CHAPTER 8
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Jared was doing exactly what Mara wanted: eliminating her ability to think of anything else but him. He assaulted her senses with his all-consuming kiss, taking what he wanted, but giving her what she needed in return.
His full-on invasion of her mouth had her moaning beneath him, tilting her head to give him better access as his tongue pushed past her lips and surged deeply, claiming her completely without a word spoken.
Every nerve in her body vibrated with tension as his hips rolled, and his hard cock rubbed against her saturated core. She jerked at her wrists, needing to touch him. Turning her head violently, she broke the embrace that was slowly incinerating her. “Please, Jared,” she panted frantically. “I need to touch you.”
“If you touch me, I’ll lose control,” he grunted harshly against her ear.
“I don’t care.”
“I care, dammit. I care.” Jared loosened his grip on her wrists and rested his forehead against her shoulder.
The note of desperation in his voice nearly made Mara come unraveled. He sounded . . . defeated. Realizing his big body was shuddering above her, she slid her hands free and into his coarse hair in a soothing caress. “It can just be this once, Jared. I’m not expecting forever, or even tomorrow right now. I just want you now.”
The last thing she wanted was for him to feel like he was hurting her. In reality, he’d be doing her a favor, giving her temporary respite from the negative visions and emotions flowing through her mind.
“You think that will be enough?” Jared ground out coarsely, close to her ear.
“It will have to be. I don’t care about the future. I just want to get through today.”
Mara moaned in protest as Jared lifted his body away from hers. “Please don’t leave me right now,” she begged shamelessly, needing the presence of another human right at the moment.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
She heard the rustling of clothing, and it was so quiet in the room that she heard the zipper of his jeans come down, followed by more whispery sounds of clothing being discarded.
“Dark or light?” he questioned softly.
“What?” she asked hesitantly.
“Do you want the curtains open or closed?”
He was naked. She knew it as surely as she knew that he wasn’t going to leave her right now despite her fears. For just a moment, she wished for her glasses, which had been badly damaged during her escape from the fire. Mara ached to see Jared as clearly as possible. But her vision wasn’t bad without them. She wore them mainly because she did intricate work and she had a slight astigmatism in one eye. Her vision sharpened up to perfect with glasses. Right at the moment, she longed for the clearest eyesight possible, but she’d deal with what she had.
“Light.” She wanted to see him so urgently that she didn’t care if he saw her less than perfectly toned body.
Wincing as he opened one of the drapes and the room flooded with sunlight, Mara finally got her eyes full of Jared Sinclair. Blinking fast as her pupils adjusted to the brightness, she stared unabashed as he walked back to the bed without a stitch of clothing on. She sat up, her mouth now as dry as a desert, her gaze lovingly adoring his sculpted, masculine body. His biceps and abs were ripped with solid muscle, and it was obvious he worked out on a regular basis. His powerfully built chest had a light dusting of auburn hair, exactly the same color that highlighted the locks on his head. As her eyes moved downward, she licked her parched lips as she saw a narrow happy trail of the same hue snaking down the lower part of a rippling six-pack that had her itching to trace over it. Finally, her curious stare landed on his groin, and her core clenched as she tried to find the right words for his engorged cock. “Huge,” she choked out, stunned. She’d only seen one other naked man in her life, and he hadn’t been built anywhere near Jared’s size. Anywhere.
“Are you done looking?” Jared asked huskily.
“No,” she answered honestly. Really, she could stare at him forever and never get tired of gawking at his sinfully delicious body. Her glance eventually landed on his face, and she melted when his eyes flared with heat.
Leaning down, he grasped the hem of his own T-shirt that she was currently wearing and tugged it upward. “If I have to get naked, so do you.”
“I don’t look nearly as hot as you do,” she told him reluctantly, but she lifted her arms so he could strip away her only item of clothing. She sat in the middle of the bed silently as Jared’s expression grew hungry and heated, his eyes caressing her breasts like he wanted to devour them.
“Sweetheart, you look like a damn wet dream to me right now.” A muscle in his jaw twitched as his long, surveying stare roamed over her possessively. Tearing his gaze away, his eyes met hers, his deep green irises turbulent as he held out his hand. “Here. You’ll need this.”
