Be Careful What You Wish For Page 16

  “What are you saying? That I’m supposed to be some kind of sacrifice?” Cass scooted away from him, her heart suddenly pounding in her throat.

  He shook his head impatiently.

  “No, of course not. I’m saying that by virtue of your blood, you can’t help feeling pleasure when I touch you, especially when I am working magic. In fact, it is the pleasure that you feel which actually heals you, which is why your voice was as good as new after I nearly brought you to completion the last time I worked my magic on you.”

  “Brought me to completion?” Cass stared at him stupidly.

  “Made you come, Cassandra.” His deep voice was a sensual growl. “I nearly made you come last time when I held you on my lap and healed you. And if you would have admitted it to me instead of dancing around the issue I would have known exactly what I had to do to heal you of the soul-sucker bite.”

  “What do you mean? I’m nearly healed already.” Cass held up her hand which looked almost normal except for a few faint puncture marks on the palm.

  “No, you’re not.” Jake took her hand and pointed to reddish streaks still running up her wrist and forearm. “Until those are completely gone you’re not out of danger. I have to get rid of them completely and now I know how. Cassandra…” He leaned forward and cupped her cheek in his palm, looking into her eyes. “I need to make you come,” he murmured. “It’s the only way to be sure.”

  Seventeen

  “What…what are you saying?” Cass felt like her heart was pounding in every part of her body at once. “I don’t understand why…why you have to do that.”

  “It’s for your own good.” Jake frowned at her. “I would be very remiss in my duties as your protector if I allowed you to become soul-poisoned.”

  “Oh, sure, right, you’re just doing this because it’s your job,” Cass scoffed, trying to ignore the rising tide of desire that threatened to drown her. Jake O’Shea was irritating and arrogant and there was no way she ought to want to let him touch her—especially not touch her until she came.

  And yet…the way he looked at her with an almost animal intensity did strange things to her insides. No one had ever stared at her with such desire, such need. No matter what he said about just doing his job, the way he was looking at her told a different story.

  One corner of his narrow but sensual mouth quirked up in a sarcastic smile and he shook his head as though reading her thoughts.

  “I won’t try to pretend that I won’t enjoy it, Cassandra. You have a very beautiful body. Stroking your ripe breasts and caressing your soft little cunt until you come for me is certainly not going to be a hardship.”

  Again the dirty words in that crisp, almost-British accent made her feel like she was melting but Cass refused to show it.

  “Why…why do you have to do that?” she demanded. “Touch me, I mean? I was feeling enough, uh, pleasure before when you were just doing your magic and barely touching my arm. Nothing else should be…should be necessary. Should it?”

  He shook his head again.

  “I’m afraid it is necessary, Cassandra. You see, if magical pleasure was enough in and of itself, you’d already be healed. But in order to be sure, absolutely certain beyond the shadow of a doubt that you’re cured of the soul-sucker’s venom, I have to touch you both physically and magically. I have to feel you coming in my arms and see the venom fade from your skin to know I’ve done my job and there’s no chance that the poisoning may return once I leave you alone in the human world again.”

  “But…but I…” Cass shook her head, at a loss for words. What he was proposing—no, determined to do to her made her mouth go dry and her heart was trying to pound its way out from between her ribs. “But you said you wouldn’t…that you didn’t want to touch me that way,” she protested at last. “You said because I was a client and human and um, bound to another man—”

  Jake frowned. “Ah, yes, I had forgotten your lover. I am sorry about that but it can’t be helped. I can’t take the chance that you’ll wind up with permanent soul poisoning just to spare his feelings.”

  “What about my feelings?” Cass demanded. “I don’t…I barely know you. And you’re asking me to believe that this is the only way to cure me. I mean, if a doctor in my world fed me that line I’d be suing his ass. And even if I wasn’t, I’d sure as hell be looking for a second opinion.”

  His face was suddenly grave.

  “As to that, I regret that there is no time for you to seek a second opinion. But already the venom is spreading again—it must be contained and eliminated very shortly or you risk permanent damage.”

  Looking down, Cass saw that he was right. The reddish streaks were marching up her arm again. Already they were past her elbow and creeping towards her shoulder like snakes determined to strangle her. The sight made her stomach do a slow forward roll. Deep down she knew that Jake was right—both about her imminent danger and the way to cure her. But she just couldn’t give in without a fight—that wasn’t her, damn it!

  “How do I even know you’re qualified to do this?” she asked, glaring at him stubbornly. “I mean, you’re trained as a lawyer, not a doctor, right?”

  “It’s true, I trained in the legal profession. But healing is in my blood—in the blood of all my people. It’s not a learned skill but an inherent one. And I have already healed you once, as you may recall.” He sighed heavily. “I am sorry that you find my touch so distasteful. I will try to be as brief and professional as I can although I know the situation we find ourselves in is well beyond the usual province of the counselor/client relationship.”

  Cass ran a hand through her wild black curls and sighed.

  “Look, it’s not that. I mean you’re actually really incredibly attractive in a stern, disciplinarian kind of way.”

  One corner of his mouth quirked up.

