Chapter Nine

What in the heck was she doing? Jewell stared at the front door of Blake’s penthouse. She’d stayed there for a week only, and that was months ago, yet the doorman had remembered her, and he’d allowed her up without hesitation.

That meant that Blake was either expecting her or he’d never told them that she was no longer allowed in. She didn’t know which would be better for her right now. But at the moment she couldn’t think, because she was so filled with worry and rage. Would she come off as stark raving mad? Probably. And maybe being hauled off to jail or to a mental hospital was exactly what she needed. Then she could say she’d done everything she could for Justin, but it was now out of her hands.

No. She wouldn’t do that. She wasn’t one to give up, not without one hell of a fight. Still, she didn’t know what this visit was going to accomplish. All she knew was that she was furious right now, and the person she wanted to take her anger out on was Blake Knight.

When she heard the knock on his door, she jumped, and then was surprised to see her fist raised. She had been the one to knock. It almost felt as if she were a separate person, or a disembodied brain, watching this bizarre scene unfold.

What was wrong with her? Maybe a person really could snap. One too many kicks backward on the path of life and you just couldn’t take it anymore.

When the door opened and she saw Blake right in front of her, she froze. If she’d worked out a script for what she’d do or say, she couldn’t remember it now. He stood there in all his glory, wearing a low-slung pair of gray sweats but no shirt, and with those strong fingers of his gripping the towel hanging around his neck. He waited for her to speak first.

She nearly stumbled backward and wasn’t sure how she’d mustered the strength to keep from falling on her ass. She hated how breathtaking this man was, hated how he made her heart skip a beat even when she considered him the enemy, even when she knew he was the one in control of her life — at least for the next thirty days.

Without saying a word, he beckoned to her with three fingers, an invitation for her to come inside. All she could think of was the line “‘Will you walk into my parlor?’ said the Spider to the Fly.” Not good.

Still, amid the oppressive silence, she found her feet moving, found herself being drawn forward into his web. She knew she might regret this later, but she was running on pure emotion right now, and even knowing that he was somehow controlling this game, she half considered herself the one in control, because she was here of her own free will — though her actions were fueled by rage and hopelessness.

He finally spoke. “I thought it would take longer for you to come to your senses and see that you need me,” he told her with a smirk.

“You may have all the power, Blake, but I am my own woman and I will leave you when my jail sentence is over.”

“You think you will,” he replied smugly, but the fire burning in his eyes said he was anything but calm.

“You can’t keep me, Blake.”

“I can keep whatever I choose to keep, Jewell, including you,” he informed her, and edged closer.

All the agony of the past six months came to a head, and because he was the one standing before her, he would be the one to feel her wrath. A sound unlike anything she’d ever heard before escaped her mouth and she rushed toward him, not knowing what she was going to do next.

But she never got the chance to unload on him.

With a growl of satisfaction, he grabbed her hair and pulled her forward, no gentleness in his touch as he showed her exactly who was in control. She knew that she should stop this, and that she was giving him exactly what he wanted by being in his apartment, but she couldn’t pull away from him mentally any more than she could physically.

His lips took hers as he ground his hips against her, and she felt how hard he already was. Oh yes, Blake liked it rough, and he liked it kinky. Plain vanilla wasn’t in his sexual vocabulary. And though she hated herself for it, she liked it the way he did.

Somehow she’d known this was exactly where the two of them were headed — even in all her fury she had known it. From the moment he’d made his magical reappearance in her world, the two of them had no other option but to end up right here.

He released her lips and she gasped for air, but nothing seemed to be tamping down this hunger, this passion, this raw craving that was rushing through her blood. This wasn’t about sex; it was about need, the need to feel anything other than hopelessness.

Blake ran his hand down her back and pressed her against his bare chest, making her cry out as the thin material of her bra almost scratched her hardened nipples. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t focus, couldn’t figure out what she needed most.

“Quit thinking, Jewell. Do nothing but feel,” he ordered her before tugging on her hair again and fusing their lips together once more.

And she did exactly as he commanded, letting her mind go blank as her body homed in on the flood of sensations flowing through it. This man, only this man, knew how to make her forget the world, how to propel her to the highest reaches of ecstasy. It didn’t matter if she hated herself for it. Whatever she did right now, she’d despise herself afterward. So why not take what pleasure she could in his arms? Why not push the pain away for just this moment in time?

She whimpered in submission as he smoothed his hands down her back and cupped the sweet curves of her rear so he could pull her into his hardness. He grasped her bottom lip with his teeth and bit down just enough to send a flash of pain through her before his tongue soothed the spot and rocked her with new currents of desire.

Time stopped having meaning as his hands and lips sent a tsunami of desire all through her body, leaving her wet, needy and hungry for more.

When he ended the kiss and stepped back, she moaned despairingly, but he didn’t leave her for long. He threw the towel off his neck, then pushed her against the wall, ripped her shirt and bra from her body, and pinned her hands above her head.

Jewell hardly noticed when Blake stripped off her pants and panties in a sudden rush, and then she was standing with him, his naked chest pressed into hers, her nipples rubbing against his smooth, solid skin, his hands squeezing the flesh of her behind, his mouth owning hers.

