“Damn, Jacob, you’re going to incite a gang rape if you don’t get her the hell out of here.” Hawke’s voice was furious. Jacob pulled reluctantly away from Faith, and glanced over his shoulder at the crowd that had gathered.

He slammed Faith’s door and stalked to the other side. When he pulled away from the bar, he looked over at her. His teeth clenched hard, his fingers tightening on the steering wheel as he saw her breasts, swollen and hard, moving beneath her shirt. Her nipples were hard and the scent of her arousal was drowning him in lust.

“Bastard,” she whispered.

“Had you left the alcohol and the coffee alone, you could have handled it,” he bit out, furious with her and with himself, for his own lack of control and his reluctance in forcing his dominance on her earlier. “I told you, Faith, your system will not tolerate it right now.”

“You just might be surprised at what my system can do,” she muttered heatedly, crossing her arms under her breasts and sitting back in her seat with an unladylike snort.

Jacob could smell her anger, almost as crisp and hot as her arousal. He wanted to shake his head; confused by the creature that had taken the place of the soft-spoken woman he had once known. This woman was proud, tempestuous, and so damned reckless it terrified him.

“Trying to ignore me will not help the situation, Faith,” he bit out as he headed for the hacienda. “You know what you did tonight cannot be tolerated. Do you think you are not in any danger? Have you forgotten the Coyote Breed mercenaries who hunt us like rabid dogs? Or the Council Soldiers who would love nothing better than to rape a Breed female in heat?”

“Now would be a good time for either of them to try me,” she growled.

She literally growled. Jacob flicked a quick look in her direction, surprise and his own arousal surging through his body. She sounded as though she would relish taking on either danger right now. She should be terrified, not prepared to fight.

Jacob felt like banging his head on the steering wheel and howling in exasperation. The woman had no care for her own safety now. What was he to do about her? How was he to protect her? Better yet, how was he to ensure her good sense long enough to keep her alive until the effects of the ‘mating frenzy’ wore off? Damn her. Being mate to this woman would end up killing him.

“Faith,” he muttered. “You are riding very close to the edge of my control.”

“Oh really?” she asked him sweetly. “I just love pushing boundaries, Jacob. Let’s see if I can’t skate a little closer.” And then she moved.

Chapter Fourteen

Jacob allowed her to take her place between him and the steering wheel. Her cunt settled nicely against the swollen hardness of his erection beneath his jeans, searing it with her arousal. He ruthlessly tamped down the desire to release it. If he did, he would rip the pants from her body and force her to ride him to completion before they made it to the house. That wouldn’t do. No, he had other plans in store for Faith, and satisfying the arousal coursing through her body right now was not included in it.

She terrified him with her willfulness, her impulsive recklessness in defying him. She controlled the man, the part of him that wanted only her satisfaction, the heat of her passion and her desire. But nothing controlled the beast that lurked just under the skin. The male predator that demanded submission demanded her protection above all things. She was his woman, his mate, and while in heat, she was at her weakest.

Faith couldn’t know how arousing, how seductive the fragrance of her arousal was. It was a scent capable of possessing the mind and the loins of any man not strong enough to heed the stamp of his mark on her neck. A scent that roused a near violent lust.

It also made her easily tracked. There were still Breeds out there who followed their creators. Those who had broke, who had fallen beneath the cruelties and training of their merciless masters. Jacob couldn’t stand the thought of losing her to such rabid creatures.

Her head lay on his shoulder now as her fingers pushed aside the edge of his shirt. He steeled himself against the soft tongue that stroked over the mark she left on his broad shoulder.

“Mine,” she whispered, her hands sifting the strands of hair at the back of his neck as she lapped at the wound.

Jacob maneuvered the SUV through the narrow roads and back alleys, tortured, tormented by the softness of the woman who had draped herself over him. But he refused to lose himself in her touch. In her caress. He smiled tightly. He knew what she was doing, all soft and seductive on his lap, and he knew it wouldn’t work. Not this time.

“Am I, Faith?” he asked her seductively as he turned onto the rough track that led to the house. His tongue stroked over her neck in turn, rasping the mark he had left on her.

“You are now.” There was a thread of amusement, of confidence in her voice.

“And you are assured of this, how?” he asked her dryly. He refrained from allowing her the knowledge that she was, of course, right.

“My mark, Jacob.” His hand clenched at her hip as he heard the note of hope, of wistful longing in her voice. “You took my mark.”

Jacob felt his heart clench. There was an echo of loneliness, of pain in her voice that disturbed him.

“I am your mate.” He kept his voice soft, even. “Of course I took your mark, Faith. Just as you took mine.”

He felt her sigh, the whisper of her breath across the wound. It was a sigh of regret, of longing. Suddenly it hit him, that he had truly left her alone for the last six years, unaware of the repercussions to her, the hell her body would have put her through as she waited for him. And she still came to him. She had allowed him to touch her again, only to have him leave her, when he should have comforted her, eased her through the aftermath instead of fighting his own demons.

And still, she had come to him. Perhaps not in sweetness and need, but with a lust and demand he could not have refused even had he wanted to.

