Shrouded in Darkness (Shrouded Series) (25 page)

To Jake, Margot was pure heaven. He would never get enough—not until the day he died. Oh, God. Tonight could be the last time with her...

Darkness. He needed darkness. Turning slightly, he hit the button on the computer monitor and tossed the entire lab into a cloud of black. Hidden in the shadow of night, he could relax, be himself and not worry what Margot saw or perceived with his invisibility. Now he could let pure sensation take over.

Craving the feel of naked skin against her silken strands, Jake ripped the gloves impatiently from his hands and re-buried his fingers into her thick raven hair as he devoured her with his mouth. She tasted of coffee and peppermint. She smelled like sunshine, and was exactly what he’d always envisioned heaven to be.

Jake broke off, gasping. He scrapped his jaw over her cheek as he touched his brow to hers. “If I don’t slow down now,” he murmured against her temple. “I’m liable to have you on the floor in a second.”

“So? That’s where I’d like to be,” she whispered by his ear, her breath and words sending shivers down his spine. “Under you, over you, around you.”

“Margot...”

She didn’t allow him to say more but pulled him back to her mouth, then splayed her hands against his chest before slipping the buttons of his shirt from their moorings. His stomach quivered at the way her hands glided over an invisible line above the waistband of his pants. Then she moved her fingers up over his nipples and chest to whisper across his rib cage and to the small of his back.

Jake tugged her sweater from around her waistband. He heard a rip but didn’t care. He didn’t care about anything but the moment, the feel of her, the taste of her. She helped him pull her shirt over her head. His palms touched skin, smooth, warm and silken.

Absolutely beautiful.

More clothes dropped to the floor, until they were naked in the middle of the lab now. He smelled the thick, musty scent of sex and desire. With one quick, sure movement, Jake swept the rest of the papers from the table. They whispered around them as they fluttered through the air and landed to the floor. He struggled to rein in his hunger, but with Margot he didn’t have much self-control.

Breath ragged, heart pounding, he edged her up against the table, gripped her tiny waist and lifted her up on its edge.

He nudged her legs apart with his thighs, while her hands glided across his waist to his butt where she flexed her fingers and urged him closer. For the briefest moment, his shaft shifted against her slick, wet heat. His breath caught against his throat. Then he exhaled in one quick rush. Cool air touched his damp brow. Easy. Slow.

Then one of her hands slipped along his hipbone to touch his cock with light, fleeting fingers. He ground his teeth. Damn it.

When her fingers grew bolder, caressing and cupping him with both hands, his thin rope of self-control frayed and broke. Shivering, he thrust against her warm palm.

“I—” He inhaled again. “I love you.”

Parting her thighs, he angled her hips higher, and with one sure stroke, he thrust into her. Her body, like a slick, hot glove contracted around him. Perfect. Not one woman would ever compare to her.

He bent over her until he pressed against her breasts, waist and hips, all soft, subtle and naked curves. As he licked and nibbled down her neck, she arched, threw her head back and shifted between the desk and his body. He loved her unabashed and passionate response and wanted to push so much higher. He lowered his mouth past her collarbone to her breast and lapped, suckled, then grazed his teeth against her nipple.

“Oh, God.” She whimpered. Nails digging into his shoulders, she wrapped those incredible legs around his hips and urged him deeper, closer. “Jake, I can’t think with the way—”

“Shhh. Don’t think. Don’t talk. Just feel. Feel the way I fill you up, move in and out of you, how you fit so tightly around me—

like you were made for me, for this moment. Perfect. Nothing else can be this perfect.”

Jake groaned. She was so tight, so hot, so wet as she bucked beneath him, dragging him deeper and deeper. She was so damn good. With Margot, he could forget everything. She made him feel alive and fearless. He clasped her hips and rocked her harder, driving into her until her cry of release ripped through the lab. Only then did he come, burying deep into her, shuddering with the force of it.

After a long moment he found his voice. “Are you all right?” he whispered. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“No.” Her laugh sounded husky, sexy and totally satisfied.

Jake smiled and kissed the corner of her mouth. “Good.”

