Eternal Embrace (6 page)

No wonder Torque had been such a fucking mess. If he lost Joey—and he’d only just fucking found her—he’d not survive.

“Right, good, that’s good news, man…” Torque trailed off and he heard Beauty say something, then Torque cleared his throat. “But it didn’t stop it, did it?”

Fucking nosey bastard,
was his first thought, anger beating a tempo in his body that brought his fist down on the table. Anyone, any-fucking-one who knew about Joey could potentially harm her. His rage skyrocketed. If Torque said something at the wrong time—even not meaning to—

“Jaxon? Are you okay?”

Joey startled him when she touched his arm. He’d not heard her behind him—and that shit didn’t happen. More, she was soapy and looked worried as hell for him. Why?

“What are you doing? You’re wet and soapy and—”

“You were angry, I…” She trailed off and tilted her head as if just realising what she’d said, then a slow smile spread on her beautiful face. “And I
felt
it. I can feel your emotions. You know”—she examined him from head to toe and tutted at him—“that much anger isn’t good for your heart.”

“What the hell is going on, Jax? Is that Joey?” Torque asked.

“Shut up,” he grumbled into the phone, but Joey blinked and frowned at him. “Not you, baby, the dick on the phone.”

“Dick?” Torque grumbled, sounding offended.

“Dick? That’s kinda rude, huh?” Joey asked, then huffed out a sigh. “I’m in the shower and you”—she waved at him with a tiny hand—“try to not get so mad. Why were you so angry anyway?”

He reached out and brushed a whole lot of bubbles off her hair before it got in her eyes and suddenly laughed. Shit was funny. No one ever told him stuff like this.

“Man, I guess you’re good, huh? Beauty says you might be in for a lesson but hell, I survived, I’m sure you can.” Torque cracked a laugh that sounded like he was enjoying himself. “So we’ll catch you soon.”

A lesson, huh?
Joey folded her slim arms and frowned at him when he held her still from walking off. Cradling the phone in the crook of his neck, he said, “Good man, just let me know if the shit gets too hot, okay?”

“Sure thing. Be safe.”

“Always, I always am,” he said, disconnecting. He took hold of Joey’s shoulders and turned her. “Shower, you’re getting the floor all wet,” he said, swatting her lush ass once to get her moving.

He grinned when Joey burst out in a laugh and smiled back at him, mimicking him on the phone, and rolled her eyes. “No more angry phone calls then. And I need some girly shampoo because this smells like you.”

“Girly shampoo?” he murmured, watching her until she shut the door. Every inch of him wanted in that shower, with her. Hell, he’d buy her girly everything, if it meant she’d stay. He held back, trying to think of what to do with her until he could do all the things he wanted to with her. Pour chocolate on her and lick it off, dribble champagne along the line of her spine and drink it, dip his fingers in ice cream and trail them down his own stomach, creating a sweet trail to his erection she could follow.

Until he could do that, he’d start her training. The first lesson? How to drink blood.

Damn, if only that meant from him.

Chapter Four

Jaxon had clearly lost his mind. He sat across from her, looking sane and normal and sexy as hell, but the bag of blood he poured into a wine glass wasn’t happening. She closed her eyes and peeked at him again after a few seconds. She could smell the blood, and worse, the scent didn’t gross her out, it made her mouth water in anticipation.

“Come on, baby, you can do this,” he coaxed.

What is with the ‘baby’?
She loved it, absolutely loved it, but why now?

“Explain this complete change in attitude,” she said and tacked on a soft, “Please.” The word seemed to motivate him in ways she filed away to use for later. If there was a later.

Frowning at her, he settled back in his chair, still close enough that his jeans-covered knee touched her naked one. He’d gone to her place at some point and got her a change of clothes—because when she’d got out of the shower, the brown shirt and jean skirt were missing and next to the shower she’d found a summer dress with a pair of her red Victoria’s Secret panties and a matching demi-cup bra. The man had found her hidden weakness on top of making her weak in the knees. No doubt, he’d seen all her lingerie and maybe even brought some of her garters and stockings. She blinked when he took her hand and casually brought it to his lips.

“I didn’t change my attitude. You have to understand that for me, a vampire, to be attracted to you…” He paused and sighed out a breath against her fingertips.

