Lion's Heat (14 page)

Jonas leaned forward slowly. "Do you really think I'm going to allow you the chance to achieve release without me? Consider me your personal shadow."

Her lips parted as pearly teeth tightened in a charming little grimace.

"That's not fair, Jonas. You can find release without making a sound," she pouted.

"Can I?" He leaned back, wondering why Merinus hadn't apprised Rachel of this particular drawback of mating heat. "It does a male in heat no good to attempt to masturbate, sweetheart. It only makes the need worse."

She blinked back at him. "You're lying."

"Call Merinus and ask her about it." He snorted. "She hasn't been able to keep her mouth shut about anything else."

She crossed her legs, drawing his gaze to her slender thighs silhouetted beneath the short skirt she wore. "Merinus really didn't say much. She simply didn't answer specific questions."

She was lying through her teeth.

Jonas shook his head slowly. "Don't try that lie with any other Breed," he advised her. "As sweet as your lies smell, they're still lies."

And that cute little smile peeked through once again. It was impish, filled with warmth, and it threatened to drown him in his own fucking need. Damn, he needed her.

"We're here." The driver's voice came through the intercom between the two sections.

"Pull into the main entrance," Jonas ordered as he pressed the button to activate the speaker beside him. "Mordecai and Rule should be waiting for us."

"I see them at the entrance now," he was told.

The limo drew to a stop in front of the two-story brick town house. The building had been donated to the Breeds by an eccentric older couple who had lost their son when he was killed by Council soldiers in the Breed rescues.

"I assume you've had a room reserved for me at the nearest hotel?" she asked sweetly, though the chill underlying her tone was readily apparent.

"I guess I didn't," he assured her as Mordecai opened the door and stepped to the side. "Let's go, Rachel. We have little time before the party tonight. Your things are in the guest room waiting for you."

"As is the hairdresser the Prima ordered," Mordecai informed them as he glanced inside. "She called me herself to verify the arrival."

"I don't like this," Rachel muttered as she cast Jonas a highly suspicious look.

"What am I going to do with all the damned Enforcers assigned here?" Jonas asked her as he helped her from the limo. "The place is like Fort Knox when I'm here."

That wasn't necessarily the truth, but it sounded damned good, Jonas thought as he tugged at her hand and pulled her up the stone steps to the wide double doors that Lawe guarded diligently.

"Somehow, I'm not reassured," she told him as they stepped into the house.

"Somehow, I didn't think you would be." He chuckled as his hand settled at the small of her back while he guided her to the curved staircase. "Come along, sweetheart. I'll show you to your room, then we'll see about making it through that boring-assed party you thought I should attend."

"The party is hosted by Drey Hampton, a personal friend of Horace Engalls and one of the Breeds' more secretive contacts," she reminded him. "This was the only way he could get information to us that we were hoping he'd learn concerning Brandenmore's plans once he was out of custody on bail."

"Refresh my memory," Jonas drawled mockingly. "Didn't we warn the judge he would run?"

"Just as you were warned that the judge was going to set bail despite the arguments presented by the prosecutor," Rachel reminded him.

"He argued really hard too, didn't he?" Jonas growled as he opened the door to her bedroom.

The prosecutor had more or less sat back and allowed Brandenmore's attorneys to run the courtroom. It was sickening how many times Brandenmore had easily bought favor since his arrest. The judge was ready to throw the case out before Jonas had sent the paperwork in for his extradition and re-arrest based on Brandenmore's threats against Rachel and Amber.

"I warned you that you needed to check more diligently into his background," Rachel pointed out as she stepped into the bedroom.

She had argued with Jonas over this one. Jonas believed the prosecutor would fight with everything he had to make good on the promises given the Breeds when several of them had made hefty donations to his political campaign.

They had learned better quickly.

"I really need to check out the information coming in myself, Jonas." She sighed as she turned to face him, her nervousness gaining in strength the closer they got to the bed.

"Forget it. I'll contact Brim in a few minutes and put him on it. We have a party to attend, and hopefully Drey has indeed managed to pull in some information for us. Now get dressed. I'll see you before we leave for the party."

Rachel chewed at her lip as he left the room, and restrained the need to stomp her foot.

She didn't want to go to that damned party. Not only were there spies, killers and general troublemakers who attended these soirees, but the very ambassador who had tried to force her to whore herself to return home would be in attendance as well. If that wasn't a recipe for disaster, then she didn't know what was.

And if those obstacles weren't enough, there was the fact that she was able to have fun with Jonas now. Perhaps Merinus should have warned him that once she felt her job was secure she could make his life hell? Or perhaps Kane should have warned him?

It wasn't that she caused trouble, or deliberately set out to make anyone crazy. It was simply that she did have rather a smart mouth. She could be quiet and unemotional, or she could be fun and playful. There was no in-between.

And it seemed there was no getting out of this party either. She would definitely have to make Jonas pay for this one.

At least she was able to pander to the girly part of her when she had to attend these events. Merinus always ensured that the Bureau sprang for some really pretty dresses.

The one awaiting her was an evening gown of sapphire silk overlaying a gorgeous slip of silver lace. The skirt was slit to the knee, allowing the lace to spill from the side to the toes of sapphire heels. The bodice was held by narrow straps and cupped her breasts like a lover's hands. It was the most exquisite dress by far that Merinus had provided. With the dress were silver stockings shot with sapphire thread and banded with delicate lace at the thigh.

She had never worn a dress so lusciously feminine in her life. It was enough to make her want to attend that party.

