Lily wasn't someone he could take to bed and forget. He f.u.c.king liked her, d.a.m.n it. More so with each minute that pa.s.sed.

"Having second thoughts?" She eyed him with curiosity.

Second, third, and fourth ones, and not a single one of them took away the hunger Jonas felt whenever he looked at her. She was just so alive. That vitality had no doubt been dampened by the events of the last few weeks, but it refused to be extinguished completely.

"Nope." He finished wiping his hands. "I hope you know what you're doing when it comes to building snowmen, because there wasn't a lot of call for it on the reservation."

"No snow in Arizona?"

"Not when I lived there, no."

"No skiing holidays since?"

He shuddered at the thought of it. "No."

"Then you're in for a treat," she promised as she preceded him down the spiral staircase and into his bedroom.

Jonas grimaced as he saw that his unmade bed looked as if half a dozen people had been fighting in it. The bedclothes were partly on the bed and the rest on the floor, pillows thrown haphazardly against the headboard.

All done while Jonas tossed and turned in an attempt to force himself to fall asleep and forget Lily was only feet away across the hallway.

Lily hadn't asked about Evan Butler's condition this morning, and Jonas was reluctant to bring the subject up too. As promised, he had received a phone call from his contact in the police early this morning. Evan had died during the night. Lily was going to be devastated once she knew.

All the more reason to distract her by going outside and building a snowman.

"Don't tell me you didn't have fun, because I won't believe you." Lily eyed Jonas teasingly as he sat across the breakfast bar from her an hour or so later, cold hands wrapped about one of the mugs of hot chocolate she had made for them. There hadn't been any cream or marshmallows to put on top of it, but the chocolate drink itself was delicious and warming.

There hadn't been any coal or a carrot for the snowman's eyes and nose either, but she had improvised with three dried pine cones she found buried beneath the snow. A snowman almost as tall as Jonas now had pride of place at the front of the house. There had even been a small s...o...b..ll fight after she accidentally dropped some snow down one of Jonas's ankle-high biker boots.

"It was...different," he allowed grudgingly. "But I'm no more sold on the idea of snow than I was before."

"Bah, humbug."

There was no way Jonas was going to admit how much he had enjoyed their hour outside. h.e.l.l, he'd actually had fun. Childish, irresponsible fun. And that hadn't happened too often in his life.

Lily looked at him over the rim of her mug. "Have you always painted?"

Jonas tensed, suspecting Lily had waited until he was completely relaxed before asking the personal question. "Isn't it time you started cooking brunch?"

"I haven't finished my hot chocolate yet."

"I have." He placed his empty mug carefully down on the breakfast bar. "A deal is a deal, Lily."

Her gaze was quizzical as it met his. "You don't like answering personal questions, do you?"

His jaw firmed. "What I don't like is having to guess the reason for asking them."

"And what do you imagine my reason is, Jonas?"

He shrugged. "I have no idea."

And he didn't want to have one, Lily realized, hurt in spite of herself. She had thought she and Jonas had developed a connection, albeit because of the tense situation they found themselves in. But he was once again deliberately snubbing her, warning her off with his rudeness.

Because she had probed too deeply into his personal life again?

Without a doubt.

"Well, when you work it out, let me know, hmm?" she said softly as she stood up. "Because I thought I was taking an interest in the person I'm sharing a house with, but I could be wrong."

How to feel like a complete b.a.s.t.a.r.d without even trying, Jonas acknowledged self-disgustedly. Most people knew better than to ask him personal questions, but Lily just forged ahead regardless. And he had slapped her down with the same disregard for her feelings.

He stood. "Lily-"

"It's okay, Jonas, I get it. No personal questions." She gave him a bright smile that didn't dispel the shadows in her eyes.

Making him feel like the complete and utter b.a.s.t.a.r.d he had behaved like. Interpersonal relationships weren't his thing.

Then it's time-past time-I f.u.c.king made them my thing.

He had hurt Lily just now. Deliberately. He could see it in the way she kept her back toward him, and the stiff set of her shoulders as she took the food out of the fridge for their brunch.

His stomach churned at that knowledge, and his heart beat a little faster than usual with discomfort.

