by Lora Leigh
She had spent nearly a week with little sleep and it was making her sluggish. She couldn’t afford not to have her wits about her on this job.
She closed the door behind her, locking it automatically as she moved through the small sitting room and into the much larger bedroom. The deep forest green carpet cushioned her feet as she kicked her sneakers off her feet and moved them to the side of the door.
Her suitcase sat on the large rosewood trunk at the bottom of the bed, opened invitingly, her gown lying on the top of her serviceable clothing. Closing the lid to the case, she stared around the room silently. The dark cherry wood furniture made the 35
Lora Leigh
room seem warmer, comforting. This room was meant to pleasure, to soothe, and it did that far too well.
“Do you like the room?”
Kimberly jumped in surprise as she turned, facing the door on the opposite side of the room that Jared had managed to open without a sound.
Her breath caught at the swift punch of desire that contracted her womb and sent heat spreading through the vulnerable flesh between her thighs. She could feel the thick, warm juice spilling along the folds there, preparing her for him, making her ache all the more.
He looked good enough to eat. Leaning against the doorframe, his muscular arms crossed over his chest, his gaze somber as he watched her. His gray eyes were stormy, the color flowing and ever-changing as tension thickened the air around them.
“It’s beautiful.” She cleared her throat, hiding her grimace at the thick huskiness of her voice.
She was so weak. She pushed her hands into the pockets of her jeans as she fought the need to touch him, to taste his kiss again. Her heart was racing out of control, the blood pumping furiously through her veins and echoing in the swollen bud of her clit.
Drawing in a deep breath, she swallowed tightly as she watched his eyelids lower sensually. She could see the sexual tension moving through his body. Darkening his eyes, swelling the front of his jeans.
“You know this won’t work,” he growled the words at her. “You, here, in this house. I couldn’t even keep from putting you in the room beside mine, how much longer do you think it will be before I have you in my bed, Kimber?” Images too hot to escape flashed through her mind. His hard body bare, perfect, muscles gleaming with sweat as he came over her, his powerful thighs moving between hers…
36
Sacrifice
“I didn’t want this. Not for you, nor me.” She shook her head fiercely, fighting the temptation. And it was a temptation. The need to go to him, to accept him and to forget the vow she had made so long ago.
She remembered his kiss, dark and intoxicating, the sensations whipping through her system as his lips dominated hers, his tongue forging past hers to take possession of her mouth.
“I know you didn’t. And I know what we’re both risking.” He straightened from the doorframe. “It’s why I’ve stayed away from you. It’s why I jack off at night instead of kidnapping you and tying you to my bed where I can fuck you at will. It’s why I think this is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever done in my entire life.” He gripped her shoulders, ignoring her gasp as he pulled her against him, his head lowering.
She was caught. Helpless. God, he tasted too good. Too hot and seductive. Her hands gripped his hard waist, her lips opening for him as his tongue pressed past them, a groan vibrating from his chest as she met it with her own.
This wasn’t a kiss. It was a possession. It was a hunger, a temptation and an addiction. And she couldn’t get enough. She wanted to wrap around him, to lose herself in the pleasure and the heat that was Jared.
“God help us both,” he growled as his lips tore free of hers, only to string nipping little kisses across her jaw, along the line of her throat.
His arms were wrapped around her, holding her still as he bent to her, his lips burrowing beneath the opened neckline of her blouse to run his tongue over the smooth, swollen curves of her upper breasts.
Her head fell back, helpless against the pleasure, her muscles unable to hold her neck upright now as streaking delight seared through her.
“Jared.” She arched to him, to his touch.
37
Lora Leigh
Her nipples ached, throbbed for the touch of his mouth. This was insanity. It was too much temptation, but it was unlike anything else she had known. This wasn’t an urge, nor was it an exercise in controlling the fury that sometimes built within her. This was a firestorm taking over her body and her mind. Heat and lightning and a demand that he only fed as his tongue licked over the lace edge of her bra.
“You taste as good as I knew you would,” he groaned roughly. “Like sweet honeysuckle and summer heat. God help us both, Kimber, I don’t think I can control the need to touch you, to taste you.”
She had a week to remember this. A week to regret, to need, to ache for even the simplest, smallest touch.
“Jared.” She fought to find her breath, to speak past the clawing, brutal arousal rising in her body.
She couldn’t speak further, couldn’t make anything more intelligent than a long, drawn out cry of blistering hunger escape her throat as his lips managed to push the cup of her bra aside enough to allow his tongue to rake the hardened point of her breast.
She went on her tiptoes then, her hands holding his head, pressing him closer, harder to her.
“More,” she gasped as he licked again. She wanted to feel his lips closing over her, drawing on her, sucking the tight point into his mouth.
“I was going to stay away,” he muttered gutturally. “I wasn’t going to taste. To touch…”
He lifted her against him, moving her to the bed, laying her back against the comforter as he moved quickly to her side. His lips covered hers again and the storm inside her body fed on the growing hunger of his kiss.
