All Through the Night (44 page)

When she came to, Jacob was collapsed on top of her, shivering in the aftermath of his own orgasm. He lifted himself off her with a harsh sigh, sliding slowly out of her body. She struggled upright and turned to face him. His face was as shocked and naked as she knew her own must be. She reached down with trembling fingers to pull up her jeans.

“Don’t bother,” Jacob said, yanking off his shirt. “Take your clothes off and leave them out here. They can’t get any wetter. This rain’s not going to stop.”

The calm, practical observation grounded her a little. She tugged off her muddy shoes and peeled off her jeans and shirt, leaving them in a wet heap on the tarp. They stood there, stark naked in the rain, staring as if they were afraid of each other, both sharply aware of the heat that licked and curled between them, wholly unabated.

“Get into the tent,” he said curtly.

She crawled inside. Rain pounded in a soft, constant roar on the plastic rain canopy, and she was grateful that she had set it up earlier. Her sleeping bag felt thin and clammy.

The zipper opened, and Jacob thrust in a dry, folded flannel shirt. “Dry yourself off with this. Your towel is buried in mud.”

She was still rubbing herself with it when the zipper opened again. He shoved two big bundles into the opening and crawled in after them, closing the tent flap. She handed him the shirt. He dried himself briskly and flicked on his new lantern. It glowed a warm, rosy red.

His eyes were unreadable in the shadows. “Scoot over,” he said.

She scooted, and watched him spread out the foam mattress.

“Jacob, I’m all muddy,” she objected. “And they’re brand-new.”

“We need them,” he said flatly, ripping the plastic on the sleeping bags open. He flung one on top of the other and zipped them closed. “I want to be on top.”

She drew her knees up to her chest and hugged them. “You mean… you still want to…”

“Oh, yes. I still want to.” He grabbed her hand and drew it to his lap, closing it around the hard, scorching flesh of his penis. “I’m not done, Annie. It’s going to be a long night.”

She pulled her hand away, unnerved by the remote tone in his voice. “Are you still mad?”

He regarded her with narrowed eyes. “Yes,” he said coolly. “It’s better than it was, but we’ve got a ways to go yet.”

She shook her head. “I can’t believe you have the energy to be angry after… after what just happened,” she murmured.

He smiled, but it was not a smile that warmed her. “You’ll be surprised what I have the energy for. Lie down on your back.”

She hesitated. “Why does it have to be like this, Jacob?”

He shrugged, his shadowed face inscrutable. “I’ll leave you alone, if that’s what you want. Just say the word. But if you want me to stay, then deal with me.”

She looked away from him, and he made a low, impatient sound in his throat. His hand hooked her chin and jerked her face around. “I’m not going to pretend for you,” he said curtly. “Understood?”

She pulled away, her eyes locked with his, and nodded silently.

“Good. Lie down on your back,” he repeated.

Annie scooted into the middle of the expanse of blue nylon and hesitantly lowered herself onto it. The fabric was cool and slippery against her skin, but the fluffy down was exquisitely soft and yielding. She lay back, looking up at him apprehensively.

Jacob studied her supine body for what seemed like an eternity before he reached out and put his hands on her knees, spreading her legs. He settled himself between them, holding her wide open and sliding his hands over the soft, sensitive skin of her inner thighs, staring hungrily down at her quivering, exposed flesh. She moved restlessly, but his hands tightened on her thighs, pinning her into place. He grabbed a condom from the box by the lantern, opened it and rolled it onto himself with a calm, purposeful air.

“I can’t stand it when you’re cold,” she burst out.

His eyes flicked to her face. He splayed his warm hand on her belly. “I’m not cold,” he said. “I’ve never felt so hot. I’m burning up.” He pushed her thighs wide until she was folded back on herself, and slid his fingers inside her, finding her still moist and flushed from his last onslaught. He stared into her eyes as he mounted her, and she flinched as she felt the hard, blunt head of his penis nudging her open.

“That’s not what I meant,” she whispered, and then gave a sharp cry as he drove himself inside her, hard and deep.

Even though he had been inside her just moments before, it was still a shocking intrusion, and she stiffened in automatic resistance. His steely strength pinned her down, and she realized that always before he had been gentle with her, careful not to overwhelm her with his strength and size and sheer physical presence.

He wasn’t bothering to do so any longer. He shoved himself inside her until he was as deep as he could go. She felt breathless, ravaged and vulnerable, like a city that had been sacked. Panic flared inside her. This was all wrong, terribly wrong. She had miscalculated, she’d thought that she could take it, but she couldn’t. It was unendurable, the helplessness, the remote, faraway look on his face. Anger exploded inside her, and she struck out at him, getting in a good, openhanded whack on his jaw before he caught her wrists.

“What the hell?” He bore down with even more of his weight, his eyes flashing with anger.

“I’m sick of your power games, you arrogant bastard,” she hissed.

He pinned her wrists over her head and kissed her hard. “I’m not playing a game, Annie. This is absolutely for real.”

She struggled beneath him. He responded with a heavy thrust that jerked a cry out of her throat, then another, and another. She shut her eyes tightly and trembled, wondering frantically how many more surrenders could she take, how far she could yield to his conquering energy and still be herself. How long it would be before this man looming over her plundered and claimed everything. She bit her lip to push away tears and forced herself to relax her trembling limbs. “Damn you, Jacob,” she whispered. “Just don’t hurt me.”

His body went rigid. “I would
never
hurt you.” His voice was sharp with anger. “How long is it going to take you to figure that out?”

“You’re hurting me now!” she cried out wildly.

