Tempting the Tiger (14 page)

“Did you mate her, Reno?”

“No,” he answered, but even he wasn’t sure if he was lying or not. The truth was they just didn’t know enough about this whole mating business. What Tah and Abby had gone through had pretty much been at mach speed. Reno wanted Amia, craved her, but was it just sex or more? The way she wrapped him in knots, he just couldn’t think clearly enough to figure it out. A rumble filled his chest, and he knew Tah heard the growl he couldn’t contain.

“But you’ve fucked her?”

Another growl, and he felt his lips draw back in a snarl at the crude way Tah spoke of what he and Amia had shared and would be sharing again real soon.

“Watch yourself,” Reno warned.

“Damn it. I can hear your possessive claim of this woman through the phone. Get your ass back here as quickly as you can.”

Reno could hear Tah pacing and muttering.

“Is she ovulating? Please, fucking tell me you’re not going through the insanity I did.”

“No, she’s not.” Assuming he would know that. Would he? He wouldn’t tell Tah that it didn’t seem to matter anyway. He couldn’t keep his hands off her, his dick out of her. He wanted her to the point it was a physical ache in his chest and balls.

“Any other changes, Reno?”

“My canines have grown.”

“Fuck. Have you bitten her?”

“No.” But the urge was there, growing stronger every moment he was around her. As it was she had perma-scratches where her neck and shoulder met. He was holding back the bite, but his teeth were marking her anyway.

“Are you sure you haven’t mated her?”

“I’m sure.” But he wasn’t. Not by a long shot.

“Tomorrow, Reno, or I’m coming after your ass whether you want me to or not.”

“Tomorrow,” Reno agreed and hung up before Tah could say anything else, try to order him to keep his hands off Amia. Not happening. As revved up as he was, they’d both be lucky if they got any sleep at all tonight. The only thing that would stop him was her telling him no, and the woman he’d left to shower had been all about a hell, yes! He really hoped she hadn’t changed her mind in the time he’d been gone.

* * * *

Amia eyed the door again and tried desperately to get her feet to move in that direction even though she still wore only a towel. This was her chance to go. She could have a car wired and be gone before Reno got back. And why did just the thought of leaving him make her chest ache? She’d been afraid of this. What power did he seem to have over her? With just one look from him, her heartbeat sped up and her hormones went out of control with the need to be with him.

She reached up and rubbed over the spot where he kept scraping her with those wicked canines of his. She swore there was a permanent ache there, just under the skin, as if she were craving something he was withholding from her. His bite. And wasn’t that just a sick twisted desire. She wanted his teeth piercing her skin, holding her, marking her.

She bolted to her feet as soon as she heard the beep of the keycard disengaging the lock on the door. She couldn’t have looked away if her life had depended on it. Reno filled the doorway, and she whimpered. She needed him. No explanation for the obsessive desire she felt to have him touch her, have him inside her. It just was.

“Amia?” Her name was a gruff question as shimmering blue eyes met hers.

He took a step into the room and shut the door with a flick of his wrist.

She was shivering, even though the room was far from cold. She needed. She ached. Her skin was so sensitive. She could barely tolerate the feel of the towel. It was part of the reason she’d shied away from getting dressed. The only thing her body craved was him.

“What have you done to me?” She meant it to be a hard demand, but her voice was weak. She was weak, and it was all because of him.

“Mine.” The one word rumbled up his chest and left his lips in a growl of possession that ignited a fire deep inside her.

She shook her head in denial even as her body warmed up at his claim. She bit her lip as neon blue eyes met hers.

“Reno.” She whispered his name as he moved toward her at a lazy prowl that did nothing to hide the lethal predator he was.

“Mine.”

Her towel was gone with a jerk from his hand, and she was naked before him, breasts full and aching, pussy wet with need.

He backed her toward the bed, ripping his shirt over his head and tossing it aside. She licked her lips at the sheer masculine perfection of him. The bed hit the back of her knees, and she tumbled onto it as he moved closer. She was panting for air, eyes wide as he dropped those powerful hands to his belt and undid it. The button of his jeans was next, then the slow slide of his zipper. One hand shoved the material down while the other reached for her ankle and tugged her toward him.

