She reached out and tore it out of his hands. "I like looking at you half-naked. And if you can give me orders, you're still in control."
Heat flared in Judd's abdomen, accompanied by knife cuts of pain. She was pushing him on purpose and she knew just what to say to do it. "Brenna." A warning.
Her answer was a kiss pressed to the center of his chest. "Don't go all male on me. I might have an idea about how to get around your ability." She trailed her fingers over his bare skin, skin that was suddenly the most sensitive part of his body.
"I can't help being male." His erection was a pounding reminder of his sex. Of course the reaction was a breach of the Protocol, but he wanted more rather than less. Her body brushed his as she rubbed her lips over his skin and he had to bite off the harsh command for her to go lower.
Flicking out her tongue, she tasted him. "And what a sexy male you are. I could pet you all day." A sigh.
"Petting is a changeling desire." Except that he'd often wondered what it would be like to stroke her until she - Razors slicing across his brain. White stars in front of his eyes.
Her smile faded. "Judd. Your eyes - they flashed dark red for a second."
The color of blood, a visual reminder of what would happen to his brain if he continued on this road. "It's nothing. Tell me your idea."
Standing on tiptoe, she put the back of one hand against his forehead. "It's not my imagination. Your temperature is higher than normal."
It was a side effect of the amount of energy he was extending to block the dissonance, as well as speed up the healing process on his wounds - fast-tracked by Tamsyn's work, they had disappeared, but his body continued to repair minor tears on the inside. "Can you blame me?" he asked, instead of telling her the truth. "You're standing in front of me saying you want to pet me."
She laughed, a husky, sexy sound. Dropping her hand back onto his chest, she snapped her teeth at him. "I like to bite, too."
"Aren't you worried I might bite back?"
Wide eyes. "Oh, I hope you do."
Images cascaded through his fragmented shields. His teeth closing over the lush curve of her breast, the soft seduction of her inner thigh. The images were detailed, perfect - he'd had a long time to think about what he wanted to do. But even if he could survive it..."You're not ready." She'd pushed herself with Greg, hurt herself. He wouldn't do the same to her.
A scowl and then she did the unexpected - she leaned up and nipped at the side of his jaw with sharp little teeth. "How do you know? Maybe it was just the wrong man."
His hand clenched in her hair and he had no awareness of raising it. "I told you not to remind me of that incident."
Nails dug into his chest. "Then make me forget it."
Jealousy and possessiveness smashed through to become the dominating forces in his mind. He found his other hand was on her neck, curving to hold her. Gentle, his touch was gentle. He made sure of it, but she was most definitely in his power. Not that she seemed to mind, the smile on her lips pure invitation. Leaning in, he closed his teeth very deliberately over her lower lip.
Chapter 28
Her heartbeat accelerated under his touch as he released her lip. "Should I stop?"
"No." A whisper. "Kiss my neck, too. He never touched me there."
Stroking his hand down to rest below her shoulders, he bent to taste the skin of her neck. Soft, silky, quintessentially female. Her hand tunneled into his hair.
Pain and pleasure combined.
The dissonance was constant by this point. Broken shards of glass knifed through his cerebral cortex in an unrelenting cycle. But the pleasure...the pleasure was more. He'd never felt such incredible sensations. Then Brenna made a tiny, needy sound and the pleasure multiplied until he could hardly feel the pain.
Part of him knew this was dangerous. If he wasn't aware of the pain, if he didn't accept the warning and pull back, not only could his ability slip the leash, the dissonance might cause permanent damage to his neural tissues. But drowning in the rich taste of Brenna's sensuality, he didn't have the capacity to understand those perilous truths.
Kissing his way up her neck, he traced the line of her jaw before returning to her lips. They were parted, her eyes closed. Accepting the invitation, he pressed his lips over hers. Flash-fire heat. Pure sexual need. His hand was on her neck again and he felt the jagged beat of her heart spike.
But she didn't pull away. In fact, she wrapped her arms around his neck and tensed. His body knew what she wanted though he'd never before touched her so intimately. Releasing her from his possessive hold, he caught her as she jumped to wrap her legs around his body. Holding on tight, he backed into a wall but didn't turn to press her against it. Because she was trembling. Scared.
He broke the kiss and, blinking past the blackness crawling at the edges of his vision, raised one hand to brush the hair off her face. "Why are you scared of physical contact?" She'd been raped on the mental plane. Of course there were physical repercussions - such a deep violation of the psyche was a nightmare most people couldn't imagine, much less endure. But he sensed there was something more to her fear.
Her lower lip trembled and a single tear formed at the corner of her eye. "He didn't just mess with my mind." It was a pained whisper.
He knew Enrique had hurt her body, cut her, beaten her but - "Sexual abuse?" Fury burned a cold fire in his veins.
"Not rape like we think of it," she said, fingers digging into his shoulders. "I mean, he did that to my mind - tore it open and forced me to see things I didn't want to see, put things in there that weren't my own thoughts, things that are still in there. I wash and I wash, but I can't get them out!"