Beast Untamed: Beasts of Bodmin Moor, Book 3 (8 page)

In the midst of it all, she felt his release. The burst of heat as his semen filled the condom and rippled against her tender intimate flesh only added to the sharp driving need for more. And more.

When the waves of sensation began to subside, she felt the final release through all the muscles of her body. Her eyelids fluttered open, and above her, Nathan gave one final thrust, his chest heaving, his skin slightly damp.

She released her grip on his backside and looked up at him. He stared down at her, and the oddest sensation rippled through her. His eyes were almost golden. Dark, burnished gold with only tiny flecks of the green remaining.

She blinked, but they were still golden. “Your eyes,” she muttered, bringing her hand up to stroke around the socket. “They’re—”

His stare turned hard, and he rolled off her. Bereft of his heat, of his weight, Erin felt reality set back in. This was exactly how it had always been with Justin. They had sex; he climaxed and rolled off her. He never held her, never asked if she was okay, if it had been good for her. He simply turned away and left. What was it about her that repelled men right after they’d fucked her?

Nathan sat on the edge of the bed. Erin had a moment to appreciate the wide expanse of his back, the broad shoulders and muscular upper arms. She wanted to reach out to him, to trace her fingers along the curve of his shoulder, the edge of his shoulder blades and the tattooed band around his upper arm. Then he glanced over his shoulder at her.

His eyes were emerald green again, but the suspicious look in them was like a slap to her. They’d just shared the most amazing sex, and now he was looking at her as if she had done something wrong?

To hell with that.

When he turned away and walked out of the bedroom, Erin scrambled up. She reached into the wardrobe for her toweling robe and wrapped it around her. She wasn’t going through this again. She wasn’t going to be made to feel like she didn’t matter. Men didn’t get to use her, and they didn’t get to treat her like she was nothing.

Why had she thought Nathan was different? More bloody fool her. She should have remembered how he’d treated Caroline on the night of Naomi’s hen party. He was the same as all imperious, arrogant men. They thought they had a right to treat women exactly how they wanted. Or rather women like her. She couldn’t imagine Caleb or Tynan treating Talia and Naomi with anything other than absolute respect and consideration. Her friends wouldn’t allow it for one, and their two men were so possessive and protective they wouldn’t do it anyway.

It was her. Had to be. Was there some quality inherent in her that allowed men to treat her so flippantly?

She pulled the robe right around her upper body and paced the room. She needed to make Nathan think it was perfectly normal for her to expect the man to leave after sex. And this was really what she’d wanted anyway. Temporary. One night only.

Time to move on.

When she turned, Nathan walked back in. She pushed aside the fact that he took her breath away, that the sheer physical impact of him in all his naked glory had the ability to strike all thought from her brain.

She was going to remind him of her requirements. End it even before he did.

“Thanks for a great evening,” Erin said, forcing a smile and pulling the damn robe even tighter around her. “Try not to disturb Willa when you leave.”

Even from across the room, she could see his jaw harden, like he was clenching his teeth together. He had the look of a man who had been delivered an unexpected blow. Well, tough. So, this time he didn’t get to be the first to walk away. She’d told him it was a one-off; now she got to deliver the confirmation of that before he did.

She said nothing else, and neither did he as he slipped into his clothes. His silence and the dark and cold look on his face provided confirmation that she’d been right. Had she not gotten in first, he would have done the
it’s been nice but
routine as soon as he walked back in the bedroom.

He tucked his shirt into the waistband of his trousers. “Look, Erin…”

“You see, this is what I really hate about casual sex,” she said flippantly. “The awkwardness after. We already established it would be one-time only. I might not have had sex in a while, but I remember this part of it.”

She folded her arms and cocked a hip. “You don’t have to look quite so shocked. It was good, Nathan, but you can go now.”

He snatched up his tie. “Is that so?”

“What do you expect? You’re not staying for round two. We both got what we wanted.”

“You seem to think you get to call the shots here,” he said, balling his tie and stuffing it into his jacket pocket. “That’s not how it works, sugar.”

“Actually it is. And I do—call the shots, that is. It’s my bedroom, my house. I get to say what happens here.”

