Celeste Unknown: BORN OF NIGHT

He settled his mouth over hers before she could stop him. Soft, coaxing, he pulled at her lips in a hungry, nibbling kiss that had her muscles quivering in response.

Jessica moaned softly, her mouth parting, willing his tongue to play with hers. He refused to oblige, teased her maddeningly, licking and sucking at her lips, keeping her hovering on the edge of anticipation. She couldn’t ever remember wanting to be invaded so badly in all her life, and he wouldn’t give her anything.

He retreated from her after a moment, a lazy, satisfied smile curling his lips, as if she’d reacted exactly the way he’d wanted her to. She wanted to growl in frustration, reach up and force his head back down.

A small gasp escaped her throat as he brought a hand down from the wall, trailed his fingers through her hair and over her shoulder, brushing against the side of one breast. “If I touch you here, your heart don’ race?”

It did. Without even touching her, he made her heart gallop. A look, a smile, the way he walked--it was like some dream come true that he could be interested in her.

Blood roared in her ears from the heavy pace. The only sound she could hear above it was his velvet drawl tormenting her with soft words and husky breath.

A thumb grazed over the soft peak of her nipple. She gasped at the faint touch, her pulse quickening, her nipple hardening as he moved in a slow, taunting circle. She tried to brace herself against the sensation, failed miserably. Her breast begged for more. She bit her lip to keep from asking him to touch her. He sensed her struggle, smiled, closed his hand over her breast. A piercing stab of pleasure arced through her as he massaged her with a possessive hand, as though he had every right to bend her to his will and make her want him.

His lips brushed against her earlobe, so soft, so teasing. He freed her breast, and she felt like crying out as he flattened his hand beneath it and moved a steady trail down her stomach, over her hips. His lips played with her lobe, sucking at it, tugging the flesh with his teeth as his fingers skated up and down her hips.

Jessica’s hands clenched with the effort not to reach for him and tear the jeans off his body so he could take her right there. She wanted to hold onto something, but if she moved, she’d break down--nothing would be left. She felt distracted, touched everywhere. She closed her eyes, tried to focus ... and it intensified the riotous feelings a hundred-fold. When his hand slipped up under her skirt, she hardly noticed, only felt that callused palm on her thighs, so deliciously rough, making her feel so sensitive. He teased the edges of her panties, and she trembled with excitement and trepidation.

No, this wasn’t what she wanted. But deep inside, she did. She wanted to open her thighs to him, but a voice of self-preservation nagged like an annoying gnat. Her legs closed against his hand, but he was insistent, moving inexorably toward her moist folds. The fine hairs on her thighs prickled with unfamiliar sensation.

“And here....” he whispered hot against her ear, arousingly invasive.

His fingers pushed past the flimsy barrier of her panties, delved into the top of her slit in one bold move, rubbing sensuously, achingly close to her clit. Jessica’s eyes flew open with shock. She found him watching her, lust in his smoky eyes. A rush of raw heat flushed her body. She pushed at his chest, pulled at his arm, squirming and unable to get away.

“You’re wet for me, petite,” he said, his voice tight and hoarse. “Dere is no denyin’ it.” His muscles strained against her. His arm felt hard against her belly, his fingers foreign. This wasn’t supposed to happen.

“Stop it,” she whispered, trying to look away, at the street, at the shop, anywhere but him and his knowing eyes.

“Why?” Do you feel sometin’?”

She rose on her toes, arching her head back as one finger flicked against her clit. A chain of pleasure unwound inside her, fierce and breathtakingly sudden. “No,” she said through gritted teeth, fighting the feeling when all she wanted to do was surrender. She couldn’t. Not here, not out in the open where anyone could happen by at any moment. He shouldn’t make her feel so tempted to give in.

“I think you do.” He straightened from her as abruptly as he’d begun, leaving her feeling achingly unfulfilled and pissed that he’d begun something only to make a point.

“I never figured you for a coward,” he said, watching her straighten her dress.

Before Jessica knew it, she’d slapped him. Her palm cracked across his face, slamming the satisfied, challenging look right off it. She looked at him in horror, unable to believe she’d actually done physical harm to him. She hadn’t hit him hard enough to leave her hand print, but she’d struck him all the same. She looked from her hand to his face and back again, feeling numb from shock.

A dark fury settled over him. It was as obvious as the sky turning black and the wind howling through the trees.

Here was a man you didn’t mess with. She’d done what her mama had always warned her not to do--never get physical with a man. Cold dread slid down her spine.

Rough hands grabbed her biceps, forced her back against the wall. Male strength crushed against her, taking the breath from her body--muscles hard and angry against her soft curves. Jessica gasped in surprise as he brought his mouth down on hers, thrust his tongue past the part of her lips, deep inside. She tasted the anger in his kiss. Her lips burned under the heavy pressure, the rough glide of his tongue, in and out, leaving no space untouched. He was ravenous, consuming her silent pleas to stop ... to go on....

Potent, male excitement pervaded her senses like flood gates thrown wide. He growled low in his throat, thrusting his hips against her as if in emphasis that he controlled her. She was his to do with as he willed and nothing would stop him. His hard cock rubbed against her in rough warning. One wrong move and he’d take her, willing or no.

Thrilling fear moved in a heady rush through her limbs like a shot of ecstasy. Her heart hammered in her chest. She wanted to cry out when he forced her legs apart with rough hands, but his mouth muffled her cries, kept taking and taking until she couldn’t give any more, and still he kissed her. She couldn’t breathe, could barely think. All the blood pooled between her thighs, rushing to that hot, insane place that wanted him, wanted the angry, hard feel of his cock deep inside. She pushed against his arms, needing to be free before she completely lost her mind, but one stroke against her sparsely covered cleft had her digging her nails into his flesh in mindless pleasure.

He tore his mouth from hers, gasping hoarsely against her throat, pumping against her in short, rough strokes, his fingers digging into the backs of her knees. Jessica scraped her nails down his back, arching into him, shaking her head as he dragged his teeth down her throat and groaned with pure satisfaction. It rumbled through her, her body echoing with primitive response.

“How much you wan’ me to push you, cherie?” he asked hoarsely against the base of her throat. His tongue snaked out, bathed her. Her skin felt on fire as he lathed her collarbone and sucked against the crook of her neck. Hard.

She jerked to instant awareness, opening her eyes. Her hands went still as he stiffened against her. “It’s not a contest, you bastard.”

He met her gaze, his eyes unbelievably dark. His chest heaved, his arms shook with the effort to control himself. Slowly, with effort, he dropped her legs. “You fool yourself if you don’ believe life is a challenge. Dere’s only one prize in d’end.”

Jessica pushed away from him, wiping her mouth and neck. She could smell him everywhere. Taste him. It made her weak. She couldn’t afford to be weak. “Just leave me alone. This is a mistake.”