Page 48 of Taking Jenny
“How can I trust the man who’s keeping us captive and keeping secrets from us, Mal?”
I jerked back, something inside of me cracking. He still didn’t see it. Still didn’t understand. The lust for him didn’t fade, but the hope? That shattered.
I thought he saw me. I guess I was wrong.
Very quietly, I explained. “If I had not brought you here, you and Jenny would be rotting in the royal prison right now. Mutilated. Tortured. Eventually, executed. If you want to leave, fine, go. You know where the doors are and I won’t stop you. But if you stay, it’syourchoice.”
I stepped toward the door, my hand on the doorknob as I glanced back at him. “Just understand this. If you leave, it will be like I said before. You will both be hunted down, for as long as it takes. I hope you make the right choice and stay so I can at leasttryand save you both.”
“Why are you trying to help us, Malice?” he asked, his voice softer and calmer now, the anger gone. “Therealreason.”
“I don’t owe you my reasoning.” I inclined my head. “Goodnight, Tiger.”
“You don’t owe me anything at all,” he said, his brows furrowed. “That’s why I’m so confused by you.”
My hand fell away from the door, and something in me split open again. But not in pain. In surrender. The mask I’d alwaysworn fell, and I stood before Tiger, bare in a way I rarely allowed myself to be. Not physically. I’d never minded being naked. But this? This was emotional madness. Vulnerability in its purest sense.
“I owe youeverything, Tiger,” I said, letting my walls slip even further.
He stared at me, our gazes locked. “I don’t understand.”
I took a breath, but there was not enough air in the room for what I had to say to him. I tried anyway.
“The moment I saw you and Jenny, I was as much your captive as you were the court’s. When I saw the fire in her eyes, the strength and bravery in yours…I lost everything I thought I understood about my life. I lost all right to privacy. All right to solitude when it came to you two.”
I stepped closer to him. The words spilled from me before I could contain them, each one slicing me open a little more.
“The life I knew before you and Jenny, it was beige. A mundane wasteland with no true purpose. I meant nothing, to anyone. And then you two came, and suddenly everything had color. Andmeaning. I’ve felt more alive in the past few days than I ever have. I can’t think about a single thing without wondering how you’d react. Or how Jenny would challenge it.”
My voice cracked on her name, but I steadied myself as I continued. “I shouldn’t feel this way, yet I do. It’s irrational and impulsive. But logic has nothing to do with my feelings toward you and Jenny. I will do everything in my power to keep you both safe for as long as I can.Thatis my purpose, whether you believe it or not. But don’t pretend that you’re my captives for one more second because I amyoursTiger. And Jenny’s. I have been from the first moment I saw you both, which is why I brought you two here, because I couldn’t bear the thought of either of you being executed.”
His arms unfolded back to his sides, and his chest rose and fell like he’d been holding his breath the entire time. Then, he stepped forward until our bodies nearly touched, his eyes taking every detail of my face, as if he were searching for the lie in my words, but found none.
I stood still as his hands lifted to my face. I didn’t know what he would do—strike, strangle me, turn me away—but instead, he kissed me. Soft. Searching. Testing this delicate thing between us. I’d never enjoyed this human custom of kissing before, but Tiger changed all that.
My heart stuttered and then roared to life. I flattened a palm on his chest and slid it up to his shoulder, giving him the chance to pull away. He didn’t. Instead, his hand moved to the back of my neck, pulling me closer, tongue slipping between my lips with aching precision.
I groaned against his lips, a helpless sound full of desire and need. His fingers pressed against my scalp, grounding me in the sensation of him.
When he pulled back, the wave of loss hit me so hard I had to steady myself. But Tiger didn’t look angry. He looked bewildered and stunned, likehecouldn’t believe he’d kissedmelike that.
His free hand drifted to my hip, the other curling from the back of my head to my throat. Not squeezing, but not gentle, either. He pushed me back, until my spine hit the wall and I let out a grunt from the force of it. The illusion of softness vanished, and when he kissed me again, it was ravenous. Brutal and rough.
Our tongues clashed, teeth scraping. We groaned into each other’s mouths like we were devouring something sacred. His hands found my ass and pulled me even closer, our cocks grinding through the fabric between us.
His lust-filled moan was my undoing. I bit the side of his neck in response, hard enough to make him growl. He tasted manly, salty,intoxicating.
My hand found the thick ridge of his cock through the soft pajama material. Gods, he was hard, and huge. I cupped him, stroked him, and he moaned again, his hips rocking forward into my palm. I moved against him, needing space to touch him properly, but he pinned me to the wall and caught my wrists, pressing them above my head, pinning me there with his body.
I let him. We both knew I could easily break free, but I didn’t. Because in that moment, I belonged to him.
He kissed down my neck, his mouth dragging hot and wet over the sensitive skin just beneath my ear. I moaned shamelessly.
“You like that?” he rasped.
“Yes,” I hissed.
His mouth skimmed lower, pausing at the collar of my shirt. He lifted his gaze, looking me in the eye as he tugged the hem up and over my head, then continued down my chest…lips, tongue, and teeth leaving a scorching trail of heat and lust in its wake. By the time he was on his knees in front of me, my whole body was shaking.
