Beauty in Spring (Beauty #1)(18)

My gaze drops to his waist but it’s not the chain or padlock I see. Only an enormous cock, fully erect, too utterly huge to be real.

But all of this is real.

The beast turns. Eyes as green as spring grass lock on my face. With a hungry growl, he takes a long step toward me—and is brought up short by the rusted chain.

On his next step, wood shrieks over stone as the beast drags the heavy oak bed with him.

I turn and flee.

His thunderous roar follows me.

Outside the sky is still a reddish orange on the western horizon, with just enough light to see by as I race down the slope outside the solarium—heading for the east access gate with the gap just wide enough to slip through. It’s closer than the main gates and the grove might offer some protection and a place to hide if the beast escapes more quickly than I can run to the estate’s border.

The distant shattering of glass warns me that he’s made it through the solarium. Hopefully still dragging that bed, slowing him down.

I run like I’ve never run before, flying alongside the gravel walk, my sprinting feet flinging mud and sod, gaze fixed ahead—my mind racing as fast as my legs.

A werewolf. For how long?

But I know. I know. Because I’ve ran toward this gate before—but Gideon was beside me then. And he made certain that I went through first, that I was safe. But his leg was bleeding. I thought he’d cut it while struggling his way through the gate, but it must have been a bite or a scratch.

How does it spread? A curse? A disease? It seems like I’ve seen movies and read horror novels with both.

A howl pierces the night—not far behind me. I burst out of the grove of trees and onto the sprawling lawn. The moon rises full in the eastern sky, just above the horizon. Lungs burning, I draw upon all of my strength, all of my speed. A thousand yards directly ahead is the wall and the access gate that leads to safety.

Safety from a cursed beast.

It had to be a curse. Some kind of magic. Because a disease, that’s logical, that’s science—and there was nothing logical about the golden chain that bound me. That was magic, too. And it shouldn’t have been real, either. But that chain undeniably was.

And it was magic that could be broken. Because Gideon removed the chain from my neck, knowing the danger that was coming with the full moon. And he tried to send me away. To save my life.

Then why the hell did he keep asking me to marry him? To allow him the use of my cunt for his pleasure? Because if I’d married him, if I’d taken him into my bed, I would have been here. I would have been in danger on this night.

Except…curses can be broken, too.

Almost of their own volition, my feet slow. But it’s only my racing mind that is slow to catch up with what my pounding heart has already decided.

Because that beast looked at me with eyes as green as spring grass. That was Gideon, trapped inside that monster. And if I’m right, then I have the power to free him. He’s told me how, almost every single night.

But I don’t think this beast will ask me to marry him.

I also suddenly hope that he really does drag that bed all the way out here with him.

He hasn’t

I’m facing him, my back to the rising moon when he silently emerges from the grove, moving so swiftly that even if I hadn’t stopped, I don’t know if I would have made it to the gate.

But he slows now, too—perhaps confused that I’ve stopped. Or Gideon is fighting him.

I hear my name carry across the distance on a tortured growl. “CO…RA…”

Gripping the bottom edge of my T-shirt, I pull it over my head.

Immediately the tortured growl deepens hungrily. He’s so close now, so utterly huge, thick furred shoulders like a mountain approaching, green eyes glowing with feral light.

His massive cock points straight at me. And magic or not, there is just no damn way that’ll ever work. I couldn’t even fit my mouth around it without unhinging my jaw, and unless a weresnake is coming along soon, that’s not likely to happen, either. So I pray he can find his pleasure another way.

Fingers shaking, I unbutton my jeans. I don’t even try to attempt a sexy tease, because he’s almost upon me and I’ve never felt less sexy. So I shove the denim and my panties down my legs and turn my back to the beast, sinking onto my knees in the soft grass, bending over to brace my weight on my hands.

In a rush, I say, “I offer you the use of my cunt for your pleasure,” and close my eyes, waiting.

Waiting. My nipples hard with fear and cold, my skin a tight, prickly ache. Waiting. As the whisper of steps over the grass and the heat radiating against the back of my legs tell me he’s so close. Waiting. As his hot breath skims the curve of my ass and his soft growl fills the spring night.

Wondering if I’ve misjudged everything and am about to be ripped apart.

I struggle to contain my whimper as clawed hands grip my hips, the razored tips gently pricking my skin. But I can’t contain my cry of surprise as a long, hot tongue licks straight up my center.

Shock lurches me forward but he brings me right back with a warning growl that deepens on another lick. Heat blooms through my pussy and I’m shaking uncontrollably, everything within me at war. Another long, long lick has me dropping forward onto my elbows, then his rumbling groan sounds from behind me, and I know that sound, recognize Gideon’s ravenous pleasure, the same as he made the night in his tower and in my bed today, as he lapped the juices from my cunt.