Blood Instinct (11 page)

Like the first few times he’d had a stand-off with her, her unpredictability was intoxicating. Too intoxicating.

Too intoxicating for it to not be another reminder.

He watched Arana from over the rim of his glass before knocking back the contents. He pushed the glass aside, resting his elbows, his folded arms, on the tabletop to mirror her.

‘What do you want?’ he asked.

‘You’re even better looking than they say you are, despite the state you’re in.’

He licked his lower lip as he sunk back in the booth seat, his hand back on his now empty glass. ‘Have I done something to upset you?’

She looked genuinely confused. ‘No. Why?’

‘Because it looks to me like you want your brother baying for my blood.’

‘I’m not accountable to Kane. He’s my brother, not my master. I do what I choose.’

‘Yeah, you do. The same doesn’t go for the rest of Blackthorn, though, when it comes to you. So I suggest you fuck off, Arana, and save me a headache. I’m not in the mood.’

‘You look like you’re exactly in the mood.’ Her gaze was steady, enticing as she leaned back to mirror him this time. ‘Or in the right mood for what I’m looking for tonight at least.’

And her gaze didn’t falter as she laid it there on the table: her sexual intention.

Jask exhaled tersely and licked his incisor as he glanced into his empty glass and then back at her. He leaned forward again, his gaze locked on hers. ‘Walk away.’

‘I want to try it with a lycan. I want to try it with you.’ Again, she mirrored him. ‘I want the pack leader.’

‘I’m not the leader right now, in case you failed to notice.’

‘Only because you opted out. You can walk back in there and take control whenever you want. I like that. I like that a lot. And I like you, Jask – you’re blunt, honest.’ Her lips curled up playfully. ‘Hard to get. But, unfortunately for you tonight, I like to chase.’

He caught hold of Sophia’s right ankle as he pressed his palm and then his knee between hers to part them again.

But Sophia lifted her foot to his thigh and pushed him away, her gaze not leaving his. And as she tongued the back of her teeth, she smiled again.

His most basic of instincts to dominate, to be in charge, sparked. More so as it was clearly what she wanted.

He caught hold of her wrists, pinning them either side of her head with ease, having no difficulty pushing his thighs between hers or in refinding the heat of her sex with his ready hardness.

Her breathing snagged, her pulse racing, both inciting him further as, this time, she relinquished her protest. Seemingly their brief game was over. And he had no intention of giving her a second longer to try again.

Sophia’s hands clenched to fists as he entered her, not giving her time to shuffle into a position of comfort. Clamping his hands around her wrists, he pushed slowly but hard, giving her no choice but to accommodate him as he edged towards her hilt.

Eyes locked on his, she gave out a sated groan.

‘Any
other
arguments?’ he asked.

T
he playfulness
in Jask’s eyes had evaporated, replaced with intensity. And
she
had triggered it.

She knew she’d been playing a dangerous game – one she hadn’t played since she was a naïve teenager, not understanding the implications of what she was doing – only that the rush of unpredictability was exciting.

Except Jask wasn’t an equally naïve teenage playmate; she had tempted a full-fledged alpha into her dark game – and one who had no qualms about playing back harder.

Jask, it seemed, had much potential in that ten per cent he’d spoken of. And as she watched him watch himself push his way inside her, it stole the breath from her body, the words from her lips, and the thoughts from her head of anything but him. Because even his entry had a different edge to it, an intensity matching the one in his eyes as he uttered not another word.

More so, he lowered his mouth back to her breast and licked it in a way that was feral enough to make the breath at the back of her throat snag. Because Jask was staking a claim – and the realisation sent her reeling as much as his silence had.

She arched her back as he licked up to her throat, ensuring she did what she could to encourage him to out that side of him more.

And as he finally released her wrists to grab her hips, she slid her hands up his forearms, up to his biceps, loving the feel of their hard flexion as she focused on the sensation of him being inside her.

It no longer mattered that her feet had turned numb, that she shivered with the cold. All that mattered was watching Jask observe every shudder of her body as they built momentum.

But it wasn’t enough.

For the first time ever with Jask, it wasn’t enough. She wanted to feel more of him. Something deep in her darkest depths wanted to push him closer to the edge. Wanted more of the buzz. She wanted the lycan inside of him.

She lifted her knee and drew back her foot. She pressed her sole to his hip and pushed.

But this time Jask didn’t budge. He barely even flinched.

His eyes shot to hers, but there was no bewilderment behind them this time. Nor was there any hint of playfulness. Instead, the playful glint had been replaced with one that reminded her of the first time they’d met, of the time she’d goaded him by the outbuilding before he’d thrown her in the pool.

That tiny edge that glimmered with the potential for him to flip into what he’d once told her he’d been.

Because the capability was there. The capability was
always
there beneath the surface – and no more so, clearly, than at the peak of the blue moon. A rare blue moon, no less.

Instead of taking heed though, she found herself inadvertently examining him as she once had – not as her Jask, but as a lycan. A lycan with beautiful blue eyes and untamed hair falling damply around his chiselled jaw, a glimpse of the canines that identified his capabilities.

And that body – the body that flexed and tensed and brought her
so
much pleasure, even amidst her dwindling emotional connection.

An alpha who was locked in his own desire too. A lycan who was clearly a slave to that desire. A lycan who would stay contained only for as long as she wanted him contained.

A sense of power surged through her at having that control, of being able to possess him, toy with him, use him for her own pleasure. Gain the upper hand. To punish him and not care if she hurt herself in the process.

She grasped his bicep as he lowered his mouth to her neck, as he nipped her lobe before tracing his way to her lips. Catching her jaw, keeping her in position, he kissed her hard and deep.

Deep enough to consume her.

