Part 5 (1/2)

The hardness of Jonas's arousal, long and thick against the softness of her belly.

No matter what Jonas said or how he acted, his body didn't lie, couldn't lie. As it hadn't lied last night. And he wanted her as much as she wanted him. Then, and now.

Lily was standing so close to him, she was breathing in the same heavy air as him now, could feel the tension in his muscles, and the shallow rise and fall of his chest as he breathed in and out.

Her breath caught in her throat as she looked up at him and saw the desire blazing in those stormy blue eyes, his cheekbones sharp angles in his tensely set face, jaw clenched. ”Jonas...” It was an invitation, not a question.

Jonas tried to resist, G.o.d knows he tried. But Lily was so-so- In my f.u.c.king face, is what she is!

Which was exactly where Jonas wanted her.

She had taken her boots off as soon as they entered her apartment, and was wearing another one of those overlarge sweaters, red tonight. But she wore black leggings beneath it rather than jeans, and they molded to every lush curve of her a.s.s and clearly defined the mound between her thighs. And he wanted his face there. Wanted to lick and suck and taste her p.u.s.s.y until she cried out, and then he would drink her down as she came all over his face.

Savage by tribe and savage by nature?

Yes, d.a.m.n it, savage was exactly how Lily made him feel.

Her perfume had invaded his senses in the car during the drive to the supermarket and then to her apartment, and each sway of those lush hips was a temptation he was finding it harder and harder to resist. And she kept pus.h.i.+ng, d.a.m.n it, wanting to know about him, his past, his present, when all he wanted was his face buried between her thighs and to thrust his tongue inside her p.u.s.s.y until she was pleading for release.

”Jonas!” Lily cried out, fingers gripping his shoulders as Jonas put his hands on her hips and pulled those leggings and her panties down to her thighs, before lifting her up and turning to sit her bare a.s.s on the work surface behind him-not one of the ones they had been preparing food on, thank goodness-before stripping off the leggings and panties completely.

Jonas nudged her legs apart as he leaned forward with a hand either side of the work top where she sat. ”Say no if you don't want this.”

She blinked up at him, obviously unsure of the situation-and him-but her lips remained stubbornly closed as she continued to meet his gaze unflinchingly.

”Good choice,” he growled as he went down on his knees in front of her before lifting her sweater and baring her p.u.s.s.y to his hungry gaze. ”Beautiful.” The dark curls were trimmed about those glistening, ruby-red lips, the tiny nubbin peeping out temptingly from beneath its protective hood.

Jonas's groan echoed Lily's as he stroked his tongue along those lips and tasted her for the first time, sweet nectar and delicious musk. He was aware of her response as he continued to lick and taste, those lips swelling, parting to the invasion of his tongue, the nubbin above beginning to pulse as he caressed her there with the soft pad of his thumb.

G.o.d, he could live on the taste of her alone, drown in the heady sensation of tongue-f.u.c.king her.

”Yes!” she gasped, hands moving up so that her fingers were now entangled in his hair. ”Oh G.o.d, Jonas...!”

Jonas looked up at her as he continued to thrust his tongue in and out of her channel, capturing and holding her gaze with his. Her eyes looked green now rather than blue, dark and feverish, her cheeks flushed and her lips slightly parted.

Jonas pressed his thumb harder against her c.l.i.t, watching as her back arched, pus.h.i.+ng her b.r.e.a.s.t.s forward. He couldn't wait to bare those too and gorge himself on the ripe nipples he could see pus.h.i.+ng against her sweater- ”No...!” Lily groaned in protest as the musical ringtone of her cell phone sounded in the quiet of the kitchen, causing Jonas to slowly sit back on his heels and look up at her enquiringly, his lips wet with her juices. ”Ignore it,” she encouraged desperately. d.a.m.n it, she had been so close. So close...

The ringtone stopped.

Only to start up again immediately.

”Seems urgent,” Jonas drawled.

Her need to come was more urgent.

She had never been as aroused so quickly. Or so desperate to have a man's mouth and hands on her. She wanted more, d.a.m.n it!

Except her cell phone didn't stop its musical intrusion this time, the continuous-and previously favorite-tune, grating on her in a way that made her decide to change the ringtone as soon as possible. Or throw the d.a.m.ned phone across the kitchen in a fit of pique.

”Lily?”

To her chagrin, Jonas rose to his feet in front of her, a sure indication the moment was over, despite the ache and throbbing of Lily's body and the hunger still coursing through her.

She pulled her sweater back down over her thighs, self-consciously aware she wasn't wearing any clothing beneath the waist and her cell phone was all the way across the kitchen on another work top. ”Would you mind?” She grimaced, not quite meeting Jonas's gaze.

”No problem.” Jonas crossed the kitchen in two long strides to pick up her cell phone and hand it to her.

He seemed unruffled by the interruption, at least. Too unruffled, considering Lily's state of arousal.

”Yes?” she snapped as she answered the call.

Jonas watched through narrowed lids as Lily's eyes widened, becoming even rounder, her face paling the longer she listened to whoever was on the other end of that call.

Saved by the bell?

Or, in this case, the ringtone?

What the h.e.l.l had he been thinking, half stripping Lily and then going down on her like a ravenous beast? He hadn't been thinking, only feeling, wanting.

He suppressed a groan as he made the mistake of licking the taste of Lily from his lips. He could become addicted to that taste. Could become addicted to Lily.

Women came and women went in his life, most of those encounters as fleeting as a one-night stand. Jonas knew his mixed heritage was a lure, his outer calm a challenge, but once those women realized they weren't going to get beneath that faade, they usually backed off.

Lily didn't back off.

Instead, she kept chipping away at his outer sh.e.l.l a bit at a time. h.e.l.l, he'd already told her more about himself, his parents, than even his closest friend knew. She- ”What is it?” Jonas's tone was sharp as Lily ended the call, her eyes once again full of those haunted shadows that turned them a dark green similar to Gabriel's. ”Lily?” He moved swiftly across the kitchen to take her in his arms as she seemed precariously close to falling off the work top.

Tears swam in her eyes as she looked up at him. ”That was Giles, the director of Desperation. Tonight's performance has been canceled.” She drew in a ragged breath. ”Everyone is being called back in to the theater, though, so the police can talk to all of us.”

”Why?”

She began to tremble in reaction to whatever she'd been told. ”Someone... Someone broke into the theater after we left earlier.” The trembling deepened. ”Charlie-the doorman... He... He's dead, Jonas, beaten with his own walking stick! And-and-”

”And?” Jesus Christ!

The tears began to cascade down her cheeks. ”And Evan is in the intensive care unit, in a coma after being hit on the head too.”

Chapter 5.

Jonas glanced across at Lily as he drove them both back to the theater. ”There's absolutely no reason to think these attacks are connected to what's been happening to you.”

Lily's hands were clenched on her thighs. She didn't believe that, and she doubted Jonas did either. It was surely too much of a coincidence this had happened at the same time as she was being hounded by a stalker?

She still couldn't believe Charlie was dead.

In his late fifties, Charlie Driscoll had been doorman at the Majestic Theater in London for over twenty years, since he was involved in a car accident that had left him with a permanent limp and necessitated he use a walking stick. The same walking stick someone had used to kill him.