He moved toward her, and she felt like taking a few steps back. God. He was a formidable man. On one level, he scared her, terrified her. That aura of power, of strength that emanated from him would unnerve just about anyone when he looked the way he did right then.

But beneath it all, she knew he would never hurt her. Not physically. The realization gave her confidence and enabled her to hold her ground.

His scent surged through her like the most powerful of waves, stealing her breath and shaking her to the very core.

“You’re playing with fire, Erin,” he said ominously. “You don’t want to go baiting me.”

She raised her chin. “That’s not what I’m doing. And your threats don’t wash with me.” She’d already survived worse threats. She wouldn’t allow herself to be cowed by others especially when her current level of achievement, and her confidence in that respect, was growing by the day. “Now, if you don’t mind, it’s been a long day.”

She thought he would argue, and readied herself for the verbal attack. She would never back down from that again either. But instead he subjected her to an assessing look, then turned and strolled out of the bedroom.

Erin waited until she heard the front door close before hurrying to bolt and secure it behind him. She leaned back against the door and took several deep breaths. A jumble of emotions vied for dominance, but she couldn’t deny the feeling of power and achievement that flowed through her.

She had stood up to him. Perhaps the most formidable man she had ever faced, and she had stood up to him. She wouldn’t allow herself to think about the sex, about how amazing he had made her feel. It was an interlude, and, if she chose to think of it that way, a test for herself. She had enjoyed sex for its own sake, with a man who turned her on like nobody before.

She knew going in that it would go nowhere, and she hadn’t wanted it to. Which meant she could rejoice in the knowledge that she had survived her very first sexual encounter, her very first confrontation, since Justin. If she could stand up to someone like Nathan, she could do just about anything.

She closed her eyes and allowed herself a small smile. It felt amazing to have found such confidence all of a sudden, to know that in the two short months she had been in Bodmin, she had come so far.

And she hadn’t been afraid. Maybe now she could stop looking over her shoulder and fearing that Justin would somehow trace her here. She knew he would come after her if he discovered where she’d run to. He was the type of man nobody walked out on. Plus, he had gone to great pains to remind her that Willa was actually his dog. That he was the registered owner. That was after he’d told her that he owned her too. That if she ever left he would find her and drag her back to his bed.

As she thought of his warning, all her heady confidence slipped away, leaving her with that sickening feeling deep in her stomach. She slid down the door and huddled on the floor, wrapping her arms around her knees. If she’d stood up to Nathan, surely she could do the same with Justin? The only problem was that she knew Nathan didn’t have the same nasty streak as Justin. He was arrogant, stubborn, but at heart, he was a good man.

She thought of how he had helped Tynan with that wall, of how patient he had been with Willa. Of how he’d tried to go slowly during sex.

She thought of how good it had felt to be in his arms, and how steady he made her feel. Those strong arms holding her, caressing her. The way his determined fingers slid over her flesh and pushed inside her. She’d loved everything he’d done to her, everything he’d said. Closing her eyes, she relived their lovemaking, but it soon left her feeling so bereft that she opened her eyes, stood and went quietly upstairs so as not to disturb Willa.

Memories of Nathan accompanied her back to bed, and she slipped beneath the duvet, the scent of their lovemaking still clinging to the cotton. She had the discomforting thought that she wished he was here with her now, so she could snuggle down against him, wrap her arms around him. So she could feel…safe.

She turned on her side and stared at the wall. Was that part of his appeal? That he made her feel safe? If so, she was doing herself no favors harboring thoughts of being with him again. She had to build a solid base and foster that.

Hadn’t she hooked up with Justin because he gave her things she had been unable to give herself? Lacking affection and attention from her parents, she had turned to the first man who made her feel wanted. He had lavished attention on her. Bought her amazing gifts, took her to glittering places, made her feel as if she were the most wonderful woman in the world. But it had all been a ruse. Beneath the veneer had been another, more deadly, game. One of control, manipulation, fear. He had done such a thorough job that she had been unable to extricate herself from the poisoned relationship for two years.

If she saw her attraction to Nathan as anything more than a brief physical sating of feminine need, she could fall into the very same trap.

