Predator's Refuge (23 page)

She nodded, wanting to shout and thrill and cry all at once. “I know it means I can’t live without you.”

“And I can’t live without you. So don’t feel badly about my decision. I don’t regret staying by your side, and never will.”

“Anton,” she whispered. “I need you inside me.”

“I know,” he said with a smile. “And I need to be inside you more than I need air. Come, my lady boss.”

Somehow, as their hands roved over each other’s bodies, they managed to stumble to his door and open it. Kissing as if their lives depended on it, they tumbled into his cabin.

Neither of them had a lot of clothes on, as they’d literally jumped out of bed upon smelling smoke earlier, but they tore at each other’s garments now. Within seconds that seemed much longer, they were nude and pressed against each other.

How I need to be.

Marci sighed as Anton’s lips found her nipple, as they began a slow, excruciatingly delicious series of tugs. She pressed his head to her breast, wanting so much more of him. He obliged by sliding his fingers over her belly and toward her slick heat. One, two, three fingers claimed her pussy, finding a home there, and her knees buckled. He held her up with his other arm and slid his teeth over the length of her erect nipple.

As she cried out in delirium, he released her breast and pussy and tipped up her chin to look at him. “How much of me are you willing to take, beauty?”

“Everything. All of you.”

“And you won’t question how I play with you?”

“Never.”

“Because you know anything I do is for your pleasure. And I need you so badly.”

“I trust you, Anton.” She ran a hand over his tight ass and pulled him flush against her, relishing the roundness of the tight globes in her palms.

“Oh, lynx. You might regret that after I finish with you.” His lips parted as he swallowed her scent. As a fellow cat, she knew it spread over his tongue just as his scent taunted her.

He picked her up and tossed her onto the bed. As she fell into a gentle bounce, she caught her breath and gazed at him. Standing at the edge of the bed, aroused and piqued, he resembled a warrior from a less civilized age. The sort of man who had no qualms about taking his woman, and taking her hard. “Perhaps I’ll just stand here and stare at you for a while to tease you.”

She writhed on the bed, spreading her legs and allowing him a quick glimpse of her moistness. “You wouldn’t be so mean.”

He sucked in a breath, and even he seemed unsure of himself in that moment. “Fuck, baby, you make me forget myself. You make me want to forget old vows and discover new ways to sin.”

Despite his heated looks, and her own need to copulate madly at the earliest opportunity, a strain of disappointment traveled through her upon hearing his words. He kept equating her with sin, and every time he made the comparison, she felt like a dirty peasant in front of his princely self. Vexed, she closed her legs, sat up, and gave him her back. “I wouldn’t want to be the cause of your moral downfall. I know you consider me a bad influence.”

He was in front of her in an instant, making her look at him. “Where does this come from?”

He might be voicing the question, and yet there was utter clarity in his startling green eyes. Somehow he already saw everything, even all the faults and fears she never wanted to show another. She crossed her arms over her chest, wanting to shield her stupid heart in some small way. “You keep talking about sinning with me. Do you really think what we do is a sin?”

He crouched in front of her, his legs wide and his desire thick and large between them. His expression softened as he pried her arms off her chest. “Listen to me, Marci. When I sought refuge at the monastery, the brothers insisted I immerse myself in a spare life of devotion and self-examination. In all that self-analysis, I realized I didn’t like what I saw. I flew to the opposite extreme. Yes, I took my vows seriously, but I see they were never meant to be taken. You have to forgive me if I still spout religious crap here and there. You’re not a sin, Marci. You’re my salvation.”

“You gave up everything to stay here. Your family. Your role as Grand Prince. I don’t ever want you to think you gave up your life for someone who doesn’t deserve you.” Tears stung the back of her eyes, but she blinked them away. “Because I do! I might not be some fancy-pants princess from the Continent, who has her own yacht and a constellation named for her, but I’m a good person. And I deserve better than feeling like someone’s transgression. If you’re going to end up resenting me, Anton, leave now with Gabi. Don’t leave me later, when it’ll kill me.”

