Desire Untamed (Feral Warriors #1)(4)

A single, tawny eyebrow rose. "Bare your right breast."

Kara gaped at him as the full realization of his intent sent her pulse into a grinding thud in her ears.

As if reading her mind, the man rolled his eyes with an exasperated grunt. "I'm not going to hurt you."

Kara choked out a laugh. "Right. You just want to see my breast, then you'll go."

"Something like that."

She stared at him, her terrified mind grasping for a plan. Any plan.

He started toward her. Kara lunged for the knife rack, but as her fingers curled around the handle of a small paring knife, the, stranger closed the distance between them. He hauled her against his chest, face to pecs, his large hand clamping around her wrist, immobilizing her.

Swallowing a scream, she struggled against his ironlike hold, but she might as well have been a fly in a spiderweb for all the good it did her. He was too strong. Kara tried to kick him, to knee him, but he only pressed her against the counter, his hips tight against hers as he towered over her.

Terror flashed in her mind like an explosion of light. He was going to rape her. Murder her.

Her pulse began to slow, the terror slipping away as if someone had opened a drain in her head. Even her shallow, desperate breathing evened out as if she'd suddenly, inexplicably, lost her fear of the huge man.

He eased the knife from her hand and returned it to the knife block. "I'm calming you."

And that's exactly what it felt like,, she realized. A strange, unnatural calm settling over her as if an invisible hand were squashing her fear.

"How?" Though the word rang incredulous in her head, her tone, as it left her lips, was one of simple curiosity.

This wasn't right. He shouldn't have this kind of control over her. Her pulse tried to leap fearfully but was instantly stroked into complaisance.

"Stop it." She needed to be afraid of him. He overpowered her. Overwhelmed her. Her senses swam in his nearness, in the elemental scent of wind and earth and pure, raw male. The intoxicating blend teased and tantalized, sending the blood rushing to the surface of her skin in a hot flush of awareness. An awareness that horrified her.

"Let me go."

"I'm not going to harm you. I need to know that you're the one I'm looking for."

"I'm not."

He stepped back, putting a slight distance between them even as he kept tight hold of her wrist. Feeling utterly detached, she watched him reach for her with his free hand, felt the pad of his finger slide down her upper chest to hook into the top of her scoop-neck tee and tug downward.

His eyes flared, those well-sculpted lips compressing as his thumb brushed over the flesh rising above the lace of her bra, tracing the odd stretch marks she'd noticed for the first time around Christmas.

Her gaze caught on his lips, mesmerized by their perfect fullness as a single, disturbing emotion finally broke free of his unnatural control to sweep her imprisoned body. Lust. Delicious fire skimmed over her skin, burrowing deep into her bones and blood, rushing straight down to her core.

He released her shirt as if he'd been burned and met her gaze, his own cool and shuttered. "You are the Radiant."

"I'm the what?" She stared at him, trying to make sense of his words. Of any of this. "What do you want?"

Those amber eyes glowed with a dark determination that would have made her heart pound if he hadn't been tamping her emotions. He slid his free hand over her jaw, his palm rough and callused, his touch not ungentle as his forefinger hooked around the back of her jaw, coming to rest beneath her ear.

"What do you want?"

"You."

The sudden, sharp pressure at the base of her ear stole her thoughts and vision, sending Kara tumbling into a dark, unconscious abyss.

* * *

Chapter Two

Rain fell heavily on Lyon's head and shoulders as he carried the unconscious Radiant out to his BMW, keeping her tucked tight against his body. A surge of protectiveness tightened his arms.

Damn his finder's senses and the connection that linked him to the chosen ones. That connection had to be at the root of the sudden, sharp attraction he'd felt the moment he saw her, though he was certain he'd never been attracted to a Radiant before. Not like this. He tried to focus, tried to escape the awareness, but even through the rain the scent of her, a sweet smell, almost of peaches, pumped the blood straight to his groin.

As he laid her across the backseat, the rain-drops on her cheeks glistened in the overhead light, drawing his gaze to her flawless skin and the sweet curve of her mouth. Her features possessed a simplicity, a girl-next-door freshness, that pleased him. She wasn't beautiful so much as cute, with heir blond ponytail and that one crooked eyetooth. Perhaps not beautiful, but decidedly appealing.

As he released her, the fall of her damp hair brushed his hand like a silken caress, a touch that sent heat spiraling through his veins. He gave a rueful snort. He had a miserable couple of days ahead of him if he didn't find a way to curb the unfortunate rush of need he felt every time he touched her. Slamming the door closed, he slid into the driver's seat and started the car.

The windshield wipers kept a steady rhythm as the road cut through the center of the small Missouri town, past a strip of nightclubs and burger joints. Cars lined the street on both sides as he headed east on the two-lane toward the highway that would take them back to Great Falls, Virginia, and home.