Above her, Jonas thrust in one last time, hard, deep, holding still as she felt his erection throb and pound with such fierce motions that a part of her wondered if he felt pleasure or pain from his own release.
That part was distant though, shielded by light and color, by sensations that never seemed willing to stop but vibrated inside her again and again.
She couldn't stop coming. Each time he moved, each time his cock throbbed, another explosion detonated, another pulse of pleasure tore through her.
Until finally, he was jerking free of her, still hard, his breathing still rough as he collapsed beside her and pulled her gently into his arms.
Soothingly, with the utmost gentleness, his hand stroked down her back, easing her until her breathing finally slowed and a measure of normalcy returned to her limbs. She no longer felt too weak to move, too weak to breathe.
Her hand lay against his chest, feeling his heartbeat as the fierce, hard pounding eased to a measured beat and assured her that they would both survive the experience.
For long moments, Rachel had feared that wasn't going to happen.
"Sleep with me," he murmured, his voice drowsy as he shifted them both against the pillows and pulled the sheet over their bodies. "Right here, Rachel. Let me feel you against me through the night."
She didn't have a problem with that. Settling against his chest, she exhaled tiredly and slipped into sleep.
When he was certain she slept, Jonas slipped slowly from the bed, pulled the blankets around her body, then rolled the broken condom from his cock before pulling a sterilized baggie from the drawer by his bed and dropping it in. It was a damned good thing Ely had thought to supply him with them, just in case something unusual happened. Something had damned sure happened, just as something else hadn't: He hadn't come.
He was as hard as forged iron.
His mouth burned from the taste of the hormone in his mouth, its properties obviously intensifying as he defied the demand that he share its taste with his mate.
He was losing control. He had never bitten her. It would have taken no more than the slightest break of her skin to give the hormone the chance to mark her, to throw her into the mating heat. And nature was damned determined to do it too. Lust was an insanity pounding through his blood now, raking sharpened claws over exposed nerve endings. Wanting her was hell. It was destroying his mind, because he couldn't take her. Not yet.
Holding back was his only option. It was the only way to ensure that she fell in love with him. He couldn't bear to feel as though she were being forced into his arms and into his bed.
Striding through the living room, he pulled the sat phone from the charger on the kitchen counter and moved to the far end of the room.
"Jonas, what's wrong?" Ely was on the line instantly.
"The barb breeched the condom." It was unheard of for a mated Breed to use a condom. Just as it was unheard of for the barb to extend without a mutual mating. Not that anyone had tried it as of yet.
"I need the condom," Ely stated brusquely. "The barb has minute hormonal properties. If we're very lucky, then the condom might have caught some of it."
"Quite a bit of it." He grimaced. "I didn't release, but the barb did."
"What the hell is going on with you?" Ely snapped. "Mate her already."
"Not yet, Ely." He shook his head as he rubbed at the back of his neck. "I want her love. Rachel won't trust what she feels for me if she doesn't realize she loves me before she's tied to me for the rest of our unnatural lives."
Hell, who knew how long a mated Breed could actually live?
"Besides," he sighed, "there's still the truth to tell here. I won't mate her without it."
Silence filled the line. He knew Ely didn't agree with him. The truth, she claimed, would only be proven if it happened; until then it was no more than a supposition.
He'd been created to sire a creature unlike any that the scientists had created. A true animal in a man's body. How could he tie his mate to him without first warning her what she would be giving birth to when that day came?
"I need the condom," she repeated. "And I need you in here ASAP. Leave your Enforcers to watch Rachel. I'll be waiting in the labs."
The line disconnected. Bringing the phone down, Jonas stared at it with a sense of amusement. Damn, Ely was getting bossier than she had ever been. That wasn't a good thing.
But she was right. She needed whatever he could give her now. Soon, there would be no chance for tests, examinations or nosy doctors. The animal inside him was raging out of control, the mating urge was tearing at his mind. And he knew, once he had Rachel, once he completed the mating cycle, he would become the most possessive son of a bitch ever known.
He was afraid he would make her hate him.
CHAPTER 14
Jonas strode into his office the next morning, aware of the taut expression on his face and the tension that filled his entire body stretched tight. It was hard to miss the toll the mating heat was taking on him. And if he had missed it, then Ely was quick to point it out each morning.
Hours in the labs with Ely hadn't produced any answers, only more questions. Questions such as what the hell was the hormone in his mating semen?
Mating semen came from the barb only, ejaculated after the main release, and mixing with Breed semen, which held just a few human sperm. The mating semen seemed to strengthen the human sperm as well as laying in important Breed DNA and a hormone that eased the mating heat for a short period of time.
The mating hormone Jonas had ejaculated had held all the same biological components as any other Breed mate's, but it had held a few additions as well. Additions that Ely was still frowning over when he'd left an hour before.
Returning to the cabin, he'd found Rachel in the office, right on time, Amber in her crib in the room beside her and everything running with the same efficiency that it ran with in D.C.
The only thing not running right was Jonas.
"Lawe, Rule, with me," he snapped to the two Enforcers waiting in Rachel's office as he strode through it.
Lawe and Rule followed him into his office, closed the door behind them, then stood and watched him silently. He could feel their readiness, their tense preparation for what they sensed.
Jonas was a man running on borrowed time, because the animal inside him was growing stronger by the day.
"I want a complete investigative profile done on Devon Marshal," he ordered. "Go deeper than we went before. I want to know who breathed the air that son of a bitch has breathed before he did. I want to know every strand of hair on his head, and who the hell is supplying his drugs. And I want to know why I smelled the scent of Brandenmore on him when he arrived yesterday evening."
It had taken Jonas a while to figure it out. His senses were so screwed up with Rachel right now that he was dangerous.
"Crank said the bastard stank," Lawe grunted.
"Of Brandenmore," Jonas agreed. "My guess is the son of a bitch was in the limo. Attempts had been made to diffuse the scent, but it was there. If he was that close, it was only because they were certain they would get Amber out of Sanctuary. I want to know why he wants her, and what he's after, and I want to know now."
Rage was eating inside him at the thought of what Brandenmore, a genius in pharmaceuticals, could have planned for such a small child. Especially a child he knew Jonas would never allow him to take.
"Jess Warden is trying to reach you as well, Jonas," Rule informed him quietly. "The lawyers for Horace Engalls have filed a protest with Sanctuary against the Enforcers we placed on surveillance to keep him from leaving the country as well. They've demanded we stop following him and have also demanded an immediate hearing with the ruling cabinet to hear their arguments."