His Darkest Embrace Page 25

  “I hoped you’d come for me,” she said haltingly. “It’s gone.” She inhaled shakily and could barely get her words out. “The portal is missing and I don’t know what to do.”

  Jagger growled and dug his great paws into the soft earth, wishing he could force his way through, but the magick was strong. It was nothing he was familiar with.

  Skye shook her head and he hated the sad shadows that clung to her eyes. She looked so beaten. Defeated.

  “There’s nothing left for me but you.” She paused and he knew she was trying desperately to gain hold of her emotions.

  Jagger continued to pace behind the barrier and when she held her hand against it the entire wall of air pulsated into a solid form that slipped away into a shower of sparks. Energy shot out in every direction and then she was there in front of him, great sobs wracking her frame.

  She knelt down and wrapped her arms around him, burying her head in the thick fur at his neck. He hated the sounds of her tears, hated the fact that she was so riddled with pain. He wanted nothing more than to make it all go away.

  Silently the mist began to crawl along the earth until it wrapped around his body and he felt her arms loosen as his body began to change and shift. The fur rippled away from his body, leaving the hard flesh of his human self in its place.

  And then she was there, all around him, her scent and her touch coating his body in its unique aura. Her arms wrapped around his midsection and she held onto him as if the hounds of hell themselves were after her.

  The need to make her his cracked a hole inside of him that he knew no one else could ever fill.

  “Jagger, I’ve failed my father.” Her voice was nothing more than a touch of whisper, and she trembled in his arms, struggling to articulate what she was feeling. Deep, heavy shudders wracked her frame. “I’ve failed him and my people. If only I’d gotten here sooner.” She looked up at him and his heart constricted as he slowly took in her pinched features, her gray complexion, and quivering mouth.

  “If only I’d escaped the DaCostas sooner, or gotten to Finn before …”

  Her eyes were wide, their blue roundness nearly overwhelming as they shimmered beneath his gaze, filled with the pain of tears.

  “Shhhhh, it’s okay, we’ll figure something out.” Jagger rubbed his hands along her back and crushed her as close as he could.

  “Jagger, you don’t understand—”

  He interrupted, his voice firm, wanting only to calm her frantic, pained state. “I understand the plan needs to be altered, but chica, there is always another way.”

  Skye shook her head, her eyes swinging away from his. “If only it were that simple.”

  She began to shiver violently and her fingers found their way to his chest, her sharp nails digging into his skin. “I don’t know if the portal was moved or taken.” Her eyes again met Jagger’s and he gently wiped the large tears that fell from them. “As long as it’s missing, my life is stuck in limbo, like fucking Groundhog Day.”

  Her teeth were clenched and she was barely able to get the words out. “There’s no one else. They’re all gone. Dead. I just wanted it to be over. Finally.” Her soft sniff tugged at the last thread of his heart. “I’m so tired of all this life and death, I wish …”

  Her voice trailed into silence and Jagger’s hands slowly made their way up to her shoulders, where he caressed and massaged her. He bent low and whispered along her skin near her ear. “What do you wish, Skye? Tell me, and if I can make it come true, I will.”

  Jagger felt her shudder violently as he spoke, and her energy faded as she collapsed against his body.

  “I wish I was normal. I wish that I was anywhere other than in the jungle. I wish I’d never heard of the fucking portal or the eagle legacy.” She pushed against him and he looked down into eyes that had darkened several shades. Jagger’s heart began a slow, heavy rhythm, one that danced the beat of seduction.

  It was crazy. Where his mind was going. What he wanted to do.

  The world was going to shit, the entire jungle was filled to the brim with otherworlders gunning for their asses, the portal had come up missing, and yet all he could think about was making love to the woman that he held.

  “What do you wish?” he asked once more, his voice gone low, rough.

  “I wish that I could be that girl …” She paused and inhaled shakily, her fingers splayed against his chest. He watched her closely, his stare intent. The air around them changed, sparked with the energy their bodies were creating. It felt like a blanket of nerve endings had just been laid across his entire body.

