a wild strand of her blond hair behind her ear. The pads of his fingertips shaping the tops of her ears sent tingles down her spine.
“I don’t have relationships with women. You’re my first one. Am I already making mistakes? What am I doing to upset you?” His gaze dropped to her mouth.
The moment he looked at her mouth, her mind went straight to the kiss. She couldn’t help it. The sun was lighting up the forest floor. She was afraid if she kept looking at his mouth—and she couldn’t pull her gaze away—she would be lighting up the entire forest because she was going to wrap her body around his and kiss him like there was no tomorrow. For her there wasn’t one. So the hell with it.
Jonquille made the first move, stepping into him, close, going up onto her toes, wrapping her arms around his neck, one leg wrapping around his leg. She pulled his head down to hers. She didn’t know what to expect. Rejection maybe. Anything but what she got. His lips were gentle, even tender, as they brushed across hers. There was no hesitation on his part. None. He tempted her further with little kisses along her lips.
Her stomach did a slow somersault, and she swore a million fireflies took wing all at once, sparking and dancing against her insides. His tongue teased the seam of her lips, and then his teeth bit down very gently on her lower lip. She opened to him and her entire world shifted. Tears burned behind her eyes. Her heart ached. This man. This one man. There truly was no one like him in the world. He treated her with such respect and gentleness. With tenderness. He gave her things no one in her life had ever given her.
Rubin swept her into another place, somewhere she hadn’t known existed and hadn’t ever dreamt of. She had lived her life with fire inside her, terrified it would get out. Those terrible electrical charges that could call down the lightning from the sky. Rubin was fire. He set the world around them on fire. He kissed her with absolute command. With confidence. Without fear. There was gentleness. Tenderness. Fiery heat. But never fear. He didn’t leave room for that emotion.
Jonquille felt truly alive for the first time in her life. The lightning in her sizzled and crackled, singing in her veins. Rubin tasted feral, a wild predator, an untamed lover. She tasted his lust for her. His need of her. His absolute desire for her. He didn’t try to hide those things from her. Heat sizzled between them. Electricity crackled. White-hot flames danced on the ground and spun in a blue circle of flames.
Rubin pulled back and rested his forehead against hers, working to get his breathing under control. “We really might set the forest on fire, Lightning Bug.”
Jonquille laughed softly, her fists in his shirt, her heart hurting so much. He really was the best of the best. She was going to stay for a few days with him and just let herself be his partner. Just pretend she could keep him. Then she would know exactly why she was hunting and killing everyone who dared come after this man.
6
The wind blew through the canopy, throwing all sorts of patterns of light on the ground. On the forest floor, leaves were still, the trees so thick it was nearly impossible to penetrate. In most places in the mountains, Rubin knew it was no longer that way due to all the logging, but these lands had been mostly spared. What had been logged had been replanted, and the growth had been fairly fast.
He looked down at Jonquille’s face. She was so beautiful to him and she looked so much a part of the woods, as if she belonged. He found himself smiling when he hadn’t felt happiness in so long, he couldn’t remember the feeling. His threaded his fingers through hers and turned away from temptation.
“Can you feel the storm coming?”
“Yes. There’s always a kind of pull on my body.”
Her voice was extremely soft. She had a way of turning her words. Not an accent really, but he liked the sound. He ran his thumb over the back of her hand. A little shiver ran through her body. She was very susceptible to him in the way he was to her, and he was grateful he wasn’t alone in the intensity of his attraction.
“Mine too,” he conceded. “Most likely in a