Lion's Dangerous(Kings of the Jungle #1)(34)

She should have been terrified, but it wasn't fear that quickened her breath and tightened her tender sex. No, not fear at all. His teeth pressed, testing her flesh, and that deep flutter …

That was anticipation.

"Are you going to do it?" She whispered.

He didn't pretend ignorance. "Yes."

With the rough, gravely word, he opened his mouth wide and sealed his lips around the pulse that raced at the side of her throat.

Lily stopped breathing. As blood pounded in her ears, only one question stuck out. "What will happen?"

He answered by laving her skin with his tongue, sucking and licking as though preparing the site, disinfecting for surgery. Jude's face chased the thought as she recalled the night he had tasted her, tending to the bloody scrapes on her legs. With his burning, golden eyes came a deep sense of wrongness and revulsion for the creature stretched atop her.

"No," she moaned. She bucked beneath him. "Get off me. No. I don't want this. Not from you."

The last words seemed to freeze them both. He stilled while she held herself stiff and trembling.

Slowly, he released her neck and raised his head. "Who?"

Her deepest heart supplied a response without an instant's hesitation but all she said was, "Not you."

His weight immediately left her. Lily hung her head and twisted her fists into the bedding. She was shaking, shocked by her own response. That on top of the weakness he'd left in the wake of the pleasure he'd given threatened to shut down her systems. As she held her breath, his bellowed behind her, hard and ragged until, without a word, he left. As the door closed behind him, she collapsed in a numb, shivering heap. 

Even before the perspiration cooled on her skin, she knew she'd made a mistake. The stranger had gotten inside her mind without even getting inside her body. She hadn't looked into his eyes, hadn't tasted the intimacy of his kiss or heard endearments in his undisguised voice-all gateways, all things she'd purposefully avoided, and yet he'd still managed to pierce her armor.

Thank everything for Ares and his refusal to give her the man's name. As it was, she would have to stay away from the Jungle now. It would be too tempting to ask around.

Before she was really ready, she shakily zipped herself into the fitted dress she'd worn that night. The fabric felt like it abraded her sensitive skin. Her knees were too shaky for heels so she forewent shoes and, not looking at anybody, picked her way out of the club.





11





She'd been gone for hours. He'd occupied himself with cat's cradle for some of the time, weaving purple yarn between his fingers while he listened to the local radio station. He didn't mean to kill her tonight, but it was a Friday and he was bored. A man with a limp didn't attract much attention in bars. Not only had she wiped out his retirement fund, but she'd also demolished his sex life.

As another half-hour block of music started, he muttered a frustrated curse and flicked the loop of yarn onto the passenger seat. His back was fucking killing him. Dry-swallowing a handful of antihistamines and shifted stiffly in his seat, waiting for the inflammation from a spider bite to subside.

Thinking about Lily only distracted him so much. She should have come home a while ago. Bitch must have picked someone up somewhere. She wasn't coming home before she had a late breakfast and a morning-after fuck wherever she'd spent the night. To hell with it. He needed to ice the softball-sized lump that had grown on his back overnight.

As he reached for the key in the ignition, headlights arced across the parking lot. He froze and held his breath, watching her little red two-door cruised into the empty spot in front of her narrow townhouse.

Smiling, he lowered his hand and fisted his keys. Finally. She took her time in the car, gathering her bag or whatever the fuck she was doing, but then she finally stepped out. A double beep of her car alarm indicated the alarm was set. That suited him fine. Tonight, he wasn't triggering any alarms, wasn't putting in an appearance on any cameras. Tonight, he was sitting back and enjoying. He had plans.

She hitched her purse over her shoulder and climbed the steps to the postage stamp that passed for her front porch. His dick hardened, rose tight against the fly of his jeans. Four seconds. Three. Two-ahhhh. Her motion sensor porch light flared bright and illuminated his gift to her.



* * *

Rhys was gone, three days into a week-long trip back to the west coast in order to take care of some things he couldn't manage long distance. Lily hadn't asked for details and while she'd worried, tonight she was glad for her empty house. Knees still weak, she gripped the handrail as she climbed the stairs. When she reached the porch, the light came on, far too bright, momentarily blinding her and then, once she'd blinked away the spots, illuminating a string of ugly words.