Beast Untamed: Beasts of Bodmin Moor, Book 3 (6 page)

Right now she had enough to keep her occupied without the complication of sex with a virile but downright mysterious man. The thing was she didn’t know if she could resist him if he touched her again.

When the men returned thirty minutes later, and Nathan made a beeline straight for where she sat chatting with Talia and two other women, Erin knew her resolve was in desperate danger of disintegrating before her eyes.

Nathan had a look about him that exuded raw power, and again that word popped into her head—
predator
. Strength, command, potency…domination. All those words applied to him, but it was the last that sent shockwaves of reaction thundering through her. He was the very last man she should want. The very last she should consider having sex with. Did she have some sort of self-destruct button when it came to dominant and powerful men?

Maybe. But the thought didn’t stop her body from going on full alert. She had to squeeze her legs together to stop the throb between them, wrap her arms across her breasts to stop the ache in her tender flesh. Damn it, but she really wanted the man. And if she didn’t do something pretty damn quick, she knew she was in danger of getting him.

Chapter Five

Nathan didn’t mind a woman questioning her decision to have sex with him. He didn’t mind the game of chase and retreat. What he did mind was the reason behind the uncertainty he sensed in Erin. Watching her, he knew that he’d do just about anything to convince her that sharing a bed with him for the night was all good. But he wanted the decision to be hers, and hers alone.

That didn’t mean he wasn’t up for a little persuasion, and to be honest, he needed her in his arms again, if only for another dance as the evening drew to a close.

The bride and groom had long since made their departure and were at this moment likely enjoying the fruits of his earlier activities with Caleb and the guys. He wondered if Erin was the type of woman who’d enjoy watching porno flicks before indulging in some light BDSM. Shit. Right now, he’d settle for vanilla as long as he had Erin beneath him.

Since his cock pressed uncomfortably against his pants, Nathan stood and held out his hand. “Dance?” he said when Erin looked up at him. “Why don’t we take up where we left off?”

With hesitation, and a cautious look in her eyes, Erin took his hand and let him lead her onto the dance floor again.

He drew her close, determined to do everything in his power to change her mind back to where he’d left it two hours ago. Since then, she’d done her best not to be alone with him, dancing with Caleb and even Naomi’s grandfather. Enoch was entirely smitten with her, and it seemed the feeling was reciprocated.

“What happened?”

Erin met his gaze and didn’t even try to pretend she didn’t know what he meant. That was one of the things he liked about her. Straight as an arrow. “I’m not sure I can go through with it. I thought I could, but maybe it’s not a good idea.”

“From where I’m standing, it’s the best idea I’ve had in a long time.”

She smiled as they swayed. “I’ll bet you’re not used to having a woman hesitate. You’re used to them falling at your feet. That’s probably why you’re still here trying to get me to agree. So you can keep your record intact.”

“A man doesn’t like to be turned down, especially when he really wants a woman.”

“Why?” she asked suddenly. “Why me, Nathan?”

She wasn’t the only one who could be straight as an arrow. He thought he owed it to her. “Because you’re hot as fucking Hades. Because since the first damn moment I looked at you, I wanted you.”

She laughed softly. “That’s not true. We didn’t exactly hit it off. I didn’t think you even liked me.”

“A man doesn’t have to like a woman to want to fuck her. Shit. That didn’t come out right.”

She laughed again, and he felt her relax in his arms. She actually moved closer of her own accord. Since he was never a man to let an opportunity pass him by, he tightened his hold around her, feeling those delicious breasts press against his chest.

“To be honest, I didn’t like you much either,” she said with an impish smile. “But it didn’t stop me from wondering.”

“Wondering?”

“I’m having this battle with myself,” she confessed. “I really want to ask you to take me home and…stay.”

Shit. His cock liked the idea of that. “Then why don’t we get out of here?”

She shook her head, that smile still in place. “It’s not that simple. I don’t really know you, and I think I do need to know a man first, however much I’ve been trying to convince myself that I could do a one-night thing.”

“What do you need to know?” He didn’t think he’d ever felt so desperate to converse with a female before. To let her ask questions and be prepared to answer them.

She swallowed, her eyes fixed on his. He ran his hand across her back, keeping the movement slow, easy, as much for himself as for her. He didn’t want to spook her, but he wouldn’t risk her slipping from his grasp without a goddamn fight.

“That’s a typical male response. The quickest way from point A to point B.”

