“Faith?” He allowed himself the pleasure of gently moving a strand of silken hair from her cheek, letting his finger caress the silk of her skin.

He wondered if she still used the lotion he had started her on when she was barely a teenager. Wolfe had managed to take care of the details of it, but it had been the precious hoard of money Jacob kept hidden that had bought it. Expensive, non-scented, but with enough moisturizers to keep her skin satin smooth.

He had always marveled at the creamy tone of her skin. She wasn’t dark skinned as the males of the pack were. She had a perfect peaches and cream complexion, beautiful and so damned seductive she took his breath. Feeling the silken texture now, the warmth and resiliency of her skin made his blood heat at the thought of tasting her, running his lips and tongue over her.

“Faith?” He whispered her name again.

She didn’t answer, merely breathed in deeply as though his voice somehow satisfied her.

“Wake up, baby,” he whispered. “You make me carry you to bed and I might end up fucking you in your sleep.”

She licked her lips and breathed in softly, but didn’t wake. He could sense the weariness filling her. She was dead tired. Exhaustion, alcohol and nerves. Jacob shook his head. At least she was too tired for the lusts that Wolfe warned could accompany the alcohol. Evidently, the Felines had been studying the mating anomalies of their Pride while the Wolf Breeds were just fighting for survival.

Damned cats, he growled silently. He had met with their Liaison, Tanner, several years before. A cocky, arrogant feline intent on causing nothing but trouble. His kidnapping of an influential Council member’s daughter had nearly caused an international incident. His mating of her had caused trouble for the Feline Pride as well as the Wolf Packs.

Sighing wearily, Jacob rose to his feet then picked her up from the chair. She grumbled a bit, but tucked herself into his chest and sighed again. She was too light, too easy to carry. Wolfe said she had lost weight recently, and it appeared it was weight she could ill afford to lose.

Holding her securely in his arms, he went up the wide staircase and into the bedroom beside his own. The large bed, draped with mosquito netting, was perfectly made in case of company. The servants came in daily and kept everything prepared.

He pulled the light comforter and silk sheets back from the pillows and settled her on the bed. He had intended to let her sleep clothed, to let her undress herself, anything but do what he knew he was going to do.

Jacob had to forcibly still the trembling of his fingers as he finished pulling the shirt from the waistband of her jeans. The small buttons slid easily from their moorings, the soft fabric parting, falling over her stomach, but catching at her breasts as the last button slid free.

The backs of his fingers slid over her skin, flesh as soft as the finest silk with a soft glow of creamy perfection. Lifting her up, he slid the shirt from her body as a muted moan whispered past her lips. She shifted in his arms, causing the hard tips of her nipples to brush against his shirt, burn through to his chest.

He laid her back on the bed, staring down at the full, ripe mounds of her breasts. They were swollen and firm, the nipples peaked and hard. Breathing in carefully, his hands went to her jeans. The snaps slid free easily, the material parting and revealing the tender skin of her abdomen. Taking a deep breath, he moved to her boots and managed to unlace them without tangling the strings too badly. He returned to the jeans then, they slid from her body easily, leaving her clad only in a triangle of damp, peach colored silk. Her legs shifted, and in the dim light he could easily see the plump lips of her cunt, and the moisture that had soaked through the fabric.

Jacob swallowed tightly. He could smell her arousal, just as he had for the last hours. It swelled his cock, made him drunk on his need for her. He knew if he didn’t get away from her, if he didn’t leave the room, he would touch her. And if he touched her, Jacob knew he would fuck her. Reaching across her, he dragged the comforter over the perfection of her body.

“Damn,” he muttered, turning away from her. “Damn it all to hell.”

She was worn to the bone and he knew it. So tired that she fell asleep sitting up, her head pillowed on her arms as she tried to rest, and all he could think about was fucking her.

* * * * *

Faith heard his curse, and watched from beneath lowered lashes as he left the room, closing the door softly behind him. A tear slid from the corner of her eye before she managed to blink the others way.

She turned on her side, curling into a ball as she fought the arousal pulsing through her body. She was so hot, she pushed the blanket from her body, and wished for nothing more than an air conditioner, preferably set on the lowest temperature possible.

Damn him. Would it have hurt him to touch her, to have eased the agony that the sight of him created? She sneered at herself. As though she wanted to beg him again, only to have him leave before he could ease the suffering. She had survived without his touch, without his cock for six years now, she would survive the rest of her life without it.

Her hands were still clenched in anger, and the dark, vibrant need still pulsed through her body. Her vagina ached, a physical, almost painful emptiness that haunted her. She needed to get away from Jacob, and get away from him quickly, before she made more of a fool of herself than she already had.

She would leave the next morning, she decided. She had found Jacob and given him whatever Wolfe had sent; now it was time to go.

Faith held back her whimper of longing. She ached now. Her eyes closed tightly as she rolled to her back and stared up at the ceiling. She listened to Jacob in the next room. Drawers closing, a door, the shower. She imagined him stripping, his body hard and muscular, broad and tall. And she knew the sight of his erect cock was more than impressive.

His long, dark brown hair would flow past his shoulders and beneath the spray of the shower would become so dark it would be black. His pale blue eyes would close, the scent of soap and man would mix with the steam, overpowering the senses, making her dazed with the need to taste him.

