Beauty's Beast(27)

She stood before him now, in a pretty lavender sundress that revealed her slim, muscular arms and hugged her lovely round breasts before cutting away to dance in the wind in waves of fabric about her cinnamon-brown legs. She was bare from midthigh to the straps of her wafer-thin sandals that crisscrossed her trim ankles. She had chosen this lovely vision for him. He felt a gratitude that struck bone deep.

I don’t want this. Not with him.

Her words bounced up in his mind, smashing against the enticement she now presented. What was she doing?

Her smile was welcoming. “I have something to ask you. A request, really.”

Her words confirmed his suspicion. This was why she offered herself in such a garment, to better her odds at getting what she wanted. He gave her another long look. Well, it was working.

She cocked her head. “Do you like it?”

“Very much.”

Her smile radiated pleasure. He tucked the sight of her away in his memory, to be drawn on later when she was gone. She swished her skirts and pivoted from side to side, giving him an ever-changing view.

His lips tugged upward into a smile that he knew must be hideous. The blood pulsed to his sex. He lowered his chin, fighting the urge to capture her. Would it be better to remain in his fighting form or change into his third form to stand before her naked and fully aroused?

She took a step in his direction, the pretty smile still on her raspberry-colored lips. “Your parents told me that you lead them, all the others.”

He nodded, apprehensive as to where this conversation was heading.

“And you told me that the Skinwalkers were no match for Nagi’s army.”

“Well?”

“We could be. If you all joined the alliance, we could win. And you’d be protecting the Balance and Mankind.” She held her smile, but it seemed forced. She waited for his response.

His eyes narrowed upon her as she confirmed his suspicions. This was why she sought him out. Not to hunt with him or share a meal or sleep at his side. It was to make this proposal. He shifted, resting his weight on his knuckles, resisting the urge to growl. Had he actually let himself believe she sought his company? That she longed for him as much as he did her? The shame crept through him like crystals of ice.

He had protected her, guarded her from harm, and all the while she was scheming. He would have defended her with his own life.

“I’ll bring you to them.” Her voice held a forced enthusiasm.

She couldn’t possibly be looking forward to introducing him to her family. But she was willing to do it for the cause. What else was she willing to do? How far would she go?

“I’ll take you to them privately. Blake first then my dad.”

“Privately.” Of course.

“Yes. And I’ll explain. They’ll want your help. I know it.”

“Have you already asked them?”

She glanced away. “Not yet.” Her gaze sought his again, and she placed one delicate hand on each of his hairy shoulders. “But I will.”

Her scent surrounded him. The prickling heat of her touch tingled over his skin. She slid her hands about his thick, hairy neck. Alon knew he could break free, but somehow he couldn’t. Her touch, her gaze, her heat all enthralled him.

When he spoke his voice held strain. “And what are you prepared to give me in return?”

Her hands slipped away. Her face registered surprise. Let’s see what she did with his counteroffer.

“What do you want?”

Her question hit him in the chest like a dart. Did she know what she was doing?

“I want you,” he whispered.

Her brow knit. “What?”

He summoned the energy, feeling it flash through him as he transformed into the lover she could accept. Her gaze flicked to his erection and her cheeks flushed.

Her ears pulled back and her eyes went cautious. She retreated a step. Too little too late, he thought.

The tension in her body and the scent of her blood pulsing through her told him she recognized danger.

“You don’t have to, Samantha. You can just walk away. I’ll understand. Your family would expect it. You’d be a fool not to.”

Then he scented something else. Samantha’s arousal came to him on the breeze as sweet and spicy as any exotic bloom.

Oh, no, he thought. No. No. No. Run, you little fool.

She seemed not to hear as she stared steadily at him. When she spoke, her words were a whisper, as if she spoke only to herself. “I have to know. This may be the only way.”

He didn’t understand her words and wondered briefly what she would know by lying with him. But he didn’t care. He’d accept any excuse, any feeble rationalization on her part as long as it allowed him to touch her again.

Alon stalked forward in the form he knew she could not resist.





Chapter 14



Compelled by a force she could no longer deny, Samantha moved toward Alon until she stood so close she could feel the heat of his skin. Her aura pulled toward his, the smoky gray of his essence already blending with her violet, brown and gold.

She lowered her gaze to find his crystal-blue eyes locked on hers. His jaw muscles bulged as he set his mouth in a grim line. He looked like a man going to war. She swallowed back her fear, pressed down her uncertainty and ignored the warning of danger as she reached for him.

Samantha ran her fingers over the perfection of Alon’s chest, savoring the texture of warm, yielding flesh over taut muscle. His third form, the one he called an illusion, was no illusion. Her fingers danced over his stomach, and his skin twitched as if in pain. His eyes spoke to her, begging her to turn back. But she couldn’t. She glanced down at his sex, jutting toward her. She reached, taking hold of him, measuring the length of him with her two hands. His eyes closed, but not before she saw them change from blue to green.

She knew what it meant. Green was the blending of blue and yellow—his third form struggling to emerge.

His head dropped back and a growl of male yearning tore from his throat. His hands hung at his sides and he stood as if petrified, muscles taut, fully erect in her hands, neither welcoming her touch nor repelling it. He waged a battle against himself, suffering the call of desire and still refusing to yield. The dark clouds gave a gloom to the day, making it easier to see their auras. She glanced up, noting something new. There was a sparkling now, like dust motes dancing in sunlight.

What did it mean?

She needed his touch, yet still he denied her.

The urge to feel his flesh pressing to hers roared inside her. Suddenly the flimsy dress seemed far too confining. Nothing could stand between them now.

Samantha drew her hands reluctantly from his body and stepped back. His eyes snapped open, tracking her every movement. Did he think she had changed her mind? He watched her as if she belonged to him, as if he possessed her already. The intensity of his stare unnerved her.

He didn’t want this. That much was clear from his expression. But it would happen, here and now, regardless of what they wanted. They both knew it because they’d already gone too far. She would satisfy this fascination for the forbidden, and no one need know.

She lifted a hand to the hem of her skirt and concentrated. The sheer fabric vanished in a flash of brilliant light as her clothing reformed into a simple necklace, a gold medicine wheel on a short chain. The wind blew cold over her heated flesh. Alon would warm her.

His gaze swept over her nude form, tracing her curves, lingering on her breasts, diving to stare at her sex.

She wished she were a Mindwalker or a Truth Seeker, so she could read Alon’s thoughts. But he gave her nothing but the obvious excitement of his sex, the resistance of his body and the grave reservations in his eyes.

“Perhaps joining will make the hunger stop.”

He shook his head, denying her childish fantasy that she could be as she was before. No matter what happened here, she would never be the same again. Alon had changed her.

“It will never stop.” His words were like a deadly pronouncement.

She shivered in the rising wind, knowing it was true.

The realization frightened her enough to send her back a step. He captured her wrist. Their eyes met. She resisted, and he imprisoned her other wrist in a move so fast it was only a blur. His nostrils flared and his chest rose and fell in a rapid cadence too fast for a man standing still. His green irises had nearly disappeared, pushed back by the expanding black pupils that now looked like twin solar eclipses. She sucked in a breath.

For just a moment she thought he might use his superior strength to cast her aside. Instead he transferred both her wrists to one large hand.

He tugged her forward, compelling her with his gaze as he scowled down at her. He used his free hand, at the center of her back, to draw her forward until her hips collided with his.

She felt his shaft, now stiff and ready, pressed against her stomach. The desire pumped through her, rocking Samantha on her feet. Yes, she wanted this.

When he spoke, it was through clenched teeth. “I might hurt you.”