JADE
A few hours later, I began to realize that Eli had some standard skills.
He’d surveyed the landscape, using the basic signs to find a small stream where we’d filled up water bottles. We still had to boil the water, but Eli had managed to use his knowledge to find it.
Grudgingly, I had to admit that he really was interested in primitive survival.
I’d taught him some advanced skills, like how to make an underground still if he couldn’t find an obvious source of water, and a few more ways to get drinking water in other climates.
He listened, which made my irritation with him fade away a little.
I’d expected him to scoff at everything I said or the things I tried to teach him. Instead, it had been exactly the opposite. Eli Stone seemed to suck up knowledge like a sponge, and he asked a lot of intelligent questions.
“What are these?” he asked as he stopped on the hiking path we’d been following back to camp.
I came to a halt next to him, reaching for his hand as he went to touch the small fruit bush. “Be careful,” I warned as I gripped his fingers lightly. “These are really thorny. They’re Natal plums, and the red fruit is edible, but the stems and leaves are toxic.”
I let go of his hand and plucked one of the bright-red fruits from the tree. Pulling the knife I was carrying from its sheath on my belt, I carefully cut an edible portion and handed it to him.
The fact that he didn’t hesitate to eat it, obviously trusting my knowledge without question, made me smile as I popped a piece of fruit between my own lips.
Rather than being a pain in my ass as I’d completely expected, Eli was a perfect student, and I’d been intrigued by the sensible facts he already had stored in his head. Not that I, in any way, thought he was a nice guy, but he wasn’t as bad as I imagined him to be.
Unfortunately, that sexual tension in the air was ever-present, making it uncomfortable at times.
If I wasn’t so damn attracted to him, I could probably enjoy his company.
“It tastes kind of like a cranberry,” he said after he’d swallowed.
I nodded. “Sweet and sour.”
He shot me a grin. “I find that flavor very tempting lately.”
The flesh of the plum almost got caught in my throat, but I forced it down. I knew he was still playing his cat-and-mouse game, and that he was referring to me as the sweet and sour he found appealing. Unfortunately, the visual image his words conjured was automatic and vivid.
What would it be like to be devoured by Eli Stone?
I didn’t want to have imaginary images of that unlikely occurrence flash through my brain, but I couldn’t seem to control my errant thoughts.
I busied myself with cleaning my knife on nearby leaves and then shoved the blade back into its sheath. “We should get going,” I said breathlessly.
“Wait,” Eli said as he caught my upper arm to stop me, then pushed me gently against a nearby tree as he added, “I know you don’t want to admit what we’re both feeling right now, Jade. You don’t want to talk about the fact that we’re attracted to each other. But can’t we just get it out there so you aren’t so suspicious of my motives, Butterfly?”
“I’m not a butterfly,” I said indignantly.
Did he really think I was a fragile, pretty living thing that had nothing better to do than flit from place to place?
“You are a butterfly,” he disagreed. “And I think you’re more than ready to emerge and fly free, but you haven’t found your way out of your safe place yet.”
God, it was almost terrifying that I pretty much felt the same way.
My body reacted immediately to being in such close proximity to his hot, hard, muscular body. My heart tripped as I looked up at him and saw the grim determination on his gorgeous face.
“I don’t know what you mean,” I said hesitantly, even though his words had struck a chord.
The last thing I wanted Eli to know was that my lust for him was nearly uncontrollable. So wild that I wanted to burst out of my no one-night stands position inside my cocoon and let him teach me everything I wanted to know about hot, sweaty, orgasmic sex.
He caged me in by putting a strong arm on each side of my body. “That’s bullshit, Jade, and you know it. But if you won’t talk about it, I will. I’m not afraid to admit that I want to fuck you. That there’s not a single dirty thing I don’t want to do with you. And it’s driving me crazy.”
The tension between us was electric, and the strain in his expression mirrored my own frustration.
I pushed against his enormous chest. “I don’t just fuck any attractive man I see. That’s not who I am.”
He didn’t budge, not even as I applied as much force as I was able to.
“Then what do you want, Jade?” he rasped. “The desire is there for both of us. I know damn well that I’m not feeling this all by myself.”
“I want you,” I blurted out as our eyes met and held. “You’re an attractive guy. But I don’t like you.”
A flash of satisfaction moved across his face as he said, “You don’t know me.”
He was right. But liking Eli Stone was not an option for me. If I did, I’d be totally screwed. “I’m here to be your survival instructor. I don’t have to like you.”
