Her mouth was trembling. Her eyes glittered. She shook her head; her hair fell around her face, obscuring it.
“Nothing,” she whispered—but she was a lousy liar.
Of course it was something. His coldness? Her confusion? Whatever it was, she was weeping. Soundlessly, but weeping just the same.
Don’t be a fool, Blackwolf, Jesse told himself. Just keep walking.
He wanted to. He started to. But halfway to the door, she said “Jesse?” and he went back, swung her into his arms and kissed her. For comfort, he told himself, that was all…
But when she rose on her toes, wound her arms around his neck and kissed him back, he knew damned well that comfort was the last thing on his mind.
CHAPTER FIVE
SHE’D thought he was going to walk away.
That was what she wanted. If he left her alone, maybe she could figure out what had happened to her. She couldn’t do that with Jesse Blackwolf’s dark eyes watching her, judging her, trying to figure out what kind of game she was playing.
But when he really had started to leave, a terrible loneliness had threatened to swallow her up. Jesse, she’d said, without knowing she was going to say it…and when he came back and took her in his arms, she’d realized that loneliness wasn’t the reason she’d called him back.
He was the reason.
She barely knew this man…and yet, in a way that made no sense at all, she felt as if she’d known him forever.
She sighed with pleasure when his arms closed around her. His body was hard and strong, his heartbeat steady beneath her ear. Of everything that had happened to her in the past endless hours, this, only this, was real.
Jesse’s embrace. His scent. The feel of him against her.
“Jesse,” she said again, and raised her face to his, willing his lips to take hers. To chase away the internal darkness that threatened to consume her.
She wasn’t a thief, she wasn’t even a trespasser, because there weren’t any No Trespassing signs around the endless acres of Jesse’s land.
Not on June 21, 2010.
Except—except Jesse said it wasn’t 2010. It was 1975, he’d said, and she’d either stepped through the looking glass like Alice…
Or she’d lost her mind. She was moments from stepping into a darkness as deep as the canyon.
And only Jesse could save her.
His kiss was gentle, the light brush of mouth against mouth.
“Shh,” he said softly. “Shh, baby.”
He was trying to soothe her but it wasn’t enough. She wanted more and she sought his mouth again, slid her hands up his chest. Her fingers brushed over the eagle talon; it seemed hot with an almost mystical energy, but the heat of his skin was masculine and real, the muscles beneath pronounced and taut. An electric shudder went through him at her touch and sent an answering tremor of response sizzling along each of her nerve endings. He groaned; the sound made her heart beat faster. Blind to everything but the moment, Sienna rose on her toes, pressed the length of her body against Jesse’s and dug her hands into the silky hair that fell loose around his face.
His erection was instantaneous, hard and powerful and life-affirming as it nudged unashamedly against her belly. She moaned into his mouth and moved against him.
He said something against her parted lips. The words were guttural and she didn’t understand them, but she understood the urgency in his voice, the urgency in her quickening blood.
The sheet slipped and fell to the floor. Naked now, her entire body tight against his, she moaned again as he cupped her bottom, lifted her into him.
His erection felt huge. Enormous. His heat radiated through her body.
Real. Yes. Oh, yes. This was not a dream, not a hallucination. His hand was between her thighs, seeking, finding her. His mouth was at her breast, sucking her nipple deep into his mouth.
She clung to him, her hands deep in his hair as he swept her up and carried her quickly into the darkness beyond the bright pool of light. They tumbled onto the bed, mouths fused.
She needed him. Wanted him. Her heart was racing with the hot urgency of desire as he settled over her, his welcome weight pressing her down into the softness of his bed. He pushed down her panties; she felt him doing the same with his sweats.
In a moment, he would be deep inside her. This man. This stranger.
This stranger!
Sienna’s eyes flew open. “Wait,” she said breathlessly. “Jesse, wait!”
He clasped her face as she tried to twist it from his, held her still and kissed her.
“No. Jesse. Please! I don’t want to—”
He wasn’t listening. For all she knew, he couldn’t even hear her. Breath sobbing in and out of her lungs, she shoved hard at his chest.
“Jesse,” she gasped. “Listen to me!”