Jonas frowned back at her. "Okay kid, you were waiting here for a reason. What was it?"
She nibbled at her lip for a moment as she considered her next words.
"Many Breeds don't like me. Do you know that, Jonas?"
He reached out and mussed the top of her hair a bit. "I love you, squirt."
The gesture didn't bring the usual smile from Cassie.
"I frighten them," she said softly. "I'm not one of them, yet I am. I know things I shouldn't. And they fear what I could mean to their lives. Do you fear what I could mean to your life, Jonas?"
He tilted his head and stared back at her with a sense of understanding. Cassie wanted to feel accepted, and sometimes, that was the last thing she felt.
"You don't frighten me in the least, Cass. Though sometimes, I am afraid for you."
She nodded. Sometimes, Cassie seemed to be a magnet for trouble, even more than she would normally be.
"Do you trust me, Jonas?"
And here was the kicker. "I trust you, Cass." He sighed. He did, though he didn't always follow the advice she gave him.
"Then don't berate Merinus for what was my fault," she warned him softly. "I told her a friend would call Kane, and that friend would be in dire need as well as important to all that we are."
"Enough, Cass." He laid his finger gently against her lips, amazed that there was no discomfort in that light touch. Mates normally found it entirely distasteful to touch anyone, in any way, of the opposite sex during the first stages of mating heat. "I know where this is going. It doesn't matter why Rachel came to me, or who played a part in it. I berate Merinus or she thinks she can make a habit of poking her nose in my business. It's that simple."
Cassie shook her head. "Nothing is ever so simple." She sighed. "No ill will come of berating her, but as you said, she will give a second thought to her actions for a while." Cassie stood slowly to her feet. "And really, Jonas, you don't want her to do that."
She didn't say anything more.
Turning, she ran up the stairs, leaving him to watch after her. He shook his head in resignation. He'd be damned if he couldn't have drained some of the frustration eating him alive if he could have tested his wits against Merinus's rapidly growing will.
Cassie paused at the top of the stairs, turned and frowned curiously. "Jonas?"
"Yeah, brat?" He rose to his feet and stared up at her with a patient scowl.
"Why did you tell Rachel she thought that while the cat was away the mouse would play?"
He didn't answer.
Stifling his curse, he turned on his heel, jerked open the door and raced to the Raider.
Damn her. He wouldn't allow it. He had no relief. There was no way to still the lust tearing at his guts and no way to ease the hunger eating at his soul. He would be damned if he would allow it.
She did it, she did it.
Rachel was still doing the little internal chant as she sat across from Jonas in the heli-jet hours later, the powerful motor flying them quickly to their destination.
All he'd had to do was leave the cabin, something he hadn't done in a week. At least, not while she had been awake.
But he had stomped out earlier, gotten in the Raider and driven off. Rachel had rushed to the bedroom, locked the door and pulled the toy free of her dress for one of the most intense orgasms of her life.
Damn, that shouldn't have been possible using fantasy alone.
She peeked over at Jonas through the cover of her lashes and wanted to let out a small laugh.
He was still furious. She didn't even care that he knew what she had done. The fact was, she had achieved it, and she felt great. Like a new woman.
How long had it been since she had found relief? Nine days? Yeah, she remembered the last time: the morning before Brandenmore had decided to invade her life, before going into work.
Jonas had been at the office every waking moment, it had seemed. Frowning. Growling. He'd even insisted on sitting beside her at her desk while she went over the figures for the new satellite system Vanderale Industries was donating to the Breeds.
That night, she had tossed and turned, and burned for him. That next morning, she had made certain she hadn't gone to work in the same state. Breeds could smell arousal.
"I can smell the scent of your release on you, and it offends me," he suddenly growled.
Uh-oh.
"Really?" She smiled back at him. "The smell is offensive?"
She rather doubted it.
"Don't play games, Rachel," he warned her, his voice tight. "They could come with consequences."
She was intimidated, but showing it would be a really bad thing.
Instead, she leaned forward against the security harness that held her in her seat and stared back at him defiantly. "Just because you're my boss doesn't make you my keeper," she informed him. "I've been taking care of certain things all by myself for a long time now. I don't have a problem continuing to do so."
"Then I'll assume Devon Marshal provided little pleasure the night Amber was conceived," he stated, his tone flat and to the point.
Rachel sat back. "Devon has nothing to do with this conversation. Please stop being mean, Jonas. It doesn't become you."
It didn't become him, but he was so good at it. She cast him a narrow-eyed glare as her lips thinned in disapproval.
"Being mean definitely becomes me," he assured her. "Haven't you heard? I enjoy being mean."
There was the faintest note of resentment in his tone. She couldn't blame him. He was called the bogeyman of the Breeds on national television on a regular basis.
"I like you better when you're being polite," she pointed out calmly as she forced her body into a more relaxed state.
"I'm certain you do," he growled. "It's much easier to get away with things you know you shouldn't do then, isn't it?"
She shrugged. "It's easier to ask forgiveness than to beg for permission," she reminded him. "Isn't that one your favorite sayings?"
She knew it was. He said it often--whenever he broke the rules himself.
"In this case, not asking for permission could be dangerous. I'm about a second from that kiss you've been avoiding all week like the plague, Rachel. You don't want to push this."
She widened her eyes in mock fear. "I'm so sorry, Jonas. I promise to never do it again." She batted her lashes for effect.
She was slipping into a mood she was certain would get her into trouble. It never failed to make Diana crazy when Rachel set out to irritate her.
Of course, if her sister would find that sense of fun she used to have, then Rachel wouldn't have to irritate her so often.
"I can smell a lie too, remember?" He was so obviously controlling himself that for a second Rachel wondered what it would be like if he lost all that cool, calculated reason that was the backbone of his being.
This mood was all his fault, she decided. If he had just left her alone, if he hadn't somehow managed to draw her and Amber into one of the complicated games he was forever playing, then he wouldn't have had to worry about that troublemaking streak she fought to keep subverted.
Jonas watched her, eyes narrowed, his senses fine-tuned as he opened the primal part of his genetics and allowed it partial freedom.
His hearing, acute anyway, became more so. His sense of smell became deeper, nuances easier to detect. The pores of his flesh seemed to open as the claws beneath the human nails threatened to flex free.
She was good. She had a control over her responses that normally only Breeds possessed. She was able to convince her body to follow the commands of her mind, but only to a certain point.
The arousal she was fighting was on the edge of slipping free, and he could sense the fiery, spicy-sweet taste of it against his tongue as he drew in the scent of her.