Rapture Untamed (Feral Warriors #4)(9)

His own mouth lifted in a smile that was at once lazy and knowing, and yet free of the bitterness and harshness that usually lined his face. But then something flared in his eyes, something sharp and dangerous. He rose with catlike grace to his bare feet and padded toward her.

She tensed as he closed the distance between them, bracing herself for a fight. Her senses swam. If she'd thought he was appealing from two stories away, up close he was breathtaking. His chest gleamed with hard, sculpted muscle, his abs carved from stone.

Her pulse began to race as he towered over her, but not from fear. Like all Ferals, he was a mountain of a man, but if she wanted to, if she opened herself to feed, she could kill him before he knew what hit him.

"Back off, Jag," she purred.

His mouth merely kicked up in a smile laced with challenge and promise.

"Spread your legs for me, Red."

Heat rushed through her, a furious mix of desire and anger. Within the space of one heartbeat and the next, he caged her, his palms pressing against the doorframe on either side of her head.

Asshole.She pulled one of her knives, moving with a speed few could match, sliding it against his inner thigh.

"Spread yours," she countered.

His grin only broadened. "You want me as badly as I want you. I can feel your desire rising from your hot little body like steam. I can smell your heat and see it in your eyes."

"The only heat you see in my eyes is anger."

He dipped his head, his warm tongue darting out to place a quick lick at her temple. "I can taste the desire on your skin. Sooner or later, you're going to spread your legs for me, and I'm going to push deep inside you, over and over, until we're both screaming for release."

As hard as she tried to steel herself against the erotic power of his words, she felt her body melting,wanting.

She pressed the knife tighter against his leg. "How about I cut off that c**k of yours and see if it improves your manners any."

He lowered his hands, freeing her from the cage of his arms. At least that was what she thought he was doing until his hands clamped onto her waist, his palms pressing against the undersides of her rib cage. The sudden burst of unnatural warmth startled her, rushing into her like a flow of pure, sexual heat. The lava ran down, flowing into her inner reaches, heating her, setting flame to the sparks he'd ignited with his presence and words.

Moisture gathered between her thighs as her deep inner walls began to pulse and swell. Heat filled her, opening her wide as her body begged for penetration. Deep inside her, a pressure began to build, a roaring, volcanic orgasm.

No, dammit.

She sliced through Jag's pants, sinking her knife deep into his inner thigh.

As warm blood rushed over her hand, he jerked away from her.

"Bitch."The word growled from his throat.

With his hands no longer pressing unnatural heat into her, the building orgasm slowed and stilled, whirling close,so close, before dying a throbbing, aching death.

Olivia gave him her frostiest look. "You'll keep your paws to yourself, Feral."

Even as anger flared in the brown depths of Jag's eyes, his mouth kicked up in a dangerous smile. "This isn't over, Red. Not by a long shot. Before we're done, you'll be begging me to f**k you."

"Only in your dreams, Cat. Only in your dreams."

To her surprise, he gripped her jaw, something raw and wild in his eyes. "You don't know anything about my dreams."

She stared at him, glimpsing again the torment she'd recognized in the war room earlier. "You might be surprised, Jag." Jerking her chin out of his grasp, she wiped her knife on her pants but kept it at the ready as she turned and left him there. His gaze bored holes into her back until she rounded the corner.

Damn him. Her body ached, so close to release that all she'd have to do was reach into the front of her pants and brush her finger over herself a couple of times to bring on a screaming orgasm. She was sorely tempted to duck into one of the empty rooms and do just that, except she feared Jag would follow and find her like that, in the throes of the passion he'd driven her to. She didn't even want to think about what would happen next. His prediction could all too well come true. She would spread her legs and absolutely beg him to fill her.

Goddess, but she had to get away from that man.

With a growl of deep sexual frustration, Jag strode through the foyer and out the front door. Lavender and pink streaked the eastern sky, just visible through the branches of the thick trees that surrounded Feral House. The morning air smelled of dew and damp earth, of trees and grass and the small creatures that shared the land with the humans and Ferals.

But it was the sweet scent of Olivia's hair, the heady musk of her arousal, and the metallic smell of his own blood that lingered in his nose.

Damn, but he throbbed. His leg had already healed, thanks to his immortal Therian nature, but his body ached for release. He strode across the wide, circular drive lined with cars - everything from his own yellow Hummer to Kougar's silver Lamborghini and the three nondescript sedans Lyon had purchased during Tighe's recent run-in with the law.

Reaching the woods on the other side, he stripped off his pants, tossing them onto the ground as he pulled on the power inside him, the power of the jaguar that had marked him and claimed him over two and a half centuries ago.

In a rush of raw power, pure pleasure, and a flash of sparkling light, he shifted into his animal. A jaguar.