Evernight (The Night Watchmen Series Book 2) (30 page)

Locking eyes with him, I lay back until I’m propped up on one elbow, staring down at him. I can hardly breathe. My heart’s on overdrive, pumping anticipation and courage to every nerve ending in my body.

I’m really going for this,
I tell myself.
And he’s not stopping me.

I don’t know if I want to laugh or cry because the reality of this is so overwhelming, so all consuming, that I can’t believe it’s really happening. And I don’t want to screw it up.

I run my hand over the stubble on his face. Close my eyes when his fingers find my waist. I scoot toward him, slowly, bringing my hips so close to his that I feel the heat beating off his body. My heart palpitates when he licks his lips, when I realize that all the control I thought I had when I laid down has been willingly surrendered to him, because it’s his hands that take control. It’s his eyes that tell me that what’s about to happen is something I’ll never forget.

He reaches up and traces the lines of my lips, ever so gently, likes he’s trying to memorize their shape. A trail of fire is left in his wake. Slowly, he drags his finger down the slope of my neck. Over my dip of my collarbone. Down the center of my chest.

I’m sure my lungs have given up on me because the only part of me functioning properly is my heart, which pounds against my ribs.

All I feel is his touch. Only his touch. I want him to keep going. Keep exploring. Keep moving us further to the one place neither of us has been.

He bites his bottom lip as my skin quivers, and his eyes fill with a dark desire that sends my mind spinning. He leans forward until I’m lying flat on my back, bringing his lips inches from the flesh of my neck. I turn my head just enough, granting him access. Begging for him to. The warmth of his breath sends shivers down my spine. The closeness of his lips ignites fires in all the places I yearn for him to touch.

“Is this what you want?” he asks, running his thumb over my lips. His husky words are a breathless, shaky whisper that pours pure electricity into my limbs.

I nod because I’m too paralyzed with want to speak. Too desperate for him to keep going. I’m burning up on the inside, and only he can put me out.

He licks his lips again, and then presses them lightly against my neck with such delicate precision. A small cry erupts past my lips as his tongue flicks against my skin. There isn’t a nerve ending in my body that’s not in tune to what he’s doing. That doesn’t feel his other hand roaming down my side.

I slide my hand across his back, and my fingers dig into the fabric of his jacket. His kisses move up my neck and to my ear, where he traces the slope with his lips. “You drive me crazy,” he says desperately, as if he’s begging me for permission.

“So do something about it,” I say boldly.

He doesn’t waste another second. In one swift motion, he rolls me underneath him and runs his hand down the length of me, as if he’s exploring me for the first time. He kisses me hard, opening my mouth with his, showing me just how bad he wants me. His hand drifts back up my thigh, over my waist, and then slides under the hem of my shirt.

His touch is a live wire. My stomach tightens reflexively, and then tingles as his hand trails further and further along my skin. All I can do is hang on and arch to show him that I don’t want this to end. Kiss him deeper and with more passion than I’ve ever felt before. I feel myself slipping further and further into desire, until he’s cupping my breast and his thumb is taking me to places I’ve never been before.

My eyes squeeze shut as he swallows my moan, and then his kisses stop as his whole body tightens and presses against mine. We’re both shuddering, both riding the same wave of hunger for more. With his eyes on mine, his hand makes its way back down my stomach and in through the back of my pants. I lift up as he squeezes my backside, pulling my hips closer against his. His lips are so unbearably close, hovering just over top of mine, and all I want to do is kiss them, feel them.

I try to kiss him but he pulls back, a mischievous smile playing over his lips.

“Not yet,” he says, his voice trembling with lust. “Not until I’ve turned you inside out with desire. Not until I’ve learned every inch of your skin and where every special spot that drives you crazy is located, because I need to drive you crazy the way you do me. I need to see that look in your eye I know is for me only. The look only my touch can get out of you.”

He blinks and I bite my lip, sure that I’ll never be able to leave this room. I don’t want to, because I’m scared that I’ll never experience a moment like this ever again. A moment this full of passion and firsts. A moment where the person I was yesterday becomes naïve to the person I am right now.

His lips press against my stomach. His fingers find the button to my pants. And then he unclasps them, keeping his eyes locked with mine.

I can’t catch my breath. Every cell in my body is alive. Every second of this is delicious torture.

He lifts up just enough to let me slip out of my jacket, and then I slide his down and throw it across the room. Swiftly, he pulls my shirt up over my head, and then waits for me to do the same to him.

I stop him before he can unclasp my bra.

He sits back in confusion, as if he’s trying to find the point where he misread what I wanted. Searching my face like he’s trying to gauge whether or not I want to stop.

But that’s not what I want.

I reach behind me, and with a deep breath, unclasp it. The moment air strikes my bare chest, I take in a sharp breath. His eyes devour me, and I don’t shy away. With him, embarrassment doesn’t exist. It’s a made-up word with no definition. It’s a monster he’s slain long ago.

“You’re the most incredible, most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” he says with more emotion than I can process. More love, need, and desire than I think I can take without exploding from the inside out.

He pulls me back underneath him as if I’m the most fragile thing he’s ever handled. Slides my pants down the rest of the way, still keeping his lips so dangerously close to mine. I close my eyes as his mouth drifts downward and slides over each of my breasts. My fists clench the sheets and my toes dig into the bed. Fireworks explode behind my eyes and still, it’s not enough. He’s not close enough.

“Jaxen,” I say desperately.