They helped each other get dressed. When Margot slipped into her jacket, he brought the collar up to her chin and kissed her slowly, savoring the way she responded with slow, gentle kisses. He loved her femininity, her vulnerability. She made him feel invincible and so totally male.

The urge to pull her back into his arms was overwhelming, but instead, he stepped back and zipped up her jacket with hands that retained a distinct tremor.

“Let’s get out of here,” she urged. “I want you in my bed. I want to feel your arms around me all night.”

This time it was his turn to laugh. “Try to keep me away.”

When they reached the house, he opened the front door, followed her inside, and then swept her up in his arms. With the heel of his foot, he slammed the front door closed, carried her down the hall, up the stairs and into her room.

Tenderly, he eased her down on the bed. This time, when they made love, Jake savored every precious moment as if it were the last. And it could be. No. Not now. He couldn’t, wouldn’t think of that now. Then Margot took all thought from his mind as she straddled him and guided him into her. She bent forward, and her curtain of hair flowed over his shoulders and whispered across his face as she took his mouth in a deep, gut-wrenching kiss. She circled his wrists and pressed his hands up over his head as she moved above him with a sure, measured pace. He lost it then, giving into her and the hunger that raged inside of him.

When both were spent, she collapsed against him, and he turned to the side and pulled her back against his chest. Margot was so small against him, her hips delicate, her legs and arms smooth and shapely. He closed his eyes and cradled her tighter against his chest. He couldn’t lose her. Not now.

“I love you,” she whispered into the room. She touched his arm, then clasped his hand against her breast.

Closing his eyes, Jake pressed his brow against her hair. “I love you too,” he said in an equally hushed voice.

He felt something wet against his cheek. Then he realized it was a tear—his tear. He’d never been so happy yet so filled with despair at the same time in his life.

Margot lay awake long after she heard Jake’s slow, rhythmic breathing. He’d been asleep for some time now, but it wasn’t a restful one. Every few minutes he would sigh and flinch in his sleep. His arm flung around her waist would tighten almost as if he feared of letting her go.

Tonight, she’d sensed Jake’s desperation. It had been in his very touch, word and action. He was slipping from her grasp, both physically and emotionally, and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it. To see this man lose the very passion for life that she loved the most about him broke her heart.

What was the point of living? What the hell was it all about? Was life some sick joke? Just when she thought it might hold meaning, learning about Jake’s looming death smashed it to the ground. Margot didn’t understand anything, and she didn’t know if she wanted to anymore—not alone.

She couldn’t lose Jake. Not now. Not when she’d just found him. She’d lost too many people in her life already—her parents, Johnny, even Malcolm or the man she’d mistaken him to be. Now there was Jake. If fate had her wish, another loved one would be ripped out of her life.

Margot closed her eyes against the tears and clamped down on the wave of panic drowning her. She couldn’t lie here all night and do nothing. She’d only toss and turn, aggravating Jake’s already fitful sleep.

Ever so gently, she slid Jake’s arm from her waist and edged out of bed. She padded over to the chair where she’d thrown her clothes and quickly dressed. Once downstairs, she shrugged into her jacket, stuck her feet into a pair of boots and closed the front door softly behind her.

A half-moon and a thick splash of stars suspended in the night sky illuminated the path to the lab. The landscape was silent, calm and at odds with the turmoil churning through her insides. She shivered although the down jacket shielded her from the winter air.

Evening knowing Jake and Malcolm must have combed through the lab, she still felt compelled to do the same. Granted, she’d avoided searching Johnny’s equipment and files until now. She hadn’t had the stomach to deal with the painful reminders of his death.

Once inside the lab, Margot closed the door and snapped on the light switch by her shoulder. She avoided looking at the table where she’d made love with Jake hours before, knowing she’d just get emotional. She glanced over to the office doorway in the back and then to the cabinets lining the upper and lower right wall, but the hum of the refrigerator against the opposite wall drew her across the room.

She opened the refrigerator door and peered inside. A black case rested on the top shelf. She pulled a vial from its bed and turned the cool glass between her fingers. The clear liquid glittered against the refrigerator’s interior light.

“Miracell,” she whispered.