Who was she kidding? The mere thought of him going seemed to erase minutes off her life.

He put a hand over his mouth, as if her words hurt him. He gawked at her, not understanding. “Do you think my title and cars and big house meant anything to me? Do you think I gave a shit about status and money? Why do you think I was always at odds with my father? It was because none of those things were important to me. He saw that in me years ago, and targeted me for my lack of interest in the family legacy of pain.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Even before I knew it, all I wanted in this life was my mate, soft and pliable underneath me. My hands feel like lumps of clay unless I’m holding you, Marci. My lips seem redundant unless I’m kissing you. And nothing makes sense unless you are at my side.”

“But…”

“No buts. I know we should be taking things slowly. I know it’s completely bizarre that I should feel so close to you in such a short time. But I also know life is full of mysteries. And I know,” he said on a breath, “that I love you.”

She cocked her head at him and frowned, sure she heard him wrong. “Um, did you just say…?”

“Yes, lynx,” he said, laughing. “I said I love you. Would you like to debate it?”

Sweet heat rushed through her system, and this time, she allowed her tears to fall. Anton loved her. Big, beautiful, intriguing Anton thought she was just swell. As an invisible hand crossed all the t’s and dotted all the i’s in her heart, she smiled back at him, fully satisfied for the first time in her life. “I love you too.”

His sigh made her love him even more. And as he eased her onto her back, pressing her into the mattress, she found even more love inside herself for him. By the time his lips found hers, she was dizzy with love.

His caresses were so gentle, his touches so reverent, Marci felt about ready to pass away from happiness. No one had ever made her feel such emotion, such highs when he kissed her, and such lows when she feared for him. She wanted to make everything in Anton’s life wonderful, and wanted to personally kill all his demons with her bare hands.

He was her everything and she knew she’d gladly go anywhere he went. Old ambitions didn’t seem to matter anymore. Her needs had changed. Her goals had morphed into something simple and pure.

She just wanted to love him.

As he ground against her, his desire thumped against her hip. Her lynx reared its lascivious head once more.

Okay. Enough love talk
, it urged.
Can we go back to being naughty now?

Oh, yeah. We can do that
.

Marci pushed on his shoulders and he raised himself off her by a few inches. “You rang?” he teased.

While he grinned at her, she licked two of her fingers and slid them over her nipple and down over her ribs. Anton sucked in a breath and his eyes darkened with intense need. Undeterred by his hungry look, she moved her fingers over her belly and slowly eased them into her pussy. As he watched, she drenched them in her moisture and touched them to his bottom lip.

“
Baszd meg!
” He sucked her fingers into his mouth, licking all her wetness from them, swallowing with greed. His pupils dilated as he released her hand, and she spied the tips of his animal canines pushing through his gums.

It should have scared her, but it didn’t. She wanted him to bite her again, wanted him to scratch and paw and mark her. She would bear his mark on every part of her body if it made him happy.

Clearly, Anton was fighting with the same urge, and she could tell he didn’t want to hurt her. He rubbed at his gums with the pad of his thumb, easing the sharp points away. And she couldn’t help but be a little disappointed.

“You can bite me if you want,” she whispered.

He swallowed. “You don’t know what you ask. I’ll frighten you with my hunger. I can’t unleash it. I don’t trust my tiger. I kept him cooped up too long.”

She put a hand to his cheek and looked him in the eye. “I trust your tiger. And I know neither of you would ever hurt me.” She offered him a sweet smile. “Now bite me.”

A shudder went through his large frame, and his teeth descended even farther at her provocative invitation. Sweat broke out on his forehead and his back. She smoothed it away with her hand, but it just gathered between his tense shoulder blades once more. “Marci…”

She could see she needed to take charge here so he’d give her what she so desperately wanted. She wiggled out from under him, got up on all fours, and shook her ass in his face. And then Marci lowered her head to the mattress, keeping her ass high. In this position, she submitted to her tiger.

The growl behind her would have put the fear of God into a human, but she reveled in it. Yes, triumph!

