“I’m more to blame than you, little one. She’s my sister. I vowed to protect her the day she was born. Today, I failed her.”
“Because you were concerned about me! Don’t you dare play the martyr, Jared. If I hadn’t slipped past the security detail, none of this would’ve happened.”
He shook his head as he took her hands in his. “It was wrong to put the blame on you. I fucked up, Paxton. It’s the one thing I never allow: one team member investigating a scene by themselves. I saw her walking to the van. I should’ve stopped her.”
“Instead you were worried about my wrists,” she whispered. “No matter how you justify your actions, Jared. It’ll always come back to me... I am the common denominator in every scenario.” She squeezed his hands. “Wewillfind her. Kezlin is like you. Strong, determined and unbreakable.”
“I know the cruelty of Marco Boneiro, Paxton. We will only find her if and when he’s ready. I fear by then it might be too late to...” He closed his eyes. “Now that I know he’s involved in sex slavery... I shudder to think where she is at the moment. Helpless and drugged out of her mind.”
“How did they know where to find us?”
“It’s an FBI safehouse. I’m guessing they have a top-level agent on their payroll.” His eyes darkened. “Or worse, someone in the NSA. There were only a handful of people who knew about the arrangement to place you there. I’ll find the motherfucker who ratted out your location, make no mistake about that, but first I have to concentrate on Kezlin.”
“The party is two days from now, my love. We’ll find her then. I know we will.”
“My love?” His body was strung taut as he stared at her.
Paxton smiled wryly at the unintended slip. “I’ve fallen in love with you, Jared. I know it’s quick but I’m a forty-two-year-old woman. I know my mind and my heart. You have taken up residence inside them. For the first time in years I feel whole again.”
“God, Paxton. I can’t afford to let my mind stray from Kezlin... not now.” He rested his forehead against hers. “Hold onto that thought a little longer until I can respond with the care and honesty you deserve.”
“We have all the time in the world, Jared.” She went onto her toes to kiss him. “Let me take care of you tonight. Please, let’s lose ourselves in each other for a couple of hours. I need you to give me the strength to keep fighting the despair threatening to bury me for losing Kezlin.”
Jared wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer, burying his face in her fragrant hair.
“Tonight might not be the best night, love. I’m too tightly strung... I’m afraid I’ll lose control to the beast inside me and hurt you.”
“I’m not afraid of any part of you. We’re in this together. In a very short period of time, you’ve become my rock. Let me be there for you, too, my love. In any way you need me tonight.”
“I hope you won’t regret this in the morning, little one,” he whispered against her ear as he carried her upstairs to his bedroom.
The moon transformed the blackness with its silvery disk hung against the dark sky. Paxton was enchanted by the light that filtered inside to bathe the room in a luminescent glow.
A shard of heat pierced her loins as she watched Jared take off his shirt. Impulsively, she reached out to trace the rippling strength of his stomach. The usual moss-green color of her eyes turned darker, like the forest before sunset, as his breathing increased.
It was a warm night and his body was covered in a nacreous sheen of moisture. The silver beam of moonlight played over the landscape of his powerful physique.
Their eyes met, intensifying their excitement in the dimness of the room. Paxton wriggled out of the cotton sundress and let it flutter to the floor. She could sense the heat in his eyes as they travelled over her body clad only in a pair of black satin panties. His eyes lifted to greet her with the fullness of his darkening topaz-colored gaze.
Jared stood rigid, paralyzed with a feeling of being winded, struggling to breathe. Through parted lips he drew a breath. She was a Venus of perfection, her skin already glistening with sensual excitement as she slipped off her panties.
Her breasts raised and fell under the moonbeams dancing over the rose-colored tips. Naked, comfortable, and without false modesty, she watched as his eyes roamed over the sleek lines of her stomach to the roundness of her hips.
Paxton released a heated breath as she drank in the sight of the veins in his cock swelling with pulses of blood, tumefying his shaft firmly. She tilted her head, leaving him mesmerized by the dark red tresses shimmering and cascading in lustrous waves over her shoulders.
Paxton got onto her knees and walked to the edge of the bed. Her tongue flicked out to sensually lick the viscous drops from the turgid mushroom shaped cockhead.
“Paxton.” The warning fell to her ears in a strangled voice. She looked up; his nebulous gaze held hers captive. A warning; not to chase her away but to be wary of being completely devoured.
She ignored him, brushing her hands over his thighs as she urged him to lie down on the bed. He, the powerful Dom, conceded like a willing lamb.
“Let me take care of you, my love,” she whispered as she kneaded the strong ropey muscles of his legs. She straddled him, leaving a trail of titillating nibbles up his chest to gently trace the rigid line of his jaw and ended with a feathered brush over his lips.
He caught her arms before she could kiss him. His voice was harsh, strained from the arousal that throbbed in his loins.
“Don’t prod the beast, little one. For your own good— tread lightly. My emotions are too scattered to stay in control tonight.”
“I need the beast tonight, Jared. Don’t keep him on a leash,” she said, smiling as she touched his face to gently trace the line of his jaw.