  “Is that so?”

  “Don’t get a big head,” Cass warned him. “You’re also incredibly arrogant and bossy. I feel like you’ve been pushing me around from the first minute I met you. And I don’t like to be pushed.”

  “I can see that.” He reached out to take her unhurt hand gently. “And I’m sorry you feel that way, Cassandra. But I have been charged with your wellbeing and protection and I don’t take those responsibilities lightly. If I have to push you in order to protect or heal you then I’ll do it. Which is exactly what I’m doing now.” His deep voice grew stern. “Come here now and let me heal you or I’ll put a stasis spell on you and do it by force.”

  “Why you…you…” Cass sputtered angrily, yanking her hand away from his. For a moment she’d been feeling like they were making a connection, like she was finally getting through to the big elf. And now here he was, ordering her around again as though he had every right.

  “Come here. Now.” Jake had spread his legs and now he patted the area between them firmly. “I mean it, Cassandra. Don’t make me force you.”

  Cass thought of jumping up and running, but running where? Outside his house? She didn’t even know where she was—only when. And knowing that it was seven thirty in the evening didn’t exactly give her an edge on getting home.

  “You don’t have a choice in this.” Jake’s deep voice was marginally softer. “Look at your arm.”

  Unwillingly, Cass did as he said and saw that the red streaks were past her shoulder and almost to her collarbone. Jake was right—she really didn’t have a choice about letting him heal her. But damn it—it really pissed her off. She hated to be backed into a corner.

  “You know what I’m saying is true.” Jake’s words were more urgent now. “I can’t wait for you to come to me much longer, Cassandra. Please, I don’t want to force you but if you won’t come on your own…”

  “Fine.” Taking a deep breath, Cass scooted across the couch and into his arms. She tried to hold herself stiff and unwilling against him but already he was turning her so that her back was to his front and pulling her toward him so that her head rested against his broad, muscular chest.


  “Relax,” he murmured softly in her ear, his big hands caressing her shoulders and arms.

  Cass sucked in a breath as his touch started a fire in her again.

  “Easy for you to say.”

  “I know it’s difficult. I know it’s hard for you to let down your guard, to let yourself be vulnerable.” Jake’s hands moved over her skin, uncrossing her arms, stroking lower to pet her upper thighs. “But I need you to be open to me, open to the pleasure I give you in order to be fully healed.”

  “I…I’ll try,” she whispered. “Do you…are you going to have to take my clothes off?”

  “That depends.” Jake’s large, warm hands cupped her breasts and he began idly drawing circles around her hard nipples.

  “On what?” Cass hated how breathless her voice sounded but she couldn’t help it.

  “On you,” Jake rumbled in her ear. “Can you come with me touching you like this, over your clothes?” He peeled down the cups of her bra, freeing her breasts and pinching her stiff, naked nipples gently. “Or do you need skin to skin contact?”

  “I…” Cass bit her lower lip, feeling the tension mount inside her as he stroked her breasts. She knew what she wanted but she didn’t want to admit it—not even to herself. Already the healing had begun, she could feel the tingling hot wax sensation in her arm but the pleasure of him pinching and twisting her sensitive nipples seemed to drown everything else out. “I don’t know,” she said at last.

  “Tell me something then.” His hands moved lower, pulling up the straight black pencil skirt and stroking her inner thighs. “How do you touch yourself? Like this?” One large hand parted her legs and caressed the small, damp patch of white lace covering her mound. “Or like this?” Long, warm fingers found their way into her panties, cupping her wet, swollen pussy as he spoke.

  Cass gaped and squirmed on his lap. The pleasure his touch had built in her came so suddenly she felt completely unprepared for it. She was on fire, her heart pounding, her body arching up to meet his touch. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so hot, had felt such a driving need to come. She was rapidly losing control of herself and the situation but she couldn’t seem to care.

  “Like…like that,” she moaned as he parted the liquid lips of her pussy and began to stroke over her swollen clit. “Oh, God, just like that, Jake. Like that!”

  He was murmuring to her in Gaelic now—words of healing and yet she could understand them somehow, could hear them in her head as she had before when he used words of power.

  “I wish I had time to do this right.” His deep voice was ragged but his hands were gentle as he continued to pet her slippery pussy. “Wish I had time to lay you down and taste you. To lick your sweet little cunt until you came again and again, Cassandra.”

  “You…you want to do that?” It wasn’t like she’d never had it done before; Brandon would do it on occasion if he was drunk enough. But no one had ever actually said they wanted to. There was a heat in Jake O’Shea’s voice when he talked about going down on her that made Cass so hot she felt like she was going to explode.

  “More than anything.” His breath was hot against the side of her face. “I want to suck and lap your clit, want to put my tongue inside you. Here.” As he spoke he pressed two long, thick fingers deep inside her core, fucking into her until Cass moaned and arched her back, trying to get more of him inside her. In that instant she forgot about Brandon, forgot about how irritating and arrogant her court-appointed elf was, forgot how much she disliked him. All she could remember, all she could think about, was how badly she needed to come.

