Disclaimer: I do not own The Mediator or the Dark Swan Series, unfortunately. They belong to Meg Cabot and Richelle Mead.

Where was it? Where is it?

I had put the book under my pillow (or at least I thought I had) almost a week ago and I still couldn't find the damn thing. Though I guess it's not like I have that much time to read because of the whole mediator thing. It's just that this book is...special. It's one of those books my brothers would never allow me to forget. As in, never. Never ever. To the end of eternity, ever.

I get down on the floor to look under the bed for possibly the hundredth time and once again discover that other than a few dust bunnies there is nothing there. I was aching and Jesse's stupid "no sex before marriage" rule was making it worse.

Where was it?

Ha! On my desk! But why would I leave it there? All well.

I opened back up to my page as I sank down onto my bed and looked to the digital clock on my bedside table. I still had an hour. I nodded to myself. I'll read for half an hour, I decided, then allow myself half an hour to have a cold shower and get ready for when Jesses comes over for dinner with my family.

I begin to read;

I let him kiss me again and didn't say anything else about the hand that continued to stroke the curve of my breast and tease my nipple into hardness beneath the shirt. His other hand slid down to my ass and ground me closer to him, letting me feel exactly what was underneath his jeans.

The fact that we were doing this in public suddenly made it a lot sexier.

I sighed. While I was not one for exhibitionism, I was jealous on how easily, and without restraint, he touched her. I wonder what it would be like to feel what was underneath Jesse's jeans...

I let out a small, trembling sigh and then broke away from the kiss again. Only this time, it wasn't because of any prudish feelings. It was from need. My body's suddenly urgent and excruciating need.

"Are you staying next door?" I asked, indicating the hotel adjacent to the bar.

"No. Out at the Monteblanca."

I let surprise show on my face. That was in the region near where I lived, in the Santa Catalina foothills. "That's not a hotel. That's a resort. A really nice one. Veterinarians must make a lot."

He smiled and brushed his lips against my cheek. "You want to see it?"

"Yes," I told him. "I certainly do."

Yes! Finally, up to the good stuff! My lower half settled deepened into the bed and began to hum.

Chapter Four

We were on each other before we even made it to his room. If our actions on the dance floor had been racy, our grappling in the elevator was downright X-rated. Fortunately no one else rode up with us, which was a good thing, considering the dishevelled state of our clothing when we finally made it inside.

All the while, some reasonable voice in my mind kept whispering, You don't do this kind of thing. But I was. And I wanted to, very badly.

It was a nice room, not surprising in such a nice hotel. A king-size bed offered comfort in the moonlit room, and beyond it, a sliding glass door opened out to a balcony that overlooked the desert. I didn't have time to admire the view because Kiyo pushed me down onto the bed, pulling my shirt off at the same time. I'd already done a fair job at undoing his pants in the elevator, so I had an edge in the race.

When we were both naked, I saw him sit up and lean over the side of the bed, fumbling with the grocery store bag on the floor. We'd had to make an unromantic—but necessary—stop for condoms. I was on the pill, but even in the heat of passion, I wasn't so foolish as to trust going into unprotected sex with a stranger, no matter how charming. Kiyo's eager hands practically tore the box apart, causing the little packets to scatter on the floor. He picked one up and opened it, and I helped him put it on.

I smiled both at his reaction to my touch and the fact that the condom was a deep scarlet. When it was on, I admired him for a moment. Everything about him was perfect: the shape of his body, the sculpted muscles, the tanned skin. His eyes were dark and demanding in the dim lighting, black depths that wanted to wrap me up. There was an intense quality to him, something primal and feral. He regarded me in a similarly scrutinizing way just before pulling me down onto the bed with him, laying his body across mine.

All he did was kiss me at first. Everywhere. He tasted my lips again and then my neck, tracing its shape with his tongue. My breasts held his attention for a long time after that, but then, breasts occupied most guys' attention as a general rule. He held them and kissed them, biting the nipples, keeping his eyes locked on mine the entire time. For me, it was like traces of fire shooting under my skin, like his touch was some kind of drug my body needed to survive.

When his face moved between my legs, it was only to nuzzle against the sensitive skin down there, to run his tongue along the place where my thigh connected with the rest of my body. He inhaled deeply, burying himself against me as though he needed to take more of me in.

My body already began to sweat and lower half burned, imagining Jesse between my legs and copying his actions instead. I became wetter still.

