Darkest Before Dawn (A Guardian's Diary Book 1)(30)

My eyes skimmed his body until they focused on his thin patch of happy trail, again. I moved them lower and my mouth went dry. “Please tell me you’re not naked.”



“I’m not naked,” he purred and lunged towards me. He grasped my arms and pulled me against him until I could feel with my thighs that he’d lied. He was seriously naked. Very naked! Unlike when I’d been in the shower with Lachlan, Jaeden being naked both terrified and turned me on.

“Oh my God! You’re naked!” I shrieked as I tried to push him away.

“Of course I’m naked,” he whispered huskily against my ear. “I’m bathing, and can’t do that in clothes, now can I?”

I turned the color of freshly picked Washington Red apples as he moved closer against my body if it was even possible. My jaw trembled as I looked up at him. “I’m not going to sleep with you,” I blurted. Hadn’t I just decided I was? I could do it now, but I still felt uncertainty as Lachlan’s words filled my mind with doubt.

“Who says I want to fuck you right now, Emma?” the gleam in his eyes told a different story.

“You’re naked!”

“I’m bathing; I like being clean. You joined me for my bath, little one. That’s all this is. Nothing more, your virtue is safe…for now,” his tone was teasing as though this was just a misunderstanding. Not.

“I thought we were swimming—” I stopped as the bushes at the edge of the brush rustled.

“Get behind me, Emma, now,” he ordered. I thought it might be good if I did as he asked, but only because I knew I couldn’t make it to any of my weapons before whatever it was in the bushes greeted us.

Lachlan and his men moved from behind the bushes and walked in our direction. I noted the lessening of tension in Jaeden’s back and peeked from behind him. “Lachlan,” he said in a neutral tone.

“Emma,” Lachlan said as his eyes grew hard at the sight of me in the pond with Jaeden. “Ye didnae tell anyone when ye were leaving.”

“I don’t need to check in to leave,” I replied a little harsher than I had intended to.

“I see Jaeden’s wasting nae time in getting ye into bed. I thought the kiss we shared would have at least made ye ponder yer options,” he ground out.

“She knows her options, pup,” Jaeden replied easily as he brought me around and held me in front of him like a shield against his nudity. I had to stop the cry that leapt to life in my throat as something hard and protruding pressed against my ass and my lower back.

“That better be a knife,” I hissed.

“It can penetrate supple flesh, and go very deep…if that’s what you’re asking, sweet girl,” he murmured in my ear.

I tried to pull my ass away, but his hands came down to settle on my hips. “I’d hold still, Emma, unless you plan on giving them a show. I’m not shy but I’d like it to be just the two of us when we fuck.”

I swallowed past the dryness in my mouth. I’d put myself in this position, and it sucked. I held the other men’s eyes as they watched us. Lachlan smiled, and nodded his head in my direction. Knowingly. Could he tell that Jaeden was naked, and that I’d kissed him? I could sense the tension between the men, and I was stuck in the middle of them, literally.

“Emma needs a real man, Jaeden, one who can show her what stamina is all aboot,” Lachlan continued.

“My stamina is just fine, pooch,” Jaeden replied genially.



“Ah, well a parasite such as yerself, does have persistence going fer it,” Lachlan grinned and his men laughed behind him.

I blinked at their banter. Pooch? Parasite? What the hell was up with the names? I decided they needed to come up with better ones if they were going to insult each other.

“Why do we nae let the lass decide on whom is more adapted tae serve her needs?” he taunted.

This is where I probably should have said something, instead the hardness against my back pushed against it and the silkiness of it made the butterflies in my belly fight to get out. I absently arched my back and pushed my ass up until Jaeden’s fingers pushed harder against my hips. “Do that again and you’ll be losing the bottoms of this skimpy suit here and now, and I won’t be sorry,” he warned in a heated whisper. Jaeden’s arm’s wrapped around me protectively as Lachlan stepped closer. He turned me in his arms, and I swallowed as I felt his heated flesh against mine.