Kimberly was only distantly aware of his fingers at her blouse, tearing the buttons from their holes; his calloused hands were sensually rough, demanding as he pushed the material aside and quickly loosened the catch of her bra.
38
Sacrifice
She couldn’t fight them both. She was starved for this. This something that his touch held that no others ever had. As though a stroke of his finger alone was a narcotic to her senses.
“Son of a bitch, I’ll go to hell for this for sure.” There was no pausing between her lips and her pierced nipples.
Kimberly’s back bowed, arching tightly to him as a cry tore from her throat. His lips covered one aching tip as his fingers went to the other. Nimble and hot, his tongue rasped over it as his mouth drew on her, tugging at the little gold ring that pierced the center of the elongated tip.
His fingers plucked at the other. Pulling at the gold ring, sending shards of desperate, fiery heat flowing through her body as her fingers gripped the fabric of his shirt, pulling at it, eager to feel his skin against her.
This was the stuff of her dreams. Jared overtaking her, forcing the pleasure from her body, giving her no time to think, to fear.
“I want to touch you,” she moaned, shuddering from the exquisite sensations ripping through her body. “Let me touch you, Jared.” He growled back at her. She didn’t know if it was a yes or a no.
“Now.” She bucked against him, pulling harder at the shirt.
“Fuck no.” His head rose from her reddened nipple as his hands gripped her wrists, jerking them above her head and holding them with one hand as he stared down at her, his gaze dark, sexual. “Don’t touch me, Kimber. Not now. Not like this. I’ll end up doing something we’ll both regret.”
Kimberly fought for breath.
“You can have me,” she whispered. “Like Sax…”
She couldn’t deny him, not any longer. She was too hungry, too wild for his touch.
She had thought she could hold herself aloof. Thought she could deny her need and his 39
Lora Leigh
lusts,
but she knew now it wasn’t going to happen. This wasn’t just a need. It was a craving, an addiction.
He stared down at her, his chest rising and falling as quickly as hers, his face flushed with his arousal, with his lusts. She could see the battle waging in his eyes, the desperate need for anything she would offer, the knowledge it would never be enough.
“It’s all I have, Jared,” she whispered painfully. “All I can offer.” But it wasn’t. Not really. She had the heart she was terrified he already held.
His head lowered, his forehead meeting hers as he stared into her eyes.
“Such a pretty little rear you have,” he whispered, his voice suggestive, dark with lust. “Do you know how many nights I’ve dreamed of you, Kimberly? How often I’ve lain awake hungry for you?”
She licked her lips, weakening desire washing through her body.
“I’m here,” she whispered.
His hand rose to her face, his fingers smoothing over her cheek with a touch as soft as a whisper.
“Here you are,” he agreed. “And yet you’re further away than you ever were.” Kimberly watched in confusion as he loosened her wrists and forced himself from her. And he did force himself. She could see it in every line of his body, in the tight, angry grimace of his mouth.
“What do you mean?” She shook her head, pulling the edges of her shirt together as he rose from the bed and stood staring at her from beside it.
It broke her heart, needing him as she did and knowing she could never have him and keep the vow she had made to herself and to her mother. A vow that was weighing down her soul more and more by the day.
He shook his head shortly. “I have to get the hell out of here before I take something you don’t want to give. And that would only hurt both of us.” 40
Sacrifice
Before she could speak, he stalked through the connecting doorway, closing the door firmly between them.
“But I do want to give it to you, Jared,” she whispered bleakly. “More than you know. More than you will ever know.”
41
Lora Leigh
Chapter Six
He should have stayed the fuck away from her, just as he had intended. He shouldn’t have gone into her room and he sure as hell shouldn’t have touched her. But he had. Helpless against the need to taste her, to touch her. She was like a narcotic to his senses, wrapping around him, a siren’s call of lust and heat that he was helpless to deny. He craved her.
Jared couldn’t remember a time in his life when need had struck him so hard, so imperatively. No other woman had ever affected him this way; no other had ever tested the control he had fought to preserve over the years.
A good woman is worth any sacrifice, son. The memory of his father’s words washed over him as he stared into the darkened forest from the back porch. She’ll soothe your soul even as she makes you burn inside and out. That kind of woman is worth dying for, but even more, she’s worth living for.
He knew his parents hadn’t had an easy time of it together. Their relationship had been hampered by her parents, and by Victor Raddington’s extreme sexuality.
Jared still remembered coming home that first time when the knowledge hit him.
He had been in college, nearly a grown man and had returned home unexpectedly. He had walked in on something that even now, simply because it was his parents, he wished he never had walked in on.
He hunched his shoulders against the uncomfortable memory. But the thought of it was enough that it brought Kimberly to mind. How erotic it would be, holding her, watching as another man touched her, fulfilling all her most sensual fantasies.
She was a highly sexual creature. He had seen that at The Club, and the information he had learned later had only reinforced that impression.
Her requests when it came to sexual conduct with the club members were simple.
