Bargain With the Beast (11 page)

Tobias groaned as the memories started
all over again. One after the other they raced through his mind,
and for some reason they were the good memories, the time in bed
together, the morning after, the way the Beast smiled at him. The
bad memories were less intense, being half-terrified as he was
shackled to the bed, anxious that he was about to become a
horrifying crime statistic. Those memories were beginning to
dim.

That too worried Tobias.

He was rose-tinting everything, and he
watched enough true crime to know that was a bad sign. That perhaps
he was beginning to sympathize with his abductors, to convince
himself that what had happened to him was okay. And it wasn’t. He
should never have ended up below ground…tempted into the clutches
of the Beast…doing things he could never have imagined…

He shook his head, and, in an effort
to get a-hold of himself, made his way into the kitchen. It had
always been Tobias’ favorite room in the apartment, but today he
barely noticed the bright appliances, or the comfy couch pushed up
against the wall. He opened the fridge almost automatically and
poured himself a glass of orange juice before taking a seat at the
counter. The arched window which ran through the entire open plan
living area gave him a glorious view of the bay below, and as he
looked on it, Tobias tried to immerse himself in the view, to not
let the Beast back into his thoughts.

It was a futile attempt.

If he closed his eyes he could see
him, naked, muscled, his hands reaching out, a smile on his lips,
desire darkening his eyes…

If he closed his eyes a bit tighter,
Tobias could almost imagine what it had felt like to be touched by
those hands. How he had shuddered as the Beast kneaded his flesh,
stroked across his skin, licked along his cock…

Tobias did
not
close his
eyes.

“
You have to stop this,”
he hissed. “It’s over.”

And he knew that, because one thing
Tobias had done this week—apart from working out constantly to try
to get rid of all the excess energy he seemed to have—was to replay
every single moment of their time together. Many things about that
time took on a new meaning now, and Tobias reached out to pick up
the list that he had left on the counter. He had made it the first
night he had returned to his apartment. That return had been weird,
almost surreal, and the list had been his way of trying to work
through the confusion that had filled him. Since then it had served
another purpose.

To understand.

He read down the bulleted list now,
picking off item after item, considering them and trying to piece
together what it all meant, almost like a jigsaw puzzle that had no
guiding picture…

• You ended up underground because
  one of the females tried to escape.
  

• You don’t know why.
  

• Karl took you because he worried
  that you had seen something you shouldn’t…only you didn’t. You
  would have been oblivious to everything if you’d just been left
  where you were, knocked out on the red-carpeted floor.
  

• The Beast rules below ground. That
  much is clear from the way the other males reacted to
  him.
  

• But the community here, below you, is
  one of many. Does the Beast rule there too?
  

• What is the community? Why is it
  hidden? Why does no one know about it? Why do they all have yellow
  eyes?
  

• No one who enters the community
  ever leaves…except you. Why are you the exception? Because you
  pleasured the Beast?
  

• Why did the Beast say you would
  return..?
  

Tobias frowned and dropped the list
back on the counter, that last question nagging at him the same way
it had all week. No matter how many times he read it, no matter how
many times he tried to understand it, he couldn’t. And now, so many
days later, the whole experience was taking on almost a dreamlike
air. Almost as if it had never really happened.

Except it did.

If he just closed his eyes…

He shot up, suddenly
restless, his muscles twitching, his head spinning. The view of the
bay beckoned him now, and Tobias knew that he needed to be out
there, in the fresh air, trying to run off these feelings, trying
to get back to himself. It was what he’d been doing all week after
all. It was the
only
thing that helped.

He drank his orange juice in one quick
gulp and jumped up. His sneakers were under the dining table so he
bent down to retrieve them. What else did he need? His key. He
grabbed that too, bent down to tie his shoelaces, looping the key
around one as he did so.

A few moments later and he was running
down the stairs, across the lobby, and outside of the door. The
wind hit him the moment he stepped out, but it felt good. It was
cold, harsh, the moisture in the air stinging ever so
slightly.

He broke into a jog, and usually would
have taken the route that led inland. It snaked along the hillside
before meeting a trail that would lead down into the valley proper.
But today Tobias didn’t want to do that. Instead he headed towards
the water, and even from this distance he swore he could hear the
sound of the beating waves.

Tobias ran fast, not even giving
himself time to warm up. The Beast was in his thoughts with each
step he took. Almost like he was running with him. His firm hands,
his yellow eyes, his thick cock…

Tobias ran faster.

The Beast remained.

He pumped his arms, dug his feet into
the ground, and before he knew it he was skidding to a halt next to
the very edge of the cliff. But it wasn’t enough, and so Tobias
took a sharp turn and followed the cliff-edge along. He had no idea
how long he ran for, but it was many, many miles, and took many,
many hours. He stopped only when he reached the other side of the
valley, and the moment he did he realized what his body had been
trying to tell him the entire week.

His heart was not beating any faster
than when he had started out. His lungs weren’t aching at all. Not
a single bead of sweat decorated his body. It was almost like he
hadn’t run at all. It was almost like he was still sitting in his
apartment, relaxed and calm. Like nothing had changed.

And yet everything had.

As he looked down on the beating waves
breaking against the cliff, at the foam they left behind, even at
the way the water glistened on the rocks, Tobias knew the truth of
it all. It had crept up on him, moment by moment, nudge by nudge,
over the past week, until the awareness was almost a part of him
now.

The waking immediately.

The slight changes to his
body.

The feeling of ever-increasing
restlessness.

The constant excess energy
that he could
never
seem to expend.

He had changed…he was faster,
stronger, quicker…it was time to admit that. Time to stop denying
the truth. He swallowed unsteadily, his neck tingling, and looked
down at his body, from his sneakers to his fingers. Was it his
imagination or did his muscles look more defined? Was his skin a
little clearer? Was his color a little healthier?

He lifted his hands in front of his
face and clenched the fists. They felt…odd…like they could pick up
a rock and turn it into no more than dust. Like there was so much
strength he wasn’t even sure what to do with it.

He dropped his hands and
looked down, only it wasn’t at the waves this time, it was at
something else entirely…and though he couldn’t see it, though it
was hidden away, something in his heart paused, because Tobias
could
feel
it.
Down there was the Beast...and somehow because of him, because of
what had happened between them, Tobias was beginning to
change.

TO BE CONTINUED

COMING SOON

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

April Andrews loves a good
romance, and she likes that romance super hot. To April that means
men, lots and lots of men...

In her spare time April
likes to take long, soothing walks, play with her kitten, and try
to outwit herself at chess. That's a losing battle, because April
always knows what the next move is going to be...that's not the
case with her books. April's characters take her on the most
wonderful journeys, and she loves the fact that she can take you
along too. 

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