Beauty's Beast(28)

“You won’t, Alon. I’m not human. Not fragile. You don’t want me to forget your other form, but you keep forgetting mine. I’m a grizzly, and a damned big one. If that were not enough, I have the power to heal.”

“You’re not only a Skinwalker. You are Spirit Child. They are weak, fragile.”

“I’m not.”

“You don’t know what I’m capable of.”

“Let’s find out.”

She watched the tug-of-war play out on his features. Was it true? Shadow, sunshine and shadow again. And then she realized she was not only reading his expression. She felt his emotions as if they were her own. Hope. Dread. Acceptance.

She had won.

“Remember that I tried to prevent this.”

He looked the picture of control, but there was wildness in his eyes and fever in his blood. The tight restraint of his body now seemed a coiling preparation. He was a seawall holding back the unstoppable ocean.

He dragged her arms about his neck, encircled her in his inescapable embrace and slanted his mouth to hers. The riotous kiss tipped her from her axis, and Samantha reeled off into space. His fingers coiled in her hair as he took possession of her in a fierce invasion of her mouth, his tongue sliding, stroking as he controlled her.

She leaned over his arm, yielding to his superior strength, allowing his ownership of her as anticipation fluttered inside her.

Samantha gripped his forearms as he lowered her to the earth, and still her head spun. He kissed her throat, her neck and down along the line of her collarbone.

His tongue flicked out as he licked her skin, raising gooseflesh in his wake. The clouds sailed above them, billowing dark, but they did not match the storm within her.

Alon pinned her down with one leg as his hands swept up her torso to caress her aching breasts. She groaned and arched toward the sweet pressure of his skillful hands, her nipples tightening to hard knots in his palms.

He kept his gaze on her as he kneaded the sensitive flesh. She stretched her arms over her head to claw at the ground behind her and bucked her hips.

His mouth covered the tip of one breast, his tongue flicking over the taut nipple, thrilling her with tiny darts of pleasure. Her body had never been so ready, and still he did not take her. She writhed as he pinned her arms to the ground and then made his way leisurely down her belly, his teeth grazing and nipping at the sensitive skin.

He used one strong leg to nudge her thighs apart then took his place there. She opened her eyes to see him, poised between her legs, looking at her exposed flesh. The hunger in his eyes gave her chills. He dived and his lips danced over her sensitive flesh, parting the folds and driving her mad with each swirl of his tongue. Her breath caught in excitement. He grabbed her calves and pressed her legs around his middle. She clamped her ankles across his back, digging her heels into the long, corded muscle as he mouthed her most sensitive flesh.

Her body pulsed and liquid heat made her slick and ready. He bumped against her with his mouth, his tongue entering her in an imitation of the sex act. She gasped and cried out, her skin tingling and her body aching for him to take her.

She needed him inside her. He was big, very big, and she wanted him to drive into her with everything he had.

“You’re so wet,” he whispered, his breath warm against the moisture on her thigh.

He lifted his head. His eyes were a ghostly yellow. Alon grasped her hips and dragged her beneath him. She saw the claws emerging from his hands.

She shivered in alarm and delight.

He knelt between her spread thighs, sliding his hands up her body, finally planting them on each side of her head and extending his arms. He used his knee to spread her legs wider. Samantha pressed her feet flat to the earth and lifted herself to meet him.

He growled and then bucked, sheathing himself fully inside her with one thrust. Samantha gasped at the arousing friction. Even as wet as she was, her body struggled to accommodate him, stretching as he pushed deeper, stopping only when he met the opening of her womb.

His eyes blazed with possession as he withdrew and thrust again. He pumped again and again. His expression might have been need or hatred. The hairs on her neck lifted even as her body reeled with the passion he stirred.

Her climax built, rising so quickly that she cried out in surprise as she clung to him. He delved into her again and again. She was so close. She needed only a few more of those perfect thrusts and...

