Chapter 355

"And yeah," Jackson says, his voice humming with a little apology that he has to break it to me like this, "I'm having a little trouble getting in the mood to rip your clothes off when I can smell your other mate all over you."

When Jackson lowers me to the ground this time I put my feet down and consent to stand on my own.

"Oh my god," I murmur, shaking my head and taking a step away, mortified, dipping my face into my hands again. Because of course I smell of Luca - he has been all over me tonight. Holding me, hugging me, making out with me, putting his hands all over me. "Jackson, I'm so Sorry -

"It's fine," he says, laughing a little, reaching out and pulling my hands away from my face. I look up at him with my blush still on my cheeks, my eyes apologetic. "Honestly, Ariel, I don't care - I'm just going to have a little trouble losing myself in you until we fix that. I hope that makes...sense. I don't want you to feel bad."

"No, it makes total sense," I say, dropping my hands completely and standing straight, reaching for the zipper sewn into the side of my dress. "I totally get it."

"Ari," Jackson says, a little confused - and then I feel his panic as I swiftly tug my zipper all the way down and shimmy out of my dress, which drops to the floor in a heap of silk and satin and secret hidden underwire. As it falls, I turn away from Jacks, lifting my hands and crossing them over my chest to cup my suddenly cold breasts in my palms, a shiver running through me as I start towards Jackson's bathroom.

"An!" He groans, and I turn in surprise to see him slumped against the wall of his room, staring at me like he's devastated. "What on earth are you doing?"

I pause, confused as hell, and then nod my head towards his bathroom. "I'm going to go take a shower, Jacks."

Jackson groans, and hangs his head, his shoulders trembling slightly.noveldrama

And then, faster than I can see him move, he's suddenly crossing the room to my side, grabbing me again with a snarl so fierce it makes me gasp. I stare at him for a split second, into his cold, determined eyes, before he gives me a wicked grin and tumbles into his bed, taking me with him.

I gasp as I land on top of Jackson in his bed, my hands still cupping my chest, my eyes wide. Not because it hurt at all-Jackson's far too careful with me for that but because it all happened very fast, and now all of a sudden I'm in Jackson's bed wearing nothing but my underwear and my heels.

"Jacks!" I gasp, staring first at him and then over at the bathroom door. "What are you doing!?"

"I'm taking you to bed, Ariel," he growls, rolling over me so that it's my back pressed into the mattress now and his body is leveraged over mine. I can't help the teeny little moan that slips from me when I feel the weight of his body pressing into me.

"But," I murmur, deeply distracted right now. "What about my scent - I can take a shower -

He growls as he shakes his head. "I'm not going to be able to handle that, Ariel," Jackson murmurs, his voice dead serious as he raises a hand and softly brushes my hair back out of my face. "The idea of you, naked, in that room? All wet and soapy? Your scent alone in the stearn, drifting out of the door..." He pauses, and then groans, and then ducks his head down against my shoulder like he can't handle it.

I laugh lightly, delighted that even the idea of me in the shower drives him that crazy. But still, I don't understand. "Jacks," I groan, pouting a little, wiggling down lower so that I can see into his face. Not even thinking of what it reveals, I lift my hands away from my chest and raise them to his cheeks. "I don't get it. ...still smell like him."

Jackson lowers his face slowly until he presses a soft, lingering kiss to my mouth. "There are other ways to fix that," he murmurs, and I shiver at the way his lips feel moving against mine as he speaks.

And then, to my shock, Jackson quickly slips a hand under my back and uses the leverage there to flip me over so that I'm laying on my belly. I gasp a little in my surprise, but he just laughs at me - a low, pleased, controlled noise - and then lays his weight gently down on me again, beginning to slowly move his hands all the way down my sides and then back up, touching every inch of my skin with his hands, with his wrists.