When thesteeldust caught Wolfe’s scent, she nickered softly in welcome. He leaned over the stall door and looked inside. The breath went out of him as though at a blow.
Jessica was slumped in the far corner, asleep. The shotgun was propped against the wall within easy reach. A newborn blood-bay foal was curled against her, taking advantage of shared warmth. Silence grew while Wolfe measured the changes between the girl who had danced with him in London and the girl he was looking at now.
In London, Jessica’s skin had been as fine-grained and flawless as a pearl. America hadn’t been so kind. She had scratches and welts on one side of her face and her cheeks were chapped by the wind. In London, her color had been vivid, almost incandescent. Now her lips were pale, and exhaustion ringed her eyes with darkness.
It was only the beginning of the unhappy comparisons. In London, Jessica’s hair had been as sleek and burnished as flame, and jewels had glinted from its intricately coiffed depths. Now her hair was wild, wind-tangled, and mixed with straw. In London, her clothes had been designed and executed in the most expensive materials available, and her skirts had billowed like clouds. In America, she wore a boy’s flannel underwear, a boy’s buckskin shirt and breeches, and the evidence of her assistance at severalfoalings was spread from her shoulders to her small, durable boots.
In London, Jessica’s days were composed of teas and balls, plays and the latest books. In America, she worked like a scullery maid andstablehand combined. In London, she entertained her guests with wit and silver laughter. In America, she rarely laughed and had nearly died.
Jessi, what have I done to you?
There was no answer to Wolfe’s silent, anguished question except the truth: He had almost killed the girl who trusted him when she trusted nothing else on earth.
Making no sound, Wolfe went into the stall. He picked up the shotgun, took the shell from the firing chamber, and closed the gun. The small noise woke Jessica. She sat up with a start, automatically reaching for the corner where she had propped the shotgun out of the way.
«It’s all right, Jessi. The wolves are gone.»
She focused on Wolfe, blinked, and smiled sleepily. «All save one, and he is my very own Lord Wolfe. I’m safe with him.»
Pain went through Wolfe like black lightning, scoring his soul in ways he couldn’t name. He could feel it, though, a kind of agony he had never known before. Jessica trusted him without reservation, yet he had brought nothing but unhappiness and harm to her.
«My stupidity nearly killed you, elf. When I think how close you came to being torn apart by wolves…»
«You’re a fine shot,» she murmured, sliding back into sleep.
«I’m a fool.»
Though Wolfe’s voice was harsh, he was very gentle as he lifted Jessica into his arms. When she realized he meant to carry her from the stall, she woke up in a rush.
«Wait. You haven’t even looked at thesteeldust’s foal,» she protested. «She’ll be a wonderful foundation mare for our herd. I’ve never seen so fine a head on a foal, nor such a deep chest. It’s a filly. Isn’t that grand? In a few years she —»
«To hell with thesteeldust and her filly both,» Wolfe interrupted savagely. «Don’t youunderstand?Youcould have died.»
Jessica blinked. «So could you.»
«That’s different. It ends here, Jessi.»
«What?»
«I’m taking you back to London as soon as the passes are safe.»
«Going to give that carriage another shot at me, is that it?»
«What are you talking about?»
Jessica smiled and nuzzled Wolfe’s hardjawline. «I nearly got run down by a carriage in London, remember?»
Wolfe’s mouth flattened. «I remember.»
«You should. You beat that driver to within an inch of his life.»
«I would rather have killed the drunken bastard.»
«There are a lot more like him,» Jessica pointed out.
«So?»
«So I’m no safer in London than I am here, am I?»
The tip of Jessica’s tongue drew a line of sensual fire down Wolfe’s jaw.
«That’s not the point,» he said roughly.
«Then what is?»
«I’ve nearly killed you trying to make you admit that you aren’t cut from Western cloth. You’re a British aristocrat and you deserve to have the elegant life of ease for which you were bred, born, raised, and trained.»
As Wolfe spoke, he stepped out of the barn into the brilliant moonlight. The ground was cold and shiny with melting snow. The air was like warm silk.
«Nonsense,» Jessica said, yawning. «You wouldn’t be happy in England.»
«That won’t be a problem.»
Jessica went very still in Wolfe’s arms. All sleepiness fled before the wave of unease that swept through her.
«What are you saying?» she whispered.
«I’ll leave England as soon as our marriage is annulled.»