His chest heaved and he stared down at her with fierce concentration, as if trying to read her mind. “You loved what I did to you,” he insisted, his voice low and furious. “I felt how much you loved it. I felt you come. You couldn’t hide it from me.”

“That’s not what I meant,” she gasped out. Her body tightened around him eagerly as he thrust inside her once again.

“So what the hell do you mean?” His voice broke in frustration. “I feel it now, too. I feel how hot you are, how wet, how your body hugs me. I’m not hurting you, Annie. And you know that I won’t. Ever.”

He surged into her, and she squeezed her eyes shut as her hips jerked involuntarily.

“Look at me!” he demanded, and her eyes snapped open at the sharp command in his voice. “Say it, Annie. Let me hear you say that you’ve got nothing to fear from me.”

She shook her head, knowing that he was wrong. He could hurt her. Oh, God, could he ever. He could break her heart into a thousand tiny pieces. That was the nameless terror that had been dogging her from the first moment he spoke to her. But with white-hot anger blazing in his eyes, she couldn’t tell him that. Incomprehension lay between them, tangled and snarled, and she was frozen mute.

“Say it, Annie!” he demanded, his voice cracking with strain.

She cleared her throat. “I hope you appreciate the irony of trying to intimidate me into saying I’m not scared of you,” she said softly.

He scowled. “This is no time for smart-ass remarks. Say it!”

She took as deep a breath as she could with Jacob’s body pinning her down. “I know you would never mean to hurt me,” she said quietly.

His eyes narrowed. “That’s not what I wanted you to say.”

“That’s the best I can do,” she told him.

A shudder went through him. He scooped her wet hair from beneath her neck, fanning it gently above her head. “Do you trust me?” he asked, his voice rough and urgent.

Her heart twisted painfully. “Yes,” she said simply. In spite of everything, it was still true.

He hid his face against the wet hair coiled beside her cheek, and slowly let go of her wrists. “Put your arms around me,” he ordered.

She did so without hesitation.

“Now your legs.”

She wiggled beneath him, and he lifted himself up, letting her shift her hips until she was cradling him in a position of complete acceptance. He thrust himself deeply into her tight sheath until they were completely joined, and she wrapped her legs around him, clenching herself tightly around his solid warmth.

“That’s better,” he muttered.

She hid her face against his neck. “Yes, it is,” she whispered.

He began to move, more gently this time, and groaned softly at the snug, gliding perfection of her welcoming body. He kissed her neck, lifted his head and said suddenly, “It was all a bluff, you know.”

Her eyes snapped open. “What was a bluff?”

“All that stuff I said. About how I would just up and leave if you didn’t yield to my dark desires.”

She was speechless with surprise.

Jacob surged into her with melting tenderness, cradled her face in his hands and stared into her eyes. “I would never have left you alone tonight, Annie. Under any circumstances.”

“Oh,” she gasped, staring up at him. He was trying to tell her something, something incredibly important, but it was in code, and she was afraid to translate it wrong. “And I fell for it,” she whispered.

“Yeah, you fell for it,” he agreed, his lips twitching slightly.

The smile pissed her off. She stared up at him, eyes slitted. “You’re a manipulative bastard, Jacob,” she said in a low voice.

“Yeah, I know,” he said in a wondering tone. “It’s a whole new me.”

Then he covered her mouth with his and there was no more space or air to examine hidden messages. There was nothing but his elemental force, driving her deeper and higher into herself. His anger had made her feel vulnerable, but his tenderness was even more perilous. It melted her barriers effortlessly, blurred her boundaries, left her utterly bare—a creature made of naked energy, pure emotion. Unrecognizable to herself.

There was no end to the layers he could strip off her soul.

Chapter Five

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The rain had finally stopped, and dawn was near. Annie listened to the birds twittering, an ache of sweet exhaustion pervading her body, and tried to think of a way to extricate herself from Jacob’s arms without waking him. It was a considerable challenge. His muscular arm was clasped around her waist; his hand splayed possessively across her belly and the tips of his long fingers tangled intimately into the hair between her legs. One long, sinewy leg was firmly wedged between her thighs. And he was so warm. It was hard to get up the nerve to break the seal and let cold air rush between them. She wiggled experimentally. Jacob sighed and pulled her tighter against him, fitting her backside against his belly. Nature called, however, so Annie gritted her teeth and flung back the warm, soft sleeping bag.

His arm clamped around her, as rigid as steel. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

Her muscles jerked, and she schooled her face to calmness before twisting in his arms to look at him. “I have to pee,” she said quietly.

He propped himself onto his elbow, frowning. “Don’t go far.”

“I won’t,” she promised, grabbing the only garment in the tent—the damp flannel shirt they had dried themselves with the evening before. She draped it over herself and crept out of the tent, teeth chattering.

The bathrooms were on the far side of the deserted campground, and the shirt only reached to mid-thigh, so she fished a pack of Kleenex out of the glove compartment in the pickup and headed straight into the forest. It was shadowy and fragrant, lambent with the subtle, pearly glow that preceded dawn. The world looked different. Everything inside her was shaken up, intensely alive.

She took care of her business behind a bush, and when she straightened up, she found herself looking into the eyes of a young male deer, no more than fifteen feet away. He gazed at her for a moment, apparently unafraid, and then bounded away with a casual grace that left her breathless. His beauty made her think of the doe at the pool the day before, which triggered an avalanche of images and feelings.

When Jacob had finally dozed off, holding her tightly against his chest, she had been unable to sleep. There was a quiet earthquake taking place inside her mind and her heart. Last night’s shining seed of awareness had sprouted and grown over the night, and there was no longer any doubt. She was in love with him. It was a disaster, but it was too late for damage control. It had probably been too late from the first moment he kissed her.