“I say we fuck this bitch,” one of Lachlan’s men who I’d met earlier today, called out. His twang sounded more Midwestern, rather than the Scottish burr like Lachlan and many of his men had. Dawson had given me the creeps then, and was doing so again. “Show her the difference between us, and I’ll bet she’d take us all with that sweet body.”

“He would nae touch ye, Emma lass. Nae, I’d cut off his balls if he tried it,” Lachlan growled and snapped an angry order to Dawson.

I heard a scuffling noise, and then a deep growling noise from an animal. I turned to look at what was happening but Jaeden’s arm tightened, pinning my body tightly against his chest. My head was held immobile with the other. It was then I realized that his member was pressing against my navel, pushing against my piercing. I tried to move, but his grip only tightened.

I glanced up to watch his face as his eyes narrowed on the men in front of us. Another moment passed, and his grip loosened enough that I could pull away from him. I turned, looking to where Dawson had stood, the only thing in that spot were scraps of cloth I hadn’t noticed before. What the hell?



I looked at Lachlan and the other men, who had their arms crossed and were still watching us closely. I chanced a glimpse at Jaeden, and then stepped away from his naked form.

“Run along; you’re interrupting us,” Jaeden ordered them with a smirk framing his lips.

“I’d tread carefully with her, Jaeden; she’s unlike those sluts ye normally fuck. She deserves someone who will protect her, and doesna have tae follow orders.”

“Is that so? Let me guess, you’re that man?” Jaeden continued as his cock pressed against my flesh again.

“She’ll know everything soon enough,” Lachlan warned as he turned and walked away. His men closed ranks around him as they walked into the dense forest that surrounded the little pond.

“You guys really don’t like each other, do you,” I stated.

“He’s a means to an end. As I told you, we were friends once, but that was in another place and time,” he said with a wolfish grin on his lips. “Why didn’t you kick them out of your shelter, Emma?” he continued.

“Because I’m tired of being alone and they did step up and help everyone while I was gone,” I said tiredly. I started toward the edge of the water, but didn’t make it there before Jaeden pulled me back to him. “You have a serious issue with personal space.”

“You’re not alone, you have me,” he whispered with a serious look in his beautiful eyes.

“That’s not what I meant. I’m tired of holding everything together. Addy likes them, and the girls don’t seem to mind that men are around.”

“Did anything unusual happen to you last night?”

I turned my eyes to the water’s surface, and the waves that kissed his naked flesh. “I don’t know, Jaeden. Should something have happened to me?” I asked, imagining my hands running over his bronzed flesh instead of the water. I licked my lips absently as he moved to stand closer, since I’d backed up yet again. The tip of his cock broke the surface of the water like a periscope, and God help me, I couldn’t look away from it. I gasped as his hand cupped my chin and tipped my face up.



“Emma, if you keep staring at my dick I won’t be able to control the urge I’m fighting right now. I’m trying to be a gentleman.”

“What urge is that?” I asked before I could think better of it.

“This urge,” he said and pulled me close to his body as his hands dropped to my thighs and pulled me up and out of the water until my legs wrapped around him. His lips found mine and kissed me intensely, as if he was starving for my kiss.

I moaned against him until his hand pulled on the bottoms of my suit. I pulled away and shook my head. “No, Jaeden.” He leaned his forehead against mine. He remained silent as he dropped me slowly back into the water. “I’m sorry, I’m not like that. I’m not some bimbo who will just jump in bed with you.”

“It’s just fucking, Emma,” he said softly. ”Jeg ønsker å begrave min kuk så dypt inne i deg, søt jente.” *

“What language is that? Scandinavian or something like Viking, right?” I asked with a guarded look burning in my eyes. I didn’t trust him, and yet I felt pulled in his direction. As if something was pushing us together. As if forces I couldn’t understand were at work here. Even after everything we’d been through, I still felt the need to guard myself against him. He gave a slight nod of his head, and a small smile stole across his lips.

“Norwegian,” he acknowledged.

“Jaeden doesn’t exactly sound like a name from Norway.” Okay, now his friends Bjorn and Sven were starting to make sense.