Her strength amazed him.
Jae had been sleeping for only an hour or so before she had started crying out in her sleep. Her bed started to shake, and then the telephone on her bedside table flew across the room and smashed into smithereens. The television in the corner was just beginning to rumble when he had jumped across the room and slid in beside her, pulling her into his arms and soothing her away from nightmares. Slowly, the movements ceased in the hotel room, and she stopped crying, snuggling into him instead. When she had woken up in his arms that morning, they hadn’t said anything. Jae had merely tugged herself away from him to sit up. Climbing out of bed she had seen the telephone smashed on the floor and had turned back to smile at him gratefully, realizing the kindness he had paid to her last night.
After they had rid themselves of the vamps body, Ryder had let her drive to give her something to do, but the conversation had been shallow and teasing, and the dramatic events of the night before had been studiously avoided.
When it was time to stop at another motel, Ryder had refused to let her sleep in a room by herself. So despite the warnings in his brain that he might not be able to keep his hands to himself another night running, they had booked into a twin room.
“I can feel you staring, you know,” she said softly. “Go to sleep, Ryder, and stop worrying about me. I’m fine.”
He grunted and reached over to switch on the lights.
“Hey!” She turned to glare at him. “You’re ruining the ambience.”
“Yeah, well, I want to talk.”
“You’re kind of a girl, anyone ever tell you that?”
“Yeah, well, you’re kind of a ball breaker, anyone ever tell you that?”
“All the time.”
Sighing, he threw his legs off the bed, and leaned towards her with his elbows on his knees, his eyes boring into hers. “I’m serious.”
Jaeden groaned, switching the television off with the remote, before turning to give him her full attention. “I thought I had gotten away with it.”
He frowned. “Away with what?”
“Talking about last night.”
He grinned at her. “Really? Come on, this is me, you should know better by now.”
She stared at him for a long time, before returning his smile and rolling her eyes. “Yeah, I guess so.” She shifted so she was sitting on the bed with her legs pulled up against her chest. “So, what did you want to talk about specifically?”
Ah, he wasn’t sure she was going to like this at all.
“Well?”
OK, man, just say it... then duck.
“I wanted to discuss the idea of getting Caia to train you, to help you control your telekinesis.”
He waited with his hands clasped tightly in front of him while she seemed to absorb this. Finally Jae nodded, brushing a silky curl back from her face. She pierced him with her clear-eyed blue gaze, and it got him thinking about the other thing he wanted to discuss before this night was through.
“OK.” She grimaced. “Since she knows about the… about what Ethan did anyway, I doubt there’s any harm in confiding in her. I’ll talk to her when we get back tomorrow.”
Well that was easier than he thought. Smiling, Ryder got up so he could sit on the bed next to her, especially enjoying how tense she got the closer he got. “I’m glad you’ll talk to her, but it will have to be when Caia and Lucien get back from the Center.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot,” she replied quietly, trying to shift away from him inconspicuously.
He couldn’t help it. He laughed.
Her head snapped up, her eyebrows drawn together. “What?”
“You,” Ryder snickered. “Could you be more uncomfortable?”
“I’m not uncomfortable. Why would I be uncomfortable?”
“You’ve been jittery with me all day. I don’t bite... well... occasionally.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her suggestively.
“Ugh, you are such a male.”
He guffawed, “Yeah, thank Gaia.”
“And I am not uncomfortable!”
“Well, stop moving away from me then!”
“Well stop crowding me!”
Ryder whooped, his eyes glittering as they drank her in. Deliberately, he washed his eyes over her from head to foot, lingering on her long legs, br**sts, and finally her lips. She was blushing madly by the time he was done, and the heat between them had cranked up a hundred knots. He stopped grinning and leaned towards her, his lips inches from hers. “I’m going to kiss you now, and I would appreciate it if you would shut up long enough for me to do it.”
“How romantic-”
“Ah, ah. What did I just say?”
She clamped her lips closed tightly, glaring at him. Her rosy cheeks, however, told him she was as affected by him as he was by her.
For minutes they sat like that, until her mouth opened to say what he knew would be a smart ass comment. Before she could, he closed the distance between them, wrapping his hand around her neck and pulling her into his kiss. Satisfaction slammed through him at the taste of her, and he couldn’t stop himself from crushing her against him, pressing her as close to his body as he could get her. Only one word remained prominent in his mind as he devoured her.
Mate.
She felt like she was minutes from bursting into flames.
Oh my goddess.
Jaeden was only somewhat aware of putting enough distance between her and Ryder in order to slide her hands up over his chest and sink her fingers into his thick hair, anchoring his mouth to her own as their tongues mated.
