Jack and Djinn (The Houri Legends, #1)(35)
Miriam was seized by tremors, and an orgasm hurtled through her, shaking her, forcing her hips to lift off the bed. Wrenching moans issued from her throat, causing her to grind her core against Jack’s mouth as she clutched his head, clinging to him, writhing and moaning. The fierce heat and power of her climax left her limp and wrung out, hypersensitive all over, and she pulled at Jack, tugged him up to her.
She opened her eyes and realized that her hair, tangled over her shoulders and splayed on the pillow around her head, was no longer plain brown locks but rather living flame, flames that coiled and flicked as if semi-sentient. Dancing bits of flame clung to her still-mortal flesh, running up and down her arms, bursting from her pores to evaporate, erupting in gouts to trip from her to Jack, running along his skin as well.
Jack leaned on his forearms above her, watching the flames play, then turned his gaze to Miriam’s. She felt his body above hers, felt the thick presence of his arousal between them.
She wanted to feel him, to touch him. Miriam pushed at Jack’s shoulder, and he rolled to his back, pulling her over him. She straddled him, her still enflamed hair trailing around her shoulders and hanging in flickering hot curtains around them both as she leaned down to kiss Jack’s mouth, then his chest, then down to his flat, hard stomach.
Now it was his turn to groan and shift beneath her. Miriam ran her hands over his torso, learning him, feeling him, kissing his skin and tasting his flesh. She unbuttoned his jeans and tugged at the zipper, lowering it impatiently, pulling at his jeans and boxers. Jack kicked them away, and he was naked beneath her. They were flesh to flesh now, bodies poised to join. But Miriam wanted to feel more of him, taste more of him. She wanted to make him feel as good as he had her.
Lips stuttering over his skin, she kissed above his navel, then beneath it, and then she had his erection in her fist, hot and hard and thick and perfect. She stroked him gently, slowly, savoring the feel of him in her hand. She wrapped her lips around him, felt his soft springy head between her lips, took him in deeper and swirled her tongue over him, stroking his length with both hands, one and then the other, clutching and pumping and squeezing and plunging her fist around him, root to tip, sucking on him until he moaned and lifted his hips off the bed.
“Jesus, Miriam, you’re gonna make me—” Jack began, but then groaned in pleasure as she brought him as deep into her mouth as she could.
Jack lifted his hips off the bed, writhing as she stroked him quickly with a loose touch. She pulled back to let his cock slip from her mouth, letting her saliva coat him, wrapping her palm over his broad head and smearing it down his length. Then she put her lips around his tip, sucking hard, moving her hands up and down his throbbing length.
Jack didn’t stand a chance. He made one token effort to pull away, to bring her up, but she resisted, and now he tangled his fingers in her hair, which was flashing back and forth from coiling snakes of flame to her normal dark brown locks. He held on, gasped out a warning just before he released into her mouth. She took it all and kept going, drew another wrenching groan from him as he spurted again and again, groaning and cursing.
When he was spent, Miriam pulled away, intending to lie beside him, but she blinked, and in that instant, Jack’s beautiful, naked form was replaced with a startling vision—a nightmare of bloodied features, and somehow she knew, she knew, Ben had done this.
Miriam blinked again, and Jack was himself once more, unhurt and staring up at her in confusion and concern. A sob wrenched through her, her passion and desire doused by the sudden and unwelcome vision, her eyes stinging with tears. She shook her head, trying to banish the vision, but it wouldn’t leave her. The guilt of seeing Jack hurt because of her overwhelmed her every thought, taking over her emotions. Another sob wracked her, and she slumped forward, still straddling Jack, who sat up and wrapped his arms around her, cupping the back of her head as he kissed her temple.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
Miriam covered her face with her hands, not answering, not knowing how to explain what she had just seen. Jack tugged at her hands away, gently but firmly, and brushed the tears from her cheek.
“ I’m sorry, Jack, I just…I can’t. Not yet.” Miriam buried her face between his neck and shoulder, finding comfort in his hand wandering up to rub her back. “I’m so sorry, I know I told you—I know you must be so frustrated. I keep doing this to you. I keep backing off.”
“Miriam, look at me, please?” Jack tipped her chin up, and she finally met his eyes. “If you don’t want to, if you’re not ready, I understand. Just tell me why, okay? I don’t want to do this if you’re not ready. I want you, yes. I’m…god, so turned on by you, so attracted to you. How could I not be? Look at you, you’re so beautiful.”
“No, I’m not. I’m not beautiful. And it’s not that I don’t want you. I do. I want you so bad. I want to do this with you more than I—more than I should, considering how short a time I’ve known you. It’s crazy how badly I want this. So please, please, don’t think it’s that.”
“Then what is it?” Jack rubbed her back, brushing her hair out of the way and massaging the muscles of her neck. He moved aside so that she was lying on her stomach, and he kneaded the muscles of her shoulders and back with a sensuality and affection that was in no way sexual, simply relaxing and comforting.
“It’s Ben. I know I told you I was done with him, and I am, I promise. But I just…I don’t think he’s done with me. He won’t let go easily. I—I just had this vision of you all bloody and beaten, and I knew Ben had done it, and that it was my fault. I healed you back there, but what if…what if he followed you to work and waited for you, jumped you as you were coming out? He would kill you, Jack. I’ve seen him do that before. Not actually kill a man, but close. With his bare hands.”