She'd had to learn how to control herself and her responses so many years ago. She and her sister both had learned the danger of ever giving rein to their desires versus locking them down.
She pulled back slowly.
"Nice little trick." His head lowered farther, his lips so close to her own that she stilled just as quickly, terrified of allowing her own to brush against them.
Merinus had warned her about the potency of a Breed's kiss and the hormone that filled the small glands beneath the Breed's tongue.
"What trick." She didn't dare lick her lips, not yet, not even to soothe their nervous dryness.
"Stilling the desire, the needs that claw at you." Before she could evade him his head lowered, his cheek brushing against hers, much too close to her lips. "Tell me, Rachel, do you truly think you can deny me if I share my kiss with you? If I allow you to taste the hunger that's ripping my guts to shreds?"
Lust. It was no more than lust, and Rachel had sworn to herself that she would never be the object of any man's lust again.
She wanted love, not just desire, or mating heat, or forced hunger. Whatever the description, she didn't want it without his heart.
She didn't want to be bound to a man who she knew would feel no more than an overwhelming responsibility to keep her alive.
"Do you have any idea how much I've wanted you?" Curiously gentle, his voice seemed to wrap around her senses, to stroke them with sensuality rather than lust.
"Let me go, Jonas," she whispered. If she felt the warmth of him surrounding her much longer, she might not be able to hold back the need to experience the taste of that kiss he was threatening her with. "Let me go, now."
He released his hold on her slowly, one finger at a time, reluctance filling each move, before stepping back.
"Do you think running away from it is going to help?" he growled, his voice dark, heavy with hunger.
"Immeasurably," she assured him as she moved away from him. "Trust me, Jonas, it will help immeasurably."
At least, it better. As far as Rachel was concerned, it was the last defense she had against her desire for him.
Mating heat, her ass. As though this could be forced without some kind of hormonal kiss. This was desire. The kind her sister had warned her years ago that she never wanted to know, and never wanted to regret.
It was the kind of desire that ended up breaking a woman's heart and scarring her soul. Rachel had no desire to have her world destroyed by a man as Diana had had her world destroyed once.
"Rachel." The sound of Merinus's voice had her turning and facing the woman who had been her dearest friend for most of her life, despite the gap in their ages.
Merinus Tyler Lyons still looked no more than twenty-four years old. Her skin was unblemished, unlined, her brown eyes still bright and filled with youth.
There was something eternally different about Merinus, though, an aura that she hadn't possessed before, a confidence and sense of power that Rachel had sensed the past year when Merinus had called her to take the job with Jonas.
Merinus had saved her life. Rachel had been in a strange country, alone, newly pregnant and fighting for survival after Devon had deserted her in Switzerland.
She had had to fight to survive those few weeks alone in Switzerland after losing her apartment, her job and her passport. She attempted to convince the ambassador there to provide her a ride back to the States. She was certain she could have eventually convinced him to do so without the night spent in his bed, as he was demanding, but things hadn't been looking good.
She had tried to call Kane, but he had been unavailable. She'd lost touch with Merinus and her brother years before, but she'd been unable to reach her sister and had no idea whom to turn to.
Within hours of the message she'd left on Kane's phone, a Breed heli-jet had landed at the consulate and three Breed Enforcers had informed her they had been sent to escort her back to America.
That was friendship, she thought as Merinus stepped up to the porch, her expression hesitant, slightly guilty.
"How did you know?" Rachel asked, certain that Merinus had to have known that she would be Jonas's mate.
Merinus swallowed tightly. "Remember the blood and saliva tests that were requested before you were allowed to land in Sanctuary on the flight back from Switzerland?"
Rachel lifted a brow. "The ones to ensure that I wasn't carrying the flu or some infection that could affect your precious Breeds?"
Merinus's lips twitched at Rachel's acidic tone. "Yeah, those." She nodded as she came closer before taking a seat in the padded chair that sat against the side of the house. "Actually, that is truly what the blood was for. It's standard procedure to run the mating test against any Breed you may come in contact with, though. Jonas was here at Sanctuary when you called, so the test was run against his." She rubbed at her nose thoughtfully. "I actually thought perhaps Diana would be a better match myself. You surprised me."
Merinus was amused. Why didn't that surprise her?