Dark Wrath (11 page)

His whole mood
shifted abruptly.  “I know exactly what you mean.”

Erin
sighed.  For just a moment they’d almost had a conversation that wasn’t
completely antagonistic and then she’d just had to resurrect the past!

A sense of
hopeless frustration filled her with the realization that their past was always
going to hang between them like an impenetrable wall of anger.  Even if
she could master the knack of thinking hard, and examining what she said before
she said it, which she thought it was doubtful, she would have to worry that
anything she said would touch off a memory better left buried.

After a moment it
occurred to her to wonder why it mattered.

It
did
matter.  She could lie to herself all she wanted to, but it mattered a
lot, and not just because she needed his help to find the baby.

She couldn’t undo
what had been done to Jesse, but she didn’t deserve his hate for her part in
it.  She’d been just as much a pawn as he had been, and she had neither
consciously tried to hurt him, nor been indifferent to his suffering.  It
just plain wasn’t fair to be tarred with the same brush as those who had
deliberately, and with malice, or at least an absence of conscience, trapped,
imprisoned and tortured him.

Her feelings were
more even than a sense of injustice, though, and regret for having been
involved, she realized abruptly.

Like it or not, a
bond had been forged between her and Jesse.  She might not have chosen it
if she’d had the choice, but it existed now regardless and she yearned to see
that side of him that he had only teased her with, the passionate lover and
intriguing companion.

D
espite
the nagging pain in her hip from having the tracking device removed, weariness
invaded Erin after a time and she dozed.  When she woke, roused by the
slowing of the car, she saw that Jesse was turning onto a narrow dirt track
that led through a thick tangle of vegetation.  It seemed obvious from the
encroaching brush and the high grasses that grew down the center of the track
like a Mohawk hair cut that this track wasn’t used often.  In spite of
that, or maybe because it was used so seldom, the road was fairly smooth.

When Jesse
stopped at last, Erin stared at the run down building in front of them a little
uneasily.  There was no doubt that the mansion had once been a grand one,
but that had probably been before the Civil War.  Now she had to wonder
how the antebellum mansion could remain standing.  There was hardly a
fleck of paint to hold it together.  The wood, weathered for so many years
and battered by nature, was the same muted color as the woods around it so
that, as huge as it was, it blended so well with its surroundings it would have
been easy to miss seeing it at all.

The grounds were
not in much better shape than the building itself.  Waist high weeds and
young pines cluttered what must once have been a beautiful lawn.

Jesse had pulled
under a porte chochère, she saw as she got out of the car and looked around.

Having moved
around the car to meet her, Jesse cupped a hand beneath her elbow and guided
her inside.

Surprise filled
her when they entered.  It was like stepping through a passage into
another world.

The interior of
the house, far from ramshackle, was beyond clean and neat and well kept. 
It was opulent.  Thick rugs carpeted the hardwood floors and thick drapes
covered the tall windows.  The furnishings were modern, not new, but
certainly in good condition.

A man stepped
into a doorway at the far end of the narrow hallway where they’d entered. 
After nodding at Jesse in silent communication, he disappeared again.

Jesse guided her
down the hall and into a wider hallway that appeared to bisect the
mansion.  Reaching a grand, curving stairway, they went up and followed
another wide hallway to a room near the rear of the house.

Expecting to be
shoved inside and locked in like the prisoner she knew herself to be, Jesse
surprised her by entering the room behind her.

Without a word,
he began to undress.

Erin gaped at
him, trying to wrap her mind around his actions.

He glanced up at
her after a moment.  “You should try to rest.”

Feeling color
wash into her cheeks at the comment, which made it clear that he didn’t have on
his mind what she’d thought he had in mind, Erin turned away.  She wasn’t
wearing much, though, and she certainly had no need or intention of taking the
gown off.  Instead, she looked around a little hopefully for signs of a
bathroom.  There were two narrow doors along the wall adjoining the one
that separated the bedroom from the corridor.  After a slight hesitation,
she headed toward the larger of the two and was rewarded with the discovery of
a well-appointed bathroom.

The door had no
lock on it.

Erin studied it
in dismay for a moment and finally yielded to her needs.  When she’d relieved
herself she moved to the shower, adjusted the water and, dropping her gown onto
the hamper close by, got in.  The heat of the water stimulated her milk
glands.  With a mixture of emotions, she watched as tiny beads formed on
the tips of her nipples and began to flow down her belly.