“You were attracted to me?” she asked, feeling suddenly a whole lot better.

He huffed out a snort. “Baby, why do you think I stalked that coffee shop?”

Stalked?
Well, she considered his frown and thought about the nights he’d come in late and drunk coffee talking to her. She’d been flattered, even nervous around him at first, but that was because he’d been so smart. She’d thought he liked talking to her, but didn’t consider her for more than friendship, because the heat she experienced around him never appeared reciprocated. Then, when the attack had happened, he’d made love to her almost desperately—at first. After that first frantic mating, he’d blown her mind again with a soft, gentle passion that had brought tears when she finally climaxed.

“I was in there every night. You can’t tell me you didn’t notice that,” he added when she didn’t speak.

“You never made a pass, never did anything like that and then—”

“I made love to you, didn’t I?”

She frowned. “And left,” she added, only half teasing him. Making love was too weak of a word to use for what he’d done to her. He’d destroyed her with the kind of sex she’d read about but never experienced and had doubted existed.

“Do you see why now? That a vampire”—he jerked his thumb to his chest and pointed to her right after—“and a human wouldn’t have worked.”

“Couldn’t you have simply changed me if you thought—”

“Fuck no. First, it’s forbidden, second”—he broke off to tug at his hair, a move she was growing familiar with—“I’d never hurt you like that.”

She mulled that over and nibbled at her thumbnail, watching him. He was serious, deadly serious, she guessed. The phone call and his anger came back to her. He’d been pissed. At something about her, someone asking about her, from what she’d heard in his response.

“So you left, and then shoved me away that night because…” She stopped. She couldn’t say it. It sounded too corny.

“Because I wanted you. I wanted to make love to you again. I want to now.”

Shocked, she stared over at him. He looked intense, sexy as sin, but she hadn’t thought he wanted to have sex right now. The anger vibe she’d got earlier was gone, but she couldn’t sense anything else from him—until she brushed her hand down his chest to cover his heart. “Your heart beats.”

“Yeah, it does.”

“Fast. For me?”

He swallowed and nodded, centring his blue eyes on her face as if she might disappear or do something crazy at any moment. She wanted to. She wanted to do things to him, make him prove he really wanted her—Joey—and regret ever sneaking off.

“You want me? For now? For the moment? And then…sneak off again before dawn?” she teased, already knowing he’d deny it and that he’d get that hard, dangerous glint to his eyes. She kinda liked it. Besides, she had earned the right to tease him for keeping so much from her—valid concerns, but still. Her heart quickened from the way his face flushed at her teasing.

“Shit, come on. I was a vampire, you were a human. I shouldn’t have—”

She cut him off by crawling onto his lap and pressing her breasts against his chest and leaning one thigh against the hard bulge of his erection. He sucked in a shocked breath, and against her leg, his erect flesh grew harder. A wave of heat travelled down her spine, tingled over her butt and raced straight to her pussy. He did want her.

“Yeah? Well, I think that you need to show me, prove how sorry you are for leaving my bed.”

Jax didn’t blink, and the shock disappeared, replaced by such a scorching look she felt branded, and he’d not even touched her yet. He’d fisted his hands on his chair arms as soon as she’d climbed on. His grip was so brutal, his muscles were harder than stone against her body.

“You gonna let me back in it?” he asked, cupping his big hands over her ass and smoothing them up her back.

“Mmm, I’m giving it serious thought,” she murmured. She leaned her elbows on his broad shoulders and tilted her head, arching her spine when he brushed both hands back down to firmly grip her ass again.

“Shit, you’re gonna make me come in my damn jeans,” he said when she brushed her lips over his and eased her leg in a rocking motion against his long erection. The sound he made did something to her, made her body flood with heat and her nails tingle to dig into his shoulders.

“Yes, I am,” she told him, nipping lightly at the smooth flesh behind his ear.

He groaned as if he might come right then and there. “Fuck, fuck, baby, I… We can’t do this right now, Joey.”

“Oh? I think we can,” she whispered, and kissed the tough skin on his neck. “I think you coming in your jeans fitting, since you need a little punishment for walking away from me.”