Anton was on her in an instant. The scrape of his teeth sent thrilling shivers up her arms and legs. He nibbled her back and shoulders, sucking at her skin, putting his mark there. Enough to sting, but not hard enough to hurt her, he dragged her skin into his mouth and teased her with tiny, pinching bites. Nibbling his way down her back, he kneaded her ass with his hands, growling all the while.

Slap!
He spanked her on one side, and then massaged her, allowing his fingers to gently explore around her asshole.

Slap!
He repeated his actions on her other side, and this time, his fingers dipped into the pulsing, wet cavity. Anton knew just what she wanted, and his fingers in her pussy drove her to heaven.

While she groaned, a noise escaped him that was distinctly animal. The low, warning snarl should have made her scramble away in haste, but she held herself in place. And God only knew, Anton held her so she could not move.

His teeth met with her ass time and again, scraping the delicate skin, making her tense and contract over and over again. And then, just when she thought he might actually get too carried away biting her, she felt the soft, loving caress of his tongue. He laved all the spots he’d bitten, soothing them. And then he spread her cheeks, and licked her there too.

Marci let out a frenzied cry of sensual gratification. He felt so good. So perfect.

But her tiger was hungry for more. He dragged her to the headboard and propped up a few pillows against it. He then positioned her so that her ass was toward the headboard and her legs up against the wall. As he held her up there, practically upside down, Anton whispered words of encouragement. “Trust me. Let me arrange you the way I want. I won’t hurt you.”

“I know.”

Slowly, so as not to put pressure on her back, he pulled her knees toward him. With her head still on the mattress, she was in the perfect position to lick his cock, and did so greedily. She was angled in such a way that he had ideal access to her pussy. While he fed her his cock, he leaned between her legs and dived his tongue into her core. And while he ate her in this position, he scratched his fingernails over her bottom and thighs.

Her heart rate accelerated to an alarming degree, the pleasure was so intense. And because the position was totally foreign to her, it drove her even faster toward orgasm. She licked the length of him, and then sucked his balls into her mouth, one by one. He moaned against her mound, and punished her by nibbling gently on her labia. The dull throb at the back of her head increased and now sounded like cannon fire in her brain. Sparks of light shot before her eyes. She clutched at Anton’s strong thighs, and he applied pressure to her clit.

Just like that, she fell to bits in his hands and under his mouth. Her body seized and responded with a panic-like jolt. He flattened his tongue against her pussy while she came, soaking up all her juices, and she almost sank to the bed in a shriveled-up mess of nerves.

When the last tremor claimed her, he removed his mouth and helped her slide back onto the mattress. Spent. Dead to the world, her limbs still twitching like a reanimated corpse.

Anton just laughed and flipped her over. When she just lay there, he smacked her behind. “Present your ass to me.”

“I can’t move.”

Slap!
“Don’t make me position you again, lynx. Present your fine ass to me.”

God help her, she did. She scrounged any ounce of strength she had in the farthest reaches of her body and got up on all fours. Moaning at the sweet pain, she waved her bum at him. “Better, bossy man?”

In one slow thrust, Anton found a home inside her, sighing. “Better.”

Gripping her hips, he moved so slowly at first, she thought his aim was to indeed kill her with his love. He seemed to grow with each plunge into her core. The power of each thrust moved and excited her, teasing her toward her own inevitable second orgasm in minutes. Sure she couldn’t take it, she clamped down, her body’s weak attempt at squeezing him out while egging him on. Driving past each squeeze, Anton grunted his desire and asserted his love. As he pounded at her, sliding easily into her slick bower now, Marci unraveled once again and he came right behind her. He shot his seed inside her and collapsed on top of her.

For a long time, neither of them moved. He remained connected to her, whispering to her in Hungarian, stroking her damp hair.

“You’ll have to teach me your language so I know what you’re saying,” she teased.

He rolled off her and pulled her into his arms. She felt soggy down there, but sated and full. She gazed at him, waiting for a translation.

“I was saying how beautiful you are, and how perfect you are for me. You tame my beast.” He brushed his thumb over her lips, tracing their outline. “I love you, Ms. Lennox.”