“Inside.” The controlled anger in Jacob’s tone was nerve-racking.
Sliding from the truck as he strode to her door, she glanced at his closed, brooding expression and wanted to rage at fate and whoever the hell had managed to get her into this mess.
John had to be the culprit. From the moment he’d showed up on her doorstep after she’d returned from Switzerland, her life had been crazy.
Stepping ahead of him, Sallie entered the house through the garage entrance into the kitchen, rubbing at the ever-present aching chill in her arms. She wished she could go back to the days before when Jacob had held her, when his touch had warmed her. When she’d felt surrounded by his need for her rather than his anger.
“I need to leave, Jacob. I can’t stay here.” She turned to face him, regret and aching weariness filling her.
She’d fit in in Deer Haven, been accepted by those she called friends. She had loved her little house and the life she had been building for herself. She’d ached to see where the hunger she and Jacob shared would have gone. Leaving was going to break not just her heart, but her soul.
“Not happening.” He stomped through the kitchen and into the open living-dining area to the wood bar on the other side of the room. “What you’re going to do is help me figure out why the hell someone equipped to torture you to death attacked you in your home. And we’re going to do it tonight.” He poured himself a drink then turned back to her, his gaze hard, flat as he took a healthy swallow of the drink.
Equipped to torture her? Her attacker had knocked her around when he found her, broken her arm the last time, terrified her. But he’d always been interrupted as well. Had he decided to stop playing with her after losing track of her for three years?
“Jacob, my stepfather, and his investigators have been trying to figure this out since it began.” She wanted to sob at the impossibility of it. “If he can’t do it, then there’s no way you can.”
The hard, mocking laugh that left his throat scraped over her nerves and deepened the trepidation already growing inside her.
“We’ll get to why you believe that,” he assured her, his smile sarcastic. “But just let me tell you who you’re dealing with, sweetheart. The CIA has connections no one else can hope to touch. And that’s what I am. Trust me, I’ll figure it out, and whoever the hell it is, they’ll pay, the same way that bastard in your house paid. With their fucking life for daring to believe they can target you in my fucking territory. So, let’s start with who the hell you really are, why don’t we, and go from there.”
Sallie could feel herself paling, the color leeching from her face at the confirmation that he knew she wasn’t Sallie Hamblen. She felt herself freeze inside, fear gathering into a lump of ice in her belly.
Oh God, she couldn’t do this. She couldn’t stare into his face and tell him who she was, and see a complete lack of recognition. And that was what she’d see. She hadn’t meant enough to him at the time that he’d even remember her, or else he’d have recognized her, or at least asked her if they’d met.
Her looks had changed, but the eighteen-year-old she’d been was still present in them. If he was an agent for the CIA, then he should have recognized her anyway. Wouldn’t he?
“I want to leave…”
“No.” His lips curled back from his teeth in such a primal snarl that she found herself almost hypnotized by the sheer alpha intensity in the look.
God, she was depraved, because that look made her instantly wet, her nipples hard, and her body sensitizing, readying for his touch.
What the hell was wrong with her?
The glass thumped to the bar and Sallie watched his gaze narrow, watched the dangerous stillness that came over him a breath before he began stalking toward her.
She couldn’t move. She stared at him, watching the intense sexuality that shadowed his face now. It pushed back the anger, but the impression of danger hadn’t been eliminated.
“Jacob, please…” she breathed out, her voice a thread of sound as his hands gripped her hips, pulling her against his hard, obviously aroused body.
“Please what, baby?” he growled, his head bending until the sound whispered over the sensitive shell of her ear. “I don’t care one bit to please you. But I won’t let you go.”
Before she could argue, before she could protest, one hand locked in the hair at the back of her head, her head pulled back and his lips taking hers in a kiss so primal and filled with hunger, she became lost in it.
It was a grave mistake, she knew. A part of her was terribly aware of the power she’d just given this man over her. To allow him to know how his sexual dominance affected her was something she may well regret later. Or not.
Oh God. The pleasure.
Her lips parted beneath the hunger in his kiss as the chill that had filled her eased away. There was nothing cold, nothing else that could touch her when Jacob held her. The heat of his hunger and his arousal wrapped around her, filled her, heated her.
Wrapping her arms around his neck, Sallie burrowed her fingers into his hair, clenching the thick strands as she lifted closer to him. Nothing mattered but this kiss, this man, and this single moment in time.
Perhaps, this last memory to hold close before she was forced to run again, to release the only warmth in her life.
As her lips parted beneath his, a moan slipped from her throat at the lash of his tongue against hers. It was a possession, a kiss that owned. And Sallie was helpless against it.
The hand at her hip moved, caressed, pushed beneath the silky sleep top she wore to frame the swollen, aching curve of her breast. Her nipples throbbed for his touch and the folds between her thighs grew slicker, wetter than ever.
She needed him. Desperation began building inside her, the need for more, for the hunger and the pure dominance she sensed inside him overtaking her. She wanted all of him. Everything she’d felt he was holding back on her, hiding from her. He was always so careful with her, touched her with such gentleness when she could sense he wanted more. When she wanted more.
She trembled at the thought, tugged at the hold he had on her hair and moaned at the dark, sensual pleasure that raced through her as he held her in position.
His kiss deepened, his hold tightening on her as she felt herself suddenly lifted, turned, and a second later Jacob sat her on the counter separating the kitchen from the dining area. Still controlling the kiss, devouring her lips, he pushed her legs apart and slid effortlessly between them.
Sallie couldn’t halt the breathless moan that escaped her. Separated by denim and silk, the hard, thick length of his cock rubbed against her, pressing firmly into the aching mound of her pussy. Her clit throbbed with the pressure, the swollen bud demanding relief. Gripping his hips with her knees she tried to get closer, to still the ever-growing hunger raging through her body now.
“Jacob…” she gasped, delirious with pleasure as he released her lips, his kisses moving along her jaw, interspersed with the heated nips of his teeth.
And oh God, she loved those little bites as they moved lower. Angling her neck to the side, her hands falling to his shoulders, she dug her nails into the material of his shirt and arched closer. Still gripping her hair, he tugged again to pull her head to the side, and again, she fought it, almost crying out at the sensual pain that lashed at her senses.