«I haven’t agreed to an —»
«You don’t have to,» Wolfe interrupted savagely. «I’ll be the one to seek the annulment.»
«But why?» she whispered. «What have I done to make you hate me so?»
«I don’t hate you. I never have, even when I wanted to throttle you for trapping me into marriage.»
«Then why are —»
Jessica got no farther in her question, for Wolfe’s mouth descended on hers. By the time he lifted his head once more, both of them were breathing quickly, hungrily.
«It’s over, Jessi. It never should have begun.»
«Wolfe, listen to me,» she said urgently. «I want to be your wife in all ways. I want to live with you, work beside you, bear your children, care for you when you are ill, and laugh with you when the rest of the world is a hundred shades of gray.»
The words were knives turning in Wolfe, tempting him unmercifully, slicing away at his self-control, making him bleed with all that could never be — an aristocratic elf and ahalfbreed mustang hunter. He had known it was impossible since she was fifteen.
And since she was fifteen, he had known what Hell was: living with what he wanted forever just beyond his reach, forever calling to him across an abyss he must not cross, for if he did, he would destroy the very thing he wanted.
He had nearly done just that despite his best intentions.
«I love you,» Jessica said. «I love —»
«No more,» Wolfe interrupted savagely, cutting across the words that were more painful to him than any blow he had ever received. «I am Tree That Stands Alone. You are Lady JessicaCharteris. You have nothing to fear in England any longer. I’ll see that you get a suitable husband or none at all.»
Wolfe would have preferred none at all. The thought of another man touching Jessica added another dimension to his own personal Hell. He wasn’t sure he could bear it. Yet he must. He took in a deep breath, let it out, and spoke more gently.
«I should be hung for ever bringing you to this wilderness.»
«But —»
«No more.»
Jessica flinched at the raw pain in Wolfe’s voice. It stopped her as nothing else could have. Fear went through her in a cold wave. She closed her eyes and turned her face against Wolfe’s neck, not wanting him to see her despair.
His anger she could fight, and had. His pain defeated her.
When Wolfe opened the kitchen door, Willow took one look at his dark face and breathed a wordless prayer. Wolfe walked right by her as though only he and Jessica existed.
«What is it? Is she hurt?» Willow asked anxiously, following.
«Just exhausted.»
As Wolfe kicked the bedroom door shut behind him, he saw that food, brandy, and pans of warm water had been set out in the bedroom. The hearth was alive with the dance of flame.
«Can you stand?» he asked quietly.
Jessica nodded.
Wolfe set her down near the hearth he had built for Caleb’s home and began undressing her with gentle hands. Jessica neither looked up nor objected. She simply stood with a docility that made Wolfe glance sharply at her from time to time. Soon she was wearing nothing but her filmypantelets and camisole. They looked startlingly clean, fragile, and feminine after the condition of her outer clothing. He eased the undergarments from her body as delicately as though they were made of moonlight.
Jessica shivered when the last bit of lace fell to the hearth, leaving her naked before the fire and the man she loved, the man she had hurt in ways she had never intended.
Wolfe swept the fur coverlet from the bed and wrapped it around her.
«Warm enough?» he asked.
Without looking at him, she nodded.
«Are you hungry?»
She shook her head.
«When did you last eat?» he asked.
«I don’t remember.»
The tone of Jessica’s voice went through Wolfe like an icy wind. There was no music, no laughter, none of the mischief and warmth that had danced in her voice since he had become her lover in all ways but one. The barrier of her maidenhead still lay between them, the abyss that must not be crossed.
Aristocrat andhalfbreed bastard.
«Jessi…» Wolfe whispered.
But there was nothing more he could say. It had all been said. All that remained was to return her to the land and the life for which she had been born; a land and a life that were impossible for him to share.
In silence, Wolfe found Jessica’s hairbrush and went back to the fire where she stood. Without a word, he began combing her snarled hair.
«I’m no longer so useless I can’t brush my own hair.»
Wolfe’s eyes narrowed at the loss of color and life in Jessica’s voice. It was the same for her body. Like grass flattened by a storm, she was defeated. Yet like grass, she would regain her resilience after the storm passed. He was certain of it. All she needed was rest and a return to her own place, her own people.
«I like brushing your hair,» Wolfe said. «It’s both cool and fiery, and it smells of roses. The feel and scent of you will always haunt me.»