He leaned forward and pressed his body against mine, his warm breath wafting across my ear as he said in a low, hungry tone, “You know what I think? I’m pretty sure you want a man who can instruct you for a change. I think you crave a guy who can actually make you submit and focus on nothing but pleasure.”
“I don’t!” I exclaimed, trying not to notice how good it felt when his teeth nipped at my ear and he soothed it with his tongue.
Heat raced between my thighs, and my heart was thundering as Eli moved back enough to look at me. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be satisfied, Jade. You should demand it.”
My mind was racing, trying to figure out how Eli could instinctively know what I wanted.
Maybe I did want to be with a man I didn’t have to worry about intimidating.
And God, I really did want him to overwhelm me just like he was doing right now.
“Admit that you want me. I already know you do, but I want to hear it,” he said in a persuasive tone.
I glared up at him even though my body was pleading for me to let Eli do any damn thing he wanted. “Dream on. I refuse to stroke your ego. I’m not going to give in to some kind of crazy lust I don’t understand. It would never make me happy.”
Okay. It might temporarily assuage my need, but I know I’d regret it if I let Eli get me into his bed for a one-nighter.
He grinned, a wicked, sultry smile that made my body scream for his touch. “I think it would make you extremely happy,” he countered. “And the last thing I want you to stroke is my damn ego. I just want you to admit that you feel the same way I do. I know how to satisfy a woman, Jade. And I’d leave you so satiated that you’d never forget the experience. Give me a chance to show you how ecstatic you could be after you’ve been in my bed.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but forgot every word I wanted to utter as Eli swooped down and captured my mouth.
For just a moment, I sank into the embrace that I craved, opening to him with a moan as his sensual kiss consumed me.
He’d been right.
I did want this.
I did want him.
I wanted him to take over so I could just feel the pleasure that was coursing through my body, enjoy the sensation of his mouth devouring mine.
Eli didn’t do anything halfheartedly, and kissing was no exception. His embrace was breathtaking. And probably addictive.
He lifted his head, the embrace nothing more than a tease of what could be if I’d just say the word.
Yes.
“Let me go,” I said as I pushed against his chest again. “I don’t want to be controlled.”
“I don’t want to control you,” he said huskily. “I want to be the man that you trust to take care of your needs.”
He stepped back and I scrambled to the trail, with Eli right behind me.
My breathing was ragged, and I stopped for a moment to focus on getting air in and out of my lungs smoothly.
Eli stepped in front of me. “I don’t want to hurt you, Jade. I never did. I feel the same things you do.”
I looked up at him. “We don’t have to act on the desire. What’s the point? For just a little temporary relief? I can do that to myself.”
Never in my life had I spoken to a guy about getting myself off, but Eli made me dare to say things I otherwise wouldn’t.
Truthfully, I really didn’t masturbate very much. I’d always been so exhausted from school and work that the time I got to myself was mostly for sleep.
“I’d like to watch,” he said. “And then I could show you how down and dirty really should feel.”
“You’re assuming I don’t know.”
He shook his head. “I know you don’t.”
How in the hell does he know?
In reality, I had no idea how to do dirty things. But dammit, Eli tempted me to explore every one of those options.
My craving for him terrified me, and I wasn’t sure why. Lots of women were perfectly capable of jumping into a man’s bed just to satisfy an itch. And Eli Stone was much more than an irritation. He was a full-blown rash that I needed to scratch so hard that my skin would become raw.
“Drop it,” I insisted. “I don’t screw a guy and walk away. It’s not my thing.”
I turned and started making my way back to camp.
“I wouldn’t let you walk away if you said yes, Jade,” Eli warned as he fell into step beside me. “Neither one of us would be satisfied with a one-nighter. I’d need to be inside you over and over again before I could get you out of my system. One taste would never be enough for either one of us.”
“I’m cutting this trip short right now if you don’t stop,” I said desperately.
Sweet baby Jesus! Eli needed to shut up before I did something I knew I’d regret.
I wasn’t casual about sex.
I’d only been with one man.
And I knew I’d hate myself if I gave in to Eli Stone.
Problem was, I could also end up regretting not experiencing what this man could do to me, even if it just happened once.
Later, was I going to wish I’d felt what it was like to truly experience a mind-blowing orgasm like I instinctively knew Eli could give me?
He was silent as we walked, and I didn’t trust myself to speak as we arrived back at camp.
By the time we’d hiked back, my brain was finally functional again.
Deep inside, I knew that I wasn’t really afraid of having a fling with a man who could bring me nothing but pleasure.
But I was terrified that when it ended, I’d never be the same.