Desire Untamed (Feral Warriors #1)(54)

All he'd known was he had to catch her. He'd had to save her from the draden. But as his fingers stung with warning, as his fangs elongated in his mouth, he wasn't entirely sure he wouldn't kill her himself.

"I hate you." Kara lunged toward Lyon, fury blazing through her. Then stopped abruptly as she saw the light spark in his eyes, his irises expanding until they were glowing amber fury.

Real fear mixed with her anger.

He grabbed her shoulders, his claws pressing against her flesh. "What was your plan, Kara? To try to control us?"

"No! I haven't been, working against you."

"To break down our defenses until you could… what?" He shook her. "What have you done?"

She tried to knee him in the groin, but his reflexes were too quick. His knee knocked hers away, deflecting the blow. Outrage threatened to choke her. The injustice of his accusations. The betrayal of everything she'd believed he was.

"I thought I was human. Human. You were the one who ripped me from my life, who insisted I was Therian, who told me I was the Radiant and was doomed to be your power plug for the rest of my life. I don't know what I am. I've never pretended to know." She kicked at his jeans-clad shins, hurting her bare toes, but her fury needed an outlet. She had to hurt him somewhere. Somewhere. Because, dear God, his betrayal was killing her.

"You said you'd protect me, and I trusted you. I trusted you."

He growled and pushed her hard against the rock wall at her back, getting in her face, his fangs glistening. "What spells have you cast over me, witch? You made me want you. You drove me to my knees with lust for you. I've never cared whose legs spread for me, but you changed that, didn't you? You made me want you."

"I didn't do anything! Or if I did, I didn't do it on purpose."

"Tell me what you've done."

"Go to hell,", she shrieked at him. "You don't believe me. You're not even listening to me."

"You made me want you. Now you're going to live with it." His face loomed close, his fangs disappearing a heartbeat before his mouth was on hers, grinding against hers until she couldn't breathe.

She'd wanted him to kiss her. How many times had she wanted him to kiss her? But not like this.

Kara wrenched her mouth away. "I thought you refused to touch me."

"I thought your mate had been chosen for you. Now I know you bewitched me, then made me think I couldn't have you. To torture me."

She laughed, but the sound was bitter, then gone when his mouth captured hers again.

Kara pushed against his shoulders, but she might as well have been trying to push away a tank. No matter how hard she beat at him, he didn't budge, just ground his mouth harder against hers until she tasted blood.

Her eyes burned with tears. She'd loved him. How could she have been so wrong?

His hands covered her br**sts, squeezing, kneading, raising a fire she didn't want, and pulling a moan from her throat. The kiss changed, no longer punishing, but hot. Desperate.

His tongue stroked her lips until she let him in, that single stroke melting her body, melting her resistance. With a groan, his tongue swept inside her mouth, staking its claim, stroking her own until she was spinning out of control. The first release ripped through her, scattering her to the winds.

She came back to herself clinging to him, her fingers buried in his hair, her body rocking hard against his.

Lyon growled and pulled her hard against him. "You want me."

"Yes." Her affirmation was little more than a gasp, but there was no denying it. She didn't want to want him, but her body was on fire, burning from the inside out.

He pushed her back, then sheathed his claws and stripped out of his clothes, tossing them onto the rock. He stood before her, bathed in moonlight, wild and untamed, more beautiful than any man ever made. On his arm, the silver armband gleamed and shone, the jeweled eyes of its lion's head shining as brightly as Lyon's own. His shoulders wide and strong, his chest ripped with muscle, tapering to a hard abdomen, he was glorious.

Between his legs, his erection curved toward her, thick and long and ready.

His eyes met hers, their golden glow hard. Hot. "Take off your gown, witch, or I'll rip it off you."

She stared at him, her breath lost somewhere between her lungs and her throat, the pulse pounding in her neck. Her legs had gone weak, a dampness forming between her thighs: With trembling fingers, she lifted the hem of her short nightgown and pulled it over her head, tossing it aside.

Lyon's eyes grew impossibly hotter as his gaze traveled slowly down her body, stopping at the juncture of her thighs. The melting inside her intensified, the heat between her legs growing until she thought her entire body would go up in flames.

He closed the distance between them and grabbed her arm. She gasped with pain as his hand closed over one of the draden bites. She'd forgotten the bites, the nipping pain spiraling into the greater haze of sensation as he turned her around and pushed her against the rock face.

"I've got to have you, Kara. I can't wait." As his hands grabbed her wrists, pinning her hands to the rock above her head, his leg parted her thighs. His thick erection slid down the curve of her rear, sliding through the crease. In one hard thrust, he entered her from behind, filling her, stretching her almost to the point of pain. He gave a guttural cry of pleasure, pulled nearly all the way out, then slammed home again, pressing her hard against the rock.