"You can kiss my smart a.s.s, Jacob. Your equipment isn"t malfunctioning, your security setup is."
"And how do you suggest I fix it, Ms. Liaison?" he sniped. "We"re in the middle of a freaking jungle. Besides, I just want advance warning, not a major alarm system."
"What you"re likely to get is one of your Enforcers killed," she hissed. "They are using the trees, Jacob. And they"ve breached your defenses once. What if they figure out where the alarms are, now that they know there are alarms?"
"You think I am not considering this?" he asked her impatiently as he stood to his full height, towering over her as he stepped closer. "You think I have fought these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds for six years without learning anything, Faith?"
"Well, evidently you didn"t learn anything about using the trees for cover, or you would have thought about it," she retorted. "I"ve been out here half an hour and I figured it out."
"What does this make you, a d.a.m.ned cat?" he growled, his voice rumbling now.
"What is this thing you have against cats, Jacob?" She rolled her eyes mockingly. "Learn from them. Felines can be your friends, baby."
She heard a round of snickers below. Evidently Jacob did too, if the volcanic look on his face was anything to go by.
"Styx, he who laughs hardest can spend his night in the d.a.m.ned trees waiting on the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds," he bit out coldly. "Get some rest and see if you can"t make like a cat tonight."
Faith glanced down at the huge redhead. If a wolf could pout, then he was doing a fair imitation of it if his expression was anything to go by.
"h.e.l.l, boss. She"s cute. You can"t blame us." Stygian was openly laughing now. "Has you by your b.a.l.l.s and you know it."
"Want to join Styx tonight, Stygian?" Jacob snapped, his eyes still on Faith.
Faith restrained her own grin as Stygian immediately cleared his expression.
"No way, boss," he answered quickly. "Never did care much for the feline way. Keep my feet on the ground if it"s all the same to you."
"What is it with you people and the Felines?" she asked with exaggerated patience. "They are really very nice people, you know."
"And you would know this how?" Jacob snarled.
Faith"s eyes widened. "I keep telling you, mate." She spoke clearly, hoping he would understand this time. "I am Liaison to the Pack between all informers. This includes members of the Feline Breeds. I deal directly with their Liaison, Tanner."
A real growl erupted from his throat now.
"Don"t you start, Jacob," she warned him firmly. "There is nothing at all wrong with Tanner."
"He"s a pervert," he snarled. "His mating affirms this. You have no reason to be around this person."
"He has a perfectly nice mate. She gave birth to twins last year. Perfectly adorable babies." She crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes. "Has a Wolfe Breed sired a child yet? Not that I"ve heard of.
"This is beside the point. When a Wolf Breed does sire a child, he will need no help from others, I can you a.s.sure you of this."
Faith drew in a hard, patience-restoring breath. "You have lost your mind. Is this an Alpha thing that comes with a male"s mating cycle? Thank G.o.d all I have to deal with is perpetual horniness. And let me a.s.sure you, you are not keeping up today. Perhaps you need help after all."
Below, Enforcers scattered amid helpless laughter as she faced a more than enraged mate.
"I promise you, mate," he snarled as he came slowly forward, backing her into the thick trunk of the tree, his body aggressive, his voice dangerously sensual. "I need no help keeping you f.u.c.ked. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever. All I need to do is get rid of the d.a.m.ned coffee that turns you into a nymphomaniac with more att.i.tude than a rabid Coyote."
Her eyes narrowed on him as his hips pressed into hers, driving his c.o.c.k against the softness of her lower belly.
"We have a deal," she reminded him heatedly. "You have to leave my coffee alone and keep me f.u.c.ked. Not snipe at me, or take it out on me because I figured out something you hadn"t thought of."
Her hands gripped the limbs above her to steady herself. She watched his eyes heat, his cheeks darkening with sensual awareness as her b.r.e.a.s.t.s brushed his chest.
Jacob"s hands went to her waist as he lifted her just enough to grind his c.o.c.k between her thighs suggestively.
"Mmm." She licked her lips again as she lifted her legs, allowing them to bend and grip his thighs. "Wild monkey s.e.x. Sounds like fun to me."
Chapter Twenty-One.
"It would serve you right if I f.u.c.ked you in front of the entire Pack," he growled as his lips went to her neck, his tongue stroking her skin.
"Exhibitionism? Sounds kinky, Jacob. I"m game if you are." Her head tilted back, her eyes closing as pleasure washed over her, heating the core of her body further, and leaving her longing for his touch, his taste.
There, in the shade of the huge trees, sheltered by the jungle, the mists of night still clinging to the air around them as the sun blazed in the morning sky, she wanted his touch, his heat.
Her hands tightened on the limbs of the tree as Jacob moved closer to her, his feet braced on two closely s.p.a.ced limbs, his hips pressing tight against hers as his lips caressed her neck, and one hand delved beneath her shirt to the bare, swollen b.r.e.a.s.t.s awaiting him.
At the first touch, Faith felt ripples of sensation streaking through her body, caressing her womb and her v.a.g.i.n.a. She whispered a needy moan of arousal, desperate for more.
"Oh, you are hot," he nipped her ear as his fingers tweaked her breast. "Does it turn you on, Faith, sparring with me? Pushing me?"
It did. She knew it did. Pitting herself against him, watching his eyes flame, seeing emotion transform his face, the confused anger, the heated desire. The need to make her submit. It fired her blood as nothing else could, seeing that dominance rising to the surface. She had no desire to best him. Faith fully admitted she wanted to be bested.
"Does it turn you on?" she asked him, rather than revealing her feelings, her weakness for his emotions.
His growl was surprisingly strong as he jerked her shirt above her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and stared down at the bounty now offered up to him.
"Turn me on?" he said roughly. "d.a.m.n you, Faith, you make me so hot I expect to disintegrate every time I touch you."
She expected his mouth to ravish her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. To take what he was staring at so greedily. Instead, he took her lips in a kiss that destroyed her. His tongue swept into her mouth, conquering her, weakening her and yet filling her with a power she could have never imagined.
"Then take me, Jacob," she whispered beseechingly as his lips lifted. "We can burn together."
She needed him, needed him as she had never needed anything in her life.
"I won"t take you where my men can see your lush body, or hear your cries," he bit out. "You are mine, Faith. Know this now. Mine."
"Yours," she cried out breathlessly as his hands cupped her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, fingers plucking at her nipples as he stared down at her in heated desperation. "If I am yours, Jacob, then prove it. Take me."
He stepped away from her, breathing in quick, hard breaths, his hands rough, shaking as he jerked her T-shirt back over her bare b.r.e.a.s.t.s.
"Go. Now." His voice was raspy, as dark and graveled as any she had ever heard. "I"ll be in our bedroom in five minutes, and by G.o.d, you better be ready for me."
Ready for him didn"t come close to describing how eagerly she awaited him, Jacob thought as he entered the bedroom to find her sleek, perfect body laying back on the bed.
She stared up at him, her eyes so black and hot they seared him further. His whole body throbbed. Not just his c.o.c.k, not just his tongue. He watched as she licked her lips with a lazy, moist movement of her tongue. They glistened now, making him hunger with his need to taste them.