuckled at her, the sound rasping. “Eager, aren’t you.” It wasn’t a question so she didn’t answer.
His finger circled her closed anus then pushed a fraction inside. Vera moaned at the sensation, so similar to being filled in her pussy, yet different all the same. The cream from her orgasm worked wonders as he pulled the finger out and back in, working only the tip inside.
While his finger worked a teased, her pussy tightened and cried out. She’d felt this before, when he’d first put his finger inside her when they’d been against the wall , but this was so different. Before his cock had been fucking her, and the sweet delicious friction of both lengths working inside her had been mind-blowing , stunningly wonderful.
This though was different. Her pussy wept cream with each tiny thrust of his fingers, jealous at the intrusion .
“Put your cock in me,” she said between clenched teeth.
His chuckle was one of supreme masculine satisfaction. “No can do baby, you’re not ready yet.”
She growled the sound no longer human. “I meant in my pussy.” He only laughed at her.
“Be patient baby and you’ll get something so much better.” Her hands fisted in the bedsheets .
“Why can’t I have both?”
“Another time,” he promised. “For now, just feel, relax. Aaah, that’s it.” He pulled his wet finger out and worked it in slowly until he couldn’t
go in any further. From there he thrust his finger . The pleasure had her gasping. Vera could sense his patience waning.
“So fucking beautiful. I can barely wait.”
His finger left her and then the bed dipped and she heard footsteps. She turned her cheek to the other side to see him going to the bathroom.
“You better not leave me like this.” He came back with a bottle in his hand. “What is that?” Unease had her legs closing.
He came back to her and split her legs back open again . “It’s lube.”
She couldn’t stop from laughing. “And what, you just brought that with you on the trip? You know just in case.”
He laughed. “No, it was in a drawer in the bathroom. It’s meant for massages or...”
She heard the cap open and the sound sent chills down her arms. A heavy hand fell to her ass, plumped, and massaged the flesh with a possessive hand.
“God I love your ass.” The way he said it made her melt. The man was simply after her heart, there was no doubt about it.
She felt a finger stroking gently over her tight entry almost as if...seeking permission. Her body was thrummed so tight that if he sucked her nipple hard enough she was sure she’d come.
She nodded against the bed and then there was pressure and his finger worked back through her muscles. She sighed at the intrusion. He’d oiled his finger and now it slid in easily.
He pulled back and she couldn’t stop the pitiful groan that left her. Just as quickly, two fingers were pushing into her. She tightened against the much wider invasion feeling like she was splitting apart. It hurt at first but then pain left and only felt... incredible.
“Wow,” she said, having a hard time making her mouth work. She heard his grunt of approval , then he was working those two fingers in and out, the passage way was slick and so tight. She could feel everything about his fingers, the bump of his knuckles, the skin rubbing inside her.