She whispered his name, a hungry sound that made her chest ache with her need to touch him, to be touched by him. Then the sound of the shower was silent. Long minutes later the door closed and she heard him returning downstairs. She sighed wearily, clenched her teeth and resigned herself to yet another long, sleepless night.

Chapter Five

The woman would drive him crazy. There was no doubt about it. Jacob listened to her as she paced the living room floor the next morning, the cell phone headset attached to her ear as she listened to Wolfe. He had known their Pack leader would be calling her, but he hadn’t expected the slow anger he saw burning in her.

She was dressed in those damned jeans that she had tried to wash earlier. They were stained with blood. Hers and others, he knew. They were ripped at the knee, but they cupped her ass perfectly. Jacob leaned against the doorframe, watching as she paused in front of the large windows overlooking the side gardens, and listened to Wolfe talk.

Damn, that butt was cute as hell. He couldn’t get over it. Nice and round, without sticking out too much. Just a perfect handful. His cock reminded him it was a nice tight fit there, too. He had spent the night tossing and turning, tormented by memories of just how tight.

“That’s bullshit!” Jacob winced at the anger in her tone. She wasn’t listening to Wolfe anymore. “Dammit, Wolfe, I don’t have a week to hang around here and deal with him—”

Jacob lifted a brow as he watched her push her fingers impatiently through her hair. Deal with him? A pleasant way to phrase how she could handle his intentions towards her.

“Who cares? I have things going on—”

Things? A unique way of phrasing her affection for her vibrators. He should call Wolfe himself and have the damned things blown to hell for her.

“He’s a big boy—” she snarled, and Jacob winced. Damn, she was getting mad.

“Wolfe. No. Wolfe. That’s my damned place. Do you have any idea how hard it was to find? To secure at that price? Don’t you do it—”

There was definite alarm in her voice now. Jacob could practically feel her sense of fear increasing. Her body tightened with it, her fists clenching at her sides as she fought for control.

She listened for long moments, but Jacob could feel her anger building with each word her Pack Leader spoke.

“I’ll leave the Pack, Wolfe.”

Jacob frowned at the hardened purpose in her voice, then shock filled him as she continued.

“No. Evidently, you have a problem with the efficiency in which I perform my job. That’s fine. I can handle that. But no one, Wolfe, even you, Pack Leader that you are, can tell me when and who to fuck—I’m not arguing it, Wolfe—dirty bastard left me six years ago and you want me to just spread my legs for him,” she bit out. “Find him another whore. Better yet, leave him alone, from what I’ve heard he’s good at finding them himself.” Her voice rose with each word until it vibrated with rage.

She was angry because he left? Not angry over the night he had taken her, but angry because he had stayed away? It made no sense to him. She should hate him, despise him for the way he took her, for the violence of his lusts, not sound furious because he had left her after hurting her.

Jacob watched her body tremble now, could hear the hurt and pain in her voice and decided enough was enough. When her voice began to thicken with tears, then it was time to step in. Damn Wolfe, after sending Faith to Jacob, he no longer had rights over her. Jacob was her blood mate, her alpha now. Wolfe had no rights over her.

He stalked over to her, surprising her when he jerked the phone from her belt, released the headset and brought the receiver to his ear.

“Fuck off, Wolfe,” he bit out.

There was silence over the line.

“Hope thinks she’ll hold onto the apartment and the toys, Jacob, rather than give in to you.” Wolfe’s voice was hard, commanding. “We need the place for another Liaison as well. We don’t have time to pamper her feelings.”

Jacob frowned. At the moment, he considered nothing more important than pampering her feelings. It was a surprising revelation for him.

“You forget, the pack doesn’t own that place. I’ll pay the rent for another apartment,” he growled, hell he was paying the rent for the one Faith had now. “Take it out of my account, and set it up. But leave her place be. Period.”

“I can fight my own battles, Jacob,” Faith hissed, her hands propped on her hips, fury radiating through her body. “I don’t need your help. Let him put someone else in my place and he’ll see just how well I can fight.”

“What the fuck is wrong with her?” Confusion filled Wolfe’s voice as he heard her furious declaration. “She knows better than to challenge me. I don’t understand that woman anymore.”

“She can’t challenge you, Wolfe, but I can.” Jacob kept his voice low, his gaze on Faith as he watched fire glittering in her black eyes. “Let her things alone. You don’t have the authority to do this.” As Pack Leader, Wolfe’s demands were automatically obeyed to a point, but Jacob wasn’t about to let him upset Faith like this.

The hierarchy of the Pack was cemented. Wolfe was Alpha of the pack, but Jacob was only a periphery member. He was Alpha Enforcer, the head of all Pack’s security, and holding as much authority as Wolfe did himself.

There was another silence. “We could lose her, Jacob.” His voice was hard. “I can’t afford to lose any of my Pack. Especially a female.”

“I’m going to kick your ass, Jacob,” Faith raged as he narrowed his eyes, his anger flaring at Wolfe, his impatience rising.

“If you had brains, you’d be a danger to yourself.” He then heard Hope’s voice in the background. “What does female have to do with this? She’s part of the family, Wolfe. Not a damned breeder.”

Jacob rolled his eyes. He heard Wolfe growl in exasperation.