Page 28 of King of Wrath

God, it’s a gorgeous body. The kind that could make a girl forget she ought to be afraid. “Jake?”

He turns around to look at me. “I thought you’d be asleep.”

I shrug. “I’m so tired but I can’t turn my brain off.”

He nods as he climbs into his bed, pulling the covers up to his chest. “What’s rattling around your head?” He asks like it’s completely normal that I share my inner thoughts with him.

“How did you recover? From your father?”

He’s silent for a few minutes. “I’m still not sure I have.”

I nip at my lip. “What makes you say that?”

“I did just steal you in the night. I’m not exactly winning any good-guy awards.”

For some reason that makes me smile. “Do you really think you’re helping me?”

“Yes,” he says without a moment of hesitation. “Toni would have found you within two days if you’d gotten on that plane.”

That makes me sit up. I want to deny it but I’m sure he’s right.Look how easy it was for Jake to take me. I’ve got to do better the next time. “So I’m doomed?” But Jake doesn’t need to know I’m already planning the next time…

“You can let me take care of you,” he says, looking back at the ceiling. “I’ll do a much better job than Toni.”

“What does that even mean?” Take care of me? I lay back down, frowning at the ceiling. I don’t know that I’ll ever trust a man after what I’ve been through. I can’t even give affection to my sister. Then again, Jess hasn’t been through what I’ve been through. She doesn’t know what I know…

“It means,” he whispers softly into the night, “that you could become a Kincaid.”

I gasp, sitting up as the spaghetti strap of my tank top falls down off my arm. “You’re not serious.”

“I am,” he says and then he props up on one elbow, his lean body on full display in a way that makes my mouth go dry. He’s so tempting…

I shake my head slowly. This can’t be real. He abducted me to propose? Even stranger, I think I might actually be considering his offer.

I lay back down, flopping onto my pillow. “This is crazy.” My uninjured arm goes over my head, and I stare at the ceiling. I don’t want to marry into another Vegas family. I want to go far, far away. Find my own place in this world and never trust a man again.

The room quiets and I shift, trying to stop my swirling thoughts.

“Nia,” Jake finally says. “I can hear the gears in your head grinding.”

I push back up, wanting to ask him what a marriage to him might involve. Wanting… “I…”

“Come here,” he says and then he lifts the covers back from his bare torso, a clear invitation.

My mouth goes dry. There is a part of me that’s so tempted. “Jake,” I stutter out. “I…”

“We’re just going to sleep. I worked out three times today and I’m exhausted, but I doubt I’m going to bed until you do.”

I only hesitate for one more second before I’m pushing off mytwin and stand in the small space between the two beds. I’m in a short tank and a pair of bikini briefs but it doesn’t seem weird at all, as I slide into the little bed. I know you’re not supposed to snuggle the man you’re trying to escape. But I was up against him today, and he feels good. I can’t deny that.

And as much as I know Jake should be one stepping-stone on the path to finding my way, I need to get my feet back under me, and drawing from his strength sounds like a really great idea.

He extends an arm and wraps it around my torso as I settle into the space next to him. He pulls me close against him, my skin slides against his.

I almost moan at how good his rougher skin and hard muscles feel. No one told me about this. I hear the other girls talk about sex but never about intimacy or how just touching a man like this is so…erotic.

About how even laying against a man with his arm around you can make a girl’s brain kind of fritz.

My hand comes to Jake’s chest, my fingers flexing on one of his pectorals before it slides over his muscle as I test its shape.

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