Chapter Thirty-Five
Intense desperation to spare what yet remained of her will flooded Angel. She was determined to save herself, no matter the feelings throbbing through her with more wanton lust each passing second. She would use magic if she had to! She would fight!
Jake’s free hand played along her side, burning his possession into her as he inched upward until he was gently wrapping his fingers around her throat and his thumb was brushing tenderly along the line of her chin.
No! her mind tried to scream, but even in that silent sanctity, it came out as a whimper. Had she been strong all this time only to finally submit to a vampire after all? Was that her twisted destiny? Fear still laced every blood cell in her veins, fear of losing who and what she was, fear of giving herself away completely to something so much stronger than her. And anger was still there too… he’d lied to her. He’d kept the truth from her, whether it was for her own good or not.
No. She thought it with more force this time, and her eyes flew open.
It was a mistake. It was possibly the biggest mistake she had ever made.
Her body electrified at once beneath the fundamental assertiveness of the man above her. The gleam in his magnificent eyes was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. It alone was powerful enough to send moisture flooding between her legs. But her nerve endings crackled to sensuous life with a violent sensation somewhere between pain and pleasure when her eyes fell on the sharp, white fangs that now showed from behind his lips.
He was stunning in his primal, predatory beauty. No vampire had ever looked like this. No man had ever looked like this. Angel could no longer contain the groan of desire he ripped from her lungs. It climbed her throat and escaped her lips like the wanton, traitorous testimony it was.
Jake’s already firm hold on her wrists became brutal. He slowly smiled. It was a pure-pirate smile filled with deadly teeth and dark, otherworldly promise.
Angel’s lips parted, freeing her erratic, shallow breaths. She shuddered, her body trembling in need beneath him. “You… you’re doing this to me!” she partly hissed and partly moaned, her voice shaking as much as her body. He was using his vampire powers against her, he had to be. It was some kind of undeniable superhuman allure. There was no other explanation for the severe depth of her desire.
But even as she quietly accused him, she knew she was dead wrong. He didn’t have to do a damn thing to her to make her melt beneath him on the hood of his jet black car. She’d wanted him from day one. The final step to her undoing was simply knowing he’d wanted her too.
Jake’s dominating hands held firm as he leaned in, and the fingers he’d wrapped gently around her neck tightened slightly. It felt good. So good. As his firm body crushed hers, Jake’s lips touched her earlobe softly, brushing across it like feathers, then her temple, then her cheek. He smelled like leather and night and the promise of wild sex, and Angel turned her face away, squeezing her eyes shut, stubborn to the last.
Jake pressed his lips to the side of the throat she’d unwittingly offered him. Angel gasped and arched beneath him, inexplicably wanting something more – needing it. When she realized what she was doing, she tried to whip her head back around, but he held her firm with the hand at her throat, his thumb on her chin keeping her right where she was.
“You forget, Angel,” he told her in response to her accusation. “I can read your mind.” Delicately, his tongue flicked against her taut flesh, right above her pulse. That pulse reacted by leaping hard, then settling into a painful rapid-fire pace.
Oh gods… her mind was at the precipice of oblivion. She was aching furiously now. He laughed low and wicked against the vein, and the deep vibration moved through her like an edict.
“Not that I need to. Your body speaks volumes.”
He rose above her then and released her arms, framing her face with his hands. In the next instant, his lips crashed down on hers in a kiss so passionate, it was cruel.
No, he didn’t kiss her. He devoured her.
Blood rushed through her eardrums and insane lust clouded her consciousness. A lava flow of aching desire poured into her core, setting it alight. Jake forced her to relent without patience, without mercy, and when she finally opened beneath him, parting her teeth to let him in, he took her over like a man who’d been denied something he needed his entire life. His lips were bruising, his tongue subjugating hers.
Angel felt his soft black hair between her fingers and realized distantly that she’d shoved her hands behind his head to grasp him tightly. She’d never been kissed like this. No woman had ever been kissed like this. And yet this was how every woman needed to be kissed. Desperately. Madly. Always.
His kiss became harder, more demanding. She lost her breath beneath its onslaught until he pulled away to scorch a trail across her chin, down her neck, and along her collar bone. She was burning up. As he nipped the bone gently, grazing enough to leave a mark, an explosion of need went off inside her, and Angel pulled his hair roughly.
Jake’s body tensed against hers.
He pressed his hands to the car hood on either side of her and slowly rose above her to fix his cruel gaze in hers. Angel’s breaths came in shallow pants of anticipation as he stared her down.
“Take your clothes off, Angel.”
The command gave her a delicious thrill, causing her breath to hitch and her vision to go glassy. But Angel was again stubborn first, and everything else second. She bit her lip seductively, watching his eyes flick to her mouth and back up again. Then she shook her head just once, side to side.
Jake’s beautiful mouth slipped into a conniving smile. “Fine,” he said, grabbing her wrist to yank her into a sitting position in front of him. He was straddling her legs with his knees on the hood, a firm arm wrapped around her waist to keep her there. His hand spread possessively across the small of her back, his fingers once more branding her where they slipped past her shirt.
He pulled her in close. “If you insist, I can always help you take them off.” He grinned then, flashing fangs, and Angel knew he meant that if she didn’t take them off herself, he would rip them off.
Her stubborn streak held, though. It was too much fun to defy him. “I’ll get cold,” she told him bravely, rebelliously. It was a blatant lie, and she knew he knew it. She knew he could hear her heart, her breathing. She knew he could probably smell her desire. Hell, she was anything but cold. She was on fire.
He shook his head. He was game. “Such insolence.”
This was the part of the dance she’d always liked best, the part she always dreamed of. It was the part she read over and over again in countless romance novels. This was what she wanted, this power play that allowed a woman to feel okay with giving up control. Because the man she loved was going to take it from her anyway.
Angel felt a sudden tightening in her chest. The man I…. Her eyes focused on the razor-sharp tips of his long, white canines as if focusing on them could make her forget what she’d just thought. But it couldn’t. The man I…. She swallowed hard past the massive lump forming in her throat.
Body quaking with untamed desire, fear, and something much deeper, something much stronger, Angel slowly lifted her gaze back to his.
Jake was no longer smiling. His emerald eyes speared into her soul, struck-through with so much stark, painful emotion, Angel felt shocked to her core.
He’d heard her thoughts. And he knew the truth.
“Damn,” he ground out through deadly, clenched teeth. “Give yourself to me, Angel.”
Again, his hands framed her face and his lips claimed hers in a kiss. But though this kiss was neither as hard nor bruising as the first, it was all the more desperate. She felt his fangs with her tongue, and it filled her with awe. They were a predatory adaptation, a weapon, sleek and dangerous, and a curiosity fueled by desire got the better of her. She felt his strong body shaking slightly against her as she slowly, tentatively explored them. He allowed her this cautious discovery with infinite patience, careful never to pierce her with their exacting tips.
After a few moments, he slid his hands down her body to the hem of her shirt, grasped it firmly, and broke their kiss just long enough to pull it off her. Then he was kissing her again, and Angel felt the night air caress her breasts as he deftly removed her bra.
Jake moved over her, skillfully urging her back until she was laying once more against the cool, smooth hood of his car. The forbidden sensation of the metal at her back and the forest all around her was a heady cocktail of seduction, and the last of Angel’s will finally crumbled. It fell away from her to join her clothing in tatters on the ground as Jake rid her of her boots, jeans, and undergarments in no time flat.