Page 35

Chapter Nineteen

Jagger

Her pretty red eyes widened, and I dragged in a rough breath.

I was trying to hold myself back. Really fucking trying, but then I felt her hand move at my side. She was touching me, setting off really fucking nice tingles down my spine, and maybe I could have maintained my control for a little longer, but then her claws grazed my skin.

“Fuck,” I groaned, a full-on shiver rocking me. “Sutton, baby, I’m struggling here. You need to step back if you don’t want me to claim that hot fucking mouth.”

She blinked up at me, but what she didn’t do was step back.

That was it. The only chance she got from me.

With a growl, I hooked her around the waist and hauled her off her feet as I shoved my fingers in her soft hair.

It was difficult, but I pressed my forehead to hers and took two seconds to remind myself that although she may look like a demon, she wasn’t as strong as one, and I needed to be careful with her.

I needed to be aware of my strength, because hurting her would fucking destroy me.

So instead of slamming my mouth down on hers, I tipped my head to the side and carefully, slowly opened my mouth over hers.

Oh fuck. Her warm, soft lips against mine were even better than I remembered.

But this time, I slid my tongue inside for a taste.

Her little tongue touched mine, and my knees literally went weak.

I tried, I really fucking tried to keep the kiss slow and sweet, but then she tightened her arms around my neck and wrapped her legs around my waist, add to that her wanton little moan, and I lost my mind.

Planting my hand on her round ass, to hold her right the fuck there, I started walking.

Every tunnel was imprinted on my mind, every curve and turn and fork.

Every crossroad and burning pit. I’d traveled these tunnels for over a thousand years; I didn’t need to look as I strode toward the quarters I kept here.

I wasn’t going to push her for more than she was ready for, I just needed a little more of her, just a little more.

She moaned against my lips as I rounded another corner, and the scent of her hot, slick pussy reached up and grabbed me by the throat. My mouth watered, imagining my first taste. Fuck.

We finally reached my door, and I pressed my hand to it, using my powers to unlock and open it, and carried her inside. She tore her mouth from mine, panting, while I kissed and sucked her slender throat, marking her delicate skin, marking her the only way I could.

What I wanted to do was plant her on the bed on her hands and knees, fist that soft, gorgeous hair, tear her pants off and slam inside her. I wanted to fuck her hard and mark her with my fangs.

I wanted to make her my mate, but Sutton wouldn’t thank me for it. Yes, she was turned the fuck on, as hot for me as I was for her, but I didn’t need all my emotions to know my female was still hurt by the shit I’d said and done.

Maybe I should stop this. Maybe the best thing for me to do would be to slow this down, keep it to just this kiss, but after seeing her in a room with Tarrant, then working on Poe?

Yeah, holding myself back had already tested the hell out of my control.

Add to that the shit with Kurgan, having to bring Sutton here, seeing her in danger a second time that night, and my newly developing emotions were all over the fucking map.

I needed more. I just needed her—her scent, her touch, the sound of her voice. Only she could calm the storm tearing through me. Only she had the power to do that.

I laid her on the bed. “Let me get you off,” I said as I popped the button of her jeans and slid down the zipper. “Just need a taste of you, sunshine. You gonna give me a taste, baby?”

Something moved through her eyes, and I thought for a moment she was going to say no, but then she lifted her hips so I could tug down her jeans and tossed them aside.

I groaned. Fuck me . Her pussy was drenched, soaking her underwear.

So much so, they clung to her. Desperate for a look, I hooked my finger through the scrap between her thighs and tugged it aside.

“Fuck, baby.” I leaned in, dragging my nose along her inner thigh, licking, sucking those sexy black veins snaking up her leg, and breathed her in, teasing us both. “So pretty. Gorgeous everywhere.”

I quickly dragged off her underwear. There was no stopping myself, and with a hungry groan, I covered her pussy with my mouth, and finally got a taste of her.

Fucking hell.

The leash slipped, just a little, and my beast’s tongue slid from my mouth on the next lick, elongated, broader, so I could tease and taste her the way I wanted to.

It wasn’t something all hounds could do, but I was old and fucking glad I’d mastered the skill when she arched against the bed and thrust her fingers into my hair with a high-pitched cry.

Holding her wide, I dragged my long, broad tongue over her delicate little cunt. The size and the way my beast’s tongue could move meant I was everywhere, the tip teasing her opening while the broader section higher up was pressed to her clit, moving from side to side.

