Beastly Desires (11 page)

“You’re not going to cry now, are you?” Dublhainn asked after a stretch of silence, looking panicked. “I’m not good with tears…or emotions.”

Kaisal cast him a glance. “If I do will you hold me?”

He shook his head. “Nah. Something from the
Pretty in Pink
soundtrack would slowly begin to play suspiciously in the background, we’d look deeply into one another’s eyes, and you’d fall in love. Then I’d have to break your heart with ramblings about it not being
you
per se but
me
and my hang ups about relationships because I’ve been hurt before, blah, blah, blah.” Reaching over, he placed a palm on Kaisal’s shoulder. “It’s best that we just end this now, my friend. It keeps things unadorned…simple.”

Nodding, Kaisal patted Dublhainn’s hand. “Later we’ll mourn for what could’ve been.”

His friend laughed, shoving at him. “Liar. You’re already whoring around on me, planning to mark other people.” Opening his door, he climbed out. “I could never trust you.”

Kaisal followed. “I can only take but so much rejection, Dubbs. I’m a sensitive man and I have needs.”

“Bullshit,” the wolf retorted as they reached the doorway.

When Kaisal went to walk through, Dublhainn stopped him. “Promise me something.”

Kaisal’s brows rose in question.

“That this”—his friend waved a hand between the two of them—“won’t change. I know what happens to males after they get mated.” He leaned in. “There’s this story I heard months ago about this grizzly who was living quite nicely in California. Sleuth dynasty, women by the dozens and
bam—
one day he catches sight of a wolf and it all changes. Now he’s roughing it somewhere in the mountains with a pack of my kind.
My. Kind.
I love my pack, by the gods do I love them, but I’m
canine.
How he hasn’t wiped the Earth clean of them yet I do not know. Then again I’m not in love. I don’t have anyone I’m willing to change everything for.” Dublhainn exhaled. “My point is that I don’t want to see you ambling about sans scrotum.”

“Okay, exactly how far has that fantasy of me falling in love with you gone?” Kaisal questioned, unlocking and opening the door. “Because now I’m starting to worry.”

The wolf cuffed him. “Don’t be a dick.”

“When you’re mentioning my undercarriage I have to question if you’re imagining finagling around beneath the hood.”

“What,” Basanti said from the corner of the living room, causing both men to scream and grab onto one another, “are the two of you discussing exactly?”

“You bringing about the oncoming apocalypse?” Dublhainn offered.

Head tilting, she watched him the same way a cat watched, well,
everything.
Basanti’s eyes glittered in the darkness. Why she was sitting in the dark, Kaisal dared not ask.

“To do that I’m going to need a blood sacrifice for the dark lord, Dublhainn.” Her teeth glinted as she gave a sharp smile. “Would you like to volunteer yourself?”

“Depends, sweetheart,” the man answered. “Will you be draining my femoral artery with your teeth right after you finish sucking my—”

Kaisal slapped a hand across Dublhainn’s mouth as Basanti unfurled herself from her chair. “Baz, calm. You’re
calm.
You’re on a beach in Kerala and there’s loads of maskai and tambuli and that homemade mutton saaru you love so much.” He backed slowly away with Dublhainn firmly in his grasp. “And there’s some half-naked little pervert in a banana cloth bringing you huggi and kadabu to feed you with his fingers.”

When he felt as though he’d gotten far enough away from where his cousin stood, he whispered, “
Run
.”

Dublhainn shot off through the house and Basanti stayed where she was.

Her sigh was loud and long. “You’re always taking away my toys.”

“Being that I have firsthand knowledge of how you play, I kind of have to.” Her lips curled and he nodded his head toward the steady stream of laughter coming from his den. “Are they…?”

“I think they were waiting for you to come back.” His cousin retook her seat. “That one is as skittish as a virgin on a porn set, Kas. Be careful.”

“When am I not?”

Basanti gave him a knowing look.

Kaisal’s lips twisted. “Right. Careful.”

He turned and walked toward the sound of their voices, his heart pounding in tandem with every step. Reaching the doorway, he found Callum in Kamali’s lap as he showed her the proper way to build a chainsaw shot gun before she mowed through a horde of the undead.

There was something about the scene that struck him directly in the chest.

Ours
, his tiger cajoled.

Yes
, Kaisal silently agreed, the fight going out of him.
Ours.
Marking Kamali wouldn’t solve every issue but it would be a step in the right direction. Nico couldn’t dispute his claim on the pair if he had no physical evidence. A connection to the lioness that went bone deep would be that evidence. But he had no rights to it.
No one
had any rights to it. It was something to be earned, and Kaisal would do so. He’d get her to see that there was nowhere else in the world better for her and Callum than being right here. Nowhere better than being with
him.

Walking slowly inside, he could tell the moment Kamali sensed his presence because her shoulders suddenly tensed. He stepped closer and settled down next to the pair.

“Kaisal!” Callum cheered. “
Iya’s
killing hordes of flesh eaters!”

He quirked a brow in amusement. The boy’s eyes shone, his smile wide and bright, and he smelled like chocolate.
Lots
of chocolate. “Is someone a little cocoa drunk?”

