Burning Wild (Leopard People 2)

Jake pulled on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and went to her room, padding on bare feet down the hall, careful to maintain silence, not wanting to alert her to his presence. Her door was ajar and he slipped inside. He knew instantly the room was empty. The faint scent of her lingered behind, but there was only silence and the white sheet of paper in the center of her still-made bed. He picked it up, eyes scanning it briefly, feeling the blow like a punch to his gut.

Damn her. She wasn't leaving the ranch. Not tonight. Not when she was upset with him and he hadn't had a chance to make his case. He was a businessman. He'd been in a thousand boardrooms. He could close a deal, but not if she got off the ranch. He picked up the phone, his jaw set, his expression savage.

EMMA stuck her head out the window and forced a smile at Jerico. "Open the gates."

To her astonishment, Jerico shook his head, a small grimace on his face. "I can't do that, Emma. Where would you be going this time of night?"

She scowled at him. "It isn't your business."

"I'm responsible," Jerico said. "I don't want to lose my job."

Emma let her breath out slowly, forcing her temper under control. It wasn't Jerico's fault. He had to follow rules just like everyone. "I'm going for a drive." It wasn't his fault that she was so upset. It was her own fault. Hers. She loathed herself, but she managed a small smile, hoping to charm him. "Please open the gate."

"I can't do that. I'm sorry. The boss said not to let you leave."

Emma's eyebrow went up. "Contrary to popular belief, Jerico, I don't work for Jake. He can't boss me around. Open the gate."

Jerico shook his head, although he did look remorseful. "You don't even have a bodyguard with you. He said you weren't to leave under any circumstances unless he specifically okayed it. If you're having trouble with the boss . . ."

Emma slid out of the Jeep and slammed the door. "Jake actually ordered you to keep me here, on the ranch? Like a prisoner? Open the gate now, Jerico. I want to leave. In case you haven't noticed, I'm a grown woman, not a child."

"Emma . . ."

"Is there a problem, Emma?" Drake came up behind her in his silent way.

Emma whirled to face him, caught in the headlights of her vehicle. His gaze dwelled on the marks on her neck--bright red and obvious--the bite mark on her shoulder. He inhaled and stiffened, his gaze shifting to Jerico and then looking warily around him. He even stepped back a few paces, putting distance between them as his sharp gaze studied the obvious signs of possession. He took another wary look around, scanning the night for something dangerous.

Emma felt herself blushing, but she stuck her chin in the air. "Jerico won't open the gates and I want to go for a drive." There was demand in her voice.

"You don't want Jerico to lose his job, Emma. If the boss says no, what's the big deal? You have over a thousand square miles to drive on. Stay on the ranch."

Emma's hands closed into two tight fists. "I have the right to leave whenever I want to leave, Drake. I'm not arguing with you about this. Open the gate." She didn't want to be near anything Jake owned.

He shook his head, very calm. "Take it up with Jake, Emma. You and I both know how protective he can be. He's worried something may happen to you--"

"He's a control freak," she snapped, interrupting him. "And he's not controlling me."

She heard the truck but there were no lights as Jake drove up. Her heart began to pound and she tasted fear in her throat. He unhurriedly stepped out of the truck and tossed the keys to Drake before closing the door with a certain firmness that made her mouth go dry. She tried not to be intimidated by the width of his shoulders, the confident, fluid way he walked, or the roped muscles playing under his shirt with suggestive power. Was she afraid of him after all?

Her body betrayed her, going liquid, hot, melting, telling her she was more afraid of her own reactions than his. She had no will around him. No backbone. She hated that she wanted to wipe the pain from his eyes, the scars from his soul. She hated that she wanted him with every cell in her body. She couldn't put herself into the hands of a man capable of the kind of cruelty she knew Jake was capable of. He destroyed his enemies. She'd heard of his ruthless business tactics. He used and threw away women. He trusted no one. How could she ever respect herself again if she gave in to him?