Lifting her hand, she nibbled at her thumbnail as she wondered exactly how she was going to navigate the tricky waters that Ambassador David Slussburg was certain to churn up.

The man was a prick, and on top of it, he hated Breeds. He hated them to the point that he had on many occasions commented that the world would be better off if the Breeds were dead.

He was the type of man who wouldn't care a bit to be snide and mocking in Jonas's presence, and Rachel had a feeling Jonas would be less than charitable once Slussburg got started.

She only hoped she herself could be tactful enough to steer Jonas well clear of him.

CHAPTER 7

Jonas scented Rachel's nervousness as she paused at the top of the stairs, staring down at where he waited below. Turning, he had to forcibly control the animal growl that rose in his throat and the need that had claws threatening to slide from the tips of his fingers.

Had he ever seen anything, or anyone, so damned beautiful? Jonas was certain he hadn't, just as he was damned certain there was no way he was going to make it through the night without taking her.

Hell, he wasn't going to make it from the house before he touched her. He could touch her in reasonable safety, he told himself. But that sounded rather lame even to him. There was no way to truly ensure that the mating hormone didn't affect even the fine hairs that covered his body.

It was damned certainly affecting his tongue. The glands were so swollen they were painful, the taste of cinnamon and cloves filling his senses and reminding him how easy it would be to infuse her with the same arousal tearing through him.

Not that she wasn't aroused. She was. Just not insanely aroused. She wasn't in mating heat, and that was where he wanted her. Now.

Before he realized what he was doing, his foot was on the top step, his intentions clear in his mind. To kiss her. To taste her. To fill her with the hormone tearing through him, demanding sex, touch, taste. Possession.

"Merinus outdid herself." She touched the skirt of the dress self-consciously as she watched him. "The dress is exquisite."

Merinus hadn't arranged for the dress; he had. Jonas kept that information to himself for the time being and watched, waited, as she made her way down the curving staircase.

The dress cupped and hugged her upper body like a possessive lover. The skirt flowed over her legs, lace spilling down the side, the glittering blue threads sparkling through the material.

He wondered if the stockings looked as pretty on her as they had on the mannequin the dressmaker had kept in her shop.

"Are we ready to go?" she asked as she secured the fur-lined silk wrap that went with the dress.

"Not yet." If he didn't touch her, he was going to die. He was going to do something he knew they didn't want to face when the cold light of morning revealed itself.

But did he have the strength to pull back from just a touch.

"Come with me." He didn't touch her, not yet. Turning on his heel, he strode along the short foyer to the receiving room, waited until she entered, then closed the doors securely and locked them.

"Jonas?" The concern in her tone sliced through him as he turned back to her.

Before he could stop himself, and God knew he wished he could have stopped himself, he gripped her shoulders, spun her around and pressed her against the door.

Her soft cry was lost as his lips parted and his teeth gripped the side of her neck in sensual warning. The animal knew what was going on with the man. It knew he was fighting a battle he was going to lose, and he couldn't stop himself.

"Jonas!" Shock and arousal fueled the needy, breathless sound of her voice.

Gripping her hips, Jonas held her still as his knees dipped, his hips pressing against her rear as a harsh growl tore from his throat.

When she didn't fight, when he smelled the soft flavor of feminine juices spilling from the luscious heat of her pussy, his teeth slowly released her.

His fingers flexed on her hips as he rubbed his cock against the cleft of her rear, rotated his hips and imagined the pure ecstasy of sinking inside her.

"Why are you doing this?" she whispered.

"You're my mate." His voice didn't sound like his own. It was rougher, harder, more primal. "Do you know how hard it is not to take you?"

Pressing his lips against the vulnerable crook of her neck, Jonas inhaled the scent of her, tasted her with his tongue, and swore it would go no further.

"I want to taste you," he groaned. "Just one kiss, but I know what just one kiss will do. It will destroy both of us."

Her fingers were flexing against the door, her nails scraping the wood as his hands slid lower, bunched the fabric of her gown and began drawing it upward.

His control was splintering. He could feel it. Every shred of strength he possessed was centered on holding her to him, keeping her locked in place while he touched.

His cock was throbbing as he rolled his hips against the firm muscles of her ass. He imagined pushing her dress higher, tearing her panties from her, spreading the smooth globes and watching as he pressed his cock inside the heated depths of her pussy from behind.

She would be tight.

His fingers met the smooth flesh of her thigh, the material of her skirt and lacy underskirt flowing over his arm as he let them stroke the silken flesh until he worked his way to the tender skin at the crease of her thigh.

"Jonas, if you don't stop now, you won't--" Her soft protest ended with a gasp as the pads of his fingers raked over the silk covering the humid heat of her pussy.

"I'll stop." But he wasn't so certain.

Jonas could feel the hunger rising now, the hormone spilling harder from the glands beneath his tongue and heating his senses with the need to share it.

"Tonight, I have to walk into another of those parties, and I have to see other men watching you, smell their lust and their intent, and know you aren't yet my mate."

"I'm not your mate, period," she argued breathlessly.

His lips peeled back in a furious snarl.

She was denying him, again.

His fingers slipped beneath the elastic leg of her panties and before she could protest, two slid through the slick, hot juices hidden between the soft folds of flesh there.

She was wet. Hot. She was his mate, whether she wanted to admit it or not.
His mate
. God help him, but he didn't know if he could let her go.

Pleasure. She had never known so much pleasure in a man's arms in her life.

Rachel fought not to arch against the touch of Jonas's fingers between her thighs, the callused pads rubbing, stroking.