Bargain With the Beast (10 page)

Silence again. Tobias shifted. His
mind racing.

“
And the complication?”
Gregovitch finally asked.

“
I will find a way to deal
with it,” the Beast said. “It might take some time but I will fix
this.”

“
You better,” Gregovitch
replied. “One human cannot destabilize your position.”

Human
? That had not been the first time that the people here had
referred to him in that way. Tobias didn’t understand it. It was
almost like they were suggesting…he shook his head and placed his
palms against the cool wood. He was already too full of fantastic
ideas to let more in, too consumed by curiosity about this place.
It would do him no good at all to allow that curiosity to
grow.

Because you’re
leaving.

He dropped his hands, the bargain with
the Beast suddenly uppermost in his mind. Perhaps the
‘complication’ as they referred to it was why the Beast had been so
willing to bargain with him.

Sex for your
freedom.

Tobias shivered, because it did not
feel like that anymore.

“
Take care of it,
brother,” he heard Gregovitch say. “For our sake as much as
yours.”

“
I will,” the Beast said.
“I will.”

Chapter Twelve

A half hour later Tobias sat opposite
the Beast in one of the rooms next to the bedroom. This room was
part sitting room, part dining room, and Tobias had looked around
it with wide-eyes. The more he saw of this underground world, the
more he began to realize just how homely it was. This was no awful
place below the ground where the people were hidden away in
tunnels, lacking the basics that made life comfortable. This was a
real place. It had everything that those above ground had,
including electricity and plumbing…and food.

The moment he saw it all, laid out on
a large table, waiting for him, Tobias couldn’t help but take a
seat and fill his plate. The Beast watched him with hooded eyes, a
sort of approving look there.

Tobias ate quickly, his appetite
coming out of nowhere. And it was odd because physically, he was a
weird combination of satisfaction and nervousness, but the physical
was one thing, the emotional something else entirely. Tobias had no
idea what he was feeling. As he ate what the Beast had provided for
him he couldn’t even begin to work through his emotions. Everything
had happened so quickly, it almost seemed to him like many days had
passed rather than the small amount of time he’d actually
experienced. Tobias didn’t know how long he’d actually been below
ground, but he didn’t think it could have been more than
twenty-four hours. And yet…

He looked across the table, locked
eyes with the Beast, and swallowed.

“
Is everything okay?” the
Beast asked. “I wasn’t sure what you would like.”

“
It’s all fine,” Tobias
said. “Though I have no idea where you got it all from. I mean, you
can hardly raise chickens down here.”

The Beast smiled slightly. “You’d be
surprised.”

Silence settled between them for a
moment. Tobias forked the food around on his plate. As he did so he
couldn’t help thinking again about this strange society and what it
all meant. How was it no one knew about them? How was it that they
could stay so hidden? He wanted to ask but part of him wasn’t
entirely sure he wanted to know the answers.

“
How are you feeling,
Tobias?” the Beast eventually asked.

Tobias had no idea what to
say to that question, and again there was that nagging thought that
the Beast
knew
what he was thinking. There was also a feeling that there was
more to the Beast’s question than a simple query about his
emotional state.

“
I’m fine,” Tobias
said.

“
You’re not fine,” the
Beast said. “Much has happened in these past hours, and none of it
expected.”

“
No,” Tobias agreed. “It
wasn’t.”

The Beast nodded slowly.
Tobias watched him, thinking,
this man has
been inside me
. It was the oddest thought,
and not one he’d ever had to experience in this way before, and it
made him feel things he hadn’t experienced before either. The Beast
was so attractive—his hair, his body, those eyes. Tobias was
ridiculously attracted to him, and in the context of their
relationship he knew that made no sense. Once again, he found
himself wondering if there was something here, in this place, that
was making him act in a way that he never would have had he been
above ground. And yet, even as he did, he knew that he was probably
lying to himself. He had reacted to the Beast simply because the
Beast was the most attractive male Tobias had ever met. The
connection between them had been instant.

Desire
.

There was no denying it. Not
now.

“
I feel a little…odd,”
Tobias admitted.

“
I understand,” the Beast
said. “What happened between us…” He paused. “It was
intense.”

“
Yes.”

“
In truth, even
I
did not expect it to
be that intense.”

Tobias frowned at that statement, and
at the look now in the Beast’s eyes. He thought it was surprise,
maybe even a little bit of worry, and had no idea what to make of
that. The fragments of conversation between the Beast and his
brother flittered through Tobias’ mind. He wished he knew what they
were talking about. He wished he knew what to make of it all. Only,
he didn’t. And like with the stained glass window in his building
he hated not knowing. Curiosity was his worst enemy right now, and
Tobias knew he had to subdue it.

“
I don’t know what to
say,” Tobias whispered after a moment.

“
You do not need to say
anything,” the Beast said. “It may even be better if you don’t.
Perhaps we both need time to think about what has happened between
us.”

“
Time?” Tobias
asked.

The Beast nodded. “And I will keep my
promise.”

Promise
? Tobias swallowed the sudden lump in his throat.

“
If you wish to leave,”
the Beast added, and his voice was soft now, “you may.”

“
You’re letting me go?”
Tobias asked.

The Beast tilted his head, as if
gauging the effect of his words. “I promised, did I
not?”

“
You said you would
consider it,” Tobias said, and then cursed himself inwardly,
because why was he trying to argue against the very thing he
wanted? Only, that was last night, and today he was so fucking
confused. He didn’t even know what he wanted now. He imagined his
cliff-top apartment. Imagined how it would feel to be back there.
To pretend this had never happened…

“
If you pleased me,” the
Beast added, interrupting Tobias’ frantic thoughts. “And you did.
Far more than I expected.”

