Wolf Under Fire, page 16
“I think you’re overthinking the hell out of this,” Harley said. “Even though you just met Jake a few days ago, you’re already into him. And even though Jake’s a werewolf with claws and fangs and everything else that comes with it, you still want to sleep with him.”
Even though it wasn’t exactly a question, Jes nodded. Harley had nailed it.
“So, when we get back to the B&B, go sleep with him,” Harley continued. “Stop thinking so much and worry about what comes next when you wake up in the morning. Even better, put off worrying about it until after we make it through the fight tomorrow against Darby and his buddies. Considering we still don’t know how to even hurt those things, being concerned about a future with Jake might be a waste of time.”
That wasn’t a very cheery thought.
“Is that what you’d do if you were me?” Jes asked.
Harley took her hand away and sat back, sipping her latte again. “I’ll never be you, but I can promise you if I ever found a person who looked at me the way Jake looks at you, I sure as hell wouldn’t be sitting here drinking coffee. I’d be back at the B&B in bed with him.”
On the other side of the table, Misty smiled. “Harley’s right. You should go for it.”
Jes laughed. They were right. She was overthinking things. Well, she was done with that. “Then what do you say we finish our drinks and head back to the house, so I can tell Jake exactly how I feel about him?”
Chapter 11
Jes was so preoccupied with what she was going to say to Jake—not to mention excited about the prospect of finishing what they’d started the night before—she didn’t give much thought about the rest of the team being in the house when they did it. Luckily, Harley and Misty did. The moment they walked into the B&B, Misty informed Forrest and Caleb they were going out to dinner with her and Harley.
“I just had a sandwich,” Caleb said, coming out of the kitchen with a stack of shortbread cookies in his hand that were obviously dessert.
Harley grabbed his leather jacket off the coat rack in the entryway and tossed it to him. “What, you’re telling me you couldn’t eat again?”
Caleb shrugged, then stuck the cookies in his mouth for safekeeping while he slipped on his jacket.
“What about you and Jake?” Forrest asked Jes, looking confused as he got up from the couch where he’d been reading something on his phone. “Aren’t you guys going, too?”
“We’ll bring something back for them,” Misty said quickly, giving Jes a wink as she took Forrest’s arm and ushered him toward the door.
“Where is Jake, by the way?” Jes asked before they left, trying to make the question sound as casual as she could.
Forrest glanced at her over his shoulder. “Upstairs. He said something about grabbing a shower.”
An image of Jake naked and wet, his perfectly chiseled body covered in water droplets flashed into Jes’s head and she stifled a moan.
As the door closed behind her four teammates, Jes tossed her purse on the couch and headed for the stairs, butterflies making her stomach quiver a little more with each step. Cornering Jake and telling him how she felt had seemed like a good idea over coffee with Harley and Misty. Now, she wasn’t so sure. What if he thought that kiss last night had been a mistake and didn’t feel the same way she did?
She reached the second floor just as Jake came out of the bathroom he and the other guys had laid claim to wearing nothing but a pair of running shorts and a towel draped around his neck. His jet-black hair was wet and tousled and glistening beads of water he had missed with the towel ran down the smooth skin of his chest.
Jes simply stood there and stared, not even bothering to hide the fact she was ogling him. Damn, he looked hot. It was all she could do not to run over and grab the towel from around his neck and help dry him off. Who the hell was she kidding? She didn’t want to use the towel to dry him off. She wanted to shove him against the wall and lick those water droplets from his skin one by one.
Thank God for willpower.
“Did I just hear everyone leave?” he asked, reaching up with one end of the towel to dry his hair, making it stick up even more, which in turn only made him look sexier. The movement made his pecs and abs flex in the most hypnotic manner, and Jes decided she could watch him do that for days.
Breathing deeply, she forced herself to walk toward him. The towel only partially obscured the wound in his chest, and she could see enough to know that while it was still slightly pink, it was completely sealed and healing fast. The wound looked like it was at least a week or two old.
“Yeah, Harley and Misty wanted to go out to dinner,” she said. “Caleb and Forrest went with them.”
Jake sauntered down the hall, meeting her halfway, the movements of the towel slowing as he regarded her curiously. “You didn’t want to go, too? If you’re hungry, I can put some clothes on, and we can catch up to them.”
As a matter of fact, she was rather hungry. Starving even. But not for food.
She tucked her hair behind her ear. “They said they’d bring us something back. I thought since everyone was out, it might give us a chance to talk.”
Jake studied her thoughtfully for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, that would probably be a good idea. I’ll go get a shirt on.”
She almost told him not to bother on her account, but then thought better of it. Talking about giving this thing between them a chance would be a smart thing to do. She didn’t have to jump right into bed with him even if that was why Harley and Misty had practically dragged Caleb and Forrest out for the rest of the evening.
Jes fell into step beside Jake as he made his way to his bedroom. The sensible thing to do would have been to go back downstairs and wait for him, but she was rather fond of the memories they’d made in his room the last time she’d been there. There was no reason they couldn’t talk there.