She didn’t want foreplay, she didn’t want to be kissed or held; she had only wanted to 42
Sacrifice
be fucked. And she had enforced those demands herself. Because they made her weak.
They made her want. And Jared knew he made her want those things she could never have more than others.
And now she was here. A part of his home, of his life. He had no choice but to stay close to her, to protect her, and to shield her from the plant Madison had placed within his home to watch Kimberly and to report any sexual misconduct.
He shifted uncomfortably as he leaned against the wide post, wishing he could ease the pressure in his jeans just a bit. His erection was killing him. Walking away from Kimberly was the hardest thing he had ever done in his life, but God help him, he was dying for her.
“You can have me…like Sax…” The words whispered through his mind as his eyes closed in tormented desire.
Like Sax. He could have her anally.
Fury pulsed inside him as he clenched his teeth against the need to have all of her.
He wanted everything, and the fact that he couldn’t fight the shield placed between them enraged him.
He could fight another man, or any danger that raised its head to threaten her. He could seduce her, if it was only her stubbornness, out-argue her if it was her anger holding them apart. But it was something out of their control. Something that would destroy her if he forced her to choose.
So he had to choose. Because he couldn’t bear the pain he saw in her eyes, and the need he felt shuddering through her body. He couldn’t still the need to hold her, to show her, if only with his touch, the love he had for her. A love he knew would destroy him eventually, because he couldn’t fully have her. Not now. Not ever.
“You’re not here to advise me on this one, Dad,” he whispered as he stared into the mountains his father so loved.
43
Lora Leigh
He missed the man whose advice he had so come to rely on throughout his adult years. His death, five years before, had left a hollow spot in his soul that echoed with regret in times like this.
His father had raised him with solid values, with a sense of family and honor, one he refused to break now. Fact was fact. He couldn’t fully possess the woman he loved with every beat of his heart, but he could give her a time without pressure, without demands. A time to hold to their hearts in the long, lonely years that would come.
He lowered his head, his hands gripping his forearms as he crossed them over his chest and nudged at the side of the support post with the toe of his boot. There was nothing else he could do.
“You know, it’s not real bright to stand in full view like that when you could possibly have a terrorist or other unknown assailant waiting to pop your ass.” He grinned as Kimberly spoke from the back door, her voice irritated and still shadowed with arousal. He wondered if she knew how that husky little sound made him crazy to fuck her.
He turned, glancing back as she stepped outside, watching him warily.
“Sorry, some days my control is not what I would want it to be,” he grunted with an edge of self-mockery. “So much for my Trojan status, huh?”
“The Trojans.” She shook her head at the title that had been given to the eight men that Stanton’s wife had identified as being part of the exclusive men’s club. “I imagine you’re more like them than either of us wants to admit to right now. But it doesn’t change the fact that you aren’t indestructible. You shouldn’t be out in the open like this.”
“My neck’s not itching. I’m not worried,” he told her, wondering at the pleasure that just the sight of her brought him.
He wanted to see her clothed in nothing but moonlight, reaching for him, her body shimmering with moisture, her eyes glazed with need. His hunger for just that rocked him to the very core of his being.
44
Sacrifice
“Oh Lord, another man whose neck itches,” she grumped. “I’ll tell you the same thing I tell my boss—they make salves for that sort of thing.” A surprised chuckle escaped hi
s lips. She was daring and sharp as hell. He loved that about her. He had missed her blistering little retorts, her teasing laughter. He hadn’t realized how much until now.
She moved closer to him, the scent of her, clean and fresh, with just a hint of peaches enveloped him, making him hunger to taste her again. He wanted to spread her legs wide and lick up all the sweet cream her body had to give. To gorge himself on her passion, her cries and her sweet release.
“Come here.” He pulled her into his arms, ignoring her slight, indrawn breath at the intimacy of the act.
It was one of her taboos, he knew. No cuddling, no foreplay. Those rules he could and would break.
He was surprised though, when after a second’s stiffness, she relaxed against him, her hands settling cautiously at his waist as he rested his cheek against the top of her head. His hands smoothed down her back, fingers working at the muscles there, a smile tipping his lips as they slowly eased.
“I’m sorry,” she finally whispered. “I don’t want to make this harder for either of us than it already is.”
He smiled against her hair. If he got any harder he would burst right out of his jeans.
“Just let me hold you,” he finally whispered deeply, responding to the need to feel her against him, the ache to shelter her like a knife through his soul. “Just for a minute, Kimber. Let me hold you.”
The night wrapped around them, quiet, soothing. The sound of the frogs in the pasture pond, the hoot of a faraway owl, a whippoorwill in a tree in the backyard. The night enveloped them, hid their fears, their hungers, and for those few precious minutes, brought a measure of peace to them both.
45
Lora Leigh
Chapter Seven
He didn’t come to her bed that night as she expected. Kimberly lay awake, long into the night, listening for him, her body sensitized, ready, aching for him. She watched the connecting door until her eyes finally closed in exhaustion and sleep claimed her as restless dreams haunted her.