Of Consuming Fire (16 page)

Jayden’s moan was deep and guttural. She was so beautiful Jayden’s chest ached.

She remained quiet as he gently lowered her pants and the undergarment beneath them. She stepped out of them.

And then she was completely naked, standing within the shelter of his wings.

She closed her eyes briefly, and Jayden felt the doubt she had been holding at bay breach her mind. She began to move her hands to cover her breasts, but Jayden cupped her face with both hands, gaining her attention and stalling her movements.

“You are beautiful, Grace.” His voice was so deep, so hoarse, he almost did not recognize it.

He monitored her thoughts carefully, and she recalled that he could not lie, and then her doubt diminished, though it did not entirely vanish. He would just have to work hard to make sure that it did.

With that in mind, he kissed her, quickly swooping in and giving her no time to think further. As he deepened the kiss, she sighed into his mouth and stepped close once again, wrapping her arms around his neck. Her naked body pressed against his fully for the first time.

His arousal was cradled between their bellies — hers soft, his hard. Her breasts were pressed into his rib cage right beneath his pectorals. He could feel the heat from her sex against his thigh.

With a hiss, he broke the kiss. “
Grace
… ” The sensations the touch of her body brought were unlike anything Jayden could have imagined.

She brushed her fingers through his hair, smiled, and pulled him down for another kiss. As he thrust his tongue into her mouth, he walked them backward until the bed hit the back of her thighs. He gently lowered her until she lay on the bed, and quickly followed her down, stretching out on top of her, resting his hips between her thighs.

His arousal pressed against the sleek heat of her sex, and they both froze. Jayden remained frozen only for a second, and then he wrenched himself away, turning to the side. He lay on his back beside her in the narrow bed and cast his forearm over his eyes as he tried to control his breathing, which echoed through the room like an oncoming army.

He had scared himself. For a moment there, he had been primed to plunge into her body. His arousal had been at her entrance. Even now, he could feel the slickness of her body on his shaft.

Every instinct in his body had urged him to make her his in every way. And he had almost done so.
After
promising Grace he would not.

“Are you okay?” Her voice sounded small and concerned, but completely devoid of fear. A quick survey of her thoughts showed him he had not scared her, and that should have brought relief.

Instead, he could not feel anything other than the raging want coursing through his body. “Need you so badly,” he muttered before he could stop himself.

He felt the light pressure of her hand on his chest. Felt her lean in. Her breath caressed his cheek. And then, in his ear, she whispered, “
Good
.”

His eyes popped open in surprise, though he could not see anything through the arm still resting across his face. Her hand started to move down. Her fingers trailed over his stomach, and without hesitation, wrapped around his arousal.

His arm fell from his eyes. His back arched as he groaned to the ceiling. “
Highest heaven
.” It felt so good, he could not see straight. The contrast between her soft palm and his calloused one was night and day. And then she moved her hand, slowly stroking up from base to head of his shaft.

Blindly, he turned his face toward hers; kissing anything he came into contact with — her forehead, her eyelids, her cheek — as he sought her lips. She continued to stroke him, and he finally found her mouth and plunged inside, groaning against her lips with every movement of her hand.

That peak he had reached so many times on his own as he thought of her loomed over him, and he realized she was going to bring him to orgasm, quickly, if he did not stop her.

“
Grace
,” he gasped, pulling slightly from the kiss, “slow down.” She had to be there with him. He turned onto his side, facing her, his hand moving to her hip and stroking down.

“Am I doing it wrong?” she asked anxiously.

He groaned. “
No
, I am. Your soft hand is going to make me finish before I take care of you.”

His fingers reached her sex, and he brushed through her folds seeking and finding that nub that brought her to pleasure before. She gasped, and softened against him.

“Wrap your arms around my neck,” he whispered urgently, touching her deeper, spreading the slickness of her arousal with his fingers.