When she thought she couldn’t possibly take any more without crumpling at his feet, his lips skimmed down her neck, then over her heaving breasts, and he took each nipple into his mouth just long enough to make them bead out in pleasure. And then he was dropping to his knees and nuzzling her stomach with his mouth.

“Blake …,” she cried out, digging her fingers into his hair. She didn’t know what she was asking of him, but he certainly did.

Moving lower, he worshipped the sensitive skin right above her heated core, caressing her skin with his tongue, and his fingers opened her up to his demanding mouth.

Her internal temperature soared as he sucked her swollen bud and his tongue swiped against it, once … twice … a third time, and more, until she lost count. She suddenly felt the explosion rip through her, her core tightening around the fingers he was using to stroke her G-spot, and her legs threatening to buckle as wave after wave of release overtook her.

Before the last of her tremors died away, he surged to his feet and caught her hips in his strong hands, lifting her against the wall and swinging her legs around him. His manhood was ready for action, and he pulled her down his length, coating himself with her pleasure, before lifting her back up and then pushing her down hard around him. Her eyes widened and she gasped in passion, and she found herself meeting his desire-filled gaze.

“You are so tight, so perfect, my Jewell,” he groaned as he kept withdrawing almost completely and then plunging back inside her.

He lost every shred of control. He gripped her hips tightly with his fingers as he thrust in and out of her, the friction and franticness of their lovemaking sending her rapidly toward an even more explosive finish than the last.

Jewell grasped his shoulders, leaned her head against his neck, and bit the salty skin of his shoulder while he continued pumping in and out with such force that she wasn’t sure how the wall behind her remained standing.

“Oh, please, Blake, please …” She had to beg him for release — the intensity of their union was just too much to bear for even a minute longer.

With a few more thrusts, he gave her exactly what she needed, and this time she saw fireworks behind her tightly closed eyes as her body contracted and pulsed around him and she screamed her ecstasy into the flesh of his now bruised shoulder.

It took a moment before she realized he too was shaking as he cried out in his own release and sent his ejaculation shuddering through her, her womb growing even hotter as his seed coated her insides.

When it was all over, she slumped against him, her legs clamped tight around his back — the only thing that kept her from falling. The rest of her body felt like a mass of jelly, and she was afraid that if he let go of her, she’d slide down the wall into a boneless heap, never able to get up again.

“I need more,” he groaned against the top of her head.

How? There was nothing else she could possibly give, nothing else he could give either. Their joining had been soul- and body-shattering, and if they attempted to continue as they’d begun, neither of them might make it out in one piece.

She was beginning to drift out of consciousness when some sort of movement jarred her awake. Was it them, or had an earthquake hit in Seattle? She lacked the strength to open her eyes to find out. But then his arms loosened around her and she felt herself falling backward.

Her eyes opened with a start when she landed against the coolness of his sheets, his scent instantly surrounding her and unbelievably setting off another rumble of need low in her belly.

He’d only pushed his sweatpants out of the way when he made love to her before; she watched as he shed them, and now he was on top of her, his eyes staring intently into hers as he spread her legs with his knees, and poised his arousal — still hard! — above her core.

“What? We can’t …,” she cried as he slipped the tip of his manhood inside her folds.

“Not only can we, Jewell, but we will.” He thrust inside and wrenched a moan of pleasure from deep within her.

He lay full against her now, gripping the back of her thigh with one hand and pulling her leg up, opening her to him so he could slide all the way in, up to the hilt.

Soon he was thrusting his tongue in and out of her mouth in perfect rhythm with his body, making her stomach quiver as the pleasure rose almost unbearably higher.

As he moved his hips skillfully, his hardness filling her in ways only he could fill her — and only he had — she convulsed around him countless times, shattering in immeasurable wonder. She didn’t want this night to end.

Now slowing, and now speeding back up, Blake made love to her in a way he never had before in their times together. Yes, there was desperation, and yes, there was urgency, but there were also moments of tenderness, and of passion beyond anything she could imagine.

His tongue traced her tender lips, his words washed over her skin, his body fit perfectly against hers, and she begged him to never stop. When he finally pulled from her, he trailed his lips down her neck, took her peaked nipples into his mouth and, instead of soothing them, made them ache even more. Then he moved downward and tasted the passion that he and Jewell had shared before climbing back up to the top of the bed and allowing her to taste it too in his drugging kiss.

And then he was over her again, slipping back inside her molten core and commanding her to look at him. “Open your eyes, Jewell. I want to see the explosion this time. Do not close them under any circumstances!”

She tried to disobey, but he bit her lip, causing her to gasp, and she was too weak to fight him. She could barely keep her eyes open now, but she managed it somehow as he moved faster and faster, building up the pressure within her once again.

And then she came apart. As the climax tore savagely through her, taking every last bit of energy she had left, she gazed into his nearly black eyes and watched their depths sparkle with satisfaction. She and Blake went up in a blaze of ecstasy and their voices rang out together.

And Jewell could take no more. She gave in gladly to the compelling darkness.