“I missed you, Jacob, while you were gone.” She was soft, aroused, and so hot the heat of her pussy burned through his jeans to his straining cock. He pressed closer to her, wedging his erection tighter against her saturated heat as he held her against him with his hand at her hip.

“I’m still paddling your ass, Faith,” he promised her, his lips quirking into a smile as her laughter whispered over his neck.

She was not taking him seriously. And though Jacob had no intentions of hurting her, he knew that the sexual punishment to come would assure that she would give second thoughts of defying him in such a manner again.

His body tightened at the thought of it. The memory of taking her, dominating her in that damned Lab cell had haunted him for six years. He remembered clearly the impulse that had pushed him past his reason, and forced him to take her in the most primitive way. Submission. She was his mate, his sexual weakness, his sexual strength. He was determined that she know him for his strength and his dominance over her sexually. It was that need that had pushed him into the act. They were the same impulses pushing him now. She would know that he would not tolerate such defiance.

“Promise?” she asked him seductively.

“Oh, I promise you this and more.” His hand smoothed over the rounded cheeks of her ass, clenching his teeth against the thought of driving his cock between those rounded globes.

Damn. He could feel the damp heat that wept from her vagina as she rubbed against him. Silk covering satin and hot wet woman. Was there any combination more seductive to man or beast? But it didn’t still the dominant surge of possessiveness pouring through his veins. Ahh, sweet Faith. She thought she could tempt him, seduce him once again from forcing her submission to him? She had much to learn about her mate.

“Oh, I definitely promise,” he assured her again as he brushed a kiss over her forehead.

She nipped at his shoulder then. A second later her tongue laved over it. He could feel the smile that curved her lips.

“You are pushing your luck, Mate,” he told her softly as he fought to maneuver the bumps and gullies in the path he was driving over.

“Not yet I’m not.” One small hand went to the buttons of the shirt he wore, slipping several free as he fought for breath. Her mouth moved along his collarbone, her tongue licking over him like a wash of sensual lightning.

Resisting the soft, needy allure of her body wasn’t easy. The dominant core of him was outraged that she would try such maneuvers to get past her punishment, but the man who knew her, who finally realized the years of loss and lonely heat she had lived through, clenched in self-anger. How was he to punish her, when he could not get past the years she had needed him? Years he had spent fighting, and trying to still the hunger for her in his very denial of its existence.

He had left his mate. It didn’t matter that he had not realized the ramifications of the mark he had left on her. It didn’t matter that he would have gone to her if he had known the need, both physical and emotional that she had for him. It mattered that he had not. And now, his natural possessiveness would force her to face another part of the animal that fucked her, that locked inside her, forcing her body to accept his seed, to hold it with the hope of nurturing it.

He sighed as he reached the closed gates of the hacienda. Reaching over to the glove box, he retrieved the remote to the gates, watching as they opened slowly. He pulled through them, set them to re-close and the security system to reset. He watched the rearview mirror carefully, assuring himself that no one had slipped in behind them.

His trouble indicator was flagging a warning, but nothing too serious. Damned good thing it wasn’t too insistent, with his arms full of Faith, her hot cunt grinding against his erection, her body heating in his arms, it was damned hard to concentrate on anything but Faith.

“Tell me, Jacob,” she whispered sensuously, her soft voice filled with husky arousal. “Have you ever fucked anyone in this SUV before?”

* * * * *

Faith felt Jacob’s cock flex between her thighs as he drew in a hard breath. She suppressed a small smile of triumph as his hands flexed on her hips and a rumbling growl sounded from his throat. Her fingers caressed the back of his head, sifting through the fine strands of hair as her lips caressed the sensitive skin beneath his ear.

She felt bold, adventurous. Serious, quiet little Faith was gone, and in her place was the woman she had always longed to be. A temptress. How far could she tempt Jacob? Could she make him lose that precious control of his? Make him take her again as he had taken her that night in the Labs?

She was a seductress. She would seduce him, make him burn as she had burned for so damned long. Could she make the blood sizzle in his veins, make him forget any ideas he had of anger or punishment and fill his thoughts, his mind with nothing but her?

Well, maybe not. But she could definitely tease the hell out of him, which was what she meant to do. And it seemed she was off to a running start. She felt the buttons at the side of her pants slipping free, and Jacob’s hands as they caressed her bare hips. He was breathing deep and hard, his head lying back against the seat as her lips whispered over his neck.

“The bed would be more comfortable,” he told her roughly, his hands running up her back, pushing beneath her shirt as his fingertips skimmed her spine.

“But not nearly as much fun,” she whispered, smiling against his jaw as her tongue peeked out long enough to taste the rough, beard stubbled skin there.

He tasted wild and spicy, with the hint of a thunderstorm, lightning and fire. She wanted more. Her teeth scraped along his chin, her head raising, her tongue peeking out to lick at his lips. Faith opened her eyes, her breath catching at the expression on his face. Lust, raw and bare, and awe. He was watching her as though she had given him some gift, some rare and precious treasure.

“Jacob?” She questioned the look tremulously. What could she have given him that could be so special?

He stared at her, his eyes nearly glowing, heavy lidded, awash with pleasure.