Beauty and the Werewolf (Entangled Covet) (San Francisco Wolf Pack) (17 page)

She swallowed back a flood of tears as Jack read on.

“Jack, when I told you before that I’d never met a MacGrath who put another’s happiness before his own, I wasn’t lying. But now, I can honestly say that I know one who is good and decent, and loves my daughter wholeheartedly.” Jack’s reading pace slowed as his eyes tracked disbelievingly over the words. “The night you came to the museum to declare your love for my daughter—”

“You came?” she interrupted, her skin chilling. “To Ireland? The museum?”

He nodded without answering, and read on. “I knew you were there. I saw you hesitate, and ultimately decide that it was better for Isabelle to make her own path, to lead the pack, and to earn my respect. Well, Jack MacGrath, you have mine. Any man who would put his woman’s happiness above his own life is a good man—one deserving of a father’s blessing.”

Even though Jack had read the words loud and clear, Isabelle couldn’t wrap her head around what her father had said. Jack had come to see her, to fight for her, and then left? He’d seen the display? And then walked away so she could make her father proud?

He’d left so she wouldn’t have to make the impossible choice…

“Jack…”

“There’s more,” he said, his voice full of sorrow. “This painting has always been one of my most treasured possessions. And I have cherished my daughter from the first day I held her in my arms. Now, I entrust them both to you, son. Take good care of them.”

“Oh…God.” She couldn’t breathe. “I can’t believe it.”

Folding up the paper slowly, Jack replaced it in the envelope. “But how could he have been sure we’d be here, and that one of us would be the final bid out of everyone in the auction hall?”

Isabelle’s gaze snapped to Colin. He winked and then backed out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

“You came to Dublin,” she said, stepping closer. “You were in the museum that night…why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you say something?”

Jack leaned the painting against the wall. “Your father and I know why. And that’s all that matters.”

“And you got to talk to him?” She brushed her hand along the stubble on his jaw and then cupped his cheek in her hand. “It wasn’t at the museum, so it had to have been beforehand. At the castle?”

He nodded.

“Then you saw my home,” she said, warming from the inside out.

A smirk pulled at his lips. “Guess you could say I was given the extensive tour of the castle. From the ground up.”

Frowning, she smoothed the stress lines as they appeared around his eyes. “Whatever that means.”

Coiling his arms around her back, Jack tugged her against him. This was where she belonged, and wanted to be until the day she died.

“The most important thing is that your father gave us his blessing.” Jack held her tight and nuzzled into her neck. His breath was warm and sweet and perfect as it blew into her hair. “We can finally be together…if you’ll have me.”

“Oh, Jack.” She rose up on tiptoe and stamped her mouth to his, kissing him with every ounce of promise in her body. “Nothing would make me happier than being your wife and your bonded mate.”

“I love you so much, Isabelle.” Stroking his hands up and down her back, Jack squeezed her against him. Until they couldn’t be closer without being one. “It was painful being away from you. I was physically ill…but nothing compared to the hole carved in my heart. You took a piece of me with you when you left.”

“I know what you mean,” she said, brushing her lips against his. “I left a piece of my heart behind with you in San Francisco. In your arms is the only place I feel whole.”

He rested his forehead against hers and breathed in deeply. “I’m suddenly dizzy.”

“What’s the matter?” she asked, pulling back to get a good look at him. He was
pale. “Is it a lack of adrenaline?”

“No, it’s you.” He tipped her chin up with his fingers and then kissed her, making the world and everything else around them disappear. “If I said you strengthen me and weaken me at the same time, would you understand what I mean?”

She shook her head. “Not really. But if you take me home, you can explain it to me all night long.”

“And tomorrow, too,” he promised, kissing the tip of her nose. “And the next day, and the one after that.”

“I love you, Jack.” Her heart beat strong and true. “Always.”

“Come on,” he said, tucking her under one arm and the painting under the other. “Let’s go home.”

“Which home will that be?”

“Ireland, of course. Your place is there, ruling over the pack. And my place is with you.”

He was a great man. It was a good thing her father got to see that before he passed.