The cub’s mouth twitched. “Mebbe…”

“Do I even have any left?”

Callum looked to his mother and she gave him a stare that clearly read,
“There is no help for you here, my friend.”

Shrugging sheepishly, Callum waved his hands. “I’m a growing boy and I have needs.”

Kaisal blinked and looked at Kamali. “Exactly how high is this child’s IQ?”

She sighed, mussed Callum’s curls. “He was able to recognize over twenty full, complex sentences by two and could repeat them succinctly on his own by three. By the time he was four, he was reading at sixth-grade level. The last time he was tested, the results put him in the 130 range.” Her shoulders rolled. “My father thought it came from me since I was…” Stopping as if realizing she’d actually started to tell him more than a one-word answer for once, Kamali cleared her throat and finished with, “Like I said, he reads,
a lot
.”

“Since you were
what,
Kamali?”

Her head snapped around at her given name, eyes narrowing.

He watched her and nodded toward the door. “Come talk to me?”

She held his unwavering stare until the resistance seemed to drain from her. Placing a kiss on Callum’s temple, she whispered something in Yoruba and got to her feet. The cub went back to the game, obviously riveted by the screen.

Kaisal walked toward the kitchen, listening to her barely perceptible footfalls as she followed behind.

He went for the refrigerator and Kamali took a seat at the island.

“Hungry?” Kaisal mildly asked as he moved about the space.

“You know my name.” Her voice was whisper soft.

Stopping, he slowly turned around. “Yes. I do.”

Her eyes rose from the counter. “And?”

He cocked his head. “And?”

She sat backwards. “Now what?”

“You tell me.” he placed his elbows against the granite top and leaned toward her. “You tell me what happens now.” She looked away and Kaisal reached across, gently turning her head back with his fingertips on her chin. “You don’t want to leave, Kamali. Callum doesn’t want to.
I
don’t want you to.”

Gripping his wrist, she squeezed it. “But if we don’t—”

“If you don’t,” he interrupted, cupping her face in his palms. “It means you trust me, it means you trust my pride. It means you know this is where you belong.” Kaisal ran his thumb over her mouth. “It means you know you should be here with me…letting me feed you.”

Kamali appeared to be seconds away from smiling. “You have an obsession with food.”

“I have an obsession with
you.”
Kaisal angled closer and quietly demanded, “
Stay
. Stay here.”

Watching her throat work as she swallowed, he wondered what her skin would taste like when he placed his mouth there, wondered how hard her pulse would thump just beneath the delicate skin. Would she offer it to him on the crest of coming? Would she scream? Claw his back? Sink her teeth into his shoulder?

“Kaisal—”

He kissed her. No pretense. No more talking. No more beguiling. Kaisal brought their mouths together in a brutal slam that made their teeth clink together. Kamali’s hands slapped the counter, the sound ringing out as his tongue danced past her lips and wrapped around her own, stroking over it and eliciting a moan. The rumble from her chest sent shockwaves down his spine, stopping at his cock and stroking over it like a caress.

This wasn’t gentle, it was primal. She was up and over the counter in seconds, the scent of her arousal slapping him as she sat on the edge of the island, her legs wrapping about his waist while he cradled himself near the heat of her need. Kaisal pulled her flush to him, his cock grinding against her as he caught her minute pants with his lips. She fisted his shirt, shuddering, and he found the halves of her ass, squeezing.

Her nails raked across his scalp and he lost all reason, bumping his pelvis into hers with short, sharp thrusts that imitated exactly what he wanted to do—fuck her long and hard until she was boneless and sated, covered in his bruising kisses. Kamali arched her back, wordlessly pleading for more, and he gave it to her. Finding her throat, he nipped her there while bringing her down against him again and again until he felt her body seize with an oncoming release.

Kaisal bit down on her lobe and growled, “Mine” before covering her mouth and drinking down her cries. The second her quivering stopped, she let go of him, panting.

They locked eyes and he found himself staring at the lioness and not Kamali. No, there was feral need written all across her face and the smell of her saturated the air. Each inhale pushed him further away from the reign over himself he’d had in his hands just minutes before. His tiger pawed at the locked cage, attempting to free itself. He swallowed, reading the clear intent in her gaze.

Kaisal gritted out, “If you run, I
will
chase you.”

She gave no sign that she cared, only moved away from him. Holding his stare, she walked to the back door.

“Kamali…”
he warned between clenched fangs.

The locks clicked and before he could breathe another word she bolted.

His feet moved without hesitation. Kaisal was through the back door and clearing the side of the deck before he could even comprehend what he was doing. He simply ran. He didn’t care how far he had to go or what he had to do, he would catch her. He would make her his.

Naresh came toward him from the woods. “I just saw Kamali running, what did you…
son of a bitch, Kas! That fucking hurt!
”

He’d apologize for clothes-lining his brother later. He had a singular goal and he didn’t have any authority over his actions. Kamali wasn’t dealing with his human side any longer. No, as of right now, he was all beast.