“You think spaghetti is going to make me feel better?”
“Is it working?”
Cara laughed. “Yes, it is actually. It just scares me to think that someone wants us dead so badly. I worry for Zerina and Broni; they are all alone. I was lucky I had you.” Cara sent him a soft smile.
Jericho felt his throat tighten in fear. He didn’t want her to depend on him. He didn’t want her soft smiles or the love shining out of her beautiful eyes. His chair scraped back from the table and he started to rise from his chair to leave the room, to get the hell away from the feelings he fought against. A hurt look entered Cara’s eyes, she knew he was about to run, and she wasn’t going to say anything. She understood and she was going to let him go.
Jericho felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. When he turned, he didn’t see anything, but he still felt the touch on his shoulder. As if it was telling him to stay, as if he left the table, there would be no going back. Jericho felt as if he was at a crossroads between his old, lonely life and a new one filled with love. With Cara.
He broke out in a cold sweat and began to shake. The imaginary hand tightened on his shoulder, giving him strength. He had built his physical strength so that he would always be able to protect himself, but he had ignored his heart. It was weak, afraid to trust and love. He didn’t know how to be with someone day after day. He wasn’t sure he could do it. To have someone around constantly wanting to be with him. Someone who could take away the loneliness and the pain of his past. If he just could be strong enough to let Cara love him.
“Would you like some more bread?” Cara shook her head. Not mentioning that there was plenty on the table.
“Okay.” He nodded his head, and scooted his chair back under the table and then added more spaghetti to his plate.
Cara looked down at her plate and tried not to cry. She knew how hard it was for Jericho not to run. She was going to have to go slow with this man of hers. He was skittish and afraid of her feelings for him, however there was one lesson her father had taught that she was going to take to heart.
“What are you thinking about?”
Cara looked up, smiling. “Patience is a virtue.”
Chapter Twelve
“You cheated!” Jericho accused.
“I did not.” Cara tried to keep a straight face, but was unable to hold back her giggles.
Cara stared at the shirtless Jericho seated at the kitchen table and tried to look innocent, which was hard to do when she was guilty as hell. Who could blame her with the body the man had? When he had taught her poker, she had easily learned the game, but had become bored. Sensing her apathy, Jarrod raised the stakes and taught her strip poker; boredom was the last thing on her mind. Since he was the better player, she had learned to become devious.
“You did, I saw you pick up an extra card and hide another. You’re not even a good cheater.” Jericho gave her a disdainful look.
Cara gave him what she hoped was a sexy look.
“Are you sick?”
“No, I was trying to give you a sexy look.”
“Baby, all you had to do to accomplish that was to let me win. There’s nothing sexier than you naked.”
“Yes there is, you naked.”
He leaned back in his chair until it rested on only the back two legs. “If you wanted me naked, all you had to do was ask.”
Cara smiled at his easy teasing. The last week she had fallen even more in love with this man. He had become everything she had ever dreamed about in a lover. He made her hot merely by staring at him, shirtless with his faded jeans hugging his lean hips; Cara was amazed at how relaxed he looked. He had slowly let down his guard and let her in. His soul was just as dark as before, that couldn’t change, but the hardness in his eyes and expression was gone. He made her feel special, that she was loved, whether he would admit it or not.
“Have you heard the phrase cheaters never prosper?” Leaning back further in the chair, he gave her a hard stare. “You seek to cheat the Indian? At one time your hair would have been prized. You might even have been taken captive and made to become my woman.”
Cara’s interest perked up. “Would you have punished me?”
“Definitely. Come here.” The look he gave her had her instantly rising from her chair and walking slowly toward him.
“I don’t know if I should, you look big and bad. Mean, too.”
Jericho reached out and snagged one of her hands, pulling her towards him, letting the chair down until it rested on all its legs. Pulling her forward despite her playful resistance until she was straddling his lap, Cara settled herself on his lap in mock fear. She had lost her pants and panties in their poker game, so her bare butt nestled against his jean covered cock.
He gave her an arrogant look that would have done his ancestors proud and made her even wetter.