"Lily..." He crossed the kitchen in three long strides to place his hands on her stiff shoulders, able to feel her warmth through the thickness of her sweater. "I'm sorry, okay? I... d.a.m.n it, I'm really sorry."

She gave no response for several long seconds, and then there was the sound of a choked sob before she turned to face him, her arms going about his waist as she pressed her face against his chest and she began to cry in earnest.

Lily once again nestled trustingly in his arms, and putting them back in the exact position Jonas had been trying so hard to avoid...

Oh f.u.c.k it. f.u.c.k, f.u.c.k, f.u.c.k it.

He arched his upper body back slightly so that he could look at her. Her eyes were a dark, pained blue-green, her cheeks pale, her lips... Her lips were a deep red, slightly puffy and parted, and tempting him to kiss them.

Jonas's head swooped down, and he gave a satisfied groan as he captured those delicious lips with his own.

Lily reveled in that groan, her lips parting instinctively to the invasion of Jonas's tongue, and she returned and responded to the depth of his kiss.

It was as if Lily had been waiting for this since they had been together the night before in her own kitchen as her body tightened with the need for Jonas's. All of him, not just the miniscule parts of himself he so grudgingly gave her.

Her hands snaked up over his washboard abs and hard muscular chest, fingers entwining in the hair at his nape as she pulled him down to her, her own tongue dueling with his for domination of the kiss, of the desire flaring like wildfire between them. The evidence of Jonas's arousal pressed, pulsing, against her abdomen, the moisture pooling between her thighs in antic.i.p.ation.

She gasped, lips parting even wider to the invasion of Jonas's tongue, as she felt the warmth of his hands on her back beneath her sweater, stroking, caressing a steady path to where her nipples were hard peaks and begging for his touch.

She cried out, breaking the kiss, as one of his hands cupped her breast, her nipple tingling in response to that warmth, the heat growing stronger between her thighs.

"Your mouth is so f.u.c.king hot, Lily," he groaned, his lips against her throat, finger and thumb squeezing, rolling her aroused nipple through the thin material of her bra. "I want to feel it on me. Around me. Taking me." He fisted his hand in the dark thickness of her hair, arching her throat as he lifted her face to his. "Will you do that, Lily? Will you let me f.u.c.k your mouth?"

Lily would agree to anything at this moment. Anything at all. She wanted Jonas any way she could have him. "Yes." She gave a tiny squeak as Jonas lifted her in his arms and carried her from the room and down the hallway to the bedroom she had slept in last night. Not Jonas's bedroom. Why- "I know what you're thinking," he growled as he placed her down on top of the covers before climbing onto the bed on all fours above her. "But my bed looks as if it was in a fight and lost."

Lily's tension eased as she raised her arms to pull him down on top of her, welcoming his weight, reveling in the hard press of his arousal against her aching core. "You have too many clothes on."

"So do you." He rolled to the side before sitting up to pull his T-shirt over his head, dropping it to the carpeted floor before standing to unfasten the b.u.t.ton and zip on his jeans.

Their gazes remained locked on each other as Lily sat up to remove her own clothes, Jonas naked first, his body that same burnished color all over, with a light dusting of dark hair across his chest, dark curls at the base of his thick and jutting c.o.c.k.

He was big all over, she appreciated as she threw off the last of her clothing, a pair of white lace panties that matched her bra. The length of Jonas's aroused c.o.c.k bobbed against his navel, and it was so thick around, Lily doubted her fingers would be able to meet if-when she held him. Thick veins ran the length of that engorged thickness, the bulbous head a deep red and glistening damply with his juices.

"Come here," she instructed as she moved to sit on the edge of the bed, her tongue sweeping across her lips in antic.i.p.ation of tasting him.

Jonas gently nudged her knees apart, eyes hot on her bared p.u.s.s.y before he stepped between her thighs, the difference in their heights putting his c.o.c.k on a level with her mouth.

"f.u.c.k...!" he hissed as her hands grasped his hips and she lowered her head, hot tongue flicking the tip of his c.o.c.k. His hands moved up to tightly grasp her shoulders, her gaze holding his as she began to lick and taste him, taking him deeper and deeper into her mouth with each delicious stroke.

