Page 33 of The Tracker's Rage
I raised my chin and licked my lips. “You want me. I can smell your desire.”
“What are you doing, Toni?”
I pressed two fingers to his mouth and let them travel gently across his lower lip. “I’m enjoying you.”
My voice was deep, sensuous, charged with a confidence I’d never felt before. Jake was a master of seduction and had always taken the lead while I found myself helpless against his charms. Maybe it was my turn to repay the favor, to drive him crazy the way he’d done with me so many times.
My fingers explored his torso, enjoying the peaks and valleys, the solidity of his young strong body. On the way up, I quickly undid a couple of buttons on his shirt, then my hand climbed higher and reached the nape of his neck where his light brown hair was soft as a kitten’s fur. Gently, I pulled him down, brought his lips closer to mine. He seemed to resist for an instant, but then he was helpless and complied.
“Tell me something,” I said, my hot breath caressing his lips and making him shudder while my fingers undid a few more buttons without his notice. “Why should I make this easy for you? Why shouldn’t I fight for you, huh?” I found the last button, made quick work of it, and his shirt fell open.
His eyes, which had been closed, sprang open, meeting mine. He was struck mute and offered no answer.
“She doesn’t know you like I do, Jake.” I caressed his chest, my fingers marking a gentle path down the length of his smooth, right pec. “She can’t make you feel this way.” I brushed my lips over his heart and trailed kisses to his collarbone, soaking in his heat, inhaling his maddening musk.
The scent of his desire engulfed me suddenly, and he captured me in his arms. One of his hands slid under my hair and pulled me closer. Our lips met in a desperate kiss. He pressed me against him, his tongue caressing mine, his teeth biting my lower lip while his other hand grabbed my ass and pressed me against him.
I raked my fingernails down his back. He hissed and pressed his mouth to my neck, nibbling, sending shudders of pleasure down my body.
My heart swelled with passion and so much more.
“I love you, Jake,” I said, without thinking.
He went utterly still and pulled away, his eyes searching my face. He looked as if I’d slapped him. Turning away from me, he started buttoning his shirt.
“You can’t tell me that now,” he said.
I rubbed my swollen lips, aching for more of his kisses. “I love you,” I repeated. “You can’t pretend you didn’t know that.”
“I didn’t. You had never said it. I thought...”
“You thought what?”
“I thought it was all physical. Desire. Then when you told me you were a werewolf, I thought I’d been right all along, that it had been no more thancravedark.”
“What is that?”
“It happens sometimes when a male and a female instinctively know they will make strong offspring if they mate. The attraction doesn’t stop until she conceives, then it’s gone. But if you love me, then...”
“Then what?”
“Then I’m a dead man.”
* * *
JAKE HAD GROWN DEADsilent, refusing to explain what he’d meant by saying he was a dead man. We stood by the side of the road. There were four police cars next to my Camaro, their lights flashing blue and red, coloring the trees and the graveled shoulder.
Three cops were pushing Blake up the embankment toward the blacktop. He fought them as if he had any chance of escaping, handcuffed and collared as he was. There was no shifting with those dampening devices on him. They possessed strong magic.
The taste of Jake’s skin lingered on my lips, and for an instant, I closed my eyes and imagined my fingers sliding down his smooth chest.
Tom Freeman walked away from one of the police cars and headed in our direction. He wore a loose tie around his neck, and a long coat that flapped behind him.
“Sorry to have doubted you, kiddo. This one will rock the department, probably prompt an investigation in the coroner’s office. Only God knows how they got fooled into thinking Blake was a dead man.”
“Maybe he just bribed them,” Jake offered.
Tom huffed. “I know the men who conducted the autopsy, and they’re not the kind to take a bribe.”
