Bound by Light (25 page)

Jake seemed to consider this. He didn’t sound threatened or offended at her prying when he answered, "More like a library I can access when I need information. After the training—but it’s kind of hard to get to sometimes."

Merilee got lost in imagining the luxury of a vast computer archive in her head—a computer not affected by Sibyl energy—crammed with information and wisdom gathered by all Sibyls, everywhere, since the beginning of time. Painful or not, she would have to learn to use it, like Jake did. Even if taming the ability meant risking asking for help from three different sets of Sibyl Mothers, as Jake had done.

Merilee cut Jake another sidelong glance. Her nipples tightened, rubbing hard against her leather bodysuit.
A hunk
and
a genius. Like . . . Spock on steroids? No, wait. Aragorn from
Lord of the Rings—
with a Ph.D. in physics. Sweet Aphrodite, I think I’ll just come now and get it over with.

Where was that damned townhouse?

She glanced around, grateful to realize they were only a few blocks away. Soon, they’d leave the park and hit sidewalks and streetlamps. Then home. And to her room, to sort out this unbelievable attraction in the best, most efficient way possible.

Merilee gripped Jake’s hand and licked her lips.

If anything even thought about stopping them, she’d shoot it full of arrows.

"Did you discuss your nightmares with the Mothers again?" he asked, sending a cold chill through the hot breeze of her desire.

The question caught her sideways, but she managed to answer cleanly with, "They told me to keep recording what I see, so I’ve been doing that. They didn’t seem too concerned that you saw what I was dreaming about." Her face and body heated as she realized he didn’t ask if she’d had more nightmares. He asked if she had told the Mothers. So he probably knew she’d been running from the Stone Man in her sleep. And . . .

Merilee suppressed a massive, self-conscious twitch and barely kept walking. "Have you—um—seen any more of my dreams since you left?"

Like the ones where I’m riding you like a bucking mustang?

Jake said nothing, but the corner of his mouth twitched, and he held her arm closer to his body as they headed toward the boundary of the park.

Oh, shit.

In one quick second, Merilee’s sense of control over her own destiny slipped away from her, and jets of wind escaped to tease nearby trees and grass. They actually whistled as they went, damnit. And the surface temperature of her skin rose to at least five hundred degrees.

Were her hands starting to sweat? That would probably gross Jake out, if she did the slick-palm thing before she ever got him between the sheets. Merilee kept the air moving so no matter what, she’d stay passably dry. Outside the bodysuit, anyway. The thought of his viewing her intimate dreams, her fantasies about him, freaked her right out—and made her ache between her legs—in the exact spot she wanted his mouth, his hands, that impressive cock she had glimpsed under her bathroom towel.

Maintain . . . maintain . . .

At the edge of the park, at the point where a few more steps would take them back to the reality of cars and buses and cabs, Merilee got too dizzy to keep moving.

She paused and tugged Jake to a stop with her.

He let go of her hand and faced her, his expression a mixture of confusion, concern, and unmistakable raw male desire.

On either side of them, bushes swayed in the cool April darkness. Budding leaves dotted branches above, clearly visible in the silvery light of the crescent moon. Grass stretched toward empty, sloping rocks on either side of them, while the path they had taken from Belvedere Castle remained deserted.

Every detail etched itself into Merilee’s reeling mind, along with the definition of every muscle in his upper body.

The world seemed very, very distant.

Trying to keep her wits, Merilee fixed her keen Sibyl vision on his unusual gray-blue eyes. Tonight, they were as dark and velvety as the sky above them, with a full complement of glittering stars. "
Have
you seen my dreams?" she asked, her voice coming out a whisper against the steady breeze.

Jake glanced at the ground, then met her stare as his short blond hair stirred in the fits of wind Merilee couldn’t begin to hold back. "A few. The ones that were more . . . intense."

Was he blushing?

Actually blushing?

Goddamn, she was going to fall in love with this demon bastard before she ever got to sleep with him.

Am I already in love with him?

Is that what this too-serious thing is all about?

Shit.

She cleared her throat. "I’m not sure how I feel about you dreaming my dreams."

Jake’s storm-cloud eyes, bright in the moonlight, held her tighter than any embrace. "It’s not my . . . intention to invade"—the color in Jake’s cheeks deepened until Merilee’s heart fluttered—"ah, your privacy."

Despite her flustered state, she didn’t miss the first hesitation in his statement, and she was sure he had been about to say
choice
. That it wasn’t his choice to dream her dreams. But he had changed direction because that wouldn’t have been true.

As it was, the truth of his desire filled the space between them. It was evident in the crackle of his gaze, the tight lines of his powerful body.

He wants to see my fantasies about him.

He wants
me.

Why did they have to wait for the townhouse? There was a nice big bush right behind him.

Merilee moved forward and pressed both hands against his smooth, tanned rock of a chest. He stood still, staring at her as she brushed her palms across each taut strip of muscle, moving up to his shoulders, then down, over his hard, cut abs.

She couldn’t breathe, but wind rumbled around both of them in a wide circle, shutting out anyone who might dare to come too close.

Jake didn’t move until Merilee’s hands reached the waist of his jeans. That’s when she felt his fast, firm grip on her elbows. So much power. He could pick her up and fling her halfway to Greece, she was sure of it.

Instead, he jerked her to him at the same time her air energy forced them closer. Into a tight sleeve of moving, whispering wind and hot skin and leather, and his wonderful, unusual scent, and then he was kissing her, but not just kissing her, dear goddesses, no, taking her with his mouth, his tongue, wrapping his heavy arms around her, forcing his body against hers. Sweet and rough. He tasted as spicy as he smelled. Her lips tingled.
All
of her tingled. Jake’s stiff cock pressed into her belly, and Merilee imagined she could hear his blood rushing in the same rhythm as hers.

