"I could tie you to it." His voice was raspy, desperate.
"Hmm," she breathed out, licking her lips slowly. "Now that sounds interesting. But where would your sense of challenge come in?"
He grunted, trapping her hands as the nails sc.r.a.ped over a sensitive spot.
"Should there be a challenge?" he asked her as her fingers wiggled beneath his, releasing several of the b.u.t.tons to his shirt.
His muscles jerked as her fingers stroked lightly over his flesh.
"G.o.d, Faith. Have mercy," he groaned, his hand tightening on hers.
"Mercy?" she asked him rocking against his hips, caressing his c.o.c.k through their clothing. "What is mercy, Jacob?"
Where had her mercy been in the last six years? Her eyes narrowed as she remembered the nights she had spent longing for him, her c.u.n.t soaked and weeping as she fought for some small measure of satisfaction.
He groaned, his head falling back against the seat once again as the heat of her body rocked against him. For indescribable minutes he arched against her, giving her maximum sensation, wedging his c.o.c.k tighter, harder against the notch of her thighs.
"Faith, you are teasing the wrong man," he told her, his voice deepening, darkening. "Your power only extends to the limits of my control."
"And you think I cannot handle your loss of control, Jacob?" she asked him, her fingers releasing several more b.u.t.tons so she could spread the shirt apart, revealing the heavy muscles of his chest.
Unable to control herself, Faith"s head lowered, her need to taste him, to caress him now paramount. She blew gentle breaths over the smooth flesh, then ran her tongue in a moist trail around the flat, darker area of his nipple.
She felt his body stiffen, heard the low growl in his throat as he fought for control. His hands clenched at her thighs, then moved higher, dragging her shirt up her stomach, his hands running a path to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.
"I will retaliate, Faith," he promised her, groaning. "I refuse to lay back, my control a sacrifice to your explorations."
Faith smiled, her lips brushing closer to the hard nub of his male nipple. He had nearly come out of his seat when her fingers had touched him. What would he do if her mouth surrounded him, as he did to her?
"Faith, do not do it," his voice was heavy with warning as she brushed closer, her tongue swiping around the darkened area.
"Why?" she murmured against his chest, her hands laying flat on the bunched muscles of his abdomen. "Tell me, Jacob, why should I show you mercy, when I have been given none?"
His eyes speared into hers. She saw a maelstrom of emotions, conflicting needs and regrets in his expression. His hands rose, cupping her face with a tenderness she had never though Jacob capable of.
"Had I ever known how you suffered, had I suspected it, Faith, I would have ignored the dictates of my conscience and our Pack Leader to have you with me. But G.o.d"s truth, Faith, I thank G.o.d I did not know. For the horrors you would have seen would have shredded your soul."
As they had shredded his. Faith stilled, seeing the pain, the horror of his memories as they clouded his eyes, darkened his expression.
"Perhaps, Jacob," she said sadly, painfully. "Perhaps your mistake was your lack of faith in me. To shred my soul, you would have to take my anchor. Had I been with you, that anchor would have been secure."
She moved from his lap now, breathing roughly, aware that the pain of both their pasts twisted between them, dulling the edge of l.u.s.t with bitterness. "As it was, there was no anchor, no mate, nothing but a memory, or a dream. I was never certain which." With trembling fingers she re-b.u.t.toned her pants, shaking from her l.u.s.ts and the emotional storm swirling between them.
He started to speak. She looked at his face, saw his indecision, the words coming to his lips, and she knew she had to escape. G.o.d help her if he apologized for that hour in the Lab, or if he expressed his regret. There had been so little for her to hold onto over the years. If that was taken as well, she didn"t know if she could bear the blow.
She jerked the door open and ran for the house. She ignored his curse. Ignored the anger in his voice. She ignored the need, the desire, and the rush of tears that fell from her eyes.
Chapter Fifteen.
"Faith." He caught her just inside the house, his arm wrapping around her waist, dragging her against his body, holding her tight against his chest. "Baby please, I didn"t mean to hurt you. Please, Faith..."
Her nails bit into his arm, pain and anger lashing at her heart as she tried to twist away from him. The feel of his body, so warm and hard against her sent her blood thundering through her veins, throbbing in her c.u.n.t. She was a seething ma.s.s of l.u.s.t, and d.a.m.ned near ready to beg him to f.u.c.k her. But even stronger than her l.u.s.t, was her need for Jacob himself. His heart, his love. He was holding back the intense emotions she knew he kept hidden. Protecting himself and his heart.