“Ah fuck, baby, baby.” He gripped her butt tighter to hold her in place and began thrusting his shaft against her leg. She bit down on his neck, not breaking the skin, but Jaxon went wild, crying out her name and rutting against her harder. Her pussy flooded with moisture, clenching in excitement when his groan grew louder.

“Joey,” he grated.

“You can sense me, can’t you?” Excitement shivered all the way through her body at how naughty she was being, how hot he was at her torturing him like this and at the idea that he could somehow tell how it turned her on.

“I can scent you. Hell yeah, I can smell every drop of your sweetness. Shit, baby, I want inside you so bad, Joey. ”

He broke off when she whispered how much she wanted to taste him, lick every thick inch of his big cock until he came unglued.

“Do you scent how turned on that makes me?” she asked.

He tore at her dress, shoving it out of his way until he’d bared her ass. His body turned to solid, hard muscle. She nibbled lightly on his jaw then took his lips in a kiss that rocked them both. He dived into her mouth, trying to control some of the passion heating to an inferno between them. She moaned, so close to falling apart herself she couldn’t hold back the sound. At her whimper, he slipped one hand between her thighs and stroked her through her panties.

“Yes, oh, Jaxon, please.” She arched her butt, giving him more room for his hand. Against her leg, his erection hardened to such a state, she moaned again at the thought of him filling her with every lush inch . Jaxon deepened the kiss until she orgasmed so hard her legs trembled and she broke off their kiss to cry out his name.

“Fuck, baby, yeah, yeah,” Jaxon shouted, pressing against her in a rapid thrusting motion that drew their orgasms on and on. Jaxon started shuddering, coming so hard he shook. She held onto him tighter as the pleasure grew impossibly high.

Slowly, by degrees, he eased his hold on her ass and began leisurely caressing her. “Baby, you are so bad.”

She laughed weakly, and kissed his soft lips. “Well, I think you enjoyed your punishment way too much.”

“Fuck, if this is punishment, I might need a lesson daily,” he murmured huskily against her neck, kissing the spot while he smoothed his hands up and down her back.

She grinned and lifted her head from his shoulder to look at his flushed face. “Mmm, what makes you think I’m done?”

He caught her hand halfway down his chest and kissed her fingers. “Do you know how damn hot you make me? How much I want to toss you over the table?” His eyes glowed bright sapphire when he was hot, she realised. When he was angry, they turned navy, and when he was upset or anxious, a washed-out denim.
Do I know him so well already?

She quirked a brow at him. “Mmm, that sounds promising.”

He closed his eyes as if he was in pain and groaned. “If we keep this up, I won’t let you up for air until next month.” He opened his eyes with a fierce look she couldn’t understand. “I want you, okay? I always did, and now you’re a vampire, I can have you. You need to decide though, if you want me. And right now? I think we should wait. I think I should give you time to adjust and that pisses me off, because I want to be inside of you more than I want to breathe.”

Stunned, all she could do was sit there on his lap and stare at him. He caressed her bare butt and slowly a grin spread over his handsome face. “Yeah, I can be direct sometimes, I guess,” he said with a casual shrug of his shoulder.

She swallowed and nodded, feeling suddenly caught in a whirlwind.

“Come on, now, firecracker, don’t freak on me for spilling,” he said.

“Mmm, I know you aren’t referring to your punishment…”

He laughed so hard she nearly fell off his lap. She giggled, then wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. A rush of emotions too wild to explore filled her, making her want to hold onto him tight to keep herself grounded. Jaxon felt so good, tasted so incredibly good, she never wanted to let him go. His warm body thrilled every inch of hers, made her want him in ways that she shouldn’t, but she did. When she pulled back, he was breathless and looked so happy she kissed him again.

He hugged her tighter, softened his kiss to mere brushes of his lips and smiled at her. “If this is your strategy to avoid that cup of blood, I’m never going to win a battle around here.”

She laughed, hugging his neck, and soaked in his heat. “I don’t think I’d try that ploy on anyone but you,” she told him. “but no battles, okay?”

“Damn straight,” he growled and spanked her butt lightly.

“Oh, baby, harder,” she teased, wiggling for him.

He growled and pulled so she faced him, his face all flushed and so handsome she smiled at him.

“What can I say? You make me want to be naughty,” she said.

With a groan, he leaned his head on the back of the chair and husked out a weak laugh.