Mara took the condom from his grasp, watching him move with the grace of a predator as he crawled into the bed. She waited as her breath hitched with anticipation, but he surprised her by lying on his back beside her, kicking the covers to the foot of the bed, and locking his hands behind his head. “If you want it, take what you want.”
Holy hotness, he looked like a gorgeous male sacrifice laid out for her pleasure, and she was itching to lick every inch of his solid, hard body with her tongue. But at the last minute, she balked.
Something was wrong. She doubted Jared Sinclair ever gave up control, and his behavior was just . . . wrong.
If you want it?
His desire was evident, but he looked almost angry . . . and slightly . . . injured? After his display of alpha male take-no-prisoners passion a few moments ago, something about his actions now was off.
If you want it.
Recognition of what he was thinking hit her like a bolt of lightning. “You think I’m using you.” He might be more than willing, but he wasn’t liking the fact that he thought that she would take a man—any man—right now to distract her.
If she had blinked, Mara would have missed the validation of her suspicions shadowing his expression for an instant. And then it was gone, replaced by a stoic look. It wasn't like she didn't know that Jared had insecurities buried deep inside that drool-worthy chest of his, but her selfishness hit her like a brick to her head. People always wanted something from him, used him. She’d acted no better than any other woman in his life by trying to rationalize what she was doing by saying she needed the distraction. She did . . . but only Jared could give that to her. She needed . . . him. Somehow, she needed to make him understand.
He shrugged. “It’s not like I’m not willing. More than willing, actually.”
Jared Sinclair was doing something Mara suspected he rarely did, because he knew she was vulnerable. He was letting her take control, letting her use him to escape from her own pain.
I don’t want just anybody. I need him. Jared. I wouldn’t be reacting this way with anybody else.
Dropping the condom she was holding on the pillow beside his head, she straddled him, biting her lip to hold back a moan as her saturated pussy connected with his sinewy, hard abs. She was no seductress, but his split second of insecurity made her bold. “I don’t want it, Jared. I want you.” Spearing her hands through his hair, she leaned down, her pebbled nipples chafed by the light sprinkling of hair on his chest. “Only you. I wouldn’t have asked for this with any other man.” She pressed open-mouthed kisses against his neck and along his strong jaw. Grinding her hips against his stomach, she let him feel her wet heat slide along the hard strength of his groin.
“Jesus, Mara,” he rasped. “You’re so fucking wet. There’s only so much control I can manage right now.”
“No control,” she insisted, inflamed by his response. “I need you right now, Jared. You.”
Jared’s arms wrapped around her as though he had finally snapped, his hands stroking greedily down her back and to her ass. “You’re so soft. So damn sweet.”
Mara knew she was too soft. She carried more weight than she should, and her ass was entirely too big. But the way that Jared was squeezing, worshiping her body, made her feel like a goddess.
Unable to stop herself from wanting to be more connected to him, she met his tortured gaze briefly before lowering her mouth to his. Mara savored the taste of him, and his delectable masculine scent as he responded, taking control of the passionate clash of tongues and teeth as they devoured each other. Her breath was coming unevenly between her lips as she finally lifted her head.
His fingers reached between their bodies from behind, meeting her wet heat with a low groan. “Have you had a man my size before, Mara?”
No. But she wanted to. She needed him so damn desperately that she was ready to start begging again. “No,” she admitted breathlessly.
“Not like this then.” He grasped her around the waist and flipped their position slowly, careful not to twist her injured ankle. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
Mara’s heart clenched as she wrapped her legs around his waist, her ankle twinging in protest, but she ignored it. “I already hurt. I ache, Jared.” All she wanted was to feel their bodies joined, that gorgeous cock of his filling her until she no longer felt empty.
“You won’t,” he promised, his voice graveled with desire as he pushed his body up to kneel between her legs, causing her feet to drop to the bed, her thighs spread wide to accommodate him. “You won’t feel anything but me.” Running his palms up her torso, he cupped her breasts and lowered his head to one of her hardened, sensitive nipples.
“Yes,” she hissed, her hands fisting in his hair to keep him there. “Please.”