She did as asked, and with his free arm, tunneled beneath her body and hauled her in close. His shaft pressed against her belly, and his hand fully cupped her sex. He kissed her as he slid a finger deep inside her body, grinding the heel of his hand against her most sensitive spot. And then, his body took over, canting his hips forward, thrusting his arousal against her soft, warm body. Shivers of pleasure wracked him, and he repeated all movements over and over.

Soon, he could tell she was reaching her peak. She began to moan into their kiss. Her arms tightened around his neck, and she rubbed her breasts against his chest. Jayden’s world tilted violently as he struggled to outlast her, the need to spill his seed threatening his control. He thrust his finger deeper, ground the heel of his hand faster. And, thankfully, it worked.

Her body began to tremble. She jerked back from their kiss to stare into his eyes. Hers widened and then closed as she cried out his name and arched against him.

It pressed his shaft more fully into her belly, and finished him as well. “Grace,” he groaned as his seed shot from his body. He pulled her even closer and buried his face in her neck, pressing an open-mouthed kiss to her pulse as she undulated into his hand. Her sheath clenched and re-clenched his finger in flutters. Moisture spilled into his palm.

It was the most amazing thing he had ever experienced. Even before he was capable of complex thought once again, he knew it to be true. He was made to bring this woman pleasure.

Her body relaxed. She breathed a soft laugh as she loosened her grip upon him, softly skimming her fingertips over the welts her nails had left behind — marks that he would have gladly borne, but that would sadly be gone in seconds.

And then her breathing changed. Grew regular. She had fallen asleep.

Jayden lay still and listened to her breathing and her heartbeat for an eternity. She felt so good, warm and soft in his arms. His eyes began to close in sleep. He wanted to hold her while she slept. To stay here with her. Forever.

His eyes jerked open in shock.
Forever
?

It was that word that made him move. He gently but quickly extricated himself from her and left the bed. She moaned softly and stirred, her eyes blinking open sleepily and staring at him with confusion.

“Jayden?” she asked in a sleepy voice.

His heart stuttered in his chest, but he turned from her and walked toward the door.

“You’re not staying?” Her voice was filled with hurt, as were her thoughts as they flooded him.

He stopped at the door to sweep up his robe, but refused to turn around and look at her. “I cannot, Grace,” he whispered.
Because I want to more than anything in the world.

“But — ”

Whatever she was going to say, he did not stay to find out. He silently left the room and closed the door behind him. With a shuttering sigh, he leaned back against the door, held his robe against his naked, still-hard shaft, and fought heaven and hell against the desire to join her again. To crawl into bed with her and calm the doubt now running rampant through her mind. But if he ever had a hope of not dooming himself, he could not.
He had almost fallen asleep
.

As for his heart — he had thought joining with her completely would damage him irreversibly. He had underestimated the connection he would create with the actions they had just taken. His heart ached more than a physical wound, and Jayden worried that he had already lost it.

It was an unbearably long night for Grace. After Jayden
left
her, with no more explanation than
I cannot
, Grace hadn’t been able to go back to sleep. She hadn’t been able to do anything but examine her actions for a misstep.

Which only infuriated her.
He
acted crazy, and she was ready to blame it on herself? That was not something Grace had been willing to do for well over a decade.

Lying in his bed — though why he had a bed when she was pretty sure he didn’t sleep — was disconcerting to say the least. More than a dozen times throughout the night, she wished she could just get up and leave. But if she was in his room, he had nowhere to go but the hallway, and she just couldn’t face him right now.

The words
walk of shame
came to mind.

But now it was past nine in the morning. She never stayed in bed past six, and she had been training with Jayden each morning shortly after that. She could hear Jericho and Dahlia up and about and knew her time of self-imposed quarantine was coming to an end.

With a sigh, she sat up. She was already dressed. That had happened seconds after Jayden had closed the door behind him. She couldn’t stand being naked in the bed one second longer. She’d scrubbed the evidence of his orgasm from her skin with one of the blankets that now lay crumpled in the corner.
Let him deal with that
.