“
So it’s as simple as
that?”

The Beast nodded and then he stood up,
pushing his chair back as he did so. “Yes, Tobias.”

Tobias should have stood too. He
should have been thrilled that the Beast was keeping his promise.
Hell, he should have been running from the room. Only something
kept him in place. He reached up, almost absently, and rubbed the
spot where the Beast had sunk his teeth in. It tingled
oddly.

“
I don’t understand any of
this.”

“
No,” the Beast said. “But
you will. Give it a little time.”

Time
. That word again. What did it mean, Tobias wondered? What
did any of it mean? That this was just a quick fuck? A one-night
stand? A brief encounter in his life? The Beast nothing more than a
fleeting presence? Tobias hated that thought, because he was not
the sort of man who had quick flings. Sure, he had in the past but
they had never sat right with him, and he had always regretted them
after the fact. He always wanted more than that. He wanted someone
to come home to. Someone to watch his true crime shows with.
Someone to jog alongside of him first thing in the
morning.

In short, he wanted what he would
never be able to have with this man.

“
And you’re not worried
that I’m going to tell anyone about this place?” he asked
slowly.

Their eyes met, the Beast smiled, and
Tobias melted a little inside. “We both know you aren’t going to
speak to anyone,” he said. “You aren’t even sure what you would
say.”

“
Sometimes…”

“
What?”

Tobias shook his head. “It’s like
you’re reading my mind.”

“
Not quite.”

Silence held between them for a
moment. Their eyes stayed locked together, and it occurred to
Tobias that the Beast’s eyes were something that were going to stay
with him long after he left this place. He doubted he would ever
see a pair that color again.

“
Tobias,” the Beast
sighed. “If you only knew how you have complicated things…” He
shook his head. “It is time for you to leave.”

Tobias stood up. His legs felt almost
leaden and his heart pounded. Once again that spot on his neck
tingled. “I don’t even know the way out.”

“
I will ask one of my men
to accompany you.”

“
So I’m okay to wander
around now?” he asked.

The Beast sighed. “No one will hurt
you. Not now.”

“
You’re sure about
that?”

“
Positive.”

The door opened then, almost like
there had been someone outside waiting for this moment. Almost like
they knew it was going to happen right now. And of course, like
everyone else, they were yellow-eyed and tawny haired.

“
And so here we are,” the
Beast said, and he walked around the table and stood directly in
front of Tobias.

Tobias had absolutely no idea what to
say. He had never been in a situation even close to this. He didn’t
know what the right thing was, or how he was supposed to act. In
the end, because he was such a riot of feelings, such a mess, he
simply nodded at the Beast. “I guess so.” And then, because what
else was he supposed to do? Tobias held out his hand.
“Goodbye.”

The Beast sighed again. “It’s never
goodbye, Tobias.”

Tobias paused, the weird leaden
feeling melting slightly. “What does that mean?”

The Beast tilted his head,
considering, and when he spoke Tobias’ heart skipped a beat. “It
means that we will see each other again.”

“
You’re planning to abduct
me again? To drag me back down here?” Tobias asked, and the weird
thing, the thing that made absolutely no sense, was that he almost
wanted the Beast to say yes! What the hell was wrong with
him?

“
Absolutely not,” the
Beast said and his next words had Tobias’ heart racing. “I won’t
need to.”

“
What are you talking
about?”

The Beast hesitated for just a moment
and then he pulled Tobias into his arms. Tobias felt his body melt
towards his lover. He had no choice in that. It simply happened.
“Before long, Tobias,” he said, and his voice held such promise.
“You will come to me.”

“
That won’t happen,”
Tobias said, but if the Beast’s voice held conviction, his held
none.

“
It will,” he said, a
pause and then, “And believe me, lover, it will be sooner than you
think.”

Chapter Thirteen

Tobias didn’t need any alarms to wake
him the following Saturday. Just as he had every morning since
arriving back above ground, he awoke just before six, and unlike
all the other mornings before his underground adventure, he woke up
in an instant. There was no struggling to consciousness. No
groaning and wishing for an extra half hour in bed. He was simply
and instantly alert—ready to start his day.

That worried Tobias. It had all week,
and he couldn’t help but look across at his row of alarm clocks on
the bedside table. They were all silent, all standing sentinel,
until a few moments later when they started to go off.

His wake-up call.

Only he hadn’t needed it.

And he had no idea why.

With a frown on his face,
Tobias made his way out of bed, ran a hand through his hair, and
pulled on a pair of sweats. They were slightly tighter than they
had been a few weeks back and yet the scales continued to show his
weight exactly where he wanted it to be. It was perplexing, maybe
wouldn’t even have been something anyone else would notice. But so
much of Tobias’ life over the last year had been centered around
this sort of thing, that he
did
notice it, and was concerned. There shouldn’t be
any reason his sweats were tight. And yet they were. His body was
different somehow.

A shift.

A change.

It made no sense. But then, little had
since him.

Since the
Beast.

Tobias shuddered at that thought,
because the Beast had been on his mind far too often over the past
week. But then was that any wonder, Tobias thought almost angrily
as he pulled on a tee-shirt. After everything that had happened,
after everything he had experienced, of course he was going to be
shook up. Of course he was going to replay everything over and
over. Question was, how long until he stopped doing that? How long
until he stopped remembering that night, until he stopped dreaming
about it…