I could feel the heat in my cheeks, but I nodded. “I already know how amazing you look.” I'd seen him in a towel, after all.
Jacob chuckled, parting his shirt and displaying the rock hard abs and carved indents along his lower stomach. He had the fucking 'V' that men in fitness magazines used photo editing to achieve. Jacob was stunning.
When he turned away to toss his shirt, I glimpsed his muscled back. I hadn't seen it before, and I didn't realize until that moment. Surely, if I had, I would have noticed the massive dragon tattoo across his flesh.
He had ink like Kite, only his had been kept secret from me.
Lowering himself, Jacob flooded my nose with his minty smell. He brushed his lips over mine, made them buzz. “I want to take my time,” he hushed. “I want to explore every inch of you.”
“That might take awhile,” I whispered, lashes fluttering.
I could feel his smile on my neck. “I'm very patient.”
“I'm not,” Kite said bluntly. He must have been standing nearby, and the idea had me feeling incredibly self-conscious.
Jacob tensed, but he didn't respond. Reaching for my zipper, he cut the air with the sound of it grinding down. He stood between my legs, huddled over me on the couch. I didn't realize how much I'd been sweating from anxiety until the clothing peeled back.
I needed to sit in a freezer. I was boiling, perspiration collecting like dew between my breasts.
Jacob knelt on the floor. Now he had the best view. Reaching out, he ran a finger lightly around one firm nipple. He didn't touch it, not directly. The fire that burned between my thighs grew, cruelly letting me know how angry my * was; it still hadn't come.
Jacob breathed out, heavy and sharp. “Perfect. You're genuinely perfect, Marina.”
My insides danced. I wanted to tell him to stop complimenting me, but he was too busy stealing my ability to make coherent sentences.
Two hands toyed with my chest, always keeping away from my tingling nipples. He'd go close, then dance away, until I began arching up to try and reach him.
His laugh was soft, tinged in shadow. I saw it in his eyes, the soft blue now penetrating like arctic ice. Jacob was loving how I squirmed.
I thought about what he'd said to me, how people had many sides. Was Jacob so multifaceted? Right then, he was keen to show me one specific part of him. I didn't get a choice. I couldn't ask him to turn it off, or to switch it off.
Jacob was in control of my mind and my body, and he'd known it since he'd gotten his hands on me.
He pulled the dress lower, yanking it down my legs. His attention went from my breasts, to my stomach, to my useless panties. The white material was close to see-through from my wetness. I couldn't blush any harder.
“He really did get you close,” Jacob said. He cupped the grooves just inside my thighs, outlining my cunt but doing nothing else. “Poor thing. Would you like to come, Marina?” I nodded vigorously, and Jacob brushed his thumb over my clit. “Then say it. I want to hear your pretty voice so I can remember these words forever.”
There was a cavern in my stomach. It was filled with all the awful, frightening things that haunted me. When Jacob spoke, he added a new splash of inky blackness.
I wondered if he wanted to hear me speak because he knew that, all too soon, I would no longer be around to do it for him. I pictured him treasuring the memory long after I was cold and dead.
It was a terrible vision.
When he rubbed my swollen clit again, I forgot it entirely.
“I need to come,” I panted, eyeing him in disbelief. “I need it, and you're a fucking bastard for making me say it.”
Kite's voice called out, low and hoarse. “Yeah. He really is.” Even if he agreed, it sounded like he'd gotten excited from hearing me—seeing me—swept up in my own arousal.
Grinning slyly, Jacob pulled my panties down. Strings of my juice followed.
He stood, moving in to kiss me. I had a second where I got to see the obvious, and delicious, shape of his massive hard-on. He could taunt me all he wanted, but Jacob was just as turned on as I was.
His lips weren't tender. He was ravenous, nipping worse than Kite ever had. This was like our first kiss—that time here, just feet away in his kitchen. He'd made me bleed that morning, trying to tell me I wasn't a ghost. That I wasn't invincible.
He'd messed me up.
Did he understand that?
He'd given me this new intuition that I would have something to lose. Something new.
Something enticing and unexpected.
These men wouldn't mourn my death. So I shouldn't, either.
Revenge.
I had to remember that my purpose was revenge. That was the only thing worth fighting for.
Not Jacob... Not Kite.
Why fight for things you couldn't have?
“You smell amazing,” Jacob said, burying his nose in my thighs. He pushed my cryptic thoughts away, massaging his fingers over my wet folds. I was dripping, desperate for something to finally fill me.