Jonas knew there was no way Lily would be able to take all of him into her mouth, but she took as much as she could, and the sucking and stroking of her tongue, the sc.r.a.ping of her teeth against the sensitive underside of his c.o.c.k, was driving him crazy with the need to thrust.

A need he succ.u.mbed to as she began to repeatedly suck him to the back of her throat before sliding up the length so that only the bulbous tip remained inside the heat of her mouth, her tongue licking the slit, before she plunged downward again and took him deep inside.

Jonas closed his eyes, neck arching, as his thrusts into that inferno became wilder, harder, his b.a.l.l.s drawing up tighter as his release built, readying to explode.

"No!" He pulled away from that completion, pushing her onto the bed. He grabbed a condom from the wallet in his jeans pocket and put it on before kneeling between her parted thighs, gazing his fill of that delicious ripeness before slowly lowering his head to lick the length of her p.u.s.s.y.

He pushed her legs wider apart as the taste of her exploded on his tongue and he began to lap greedily, tongue stroking, rasping over her swollen and slick folds before moving to the hard nubbin pulsing above. Two sweeps of his tongue, and he felt her convulse and then shatter as she came hard, her juices flowing freely as she bucked and writhed against and into his mouth.

Jonas drew out every last vestige of that release before looking up at her. Lily leaned back on her elbows, eyes dark and stormy as she watched him pleasuring her, the slope of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s pert, the deep rose-colored nipples plump and hard. Her p.u.s.s.y was the same deep rose, the lips there swollen and parted, her c.l.i.toris peeping out temptingly from beneath its hood. She was completely bared to him.

Jonas couldn't wait any longer. He needed to be inside her heat, with his c.o.c.k buried to the hilt. "Look at me," he ordered as her lids began to close over those revealing eyes. They instantly snapped open again. Jonas pulled a pillow from the top of the bed and pushed it under her bottom, raising her so that she was completely bared to him. "Watch as I enter you," he rasped, then moved up on his knees and positioned his c.o.c.k against her hungry opening. "Don't look away, Lily. Don't ever look away. I want you to know that it's my c.o.c.k inside you. Me taking you. Possessing you. Do you understand?"

Lily nodded. She would never have guessed Jonas was a talker when he made love. That he- "Say the f.u.c.king words, Lily." His voice was a low growl. "Say you want my c.o.c.k inside you. That you'll watch as I take you. Every f.u.c.king second."

Her p.u.s.s.y was still pulsing from her climax, but she could feel herself contracting again, tightening, the juices eagerly flooding her entrance in readiness for taking that large c.o.c.k. Even so, she knew it was going to stretch her to her limit. That Jonas was going to claim her in a way no other man ever had. And when it was over, she would still be able to feel him there, stretching her, filling her.

He pushed the head of his c.o.c.k past her swollen nether lips. "Say it, Lily. Say it now. If you don't-"

"I want your c.o.c.k inside me." Lily knew what he was going to say would-or rather, wouldn't-happen if she didn't, and the thought of being denied that magnificent c.o.c.k now was unthinkable. "I want your c.o.c.k, Jonas." She reached up to grasp his arms. "I'll watch." How could she look away as all that pulsing flesh entered her? "Every second. Just-just do it now. Please. Take me. Do it now!" She arched her hips and managed to take another inch of him without his permission.

"Naughty," he taunted as he pulled back again. "I know you like to take charge, and that you have all the men in your life twisted around you little finger when you want to. But I'm not like them. At least, not here. Not when we're in bed together. Do you understand?"

"Stop asking me that." She frowned up at him. "Of course I understand. Now give it to me. All of it. I want it now." She was on fire with need for him, a sob catching in her throat as Jonas gave a hard smile and began to push inside her, slowly, half an inch at a time, until she thought she would go insane. "Stop torturing me!" She was the one to growl this time.

She gasped as he reared up and forward, entering her fully in one smooth, possessive stroke.

His c.o.c.k did stretch her, past her limit, the fullness almost unbearable. But that pinch of pain only added to her pleasure as he began to slide in and out of her, and then pounded into her as if the wait had been too much for him too, and now he only wanted to take and keep on taking, to be so deep inside her there was no him or her, only them.

Lily lost track of how many times she climaxed, each one more gut-wrenchingly perfect than the last, until she was sobbing and crying out Jonas's name, begging for more, for him to stop, and then just begging.

