Chapter twenty one

Jacob stared at her from behind the screen of bushes, transfixed. part of him wanted to burst out of the trees and demand that she cover herself. A much stronger part wanted to fall on her and become the phantom lover that she was welcoming so rapturously into her body. 

 He wondered with a stab of wild, irrational jealousy who she was

thinking about as she parted her slender white thighs and caressed 

the deep pink glistening folds of her cunt, completely open to his sight as it had never been before in the darkness ot her tent.

He bit down on his knckles to keep trom groaning, from screaming, and wondered how in the hell she not to hear his heart, thudding against his rib cage like a stallion kicking at its stall. She must know he was watching. She had to be putting on this show for his benefit.

Otherwise he had to conclude that she was crazy to bare herself like that to the naked sky. Christ, anybody could be watching from the trees, just as he was watching. Anybody.

Possessive anger jolted through him, tugging at his reason. His cock was so hard, it hurt to move. He was primed to explode and make a mess inside his jeans. Wouldn't that

be just the pertect final blow to hisbattered self-esteem, he thought with a flash of grim humor. Annie really knew how to take a man apart, piece by piece, until he didn't even recognize himselt in the rubble.

He would wait, he told himself. He would hold back for Just a few more moments, watching her lush, slender body glowing like a rose-tinted pearl as she writhed on the rain-Washed slab of stone, as wide open as a sacrificial oftering.

He would let her finish her little pageant, and then he

Would burst out of these goddamn bushes and show her Just exactly what kind of fire she was playing With. 

Then he would drive himself inside her, deep and hard,and make her arch and writhe and open herself like that, just for him.

Then he would bathe himself in that glistening dew that drenched the flushed, pouting folds of her cunt, that gleamed on 

on her trembling Fingers, tempting him, tantalizing him.

Watched her avidly, his breath sawing harshly in and Out of his chest. Her hips jerked and she let out a shudder

ing cry, closing her thighs tightly around her hand as her

face convulsed in ecstasy.

Suddenly, a loud crack and a rustling sound came out of

the woods. Annie sprang up and slid swiftly back into the water with a startled gasp. There was the sound of bushes

Snapping back into place.

A bellow of primordial rage burst out of his throat. He crashed out of the bushes, ready to hunt down whoever had

Just seen the wanton display Annie had made of herself, And when he found the guy, he would convince him to for

get every detail. Limb by broken, bloody limb.

Annie stood up in the water. "Jacob, I think it's just a-"

"Get the hell back down into that water!" His voice cracked like a whip. Annie sank instantly into the pool, her eyes huge and startled.

A doe leaped out of the bushes. She froze, and stared at him with enormous, fathomless dark eyes before she gathered herself and bounded away, feather-light and graceful.

She disappeared into the trees on the opposite bank. The air slowly escaped from Jacob's lungs. He walked back to the

pool, his fists still clenched. "What the hell did you think you were doing?" he demanded.

She looked up at him, her gray eyes mysterious and luminous. "You saw me," she murmured. "Exactly what it

looked like I was doing.

Her cool, offhand tone enraged him still further. "Yeah. I saw you. So would anyone else who took a notion to hike up here today," he said, his voice shaking with fury.

Her lips tightened mutinously. "I knew it was you.

How? How the hell could you be sure? Did you see me?

She shrank away from the harshness in his voice. "I just knew," she repeated, in a small, stubborn voice. I perceive your scent."

"Of course I knew you do."

He tried to stop his chest from heaving. "You perceived , he repeated. "First you tell me to fuck off. Then you put on a sex show for me. What's your game, Annie? Are you trying to drive me out of my mind?"  

She looked up sidewise and gave a small decisive nod. That smug esture was too much for him. He grabbed her upper arm and hauled her out of the water, she held herself proudly upright, not giving an inch. He stared down at her flushed, exquisite body, his heart thundering and his heart thundering and his mind swampe with erotic images. He reached down and cupped her mound in his hand, thrusting his fingers inside her.

She jerked and cried out, her chest heaving. Her cunt was slick and wet, silky soft from pleasuring herself. He slid

fingers slowly out of her tight sheath, then drove in again, deeper, rougner. you play dangerous games, Annie, he muttered.

The seething darkness in his eyes finally registered. She licked her lips, her silky thighs clenching involuntarily around his hand. Her eyes dilated with alarm as she sensed his primitive instinct to subdue her with his body. His hand tightened on her arm, and she gasped.

He let go of her suddenly, in a spasm of self-disgust, and she stumbled back.

"Get your clothes on," he rapped out.

"Jacob, I didn't mean to-"

"Not... one.. . word. Get your clothes on, or I'm going to fuck you right here. And I don't think you'd like it.

I'm not feeling very generous.

The  menace in his words hnally appeared to sink in, because she scrambled to obey him. He forced himself to look away as she struggled into her damp clothes. He didn't trust

himself in this state. He didn't even know himself.

He was on wild, uncharted ground.