His mouth nipped and sucked, tortured and soothed until Mara was lifting her hips, pleading for his cock to fill her. Without letting up on her breasts, one of his hands slid down her body and between her thighs, stroking through the folds of her pussy. She quivered as his fingers brushed her engorged clit, setting off a chain reaction of pulsation that stimulated every nerve ending in her entire body. Slowly, he stroked his way inside her channel with two of his fingers. “Christ, you’re so tight,” he growled against her breast, his fingers curling and finding a sensitive area inside her that she didn’t know existed.
“Fuck me, Jared,” she whimpered, lifting her hips, her need for him so intense that she nearly sobbed.
Leaning up on his knees, he pumped his fingers inside her, rolling his thumb firmly over her clit. “I need to watch you come for me.”
Mara’s eyes met his, the feral expression on his face arousing an answering wildness inside her. She tried to hold his gaze as her fingers clutched at the bottom sheet on the bed, desperate to hold on to something before she was hurled into space. As he stroked inside her harder, deeper, the expression on his face becoming even more intense and focused on her pleasure, she closed her eyes, and her back ached as wild pulsations flowed over her body. Her sheath clenched around his fingers as she climaxed, the volatile orgasm squeezing his fingers tightly. Thrashing her head from the unfamiliar pressure and release sensations pounding at her body, she moaned, “Oh, God. Jared.”
As her body relaxed and she started spiraling downward, she watched as Jared ripped the package of the condom with his teeth, rolled it on, and came down over her. “Watching you come is the hottest damn thing I’ve ever seen,” he told her huskily as he eased his large shaft inside her. “I can’t wait to feel you tighten like that around my cock,” he told her desperately, his lips against hers.
“Don’t try to be gentle. I need you too much,” she mumbled against his mouth right before he kissed her. Jared’s cock might be a little larger than the average size, but it was hers for this stolen moment in time, and she wanted to feel it, own it.
As his mouth ravaged hers, Mara wrapped her legs around his waist and surged her hips upward, wanting him to take her completely. Feeling his entire body shudder as she palmed his rock-hard ass and tried to pull him deeper, Mara felt him finally give himself up to the red-hot passion that was beating at both of them, unrelentingly demanding to be sated.
Gasping as he seated himself completely inside her, she felt the walls of her channel give way to him slowly, and clench tightly around him. The momentary pain of being stretched was nothing compared to the feeling of having him fill her. “Yes,” she encouraged, wrapping her arms around him tightly, their bodies sliding together, both of them coated with a fine sheen of perspiration.
“You feel so damn good. Better than my wildest fantasies,” Jared admitted harshly, pulling back and thrusting again to bury his cock inside her. “Can’t. Hold. Back,” he grunted.
“Then don’t,” she whimpered, thrusting her hips up.
Jared reached beneath them and grasped her ass as he started a ruthless, merciless pace of strokes with his cock, bringing her pelvis up to meet every entry after he retreated, pumping into her furiously. “Mara,” he groaned. “Come for me, sweetheart.”
Seconds later she imploded, screaming his name. “Jared!” She dug her short nails into his back, trying to find purchase as she spiraled out of control.
Jared entered her one last time with a tortured groan, letting her milk him as he found his own release.
Trying to catch her breath, Mara protested as Jared started to lift his body from hers. “Stay,” she said softly, breathlessly. She wanted to feel his hard, masculine body surrounding her for a few more minutes, so she tightened her arms and legs around him. “You feel good.” She wasn’t ready to give up their exquisite connection.
Jared kissed her neck and the side of her face, making his way to her lips. He kissed her slowly, thoroughly, as though he was relishing the feel of them skin to skin. “Be right back,” he said in a low, hushed tone.
He disentangled their bodies and went to dispose of the condom, pulling the heavy drape back into place before he slipped back into the bed. Lying on his side, he pulled her back against his front, spooning her protectively. “Sleep now,” he insisted, burying his face in her hair. “We’ll figure everything out when we wake up.”
Her body sated, Mara realized how exhausted she was, and she had to stifle a yawn. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
She sighed as she relaxed into his protective embrace and wriggled against him, luxuriating in the afterglow of being thoroughly pleasured. “For this.”
He kissed her temple and chuckled. “It was my pleasure, baby. Literally.”
Mara’s eyes started to flutter closed, fatigue starting to take over. “Mine, too,” she murmured quietly, his comforting hand stroking possessively over her hip, soothing her into sleep.