She felt a sudden
urge to cry.  What was the point, she wondered, in struggling on and on to
keep her milk in production for the baby she might never hold in her arms
again?  The baby that might never suckle at her breasts again?  It
was nothing more than an irritant and an inconvenience to her, a constant
reminder of what she’d lost, and of no use to Joshua.  Even if she found
him, he would’ve been bottle fed all this time and might refuse to take the
nutrients and antibodies her natural milk could give him.

Fighting the
depression and sense of hopeless, she massaged her breasts to stimulate the
glands.

She jumped and
then froze when the bathroom door opened abruptly, gaping at Jesse as he
crossed to the shower and pulled the curtain back.

His gaze went
immediately to her breasts.

She released them
guiltily, and then blushed with a mixture of resentment and embarrassment.

It wasn’t as if
she’d been fondling herself for the pleasure of it!  Snatching the curtain
from his grasp, she jerked it closed again.

He cleared his
throat.  “I brought you a clean shirt to put on.”

How
thoughtful!  And he had to jerk the curtain open to tell her?

“Thanks!” she
responded shortly.

He didn’t
leave.  “I’ll just leave it on the hamper.”

“You could’ve
done that without looking me over!” she muttered.

She heard the
distinct grinding of teeth.  He snatched the curtain open again.  “I
was just checking to see if you were floating face down in the damned tub,” he
growled.  “You lost a lot of blood.”

Surprise
flickered through her.  He’d been worried about her?

“Worried ‘bout
the beast getting’ a glimpse of you?” he added after a moment.  “Well,
I’ve seen every inch of you,
chère
--tasted you too--and been inside of
you.  It’s a little late to be so damned concerned about me lookin’ at
you.”

Anger surging to
the forefront again, Erin slapped at the water, spattering his face and chest
liberally with it.  “Bastard!”

He grabbed her
forearms and hauled her against his chest.  “Bitch!” he growled, shoving his
fingers into her wet hair and planting his mouth roughly over hers.

Heat spiraled
through Erin the instant his mouth ground against hers, forcing her lips to
part.  Weakness and desperate need followed the heat as his tongue
breached the weakened barricade of her lips and plundered her mouth
thoroughly.  Shivering, her arms trapped by his grip, she curled the tips
of her fingers into his sides, settling fully against him and kissing him back
with all of the pent up desire that had been tormenting her since forever it
seemed.

He stiffened at
the collapse of her defenses and then gathered her closer still, lifting her
against him and pulling her from the shower.  She uttered a sound of
protest as he withdrew the pressure of his mouth from hers almost as abruptly
as he’d claimed her, and then a sound of encouragement as he dragged his lips
along her cheek to explore her ear, the side of her throat.

The heat of his
flesh and both his and her own desire almost instantly replaced the heated
water that had washed over her moments before.  Finding her arms freed,
she twined them around his neck, pressing as tightly against him as she
could.  His hands skated down her back, cupped her buttocks, massaging
them as his fingers delved the cleft of her ass and then lower.  Grasping
her along the tops of her thighs, he lifted her.

A gasp escaped
her as her butt settled on the cold surface of the vanity and then another as
he bent her back and covered the tip of one breast with his mouth.

For a moment,
reality intruded and the anxiety filled her that his suckling would stimulate
her milk glands again.  That concern vanished almost at once, however, as
a bolt of heat shot through her, culminating low in her belly.

Releasing her
breast after only a moment, he lifted her against him once more and strode from
the bathroom with her in his arms, falling across the bed with her.  The
impact barely fazed her.  It flickered through her mind that they would
have the sheets thoroughly soaked, but she wasn’t in any state to care at the moment.

Already drunk
with the delightful, rough caresses of his hands as they explored her, his
essence, the scorching heat of his mouth, all that filtered through her heat
fogged mind was that the sensations were so much more pleasurably intense
without the drug that had been pumping through her system before when they had
come together.  Now, she was far more aware of his lightest touch, the
pleasurable sensation of his weight along her length.

He did not pull
away from her to remove his trousers.  Instead, he settled beside her, his
mouth and tongue driving her mad with want as he struggled with the fastening
of his pants and skimmed them from his hips, working the material down his legs
until he could kick free of the encumbrance.  The moment he was free, he
rolled over her once more, tangling his legs with hers, stroking her smooth
skin with the soles of his feet as his hands glided over her body cupping and
then massaging her breasts.  He covered her mouth in a fiery, possessive
kiss, pressing his body against hers and she felt the hard length of his
erection undulating along her hip.

