…
Jackson didn’t understand what that meant. He wasn’t exactly in the right mind-set for clarity of thought. Of all the times he’d thought of getting his hands on her, even the instances he wouldn’t admit to himself, he’d never conceived the power of what his reaction would be. She smelled of summertime, hot and sultry, as though the air were so heavy with heat it clung to all of the senses. How her legs had ended up around his hips, he simply couldn’t comprehend. Had he done that? Had she? Did it matter?
Her fingertips released from that clutch on his arms and slid up into his hair, the sensation of them running through the crisply short strands sending clenching heat stripping over him like the lash of a whip. He couldn’t make himself draw his mouth away from hers, couldn’t make himself move slower and softer. He was famished for her and she was utterly divine. In feel. In taste. And, oh god, that smell. That sweet, lusty smell of her.
It was Sargent’s sudden bark of alarm that forced reality into the situation. He had spent weeks in training learning and teaching the requirements of that bark. He jolted away from her mouth, his body j to make me feel …elierking into a turn even before he was sure she had her feet back under her. He drew hard for every single breath, trying to shake the fog of need from himself, like trying to break the surface of heavy water in order to pull in much needed oxygen. He raked his eyes around the perimeter, including the sky. He would not be taken by surprise again by thinking in human, linear ways. He kept himself against her otherwise, turning front to back, keeping her pressed between his back and the armor of the thick tree behind her.
“What—?”
“Shh!” he hissed softly, his hand reaching to touch her on her hip, the act possessive and ebbing a powerful warning in case she didn’t take the verbal one in the spirit it was meant.
“Waverly!”
There it was. Distant, still out of normal human earshot, but clear as hell to him. The rest of the searchers were looking for him. And that was when he realized just how light the night sky had gotten.
“Shit,” he hissed. “I have to get out of here. They’re looking for me and Sargent, but …” He turned back to her and winced when he saw the embarrassment coloring her face, the hands that had been in his hair with such abandon now pressed to her cheeks in mortification. He didn’t have time to unravel the knots she was tying herself into as she realized just how far out of control she had allowed herself to go. If there was one thing he had learned about Marissa Anderson, it was that she despised losing control. Not only of any given situation, but most definitely of herself.
“Marissa, sunlight can kill me.” He cut straight to the chase, time too short to do otherwise.
“What?” she demanded. “What do you mean …?”
“Think of it like kryptonite, Marissa. The touch of the sun paralyzes my kind. We don’t turn into solid stone statues like the Gargoyles do, and therefore the only protection we can provide ourselves is whatever pitch-black room we lock ourselves into. I don’t have time to explain and I don’t have time to be debriefed by the captain before sunlight crests over the horizon.”
She must have realized that his precarious position had been brought about, largely, because of his need to deal with her. He had wasted precious time comforting or explaining or … touching. He could see all of it playing over her features and wanted so badly to reassure and comfort her.
“Sargent,” she rasped out roughly, her voice still sounding full of the arousal that had so overwhelmed them both. “Tell them he’s injured.”
He couldn’t help but explode into a grin. So simple. So perfect. The caretaking and well-being of his dog was Jackson’s largest priority when in the field and everyone knew that. It would not be questioned if he dismissed everyone and hurried to take care of the canine that had been entrusted to him by the department. He commanded Sargent to his side and stooped to hoist the solid shepherd into his arms.
“You need to drive me,” he told her. “I can get us out of sight of the searchers, but then I have to … I can try to stay mobile, but the longer