Her thighs shook, and she fisted my hair tighter while her hips churned against the mattress.

Wrapping my arm around her back, I lifted her ass off the mattress so I could control her movements and hold her steady.

I looked up at her, locked eyes, and slid the full length of my tongue deep inside her.

The red and black of her eyes widened, then fucking rolled back as her mouth fell open on a sexy, dirty-as-fuck whimper.

“ Jagger .” She tried to move her hips.

I held her still and started fucking her with my beast’s tongue, moving it in and out of her pussy while the tip rubbed against the spot inside her that I knew would send her fucking wild.

“Don’t stop,” she gasped. “ Oh gods . Oh…oh.” Her thighs slammed shut around my head, as she rocked against my face, coming hard for me, coating my tongue with her sweet-as-fuck honey.

When she finally collapsed back, I slowly, carefully eased my tongue from her pussy, lapping up all of her sweetness before lifting my head. Panting, she watched as I licked my lips, as my tongue returned to a more human form.

“Holy shit.” She gasped for breath.

I gripped her thighs and yanked her down the bed. “You want more?” I trailed kisses along her inner thigh, wringing a whimper from her.

She blinked up at me as I leaned over her. “I…this was?—”

“The best orgasm you’ve ever had?”

She squeezed her thighs against me. “No…I mean, yeah, but that wasn’t what I was going to say.”

I wanted to see her naked. I could control myself. I could strip her bare and not fuck her. I slid my hand up her shirt, and hers came down on mine.

I dragged my other hand down her soft belly, and she stopped me again, a wild look in her eyes. “Sutton?”

She shook her head. “I’m not sure we should have done this. With all that’s going on, maybe this was a mista?—”

I growled, loud. “Don’t you fucking say it.”

“Come on, Charming, things are a complete mess between us. Adding this”—she motioned to my mouth—“to the mix while everything is so fucked up is a bad idea.”

“Why?” She was wrong. I just had to make her see it.

“Why?” she repeated.

“Yes.”

“Because you rejected me, multiple times, and because I don’t trust easily…and honestly? I don’t trust you. Not yet. I don’t know if I’m capable of it. It’s not your fault, not really, it’s just—the way I am.”

“I’m not your family, Sutton. I’m not fucking them. I know I hurt you, baby, and I regret that more than you will ever know, but I’m not them, and I won’t do that shit again.”

She chewed her lip. “I want to believe you.”

“Then get to know me, spend time with me. Let me change your mind.” I would never let her go, but if she needed to hear that I would if she chose it, then I’d tell her what she needed to hear. “If at the end of all of this, you still don’t trust me, then I’ll walk away.”

“You don’t mean that, and I don’t want to hurt you.

I saw what Kurgan was feeling. I felt it, the pain inside him.

There was other damage, things…power inside him I didn’t understand, but being parted from his mate like that had caused a vicious scar inside him that was making everything so much worse, it’s driving him mad. ”

Hearing that, having it confirmed settled like a boulder in my chest. “Kurgan is half my age, damaged in a way that even Lucifer can’t heal.

What you felt, it won’t happen to me. You don’t need to worry about that.

” I was lying. My craving for Sutton would only increase, would never leave me, and I had to hope that spending time with her, trying to show her the male I was, the male I wanted to be, would make her forgive and trust me again, like she had before I fucked everything up.

She bit her lip. “I can’t make you any promises right now, Jagger. My life is so complicated. Until Luke is safe and Tarrant is off my back, getting into anything serious with you, it just…it’s too much.”

“Then we take it one day at a time, yeah? No pressure. Can you give me that?” I asked, trying to keep the desperation off my face and out of my voice.

I was willing to die with this female, to have Lucifer take me out when her time came, but I had no idea how to show her that, how to show her just how much she meant to me.

She nodded. “I can give you that.” There was still wariness in her eyes, though.

I leaned in slowly, giving her a chance to pull away. She didn’t. “Thank you,” I rasped and took her mouth in another kiss.

Sutton pulled away from the kiss first, and it was hard, but I let her.

“I need to get back to my place,” she said. “Boo’s there on his own, and I have product to make for Tarrant. It’s going to take most of the night. I need to get it done before my shift tomorrow.”

“Okay, sunshine,” I said, then stood, taking her with me. “I’ll take you home.”