She stood in the doorway for a moment, stopping to watch the show as Jake pulled a T-shirt over his head. What was it about the way a guy did it that got to her? It was almost as much fun as watching a man take his shirt off.
Almost.
Jes moved over and sat in the chair by the desk, deciding it would be better if she sat there, rather than on the bed beside Jake. That would be too distracting.
She’d been too busy playing doctor last night to see what he’d done with the place, but now she took in the suitcase against the far wall, gun holster hanging on the peg beside the door, and handful of clothes in the wardrobe. There was a suit, a few dress shirts, jeans, and a stack of tees.
“We think we have a lead on where Darby might be holding Olivia Phillips and the other kids,” Jake said, interrupting her perusal of his room.
“You do?”
“Yeah.” He leaned back on his hands. “We spent most of the afternoon going over Darby’s personal and business properties in London and the surrounding areas. Remember how we thought that since Olivia was the only one missing, we figured she could be anywhere? Well, now that we know Darby kidnapped multiple kids, we decided it made more sense for him to be holding them somewhere close by to get the most out of the hostages and dangle them in front of their parents if he had to.”
She agreed. “Makes sense.”
“Exactly. Which is why we helped the analysts in DC scrub through property records, utility bills, traffic cameras, anything we could think of that might narrow the possibilities down. We ended up with a long list, but the intel people hope to have something more manageable by tomorrow morning.”
That was cutting it close, but it was better than nothing.
“Sooner would be better,” she pointed out. “If we have to move on the Lanesborough target before we know where those kids are, it isn’t going to end well for them.”
“Tell me about it,” Jake grumbled.
They both fell silent for a moment, and Jes was wondering how to bring up the thing she really wanted to talk about when Jake spoke again.
“Since Harley and Misty got Caleb and Forrest out of the house, can I assume they both know about us and what happened last night?”
Jes nodded, a little chagrined. “I hadn’t really meant to say anything, but they already knew most of it because Caleb told them he caught us kissing.” She couldn’t help but smile when Jake rolled his eyes at that. “Anyway, I kind of needed someone to talk to about stuff.”
“What kind of stuff?” He frowned. “Did what happen last night upset you?”
She shook her head. “No, definitely not! But the kiss and what we almost did afterward has me spinning a hundred miles an hour. It isn’t the norm for me to make out with my teammates, then spend the whole night and next day replaying the moment over and over in my head.” Before he could say anything, she hurried on. “I don’t want you to think I regret anything that happened between us, because I don’t. It’s just that I needed someone to talk to about it, help me figure things out, you know?”
Jes held her breath, waiting to see how he’d react to her confession.
Jake’s sensuous mouth curved. “I know the feeling. And in the interest of full disclosure, I had a similar conversation with Caleb and Forrest last night. I also spent a good part of the day thinking about that kiss we shared and how much I enjoyed it.”
Her pulse skipped a beat at that. It was a relief to know she wasn’t the only one who felt whatever this was between them.
“I’m not sure what comes next,” she admitted. “Harley told me to stop thinking so much and just do what feels right, but I don’t want to screw up the team we’re building. I’ve been part of a lot of teams, and I really feel this group could be something special.”
He considered that. “Agreed. But what if we—you and I—could be something special, too?” When she didn’t say anything, he added, “I’m as worried as you are that this could all blow up in our faces, but I’m being honest when I say I’ve never met anyone like you. When it comes to being with you, I find myself wanting to take the risk.”
At his words, goose bumps spread across her skin, and it was all she could do to keep herself from shivering. It was like he could read her mind.
She wet her lips. “So, how do we do this?”
He chuckled. “There’s no rush. We could wait until we get back to DC and go out for dinner or something? You know, have a real date.”
Jes liked that idea. It would be cool to meet Zoe and Chloe in person—after spending some time alone with Jake, of course. But then she remembered what Harley said about having no idea if they’d even get through tomorrow after going up against Darby and his crew.
Taking a deep breath, she got up and walked over to the bed. Though whether it was to climb on his lap or sit beside him, she wasn’t sure because Jake stood as well. She didn’t know which one of them moved into the other’s arms first, but the next thing she knew, his lips were on hers.
The kiss last night had been enough to curl her toes, but when Jake’s hands slid up her back and into her hair, and he locked her mouth against his, Jes realized she was going to need a new description for what she was feeling right now. Euphoric…drugged…orgasmic? That last one seemed the most apropos, since she was damn close to having a…lipgasm? She wasn’t sure if that was even a thing, but with Jake kissing her like this, she thought she just might find out.
As his mouth explored hers, she could feel every inch of his body against her own. The shorts he wore did nothing to hide how aroused he was, his hard-on pressing insistently against her, making it hard to think about anything other than having him inside her.
Suddenly, Jes first felt his fangs scrape along the sides of her tongue. It was so jarring—and sharp—she couldn’t help but pull away.
Jake looked confused for a moment, but that expression was quickly replaced with one of understanding…then disappointment. When his hands slid from her hair and he took a step back, it felt like Jes’s heart and soul were being ripped out of her body. She stopped thinking then and threw herself into his arms again. Their lips came together, and she kissed him hard and fierce, trying to make up for what she’d just done.