"I'll take it from here. Thanks, Jerico, Drake," Jake said, his voice calm as he approached Emma with his long, confident strides. Everything about him was self-assured. He moved into her space as if he belonged there, moved close until she was under his shoulder and one hand casually rested on the small of her back.

Emma wanted to pull away, but there was something so compelling and assured about Jake, she found it impossible to move.

He bent his head to hers. "Come on, honey, I'll take you home." His hand pressed into the small of her back, down low, his fingers brushing her butt as if he had every right, guiding her around the hood of the Jeep to the passenger side. He gently handed her in and waited in silence until she'd snapped her seat belt in place.

Jake slid behind the wheel, lifted his hand in recognition to the two men and turned the Jeep around.

"I don't want to go back," Emma said in a low, mutinous tone. She glanced at his set jaw and then looked down at her hands. "I need time to think. You're everywhere in that house." His personality was too powerful, too overwhelming and dominating. She had decisions to make and she needed a clear head to make them.

He abruptly turned the wheel, spinning the Jeep in another direction, taking them away from the main ranch house and deeper into the property. "I know you're frightened of everything changing, Emma, but it isn't going to be changing that much."

"I couldn't get out through the gates, Jake. I'd say that things are already changing a lot."

His gaze swept over her, taking in the defiant set to her chin and her trembling mouth. "You shouldn't have been able to get through the gates without my knowing before, Emma. That was a mistake on Jerico's and Drake's part. They know better now. I have enemies and I'll be damned if something happens to you because of their carelessness."

She swept her hair up and started to clip it, more from nerves and the need to do something with her hands than anything else.

"Leave it down."

Her eyes widened. "See. Right there. You're already telling me what to do. I can't have you ordering me around all the time, controlling my every move. I can't breathe right now, Jake. I need space. I need to know what's happening to me. You just take people over. I've seen you do it, and now you're doing it with me. You humiliated me. Deliberately humiliated me." There was a catch in her voice and she turned her face away from him to stare out the window into the darkness.

"How? Why would I want to humiliate you?"

Emma glanced at him again, trying not to hear that hypnotic note in his voice that always had such an effect on her. "You know very well how. You could have come in my mouth." She blushed when she said it, avoiding his eyes, but he heard the hurt in her voice as if he'd rejected her. "Instead you came all over me. That was not making love. That was not respect. That was like some porn film and I was the receptacle."

"That was me making love, Emma. That was me showing more than respect. That was me claiming you for my own." He slammed on the brakes and brought the Jeep skidding to a halt. "Did you think you weren't pleasing me somehow? Fuck, Emma. I've never had a night like tonight in my life. I've never felt that way with anyone. Not anyone. I don't tell you lies."

She didn't know what to say to that, so she remained silent, hugging herself, rocking a little, trying not to feel so inexperienced and awkward. Something had possessed her when she'd been with Jake. She hadn't known how to do all those things. He'd taught her in minutes, and she'd wanted to please him so much she'd followed his every instruction.

"I know that with you I'm a demanding lover. I'd like to say it won't happen again, but it will. I'm primal, I have certain needs, and sex is intense with you. That's such an insipid word for wha

t sex is with you."

The way he said it, with such stark honesty, would have sounded ridiculous with anyone else, but he was telling her the truth and she shivered, her body reacting to the sensual undertone.

"I won't be able to keep my hands off you, and I have every confidence that I can make you want me." He refused to look away from her, refused to let her look away. "I can be rough and animalistic and I know I'll be demanding things from you that may scare you, but, Emma, I would never harm you, or humiliate you or treat you without respect. If there is one person on the face of the earth that I respect above all others, it's you."

Her heart pounded so hard it hurt. He was no longer discussing what had happened between them; he was talking about a future together. She could see it in the lines of his face, the intensity only Jake had, the iron will and determination that made him relentless. He was in pursuit and she was his prey.

"I'm not comfortable with the kind of sex we had."

His hand slid over her hair, sweeping down the heavy, silken fall. "I know you're not, honey, but I also know you enjoyed it. I'll always make certain you'll enjoy it."