  Jagger knew he was on the cusp of something life altering and he was more than ready for it. Everything that he’d ever done had brought him here. To this moment. With this woman.

  Skye Knightly belonged to him fully, even if she didn’t know it yet.

  “That girl?” he prompted, barely able to get his words out.

  Skye nodded. “The one who has her happy ending.”

  The denim blue of her eyes shimmered as she regarded him. Her expression had changed. No longer was she sad, broken.

  Her arms crept up his chest to circle his neck. She stood on her toes and he could feel her heart racing, beating in tandem with his own. The need to take her, to claim her as his, rushed through him so violently, Jagger’s eyes blurred and the familiar burn of his animal ripped across his flesh.

  He closed his eyes briefly, trying to control the raging desire and need that threatened to engulf him.

  “Couldn’t we, for this moment, pretend we’re somewhere else?” Skye’s voice was thick and her breath against his neck was doing crazy things to his body. Jagger groaned loudly and his hands gripped her shoulders hard.

  “We could,” he managed to get out. His body was on fire with such need it was painful. The erection between his legs was crushed against her abdomen and as she pulled at him, trying to get closer, he hissed.

  “You’re fucking killing me, Skye.” His eyes blazed, the green depths morphing into a darker hue, one tinged with the glow of feral desire.

  “Good,” she said as she pulled him down toward her.

  Jagger resisted. His mind was a mess of thoughts. “Are you sure?” he said hoarsely.

  “I want you,” she said simply, her voice tremulous. “I don’t care about anything else right now. I need to forget everything.” Her hands wound their way into the thick hair at his nape. “Can’t you help me forget?” she whispered hoarsely.

  “Once I claim you as mine, there will never be another.” His hands grabbed her face and he cupped her jaw between them gently. “Do you understand? For a warrior there can only be one.”

  Her eyes were closed and she rubbed against him seductively, eliciting another hiss from between his lips.

  His face darkened and he tightened his grip on her face. “I will kill anyone who touches you.” He shook his head as his skin continued to burn. “I will never let you go.” His statement was a warning, whether she knew it or not.

  “Shut up, already,” she said roughly, and the look in her eyes as they flew open took his breath away. “And kiss me.”

  Chapter 23

  Her lips opened beneath his and when his tongue slipped inside, each pass pulled deep into her gut, enhancing the ball of need until it was a shivering mass of desire.

  The ache between her legs intensified and she groaned into the warmth of his mouth as she encircled his neck and wrapped her legs around his waist, pushing her pulsating center into him as hard as she could.

  But it was not enough. The ache only grew in intensity and she felt her body swell, deep within the folds of her sex, heavy with need.

  When his mouth left hers and trailed a line of fire down to the hollow at her neck, she closed her eyes and her head fell back, limp and vulnerable. She felt the wetness of his tongue against her skin and she wrapped her hands into the silky length of his hair again, pushing herself up at his mouth. “Christ, you taste so good.”

  Jagger’s voice wa
s rough and it fanned the flames of desire even more.

  Skye groaned into his mouth and her tongue attacked his with equal fervor. It felt like she’d never get enough of him.

  She trailed her tongue along his lips, licking and nipping, until she nuzzled the spot between his ear and neck. His scent was wild, heavy and tantalizing. As she inhaled him deep into her, she felt the raptor inside cry out with need, flooding her cells with an incredible urge to mate.

  It startled her and gave her pause. Skye rested her forehead against his jaw, her breathing rough and uneven. What she was feeling was unprecedented. It was raw, honest.

  And for once in her life she was giving in to the dark side. She was going to take what she wanted, and to hell with the consequence.

  “You’re so beautiful,” she said softly and then leaned toward him, her fingers tracing the intricate tattoos that colored his abs. She followed the touch with the softness of her lips and smiled against his flesh when she felt him tense.