She fell completely into the kiss, into the sensations she had been craving since that night in the library, when she had first gotten a good sample of Jake Lowell. This time, by Athena’s teeth, he
wasn’t
getting away from her.

Merilee clung to his neck, letting him hold her on her feet as she rubbed her leathers over his chest and jeans. She wished she were naked. Wished he was already inside her now, right now. Damn, she ached for him. She wanted him on top of her, driving hard inside her as the wind beat leaves and branches all over New York City.

When he bit her lower lip, Merilee moaned from the stinging, throbbing pleasure of it.

His strong hands gripped her ass, squeezed, and he made her moan again as he moved into her, showing her, giving her hints of how good he’d be.

Jake broke the kiss, but Merilee grabbed the sides of his face and reclaimed his mouth. She couldn’t let him go, not with just one, or two, or even three or four. He stroked her back, her shoulders as he kissed her, more tender each time. She felt like she was standing in the deceptive, silent eye of a hurricane, surrounded by walls of wind reaching toward the stars.

Her heart beat so fast, so hard she didn’t think she could speak, especially not when he pulled his lips away from hers and whispered, "I still don’t think this is a good idea."

She found her voice fast enough, though. "Okay, yeah, all that fair and right bullshit the other night. What the fuck were you talking about?"

The question sounded like a gasp.

Pathetic. But I so don’t care.

Her face was only inches from his. His arms still held her tight. Yes. And that cock. Sweet Aphrodite. All she wanted was that, inside her. Her mouth on his again, his teeth on her nipples, his hands inside her leathers finding every hot, wet spot she wanted him to touch.

But Jake let her go just as he did in the library, and he carefully pushed her back a step.

Her insides screamed to throw her body against his all over again. It felt wrong to be away from him. And she was so worked up, she might just explode into one big windstorm if he didn’t want to see this through.

"If you frustrate me again, I think I’ll just kill you. At least if you’re dead, I might get my sanity back."

"I can’t pretend I don’t want you." He studied her with those eerie eyes, his voice husky, barely controlled, which only made the air encasing them rush all the faster. "But I’m damaged goods, Merilee."

He glanced down at his chest, and she knew he was talking about the scars under his shirt. "My mother cut me to pieces using me for her damned rituals—and then she murdered me and turned me into a demon. Not half demon. Not part demon. I’m an Astaroth. Full-fledged. Do you get that?" His voice cracked, and Merilee almost cried for him then and there. Would have, if she hadn’t known it would shut him down totally and completely. "

I would never be able to give you a normal woman’s life," he whispered, once more meeting her eyes. "And on top of that, my talisman, or the risk somebody could swipe it and override my will, that makes me dangerous."

Merilee gazed back at Jake and swallowed despite the tightness in her throat. "No normal life. A dangerous lover. Got it. And I don’t care."

Before he could argue, she grabbed hold of his neck again, and found his lips, and he didn’t push her away. Not that kiss, or the next, or the next.

When she finally did let him—and herself—breathe, she said, "Don’t ever make decisions for me again, Jake Lowell. That’s disrespectful. Share the information, tell me your concerns, but I make up my own mind about what risks I choose to take."

Jake’s expression went from heavy-eyed to stunned to understanding mingled with surprise. His arms tightened around her. "I’m . . . sorry. I hadn’t thought about it that way."

He’s adorable
. Merilee kissed him again, then whispered in his ear, "Yeah, well, I’ll give you a pass, but only this once."

As Jake bit her neck, she eased the zipper of her jumpsuit low enough for his roaming hands to move inside. Immediately, he cupped one breast and squeezed as his mouth moved to her ear, her cheek. Electric pleasure flowed straight to the center of her being.

Had she ever been so wet? So ready for anything?

Jake’s palm rubbed her nipple, rougher than her leathers, and then his fingers found the taut nub and pinched as he kissed her until Merilee was sure she’d have an orgasm just from that. Her body shook in his firm grip, and she couldn’t control it, didn’t want to control it even for a moment.

"I want you inside me," she said as he switched hands, and breasts, and threatened her sanity with another tight pinch. "Bushes? Right here on the ground? I don’t care, Jake."

Wordless, he gazed at her, massaging her nipple until he moved the jumpsuit zipper so high he had to let her go and remove his hand. "Townhouse," he growled. "I want to take my time."

Her knees nearly buckled.

Oh,
hell
yes.

Merilee hoped she could walk that far . . . without ripping off his jeans.

Only they didn’t exactly stroll, which was just fine with her.

Hands tightly clasped, both breathing heavy and ragged, they walked so fast they might have won an Olympic race-walking trial. Bolted right out of the park and up the street.

Not too much farther and we’ll be there,
Merilee’s mind kept telling her as she wished he’d turn loose his wings, fly straight up, and take her in the sky over Manhattan.

(19)

Jake led Merilee into the townhouse, ignoring the presence of his brothers in the hallway as he and the most beautiful Sibyl in the universe headed for the steps. He was vaguely aware of unusual powers running through the place, very strong elemental energies, but he really didn’t give a damn.

His mind, his body was consumed with Merilee. His thoughts kept firing back to Central Park, to the moment he realized he had been making Merilee’s choices for her, disrespecting her needs, her instincts, her ability to decide for herself as a grown woman and a warrior of the Dark Goddess.

And now that he understood, truly understood in his depths, that she grasped the implications and potential consequences of sleeping with him, he had to have her. Not in a day or an hour, but now.