Tia frowned, not quite sure what was going on.
“It is perfect.” Luc nodded in agreement. “Deep forest, very few people. Does he have enough of the supplement?”
“He has enough.”
Tia’s glance shifted from Luc to her father. “What the hell are you two talking about?”
Luc patted her on the knee. Her father shook his head, still grinning. “You know I suspected Shannon might be Chanku. Jake’s reached the same conclusion. He’s not a hundred percent sure, but enough that he’s going to get her to a safe place and see if the nutrient has any effect. They’ll be safely out of the way, in any case, which gives me time to have my talk with dear old Milton.”
Tia was still trying to process her father’s comment when Ulrich wiped the napkin across his mouth, folded it carefully at his place and stood up. “Cheval, Aragat…Alexandria and Keisha, though the words are hardly sufficient for what you’ve done, thank you all.” He turned to Tia and the men of his pack. “Finish your meal. I have a feeling things are just beginning to get interesting.”
Ulrich left the room. Tia was barely aware he’d gone. Her mind spun with Ulrich’s casual announcement. Now even Jake thought Shannon might be Chanku. This went way beyond Ulrich’s casual suspicion, and it would explain so much. Tia’s lover, her friend, her closest confidant until Luc, a member of the same magical race. And, like Tia had been for so long, completely unaware of her own heritage.
Jake sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the cell phone resting in the palm of his hand. Whatever made him dial Ulrich Mason’s number? Jake had only meant to check for messages. He really hadn’t intended to call his boss, to say anything to the rest of the pack about where he was going with Shannon, his very strong suspicions about her heritage, but now he’d talked to Ulrich, Jake actually felt more comfortable about his plans.
Ulrich hadn’t said a word when Jake announced he planned to buy a motorcycle and put it on the Pack Dynamic account. Instead, the old man had mentioned his own quick trip to the nation’s capital. Jake shook his head, wondering what Ulrich was up to.
At least now Jake had some idea of why he’d been sent to protect Shannon Murphy, though it was hard to believe a cabinet member was behind Ulrich’s kidnapping, that a trusted government servant might be the one who had ordered not only Ulrich’s kidnapping, but also Shannon’s attack.
Pipes rattled when Shannon shut the water off in the shower. Jake turned off the cell phone and stuck it in his pack just as Shannon walked through the door, emerging out of the billowing steam like a red-haired wraith.
Jake held his arms wide and Shannon walked into his embrace as if they’d been lovers for years. She leaned over and kissed him, her mouth moving over his in a light, teasing manner that had his cock standing at attention in a heartbeat.
“What’s that for?” Jake kissed her back, sweeping his tongue along the seam between her lips. She didn’t open for him as he’d expected. Nothing Shannon had done since they first made love had gone as he expected.
She leaned back and smiled at him. “For saving me from those men. For making absolutely exquisite love to me all night long. For letting me have the shower first. Take your pick.”
“Exquisite, eh?” Jake leaned forward to nip at her smooth belly. Shannon turned quickly, slipping out of his arms and out of reach.
“Maybe I overstated. It was okay.” She propped her hands on her hips, which effectively forced her perfect breasts up and forward.
“Just okay? What happened to exquisite?”
“I was being polite. C’mon. I’m hungry.”
Jake wiggled his eyebrows. “So am I.”
“For food, Bozo. I think I missed a meal or two somewhere.”
Jake wrapped his fist around his erect cock and stroked slowly along the length, rolling his foreskin back from the broad head, exposing the blood-filled crown, then slipping his palm forward, covering it once again. Slowly, methodically, he taunted her with each careful stroke, until he was almost certain her eyes took on the glazed look of arousal he’d aimed for—and achieved—over and over again last night.
“I’ve got something here you can eat.”
Shannon blinked, then took a moment to study what he offered. She wrapped her hand over his, pushing the protective skin back and exposing his sensitive glans. Her fingers slipped over his hand and she swept one finger across the head of his cock, lifting a small pearl of pre-cum from the narrow slit at the end. Making complete eye contact, she lifted her finger to her mouth.
Jake thought his heart might beat right out of his chest.
Shannon slowly sucked on her finger, closed her eyes and swallowed with a look of pure ecstasy on her face. The tip of her tongue slipped out, followed by a glimpse of her teeth as she carefully licked her lips. When she opened her eyes again, instead of the sexy invite he expected, Shannon flashed Jake a saucy grin. “Tastes great, but I was thinking more along the lines of a cup of coffee and a bagel. Now hurry up. It’s getting late.”
Grumbling, Jake headed for the bathroom. Damn. Would he ever understand women? They’d linked, damn it. They’d shared their souls during sex last night, melded, one into the other in a way he’d never imagined, and she hadn’t said a fucking word about it!
Just thinking of what they’d done, the wild, uninhibited sex they’d shared, turned Jake on. He’d lost track of how many times he made her come, lost track of his own mind-blowing climaxes, but he hadn’t forgotten the feeling. The frightening intimacy of linking with a woman at the height of orgasm.
Sharing thoughts, sharing sensations, sharing passion.
And all she could talk about was coffee and a damned bagel. Shit.
Jake closed the bathroom door behind him, fighting a really childish urge to slam it hard enough to rattle the windows. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d beaten off under the warm spray of a shower, though after last night, he’d really hoped that lonely activity was a thing of the past.
He stared at his cock. The damned thing practically stood at attention. How he could be horny after the workout last night was beyond Jake, but there was no denying the familiar ache in his balls or the insistent glare of his own one-eyed monster. Stepping beneath the warm spray, Jake imagined Shannon, naked in this very spot. Picturing her soft hands wrapped around his cock, Jake reluctantly took the situation in hand.
Shannon managed to keep the smarmy grin plastered on her face until the bathroom door closed behind Jake’s perfect ass. Then she slowly sank to the edge of the bed and rested her head in both hands. Dear God, what had she gotten herself into?
Who was this man? Her body still thrummed with desire, her nipples hadn’t lost their taut pucker, her pussy clenched with rhythmic spasms and wept with need, just because he’d wanted her again.
Men always wanted her. Women, too. She’d never really known why. Sure, she was attractive enough, though not so much more than any other woman—but that need of theirs, that desire, had never affected her before. Not like this.
For as long as she could remember, Shannon had loved sex. Loved the power it gave her, the sense of control over the hundreds of men and women she’d slept with since she’d first reached puberty over fifteen years ago. Even Tia, for all her strength, had deferred to Shannon.
Not Jake. Never Jake. No, this man had somehow slipped beneath her defenses, found the chink in Shannon’s armor and the code to unlock her heart.
Not only that, he’d gotten inside her head. She wasn’t going to think of that now. Couldn’t allow herself to try and understand what really