He moved back up so that we were face to face once more, his body again on top of mine. My own body was in agony, uncertain as to why we weren't expediting things. I don't know what look was on my face, but he smiled at me. It was a knowing smile, an animal smile.

"There is nothing in the world," he said in a soft, burning voice, "like the smell and look of a woman about to let you have her."

"'Have?'" I laughed. "Are you calling me a possession?"

"We're all possessions during sex, Eugenie."

And then I felt him slide into me, slowly at first as though he would inch his way in and catch me unaware, and then plunging all the way. I thought the earlier delay around the tour of my body might have made him less hard, but if anything, he felt harder and bigger than when I'd put the condom on. He moved at a rough, fast pace that in any other man would probably have ended things in thirty seconds. Somehow I suspected that wouldn't be the case here.

It wasn't.

I dug my nails into his back, arching myself up as though I could drive him farther and farther into me. Already I was almost painfully full, but it was a good pain, the kind that danced with pleasure, making the two inextricable. He moved with long, rapid strokes, watching my face carefully to see how I reacted to every movement and shift of position. When he hit a spot that made my lips part and cries grow louder, he thrust harder and more fiercely. My cries bordered along the edge of screaming, and he moved his hands to hold my wrists and keep my bucking body from moving. The wrist that had been hurt with the keres complained a little, but it was lost to the building sensation between my legs, that burning liquid heat waiting to explode through me. Besides, I wasn't being gentle either. I slipped my hands from his hold and clutched at his back, letting my nails dig in fierce and deep, almost hard enough to draw blood, I realized. That knowledge didn't make me stop. If anything, I dug deeper until he snatched my wrists back and held me down again. It was the roughest sex I'd ever had –

My door opened suddenly and I quickly removed my hand from my hip where it had been sinking downwards before looking up. Jesse.

I opened my mouth to welcome him but nothing came out. He was more than half an hour early!

"Susannah are you alright? You look quite flushed. Are you sick?"

His worrying and caring nature should have had a calming effect; however it made me want to jump him even more. I could imagine it. Reaching over to him and connecting my lips with his. He would bring his hands slowing up until they rest over my breast...and, oh god, how good will he feel over the top of me, pushing his hips towards mine...

"Susannah?" He said as he put his hand on my forehead and breaking me out of my day dream.

"You're early," I blurt out.

"I wanted to discuss something with you before..." He trailed of catching sight of the book. "Good book?" He asks, raising one eye-brow, "I didn't think you enjoyed reading, you complain about it that much."

I was about to respond but faltered once again when, quicker than I thought possible he reached over and took the book before looking down on the page.

I reached up to snatch it away, but he'd already seen. Oh god, did he see. He seemed to freeze and I quickly took advantage of that, snatching it back out of his hands.

"Susannah..."

I looked down, refusing to meet his eyes.

The book had fallen forward a page or two and the paragraph which he read was obvious;

He had it on in seconds and then returned his hands to me, positioning me so that I bent over, my hands holding on to the railing. He pressed up behind me, and then that hard thickness was inside me again, once more claiming possession. I was almost rubbed raw from our last round, but as he kept moving into me, I eventually grew wet again, allowing the line between pleasure and pain to blur once more.

I began to tear up. It was obvious what they were doing, and had done. Would he be so disgusted with me that he'd leave? Would he tell Father D? Or my Mum? Oh god, she kill –

I felt Jesse's fingers guide my head up seconds before his lips crashed into mine, desperate and possessive. I moaned and reached up to tangle my hands in his thick hair, enjoying the way my fingers got caught in his black locks. Even Kiyo couldn't match Jesse, no one ever could.

I was pushed back down on the bed, one of jesses knees placed in-between my legs keeping them open. One of his hands then grasped my breast, almost painfully, before he somehow flipped me onto my stomach and grinded himself into my behind. I almost fainted from the pleasure. I didn't think I could get any wetter, but then the hand that wasn't supporting his weight came around my waist before following the same path my hand did earlier and resting on my centre. I cried out.

"Nombre de Dios," I heard him mutter before he pushed his hand harder against me and burying his head in my neck before sucking hard on my neck.

"Suzie! Jesse! Dinner's ready!"

Before I could even register the word Jesse jumped off me as if I had caught fire, a look of shame on his face. He turned as quickly as he could and left the room without a second glance.

Oh shit...