His c.o.c.k grew even wider, longer, as his own climax approached, and Lily took him, all of him, matching stroke for stroke as she arched into him. "Come now, Jonas," she ordered hoa.r.s.ely. "Please..."

"You f.u.c.king little witch-" He broke off with a groan, his lips claiming hers in a hard and demanding kiss as his seed began to pump hotly inside her, taking her with him. His climax went on and on. "As soon as I've had chance to catch my breath, I'm going to take you here." Jonas's fingers were moistened with her juices as they stroked across the sensitive rosette between her bottom cheeks. "There isn't going to be a part of you I haven't taken. I'm going to ruin you, Lily, ensure that you'll never be able to be with another man without remembering I had you first."

Lily was too physically wrecked to do anything other than groan her agreement. Whatever Jonas wanted. However he wanted her. She was his now. He'd already ruined her for any other man.

Chapter 9.

"What time is it?" Lily pushed the tangle of her hair from her face as she emerged from beneath the duvet. "Is it very late?" She stared out the bedroom window at the view of the darkening sky.

"Looks like it," Jonas confirmed unconcernedly, his hair black and silky against the white of the pillow beneath him.

Had they really been in her bedroom long enough for it to grow dark?

The unfamiliar aches and overused muscles in her body said, yes they really had. It had been morning when they went to bed, and if her guess was correct, it was now late afternoon.

Jonas had kept his promise, making love to her over and over again, until there wasn't an inch of her he hadn't kissed, caressed, or claimed for his own before lifting her beneath the covers beside him and the two of them fell asleep in each other's arms.

Lily's cheeks warmed now from thinking of the intimacies they had shared. Lily had done her own share of laying claim to his body too as she explored and caressed every inch of him. Every hard, muscular inch.

She had taken him the last time, wild and demanding, insatiable as she moved to straddle his thighs and then slid her sheath down his length until she felt his sac pressing against her a.s.s cheeks. And then she had begun to move, rocking gently at first, and then harder, faster, her nails digging into his chest as she took her pleasure again and again, and then allowing him to take his. The half-crescent marks of her nails were still visible on that bronzed flesh.

She turned away from the intensity of blue eyes watching her between thick dark lashes. "We really should eat." She slipped from beneath the bedclothes to quickly grab up her robe, slipping it on and fastening the belt securely about her waist before turning back to face Jonas. "Breakfast and lunch is brunch. Is there a name for a cross between lunch and dinner? Linner doesn't sound-"

"Lily."

"-quite right," she continued brightly, still avoiding looking at Jonas directly as she began to pick up her discarded clothes, while carefully avoiding disturbing any of his. "Whatever it's called, I'm starving, so it's time to shift your b.u.t.t, Mr. Grayfeather, before I expire from-"

"Lily." Jonas moved up onto his elbows, the duvet falling down to his waist. "There's something I should have told you earlier." He grimaced as he swung his legs out of the bed and sat up.

"You're engaged? Married? Have half a dozen little Grayfeathers running about-"

"Evan died last night." Jonas had tried and failed to think of a way to break this news to her gently. In the end, he had known there was no gentle way to tell someone a person they cared about had died. As Lily obviously cared for Evan.

"What?" She held her clothes defensively against her chest, her face paling to an ashy white.

"Evan died last night."

"No..." She stumbled slightly, her clothes dropping to the floor unnoticed. "Don't." She put up a hand to stop Jonas as he would have risen to his feet and taken her in his arms. "I can't- It can't be true. Evan can't be dead." The tears in her eyes gave lie to her denial. "He was only at my apartment two nights ago. You saw him there. He can't-" She crumpled to the floor as her legs gave way beneath her. "I don't believe it. I don't believe it!" She buried her face in her hands, her body racked by long and noisy sobs. "Oh dear G.o.d." She began to rock back and forth. "Oh G.o.d, oh G.o.d, oh G.o.d."

Jonas had never felt as impotent in his life as he did at that moment. Lily had made it clear she didn't want him to touch her, and yet he instinctively wanted to take her in his arms, to comfort her, to share her pain, if she would let him.

But he knew after the disbelief would come anger.

And the only person there was for Lily to be angry with was him.

Whether he deserved it or not.