He swung her up in his arms, crossing the room in two long strides, then setting her down on her feet and pressing her back against the wall. She kicked off her sandals and wrapped her legs around his waist, locking her ankles together behind his back. Groaning, he slid his hands down to cup her butt, holding her firm as his tongue got to know every inch of hers.
His thick, hard cock pressed against her softness, and it felt so glorious she wanted him to take her right there where they were standing. She felt his fangs against her tongue again…careful…tentative. She got a grip on his hair, yanking him close and kissing him harder, letting her tongue tease across those razor-sharp teeth, moaning as he trembled under her touch.
When the need for oxygen finally forced them apart for a second, Jes caught his scruff-covered jaw, locking eyes with him. “I didn’t mean to pull away like that before. I would never do that to you. It’s just that I’ve never kissed a guy with fangs and it kind of took me by surprise. You’re going to have to give me a chance to figure this all out, okay?”
Jake grinned and nodded before going back to kissing her, still holding her against the wall like it was nothing. As their lips teased and tempted each other, Jes ran her hands down his shoulders to his triceps, loving the feel of the muscles tensing and flexing there.
“How long do you think everyone will be gone?” Jake whispered.
His lips moved teasingly across the curve of her ear, then glided lower, making tingles chase back and forth all over her skin. When she felt the tip of one sharp fang drag across the sensitive skin of her neck, she thought she might melt.
Was it weird to hope he might bite her…just a little?
“Long enough,” she told him breathlessly. “Harley and Misty have a good idea what the deal is, so they’ll keep Caleb and Forrest occupied for a few hours at least.”
“Good.”
Getting their clothes off was more complex than it should have been because Jake still had her pressed against the wall and Jes still had her legs wrapped tightly around his waist.
Jake got his T-shirt off first, ripping it over his head like he couldn’t get it off fast enough. Jes was all ready to go to town on the parts of his chest she could reach with her mouth, but he took a step back to slide his hands under the hem of her top. His claws were peeking out, and she had no doubt the flower-print top with its fluttery sleeves was going to be totally ruined.
But she didn’t care.
Instead, she clamped her legs around him tightly and held on for dear life, letting him work. She’d always liked watching people open their presents at Christmas and with the way Jake was removing her shirt, then her bra, it kind of felt the same way.
He pressed her back against the wall again, her legs around his hips and the friction of the wall the only thing holding her up, taking a few minutes to have his way with her breasts. Surprisingly, she was more okay with the idea of fangs near her nipples than she would have thought. Maybe deciding to be with a werewolf pushed her further along the wild-and-kinky scale than she probably would have ever traveled on her own.
Or maybe she simply trusted him.
The sensation of his warm mouth closing around one of her nipples had her moaning and squirming as he suckled and nibbled, his big hands coming up at the same time to cup and massage those parts of her breasts that his mouth couldn’t cover. Wow, he had big hands.
After he teased and tantalized her nipples until she pretty much turned into a pleasured puddle of goo, Jake turned his attention to the buttons on her jeans, apparently planning to take them off while she was still wrapped around him like a tree sloth with dependency issues.
Jes lowered her feet to the floor—for safety’s sake if nothing else—as Jake got the buttons undone and started working her jeans over her hips.
Everything stopped then as she stood there in front of Jake in nothing but her extremely practical cotton underwear. Bikini cut, they weren’t exactly granny panties, but she felt a little mortified anyway. Maybe she should have looked around that pharmacy they’d stopped at for condoms after leaving the café for some sexy lingerie. Nah, they probably didn’t sell stuff like that.
But then she caught the look of total awe on Jake’s face and decided maybe her serviceable panties weren’t as bad as she’d thought.
She eagerly waited for him to shove his black running shorts off and complete the big reveal, but instead he simply continued to stand there, his gaze roaming over her like he was trying to figure out which part to eat first. Seeing the hunger in those dark eyes heightened her arousal level, and it was all she could do to keep from squirming.
Just as she was about to give up and make the first move, Jake did. And damn, he was fast. One second he was a few feet away, the next she was in his arms, her back pressed firmly against the wall again. At this rate, she was going to need to autograph this particular section of the wallpaper since it spent so long in contact with her butt.
Jes expected Jake to pull her right back up against him, so she was a bit surprised when he suddenly dropped to his knees in front of her and began to kiss and nibble his way down her stomach, pausing an extra-long time at her belly button. She’d never been kissed there before and realized she’d been missing out.
She was starting to squirm a little, praying he’d head a bit farther south, when she heard a tearing sound and opened her eyes in time to see her shredded cotton panties flying across the room. Wow, those had come apart easily. Then she caught a glimpse of claws and realized how he’d managed to rip her panties so effortlessly.
Why does that turn me on so much?
Jes didn’t have long to ponder the question before Jake hitched one of her legs up and casually draped it over his strong, muscular shoulder. She had about half a second to let out a little squeak of alarm before she buried her fingers in his hair to help her maintain her balance. Then Jake’s mouth was on her pussy, and she suddenly didn’t care at all about having fangs near such a sensitive location.