"It was my place," she bit out. "My place to be there for you. To soothe the horrors you faced, Jacob. To comfort you. You took that from me."
And it had tormented her over the years. Wondering if he needed her, if he was lonely, hurting, if the things he was forced to do, the blood he was forced to shed was further scarring his soul.
"No, Faith, I protected you," he protested roughly. In his voice she heard her worse fears confirmed. "Do you think I wanted to remind you of what we escaped? Remind you of the horrors you had already known?"
He turned her in his arms, staring down at her, furious now. His eyes darkening with the intensity of his emotions.
"It is my place to protect you."
"It was my place to protect you as well," she blazed back at him. "To protect your heart, Jacob, and your soul. To comfort you, to heal you. This was my place. And you took it from me. Instead, you"re scarred, so hard inside that you cannot even open up to me."
"Open up to you?" he questioned her roughly as he released her, his fingers tunneling through his hair in agitation. "What do I hide from you, Faith? You have only to ask me and I will provide for you."
Faith stared up at him, seeing his confusion, his attempt to understand what she felt he should have already seen.
"Then give me your heart," she demanded. "Can you do that, Jacob?"
He stilled. He went so still, that Faith felt a shaft of raw fear surge through her body. His eyes lost their heated anger, chilled until she felt frozen to the bone.
"Bainesmith cut it out, Faith," he finally told her softly. "Long ago, far away. Didn"t you know that, baby? There"s no heart left."
Faith strangled on the cry that welled up from her throat as he pa.s.sed her, stalking through the foyer and then bounding up the stairs. There was no regret in him. No anger. He had cut himself off from her as though she no longer existed.
Her fists clenched in pain. She had known better. Known not to push him, not to mention his heart or his love. Like Wolfe and Aiden, Jacob"s life had been much harder than hers as the younger member of the Pack. As the oldest, the strongest, they had taken the responsibility of protecting the others. She shuddered as she remembered the cruelties of the scientists and soldiers. Then her eyes narrowed. She stared up at the second floor, her lips firming. He was wrong. He still had a heart, she could feel it beating, feel it hurting. She could see the pain in his eyes when he remembered the Labs, the helpless fury that even six years later, had not dimmed.
He was hiding his heart from her. He was hiding his emotions, and his soul. It had become such a habit with him that he no longer even realized what he was doing.
She sighed wearily, wiped the tears from her cheeks and debated the best way to deal with it now. She loved Jacob. She had always loved him. But she needed his love as well, and Faith knew that he would fight letting go of the protective shield that sheltered his emotions. She understood the need to do so. She had been doing it herself ever since he left her after their escape. But that didn"t mean she would allow him to hide any longer.
Faith knew if she didn"t act and break through his reserve, then he would eventually walk away from her again. He was an Enforcer, a fighter, a warrior. That part of him would never settle down to Pack life, and Faith knew she wouldn"t want him to. There were too many Breeds out there crying out for their freedom. But she wanted, needed to be a part of it as well.
Gritting her teeth, she snarled silently and stomped through the wide hallway into the kitchen. She was h.o.r.n.y and hungry, and evidently Jacob had little intention of satisfying the first need right now, so she would take care of the second. She would need her strength to deal with his stubbornness anyway.
Male breeds were simply impossible. Alpha male breeds were the worst, of course. Domineering. Intractable. Much too s.e.xy for words. She sighed, she hoped he had the hard-on from h.e.l.l and found it impossible to find relief. It would serve him right for leaving her so needy.
Chapter Sixteen.
He was a coward. Jacob stared up at the ceiling over his bed and admitted that soul shriveling knowledge as he listened to Faith toss and turn in her bed in the other room. The woman terrified him. She was equal parts aggression and female softness, and the combination was destroying him. His desire for her was destroying him. h.e.l.l, he couldn"t believe he had walked away from her. She was hot, wet, and every s.e.xual fantasy he had ever had in his life, and he had walked away from her because her needs terrified him.
Love wasn"t a concept he could accept, even with Faith. He cared for her, deeply. He respected her abilities, her courage, and her tenacity. He wanted her until his c.o.c.k was so engorged he didn"t think it would be possible to come hard enough or often enough to ease it.