Her blood seemed to bubble under her skin, a heat so intense building inside of her she thought she was going to incinerate them both.
Ryder was kissing her.
Ryder.
Wow.
One of his hands slid down her side, his thumb brushing her breast and setting off another blast of fireworks inside her. Eventually, he curled said hand around her thigh so he could wrap her leg around his waist. Automatically, she did that with her other one, and found herself flat on her back, while Ryder pressed his body into hers.
Oh goddess!
She gasped into his mouth.
And then suddenly a breeze blasted over her, and she opened her eyes to find Ryder pushing himself back to the foot of the bed, his hand shaking as he brushed his hair off his face.
Why had he stopped?
“That wasn’t meant to happen,” he said hoarsely, his eyes round on her.
With that, a crushing sense of deflation swamped her. What? Did she think Ryder, the most notorious bachelor in the pack, would actually be interested in her seriously? Puhlease. Of course he had stopped before things went too far. He was disgustingly honorable.
Plus her father would kill him.
“Yeah, I guess not,” she snapped and then bit her tongue. Damn it. She didn’t want him to know he had hurt her.
“I didn’t mean the kiss.” He shuffled towards her quickly, and she strained back from him.
“Stay back. OK. I don’t need this kind of crap right now, Ryder.”
His eyes seemed to darken in anger, confusing her.
“Hey.” She shrugged, unable to meet his eyes. “Don’t worry about it. I’m not going to tell my dad. You’re safe.”
He snorted in disgust, and she looked up to see him glaring at her - really glaring at her.
What was his problem?! She was the one who was going to end up with her heart broken if she didn’t get away from his dumb, tight ass! As if she didn’t have enough pain in her life without adding him to her already broken soul!
“What?” she snapped. “What is your problem? Stop looking at me like that!”
“I’m trying to decide whether I want to kill you,” he growled through clenched teeth, “Or haul you underneath me and finish what we started.”
“Charming.”
Ryder’s hands flew up in a strangling gesture. “Can you shut up for one second so I can explain?”
“Explain what? Your almost molestation of me?”
“I swear you say one more word and I-”
“You’ll what?”
The next thing she knew he had a hold of her, his hand clamped tightly across her mouth. She wriggled but to no avail.
“Ah much better.” He grinned down at her.
“Mm mmm hu uhh uu.”
“What’s that sweetheart? I’m a little hard of hearing.”
Goddess, he was a schmuck.
“Now.” He pulled her closer. “Let me talk before you continue jumping to all the wrong conclusions, and decide I’m a bastard and that you hate me.”
What was he talking about?
His eyes had gone all warm and buttery as they wandered across her face. She stilled, suddenly too intrigued to fight him anymore. Did Ryder...? No... Could he?
“I stopped kissing you because I was this close to making love to you, and I would rather we did that after I’ve spoken to your father.”
Huh?
He laughed as if he could read her reaction in her eyes. “Jae... I think we have something. You can deny it all you want, but there’s something more between us. Something real.” He smiled, suddenly looking unexpectedly shy. “I think we could be mates.”
Jaeden’s eyes widened and she tensed. Was he serious? Was Ryder Alexander, the biggest crush of her life, actually suggesting they were mates?
“I don’t know how it happened.” He unclamped his hand from her mouth and cupped her face tenderly. “But the thought of not being able to spend every day bickering with you and then kissing you quiet, knocks the breath out of me, and when we get home I’m going to ask permission from Dimitri to court you, if that’s OK with you?”
“Then why did you stop?”
He chuckled as the question tumbled out of her mouth with a life of its own. “Because I want to do things right with you.”
“Ryder,” she breathed, resting her forehead against the top of his chest. “Are you sure? I mean... if you hadn’t noticed I’m not exactly Miss Normal right now. I mean... Are you sure?” She laughed in disbelief.
His cheek slid against her own, sending sparks running throughout her as he breathed in her ear, “Completely. You’re mine, Jae.” He pulled back. “If that’s OK with you?”
As he smiled down at her, a weight she didn’t even know she had been carrying, floated off of her body and out of the room. She knew she looked too serious, but she couldn’t help it. “I’ve had a crush on you forever.”
His eyes widened and he appeared all of sudden smug. “Oh really.”
She slapped at him half-heartedly. “Now don’t be going and getting yourself a big head there, cowboy.”
“I can’t help it. The untouchable Jaeden Rodriguez has a crush on me.” He pulled her closer again, and brushed a soft kiss across her lips. “Why didn’t you say anything to me?”
Jae snorted. “Yeah, right. You barely even noticed me.”
His hand slid down her waist to her hip and he squeezed her to him. “I’m noticing you now,” he growled.
Giggling, she shifted away from him. “I think we better cut that out before you deflower me.”