“I am big, but you are the one who’s been bad. Very bad.” Jericho placed his hand on her wiggling hips, holding her still. “Take off your top,” Jericho ordered. Cara quickly shed her shirt and dropped it on the floor. “Now your bra.” Her bra soon followed her shirt. “Kiss me.” With each arrogant command, Cara felt a rush of liquid between her thighs.
She leaned forward until her bare breasts rested against his chest. Her nipples tightened at the contact. Cara put her hands in Jericho’s dark hair and tugged his head down until she could reach his lips. She traced them with her tongue, but he refused to let her tongue enter his mouth. He was going to make her work for it. She could do that.
Cara rubbed her breasts against his chest and slowly began to rock her hips against his crotch, all the while, her lips teased at his lips with little nips. When he still refused to open to her, she raised her hand and placed it on his strong jaw, applying pressure until his mouth finally parted to admit her tongue. Cara explored the depths of Jericho’s mouth as if savoring a fine wine and became lost in the pleasure of having him under her control. That was until he began to respond and showed her that she was still an amateur compared to him.
His mouth became demanding as his tongue began dueling with hers, entering her mouth and forcing her head back until his hand tangled in her hair to hold her still. His hand raised and traced a nipple before releasing her mouth and pulling her further back until her back was arched and her breasts were thrusting upwards. His lips covered one rosy nipple, sucking hard until Cara thought she would scream in ecstasy. Then he caught the nipple between his teeth giving it a gentle bite.
“Do that again,” Cara begged.
Jericho’s lips switched to her other breast, sucking strongly. Cara tensed on his lap, waiting for the small bite of pain he would inflict on her nipple. The longer he made her wait, the more sensitive she became until, when he finally bit her, she screamed as an orgasm took her by surprise.
One of Jericho’s hands went to her crotch, rubbing until her head fell forward weakly on his chest. She trembled as she lay against him, rubbing her cheek against his bare chest. With a hand still buried in her hair, he pulled until she looked up at him. His harsh features showed his Indian heritage. For an instant, Cara did feel as if she were his captive.
“I want you.” A tear slid down her cheek. Cara knew in her heart what Jericho was unable to bring himself to admit.
“I love you.” She gave him the words he needed to hear, to believe in the deepest recesses of his bruised heart.
Jericho rose from the chair with her legs still wrapped around his waist.
“Let’s go to bed.” Cara laid her head on his shoulder.
“Only if you promise to ravish me.” A d
eep chuckle was her response.
“I think I can promise that.” In one movement he removed her legs from his waist and flipped her until she was now lying on his shoulder. Giggling, Cara didn’t know which she looked forward to more, her impending ravishment or the orgasm that was going to rock her world. Then Cara realized it was a win, win situation.
Later, Cara lay across Jericho’s chest, not wanting to wake him as she silently slid from underneath his arm. Finding her clothes strewn around the room, she picked them up and placed them in a basket before gathering fresh ones and heading to the shower.
She enjoyed the hot shower as it soothed her aching body, grinning at the memories of what had brought about the pleasurable aches. She dressed in jeans and one of Jericho’s t-shirts before reentering the bedroom. She debated waking Jericho, but decided not to. The poor man needed his rest; she had plans for later that night.
Frowning, Cara walked to the bedroom window. It was getting dark outside hours before sundown. Thinking that a storm was approaching, she looked out the window. What she saw terrified her. Running back to the bed, she shook Jericho, who woke immediately.
“We have to get out of here!”
He didn’t waste any precious time. Jumping out of the bed, he grabbed his jeans and pulled them on. Cara handed him his shirt and shoes.
“What’s wrong?”
“There’s an eclipse.”
He finished putting on his shoes and frowned at her. “That’s nothing to worry about.”
Hurriedly, Cara explained, “An eclipse is the only time when your world is invisible to ours. Whoever is trying to kill us will remain unseen by my mother and aunt.”
Tugging his hand, they hurried out of the bedroom down the hall. “Where are your truck keys?”
Jericho reached for them on a small table by the door. “Cara, just slow down a second.”
Cara wanted to scream at him, knowing that there was no time. Whoever was after them would not let this opportunity slip through their fingers. “We’ll talk in the truck on the way to town, but right now, we need to get out!”