Now she was confusing him. He frowned, and she laughed. He liked to hear her laugh, it had an earthy quality about it, and it went straight to his loins. “What happens between point A and B?”

He knew well enough, but wasn’t going to spell it out and risk her backing away from the place where he thought she currently teetered—on the edge of agreement.

“That’s the question. What I really meant was that I need to know something about a man before I go to bed with him, and you come straight back and ask me what I want to know. Like you’d actually tell me.”

“Why don’t you try me?”

“It’s not that simple, is it? I could ask you a question and you could give me the answer you think I want to hear. That’s not getting to know someone. It takes time and the space to find out organically.”

Damned if he knew what she was talking about. Probably because his erection was becoming painful. He must have uttered something, because she smiled. “Right now, you’re probably thinking I’m not worth the trouble.”

“What I’m thinking is that I’ve never had to work quite so hard with a female before, but I wouldn’t say you’re not worth the trouble.”

Their gazes clashed, and he increased the pressure on her back, drawing her closer still. With her breasts crushed to his chest, he could feel her heart beating, the almost rapid thump of it. It matched his own.

Before he could fully complete the thought, he released her but tightened his grip on her hand. Without a word, he led her from the dance floor and threaded their way through to the nearest exit. The night had turned chilly but he was currently on fire.

Turning, he pressed her back against the wall and placed his palms flat beside her shoulders. He leaned in, his mouth a whisper from hers. He wanted to take, to plunder those ripe, full lips, but instead of a brutal devouring, he forced himself to keep it light.

She tasted sweet, ridiculously tempting, and he had the weird feeling that something was off, out of sync. But it wasn’t her, it was him. Just the touch of her mouth to his made his chest tighten, his head pound, his cock throb.

Shit. What the hell was happening to him? It seemed taking it slow wasn’t good for his bloody health.

Irritated and off-center, he increased the pressure, manipulating her mouth until she opened for him. He pressed his tongue between her lips and rolled it around hers. Flames licked up his groin, along his spine, his solar plexus and into his chest.

To hell with slow. He pulled her tight against him, all the time subjecting her to his kiss, a fierce possession that only served to fire him up faster, harder.

Erin kept up with him, and somewhere beneath the rabid need to take, he knew that she wanted him with the same ferocious need that he wanted her. Her hands were all over his back, her fingers pressing into him, her hips tilting up toward his erection, seeking. He kissed her harder, all that lush ripeness calling to him with a lure he’d never known before.

He slid his hands down over her ass, forcing her hips to meet his. Right then, he knew he’d tell her anything, promise her anything, as long as she didn’t decide to change her damn mind.

“What is it about you?” he groaned against her mouth. “What the fuck is it?”

* * * * *

Erin was asking herself the same question. She didn’t know up from down right then. All she knew was that this felt so right. Being in Nathan’s arms, feeling the press of him against her, the crush of his mouth on hers.

She welcomed the way his hand slid between them, the way his palm cupped her breast. In some vague part of her brain she was aware they were outside by the public car park, and people could walk past at any moment. That she didn’t much care surprised her. All she wanted was to stay this close to Nathan, for him to keep touching her.

He flicked his thumb across her nipple, so tender beneath the fabric of her dress, her bra. When she moaned softly, he did it again.

The hand he had on her backside slid beneath her dress. His fingers brushed her thigh.

“Shit. You’re wearing stockings.”

Since he said it almost with a growl, she smiled and asked purely for form, “You don’t like them?”

“Are you kidding? The first time I ever got off was to a picture of a female in stockings.”

“You do that a lot.”

“What?”

“Refer to women as females.”

And in doing so, she realized, it added to the sense of the primitive she felt about him, the possessive vibe, the sense of ownership he projected, like he considered her his in the most elemental way. That unsettled her, rattled her to the core.

The knowledge made her want to run as fast as her heels would allow. But for some bizarre reason, her feet stayed firmly planted on the ground. Nathan might terrify her, but he also excited her.

Her stomach trembled and she shivered. Whip fast, he stepped back, took off his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders.

He pulled her back to him. “Want to get out of here?”

“Nathan…”

He squeezed his eyes shut. “Shit. Don’t do this to me, sugar.”

She shook her head. “I’m…you…you do scare me a little.”

His eyes went wide, then narrowed and turned very dark.

She shook her head again. “Not… It’s just that you make me want you when I know I shouldn’t.”

“Why the hell not?”

