Jaz drew up her knees, her forehead resting against them. Sebastian’s injuries were her fault. Undeniably. Directly. Because there was some asshole with a vendetta against her.
“The mugging outside The Cellar, that probably wasn’t a coincidence either,” she said, closing her eyes. She was suddenly cold. And restless. Unable to stay in her own skin. “Not with Devante knowing where I would be.”
“Probably not a coincidence, no.” Liam pulled her into his chest, his arms closing around Jaz with iron security. “But we’ll figure it out. I’m not going anywhere until we do.”
“I’m glad you’re here,” Jaz whispered into his shoulder. “Does that make me a coward?”
“Absolutely.”
Jaz looked up and saw a hint of a smile on Liam’s lips. He brushed his thumb against her cheekbone, sending prickles of sensation all along her skin. At once, she could feel it happening again. Her body aching for his, despite her mind’s protests. This was Liam. Liam of all people. A once deep-held enemy, now an unexpected friend. A partner.
But still him. A man who enjoyed the kind of women that Jaz didn’t want to be.
Liam’s face moved closer. Stopped. His eyes shut as he drew a deep, purposeful breath. “Let’s get some air.”
They stood, and with a hand on the small of her back, Liam guided her outside the tent into the gentle evening chill. After the rain a few days ago, the mountains still had a damp, fresh smell, and the clear skies above were dancing with the moon and stars. The breeze tickled her skin and ruffled Liam’s hair, the small strands that curled along the back of his neck swaying.
Jaz looked up at him. Liam stood with his legs firmly apart, his shoulders spread like a shield between her and the world. Every taut line of him was strong and certain. Like a rock against a storm. Except where a rock was cold and distant, Liam’s gaze blazed with restrained fire that enveloped her without ever touching.
Her breaths quickened. Liam’s sheer presence was taking control of her lungs. Her pounding heart. Jaz stepped toward him, her body reaching for his as if drawn by a great magnet toward a fateful collision. Her lips parted, need rushing through her blood.
16
Jaz
Liam’s mouth descended upon hers, the intensity of the kiss stealing her breath. He pillaged her with ruthless claiming strokes that stole all sense and left footprints of hungry passion in their wake. Jaz felt Liam’s hand wind tightly into her hair, his other one sliding along the angle of her hip. Her ribs. Dipping under her shirt for her breasts. Tiny pricks of pain where Liam held Jaz’s hair spiderwebbed through her scalp, waking her nerves. Rousing the sensation. Making her thighs clench against the growing need that now pulsed between her legs.
Liam pulled his mouth away.
She felt empty, held together only by the feel of his hands still twined in her hair and splayed over her ribs.
Liam’s lips pressed together as he studied her, his hazel eyes filled with such intensity that she felt as though he knew her every thought. Could sense the moisture that was filling her folds. The bulge in the front of his pants was large and twitching. “Should I stop?” Liam asked.
Jaz tried to shake her head no, but he wouldn’t let her move. The reminder of who exactly she was playing with should have struck sense or at least fear into Jaz’s brain. Instead, her need only roared louder. “Don’t stop,” she breathed into the inches of air between them.
“Are you scared?” he asked.
Her pulse raced. She didn’t know where Liam could take her, only that it would be somewhere she hadn’t gone before. Somewhere away from reality and Devante and being hunted. Somewhere intense. But safe. Because it was Liam. “Are you going to hurt me?”
Liam’s grip on her hair tightened, the pull intensifying, his eyes continuing to drink in her every move. “Would you like me to?”
She swallowed. “No.”
“Then I won’t.” The pressure on her hair eased back to firm tingling. Not painful, but still unyielding. Grounding.
Liam shifted his hand to run his fingers over Jaz’s breast, which peaked to his touch despite the shirt. Her small breasts felt full. Aching for him. Jaz arched forward into his touch, her hand over his urging him to press harder.
Liam captured her wrist in his hand instead. A moment later, her other wrist followed until her arms were trapped together, held in his grip over her head. She pulled against the restraint, found it ungiving, and felt a rush of unexpected excitement racing along her spine. A heartbeat later, Liam took her mouth again, his tongue lashing with those claiming strokes that weakened her knees.
One hand still trapping her wrists, Liam walked Jaz backward until she felt the solid trunk of a tree against her back. Liam’s mouth dropped to her breast, suckling through the fabric, his leg pressing between hers until she was riding his muscled thigh.
Jaz moaned against the sensation filling her breasts and spreading through her body to pool low in her belly. Her inner legs were tingling. Her hips were tight, undulating through the little sliver of space that she had. The security of Liam’s hold gave Jaz no choice but to feel each sensation to its fullest; gave her body no chance to hide as he slid beneath her shirt and closed his mouth over her other breast. If feeling him through cloth had made Jaz’s entire chest tingle, then the sensation of having his hot, hot mouth directly on her skin was like bathing in erotic lava.
She arched, her breaths so quick that the world was narrowing to nothing but sensation.
Liam pulled off Jaz’s long-sleeve shirt. He made short work of wrapping it around her wrists and securing the ends to the tree behind her. Before Jaz could react to the change, Liam’s mouth returned to her breast—but now he also slipped his finger into the waistband of her sleeping shorts. He felt along the inner crease of her leg.
She tensed on instinct, the part of her that was still capable of thought knowing the wetness he’d find there. Her face heated, but Liam continued without hesitation. He opened her tight thighs with his knee and purposefully, slowly, slid his hand through the wetness. Then his callused fingers stroked right along her folds.
Sensations assaulted Jaz from all sides. Her restrained wrists, the stretched, sensitive nipple in Liam’s hot mouth, the raging need pulsating through her sex. All growing every second. She rose up on her toes in search of reprieve and found none. Only more stroking. More suckling. More everything.
Between her legs, his deft intrusion slid farther into the folds, now staking out their territory with unyielding insistence. And then there was something at her entrance.
Jaz’s eyes widened, and she bucked.
“Behave, or I’ll change my mind about spanking you,” Liam’s low, gravelly voice whispered into her ear. The erotic threat gripped her sex, her channel clamping over emptiness. A humiliating moan of pleasure escaped her.
Liam made an appreciative sound and brushed his finger right over her swollen clit.
The rising pressure of need exploded without warning, and Jaz shattered right there in his hold, her voice rising to the mountains. The release hit her in waves so harsh, they felt edged with pain and ecstasy, gripping her body over and over. Taking her breath until she lay slumped against the rough tree trunk behind her.