Jessica made no other objection, because to speak would have been to reveal the tears aching in her throat. Wolfe was standing very close to her, yet he was withdrawing from her with every breath, every instant, and the brush was whispering his good-byes through her hair.
Eyes closed, Jessica stood with the patience of the damned while the man she loved tormented her with all she would never have of life and of him. If she could have died, she would have, but she could not. She could only endure the pain and pleasure of his touch and pray that tomorrow would never come, separating her from the only man she would ever love.
When Jessica’s hair swirled about her in a shining, softly curling cloud, Wolfe reluctantly put aside the brush. Air stirred by the movements of his body disturbed her hair, weaving firelight through the silky strands.
Wolfe’s breath came out in a soundless rush as he memorized the picture of Jessica standing in front of the fire. He wanted to see the aquamarine gems of her eyes, but they were hidden behind half-closed lids and thick eyelashes, as though she were too weary to bear even the sight of the man who had dragged her through Hell.
Wolfe brought the basins of warm water to the hearth. He wrung out a small, soft cloth in one of the basins, soaped it lightly, and began washing Jessica’s face. The fragrance of a summer rose garden slowly expanded through the room.
«I’m not so useless that I can’t wash myself,» she said quietly, looking at the stone hearth rather than at the man who was so gently and so completely tearing the heart from her body.
«I know. You’re tired. Let me take care of you as I should have from the beginning.»
Jessica’s eyelids flinched at the brush of the cloth on her cheek.
«Sore?» Wolfe whispered.
She shook her head wearily.
«Are you certain? Those welts look tender. How did you get them?»
«I don’t remember,» she said tonelessly.
Wolfe’s fingertips caressed Jessica’s cheek with great tenderness. Her breath hesitated, then frayed. When he eased the fur coverlet down to her waist, she made a tiny sound.
«Don’t worry, elf. I’m not going to demand any sensual games from you. You’re too tired…and I came too close to seeing you die to trust my own control tonight.»
Jessica’s eyes widened, seeking Wolfe’s for the first time. He didn’t notice. He was looking at the picture she made with the silver fur wrapped around her hips and her hair a mahogany glory spilling over the creamy curves of her breasts.
Slowly, Wolfe rearranged Jessica’s hair until it fell down her back. Even before the washcloth touched her breasts, the nipples gathered into tight velvet crowns, contrasting starkly with the pale satin of her skin.
«You’re more beautiful than fire itself,» Wolfe said huskily. «I’ll remember you like this until I die.»
And I’ll want you until I die.
Yet Wolfe said nothing of that, for the knowledge had just come to him in another stroke of black lightning, another raw wound burning in the depths of his soul.
Breath trembled out of Jessica when she saw the harsh lines of Wolfe’s face. She wanted to ask what was wrong, but didn’t trust herself to open her mouth without crying out her need and her love for the man who didn’t love her. So she stood silently, unable to speak for the sadness locked within her throat.
The fur wrap slid from Jessica’s hips into Wolfe’s hands and from there to the floor. He ignored the luminous beauty of the coverlet, for the curves of Jessica’s legs and the dark mahogany cloud concealing her feminine core were far more compelling to him than the rare arctic fur.
Slowly, Wolfe raised the washcloth and resumed bathing Jessica in a hushed silence. The first warm touch of water made her breath unravel in a soundless rush. When Wolfe asked wordlessly for more freedom of her body, she shifted, allowing him the intimacy. For long minutes, there was only the liquid dance of water, the whispering of flame, and the glide of cloth over skin. Finally, reluctantly, Wolfe rinsed away the last bit of soap, leaving behind the mingled fragrance of rose and warm woman.
«All done,» he said huskily.
He stood up in a rush and closed his eyes, unable to look at Jessica any longer without touching her in a way that had nothing to do with unspoken apologies and everything to do with the hunger whose fiery claws had long since raked him into readiness for the coupling that must never occur.
Jessica saw Wolfe’s need and felt her own, both physical hunger and something far more complex. Without a word she began unbuttoning Wolfe’s shirt.
His eyes snapped open.
«What are you doing?» he asked roughly.
«Undressing you.»
«I can see that.»
«Then you’ll be able to see me bathing you as gently as you bathed me.»
«No.»
«Why not?»
«You’re too tired.»
Jessica’s elegant fingers didn’t so much as pause in their work. «I’m no more tired than you.»