It was best she stay away from him, as she should have done in the first place. It would be relatively easy to accomplish, seeing as he’d made it perfectly clear that she was one of many, and that he wouldn’t be planning on repeating the exercise.

She raised her head and punched the pillow before settling down again.

Not going in for a repeat of what they’d done suited her just fine. She wasn’t going to be any man’s plaything or property ever again. No man would control her or use her or manipulate her.

Least of all Nathan Quinn.

Chapter Seven

Nathan tried not to dwell on the night he’d spent with Erin. It was good, exceptional even. But there was one overwhelming factor that he couldn’t ignore. His eyes had turned gold. That had never happened before. In fact, the only time a shifter’s eyes turned gold during sex was when…

Fuck.

He was just off his game, simple as that. Erin had been right when she’d said they’d both gotten what they wanted. He wasn’t sure why this female got under his skin like she did, but now that he’d fucked her, they could both move on.

What had he expected anyway? That he’d stay the night and continue to fuck her blind until dawn’s early light? That wasn’t how he worked. He rarely stayed the night with a human female. It made it impossible to slip out in the early hours, to shift and pound the moor. Sex always heightened the need to let his panther loose, to work off the residual edge.

It wasn’t any easier when he screwed a shifter female. They always wanted to run with him. It was part of the shifter way, for lovers to run together after sex. It was considered an integral part of lovemaking, sharing the closeness, the affection, the need for each other. He’d never felt that need.

After a sleepless night spent stewing on what had happened with Erin, he walked into his kitchen and put on coffee. He had a million things to do, especially with Tynan away for a few days on his official honeymoon. He didn’t know why Ty and Naomi had the desire to disappear for a while, since they’d already had their mating ceremony and the civil ceremony was only for show. They had many human friends who weren’t aware they were shifters, which meant adhering to the legal laws of the land was considered an essential element of blending in and integrating with the human community.

And why the hell was he thinking of the newlyweds when he had a pressing personal problem to put on his list of things to do?

He had travel arrangements to make for his forthcoming trip to Paris, where he’d been booked to run security for a French politician who saw monsters under the bed where none existed. He’d ridden shotgun for the guy before, so he knew it was an easy assignment. In fact, Nathan felt that he took money from the man under false pretenses and had, on more than one occasion, tried to persuade him to consider a local security firm rather than pay Nathan’s exorbitant fees and expenses. The man had been adamant he wanted Nathan and was prepared to pay for his services.

Coffee in hand, he went into his office and booted up his laptop.

He’d barely opened the site to book his flight to Paris when his cell buzzed.

“I’m calling a meeting of the Council of Principals,” Caleb said without preamble. “Two o’clock today.”

“What’s so urgent?”

“Couple of fucking kids got spotted out near Golitha. Spooked a local. Luckily the local was drunk at the time, so nobody’s taking him seriously. Ryan took care of it,” Caleb said, referring to a member of their pack who was also a cop.

“So why the meeting?”

“I want to put a scare on those kids. Cocky little bastards. Thought if they were called up before the whole Council, it’d shrivel their overconfident balls and make them think twice about shifting near a public place.”

Nathan thought back to a time when he, Caleb and Tynan had been brought before the Council of Principals. They’d been teenagers who thought they knew it all. They’d taken three human girls out on a night’s camping trip on the moor and spent the best part of the evening scaring the panties off them with tales of big cats who stalked people in the dead of night. The girls had been so freaked that the Council of Principals had been concerned it would set off the whole
did deadly black panthers roam the moor
question amongst the locals. There’d been actual sightings over the years, and it was considered a grave offense for shifters to allow themselves to be spotted by humans. It wasn’t looked upon favorably either when members of the pack stoked up the humans with tales that might set their imaginations off. Nathan remembered how he’d nearly shit his pants when he’d stood with Caleb and Tynan and they’d suffered a verbal lashing from the Council members.

Since it was imperative that any rumors were quashed before they started, he knew that the weight of his presence at the meeting that afternoon took precedence over everything.

But damn, he really didn’t need this right now.

“I’ll be there,” he grunted down the line.

He was about to hang up when Caleb spoke again. “What’s got up your ass? Didn’t get laid last night?”

Why did his friends always think his bad mood was down to the fact he didn’t get any pussy? Didn’t they think he could survive without a female for the night?

