I felt like a bucket of ice water had been dropped over me, something only slightly alleviated by the warmth of Jai’s body. He rolled off the bed, grabbing me in his arms and tucking me against his chest before carrying me back to our bed. The blankets were yanked back, and I shivered underneath them, then he joined me moments later.
“They're gonna come for us, love,” he said, smoothing my hair back from my face. “Just hang on. They won’t leave us to rot here. Just hang on.”
Chapter 26
There was a singular pleasure to be had in curling up against Jai’s chest. His musky scent flooded my nose, forcing my muscles to relax, my heartbeat to slow, my body warming, starting to—
I glanced warily around, wondering how much the other shifters could detect. Jai always said he could smell my arousal, could they?
He stared down at me, obviously getting a whiff of me and liking what he got, a slow smile spreading across his face. He leaned in, ready to push that warm, soft mouth against mine when…
I slammed my hand on his chest, holding him back. “Jai!” I hissed when he kept the pressure up. “Everyone will see!”
“Mmm… Not a big deal.” He changed course, running kisses down the side of my neck. “Shifters have sex in front of other adult shifters when the women go into season. They won’t care.”
“Really? You’re OK with them watching me get naked?” He went stock still at that. “Watching me as you wedge your…knot in?”
He paused for a moment, then went back to kissing my neck, his hand sliding south only for me to grab him around the wrist.
“Jai!”
“No one can see,” he whispered, rubbing his nose against my cheek. “You need me, and I’m your mate. Your scent is clawing at me to make you feel good.”
“Jai…”
He paused at my tone, pulling back and looking into my eyes. Tears rushed forward at the soft, concerned look in his eyes. His big hand went to my face, smoothing my hair back, then brushing the tears away when they spilled.
I felt like a weepy idiot. I hadn’t even remembered Hollingsworth’s men inspecting my body, yet I felt a flush of horror every time I thought about it.
“Love, it’s—”
“They were the last ones who touched me,” I said, the words barely audible.
I watched them hit Jai like a slap to the face, but he didn’t pull away or stop his slow strokes of my hair, not until he rolled out of bed, picked me up, and carried me to our bathroom.
The tiles felt cold on my feet, the air as well when Jai grabbed the hem of my ‘gown’ and pulled it off over my head. He didn’t pause before turning the water on, testing it for the right temperature, then shucking his own pants off.
He was ignoring my nakedness, grabbing my hand and pulling me under the water to join him, but I wasn’t able to ignore his. His cock was pulled up tight against his belly, the cold hard lights exposing exactly what I’d be tackling if I decided to formalise things.
If. I snorted internally. The ridiculous thing about Hollingsworth’s evil plan, apart from the fact that it appeared he wanted to create a legion of psychically controlled shifters, was we’d have probably sealed the deal within a few days if he’d backed off. This was Jai. Everything in me yearned for him, needed him, something that was only confirmed when he lathered soap in his hands and started to wash me down. He was thorough and polite, passing me the bar when he got to my groin, but otherwise doing his damndest to eradicate any evidence of the men. But his eyes slid down when I started to lather up my pubic hair.
It wasn’t a sensual thing. He didn’t wish he was the bar of soap. It was more a memorial, an observance of any remainder of them being washed down the drain. He reached for the soap when I was finished, but I wouldn’t relinquish it. No matter where we were, what fucking indignities they’d put us through, we still had each other. Jai still wanted me, needed me…loved me? A hot flush washed all the way through me at that thought. I reached out and rubbed the soap across his cobblestone stomach.
It was easy to see that Jai was a predator. His body went so curiously still, it was almost unnatural. His breathing grew shallow, just enough to keep the oxygen flowing, but his eyes followed my every move. He shifted when needed, to give me access to his armpits or the side of his neck. We worked as a perfectly synchronised team to wash his arms and torso.
“Shan…” he rasped when I got to his hips, the soap slowing its path. “I can do it. It’s OK.”
But it wasn’t. None of this was, wouldn’t be until we got the fuck out of here, got home, back to my dogs, the pack. Back to Janey, wherever she was. Tears pricked my eyes as I worked the soap, but this would be the last time. I wasn’t Hollingsworth’s abuse, his invasions of my body, his psychopathic plan. I was me, Shannon. I looked up. Jai’s mate. He watched me lather up my hands, put the soap down on the ledge, and then reach for him.
“You don’t have—uh!” His head was thrown back the moment my hands made contact with his hard cock. I watched the way his brows creased and his mouth fell open as my hand swivelled along his entire length.
“Fuck, Shannon…”
“If Hollingsworth wants samples, I’m taking them from you,” I said. “I don’t want him knocking you out and raping you like he did the others. That can’t happen, Jai.”
“Fuck, you know I’ll never fight you when you do that,” he ground out as my thumb rubbed the sensitive spot just under the head. “Oh fuck!”
He reached out, not breaking my grip, and wrapped his hand around my head, dragging me under the water and up to his mouth for a hungry kiss. I heard his pants, his swallows, felt his attempts to show me just how I was making him feel with just his lips. His free hand roamed over my back, unable to stay still as I pushed him higher.
“I need in you, babe,” he growled, something that sent delicious shivers down my spine. “I ache for you.”
His hand covered mine, pushing it down his shaft where the base was swelling rather alarmingly. I deliberately didn’t look. It was all a bit much for me, what this was going to mean. But I felt it, as he closed my fingers around it.
“Give it a squeeze,” he rumbled. “Oh, fuck yes… That’ll be your cunt, snapping around me so tight, hugging my knot, milking everything I’ve got out of me as you come and come. It’ll be so good, Shan…”
I took my cues from his words, caught up in the raw sexual images it broadcast into my mind, and flexed my fingers around the lump, trying to imitate what he described. He grunted each time, his breath ragged, making me worry I was hurting him. He shook his head briefly, brows creasing, mouth falling open, and then it all came rushing out.
“Oh god, don’t stop…” he gasped as cum jetted across the tiles, sent swirling down the drain. My eyes widened as I saw how much. His orgasm just seemed to go on and on and on, his whole body shaking, every muscle rigid as he rode the waves. This was nothing like before.
I knew he was done when he put his hand over mine to still it, then dragged me close. He seemed all fuzzy eyed and smoochy, rubbing his chin over my head and holding me hard against him.