Chapter 178

“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.

“Ari!” 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.

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 steam, 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. I…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.

At first, my eyes flutter shut because of how good it feels – Jackson, something about when he touches me, it just…lights something in me, kindles a warmth, makes me feel so cozy and warm and adored. But then, after a few minutes – after I realize that he’s taking quite a bit of care to ensure that his wrists come in contact with my most important pressure points, and that his hands spread out from there –

I realize what’s happening.

That Jackson is scent marking me – every inch of me, and taking a great deal of care in doing it. I smile, pleased at the idea – that this is Jackson’s very own version of claiming me, of marking me as his own, of wiping out every inch of Luca’s scent by gently covering it with his.

The minutes slip by and I fall almost into a daze, my body moving with Jackson’s as he covers me. I’m nowhere near falling asleep, but the state of calm into which I slip – it’s like nothing I’ve ever felt before. Jackson’s hands are gentle but firm as they move over my back, and down each of my arms, and then up over my neck. He presses gentle kisses to my skin as he goes, and I honestly don’t think that they’re part of the scent marking – I think it’s just him being very sweet, and slightly unable to resist.

A little bit to my chagrin, Jackson leaves my underwear on – flimsy as they are - as he moves downward over my legs. A delicious shiver pulses through me, though, when he brings his face close to my ass, and presses his cheek briefly against it, and then gives my cheek a tiny nip with the edge of his canine. I laugh, pleased, and so does he.

But then he moves on, continuing down. When he gets to my feet, I hear him click his tongue in disapproval.

“What?” I ask, turning my head a little to peak at him as he kneels at my feet and bends my leg at the knee, lifting my shoe high.

Jackson gives me a dubious look. “These shoes are ridiculous, Clark.”

I burst out laughing, delighted. “They are very fashionable and very expensive, McClintock.”

He grins at me and shakes his head, his fingers making fast work of the little buckle around my ankle. “They offer no traction, and I don’t see how you can run in them –“

“They’re not for running –“ I protest, grinning a little as I lay my head down on the pillow, peering at him over my shoulder.

“You’re a spy, Clark,” he growls. “You always need to be able to escape.”

I shrug, conceding the point as he pulls the first shoe off and lets my leg drop. “They’re supposed to be sexy,” I murmur, still wanting to defend my little shoes just a bit.

Jackson moves his eyes to mine, perfectly serious as he grabs my other ankle, making me grin at the satisfying smack his palm makes against my skin before he bends my leg at the knee, lifting my foot higher.

“You have the world’s most perfect feet, Ariel,” he says, like it makes him kind of mad that I even wear shoes at all. “The idea that you could improve them by shoving them into some stupid shoe…”

I grin at him, laughing a little, but he just shakes his head at me – still dead serious – before he unbuckles the second shoe, slips it off, and then dips his head slightly and presses a kiss to the arch of my foot.

I gasp a little at that – at the feel of his soft lips against my ticklish skin, at the light stubble that grazes my toes, at the idea of being touched somewhere that I’ve obviously, obviously never been kissed by any other person.

God damn it, but I just start to come undone. Something in me, in my spirit, goes completely to pieces for Jackson – just crumbles down, until I’m completely bare. And it has nothing to do with the fact that I’m very nearly naked as Jackson finishes running his hands over my feet, and then crawls forward over the bed, and then slips a hand under my hip, pulling, asking me to roll onto my back.

Moving slowly, I comply.