«Jessi…»
Her eyes met his. For a moment he didn’t know if he could bear what he saw in their clear, light blue depths.
«You have done as Lady Victoria asked,» Jessica said quietly. «You have taught me not to fear your touch. Now you are exiling me from your life. Will you deny me this night, too?»
Wolfe knew he should do just that, but he couldn’t force the words past his lips. Jessica finally had accepted the end that he had always known must come: She would fight the annulment no longer.
He hadn’t expected victory to be so painful.
You are exiling me from your life.
Silently, Wolfe removed his boots and socks, then closed his eyes and stood motionless while Jessica undressed him. With a distant sense of surprise, he realized that he had never given himself to a woman in this way, trusting her enough to surrender sensual control to her hands.
The feel of Jessica removing his shirt was exquisite. The tug and release of his belt, followed by the slow, inevitable slide of his remaining clothes down his body was extraordinary, like being naked for the first time. With a feeling of unreality, he stepped out of his clothes and brushed them aside with his foot.
The first touch of the warm washcloth against Wolfe’s face made his eyelids flinch.
«Sore?» she asked softly, echoing Wolfe’s earlier question.
«You flinched the same way when I first touched you with the washcloth. Were you sore?»
«No. I wanted you so much that even the lightest touch was almost more than I could bear.»
«Yes,» Wolfe said simply, opening his eyes, hiding from Jessica no longer.
He felt her breath as a warm rush over his chest when she looked into his eyes.
«In this, at least, we are well matched,» Jessica whispered.
Wolfe didn’t answer. He couldn’t. The feel of warm water against the pulse on his neck had taken his breath. The sound of the cloth being rinsed was a quicksilver music in the silence. The fragrance of a rose’s softly opening petals filled his senses. The slight roughness of the washcloth brought his body toexcrutiating fullness.
He closed his eyes once more, absorbing Jessica’s presence into his very pores while the cloth moved slowly over his arms and shoulders, washing away fatigue with slow sweeps of warmth, dissolving everything but the certainty of Jessica’s touch, her soft breathing, her scent wrapping him in a sensuality he had never known before. For an immeasurable time, he lived suspended between firelight and an elf whose touch created a new, magical world.
Water made gentle silver sounds as first the cloth and then his skin was rinsed. He sensed Jessica kneeling before him. When the cloth returned, it was to wash him without hesitation or inhibition. He couldn’t hide, for wherever she touched him, she would discover his passion.
But Wolfe no longer cared about hiding, for he knew Jessica burned for him in the same way. She was touching him as if he were a dream condensing out of firelight, cherishing him in a hushed silence that was itself another kind of caress.
The washcloth slipped from her fingers and fell forgotten onto the hearth. The feel of her hands on his thighs was both relief and another turn of passion’s rack. The glide of her palms over him was a pleasure so great it was pain. The gentle rush of her breath over his heavy arousal was Heaven and Hell in one.
Wolfe couldn’t prevent the low sound he made when Jessica’s hand cupped him. Nor could he prevent the single silver drop that condensed, speaking so deeply of the need within him.
When she kissed away the evidence of his need, she brought him to his knees.
«You’re burning me alive,» Wolfe said hoarsely.
«No more than you’re burning me,» she whispered, pulling Wolfe’s hands down her body. «Touch me. Know how much I want you.»
It was like sliding into fire. There was no withdrawal, no coy retreat, nothing but the sultry rose opening at his first touch, weeping for him and yielding to him at the same instant. She clung to him, watching him, seeing the shivering rush of her own passion in the expanding center of his eyes, feeling it in the silky heat gilding his hand.
Then Jessica could support her own weight no longer. With a husky moan she sank down onto the fur, drawing Wolfe with her, keeping his hand pressed deeply to her.
«You have taught me so much about a man’s body,» Jessica whispered. «I never would have guessed…»
Her voice frayed into another husky cry as Wolfe’s hand cupped her and stole into her in the same sweet motion. Unable to help her response, she moved her hips in slow counterpoint to his motions, deepening his presence within her body.
Wolfe closed his eyes and tested the heart of the flower that had been given to him. He found only clinging ease and secret rain shielded by a maidenhood as fragile as flame. She wanted him as he had never been wanted by anyone, and she was telling him with each sultry drop, calling to him in a silence that was infused with hunger and the scent of roses.
«What would you never have guessed?» Wolfe asked when he could trust himself to speak.