  It was satisfying to know he was as affected as she.

  She continued to trail kisses along his abdomen and up his rib cage, gently tweaking his hard nipples as she moved further along. Skye looked up at him then and smiled seductively.

  “I wonder what you taste like.”

  As she bent down in front of him the hiss that escaped from between his lips was quickly followed by a groan as her fingers teased the head of his penis with a soft, quick stroke.

  Skye rested on her haunches, her eyes drinking in the sheer male beauty that stood before her.

  She’d seen Jagger nude before. Hell, the first night she laid eyes on him he’d been in the buff.

  But the way he looked right now, his body hard and proud, aroused something so fierce that all the softness inside of her vanished. Her heart skipped a beat. Or two. Hell, it could’ve been three. It was enough to make her dizzy, and when her eyes focused once more, they greedily ate up the straining length of him, so incredibly male, so incredibly hard.

  Skye leaned forward and paused, her eyes turning up to him quickly, and she smiled before opening wide and taking as much of him as she could, deep into her mouth.

  “Holy Christ.” The words fell from his mouth and she felt his fingers in her hair, holding her head in place as she began to suckle at him, to lick and tease him with the sharp edges of her teeth.

  She loved the feel of him, how the flesh of his cock was so soft, yet the shaft beneath it was hard and unyielding.

  Her hands crept around him and she cupped his straining ass as she continued to pleasure him. Each time she pulled at him harder, taking more of him into her mouth, and he swore when she licked and suckled along the length of his shaft. Slowly her tongue and lips wove a wet spell of magic along him, and when she claimed his balls as her own, taking first one and then the other into the warm cave of her mouth, she felt his fingers pull at her hair, hard.

  “I can’t take much more.” Jagger was now breathing in rough spurts and barely able to get his words out.

  Skye laughed against him and looked up once more, but the heat and animalistic need that she saw there quieted her. The air around them changed, shifted, and for that one second in time, she felt a connection unlike anything she’d ever experienced.

  Every single cell in her body was on fire with a need that only he could satisfy. She craved him like the most decadent slice of chocolate imagined and when he slowly pulled himself out of her mouth she was silent. She ran her tongue along the edge of his cock one last time and when he drew her up along the hard length of his body, she could do nothing but whimper with a need long denied.

  Once more his mouth ravaged hers and she cried out as his hands tore her T-shirt off over her head, freeing her breasts to his hands and mouth. He attacked one turgid nipple immediately, suckling the peak fast and hard. Skye felt each pull as it went straight to the aching center between her legs.

  She was incredibly wet and began to whimper against him. A myriad of sensations rushed over her body, setting every cell of her flesh alive with a need that, while painful, was coated with pleasure.

  Jagger lifted her into his arms and continued to feast at her breast as he moved from where they were. She was aware of nothing but the feel of him on her flesh, as if she’d been sucked into a vortex of desire and want and need.

  When she felt the silky wetness of water against her skin she opened her eyes, her hands still buried in his hair.

  He’d brought them to a small waterfall that fell languidly from twenty feet above them. It pooled in a basin and Jagger smiled down at her wickedly as he set her bottom on a ledge.

  The water was cool against her heated flesh and it felt wonderful as it sprayed gently across her back.

  “Jagger, I’ve never felt like this, ever.”

  He murmured against her flesh, “Babe, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

  The promise in his words excited, enthralled her; she had been trying to squirm out of her shorts before he’d even set her down. Jagger laughed wickedly as his strong hands slipped inside the waistband of her bottoms.

  He kissed her softly then. A soulful, sweet kiss that nearly brought her to tears, and when he bent down to carefully remove her shorts, Skye felt the tears leak from the corners of her eyes.

  Her heart was filled to bursting with emotion.

  His right hand held her firm, the strong fingers splayed across the small of her back. She instinctually spread her legs slightly and when his other hand carefully parted her outer lips, and he blew on the heated core that was hidden there, she groaned loudly.

