Forbidden (11 page)

“I’ll be fine—”

He cut her off. “I insist. I won’t leave you. I’ll turn around if I must.”

She sat up. “Stay then,” she huffed. The following words he was unable to understand, but they definitely sounded too vile to come from such a lovely creature.

Is her voice shaky? Did I scare her, or just piss her off? Damn.
“Sorry about the way I spoke. I don’t mean to sound pushy or to frighten you. I just…” He left off, unable to say what he wanted.

“You’re just being a hero, trying to save me from everything, including possibly bumping my head in the tub. Really, I appreciate it, but allow me some modesty.” She grimaced and rolled her eyes before winking and smiling at him. He was unable to stop the corners of his mouth from turning upward in response.

“Of course.” When she stood, he steadied her, then turned away. Although he resolutely studied the rock wall of his cave, when he heard the sound of the blanket drop to the floor, he could clearly see her naked body in his mind. As he listened to the water move, he imagined washing the long, walnut-colored waves of her hair, soaping her heavy breasts, sneaking his fingers down in between her folds.

He knew he had to stop these images flowing through his mind. He was painfully erect, and it was getting harder to hide even with his upper body curled over the appendage. And yet, he couldn’t help but imagine again washing her breasts, her dark chocolate nipples growing hard under his soapy palms. He stifled his groan.

“You okay? The water hot enough?” he asked to interrupt his own thoughts.

“Yes, it feels wonderful.”

I bet you do.

He pulled up a seat and remained the gentleman all the way to the end of her torturously long bath, when he heard her gasp. He turned to see her half-standing, holding on to the edge of the tub. Moving before he thought or spoke, he had his arms around her wet waist down in the water. “You okay?”

“Yes, I just slipped.” Her voice was little more than a whisper. “Metal and water are not conducive to getting your feet under you.”

“Did you hit something?” he asked, the hot water soaking through his sweatshirt where he had her upper body now pressed against his.

“No. I caught myself. I’m fine. Can I have the towel?”

“Sure,” he choked, seeing her ass just below his hands. The water caught the light of the fire over the perfect globes. Mere inches lower and he could squeeze them.

Still holding her against him and holding her eyes with his, he reached for the towel. Without asking her permission, he lifted her from the water and stood her in front of him, wrapping the towel around her body. Grabbing another, he sat back down on the chair and began gently drying her hair. Her hand catching his, stopping him from continuing, was more connection than he could take. He cupped the back of her head and pulled her mouth to his.

Pressing his lips against hers, sliding his tongue in between them, his senses took her in. Her smell was even sweeter, if possible; all warm, wet woman with that sweet touch of spice, making her taste like nothing else he’d ever experienced. The feel of her was silk to his steel, and her purrs only made his muscles tighten more. He let his hand fall down the wet hair covering her back. Both towels fell as his other hand circled around her waist.

Seconds later, he had his hands wrapped around her ass where they’d wanted to be, and he pulled her between his legs. He held her against him, pushing his hardness against her wet mound. Her heat seeped through his jeans. He snarled and lifted her, never losing connection with her mouth.

When their bodies hit the bed, his covering hers, she mimicked that same sound back. He could sense her Dragon, the animal’s Spirit with her now. The beasts inside him churned, hungry as well. Yet, when his hand slid to the patch of hair between her thighs, it was like a ton of stone had been dropped on his head. He was taking advantage of her, a woman he’d just rescued. She hadn’t asked to be brought to his bed, to be claimed like this.

He pushed back from her. The sight of her on his bed, half dry, half covered in beads of water, was sublime. Her legs were spread open with her aroused flesh a dark scarlet and wet for him. He wondered if maybe she wanted him too. She would have to, right? This Mate thing, it always went both ways, right? She hadn’t pulled away, but he had to wonder if she was well enough to make such a decision. At that moment, he felt he was only slightly better than the shifters who’d tied her to the wall.

“Sorry, I… I say that a lot around you. I don’t know what’s come over me.” He took a step toward the cave entrance with each word. He wished now he hadn’t tacked up the large blanket over the entrance, so he could just shift and fly away. “My god, you are so beautiful.”

He turned from her. He could feel his animals rippling under his skin. They wanted her, a fierce undercurrent of need, howling to take her. He thought of escape just to save her from his own desire to make her his… forever. Mating was not an option. It couldn’t be. His every muscle was tight, and his heart heavy. He wanted to tear someone or something apart.

He felt her touch his shoulder, say his name, and in seconds, he had her pinned under him. With his weight and hard edges, he flattened her body against his. This time he felt something in her change. He was thrown to the ground by the Dragon, which seemed to morph over her body. She went from wet skin to shiny scales, silver-ish – almost white in places, each scale reflecting the fire, making prisms all along the walls of the cave. The beast filled the cave, unable to flap its wings, head several times the size of his, towering over him. His own beast responded, just not in the way he assumed it would. It stayed inside him, for all intents and purposes, bowing to her Dragon. Before he could think it all through, her teeth sank into the flesh of his shoulder, incisors only, like one would imagine a vampire bite. The teeth retreated as fast as they went in, the Dragon faded, leaving only the woman on the floor, kneeling between his legs.