«That you were made of honey and fire.»
«It’s you, not me. Honey and fire.»
Wolfe breathed Jessica’s name and withdrew from the satin sheath of her body, heard her cry out at the loss of him. For two seconds he endured it, for three seconds, then he could take no more of their shared pain. He slid within her again, and felt the sweet agony of her response all the way to his soul.
«Hold me,» Jessica whispered. «I need to feel you pressed against me. Please, Wolfe.Ineed you.»
«I shouldn’t.»
«Why?»
«You’re too dangerous when you burn. You make me forget…everything.»
Yet even as Wolfe was speaking, he was moving over Jessica, crushing her gently into the fur. The feel of her along his naked body went through him in a soundless explosion of heat. When she shifted to draw him even closer, he pinned her hips with his own.
«Lie still,» Wolfe breathed against Jessica’s mouth. «You’ll make me lose control. I don’t want that yet.»
«What do you want?»
«Your kiss.»
«It’s yours, Wolfe. Only yours.»
He took what she gave, giving himself in return. It was like no other kiss he had known. He felt her as though he was in her skin, burning, and she was in his, on fire. Slowly, his body moved against hers, pleasuring both of them in the same gliding motions. She answered instinctively, opening herself, seeking him blindly, needing him until she wept.
Yet no matter how she struggled, he withheld himself.
«Wolfe,» Jessica said, her voice strained. «Don’t you want me? You’ve taught me so much about your body and my own. Teach me about the shared body of love.»
«No, elf.»
«Is coupling that painful? Is that what you don’t want me to know? Is that what you’re sending me back to England to face alone, knowing that someday your elf will lie screaming and bleeding beneath a rutting man?»
Wolfe shuddered with a combination of rage at the thought of Jessica lying beneath another man and desire because she was lying beneath him now with her legs open and her hungry softness pressing against him, licking over him with honey and fire.
«Jessi, no,» he groaned. «It must not be.»
But whether he meant her coupling with another man in the future or having Wolfe buried within her now, even Wolfe couldn’t say.
«Then I’m right,» Jessica accused wildly. «I will be ripped apart. You have seduced me with everything but the truth!»
«Taking a man within your body won’t hurt you.»
«I don’t believe you,» she raged. «I have seen a man aroused. I have felt myself tight around no more than your finger. You are lying to me!»
Jessica’s body twisted beneath Wolfe, inciting him beyond bearing. Even as he told himself to roll aside, he caught her mouth beneath his and sank down over her body, absorbing her struggles with his much greater strength. His tongue thrust heavily into her mouth and filled it as he longed to fill her body. His hips moved, dragging his hardened flesh over the softness he had called from her.
Heat pulsed through Jessica and spilled over to Wolfe, increasing the stunning sensitivity of flesh sliding across flesh. He made a throttled sound as every muscle in his body clenched with passion and a need that was destroying him.
With a low moan, Jessica arched against him, for she needed the heaviness of his body more than she needed air.
«Hold still,» Wolfe said in a hoarse voice. «Don’t move unless I tell you. Do you hear me, Jessi? I’m going to show you how little you will have to fear from aman.Butyou must lie still.»
She shuddered and became motionless.
Wolfe took a breath and then another, trying to get a grip on the wild, seething violence of his need for her. It was impossible. Control kept sliding away by hot increments, leaving no reality but that of the girl who lay ready beneath him, watching him with eyes that were black with passion.
«Wrap your legs around my hips. Slowly, Jessi. Very slowly.»
Watching him, she shifted in slow motion until her legs circled his hips.
«Like this?» Jessi whispered.
Wolfe locked his jaw as he brushed against the sultry woman heat that lay open to him. A long shudder racked his restraint, threatening to tear it apart. He took several careful breaths.
«Yes, like that.» His voice was low, almost a groan. «Just like that. Don’t move, Jessi. Not one bit. I’m going to show you how easily you’ll accept a man.»
«Now?»
«Now. Just for a moment. Just a little bit. Just so you won’t be afraid. I won’t take your maidenhead, but you must lie very, very still.»
Jessica’s eyes widened as Wolfe’s fingers caressed her, parted her very gently, eased into her so slowly that she couldn’t believe it was happening at all.
And then she realized it wasn’t his fingers pressing into her.
«Dear God,» Jessica whispered.
«Yes. Dear God.»