“Mine,” he rumbled again.

She swore he was watching and waiting for something from her.

She wanted him, could barely breathe for the physical ache of needing him inside her. But she wasn’t his, couldn’t be his. She would take everything he was willing to give her, but that was as much as she could give. The Blanes would find her and take her, she had no doubt of that. She wouldn’t be the reason Reno was taken too.

“Mine.”

This time, it was a roar he barely seemed to throttle back as he flipped her onto her belly. She knew what he wanted and craved the same primal mating. Quickly, she came up on her hands and knees and pressed back until her ass hit his belly. She felt the edge of the bed just behind her knees and the thick length of his cock rubbing along the seam of her pussy.

“Reno.”

His name was a whimper of need as he palmed her ass cheeks and rubbed his cock over her slick pussy lips.

He was thoroughly lubricated with her juices when she felt him lodge at her opening. His fingers clenched and released on her hips as he slid deep and paused. The room filled with the sounds of them both sucking oxygen in. This was what she needed, what she craved. He slid back and slammed deep again, rocking her forward with a cry of pleasure on her lips.

“Mine.”

He thrust hard and deep, fucking her faster as he leaned over her back and those wicked canines scraped over his favorite spot again. She bit her lip to hold in the words that wanted to tumble from her. She wanted to beg him to bite her. She wanted to answer every
mine
he uttered with a confirming
yours
. But she couldn’t. She wouldn’t. So she dropped her head to the bed and away from his teasing teeth. She bit into the comforter, gagging herself in an effort to hold back the words she wanted to cry out.

She moaned and thrashed, reveling in every hard thrust, in every heated stroke of his cock. She might be holding the words of agreement back, but her body was more than willing to admit she was his, in every way possible. His cock seemed to swell inside her, and she swore she could feel him rubbing against her inner walls, engaging every nerve ending in a sensual ride that sent her flying with a muffled scream.

She clawed the bed as she came over and over again, the pleasure so intense it robbed her of breath, leaving her gasping, unable to pull the needed oxygen into her lungs. He dropped down over her, and his teeth scraped, breaking skin but not sinking deep like she wanted as he came with a roar, his seed a heated splash filling her womb.

She was still sucking in air when he eased farther down until his hard body rested completely atop hers on the bed. His chest vibrated with a purr against her back, and her eyes filled with tears she was glad he couldn’t see. He made her want things she knew weren’t possible, at least not for her. He made her want to believe she could escape the Blanes and find a new life with him.

His hands brushed her skin, one just beneath her left breast, the other patting at her right hip, touching her scar at beginning and end. It was all the reminder she needed. There was no new beginning for her. She could never belong with Reno. The only thing she could count on was another lesson taught at the hands of her father’s men, and a lengthy stay in the chamber.

She must have whimpered because Reno tugged free of her and slipped onto his back on the bed beside her. Next thing she knew, she was pulled against his chest, half on top of him as he used his fingers to lift her head to meet her eyes.

“Amia? Are you okay? Did I hurt you?”

He looked devastated at the mere idea that he might have hurt her.

“I’m fine,” she whispered and lowered her head to rest against his chest. They needed to talk.

“We need to talk,” Reno said, echoing her exact thoughts.

“You have to let me go.”

“You know I can’t do that.”

She let her breath out in a sigh of acceptance. There was nothing to do but give him the pieces of her life he needed to hear in order to understand the threat she posed to him.

“My mother died when I was eight,” she began, knowing she had to tell him everything. “I still don’t know how. One night, she tucked me into bed, and the next morning, my father said she was gone. I spent the next eight years trying to hide in the house, trying to be the good little girl he needed me to be.”

Reno just held her, one hand a solid weight on her hip, holding her to him, reminding her where she was. The other ran up and down her back in a soothing motion she took comfort in.

