Mating Fever (7 page)

“Why? Cause maybe you like me too much?”

She turned away from him. “I’m not answering
that.”

Gabriel made a soft clucking noise as she
walked away.

She could’ve ignored it--she should’ve. It
might have just been her imagination, but she knew by now that
Gabriel was a man to push a person’s buttons. He was determined to
push her to her limits. And this was just too much. She’d damn well
show the damned goading, confident bastard what she was made
of.

She turned around, found him watching her
expectantly, almost as though he was eager to see what she’d do.
She took the two steps back to him, pressed one hand against his
chest and pushed him back on the wall with little effort. She
reached down and cupped his cock. His eyes widened, his mouth
opened. Jessica wrapped her hand around his neck and forced him
down for her kiss.

She gave him everything she had to give,
forced her tongue into his mouth, massaged his erection, rubbed her
body sensuously against his as she thrust in and out of his mouth.
His whole body when rigid with shock. He sucked her tongue as
though starved, and she could feel the beat of his heart quicken
against her breast, felt his cock jump and throb against her palm.
He groaned, reaching for her, but she wouldn’t allow it. When his
hands touched her, she released his groin. His hands smacked
against the brick façade behind him, making him helpless,
vulnerable and wanting of only what she would give.

A triumphant thrill went through her, to have
him under her control. Heady pleasure rocketed through her. Her
palm burned with the feel of his cock trapped in her hand. She
rubbed her thumb against the bare patch of skin exposed by one
tear. He stiffened even more, sucked her tongue harder, hungrier,
groaned into her mouth.

She pulled back before she could get too
caught up in the moment, before she could lose her point. When she
was done, it was him leaning back against the wall for support.

“I think I just won the game,” she said.

He was breathing heavily, watching her with a
mixture of wariness and appreciation. “I think maybe you did
too.”

She allowed herself one victorious smile and
walked away.

Chapter Four

Jessica deeply regretted not heeding
Gabriel’s earlier advice. It seemed like he’d delivered it days
ago, but it had really only been a few hours. She also regretted
everything that she’d allowed to happen between them. Jessica shook
her head, trying to block the thoughts, the guilt. She didn’t want
to dwell on it. She’d never been one to hash and rehash what she
should’ve done then, what she shouldn’t have done there. She just
put the whole thing out of her mind and resolved not to feel guilty
for anything. At least, that’s what she’d do in an ideal world
where she had ample self-control.

She didn’t. She didn’t have any self-control
at all. Gabriel sucked it all out of her--literally.

After only a short time, he occupied her
thoughts far more than he should’ve. She half wondered if she’d
developed an obsession or something equally disturbing. Surely
normal women didn’t feel and think so much about a man. Just
remembering his kisses sent her into instant lust. She swore she
could still taste him, like spicy gumbo and warm, creamy coffee.
His scent definitely still lingered on her, rubbed into her neck
like a cologne--not a strong smell, but potent in its own subtle
way.

Everywhere she walked, when the wind picked
up, she caught just a hint of him, in her hair, on her clothes,
like a finger making the come hither motion right under her nose.
If she hadn’t known better, she’d swear her nose was more
sensitive. Everything seemed more ... sensorial now, scents
sharper. Even the wind had its own distinct fragrance.

Her imagination was running overtime.

What she really should’ve done was gone back
to the hotel and washed his scent off her skin. But she’d become so
embroiled in her quest for the day, and smelling him on her gave
her such a secret thrill--she hadn’t allowed herself the time.

It was nearly dark by the time she’d found
out exactly where Shelly and Jacques LaValle were buried, and
longer still to make it through the holiday traffic over there.

The cemetery was an above ground one, as most
were in this part of the state due to heavy rains and soggy ground.
The dusk created eerie shadows between the small mausoleums.
Jessica walked along the path, broken shells and rock crunching
under her sandals. She picked up her pace, eager to get out of the
cemetery before dark. She knew she should’ve just come back
tomorrow, but she didn’t think she could wait that long.

A feeling grew in her, a warning to get out
of Louisiana as fast as she could. She couldn’t explain why the
feeling persisted, only that it did. Nothing had happened to her to
cause it, but just the same....

Being in a cemetery didn’t help matters, and
she was sure her imagination had gone into hyper mode. She’d never
felt superstitious before, but there was something inherently
creepy about dark cemeteries that she’d never noticed. A hush
settled on the grounds, expectancy that she couldn’t quite
comprehend.

There wasn’t anyone around--everyone inside
had been entombed long ago, but the silence, coupled with hazy,
failing sunlight worked together to give her the willies.

She shuddered and called herself names,
rubbing her arms as she continued on her way, eager to get this
done and be gone.

She wasn’t sure what she’d accomplish by
coming here, but she hoped it gave her a sense of peace for things
and people lost to time.

The mausoleums created a labyrinth of narrow
passages, standing above her head to block her sight of other lanes
and surroundings. It was almost like walking through a tunnel,
except she could still see the sky. In the dark, it would probably
seem more like catacombs of some ancient city.

Just when she’d decided to call it a night,
she finally managed to locate her parents’ tomb. It was younger
than its neighbors, like they’d lucked out and managed to procure
the single remaining spot in the cemetery. A morbid thought, that,
thinking of their “luck.”

Above the mausoleum stood an angel with her
arms outstretched, her marble face tear stained from decades of
rain washing down.