Another shudder racked Wolfe as he eased a bit farther into the petal softness of Jessica’s body. He watched the center of her eyes expand into glittering blackness, tasted the unraveling of her breath against his lips, felt her hot, supple yielding to him, heard the small sound she made at the back of her throat as her nails scored sweetly on his arms.
«Am I hurting you?» he breathed.
The whimper that came from Jessica’s throat as her eyes closed wasn’t an answer, but the secret rain of her response was.
It took his breath away.
«Jessi, my sweet elf…»
Shaking, Wolfe threaded his fingers through her unbound hair until his hands were wholly tangled within the long strands. He wanted nothing more on earth than to flex his hips and bury himself in her sleek, yielding warmth.
What was making sweat break all over his body was the knowledge that Jessica wanted it as violently as he did.
«Look at me,» Wolfe said heavily. «I want to see you while we’re joined even in this small way. Christ knows it’s not enough, not nearly enough, but it’s all that can be. Look at me, Jessi. Let me see the passion in you.»
Slowly, Jessica’s eyes opened. She looked at the hard lines of Wolfe’s face, at his body drawn with restraint and glistening with sweat. His eyes were dilated with the same passion that was sending tongues of fire licking up from between her thighs.
Then he moved slightly, retreating and returning with exquisite care.
A burst of fire drenched Jessica in golden heat. Wolfe felt it, shared it, and moved again, caressing her with his whole body. She gasped and tightened her legs around his hips, instinctively trying to deepen the tantalizing union.
Wolfe’s fists clenched in Jessica’s long hair as he felt his self-control dissolving in the hot, secret rain of her body. He knew he should withdraw completely from her heat, but he couldn’t force himself to. She was everything he had ever wanted, and he had wanted her much too long.
Telling himself it would be the last time, he moved again, tormenting both of them with the incomplete union.
«Does this hurt you?» he asked through his teeth.
Jessica shook her head even as she wondered at the harshness in his voice. Heat shimmered through her, making her gasp.
Breath hissed out of Wolfe as he felt passion ripple through Jessica to his own flesh just within her. Sweat gathered and ran down his spine. He knew he must draw back before the sweet violence overcame what was left of his restraint.
«You have nothing to fear from a man inside your body,» Wolfe said through clenched teeth. His own need knotted and twisted within him, wrenching him until he wanted to cry out with anguish. «Do you hear me, elf? You have nothing to fear.»
Jessica’s breath unraveled. Her hips moved rhythmically as pleasure peaked and ebbed and peaked once more.
«Stop,» Wolfe said. Tremors jerked through him at each melting of her body around him. «Jessi — stop!»
«I’m sorry. I can’t. I — Wolfe.»
He saw her teeth sink into her lower lip as she fought the fulfillment that was taking her. He brushed his open mouth over hers as he moved very slowly within her.
«Never mind, elf,» he breathed into her mouth. «It’s all right. Don’t fight it. Let me feel your pleasure.»
Wolfe’s hand moved between their bodies, capturing the silky bud. He felt the splintering, shivering heat that washed through Jessica to him. The abandon of her response took him to the breaking edge of his control, and he hung there, shaking, while she clung hotly to him, silently begging for more of him with each sultry pulse of her pleasure.
«There’s such fire in you,» Wolfe whispered.
«You’re killing me, Jessi. You could take every bit of me without pain and you must know it as well as I.»
Heavy-lidded eyes opened and watched Wolfe as he teased the sensitive flower that had opened for him. Passion burned as deeply in her glance as it did in her body.
«All I know is that you are not the same as other men,» Jessica said.
«In this,» he moved his hips, «I am no different.»
«Dear God,» she whispered. «Again.»
«What?»
«Do that again. Please, Wolfe. Again.»
With a whispered curse that was also a prayer for strength, Wolfe moved within Jessica once more and at the same time caressed her with his fingers.
She made a low sound as a network of sensation raced through her, leaving ecstasy shimmering in its wake. She gave herself to the tender ravishment and to the man who had called passion from her depths. With each sensual peak shivering through her, she kissed him, whispering to him, telling him the only truth that mattered.
«You are…my Lord Wolfe.»
Her words became part of the blood hammering through Wolfe’s veins. Feeling and hearing the silky climax unravel Jessica was burning him so softly, so completely, that he didn’t know he was wholly afire. A shudder went through him at each touch of her mouth, but her words were even more seductive, telling him what he had always known and never wanted to face.