The strength and
weight of his body, the heat, the solidness and breadth of his engorged flesh,
and the silken feel of the skin that sheathed his hardness sent a thrill of anticipation
through her, magnifying her need in a heady, dizzying rush.  Returning his
heated kiss with fervor, she shifted closer, feeling fresh waves of pleasurable
sensation wash through her as the faint abrasiveness of his chest and arm hair
slipped across her smooth skin.  Being with him was everything she
remembered, and yet surprisingly more intense without the drugs that had driven
her to him in the beginning.

Her reaction sent
his own desire spiraling out of control.  His kiss became more fevered,
more aggressive.  When he tore his lips from hers at last and turned his
attentions to her body, she felt the nip of his teeth along her skin and goose
bumps burst forth, heightening and expanding her senses until a restless need
to feel him inside of her began torment her.

He ignored the
increasing desperation of her attempts to urge him to take her, seemingly
determined to explore every inch of her body with his lips, tongue, and teeth.

She sucked in a
hoarse breath, digging her fingers into the hair on his scalp as he moved along
her lower belly.  The muscles of her belly jumped and clenched almost
painfully as he wove a chain of kisses across it from one hip bone to the other
and then nipped at the exquisitely sensitive flesh of her inner thighs. 
Dizzy with need, it took a moment for her to realize his intent.  By the
time she did, it was too late.  He had pushed her thighs wide and wedged
himself between them.

She clamped her
thighs tightly against him anyway, her fingers tightening in his hair. 
Ignoring the tugging command, he stroked his fingers along her cleft and then
parted her nether lips, covering her clit, almost painfully swollen with need,
with his mouth.  A sharp cry tore its way up her throat as she felt the
heat and suction of his mouth.  The tension that had been slowly but
surely coiling inside of her shot skyward.

She gasped again,
squeezing her eyes shut, struggling to stave off instant culmination, desperate
to hold on to the pleasure only a little longer.  The finesse of his mouth
and tongue were delightfully torturous, however.  Within moments she felt
herself quivering on the brink of release, heard herself chanting his name,
whether as a curse or benediction even she wasn’t certain.

She came
unexpectedly, explosively, wracked by one shockwave after another of rapturous
release.  The stinging nip of his teeth along her thigh barely penetrated
the liquefied bliss of her mind, but it sent a fresh, hard shockwave of ecstasy
through her that tore another cry from her hoarse throat.

He shifted,
moving over her while the waves were still pounding through her. 
Supporting the weight of his upper body on his arms, he pressed the rounded tip
of his cock into the mouth of her sex.  Her channel, still convulsing with
release resisted his penetration.  She spread her thighs wider, lifting to
meet his second thrust, feeling almost faint with her gasping efforts to drag
enough air into her lungs as she felt his hard flesh spreading her, delving
slowly deeper.

He was gasping
hoarsely himself by the time he’d filled her fully.  “Now you are
mine--irrevocably,” he whispered in a harsh, gravelly voice that sent waves of
tingling pleasure spiraling through her.

With a tremendous
effort, she opened her eyes to look up at him, but no thought of contradicting
his claim entered her mind.  Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she
lifted upward, closing the slight distance between them and pressed her lips to
his.

Her mute
acceptance seemed to send him over the edge of restraint.  He began to
move within her in hard, swift driving thrusts.  Surprise flickered
through her briefly as she felt her body instantly respond to his stroking
thrusts along her channel.  Within moments she was struggling upward
toward release again, her body coiling tightly for the leap into glory. 
The bubble ruptured as she felt his great, sweat slickened body begin to
shudder, felt his cock jerk inside of her.  For many moments it almost
seemed as if her soul soared free of the restraints of her physical self. 
Awareness of her body certainly vanished at the white hot explosion of ecstasy
that mushroomed upwards and outwards and finally, slowly began to dissipate,
leaving her as little more than a limp puddle of exquisite repletion.

She drifted for
an endless time, aware of little beyond the harsh pulsing of her blood in her
veins and in her ears.  Jesse lay bonelessly atop her, however, and after
a time she began to grow uncomfortable under his weight.  When she began
struggling to shift to relieve the pressure against her ribcage, he rolled off
of her and onto his back on the bed beside her.

She grew cold the
moment his heat left her.  Shivering, she rolled onto her side to look at
him.