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changed. Sharper, harder.
       “Do you know how much I want you?” His voice was low and rough, caught between a rasp and a growl. With agonizing slowness, he peeled her shirt up and bent his head to the exposed curve of her belly. “Do you know how many times I thought about having you just… one… more… time?”
      Kate shut her eyes on a moan. “Please. Jack—”
       His mouth took her in a wet kiss, tongue circling and then dipping into her navel. One hand held his body braced above her; the other was busy at the closure of her pants, while he kissed his way up her torso. His lips dragged over the swell of one breast. He nipped her hard through the lace of her bra, and Kate arched into the pain with a startled breath.
       There was a tug at her hips—her jeans, sliding down. Her underwear followed an instant later, and then his mouth was moving down again, skimming her belly and then the ridge of one hip. She knew what he meant to do, and her body strained to meet him. But a flash of panic made her eyes spring open, made her grab at his hair, hook her legs around his ribs in an effort to stop him, to guide him back where he belonged.
       Jackson raised his head, speared her with glittering eyes and a hunter’s smile. “Don’t you trust me?”
       She swallowed. “You don’t—you look—”
       The bones in his face were too long and too sharp. Down his hunched back, the knobs of his spine protruded, and past his smile, she saw teeth. Rows of them, white and sharp.
       “I won’t hurt you.” He kissed her belly, gently. “I’d never hurt you.”
       He unwound her legs. She let him do it.
       He kissed her ankle and slowly ran his lips up the inside of her calf, knee, thigh. By the time he reached the juncture of her thighs, Kate was trembling. His eyes narrowed in a look of amusement. He held her gaze while he repeated the process down the other leg. Then scarred hands circled both ankles and slid upward, spreading her open. Kate shut her eyes again, breath coming shallow and too fast.
       With the first touch of his mouth, she nearly came undone. She arched off the straw, choking on a wordless cry as she tried to move—away or closer, she didn’t know. Jackson held her effortlessly down. He teased her, passing his tongue so lightly over her that her body clenched in frustration. Again and again, until she was dragging her nails across the floor boards to keep from screaming.
       “Please,” she begged. “Please, stop and just…”
       He left off with an abruptness that left her throbbing.
       “Jackson!”
       “You said stop. Wasn’t that what you meant?” The laziness of his voice was belied by bright, terrible eyes that studied her intently.
       She writhed against the straw, against his grip. “You know it’s not.”
       “Maybe you ought to say what you mean.” He licked the inside of her thigh.
       Kate glared.
       The lick became a nip, then a lick again. “Say it, Katie.”
       Her cheeks heated. She wanted to curse him, but gritted her teeth and forced the words out. “Please, just—finish me already.”
       “Close enough,” Jackson murmured. In one swift movement he drew her knees over his shoulders and bent to seal his mouth over her.
       Kate moaned, caught her lip between her teeth and bit until she tasted blood. There was no teasing this time. He drew on her hard, pleasure edged in pain spiraling up her spine. She couldn’t be still, bucked, and wound her hands in his hair and pulled until he growled against her. The heat of his mouth was too much, his tongue maddening as it entered her in a wet slide.
       Once, twice, she felt the graze of his teeth, but never his bite. The constant awareness of danger left her vulnerable to every sensation, and her moan became a constant, low keening.
       Jackson shifted upward. He settled over her swollen clit and suckled there while one finger and then two eased into her, thrust,