Amber Fire Read Free Page B

of his people, she was misjudging him. He wasn’t just Yaguara, he was a Sentinel of his race, and at three hundred years old, one of the ancients of his kind, one of the strongest and most powerful. He did not die easily, nor did he take sins against his race lightly. If she was using him, if she was a Hunter, he would make sure the pleasure he gave her this night was the last she would ever experience, for he would kill her himself. And if she was innocent—and why he wanted her to be, so damn badly, he did not know—well, then, she deserved to know the truth about what she was involved with, before her ignorance got her killed.
    He stepped to the edge of the water, the crystal liquid the only barrier stopping him from seeking the truth. She smiled at him, a perfect mixture of seduction and innocence, before crooking a finger at him to urge him forward. The swell of her breast peeked from beneath her thigh with the movement, teasing him with that barely there glimpse. His cock twitched, thickening with arousal, his blood rich with fire. He wanted those breasts filling his palms, then pressed to his chest. Hunger clawed at him—ravenous, demanding, unforgiving.
    His desire for her infuriated him, wrenched him with guilt and anger. He should not want a woman who might well be hunting his kind. But he did. Wanted her as he had never wanted another. Wanted her as a mate would want his intended—a fact that defied both her humanity and her loyalties. He could not mate with a human, certainly not the daughter of a Hunter.
    Across the water, Jareth’s eyes locked with Amber’s, warning her there was no turning back—finding no resistance, only welcoming desire. A decision she would die regretting if she was betraying him. He yanked his shirt over his head, the rest of his clothes quickly following, aware of what she would see—the natural yellow and black tattoo covering the left side of his body, the same design as his skin when he was in his animal form. The design started at his shoulder and ran down his side, across his back, and down his leg. He stood there a moment on display, aroused, cock jutting in front of him, and let her inspect the man and beast, as he watched for fear or the disgust of a Hunter for Yaguara.
    But the heavy-lidded look she cast him showed neither of these things—there was only lusty appreciation. “The tattoos are beautiful,” she said, her voice gravelly, laden with desire. Her gaze dropped to his protruding erection, lingering as her pretty pink tongue stroked her bottom lip, and then her eyes slowly returned to his. “ You’re beautiful.”
    He inhaled, containing the lust that threatened his control, the predator in him analyzing his prey, assessing her with his feline senses. She knew what he was—he sensed that in her. Knew, but she did not care. In fact, his animal side aroused her; he could smell her desire, her nervous excitement. Perhaps fucking her prey got her off. A practiced way of hiding what she was, what she really wanted. The thought pulsed through him with an anger that sent him into action. Wading into the warm, sun-stroked water, Jareth stayed to his left, using the underwater rocky cliff he knew all too well. He’d endured a bloody past in the place—Indians his people had befriended, and the explorers who’d slaughtered them for the secrets of Yaguara. Exactly why this place was guarded by purebred jaguars, not shifters, the history far too rich to risk discovery. It was why Yaguara lived under the guise of being human, inside the human world. And why only well-trained Sentinels, like himself, spilled blood. But would he spill Amber’s? That was the question.
    He reached her side, inhaled the wicked scent of her arousal. Pressed his hands on the rocks when he really wanted them on her body. But he also intended to establish who was in control. “Come here, Amber.”
    Unmoving, she blinked at him