“Oh shit! I’m so sorry! My Dragon bit you. I… I wanted you so badly. I don’t know what came over me. I’ve always known when the Spirit is going to take over. This time, I didn’t get a moment’s warning…” She stopped speaking when he shot up and grabbed her arms tight.

First he pulled her toward him, then pushed her away before their bodies met. Releasing her, he stood in one quick movement with the grace of a cat, remarkable for his large size.

His already tightened stomach rolled at the thought of what had just happened. Fear, a rare emotion for him, but one he’d now experienced twice in as many days with her, coiled around his throat, blocking his ability to breathe. Yet, something else was there, bubbling below the surface. She had started the Mating process and his animals wanted to finish it.

“I’m sorry,” she wheezed, getting up, moving toward him but looking around her as if searching for something at the same time. “Instincts took over. I didn’t even get a chance to think them through. My Dragon is always near. Most of the time I have to call to his Spirit when I need him, and in times of trial, we become one, we merge. I don’t really shift as you do. Just now, I felt him, as if we were one, but I was still human, still me. Clearly I wasn’t by the looks of your shoulder. Still, I…” She left off, moving toward him.

“Stop! Don’t come near me,” he pleaded, holding on to some odd, twisted, chivalrous notion, one he was no longer sure he could rationalize, of not hurting her by making her his.

“I said I was sorry! I need to stop the bleeding.”

“I said stop!” Xander roared, and she finally obeyed him.

“Why?”

“Because you’re naked.”

“I just wanted to help you. You didn’t care that I was naked when I was in the tub.”

“I should have.” His voice still sounded more animal than human.

“I get it, loud and clear. You don’t want me. Fine! But, I have no place to go just yet! And you’re bleeding. Shit, I can’t believe I, he, my Dragon, broke the skin. Can I at least help you?”

“It was barely a nip. You don’t get it.” He shook his head.

“I do. We started to Mate. The Dragon was here and bit you. If you become the Chimera, Bite me—”

“We can’t.”

“But, I already did. This is what I’ve been feeling between us. I thought it had something to do with that weird sex ritual at first, then hero worship, but it wasn’t any of that. You are my Mate. You have to want me back, right? You have to finish this!” Her voice screeched in his ears.

“I can’t have one.” He growled at her. Tiny drops of blood dripped down his chest.

“I bit you, though.”

“I can’t have a Mate. No! Matter! What!”

“Why not? Don’t you feel it too?”

“Shit, yeah! Of course I do, from the minute I brought you into this cave. I’ve been ignoring the feelings because it can’t happen. I will not bite you back. This ends here. You get some clothes on, and I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”

“I don’t want to go anywhere. Heart or head or body, I want to be here. I don’t want to deny this.” Her voice cracked on the last word.

“You have no choice.” He started to move toward the wooden chest. Digging in it, he threw a faded dress at her.

She let it hit her body and fall to her feet. She stepped toward him.

“Stop! I’m warning you.” His gruff voice shook.

She took two more steps, and he backed up.

“Stay away from me,” he growled. The idea of cowering, a man of his size, strength and power, from this woman, Dragon Spirit or not, was just downright insane. He almost grinned. Would have if he weren’t hurting so much, fighting nature with everything in him.

“Why? What’s wrong with me?”

“Nothing! Shit! Absolutely nothing at all.”

“Then why?” She moved toward him until he was backed against the wall.

She pushed up against him, chest to stomach even on her tiptoes, and he fumbled for a place to put his hands on her to keep her away from him.

“Why?” she asked again, her voice hitching.

“Because I can’t be with you.”

“Why? Not pretty enough? To full-figured? Fat maybe?”

“Are you serious?” He looked at the floor. His voice lowered. “You’re beautiful, beyond any woman I’ve ever seen. Your body curves in all of the right places.”

“Then touch me,” she begged, her voice plucking at something inside him, causing sharp pains when he breathed.

“No.”

“I’m yours. Claim me.” She pushed against his hands. He kept them at her waist, but in the worst way he wanted to move them up or down, to touch her erect nipples or where she hopefully throbbed between her thighs for him. He knew it was mean to think that way, but he wanted to know how much she wanted him, to feel her sopping wet for him, or better yet, to feel her body gripping around his.

“No.”

She squirmed, reaching for him, getting her hands under his shirt. He felt every muscle tense under her touch; one so hot he thought his whole body would burst into flames.

He turned her, pushing her back against the wall, holding her body away from his.

“Stop this,” he tried to hiss, but his voice came out low and flat instead.

“Why don’t you want me? Your body does. It has to. Why ignore it?” Tears formed in her eyes, then began to trickle down her cheeks.

“Because I’m a monster.”

“You’re not! You… wait… what is that?”

“You feel it too?” Someone was calling to him. Someone needed his help. “It must be my blood in your system. You feel what I do.”

“God, I didn’t feed from you! I already have empathic abilities on some occasions.” But she knew he was right, what he had been trying to say. Once Mated, there is a connection of the senses, even sometimes of thoughts, she’d heard.

She moved back towards the dress on the floor.

“What are you doing?” he asked as he made his way to the mouth of the cave.

“Getting dressed, so I can come with you.”

“Like hell,” he roared. “I will not risk you. Stay here or I will tie you up myself.”

With that, he ran out of the cave, brushing aside the blanket so harshly it fell to the ground. He shifted into his beast and flew from the cave.

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