“It’s the getting-to-know-you thing, I suppose. We don’t really know anything about each other.”

“Okay. Here it is. I’m thirty, clean, and have all my own teeth. I was in the army, Special Forces, stationed in Afghanistan. Now, with Tynan, I run a security consultancy. I travel a lot, enjoy female…women’s company, and have wanted to get inside you since the first time I caught sight of you. How’s that?”

“It’s honest, I suppose. What sort of things does a security consultancy do?”

He ran his hands up and down her arms. “Pretty much anything that’s needed. I’ve got the physical detail kind of stuff, Ty takes care of the technical. Brawn and brains. It works.”

“Is it dangerous?”

“Not when it works.”

He took her mouth again, then bit gently along her lower lip, slow and oh so sensual. “So, Erin. Are you coming home with me?”

“No. I can’t do that.”

Like a man in pain, he squeezed his eyes shut, then dropped his forehead to hers. “You’re fucking killing me, sugar.”

“I can’t go home with you. I have my dog, remember? I can’t leave her alone any longer than I already have.”

He opened his eyes and looked at her. “What are you saying? That you’re asking me back to yours?”

Since she’d be on her own territory, her own home ground, Erin decided to take a chance. “Yes,” she said after the briefest hesitation. “But only for coffee.”

His green eyes gleamed, and he tugged his jacket tightly around her. “That’s a start. I’ll take it.”

* * * * *

Erin could barely remember saying her good-byes, since Nathan had whipped them away so fast it made her head whirl. She had a recollection of Talia’s concerned look, but Erin wasn’t going to let it push doubts into her head. She was starting to know her own mind, trust her own instincts. That knowledge had been hard won. During these last few months, she had been forced to make her own decisions, and had allowed herself to make them while reveling in her newfound freedom. Being with Nathan tonight was something she wanted, something she’d rolled over in her mind all evening, and she instinctively knew it was right for her.

It would be a kind of rite of passage, she supposed, taking the opportunity to sneak a look at Nathan as he drove her home. An assertion that she was in charge of her own life, her own sexual needs. If she went all the way—and she had a feeling that was where coffee would lead—it would be just for a night. The scratching of an itch. For both of them. She knew his reputation. Was brutally aware that he enjoyed sex but didn’t do relationships, preferring to move on. That suited her fine. Like she’d told him, she didn’t want forever-after either. In fact, at this point in her life, she wanted to be like Nathan and enjoy sex for its own sake without the ties and complications that came from an involvement that went beyond the brief and the physical. Living this way ensured she would never risk losing herself again.

On the surface, Nathan shared similar attributes to Justin. Powerful, enigmatic and self-assured. Except, in retrospect, Justin’s power was superficial, while Nathan’s seemed innate. He was enigmatic, but again it wasn’t on the surface. It was integral to who he was, that mysterious quality that she couldn’t quite define or label.

Plus, he was sexy as hell, whereas Justin hadn’t really done it for her. Her only attraction to him had been because he’d shown her attention. At the beginning of their relationship, he had lavished it on her. She’d never had that from her parents. They’d been too busy with their own lives, with their own careers, to worry about spending time with their only child. Justin had made her feel wanted, admired. Then he’d controlled her, manipulated her. He’d found her Achilles’ heel and played on it. At first, she’d been too young, too impressionable to see through it, but it hadn’t taken long before she’d realized she was trapped by a monster.

Now she was slowly rebuilding her confidence, reasserting her own power, making her own decisions. An integral part of that meant acting on her own needs and desires, while continuing to protect herself in any way she deemed necessary.

Buoyed by that understanding, Erin stopped at her front door and looked up at Nathan. “Willa, my dog. It’ll probably be best if you just ignore her.”

He held out his hand for her key and, without a word, unlocked the door. He stood back, and Erin stepped into her hallway. Already halfway to the door, Willa froze, her eyes huge and wary as she stared at Nathan. With a pitiful whine, she started to back away, her ears pinned back to her skull.

Erin felt a pang. She hated that Willa was still so scared and had hoped that by now she might be starting to trust again. “Come on, baby. Everything’s fine. Nobody’s going to hurt you.”

Erin went down the hall, aware that Nathan closed the door behind them. Willa’s attention was fully on Nathan and she hid behind Erin when they made their way into the kitchen.

At the threshold, Nathan lingered. He hunkered down, rested his elbows on his thighs and gently encouraged Willa to come to him. “Here, girl. I’m not going to hurt you.”