Jessica touched the sun warmed marble, as if
to assure herself it was real, that she’d actually found her
parents’ final resting place. The stone was smooth, worn only
slightly by time and weather. Peering closer, she could just make
out the engraving on the tomb in the failing light. There was no
testimony to their life together, or the child they had created. No
haunting poetry. Merely their names and the date each was born and
died.

Her mother had died June 2, 1986. She
swallowed past the lump in her throat and looked at her father’s
life date. He’d died on June 3, 1986. A sliver of fear slid down
her back bone, raising her hackles. She shivered with foreboding.
Her mother died the day she was born. She could understand that,
that maybe she’d died in childbirth or complications arising
afterward. But why had her father died the day after?

The tomb gave her no answers, only more
questions. She felt more disturbed than ever before. In her heart,
she knew something terrible had happened to them. She was grateful
for the life she’d lived, for the love of her adoptive parents, but
her life had been upset by the discovery. And now this.

Her entire life seemed a mystery, her roots
hidden from her with no hint as to why. Regret and disappointment
sat heavy in her stomach.

She wondered who she really was.

Jessica desperately needed to know what had
happened, but she’d run out of ideas to try and make sense of
things. If this was a secret, and she knew in her heart that it
was, how was she to uncover it? It occurred to her that a library
might possibly be a good place to start. She might even be able to
learn something, pick up some clue, from the department of
records.

She walked away, heading toward the exit. She
was contemplating just how she was going to find out more about her
parents’ death when she stepped out onto the main path and saw
three men hanging around the front gate.

Jessica stopped. Her heart quickened to a
breathless pace. She tried to get a grip on herself, to reason that
she was overreacting, but something about the way they stood there
made fear prickle along her neck. There was no reason in the world
why she should be afraid of a small group of men--but there it
was.

They hadn’t seen her yet. She could almost
breathe with that grateful thought filtering into her stricken
brain. She could find another way to get out and get back to her
hotel. And for all she knew, they were just three guys hanging out
and having a good time.

She just wished she believed that.

Jessica slowly backed up, keeping her eyes
trained on them. One step back. Another and another. She started
breathing regularly again, almost home free. Just as she’d reached
the narrow, shadowy alley of one mausoleum row, they looked up as
though they’d heard her mental sigh of relief, and spotted her.
They grinned and straightened, moving forward like a pack of
wolves, coming straight for her.

Jessica whirled and ran, her heart in her
throat. She disappeared into the shadows, running over the
irregular path, praying she wouldn’t trip over broken cobblestone
or a protruding root. She didn’t know when it had gotten so dark.
It hadn’t seemed that way only minutes ago, but the immense oaks
shading the area deepened the dusk riding in on her.

She couldn’t see anything with the tombs
above her, couldn’t hear past the steady, rapid thud of her pulse
drumming in her ears. She had a good lead on them. She could lose
them in the maze of the cemetery if she just kept her wits about
her.

Something howled in the night, like an
animal. Excited pants carried on the air behind her.

Right behind her.

They couldn’t have gotten to her this
fast!

Jessica wanted to scream, wanted to turn
around and fight. She hated being chased, hated the helplessness of
being prey, but she couldn’t fight against them, not against so
many and without a weapon of some sort, and she dared not slacken
her pace to find one.

A pain stabbed her side, her lungs labored to
drag air inside, to keep her from passing out. Jessica tore through
the grounds, keeping to the deeper shadows, weaving through the
tombs. She dropped her purse, left it, kept going. She headed
North, hoping there was a back exit somewhere, or maybe a lighted
street or a late running cemetery tour.

Why,
why
hadn’t she brought Gabriel with her?

Why had she ignored his warning?

Something growled right behind her, a wet,
slathering sound that sent fear careening through her vitals. She
could feel his hot breath on her bare back, and she did scream
then.

It tore from her throat, loud and long and
ripping through the air like a siren just before the man grabbed
her and threw her to the ground. Jessica landed hard, rolling with
the impact, broken shells grinding into her shoulder, scraping her
tender skin. She couldn’t feel any pain, nothing but the sense of
weight and pressure--her body went numb with shock.

She kicked out, missing her attackers,
wishing she wore heels. She couldn’t see anything, could only hear
him circle her. Pebbles sprayed out, striking her shoulders and
legs, her face. Someone ran up from behind, two of them, where she
couldn’t see, but she could hear heavy, excited breathing.

They didn’t rush her. It was like they were
waiting for her to react. Like they were thrilled by the chase--as
she knew they must be. Jessica struggled to her knees, planting her
palms on the ground, clutching two handfuls of grit and rock as she
rose to her feet.

The scuffle of feet told her one lunged, and
she threw a handful of dirt at his face, whirling to throw it at
another. They cursed, growling almost inhumanly as she dashed past
them, guided only by sound and touch now. The main path opened
before her, so close she could taste freedom and safety.

A hand closed in her hair, yanking her back.
Rough hands groped her breasts, her waist, her hips, everywhere on
her body. Jessica screamed in fury and fought them, but they were
all around, holding her arms, holding her legs as they brought her
to the ground.

One of them lifted her skirt and tore her
panties away, burning the flesh of her hips as the thin fabric gave
way. She kicked at him, satisfied to hear him grunt with pain as
she connected with his dick, and then her legs were roughly hauled
apart with bruising force.

Jessica screamed again, snapping her teeth at
the hands that held her, rising off the ground as she bucked
against their hold. Rough jeans slid up the insides of her thighs.
She smelled the musky scent of bare cock and thought she’d throw
up.

They were going to rape her.

And there was nothing she could do about
it.

* * * *