«I will take…no other man…into my body.»
Jessica’s hands slid down Wolfe’s hot back to the rigid muscles of his hips, seeking his very different flesh, finding it. With exquisite care, she drew her nails over him.
«Make me yours, Wolfe…only yours.»
Jessica’s name was an anguished cry against her throat as Wolfe’s control broke. He drove completely into her, changing her body in a sweeping, irrevocable instant.
Her breath tore as she was filled to overflowing. He was so deeply inside her that she felt the pulses of his release as clearly as she felt her own heartbeat. She put her arms around his shaking body and held him, kissing his eyes and cheeks and the corners of his mouth until he had the breath to speak once more.
«Now you are mine, Jessi. Only mine.» As Wolfe lowered his mouth to hers, he whispered, «May God have mercy on my soul.»
«Wolfe?» Her arms tightened around him. «What’s wrong?»
«It doesn’t matter anymore. I’ve burned for you so long that Hell has nothing new to teach me. But I have new things to teach you, Jessi. Heaven and Hell combined.»
Before Jessica could say anything more, Wolfe sealed her lips with a kiss that claimed her mouth as completely as he had claimed her body. Then his hips moved powerfully and she forgot everything but his heavy presence within her.
Pleasure coursed through Jessica with each thrusting motion Wolfe made. Her body tightened and tightened until she couldn’t breathe, yet still Wolfe moved in sensual rhythms over her, against her, within her, setting fire to every bit of her, burning her alive.
She tried to speak but could think of no words, much less shape her tongue to form them. All she could say was his name, and she said it again and again as he ripped the world away, leaving her nothing to hang onto but him.
Forerunners of savage ecstasy clawed through Jessica, drawing her body into a shivering arch. She gasped at the unexpected sensations. They were more acute than anything she had ever known, almost frightening in their intensity.
«Wolfe?»
«You’re feeling it now, aren’t you?» Wolfe’s voice was as dark as his eyes watching her. «You wanted this, Jessi. You’ve wanted it since you were fifteen. And since you were fifteen, I’ve wanted to give it to you.»
Jessica gasped and her eyes widened with surprise as sensual lightning transfixed her, arching her into Wolfe’s driving body. He laughed and bit her neck hard enough to leave passionate marks.
«Heaven and Hell combined, Jessi. I’m going to burn you all the way to your soul.»
The restrained savagery of Wolfe’s teeth against her hot skin dragged a moan from Jessica. When she made a sharp, rising sound, he sealed her mouth with his own. He took her cries into himself and dragged more of them from her, wanting all that she had to give.
Nails scored Wolfe’s skin, drawing a primitive sound of need from him. The small pain simply served to focus the seething violence of pleasure. When he shifted his mouth to the pulse beating wildly in Jessica’s neck, she responded to the barely veiled savagery of the caress by arching like a drawn bow.
Wolfe held her there, stretched and quivering on a rack of pleasure, and then he began moving again, driving her higher and higher with each powerful motion of his body. Her breath became as broken as his, her skin as hot, as slick, until she was wild with need for the consummation that he kept just beyond her reach.
«I can’t bear it,» Jessica said raggedly, dragging her teeth across Wolfe’s chest in sensual punishment, twisting beneath him, seeking relief.
Wolfe laughed and bit her shoulder as he pinned her with his hips. «I’ve burned like this for five years. Surely you can stand five minutes?»
When Jessica’s hands slid down Wolfe’s body, he shuddered, caught her wrists, and held them in one hand above her head.
«None of your sweet tricks, elf.»
«You are — torturing me.»
«I’mtorturingme. I’m teaching you. Wrap those beautiful legs around my waist. Yes, like that. Now lift your hips,» Wolfe whispered against Jessica’s mouth, biting her between each word, «and you will find what you’ve been seeking so hotly.»
Jessica lifted toward him as he drove into her. The ecstasy was so intense, she would have screamed if she could have, but Wolfe had taken her breath even as he had claimed her mouth. He slid his arm beneath her hips, dragging her so tightly against his body that he could feel her very bones. Then he thrust into her hard and deep, wanting to find the point beyond which she would refuse him.
What he found was more sleek yielding to him, heat surrounding him, burning him, Heaven and Hell combined as he hurtled headlong with her into the sun.
Later, much later, Wolfe held Jessica while she slept and he counted the cost of what he had done.