Moira Rogers - Crux

That brought Mackenzie up short. She propped her head up and frowned at Jackson. “Alec had a wife? A human wife?”

“Yeah.” He ran a hand through her hair. “She was murdered.”

That explained a lot about Alec’s demeanor. “Jesus. What happened?”

It took Jackson a minute to answer. When he did, he spoke quietly. “Someone shot her. Alec went to Mahalia for help finding out who did it, and she sent him to me. We tracked down the killer, and we’ve been working together ever since.”

Which sounded simple and pat and well rehearsed…and like a bunch of bullshit. “Jackson.” She didn’t say anything else, just his name, but she watched his face and waited for the truth.

Jackson opened his eyes and met her stare. “The shooter was one of his cousins, Kenzie. Is that the part you wanted to know?”

“ Why ?”

He rubbed his face. “I told you why. You’ve seen why. It’s the reason Nick’s never done anything but stare at Gabriel when she thinks he’s not looking. The reason Charles fucking Talbot killed people to get to you. Why he’ll keep doing it unless we find him and stop him.” He eased out from under her and sat. “They have to keep the lines pure. For some, all they want are shifter babies. But in Nick’s case—and Alec’s—it means old blood.”

Mackenzie stared at his back and fought a shiver. “People would kill you for being with me.”

“Maybe,” he admitted. “There aren’t a lot of cougars left. Even if we stop Talbot, I can’t tell you another cougar won’t show up, trying to convince you to have a couple of babies with him.” He turned and fixed her with a serious look. “It’s about survival, and that’s one hell of a motivator.”

The thought made her queasy. She closed her eyes and tried to breathe normally. Tried not to panic. “Is that what the rest of my life is going to be? People who only care about how many babies they can get out of me? People who would kill for it?”

Jackson leaned over her, laying his hand on her cheek. “What happened to Alec and his wife isn’t commonplace. The rest of his family may not have approved of her, but they were horrified by what his cousin did.” He rubbed his thumb over her lips. “But I’d be lying if I said it couldn’t happen.”

She studied his face. The strong jaw, the lips that smiled so readily, the impossibly blue eyes that made her heart beat too fast. She swallowed and turned her face to his hand to kiss his palm. “I don’t think I could handle it if someone tried to hurt you just because you’re with me.”

“Don’t I get to decide if I can handle the risk?”

“Can you? I don’t mean—I’m not asking if you’re willing to. I mean, can you handle it if someone comes after you? Can you keep yourself safe? You’re not human, but…” She thought of the torn bedspread and how easily the fabric had ripped under her hands. What could she do to a human if she tried? What couldn’t she do?

“You don’t have to worry about me, baby.” The corner of his mouth curled up. “I can hold my own. My interesting tricks, remember?”

“Is it worth it?” Hesitation uncurled inside her. “Is that a risk you want to handle?”

His smile widened, and her heart stuttered when he tilted up her chin and kissed her softly. “Not much could make me happier right now.”

It felt wrong to be so happy with the world falling apart around her, but she slid her hands into Jackson’s hair and kissed him, hard. She traced her tongue along his lips and pushed inside, moaning softly as she urged him to reciprocate, as she begged him to show her that it was enough, she was enough—that they were enough, together.

Jackson groaned deep in his chest and curled his tongue around hers. His hand, solid and warm, drifted down her body, coming to rest on her hip. Otherwise, he did nothing but touch his mouth to hers, exploring with excruciating slowness.

With the cat sated, Mackenzie was free to melt into the pleasure of being so skillfully kissed. Arousal unfurled inside her again, slow and patient as the heat between them built. She made another noise as his tongue caressed hers, something that sounded more like a whimper than a moan.

He bit her chin and raised his head. “Are you exhausted?”

She didn’t think it would be possible to feel exhausted, not with him staring at her with such obvious, sensual intent. Her breath caught and she stroked her hand down the back of his neck and along his shoulder. “No, but I haven’t been driving all day. Are you exhausted?”

“Not yet.” The words were heavy with promise. “Ask me in an hour.”

Her breathing hitched again and she froze. “Wait. I don’t want to hurt you, and I have no idea how to control it.”

He raised an eyebrow. “I don’t really think we have to worry too much about it. I’m pretty sturdy.”

The bedspread looked pretty sturdy too. But she smiled and lifted her fingers to his lips. “Okay. If I start to think I’m going to lose it, I’ll just clutch the headboard and hope Marcus brought enough to cover the damage we’re going to do to this place.”

Jackson pulled her hands away and urged them toward the plain wooden headboard. “I did.” He tugged her shirt aside and traced his tongue over her collarbone as his fingers unbuttoned the top three buttons on her shirt.

She sighed in pleasure and curled her fingers around the wood. “This’ll do for now, but I really want to learn how to deal with this so I can explore.”

“Unless you want to go drink daiquiris and chat in the hotel bar, we’re on our own tonight, darlin’.”

As if they were leaving the room. “I was thinking more about later. You know, in a couple of weeks, when I can let you out of my sight again.”

One more button and the shirt gaped open just enough to bare her breasts. He smiled and barely skated his tongue around each of her nipples before speaking again. “You’re not even going to let me work?”

The wood under her fingers creaked, and she sucked in a sharp breath and tried not to arch into him. “Not if we could be doing this.”

He hummed in answer as he captured her nipple in his mouth and laved it with his tongue. He edged her knees apart and reached down to stroke the inside of her thigh.

She did arch up this time, struggling against the urge to drop her hand to the back of his head. “Christ!” He just moved his hand higher, until his fingers slicked against her, seeking.

“Jackson.” She tore one hand from the headboard and reached for the back of his head. “Come here, I want to…I need—”

He raised his head, grinning, but the heat in his gaze seared her. “I thought you were going to crush the headboard and not my neck.”

She whimpered and rocked her hips into his slow caress, her other hand falling to the bed sheets. “Do you have a plan of action, or are you just seeing how crazy you can make me?”

“I thought that was a valid plan of action.”

His fingers brushed a gentle, teasing circle, and she moaned. “ Jackson !”

One of his fingers slipped inside her. “Mackenzie.”

The headboard creaked again, more alarmingly this time. “If I can’t touch you, at least let me kiss you.”

He bent until his lips hovered a mere inch over hers. “You want a kiss? Take it.”

Mackenzie groaned and chased after his lips, seizing them in a blistering kiss. She poured everything into it, her desperate need to touch him, her arousal and passion, even the tiny fluttering warmth inside her that whispered insane things about love.

Jackson coaxed her mouth open wider, made her lips and tongue tingle, and his hand moved against her. When he thrust a second finger in, her arousal spiked. She tore her mouth from his, kissed his jaw and nuzzled his neck. “Mine.” It was almost a question, a testing to see how he’d respond.