She walked with leaden steps to the door, and when she opened it, it took all of her presence of mind not to gasp.

Right across the hall, leaning up against the wall and watching the door without blinking was the angel. His arms were crossed, as were his ankles. His wings were out and hunched around his shoulders as though for warmth. When she opened the door, he straightened, dropped his arms to his side, and stared at her without saying anything.

Awkward … .

That was when he spoke. “It was not your fault.”

That
was what he chose to respond to? Of all the things she had been thinking, he chose to narrow in on the brief second she’d allowed herself to ponder if his leaving were her fault? “I know that,” she spit acidly.

He frowned in that way men do when a woman has acted in a way they can’t interpret. The tilt of his head told her he was trying to read her thoughts again.

She forced her mind to blank and stared at him as hostilely as she could.

He frowned and tilted his head even more. After a few seconds, he straightened, shock clearly flashing across his face. Then those luscious lips split into a wide grin that caught her off guard. “Good for you, Temptation.”

She resisted the urge to stamp her foot. Temptation? They were back to that, were they?

“I knew you were a natural warrior,” he said. “I am proud of you for analyzing the situation — correctly — and defending yourself.”

She frowned. She was disturbed by how much his praise meant to her.

But he wasn’t done. “Time for training,” he said seriously. “Now.”

There was an urgency to his words that she had not heard in his tone before, and it unsettled her enough to agree without argument, though the idea of resuming their routine had horrified her a mere minute ago. She followed him silently to the large part of the hallway where they had been sparring. Something was about to change, she could sense it.

Still, she was shocked when he turned to her and removed his sword from where it rested on his back. It flickered blue briefly before returning to the beautiful green and gold flames it usually sported. He held it loosely with both hands in front of him.

She eyed him warily. “What — ”

“Today’s lesson,” he said softly. “I will strike with the sword. You will disarm me.”

• • •

She gasped. “Are you serious? Disarm you?”

Jayden was more than aware that he was crossing a line. In the back of his mind, he knew he was teaching her how to defend herself. Against
him
. When the Compulsion grew too strong, and he turned on her.

Fortunately, he was still so proud of her for ascertaining that he was trying to read her thoughts and blocking him that it overpowered the guilt his current actions created. “Yes.”

He raised his sword over his head. The action, even though for the purposes of sparring and teaching her how to disarm him, made him sick to his stomach. Her eyes grew wide as she looked at the sword poised to strike. Oddly enough, he discovered she was not scared. Of the sword or of him. In fact, she had a great deal of respect for the sword. She thought it …
beautiful
. His stomach lurched again. “Arms up,” he commanded more roughly than he intended.

She seemed to snap out of a stupor, her eyes snapping back to reality. She raised her arms above her head.

“Cross your wrists,” he said with a suddenly dry mouth. Her breasts rose so tantalizingly beneath her shirt with her hands to the sky like that.

She crossed her wrists and waited for his next instruction.

“When I swing down,” which was usually the way he struck in battle, “catch my wrists with the vee of yours.” He swung wide before she could question, and she followed his directions beautifully. He showed her how to direct his momentum downward and then elbow him in the chest to get him to drop the sword.

As soon as she had done it successfully, he barked, “Again.” He made her repeat the move until she was breathless and perspiring, but could pull the move off without a thought.

“Good,” he whispered.

Her breasts huffed up and down. Tendrils of her red hair fell from her ponytail. She was so beautiful. And though she could disarm him now, she did not do so without his compliance. Jayden knew she did not stand a chance against him when he was actually forced to take her life. When the Compulsion took away his free will.

He heard a noise and looked up to find the other two humans standing in the hallway looking at Grace and him with questioning eyes. Their thoughts were a cacophony of shock, and the undeniable knowledge of what Jayden had truly been attempting to do. The blond —
Jericho
, he mentally corrected — looked at him with softness in his eyes for the first time in days.