“Just shows what you know,” he said on a growl. “As it happens…” He was about to go into specifics but stopped himself. He didn’t want to speak about Erin that way, didn’t want to discuss what they’d shared.

“Fuck it to hell, Nathan,” Caleb said tightly. “You’re not telling me you jumped Erin.”

Nathan stood and scrubbed a hand through his hair as he walked to the French window that looked out over his part of the moor. “What if I did?”

“She’s Talia’s friend. Naomi’s too. The females are protective of her. I wouldn’t want to be you when they find out and beat your ass.”

“Yeah, well,” Nathan said, trying for bravado when he didn’t really feel it. He’d been on the receiving end of an angry female once too often to brush it off like it wasn’t a big deal. “She didn’t exactly kick me out of bed.”

“So why the mood? She didn’t put out to your liking?”

He pushed through his hair again, digging his fingers into his scalp as frustration rocked through him. “Don’t want to talk about it.”

“That’s a first.” When he didn’t respond, Caleb’s tone softened. “What’s wrong?”

Nathan sucked in a breath. He didn’t want to open this particular can of worms, but he knew he wouldn’t get a moment’s peace until he got some answers. “My eyes turned gold.”

Silence thundered down the line, and Nathan held his breath. If Caleb had to think about it, then it didn’t augur well.

“Shit,” Caleb said eventually. “You sure?” He was no doubt considering the consequences it could have on the pack. If anyone knew about incendiary potential, it was Caleb. After all, his female was a human, and Nathan knew the problems Caleb had faced to have Talia accepted as the leader’s mate. It had put the pack under potential threat like nothing had done before. At least not in their lifetime.

“I’m sure.” Nathan replied, squeezing his eyes shut as if in doing so he could block out the implications. When he opened his eyes, those implications were still there. “She told me. Right after.”

Another silence, then Nathan heard Caleb take a long inhalation. “Tell me you didn’t mark her.”

“Fucking hell, Caleb. What do you think I am?”

The release of some of his pent-up temper set his hand to shaking, and he swapped the phone from one hand to the other. He began to pace and knew he needed to shift more than he needed to breathe right then.

“Calm down,” Caleb said gently. “If you didn’t feel the need to mark her, then it’s probably a false alarm.”

“Yeah?” Nathan was now in full-blown pace mode. “How do you figure that? My eyes turned gold, man. That means one thing.”

“Usually, yeah. But maybe something else set it off. You had to be affected by Naomi and Tynan’s wedding. Perhaps you had a strong reaction to that and your signals got crossed.”

It wasn’t that, Nathan thought. If it was that simple and he was reacting to losing Naomi to his friend, then somewhere along the line, he would have wanted to mark Naomi as his. He had never felt the inclination.

He hadn’t felt the inclination with Erin either, so maybe Caleb had a point.

“What the fuck do I do now?”

He said it almost to himself, but Caleb took up the thread. “You make sure you keep the hell away from Erin. False alarm or not. There’s no point courting trouble.”

“That decision’s already made. It was a one-time-only thing.”

He thought of Erin standing in her bedroom with a robe wrapped around her sumptuous body, spouting on about them both getting what they wanted and that it was over. Thanks for the fuck, and there’s the door.

Needing air, he threw open the door and stepped onto his patio. “I’ve got to run,” he told Caleb. “Literally.”

“Okay.” Caleb’s tone held compassion and a tiny bit of suspicion. “I’ll see you at two.”

Nathan tapped
end call
and tossed the phone on the nearest chair. He wasn’t going to spin this over in his head any longer. Caleb had to have been right, and he was just mixed up about Naomi. That was the easiest explanation, and one he was going to lock into. It made perfect sense, because there was no damn way Erin was anything more than a quick screw while they’d both been in the mood.

She was a human, for pity’s sake. Human males didn’t go around marking their women as their own. They didn’t feel the overpowering need to bite down into their female’s succulent flesh, piercing it with their teeth and leaving a permanent warning to other males not to poach on their territory.