“I knew what my father was, what his men were. Hunters. I’d always heard how it was their job to protect and defend against the animals who preyed on them. I knew about the hunts, about the…” She had to pause and take a deep breath. “About the people they dragged in, claiming they were animals disguised as humans. And I knew they did things to them, but I hid in the house and pretended everything was okay.”

“You were just a little girl.”

“I was a Blane,” she stated, reminding them both of her blood. “And I learned never to question anything my father said.” She could still feel the sharp crack of his palm across her face in rebuke when she forgot that. As she was still reminded, she was always a slow learner. “Until I turned sixteen and happened to be in the yard when the men returned from a hunt. They’d caught a girl, a young girl my age.”

“Fuck,” Reno muttered, and his arms tightened around her, holding her close.

“That’s when my father decided I needed to be trained, that it was past time I learned the ways of a hunter. He took me to the barn and into a room where they had that girl stripped naked and chained to the fucking wall.”

She shuddered as she felt a tear fall from her eye to his chest, recalling with perfect clarity that day.

“Clara. Her name was Clara, and she glowed a beautiful gold just like you do.”

“I don’t glow.”

She shook her head and pulled away to sit up beside him. She couldn’t explain to him what it was she saw. She just saw it.

“They’d beaten her. She was bruised and bloody, and I knew I had to help her. That night, I helped her escape, and I left with her.”

“You left when you were sixteen?”

She nodded her head. “I tried to. But they found me.” She shuddered. The feel of the whip on her flesh. The horror of being locked in the chamber.

“Amia.” His hand on her arm, reminding her she was with him. For now, she was with him. “What did they do to you?”

Her glance fell to her most vivid scar, the one she couldn’t hide. “They taught me a lesson for being a traitor.”

She watched his gaze dip to her belly and saw the livid color flush his face.

Anger radiated from him. “I’ll fucking find every one of the bastards who had a hand in this and gut them.”

“I escaped again. The second time they caught me, I was shot.” Her hand automatically rose to rub the back of her right shoulder where the bullet was still inside her. They hadn’t removed it, just bandaged over it, not caring if the bullet caused any problems. She’d lived, even after a feverous three days in the chamber.

“And so it began. I escaped, and they always found me. I learned not to make friends. Some betrayed me, and some died thinking they could protect me. Either way, I’d find myself back at the Blane farm.”

“What did they do to you?” Reno’s voice was hard as he demanded answers from her.

She met his gaze without blinking. “Anything they wanted.”

“Amia—” His eyes seemed haunted by the unspoken question she could feel hovering in the air around them.

“They didn’t rape me, though the threat was hauled out whenever they wanted to add a little spice to the torture,” she said with a snort of disgust. “Why dirty themselves with a traitor?”

“I’ll fucking—”

“Stop,” she interrupted him. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t know anything about what a hunter is taught. I never learned.”

“I’ll never let them touch you again. Never. I’ll protect you with my life,” he vowed and it only made her heart ache more to hear.

“Don’t you see, Reno? That’s exactly what they would take. Your life. And they’d take me anyway. I can’t let that happen. I won’t be the reason you die.”

Because, God help her, she was falling in love with him.

“I can’t let you go, Amia.”

She was beginning to understand that as well. There was something going on between them, something that made no sense. She couldn’t leave him any more than he could let her go. She just prayed it wouldn’t get them both killed.

“Then we’re both damned,” she whispered and felt his arms tighten around her.

Chapter Eight

Amia was seething with anger next to him as Reno drove the last leg toward home. He’d awoken early with her wrapped around him, whimpering and begging to be let out. He’d whispered and soothed her, promising he would get her out. She’d moaned about the dark, about being confined, and he’d almost roared as the possibilities rocked through him.

When they’d been confronted in the woods outside Blane Farm, she’d been taunted with missing the chamber. She’d never spoken of it, but he was forming his own opinions with every new nightmare he awoke to find her trapped in. It only made him want to rip them apart more. He wanted to kill with a ferocity that should scare him.