With the vial still in her hand, she closed the refrigerator just as the front door opened. Jake must have woken and seen the light coming from the barn.

“I take it you couldn’t sleep either?” She turned around and froze.

“Sleep? Not a wink.” Malcolm smiled. “I started to wonder if I’d ever get you alone.”

He closed and locked the door.

“What are you doing here?” Margot hated the way her voice quivered with fear. But then, she was afraid. He was supposed to be in jail or somewhere very far away.

Malcolm didn’t answer but casually advanced toward her, the soles of his boots a menacing scrape against the linoleum floor.

She saw the very big, very threatening gun in his hand and tried not to panic. She edged backward, past the refrigerator toward the office at the back of the building. “You won’t get away with it. If you shoot me, Jake will hear—”

“Exactly. He’ll come running. Then I’ll have to kill him. So if you don’t want his death on your hands, I’d suggest you do what I ask.”

His words didn’t make her feel better. Actually, they magnified her panic and increased her urge to run that much more. But she couldn’t get to the front door. Not with him smack in the middle of the way. And even if by some miracle she reached the office and locked the door before Malcolm shot her, she’d only get herself trapped inside four windowless walls. Then he only had to put a bullet in the lock to get at her.

But most importantly, if she acted rashly, she’d jeopardize Jake’s life.

“What do you have there?” Malcolm pointed the gun at her hand as he closed the distance between them.

“Nothing.” She closed a fist over the vial.

“Nice try. It’s Miracell.” He laughed, a harsh, guttural sound that lifted the hairs on the back of Margot’s neck.

Suddenly, Malcolm lunged, grabbed her hand holding the formula, and started dragging her. Straining backward, digging her heels into the floor, Margot pried at his fingers. But all her struggles didn’t seem to matter as he pulled her across the room.

She lifted her free hand to hit him in the face, but he shoved the gun barrel against her cheek and glared down at her.

“Touch me and I’ll put a bullet in your face.”

She stilled. His breath, smelling of fish and something harsh and acidic, washed over her face. She almost gagged.

“Do you understand?” He shoved the gun barrel harder into her skin.

“Yes,” she whispered, not daring to nod or make any sudden movements as she slowly, ever so slowly lowered her hand.

“Good. We’re going to walk over to the counter. That’s right. You’re doing good. Just a couple more feet.”

Margot gritted her teeth and smothered the urge to retaliate as she docilely followed him. He let go of her hand, but aimed the gun at her head the entire time he rifled through several drawers. He pulled out a packaged syringe.

Margot frowned. “What are you—”

“Shut up.”

Another jab of the gun in her face.

She shut up.

“Now give me the Miracell.”

She finally understood. Pure horror caught at her chest, and she reflexively tightened her hold on the vial. He planned to inject her with the formula.

“No.”

“Oh, yes you will.”

As he scrapped the gun’s barrel across her cheek and thrust it beneath her chin, he grabbed her hand with the vial, but Margot held onto the formula in a tight fisted grip. If he thought she’d give in without a fight, he didn’t know her, because she—

Margot gasped. His fingernails cut into her skin as he squeezed her wrist, slowly, relentlessly. With each ragged breath, with each frantic heartbeat, Margot doggedly held her ground and fought back the pain. Seconds now, and she knew her bones would snap with the pressure.

“You haven’t changed a bit. Just as stubborn as ever.” Malcolm shook his head, impatience flaring in his icy, blue eyes. “Do you want me to shoot you? Because I will if you don’t give me the vial. And I won’t stop until I go after Jake. Believe me, I’d enjoy killing him after the hell he’s put me in.”

His threats hung in the air between them. She swallowed, hating the whimper in the back of her throat, hating herself for playing the victim, and hating Malcolm.

Margot twisted her wrist, opened her hand and dropped the glass vial, but it didn’t shatter against the floor as she’d intended.

Malcolm caught the formula in mid-air. A smile of triumph lifted the corners of his lips, although his eyes remained as cold and ruthless as before.

She rubbed at her wrist, wincing as the blood flowed back into her hand. In minutes she’d be Malcolm’s newest experiment.