Leopard 03 - Burning Wild

changing that much.”
    “I couldn’t get out through the gates, Jake. I’d say that things are already changing a lot.”
    His gaze swept over her, taking in the defiant set to her chin and her trembling mouth. “You shouldn’t have been able to get through the gates without my knowing before, Emma. That was a mistake on Jerico’s and Drake’s part. They know better now. I have enemies and I’ll be damned if something happens to you because of their carelessness.”
    She swept her hair up and started to clip it, more from nerves and the need to do something with her hands than anything else.
    “Leave it down.”
    Her eyes widened. “See. Right there. You’re already telling me what to do. I can’t have you ordering me around all the time, controlling my every move. I can’t breathe right now, Jake. I need space. I need to know what’s happening to me. You just take people over. I’ve seen you do it, and now you’re doing it with me. You humiliated me. Deliberately humiliated me.” There was a catch in her voice and she turned her face away from him to stare out the window into the darkness.
    “How? Why would I want to humiliate you?”
    Emma glanced at him again, trying not to hear that hypnotic note in his voice that always had such an effect on her. “You know very well how. You could have come in my mouth.” She blushed when she said it, avoiding his eyes, but he heard the hurt in her voice as if he’d rejected her. “Instead you came all over me. That was not making love. That was not respect. That was like some porn film and I was the receptacle.”
    “That was me making love, Emma. That was me showing more than respect. That was me claiming you for my own.” He slammed on the brakes and brought the Jeep skidding to a halt. “Did you think you weren’t pleasing me somehow? Fuck, Emma. I’ve never had a night like tonight in my life. I’ve never felt that way with anyone. Not anyone. I don’t tell you lies.”
    She didn’t know what to say to that, so she remained silent, hugging herself, rocking a little, trying not to feel so inexperienced and awkward. Something had possessed her when she’d been with Jake. She hadn’t known how to do all those things. He’d taught her in minutes, and she’d wanted to please him so much she’d followed his every instruction.
    “I know that with you I’m a demanding lover. I’d like to say it won’t happen again, but it will. I’m primal, I have certain needs, and sex is intense with you. That’s such an insipid word for what sex is with you.”
    The way he said it, with such stark honesty, would have sounded ridiculous with anyone else, but he was telling her the truth and she shivered, her body reacting to the sensual undertone.
    “I won’t be able to keep my hands off you, and I have every confidence that I can make you want me.”
    He refused to look away from her, refused to let her look away. “I can be rough and animalistic and I know I’ll be demanding things from you that may scare you, but, Emma, I would never harm you, or humiliate you or treat you without respect. If there is one person on the face of the earth that I respect above all others, it’s you.”
    Her heart pounded so hard it hurt. He was no longer discussing what had happened between them; he was talking about a future together. She could see it in the lines of his face, the intensity only Jake had, the iron will and determination that made him relentless. He was in pursuit and she was his prey.
    “I’m not comfortable with the kind of sex we had.”
    His hand slid over her hair, sweeping down the heavy, silken fall. “I know you’re not, honey, but I also know you enjoyed it. I’ll always make certain you’ll enjoy it.”
    She couldn’t deny she’d enjoyed sex with him. Jake made her feel as if he had to have her, that he couldn’t wait another moment. He’d given her more pleasure than she’d ever experienced in her life.

    “I don’t do one-night stands or flings. Do you have any idea what’s going to happen when we break up? We have children. This is my home. It’s your home.”
    A muscle ticked in his jaw. His eyes went diamond-hard. “I have no intention of allowing us to break up.”
    “Women don’t keep you satisfied for very long, Jake, and then you move on to the next one. Rough, exciting sex only goes so far, but what happens when the newness wears off and I’m old hat to you?
    Then what do we do? I’m not the type of woman