She instantly curled up into him and grabbed his behind, it flexing with his firm, deep penetration. She squeezed hard, digging her nails into his solid flesh with little reprieve.

But instead of startling him, it only encouraged him to kiss her harder, to push harder, to grab her breast and squeeze her as mercilessly as she had his behind.

Her breath snagged again, her gaze snapping to his.

And it was there, deep behind his eyes: the warning against her upping the ante. Her first true glimpse into eyes that no longer belonged to Jask but to the lycan he had spoken of back in the hotel room.

An alpha lycan who was daring her into a game of nerve – enticing her to encourage him to play rougher. The lycan who had once fought hard to remain tempered around her now seemed willing to test the nerve of both of them. And not since that first time they’d been together down in the cells at his compound, not since she’d first started to care about him, had she felt more willing to edge him closer to his darkness.

She pressed both hands to his chest to shove him back.

Jask let her, only to push her hands away, to grab her hips again, to tug her to the edge of the boulder so he could stand on the ground.

Grabbing her behind, he lifted and angled her to increase his depth and, with it, both their pleasure; made her feel every inch of him entering her again, burying deep in her sex before he picked up his rhythm.

Except this time he dug his nails in deep enough for her to feel their sharpness. A sharpness that shouldn’t have been present.

She knew she should have willed him to stop, but something stopped her. Something laden with curiosity. Unlike that morning when she’d started to feel him lose control, the desire to stop him wasn’t there.

The desire wasn’t there at all.

H
e knew
he was gripping her hips tighter than he should have. He knew the surge in his chest was one he shouldn’t have been feeling. But her struggle for dominance was like wafting whisky under the nose of an alcoholic and expecting him not to drink.

It wasn’t helped by the battle already burning in his veins; the sound of the water flowing freely behind him, the coolness of the cave, the envelopment of the darkness reminding him of what he was beneath it all.

And the fact she’d been the one to incite it, was willing to partake in it, only excited him further.

Jask pushed his glass aside and slipped out of the booth. He stepped up to where she sat. He rested his knee on the seat, inches from her thigh and gently caught hold of the hair at the back of her head.

‘I don’t like being chased,’ he said. ‘I like to do the chasing.’

He tightened his grip just a little, enough to have Arana leaning back for balance.

But there was no fear in her eyes – not even a hint of panic.

Instead, her lips parted and she arched her back a little more, her eyes hooded as she held his gaze.

She may as well have injected him with adrenaline.

‘So as you’re not going to walk away,’ he added, ‘I will.’

‘Are you that scared of my brother? You surprise me.’ She arched up a little further. ‘Or if it’s your pack you’re scared for,’ she whispered close to his ear, ‘no one will ever know, least of all Kane – I promise.’

But he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t let himself slide back into what had happened the last time the recollections had threatened to consume him.

Jask forced his eyes open. He forced himself to focus on Sophia. On
his
Sophia.

But it was still there: that look she gave him. The look he had seen her give Kane, her fingers teasing the table and then her thigh. The look of the serryn intent on leading Sophia astray.

And now seemingly him too.

He pulled her up into his arms, and wrapped her legs around him, wanting – needing – to lose the dominant position that wasn’t helping either of them.

He clutched her neck, kissing her once and then twice in an attempt to reforge their emotional connection before he lay back on the rock, Sophia astride him.

She didn’t hesitate to take control, to pin
his
wrists down on the rock this time. She swept her hot tongue over his nipples before licking up to his neck, it seemingly her turn to tease
him
as she held back from allowing him to enter her.

As she nipped his neck, he flinched, his jaw clenched, his teeth gritted.

He let the back of Arana’s head go. He swiped up his half-empty spirit bottle and marched across the bar.

It was almost empty – just three others there. Three others and the bartender.

He stopped, wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. He pensively rubbed the stubble on his jaw as he stared at the way out. The way out to some other bar in Blackthorn, with some other female, and one with a hell of a lot less consequences than the one he knew had risen out of the booth behind him.

She was going to follow. She was going to pursue him down the back alleys and somewhere more public where everyone would see, or somewhere too isolated for him to care about the consequences anymore.

Or he could run like a coward. Run where she wouldn’t find him.

Her persistence had already made him hard. She’d stirred him from the minute she’d made her intentions clear; had toyed with the visceral in him. And when she’d looked up at him like a submissive ready to bite back at any point she chose, she’d pushed every dominant button within him.

Just like alcohol dominated the blood in his veins, just like the hazy, dark room strummed his lycan senses, the feral in him was being incited. The feral he had let control him so many times those past few weeks as he’d slipped deeper and deeper into the darkness of his own pain and grief.

He wasn’t their leader anymore. He had no place being their leader when he wasn’t even capable of controlling himself.

Corbin was their alpha now. Corbin was their protector. And Kane would know that. This would be between him and the master vampire should word get back.

And if he got what he deserved, so be it. He was ready to face his demise. It would be a relief. Any sense of punishment would be a relief.

He looked at the three humans gathered around the table.

He knocked back a mouthful from his bottle before quietly and gruffly demanding, ‘Leave.’

They did so without hesitation despite their obvious resentment.

He stepped up to the door and dropped the latch in place.

S
ophia pressed
her lips together and closed her eyes.

She pushed Jask’s wrists harder against the rock, liking restraining him too much. And as she tightened her grip, she thought of binding them. She thought of sitting astride him with all four of his limbs secured, of the lycan helpless beneath her.

She ignored her light-headedness, focusing instead on the excitement that thought generated.

She released his wrists only so she could taunt him further by sliding his hands up to her breasts. And Jask didn’t hesitate in accepting her offering as he curled up into a seated position to take one breast after the other to his mouth, squeezing and toying with a feral edge that satisfied a deeper need in her.