Fire rushed through his body, burning his chest and stealing his breath. Erin’s image flashed in front of him, every bloody detail of her in full Technicolor. Her beautiful eyes, her short cap of hair, those magnificent breasts, her hot and welcoming pussy…

He shook his head violently, trying to clear the image of her writhing beneath him, calling his name as she climaxed. When he inhaled, he scented her, the potent allure of her flesh, the sweet slightly musky scent of her arousal. She was suddenly all around him, everywhere. Even the rustle of the bush along the edge of the patio sounded like her soft laughter, while the gentle breeze coming off the moor carried her name.

What the fuck was happening to him? He was going crazy. Freaking losing it.

He pulled off his shirt, yanked off his shoes and jeans. At the edge of his terrace, beneath the cluster of growing birch and eucalyptus trees he’d planted after he’d built the house three years ago, he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply.

The energy circled in his core, spiraled out to embrace his stomach and chest, then spread through his limbs and out to his extremities. The familiar pulse of primal power engulfed him, making his body throb and sharpening his senses.

His fangs descended, his claws lengthened, and he dropped to all fours. Black fur sprang from his pores, and a low growl emanated from deep in his throat.

Using his back legs, he kicked up dirt, then raised his head and scented his territory. Satisfied that his way was clear, he padded out onto the moor that edged his property, enjoying the feel of solid ground beneath his paws and life-giving oxygen filling his nostrils.

Soon he was pounding across his familiar stomping ground, following the trail he had marked out for himself which circumnavigated his property.

He emptied his mind and just ran, pushing himself to his limits. It usually cleared his head, but forty minutes later, when he shifted back to human again and snatched up his clothes, his head still hammered, his body still buzzed.

He went up to the bathroom and turned on the shower. Pressing his palms to the tiled wall, he leaned into them and dropped his chin to his chest. Tepid water rained down on him, but the run and the shower had done nothing to halt the memories of Erin beneath him, of him tasting her, thrusting into her. His cock jerked, his blood heated. With a vicious curse, he reached out and spun the dial, bracing himself against the subzero temperature now hammering his body.

Last night had meant nothing. He was simply going through some weird shit that was better not to question. Caleb’s theory might not be that far off the mark when he thought about it in black-and-white. He and Naomi had been fuck buddies on a pretty regular basis, and he’d grown accustomed to having her sate his sexual appetite with no strings attached. Then one of his best friends decides it’s time to play happy ever after with her. Their hooking up could be construed as a double whammy of sorts. His relationship with two good friends would never be the same again. It was reasonable enough to think that would leave a guy feeling off center for a while.

It made perfect sense and explained a whole lot about what had happened last night. Maybe it was best not to question it any further but just accept it and move on.

One thing he did know was that Erin meant nothing to him other than a quick lay when they’d both been feeling the need. The shock of his eyes turning gold after he’d shoved himself between her legs could have been caused by any number of things. It was an aberration that he didn’t need to consider too deeply and was merely, as Caleb had suggested, a case of his signals getting crossed.

Erin was in no way the woman he wanted to mark as his. And as for her being the woman fate had ordained to be his chosen mate? The whole idea was fucking laughable.

* * * * *

Putting the fear of God into a couple of moronic kids improved his mood no end, and by the time Nathan got back into his SUV after the Council of Principals meeting, he was feeling decidedly upbeat.

He planned to get back home and work. He’d wasted the best part of a day, and that didn’t sit well with him. As Nathan pulled out of the parking lot, Caleb flagged him down.

Nathan wound down his window. “What?”

“Didn’t get chance before the meeting, so just checking in. Making sure you’re okay.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

Caleb shrugged. “Talia’s got a meeting at the paper tonight. Wondered if you felt like hanging out.”

While Nathan appreciated his friend’s concern, he wasn’t in the mood for pool and a beer. “Got work,” he said, reaching for his sunglasses when the sun broke through the otherwise cloudy day. “I’m running security for a French guy and need to pull some data, make plans.”

“Okay. You know where I am.”

Nathan tapped two fingers to his forehead and wound up the window. He pulled away and out into the steady stream of mid-afternoon traffic. It was decent of Caleb to worry about his well-being, but he felt like being on his own. He planned to run that data, confirm accommodations for Paris, and when he was done, stretch out in front of the TV and get quietly drunk.