“That sounds wonderful,” she said, heart fluttering with excitement. “But would you mind if we stopped by your place first? There’s something I want to show you.”

He glanced down at her. “At my place?”

She nodded. “A little surprise. I had it delivered this morning. I tried to catch you there, but apparently you’d already left for the auction.”

“You never cease to amaze me.”

Wait until he saw what was in his driveway…

Chapter Twenty

“I
told you I’d replace it.”

“You’ve
got
to be kidding me.” Turning into his driveway, Jack stared at the massive marble fountain that’d replaced his last one. “Is that…Aphrodite?”

Isabelle nodded excitedly and leaned over him to point out the driver’s-side window. “She’s bathing.”

“She’s naked.”

“Is that all you see?” She smacked him playfully in the shoulder. “She’s graceful and elegant, and so much classier than your last one.”

“I agree with you there,” he said, shrugging, “but did you have to buy one so…big? Look at her. She’s massive. Over eight feet tall, at least.”

“Yes, but she’s also the goddess of love. She deserves to be the focal point of your yard. Besides, this place could use a woman’s touch.”

He gave a groan as he took her hand and placed it over his heart. “Speaking of needing your touch…”

Heat sparked through his palm and splintered into his chest as she rested her head on the seat back and nailed him with a lustful stare. And then, tantalizingly slow, he moved her hand lower, down his abs, to the ridge of his slacks. She sat perfectly still, her gaze raking up and down his body, drinking him in.

Leaning over, he closed her mouth over hers, gently grazing his teeth against her lower lip. She mewed in response and slid her hands around his neck. Urging him on. He wanted to taste more of her, all of her, right here in this car.

“We should get inside,” he said, and nearly leaped out of the car.

The second he met her around the other side, he dragged her against him and closed his mouth over hers. Guiding her back, back, back, he held her tight as he stepped up the stairs and pushed through the doorway of his home. Branson had taken her car from the museum, parked it in his garage, and left the door open for them. Jack had told his friend to “take a walk,” which meant he and Isabelle had the place to themselves for the night.

Which is exactly what he needed.

By the time the night was through, Isabelle would be screaming his name.

She would be
his,
body and soul, forever.

Kicking the door closed, Jack pinned Isabelle against the wall with his hips and held her hands over her head. Possessing her mouth, he tangled his tongue with hers and explored the deep, wet recess of her mouth. The primal urge to claim her, here and now, fluttered through him and then caught.

“We should get upstairs,” he said between ravenous kisses. He skimmed a hand down her lean body, stopping over the flat span at her belly button, and then gripped her hip. “Before I take you against the wall. This wasn’t the romantic encounter I’d envisioned for tonight.”

She grinned against his mouth. “You had no idea I was coming. How could you have planned something romantic?”

Now it was his turn to smirk. Using two fingers against her chin, he directed her attention to the stairs. He’d had hundreds of red and white rose petals laid out. Candles flickered from every stair, winding up to the second floor. It was as romantic as he could arrange in the brief thirty-minute drive from the auction hall to his front door.

“Wow.” She dropped her hands to her sides. “It’s…magic.”

Actually, Branson had set it up.

“I’m glad you like it.”

“I do, I love it. But I wasn’t talking about the roses.” She spun back into his arms. “
You
are pure magic.”

He smudged kisses down the silky-smooth curve of her neck. “Me?”

“What you do to me.” Leaning her head back against the wall, Isabelle panted for air. “You melt me, Jack. One kiss and I can’t breathe.”

On command, he brushed his lips against hers, and then plunged his tongue into her mouth. She moaned, a soft, seductive sound that tested his control.

As he let her up for air, she said, “One touch and I’m quivering.”

He cupped her breasts, cradling their heavy weight in his hands. Beneath her shirt, her nipples beaded, responding to his touch. And then she shook. Trembled against him.

“If you don’t take me now,” she said, beginning to writhe against him, “I may come apart fully clothed.”

“That would be a damn shame.”

Going easy, as slow as he could with his waning restraint, he bunched the fabric of her shirt in his fists and then guided it off her glorious body. Her lusciously full breasts overflowed from a dainty silk-and-lace bra. On a throaty moan, his knees buckled and he knelt before his queen.