He lifts his head. Brings his mouth over top of mine. Kisses me slowly, deeply, so passionately that all rationality has left me. Kisses me as if the world is minutes from its destruction and this is the only place he wants to be.

It’s all I can do to hang on, to not slip off the world and fall into an abyss of stars. His kisses move to my neck as his hand slides down past my stomach. I don’t stop him. I know where this is going. Somewhere I’ve never been before, and it’s never felt so right. Every inch of me is awake and present, yearning for all that he has to offer.

The moment he touches me, my eyes pop open.

“There it is. There’s that look,” he says, smiling as if he’s touched the untouchable. His tongue dances with mine as he presses against me, beginning a rhythm that will surely drive me over the edge. I grab onto his back. Dig my fingers into his skin as my body arcs against him and demands more.

The pace grows and grows with every touch as our bodies move in sync. There’s no stopping it… no end to the mountain we’re climbing. He groans into my mouth, rubbing his lips against mine, and I know I’m drowning in all that is him. Pleasured chills rack my body as the peak approaches. His lips move down to my neck, back to my chest where they linger, pushing me further and further toward an explosion I can’t escape.

“I want you,” I admit, unashamed by the desperation in my voice. I tug on him, pulling him closer to me, and reach for the button on his pants.

He stops. Pulls his hips back a little.

He’s breathing like he’ll never find his sanity again. “Let me do this,” he says, barely hanging on, “because as much as I want to lose myself inside of you right now, because you have me that freaking twisted up, I want to enjoy this moment more. I want to make you cry out, Faye. I want to feel your body give in to me. Just let me have this first.”

His hoarse voice drips so heavily with desire. Enough to send another ripple of pleasure straight through me. His hands start to move again, and I swear I’m going to lose it. I close my eyes and give in because, in all honesty, I don’t want him to stop.

His mouth closes against mine as every single part of me tenses up before releasing, and he absorbs my cries of pleasures. He swallows them, shuddering against me as stars explode behind my eyes. I can’t catch an even breath. I can’t keep my heart from beating like a bass drum. My skin shudders from the quake he left behind.

He’s still kissing me, so softly, as my body relaxes back into a state of calm I’ve never felt before. His hand slides up to my waist, and he squeezes my flesh. His eyes are clenched shut, his chest sending tingles along my skin every time it touches against mine. “Damn, Faye. Never in my life have I ever wanted anything as much as I want you right now.”

I reach for the sheet to cover me, but he stops my hand.

“Just let me look at you for a moment longer.” His eyes travel over every inch of my body, and I’ve never felt so brazen than in that moment. “You’re so ridiculously sexy,” he says softly, huskily. His desire is so achingly clear, and all I want to do is ease him of it. He trails a finger along the outside of my breast, slowly, teasingly, and chills rush along my skin. “Amazing. Perfect. Beautiful. Mine,” he declares, sealing each word with a kiss I feel all the way to my toes. “And as soon as we’re alone again, we’re going to finish what we started.”

I bite my lip and force every bit of what I’m feeling into the depths of my eyes. “I’m gonna hold you to that.”

B
Y THE TIME WE’RE BOT
H
dressed and ready, we’re already five minutes late. Jaxen gives me a grin that practically knocks my socks off, showcasing his hibernating dimples, and then rushes us to the elevator and out of the building. I’m grateful for the cool midnight air when we get outside. I want it to calm my skin, to remove the flush left behind from Jaxen’s touch.

But I can’t stop thinking of what just happened.

Of how far we just went and how close we were to closing the deal. Katie would die. She would flip out with excitement, and that thought alone stabs a needle through my heart, deflating the remnants of passion. His hand is wrapped around mine, pulling me down the cobblestone street, past the careening river that runs through the city, and straight through the tall, hedged entrance to the park.

Jezi’s thoughts assault me the minute we step into the park. She knows. She felt the intensity. Cassie’s whispering something in her ear when we come around the corner. My cheeks betray me. Everyone’s eyes fall on us… examining, guessing.

I could kill her for speaking out about it.

“That was personal,”
I send to Jezi telepathically, trying to calm my racing heart.

“Clearly not personal enough to keep it to yourself.”

“It’s not her fault, Jezi,”
Jaxen says, picking up on our thoughts.

Her eyes land on him. There’s so much hate wrapped up inside of them, so much betrayal, it makes my heart ache.

“No?” she retorts out loud. “Because I remember asking you not to rub anything in my face. We had an agreement, and you went back on it.” She looks back at Cassie. “Explain to me how that’s not abandoning your partner. He left me the moment she walked into our lives.”

“Jezi,” Cassie says, looking awkwardly between us. The air becomes uncomfortably dense. I catch the corner of her eye and see the guilt hiding behind her soft words. She was in favor. She probably still is, but she knows it’s killing her best friend.

“Look, I’m all in favor of a cat fight. Lord knows it’s long overdue,” Weldon says as he steps between Jezi and me, his hands held up in mock surrender. “However, we have bigger fish to fry. And whether you know their business by accident or not, it still isn’t
technically
any of your business, Jezi,” he says, using air quotes. “You, of all people, should know that humiliation.”

Crimson replaces the light brown of her cheeks as she glares up at him. “How dare you—?”

He presses his finger against her lips and leans into her, wearing a dangerous grin. “I do dare, dear, and you like it. Also, I wouldn’t be against being your rag doll to work out all your frustrations on either.”