Free Midnight Vengeance by Lisa Marie Rice Page B

distant clouds on the horizon. There, menacing, but not a threat right now, zooming out to the distance while the foreground of her consciousness was heat and desire, not cold, empty loneliness.
    Fine by her, let Jacko drown out the world. The world had taken huge bites out of her. Jacko wasn’t going to hurt her in any way. If anything, he was being too gentle. His fingertip circling her was barely touching her flesh. Her hips were gently moving, trying to deepen his touch.
    She opened her mouth, though she wasn’t sure what she wanted to say, and he leaned over and kissed her breast, and all that came out of her mouth was a deep sigh. Everything was happening in slow motion, slow movements, lush and languid. Except for those moments when his thumb brushed her clitoris and sent electricity through her. But then he moved right past, the beast.
    His mouth, too, teased her as he nibbled his way around her breast, soft lips with the slight bite of stubble giving her goose bumps.
    Clearly Jacko wasn’t going to do anything fast, and she couldn’t imagine making him do something he didn’t want to do, so she let herself enjoy the slow—very slow,
glacially
slow—seduction. It was so silent in the room, no noises from the street. It was a quiet street and the gentle snow ate up all sound. The only sounds were the incredibly erotic sounds Jacko was making with her body, as if she were some musical instrument—his lips on her breast, his hand on her sex.
    She felt cocooned in some magical place where no worries were allowed. The only things allowed in the room were heat and desire, Jacko’s hands and mouth bringing them up from someplace deep inside of her. A place that had been deserted for so long.
    Jacko’s mouth found her nipple just as his finger penetrated her and that lazy warm feeling of floating on water changed, sharpened, and she started contracting around his finger in an electric climax.
    Usually it took her a long time to climax. She’d feel it coming from a long way away and would coax herself to it. Now it shot like a lightning bolt through her, her body taking over completely.
    “Yeah,” Jacko muttered, mounting her. He held her open with two fingers and slid deeply inside her, then stilled.
    Amazingly, Lauren was still coming, clenching over and over again around him as he held still for her. He was kissing her deeply and every sense she had was infused with Jacko. With the feel of him, the smell of him, the taste of him. All dark and delicious and so exciting she could barely breathe.
    “Need to get deeper,” he whispered into her mouth and she arched her back and opened wider for him, and just as the spasms started dying down he held her head still for his kiss and started moving inside her, hard and fast.
    * * *
    Lauren wanted to open her eyes but, whoa. Way too much of an effort. She felt really really good exactly where she was.
    Where was that?
    Wherever it was, it was a great place to be. She was lying on something hard and warm. And that smelled really good. And felt even better.
    Jacko.
    God.
    With a huge effort, Lauren didn’t tighten her arms around him, though she wanted to. Her head was cradled against his shoulder, one arm stretched across his massive chest, the other along a huge biceps. The temptation to snuggle, to get as close to him as humanly possible, was almost irresistible because right now? In his arms? Nothing could touch her.
    For the first time in two years, she felt safe.
    This was so dangerous. It was a completely false sense of safety, like those kids who couldn’t feel pain and got burned all the time. Safety didn’t exist, would never exist for her. Safety, just staying in Jacko’s arms forever, was like some kind of seductive drug. One that was bad for her, one that—like all drugs—could cost her her life.
    He was deeply asleep, the kind of body language that couldn’t be faked. Well, he’d earned it. A full blush bloomed all over at the memory of all the