“You’ve got unbelievable breasts,” he said, stroking his hands over her curves. “Soft and smooth.” Easing down her bra, he revealed perfectly pink nipples, hardened from arousal. He rolled one with his tongue and kneaded her other breast with his hand. “You’re exquisite. Every inch of you.”

She dug her fingers through his hair and then clawed at his shoulders as he buried his face between her breasts.

Her caress lit something in him. A hunger that couldn’t be satiated from mere touch alone. He went tight, head to toe, as if a lightning rod speared through him. Sensations balled at the base of his spine as she arched against the wall and lifted her hips toward him. The scent of her arousal—fragrant and sweet—hit him, nearly knocking him off his feet.

His self-control was fading fast.

As a growl erupted from his chest and he reached around to grab her backside, Isabelle’s eyes went wide. But shock didn’t light those amazing green depths. It was lust and ravenous thirst.

It fueled him on.

Jack stood and crushed his mouth to hers. Lifted her off her feet and cradled her in his arms. She squealed as her feet kicked out, but quickly melted into his arms. He made it halfway up the stairs before the second dizzy spell of the night struck him.

He set her down carefully, leaned against the banister, and rubbed his forehead. Stars danced in front of his eyes. His stomach tumbled. And something in his chest tugged.

“Are you okay?” she asked, coming into his line of sight. “Jack?”

“I’m fine. Bring those lips back here again.”

And she did, pouncing on him with more force than he realized she had. She nipped and bit, licking one corner of his mouth before sliding her tongue along his. She seized him full-bodied, her hands wrapped around his neck, her breasts pressed against his chest, her mouth slanting along his.

A lick of heat scorched through him as blinding light flashed before his eyes.

Fisting two sides of his dress shirt, he jerked, tearing it down the center. Buttons flew, rolling down the stairs.

“Get out of your pants,” she ordered.

He quirked an eyebrow. “Only if you do the same.”

Her lips curled in approval as she kicked off her shoes and stepped out of her pants. Matching lace panties—white as snow, soft as silk—begged for his touch.

“Good Lord, Isabelle.” After removing his shoes, he yanked down his pants, but it wasn’t fast enough. Nothing would be fast enough. “You’re a goddess.”

His mouth was already watering, anticipating the sweet taste of her succulent flesh. But seeing those panties…it nearly broke him.

Urging her down onto the stairs, she stretched out for him, gripping the banister rail for support. He spread her legs wide. Moved aside her panties and licked a long, slow line through her heat.

He groaned.

Her thighs shivered around his head in answer.

“Jack…” She gazed at him down her body, through her breasts, between her legs. Her gaze was hot and heavy-lidded. Desirous. “After the last time we were together, I was the one supposed to be pleasuring you tonight.”

“Oh, believe me.” Another long lap of his tongue. Another jerking shudder. “The pleasure is mine.”

He put his mouth on her until she shook uncontrollably. Until the banister rail cracked and her hips bucked against his mouth. He kissed her intimately, flicking her clit, sucking and humming in appreciation as he drew the orgasm closer. Her hips began to move against his mouth, back and forth, back and forth. And when he dived his tongue inside her, she reared up, tugging at his shoulders.

“Oh God, Jack, I’m so close—” She panted, fighting for air. “I need you inside me.
Please
.”

Rising to his feet, Jack swept her into his arms and carried her into his bedroom, where he laid her on the bed. She scooted back, eyeing him with dark desire in her eyes. As he crawled on top of her, a migraine slammed into him.

Hammer to the forehead.

Knives to the temples.

He rested over her, his hips between hers, his erection against her leg.

Breathe.

Just breathe.

“Jack?” Her angelic voice floated to him from somewhere far away. “Jack, can you hear me?”

The strumming sound of her heartbeat resonated against his, recharging the energy stirring in his veins. “Believe me, love. I’m fine.”

“Good.” She glided her hands up and down the muscles on his back as she coiled her legs around his waist. “Because I’m nowhere near through with you yet.”

