"I'm sorry for that, Gloriana, but I needed to get some things straight in my mind. A man has his pride, you know." His arms tightened around me and I knew his pain was still raw and would be for a long while yet. If inviting him to lie with me now would make it less, I was more than willing. Who was I kidding? I wanted him with everything in me. I ached for him.
"A woman has her pride too." I pressed a soft kiss to his lips. "But where you are concerned I have none, it seems. Take me to bed, Jeremiah. Make me scream. If Penny hears too much through her earphones, let her be jealous that I have the most delicious, the most expert lover in the world."
"Most expert, eh? Now there's a high mark." Jerry was beside the bed in three strides. He laid me gently on the coverlet and gazed down at me. "I have to ask. What the hell happened to your eyes? They look strange."
"I lost my eyelashes. You don't want to know how." Demons. Jerry would go insane when he realized hell had come calling and that Rafe and I would be working together again.
"Don't I?" He crawled on the bed, his hands on either side of my head, his knees bracketing my hips. "Why do I think the shifter is responsible for this?"
I put my finger on his frowning lips. "Stop. The shifter cannot be here now. Not when I'm thinking I wear too many clothes and so do you."
"You're right. I'm going to make love to you, Gloriana." Jerry smiled and glanced back at the candles I'd placed on my dresser, left over from an exorcism.
Oh, definitely not thinking about demons now, not with the candles suddenly lit and the overhead off. I liked the romantic lighting, much more forgiving as he eased off my sweater and dropped it beside the bed. Another glance from Jerry got soft music from my bedside radio.
"How did you do that?" I sighed as he released the clasp of my bra. Sometimes it felt more like a cage on my too-full breasts.
"I have more tricks than you can imagine." His grin was wolfish as he tossed the bra aside and leaned down to trace the marks left by the underwire with his tongue. "I don't know why you bother wearing such torturous devices. Your breasts are perfect."
"They bounce. Not cool." I shoved my fingers in his hair. "Tricks? I figured you'd shared pretty much all of them over the years." I gasped when he ran his fangs back and forth across first one nipple then the other.
"Why don't you just relax and enjoy, lass." Jerry's eyes gleamed as he slipped open the button on my jeans, then eased down the zipper. "Let me do all the work tonight."
"Work?" I tugged on his hair. "Since when is lovemaking work to you?"
"Clearly I am talking too much." Jerry swooped down, silencing me with a hungry kiss.
He was right, of course. No more talk. I pushed my hands under his knit shirt to explore the taut muscles of his back, the ridge of an old scar, the bumps of his spine.
He was taking care of my jeans and panties, getting me naked with an efficiency that was no trick at all. When he released my mouth to explore my breasts again, I managed to tug his shirt up and off him, then took care of the fastening of his jeans. He sucked my nipple into the warmth of his mouth and I moaned, the flick of his tongue and the pressure making me clench between my legs.
Jerry obviously knew that because he stroked me there, his clever fingers finding just the place that needed attention and, oh, yes, pressure until I gasped and writhed in his arms.
"Jerry!" I wanted to touch him, to make him lose his mind like I was losing mine. To hell with this "make Glory wild" mission. Suddenly I resented it, resented the way every man in my life - well, make that Jerry and Rafe - always had to be in the driver's seat. Even in bed. Sure it was all about my pleasure. Yeah, right. But you can bet the farm Jerry would get his rocks off long before dawn and more than once.
I guess I stiffened or something because Jerry pulled back and stared down at me.