Now he knew. Her leopard had led the male away from the children, seducing him with her every movement. Emma was ashamed of that. Her scent had been all over the banister and she couldn’t help but smell it. She’d scrubbed and polished the stairs three times.

“She’s you,” he reminded gently. “She wouldn’t have allowed any other male to mount her any more than you would.”

“I detest feeling like this.” And she did. Hot. Moody. Out of control. Able to only think of attacking him and having him deep inside her. Was this going to be her life? Sex without love? Was that all there was for her? She didn’t want it. Someone else could have it.

Jake slowly unbuttoned his shirt and dropped it to the floor beside her chair. Emma’s fascinated gaze jumped to his broad chest in spite of her intention to stay in control. He was all roped muscle, his chest broad, his nipples hard, and she felt her body tighten in anticipation as she took in his tapered waist and the expanse of muscle covering his flat belly.

Emma wanted to groan aloud. Her mind protested, but her body caught fire, was already on fire with need. He was just throwing fuel onto the flames. She didn’t want this—mindless, without love, just hot sex the only thing that mattered. Yet how could she stop her own body from betraying her? “What do you want, Jake?” Her voice went husky, every nerve ending on alert.

“You, Emma.”

She just stared at him, shocked that his voice could reduce her to raw sexual desire.

His eyebrow went up as he dropped his hands to the opening of his jeans. “If your clothes are particular favorites, you might want to get the hell out of them.”

She hated that her body reacted to his order, to the velvet seduction in the crude order, her feminine core going completely liquid. Heat rushed through her body and spread like wildfire. With one hand he unsnapped his jeans and his long, thick, very-aroused cock burst free, drawing her mesmerized gaze. Her womb did that now-familiar clenching and fingers of arousal teased her thighs.

“I’m not doing this. Sex rules everything around here and I’m not going to be like that. I’m not, Jake, so just put that thing away.”

She might have done better if she’d managed to stop staring with hunger in her eyes, stark and raw, but she knew it was in her expression, in her mind. Consuming her just like it did every moment these days until she could barely think with wanting him inside of her. Not the gentle lovemaking she craved from him, but rough and wild, and God help her, she didn’t want to be that person. She wanted to feel love when he touched her, not madness, not a frenzy that was an obsessive craving.

Never taking his golden gaze from her face, Jake shoved the jeans past his narrow hips, and down his legs to kick the material away from him. “Do you think I don’t know what you need, Emma?” He looked utterly confident, supremely male.

“I don’t care.” She swept her hand through her hair. “I don’t, Jake. Do you have any idea what it’s like for me to find myself rubbing my body all over the bed like I’m a cat in heat? Do you know what I felt like when I . . .” She pressed her lips tightly together and looked away from him.

“Yeah, honey. I do. You walk through the house and I want to flip up your skirt and take you right there in the middle of the kitchen or on the floor. So, yeah, I know what it’s like.” He stepped closer. “But I also know it’s about you now, not any other woman. I know I’m like this because I’m responding to you. Emma. Not just any woman.”

She held up his hand to stop him. “I have to get some control.”

“No, you don’t. You have to let me take care of you.”

She leapt from her chair, using her leopard’s agility, backing away from him to put the chair between them. He could see and smell the effect he was having on her treacherous body. Her nipples were hard, her breasts swollen and aching. Her panties were damp and useless as any kind of barrier beneath her long skirt.

“It’s obsession, Jake.”

Jake kept coming, his shaft swaying against his belly with every step he took, a lethal weapon, thick and strong and already leaking small, pearly drops. His scent was an aphrodisiac she didn’t need. Her mouth refused to stop watering. She wanted to be like Jake and blame her leopard, but she knew better. She and her leopard were one and the same. She just wanted him. Desperately. She craved his body like some terrible secret addiction that would never go away.

“I don’t much care what you want to call it, Emma.”

She groaned as his hand surrounded his staff and he stroked it hard, unashamed. Waves of arousal surged through her bloodstream, making her feel lightheaded and dizzy with need. She was grateful she was no longer sitting down or her skirt would have been soaked right along with her panties. She was so hot she was afraid she might spontaneously combust.

She looked so lost. His Emma. Fighting her arousal. For the first time fighting her cat and fighting herself. She needed and he provided. The way of the jungle. The way of their people. His way. “Stop running from me, honey. You’re not going to get away.”

Jake leapt onto the chair, landing in a crouch, startling her with his sudden aggression. She backpedaled rapidly until she hit the wall and couldn’t go any farther. He followed, landing right in front of her, close, so close the pearly drops leaked onto her shirt, his body caging her in, deliberately dominating, triggering her fight reflex. His fingers bit hard into her upper arms as he dragged her even closer, bringing her up onto her toes so he could fasten his mouth to hers in a rough, almost brutal kiss, knowing exactly what she needed.