His lips crashed against hers as he fell on top of her. Swirling his tongue in her mouth, against her cheek, over her lower lip, he positioned himself close to her heat. And then, with a full-body shudder, he thrust himself inside her.

As their hips met, they groaned in unison. Isabelle dropped her head back and arched up, thrusting her breasts against his chest.

“Yes,” she hissed through clenched teeth. “Just like that.”

He slid out and in again. Slowly. Massaging her depths. Filling her completely. And when their hips met again, her mouth dropped open in a sultry O. Bracing himself on his arms, he plunged his tongue into her mouth, tasting her sweetness. Bathed in her warmth.

Mine.

“I’m yours,” she mouthed against him. As if she’d heard the voice inside him. “Always.”

His heart stuttered, though his hips seemed to know their rhythm by memory. Blood rushed to his ears. He buried himself deep—God, so deep—inside her, until he was drowning in her scent and her warmth.

“Will you have me?” He drove inside her as his words broke. “As your mate?”

She nodded, her dark hair fanning out beneath her. “Of course I will.”

“You have no idea what that means to me, my Bella.”

As tenderly as he could, he pinned her to the mattress, entwining his fingers with hers. As their palms met, he sank his thick length deep. She moaned in satisfaction, the breath punching out of her and fanning over his face.

“Palm to palm,” he said, sliding out of her core. “Heart to heart.” The rock in his chest thudded, slower now. “From this moment on, we shall never part.”

They were the spoken bonds one Luminary makes to another. When their bodies, their hearts, and their souls could join as one. He’d dreamed of speaking these vows to Isabelle, though he couldn’t have dreamed it would’ve been as good, as perfect, as this.

She was everything to him. A friend, a lover, and now, his true soul mate.

As he leaned down to kiss her and show her the depth of his love, darkness zoomed in around him. There simply wasn’t air to fill his lungs. He wanted to tell Isabelle to hurry, to speak the words before they lost the chance. But he couldn’t rush her, not even now.

Her loving gaze held his. “Palm to palm, heart to heart.” She rocked her hips beneath him, so that he eased inside her. “From this moment on, we shall never part.”

Finally.

As sweet, sweet relief soared through him, starbursts of brilliant white-hot energy snaked through his body, filling him with more light and warmth than he could contain. Unadulterated love and happiness burst through him, radiating through his skin and into Isabelle. In his mind’s eye, his soul shattered, burst through his skin, and melded with hers.

“You’re mine,” she whimpered, her core pulsing around him. She clutched at his shoulders, bringing him down over her. “I’m yours.”

He pressed himself against her, skin against skin, mouth to mouth. “Forever, and a day.”

When he opened his eyes, through the blinding light and the blissful pain, Isabelle’s expression was pure ecstasy. Her mouth dropped open, robbed of breath. Her eyes rolled back. And her center clenched around his with unrelenting pulses. As she throbbed around him, milking his shaft harder and harder, he drove himself to the hilt, giving her everything.

Grasping at his shoulders, tight in the grip of the orgasm, she stared into his eyes. Right through to his soul. Cried out his name. Over and over again. It was a sound of passion, of desperate relief. And then it was reverent. A sobbing sound that ripped from her lips as another orgasm rolled through her.

This time, his muscles tensed with her. He quivered on the brink. And then, with a hard beat of his heart, he emptied himself into her.

A few minutes later, when he was resting over her body, still and lifeless, the air in his lungs finally returned.

“My Bella,” he panted into her mane of dark, silky hair. “You’ve saved me.”

“I know. I thought for a second I was going to lose you.”

“It’s more than that.” His heartbeat drummed in his rib cage, stronger than he’d ever remembered it being, even in his youth. “I was dying on the inside, too. I didn’t know I could love someone this much.”

She squeezed him against her and sighed.

“I’d do anything for you, Isabelle.” He kissed her shoulder. “Anything. All you have to do is the say the word, and I’ll make it happen. Your happiness is my only regard from this moment forward. For as long as we both shall live.”

“Are you sure about that?”

Her voice was playful, stirring something inside him.

“I’ll rope you the moon if you want it,” he said. “Just ask.”