My heart leapt in my chest when Jericho appeared outside my motel room. What was I going to say to him? I definitely couldn’t open the door in my condition.
But he looked so handsome on the other side of the window. Tall and terribly sexy. Wisps of brown hair danced on his shoulders from the southerly breeze. The outdoor light cast shadows on the left side of his body, making his Adam’s apple stand out. It also obscured his eyes, but I could feel them on me. Jericho had on my Pink Floyd shirt. Maybe that’s what did me in—seeing him in something he knew was mine. Something he wanted close to his body.
He deserved a chance to speak his mind, and I didn’t want anything left unsaid. I’d already been down that road. I’d spent years wishing for a time machine so I could have told him my true feelings. I’d often wondered if he would have overdosed had I stayed and confronted him. I realized the importance of not leaving loose ends.
His palms pressed on the glass. Another wave was coming, and I felt my resolve weakening, crumbling to ashes. I opened the door, and his words were abruptly cut off when his nostrils flared and his eyes hooded.
I’d seen that hungry look on a man’s face, but never from Jericho while looking at me. He stepped inside and kicked the door shut with his heel. Then he roughly cupped the back of my neck and closed the distance between us.
His bristly cheek pressed against mine. “Oh, fuck. You’re in heat, aren’t you?” he said in a warm breath that skated down my neck.
I moaned as our lips found each other. Carnal need swelled in me like a hurricane, and I became the storm, crashing against Jericho.
His tongue slid into my mouth and met with mine… God, he tasted heavenly and I couldn’t get enough of him. When he moaned into my mouth, it sent a feverish rush of tingles to my core. I wrapped my leg around his body, consuming more of him with my hands, my arms, my legs, my mouth, my breath.
He pulled back. “I need you to stop doing that,” he said in a heavy breath.
“What?”
“Moaning against my tongue.”
“I’ll stop.”
His lips touched mine lightly. “And don’t answer me in a breathless voice. You don’t know what the fuck that does to me.”
I couldn’t stand it. I needed him inside me.
Now.
No time to undress and refine my seduction skills. No time to even make it to the bed. “Please, make it stop,” I said in a trembling whisper, nipping on his lower lip and feeling another lick of pleasure shoot through me.
His body responded, pressing against mine, and his strong arms wrapped around my waist.
But then he pushed me away. “Wait, Isabelle. Wait. I’m not doing this with you, so stop.”
Did he think I was a compliant female? I bent over and pulled down my sweats and panties, kicking them aside. Jericho backed up a pace, startled by my dominant behavior. He’d never been in the same room with me while I was in heat, and I had never been in the room with another man in this condition. All my body knew was that it wanted him. It felt like a pulse throbbing inside me, and I needed that empty space filled.
Just when I thought he was going to turn and run, Jericho pulled away the end of his belt and unlatched it, curving his arm around my waist as he walked me into the side of the dresser. It bumped against my waist, and he reached out with his left arm and knocked all the contents off the surface.
A clatter of cans and packaged foods spilled on the floor, and as I turned to look, he lifted me up and set me on the end. My legs hooked around his waist and he struggled with his zipper, finally shucking down his pants.
I pulled on his neck, trying to kiss him as he worked diligently to free himself.
“Inside me. Now,” I begged. “I need it, Jericho. I need you so bad it hurts.”
“It’s just the heat talking,” he said in a ragged and almost remorseful tone.
Jericho hesitated and leaned into me, his face so close. My knees were bent and I lifted my legs, rubbing them against his flanks and feeling the thick press against my core.
“Isabelle, you could get pregnant,” he warned.
I could see his mind was scrambling for a way out of this. Our bodies knew exactly what they wanted to do, and maybe it boiled down to animal instinct, but he was too busy rationalizing. In my mind, it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I became pregnant with his baby. Maybe our relationship was all kinds of messed up, but kids weren’t a regret in the Shifter world. It was harder for a woman to pair up with a mate other than her child’s father—most Shifter men didn’t want to take on that burden. But good guys were out there, and I could provide for a baby.
Jericho’s baby. Just thinking about having his child made me want him even more.
So I kept stroking his sides with my legs, coaxing him to stop thinking and start feeling. I lay on my back, knocking an orange on the floor as I pulled off my tank top and tossed it over his shoulder so I was bare to him.