“Is there a sandwich in there?” he asked, knowing there was because he’d specifically asked Jewel for one.
“Yeah, I’m sure you’ll hit all the basic food groups with this one,” she said, tossing it to him.
Her mood seemed to have shifted, which for Caprise happened frequently. When he’d left her before she’d been angry—no, that wasn’t accurate, she’d been upset. The fact that he’d asked what was going on had pissed her off, but that was just a cover-up. Now she would be cheery, or as cheery as Caprise could be, and keep talking as if nothing had ever happened. That’s how she’d been when she’d shown up just as the jet was about to take off. She’d bolted out of the SUV Seth drove, marched right across the tarmac, and started up the steps to the jet without so much as looking at him. Once she was seated she’d begun talking about Arizona and how she’d visited here before and was looking forward to the return. Not once did she mention the phone call he’d answered back at Havenway or who had been calling her.
X figured it was a good sign that they’d apparently reached some type of truce. Which was all well and good, but it wasn’t going to stop him from trying to find out who was taunting her and why.
Chapter 14
“So where did you go when you left DC?” X asked.
They were lying on the bed, both of them with fluffy pillows stacked behind their heads. He could stretch his arm out between them and wouldn’t touch her. Still, the warmth of her presence engulfed the room, the sound of her breathing echoed in his ears, and her scent—a mixture of flowers and a fresh breeze that reminded him of summer—tickled his nostrils.
“I went away” was her quick reply.
“Caprise.”
“Don’t do that,” she said with a huff. “Don’t say my name like you’re ready to discipline me for not answering every one of your questions, when you do the same thing all the time.”
“Okay, where did you go away to?”
She stared at him, wondering just how long it had taken him to become this closed off. He wanted to know everything about her and yet didn’t want to share anything about himself. For her that was perplexing. “Why is it important?”
“Because I want to know.”
“And do you always get what you want, Xavier?”
It was the way she said his name. It had to be, otherwise X was going to have a hell of a time later trying to figure out why he answered.
“No, Caprise, I don’t.”
She didn’t reply right away.
“Why didn’t you contact Nick to let him know you were okay?” He’d rephrased his question because the look on her face was weary. Caprise was no soft and sensitive girl; for all that she looked 100 percent female, X recognized a fighter when he saw one. Wherever she’d gone and whatever had happened while she was away, she’d done her best to defeat it before returning home. She never would have come back if she thought her past would follow her. He was certain of that, but the fact only angered him more.
She inhaled deeply, then said, “I contacted him to let him know I was okay.”
“It might help if you talk about it,” he said and almost frowned at the thought. He’d never talked about his past and had no plans to. Did that make him a big-ass hypocrite or what?
“We could do something else,” she said, rolling over until X could now feel her warm breath on his cheek. “Instead of talk, I mean.”
Her tongue traced a line along his neck, moving upward until she was just beneath his earlobe, where she bit him. It was a quick clamping of her teeth over his skin, but the stinging sensation rippled throughout his body, alerting every pleasure–pain instinct he had.
“You have so many tattoos,” she was saying, her breath a whisper along his skin as she moved farther down his neck. “Since you like to talk, tell me about this one.”
Her tongue flattened over a spot on the bottom of his neck, just before his shoulders began. X sucked in a breath and thought about not responding. Then her tongue circled the tattoo she’d asked about, and blood rushed through his body, resting in throbbing persistence at his dick.
“The moon dripping with blood,” he told her in a voice that had grown gruff. “It’s death.”
“Hmmm,” she mumbled.
Her fingers grabbed the hem of his shirt and she pulled. The shirt ripped up the center. Caprise continued to tear at it until she was pulling the remnants down his arms. She looked satisfied as X peered at her through eyes he’d known had shifted to his cat. The beast lurked just beneath his skin, pacing back and forth, wanting nothing more than to reach out and tear away that godforsaken nightgown of hers. The man insisted they both wait and see where she planned to take this new conversation.
One hand flattened over his nipple, her tongue settling on its twin. As she licked and sucked, her fingers teased and touched. Only the discipline he’d been spoon-fed by the military kept him perfectly still. She’d straddled him, her strong legs bracing his hips. The tips of her breasts covered in that silky material whispered over his abs as she moved. He opened his mouth because breathing calmly though his nostrils was no longer an option. His hands had been behind his head where he ordered them to stay, no matter how tempting the idea of touching became.
“This one,” she said moving down his side, her hands and mouth creating a war of sensations all over his body.
“It’s the jaguar,” he said through clenched teeth.
She looked up at him then, her fingers still tracing the outline of the large cat that began at his back and wrapped around to his front. “Your other half?”
“
Her head dipped slowly, her tongue moving in sweet circles over his abs.
“So strong,” she said. “So powerful. Always in control, aren’t you, Xavier?”
He couldn’t think of a good answer because as she’d talked she’d moved lower. Her nimble fingers had undone the snap and zipper on his jeans and were pushing them and his boxers down his thighs. When she’d taken them completely off she slinked back upward, her hands instantly going to his rock-hard length.
“I wonder if anybody could ever break your control. If you could ever completely let go with someone,” she said, moving her hand from the tip of his dick to the base.
On the down stroke she paused and looked up at him. “What is it?”
X licked his lips and took a deep breath. “Piercings,” he told her, knowing instinctively what she was referring to.
When she’d released his dick it still jutted upward as if begging her to touch it once more. Instead she’d leaned down to get a closer look. One tentative finger ran along the underside of his length where the metal piercings were lined.
“Does it hurt?” was her next question.
“It’s the best kind of pain there is” came his reply.
She looked up at him again, one elegantly arched eyebrow raised. “Really?”
“Definitely,” he confirmed. “It’s the kind of pain that makes you feel so fuckin’ good you want to scream.”
His voice was rough, and his words probably would have been considered crass by anyone other than Caprise. Looking up at her he could tell she wasn’t offended, nor was she afraid. There was no intimidation, and the curiosity that had bloomed when she noticed the piercings had now turned to heat. A heat that X prayed would go farther. He wanted her to keep touching him. Better than that, he wanted her to wrap her pretty lips around his thick dick, to take him deep within the heated moisture of her mouth and never let him go. Dammit, he wanted like he’d never wanted before!
As if she’d read his mind, Caprise extended her tongue and licked over the piercings, her wet tongue