  “Every single inch of you is like a fucking banquet,” he murmured against her inner thigh.

  Skye began to gyrate toward him as the ache intensified.

  “Christ Jagger, touch me,” she said, her breathing ragged, “I can’t stand it.”

  He licked along the inside of her leg and she shuddered against him as he laughed softly. “Some patience, little bird.”

  But she was having none of his teasing. Skye dug her fingers into his skull sharply and shoved herself at him, crying out in relief as the heat and strength of his tongue stroked against her wetness.

  She brought her knees up, her heels holding firm against the ledge and she leaned back against the rock wall, looking down at him between her legs and loving the feel of the water falling over her breasts and down onto her thighs.

  She began to tremble as he suckled at her engorged clitoris. Her belly clenched tightly and she began to make small mewing sounds as her body jerked at each pass and pull of his tongue.

  The response was immediate and she felt the exquisite pressure begin to build deep inside of her, touching off a fire that singed each and every nerve ending as it rushed through her.

  Her entire body was aflame with need, her breasts heavy and nipples hard.

  “Jagger, harder … oh my God, I’ve never …” Her words stopped abruptly as she felt her body tighten and then the well broke and she felt a flood of liquid slide from her body as an intense orgasm ripped through her.

  “You taste better than honey.” Jagger’s hoarse words rang in her ear as she wavered against his touch. His tongue licked and suckled every last bit of desire that glistened against her skin.

  It was instant gratification. But it wasn’t enough.

  Skye trembled in his embrace and felt like crying.

  She needed more.

  But the jaguar knew this, and she watched, lips parted, as he slowly kissed her along the entire length of her body, nuzzling against her navel, up to her rib cage.

  He worshiped her breasts, taking his time, teasing each turgid peak until she thought she would go mad. His teeth scraped along the hard, pebbled nipples and she hissed as the sensation shot straight through her, down to her core.

  Skye could feel the pressure begin to build once more and she shook her head, her long blond tendrils of hair sticking to her skin.

  “Every single inch of you fucking rocks.” His eyes had darkened to alm
ost black and the tinge of red that glowed from within was a testament to how close to the edge the warrior was.

  She was breathing heavily, her chest heaving, as she struggled for calm, and she looked deeply into his eyes.

  “I want all of you,” she whispered hoarsely. Her gaze went to the straining erection. “Inside of me.” Skye reached for his lips, sliding her tongue along the aristocratic lines. She nipped at him then, harder than she’d meant to, and whispered into his ear, “Right now.”

  Jagger’s reaction was immediate. He hissed, and for a second his body blurred, but then his hands were all over her, and he turned her around so that she was on her knees.

  Skye laughed wickedly and thrust her ass at him as she went down, enjoying the feel of his hardness against her there. She was aching for him.

  She didn’t feel the rough rock on her knees, or the cool water that fell upon her. Skye spread her legs and turned to look back at him, feeling her tummy roll over at the savage look of want on Jagger’s face.

  His eyes were focused solely on her heated wetness and she spread her legs even more, enjoying the feral look that stole over his features. He moved into position and when his hands grabbed her hips, drawing her back toward him, she bit her lip.

  When she felt his fingers dig into her flesh, so hard it would bruise for sure, she cried out. She began to shudder with anticipation, loving the way he felt against her and when he roared loudly and plunged the whole of his length deep inside her, she screamed his name, their voices echoing together in the jungle air.

  He filled her completely and she arched her back instinctually, cutting the angle in such a way she could feel his hardness scrape along her channel, hitting the sweet spot almost immediately.

  “Christ, but you were made for me and no one else,” Jagger said roughly as he began to move slowly inside of her, drawing himself nearly out and then plunging back inside her soft heat.

  Skye began to whimper. There was no other way for her to express the feelings and sensations that were attacking her body in relentless precision. Every time he went deep a thousand sparks of electricity exploded, their sharp bands of pleasure fingering their way out until every inch of her flesh was on fire.