Chapter twenty seven

Annie scurried down the path, so agitated that her leg trembled and her mind spun in helpless., trapped little circles. She couldnt wait to get on the road and have some privacy. She needed distance from Jacob's intense, brooding presence so she could calm down, get the events of the last two days sorted out in her mind,

She packed her stutt at triple speed at the campsite, and regarded the soggy tent with dismay.

"If I pack it now, it'll mildew," she told him. "It has to dry. Go on ahead if you wanted breakfast,"

Jacob snorted in disgust and began dismantling her tent himself. He flung pegs and rods bundled the sodden fabric carelessly into one of the plastic sacks he had brought the night before.   

"You won't be using this again," he informed her.

Her jaw dropped. "What the hell are you doing? That's my tent!"

"You want a tent, fine," he said coldly. "We'll stop at the first mall we see and I'll buy you a decent one. But for now, we're staying in motels. I'm sick of the cold and damp," he stalked toward the pickup.

She scrambled after him, panicked. "Jacob, you can't just........"

"And the Santa sack has got to go. He plucked it, one handed, out of the pickup.

"No way! she squawked, lunging for it.

He lifted it out of her reach. "Does it have sentimental value?

"Not particularly, but it's the only...."

Then it's history." He shoved it into the plastic bag along with her tent, and headed toward the dumpster down the road with long, purposeful strides. He flung the bag inside with a vicious flick of his wrist and gave her a steely, intimidating stare.

"And don't even think about fishing then Out,"

He marched back to the campsite. Annie watched, dumbfounded, as he calmly proceeded to unlatch Mildred's

tailgate and tilt the nose of his motorcycle up onto it.

He braced himself, lifting the heavy machine into the truck bed without apparent difficulty, and glanced back at her with a "what-are-you-going-to-do-about-it? look on his face.

She stumbled toward him, her heart fluttering like a

trapped bird. "Jacob, I.. . we've had a misunderstanding. I never said that I.....

He slammed the tailgate shut with a resounding clang.

"You still don't get it, do you?"

She shook her nead mutely,

"We're traveling together," he said curtly. 

she stared at him, rooted to the ground. "We are?"

"Like hell am I  letting you out of my sight again 

She stared at him, frozen like a Statue with her mouth agape

He grabbed her by the shoulders, all the potent force of his will blazing out of his eyes. "Look, Annie. You want to go to this casino and play your lucky dollars, fine. Well go . But we'll go my way." He reached down, plucked Mildred's keys neatly out of her jacket pocket and jerked his head toward the passenger side. "Get in. We need breakfast .

Annie climbed numbly into the truck. Jacob started up Mildred engine, frowning at the rusty cough. "This thing needs help, he said. "I'll take a look at it after breakfast."

His words gave her a flash of wild, irrational panic. If he stuck his hands under Mildred's hood and won her over too, that would be the final blow. Her last ally, seduced away from her.

 Jacob had seized the upper hand, and she hadn't the slightest clue how to wrest it back fron him. She felt like one of Bo-peep's fluffy little sheep. Baa-a-a. Meek little woman with her bad Alpha male. Look at her, sit you please. He had her completely cowed. it was not to be endured.

Breakfast helped a little, but not as much has he had hoped. Even after a four-egg Western omelet and a double stack of pancakes, Jacob was still in a jagged, dangerous mood. He'd been in its grip for the past twenty-four hours, and it wasn't getting any better.

Worse yet, sex didn't dissipate it. On the contrary. He clenched his jaw and watched the service station guy pour in the second quart of oil. They had a full tank of gas and four new tires, and he' d met Annie's attempts to pay wIth a glare so menacing she had shrunk back against the door her eyes huge.

Nice going, he told himself. Now was scared of him, and he didn t blame her. He was scared of himself. 

He yanked the Arkansas and Louisiana map out of the door pocket and buried his face in them, trying to plot out the quickest route to st. Honore, but he couldn't concentrate worth a damn.  He'd shocked her speechless when he ditched the tent and Santa sack. And maybe hijacking her pick-up had been a little over the top, he thought guiltily.

But he was sick of playing games. It was time for her to face reality. Besides, it wasn't tlike he could choose what he said 

and did.

Jacob the sexually obsessed macho lunatic was acting out, while Jacob the cool, rational choice-maker watched,aghast.

They were grimly silent on the road. He stared at the highway with eyes that burned and stung, examining the

strange new shape of the world now that Annie was in it.

There were too many doors in his mind flung open all at once, too many crazy, unfamiliar emotions crowding out,

For the first time in his life, he didn't know what strings to.pull.

The world had never seemed so dangerous and wild. He pulled off the highway onto a strıp mall of fast food restaurants, motels and car dealerships. "Lunch," he said

shortly.

She gave him a cautious little nod.

He parked in front of a Lone Star Steakhouse and killed the engine. He couldn't stand her guarded silence for an-

other second. He would rather she scream and yell, give him something to grapple with.

"Annie," he said in a rough, hoarse voice. "Come here."

He held out his hand, willing her silently to take it. She stared at it, biting her luscious lower lip, and he wondered frantically what was going on behind those smoke-colored eyes. They were veiled from him by the dark sweep of her lashes, by that rich curtain of honey-blonde hair.

Then she reached out, her slender fingers twined with his and she scooted tentatively closer to him on the seat. 

Dizzying relief surged through him and she gasped in surprise as he dragged her across the seat and onto his lap. He slid his fingers into hair and kissed her ravenously. He couldn't get enough of her sweet teste, the plump, trembling softness of her mouth, the way she blushed when she was excited.

She slid her hand beneath his jacket and

splayed it against his chest as  she kissed him back with timid played eagerness .

He yank her louse out of her jeans and thrust his hand inside, cupping her breasts.  He rolled her taur little nipple between his fingers and kneaded the soft, luscious roundness hungrily in his hand

She stiffened and tore her mouth away from his. "Not here!"

"Why not? He was drunk withher flavor, her scent,She was like a drug, and he was strung out,He barely noticed her struggles as he unbuttoned her jeans and thrust his hand down inside her panties. sliding his finger unerringly into her hot cleft, down

where she was so slick and sweet and marvelous. He would caress her, slowly and palentiy, waiting until she was slipery and hot, until he felt the beautitul little pulses of her first orgasm clutching rhythmically around his finger, and

hen when she was shivering and desperate, he would peel off those skin-tight fuck-me jeans she was wearing, He

would spread her beautiful white thighs wide open and ram

himself into her hot, quivering body, give her everything he had.....

"No! Jacob, damn it!"

She was clawing at his wrist, wriggling on top of his raging hard-on. He forced himself to focus on her words. "What?"

"Have you gone nuts? We're in the parking lot of a family restaurant! she said furiously.

He glanced out the window, dazed. "Oh. I forgot," he muttered.

"Forgot! Hah! I do not want the worthy citizens of Bernhard, Arkansas, to actively participate in my sex life" so get your greedy paws off me, you sex-crazed maniac! She seized his wrist with both hands and yanked it out of her jeans, glaring at him as she buttoned them up.

He deliberately licked the hngers he had thrust into her panties, savoring the sweet, rich flavor that lingered there

and turned the key in the ignition. "We're checking into a motel," he said. "Right now."

She looked bewildered. "I thought you were hungry......."

"Yeah, and you're lunch, he muttered, putting the pickup in gear. He laid his foot on the gas and the pickup leaped eagerly forward, toward the budget motel down the road.