Alon cried out and for a moment she thought he had come, but this was a different kind of release. This was a fracturing of his control. He grasped her hips and lifted her off the ground, holding her open to each hard thrust. Each slide was a perfect gift, each withdrawal a tiny tragedy. He was rough and she liked it. She closed her eyes to savor this wild joining, her head rolling to the side as the first orgasm burst inside her. A long, tortured cry of release tore from her lips and was met with one of his.

Exquisite waves of delight rolled outward from her core. Samantha threw her hands out, clawing at the earth, panting and shaking her head from side to side as the zing of excitement sped all the way to her fingers and toes. And still he thrust. One hand captured her neck.

His eyes brilliant yellow, his face flushed and his mouth open. Behind him storm clouds swept across the dark sky. She’d never seen anything more beautiful.

His expression seemed one of agony, but she recognized it as just the opposite. His eyelids fluttered closed as he made his final thrust, pinning her to the earth. Something rocked her. It surged with his release and stole her breath. She arched as she experienced the intense pleasure of her contractions like a blow. He held her, controlled her, as his body jerked and pulsed deep inside her. Her eyes widened at this new rush of pleasure. This was not from her. It was his release, but she felt it inside herself, curling her toes and sending her eyes rolling back in her head. The sensation triggered another orgasm, this one a slow, steady roll of liquid pleasure, squeezing him and taking the last he had to offer for her own.

What was that?

She went limp then. Her eyes dropped closed and she breathed deeply of the cold, damp air. The wind still rushed through the treetops as the storm closed in. Yet she could not recall when she had felt more relaxed, content and replete. His warm body kept off the chill.

Something glowed above them. At first she thought it was blowing debris from the impending storm. But then her vision came into focus and she recognized her aura and Alon’s merging, her violet, brown and gold turning his gray into a rich maroon glow.

Cesar had been right. There was no denying it now. Her wild, wonderful tumble with Alon had not broken the connection. It had fused it. She stared up in horror at her soul mate and saw her horror reflected back in his eyes.

* * *

Alon rolled to his back beside her. She roused enough to reach for his hand. When she clasped it, a wave of anguish punched her in the gut. She released him and the feeling ebbed.

That was his emotion. He despaired over their joining, as if it were the most tragic occurrence in the world.

Was it? A mistake, surely. She blinked up at the angry sky. The treetops swayed and the cold wind held the scent of rain.

Their connection had increased. She saw it. But Alon felt it and it grieved him. She turned her worried eyes upon him.

“Do you know what could result from this union? You could be pregnant. Is the alliance really worth your death?” he asked in a flat, defeated tone that prickled a warning on her skin.

Of all the worries, that one had never crossed her mind. She feared the connection might grow stronger. She feared her parents might find out. But she had not thought of an unplanned pregnancy. Samantha recalled all that he had told her about how Naginoka were born, and a shiver shook her.

“It’s unlikely. And if it happens, I’m a healer. I’m a Halfling. Surely I can survive it.”

“A gamble, then. The alliance against the chance you might die. Is that how you framed it?” He lifted up on one elbow and scowled at her.

“I wasn’t thinking straight. I just wanted.”

“Yes. And you got it. Here in the woods where no one need know. Secret, private. Did I scratch that itch, Samantha, or only make it more insistent?”

She looked away.

He used both hands to sweep the hair from his face and then laced his fingers behind his head. The lust had cooled now and the regrets poured in, filling him up like a cistern.

Shame burned against the first icy drops of rain. “Do you know how it feels to know you slept with me only out of duty to your family and your alliance?”

Her hand slid away and she stared at him but not before he felt her self-reproach. Guilt, he felt the emotion flash from her to him. She’d sacrificed herself to the big bad wolf. There was some honor in that.

“I won’t tell anyone, Samantha. The truth is I already decided to fight Nagi. Fighting is the only way for my siblings to have any chance of peace. So it was all for nothing. You didn’t need to sleep with me. I should have told you instead of taking what you offered.”

Her eyes were wide and glassy, as if the truth might bring her to tears. His pride stung too much to comfort her, and he knew if he touched her now they might just do that again. He wanted to. Wanted her.