  “Please,” she gasped, not caring that she was begging, not caring that she was spread out on his lap with her bra pushed down and her skirt pushed up, her breasts bare and his hand inside her panties, spreading her pussy open to touch and finger her. “Please, Jake, please. I’m so close!”

  “You’re close to being healed too.” His deep voice was hoarse in her ear and Cass got the feeling that he was holding himself back—keeping himself from doing something he might regret later—something much more than just touching her. He kissed the side of her neck, a hot, hard kiss that was almost a bite and Cass moaned again.

  “Please…Jake, please!”

  “Come for me, Cassandra. Open yourself and come now!” As he spoke, Jake rubbed over her clit with the broad pad of his thumb and thrust his fingers deep inside her, finding the end of her channel and pressing hard.

  Cass threw back her head as the pleasure rolled over her. She’d never had an orgasm like this, never had a man touch her so masterfully or order her to come. And yet she’d never come so hard in her life.

  “Oh…Oh God…Oh Jake,” she gasped hoarsely as her entire body shivered in his arms.

  He was murmuring in Gaelic again but this time she wasn’t sure all the words were healing ones. They sounded more intimate somehow—more passionate and less clinical. As he spoke and the orgasm rolled through her, she felt a final tingling burst in her hand and then all the pain of the soul-sucker’s bite was finally completely gone.

  Healed, she though hazily. I must be healed.

  The tension left her body and she collapsed back against him, panting in the aftermath of pleasure.

  “Are you all right, Cassandra?” His deep voice in her ear was gentle and concerned. “I didn’t over-stimulate you, did I?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t think so.” She struggled to sit up but he held her still in his lap.

  “Don’t move just yet. Catch your breath and let me examine your hand first.”

  Cass wanted to protest that she was still half naked and that she needed to at least get herself covered but his arm around her waist was too firm to argue with. Besides, the intense orgasm followed by the overwhelming emotions she’d experienced fighting the soul-sucker and the sleepless night she’d had all seemed to combine and make her incredibly sleepy. So she barely protested as Jake lifted her arm and stared intently at the place where she’d been bitten.

  “All healed,” he said at last in an approving voice. “Even the traces of the bite are gone.”

  Cass lifted her heavy eyelids long enough to see that he was right—the puncture wounds from the soul-sucker’s bite had faded away to nothing and all the swelling was gone as well. The red streaks were also gone and the skin of her arm was as smooth and pale as the rest of her body.

  The rest of my body which is currently exposed!

  The surge of embarrassment she felt canceled out her dreamy lethargy and she struggled to get up again. This time Jake helped her. He even started to help her straighten her clothes but Cass pulled away from him, her cheeks hot.

  “I can do it,” she muttered, avoiding his eyes as she adjusted her bra and re-buttoned her blouse. She pulled down her skirt too, hiding the white lace panties he’d reached into so casually to stroke her pussy. God, she could still feel the wet heat between her thighs and the way she’d given into him so easily—had come so hard—was humiliating.

  It wasn’t that she had anything against casual sex—she’d had her share of partners although, like Brandon, they usually looked a lot better out of bed than they performed in it. Actually, none of the men she’d been with had been able to push her buttons like O’Shea.

  No pun intended, she told herself grimly. And that was the problem—he’d aroused her so easily, had brought her to orgasm so effortlessly it was embarrassing. He must think I’m desperate—pathetic. The idea upset her even though she tried to tell herself she didn’t care what he thought of her. He—

  “Cassandra, please talk to me. I can tell you’re upset but I don’t know why.”

  Jake’s deep voice brought her out of her internal shame spiral and she looked up with a jerk.

  “I…how can you ask me that? Of course I’m upset. I mean, I’m grateful that you healed me and it’s not like I really have anything against casual sex but—”

  His green eyes flashed. “I assure you, what just happened between us was
anything but casual for me.”

  Cass didn’t know what to say about that. She shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest.

  “I…I think maybe you should just take me home.”

  “As you wish.” He stood in one graceful motion and held out a hand to her. Cass ignored it and stood up on her own.

  “Can we go now?” she asked, staring down at the floor.

  “Of course.” His voice sounded so quiet and sober that she glanced up at him before she could stop herself. His face was like granite but there was something like regret in his pale green eyes. Regret and what…sorrow? Unhappiness?

  “I know you don’t wish me to touch you but I’m afraid you’ll have to let me hold you in order to pass back through the veil into the mortal world,” he said quietly, holding out a hand.

  Awkwardly, Cass took it. She was usually never without a smart or sarcastic remark but now she found herself completely tongue-tied. Without a word, Jake took her into his arms and held her close. She could smell the dark musk and wild pine scent of him and feel the tension in his large frame. Obviously he was trying to hold her without letting their bodies get too intimately close. Then the world swirled around her and the next minute they were standing in the middle of her messy bedroom.

  As soon as she was steady, Jake stepped back, away from her.

  “Are you feeling well, Miss Swann?” he asked softly, looking at her anxiously.

  Cass nodded though her head was still spinning a little. “I…yes. I think so.”