His Darkest Embrace (Jaguar Warriors 2)

Fear, thick, malicious, and pungent clogged her airways. The taste of it was bitter and Skye turned from Jagger. He’d already seen and heard enough. He didn’t need to know that she was shaking in her boots.

She glanced down at her bare toes and grimaced as her tummy rolled over for the hundredth time. That’s if she actually had boots on. She needed to get dressed and get organized.

Skye focused on her satchel and tried to shake the hopelessness and anxiety that she felt. She would not think of Azaiel. Not now.

The bag hung from a tree not more than a few feet from her. The soft leather was well worn. It had been a gift from her father when she was a teenager.

Slowly she crossed the remaining space, her fingers reaching out to touch it. The feel of its softness tugged at the bittersweet place in her heart and the ache in her chest intensified.

It was snatched from her grasp before she was able to grab hold of it, and she turned around, a snarl erupting from between her clenched teeth.

“This goes with me,” Jagger said, his voice commanding with a take-no-shit kinda attitude. “It’s the only way I can keep you from spreading your wings and flying away.”

The arrogant son-of-a-bitch. Skye wanted nothing more than to slam her fist into his perfectly sculpted nose.

“Fine,” she said. Fuck you, she thought.

Skye whirled around, her eyes searching the immediate area, before turning back to him. “I need my clothes. I’m not trucking through the entire jungle in a T-shirt that barely covers my ass.”

She felt the blush rising in her cheeks again as Jagger’s eyes moved over her slowly. Too slowly. “Where are they?”

She watched in silence as he opened her satchel and withdrew the clothes she’d been wearing the day before. He tossed them over and she clutched them tightly to her chest, waiting for him to either turn around or get the hell off the platform. When he did neither she raised her eyebrows.

“I’d like a little privacy, if you don’t mind.”

Jagger laughed softly, his eyes glinting like emeralds in the early-morning light. “It’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”

Skye’s mouth went dry in less time than it took for him to speak. His voice was low, rough, and the expression on his face was dangerous. The air literally crackled with energy. Her heart skipped a beat, several in fact, and she felt light-headed once more.

Angrily she shoved aside all emotion. “Whatever,” she said, and reached for the bottom of the T-shirt, intent on changing regardless of whether she had an audience or not. “It’s not like I expect a jaguar to behave like a gentleman, anyway.”

She turned around and began to lift the shirt from her body, ignoring the heat that scalded her skin as she thought of his sexy eyes devouring her naked flesh. She doffed the top as a mischievous smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

Two could play this game.

Slowly she bent over, knowing that the roundness of her butt was on display at an angle that was both teasing and erotic. She grabbed her shorts and slowly pulled them up over her hips and then she grabbed her tank top, turning around as she pulled it over her head. She knew her breasts were on display, their fullness emphasized as she moved her arms up over her head.

But the smile that still lay on her lips disappeared in an instant as she pulled the top all the way down, and was greeted by nothing more than silence and empty space.

He’d climbed off the platform.

Annoyance shot through her but was quickly pushed away. It was for the best. No need to rile the jaguar. He was one complication she could do without.

Skye quickly lowered herself off the platform and seconds later was standing at the base of the large tree. Jagger’s dark gaze swept over her and he held up one of the supply bags.

Bitterly, she noted her satchel slung across his shoulders.

She crossed over to him and grabbed the supply bag, hefting it onto her shoulders. She turned and looked up past the canopy of trees, closing her eyes as she welcomed the first true rays of sunlight that penetrated the thick jungle ceiling. The warmth awakened the eagle deep inside of her, and she felt the same joy she did every morning as the sunlight caressed her cheeks.

Melancholy grabbed at her hard and she would have given anything to shift and greet the sun’s kiss.

“We need to move out. I can smell the DaCostas. Their stink is riding the wind and we don’t have much time.”

Skye hunched her shoulders at Jagger’s words, feeling the tension cloak her like a blanket. There was no escaping her situation. She couldn’t just fly away and pretend that everything was peachy. In fact it was rotten as all hell.

She shot him a look. “I need to find the disc.”

Jagger nodded. “I’ll help you find this disc, and when we do I expect to hear the truth.” He smiled softly, his teeth a fierce slash of white against his tanned skin. “I will accept nothing less.”