The last thing she wanted was for him to feel like he was hurting her. In reality, he’d be doing her a favor, giving her temporary respite from the negative visions and emotions flowing through her mind.
“You think that will be enough?” Jared ground out coarsely, close to her ear.
“It will have to be. I don’t care about the future. I just want to get through today.”
Mara moaned in protest as Jared lifted his body away from hers. “Please don’t leave me right now,” she begged shamelessly, needing the presence of another human right at the moment.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
She heard the rustling of clothing, and it was so quiet in the room that she heard the zipper of his jeans come down, followed by more whispery sounds of clothing being discarded.
“Dark or light?” he questioned softly.
“What?” she asked hesitantly.
“Do you want the curtains open or closed?”
He was naked. She knew it as surely as she knew that he wasn’t going to leave her right now despite her fears. For just a moment, she wished for her glasses, which had been badly damaged during her escape from the fire. Mara ached to see Jared as clearly as possible. But her vision wasn’t bad without them. She wore them mainly because she did intricate work and she had a slight astigmatism in one eye. Her vision sharpened up to perfect with glasses. Right at the moment, she longed for the clearest eyesight possible, but she’d deal with what she had.
“Light.” She wanted to see him so urgently that she didn’t care if he saw her less than perfectly toned body.
Wincing as he opened one of the drapes and the room flooded with sunlight, Mara finally got her eyes full of Jared Sinclair. Blinking fast as her pupils adjusted to the brightness, she stared unabashed as he walked back to the bed without a stitch of clothing on. She sat up, her mouth now as dry as a desert, her gaze lovingly adoring his sculpted, masculine body. His biceps and abs were ripped with solid muscle, and it was obvious he worked out on a regular basis. His powerfully built chest had a light dusting of auburn hair, exactly the same color that highlighted the locks on his head. As her eyes moved downward, she licked her parched lips as she saw a narrow happy trail of the same hue snaking down the lower part of a rippling six-pack that had her itching to trace over it. Finally, her curious stare landed on his groin, and her core clenched as she tried to find the right words for his engorged cock. “Huge,” she choked out, stunned. She’d only seen one other naked man in her life, and he hadn’t been built anywhere near Jared’s size. Anywhere.
“Are you done looking?” Jared asked huskily.
“No,” she answered honestly. Really, she could stare at him forever and never get tired of gawking at his sinfully delicious body. Her glance eventually landed on his face, and she melted when his eyes flared with heat.
Leaning down, he grasped the hem of his own T-shirt that she was currently wearing and tugged it upward. “If I have to get naked, so do you.”
“I don’t look nearly as hot as you do,” she told him reluctantly, but she lifted her arms so he could strip away her only item of clothing. She sat in the middle of the bed silently as Jared’s expression grew hungry and heated, his eyes caressing her breasts like he wanted to devour them.
“Sweetheart, you look like a damn wet dream to me right now.” A muscle in his jaw twitched as his long, surveying stare roamed over her possessively. Tearing his gaze away, his eyes met hers, his deep green irises turbulent as he held out his hand. “Here. You’ll need this.”
Mara took the condom from his grasp, watching him move with the grace of a predator as he crawled into the bed. She waited as her breath hitched with anticipation, but he surprised her by lying on his back beside her, kicking the covers to the foot of the bed, and locking his hands behind his head. “If you want it, take what you want.”
Holy hotness, he looked like a gorgeous male sacrifice laid out for her pleasure, and she was itching to lick every inch of his solid, hard body with her tongue. But at the last minute, she balked.
Something was wrong. She doubted Jared Sinclair ever gave up control, and his behavior was just . . . wrong.
If you want it?
His desire was evident, but he looked almost angry . . . and slightly . . . injured? After his display of alpha male take-no-prisoners passion a few moments ago, something about his actions now was off.
If you want it.