Predator's Refuge (16 page)

“You didn’t hurt her.”

“And you didn’t kill Mariska.” She stared him down, hands on her hips, challenging him. “Now, don’t you think you’ve done enough penance? You came here to start a new life. You need to let go of the old one. You’re not that man anymore.” Her mouth opened and closed a couple of times, and he waited for further chiding. It didn’t come. Instead, she said, “Did you love her?”

“No. I’m not even sure I liked her. But she didn’t deserve to die in such a manner.”

“I’m sorry.”

He blinked in an effort to soothe his burning eyes, but it didn’t decrease the stinging sensation. “Me too. I keep thinking if I’d been a better person, she never would have propositioned me. I keep thinking if I’d been braver I would have wrung Istvan’s neck with my own hands. I keep thinking…”

“Anton, stop. Just stop. You’re exactly like me in one way.”

“And which way is that?”

“You think too goddamn much.”

He gawked at the beauty before him, amazed at her words, stunned by the fact she hadn’t run screaming from him. And all he wanted was to run to her. God only knew how badly he wanted to hold her and run his hand over the curve of her hip. To mold her body against his. The need to taste her skin built in him with every passing second, making him delirious with hunger.

He’d been running from his sins for so long, seeking refuge. And here was the perfect sanctuary. Surely it wouldn’t be a sin to lose himself in her for a little while.

Would it?

Before he could answer his own question, Marci walked right up to him. Her face was set and her eyes clear. Gone was her hesitation. Gone, her fear. She looked vibrant and confident and so sexy his cock ached.

“Anton,” she said in her sweet voice. “Stop thinking so much, and fuck me.”

He stopped thinking, almost stopped breathing, and pulled her up against his body.

* * * *

Marci’s eyelashes did an involuntary flutter as his mouth opened on hers. Anton growled as his tongue invaded the cavity of her mouth, taking what they both so needed. His kiss, so savage and raw, made her head swim and their teeth knock. They bit each other’s lips. She tasted a hint of blood.

And had never felt so alive or so cherished.

When they finally fell apart on a breath, she gazed at his rugged face and wondered how he could possibly feel the same level of attraction as she felt for him. She might have acted brave when she told him to take her, but inside she’d quaked in her boots.

Of course, she’d felt alone much of her life. While her shifter girlfriends were enjoying their bodies, shifting as young teens, Marci had been a late bloomer. She’d also been the only shifter she knew to need braces, and she’d worn the steely contraption for years, feeling like a loser. While other girls seemed confident and mature, Marci had spent most of her time talking with a pronounced lisp like a schmuck. And even though the braces were removed a few short weeks ago, and she was growing accustomed to her shifter body, she still sometimes felt like a lonely wallflower.

But when Anton Gaspar kissed her, she felt like a princess.

Her lynx roared to life, as it always did in his presence, and she heard an answering rumble in his chest.

His lips twitched. “My tiger likes you.”

“My lynx likes you.”

“Then it’s time they get better acquainted,” he muttered as he grabbed her hand. Before she knew it, he was dragging her through the woods and back to Cabin 47. He flung the door wide open, pulled her inside, and slammed it behind them. She stumbled to his bed, and couldn’t help noticing how the sheets were badly rumpled, as if he’d spent the night kicking.

He locked the door and walked up to her, his face serious, and his green eyes flashing. While she watched, he slipped out of his gym shorts. His monstrous cock sprang free and he palmed it. “Do you have any idea how I burn for you?”

Watching him touch himself made her internal temperature soar and razed her common sense. As she locked eyes on his swelling member, for it seemed to grow with every slow stroke, she tore at her own clothes. He didn’t help her disrobe, merely watched her with a small smile on his face. By the time she was down to her bra and panties, his grin became a tight line of barely disguised lust.

He moved his hand to reach for her, but she brushed it away. “Don’t. There’s something I want to do.” And before he could object, she got down on her knees before him. As he gasped, Marci touched his cock and watched it bob in her hands. She smoothed her fingers all over the soft skin there, marveling at the strength underneath. She cupped his heavy balls, which were already so tight and full of explosive promise.

“Angel,” he said, panting.

She cut him off by taking him in her mouth, right to the back of her throat. His curses filled the cabin and made her heart sing. He liked what she was doing to him. Feeling empowered, she ran her tongue up and down his length, swallowing his salty goodness.

And the entire time, her lynx purred, as if digesting a large bowl of cream. The animal closed its glowing eyes and seemed to sigh.

Yes
.

Marci grabbed his tense buttocks and pulled him close to her, into her. He dug his fingers into her hair, holding her, and fucked her mouth with a grunt. She wanted him to come this way, wanted to feel his heat seeping down her throat and into her soul. She wanted to be able to lick her lips later and still taste him there.

But Anton had other ideas.

Biting back a snarl, he pulled her to her feet and kissed her mouth hard. After devastating her with more of his potent kisses, he looked at her bra and panties. They weren’t her fanciest, white cotton with a peekaboo eyelet design, but he looked at her as if she was dressed in the finest silk lingerie.

He unclasped her bra and ripped it from her shoulders. Once she was bared to him, he palmed her breasts, squeezing them, playing with their fullness. He sat on the edge of the bed and made her straddle his lap. Holding her close, he suckled her breasts, nipping her swollen tips. And as he did, his hands explored her thighs, moving ever higher.

Just as Anton bit down on one nipple, his thumbs grazed the inside edge of her panties. With an expert touch, he eased his thumbs over the wet cotton between her legs, making her mad with delight. His smooth caresses were so luxurious she wanted to pull out her hair. She cried his name and held his head to her breast.

He released her breast and wriggled away, smiling at her. “I know what my little lynx needs.”

“Give it to me.”

He helped her stand and waggled his brows at her white panties. Raising his gaze to her with a flirty grin, he hooked a finger in the elastic sitting at her hips. Just the feel of his fingertip was enough to make her come undone, but she somehow managed to remain standing. Crouching before her, he slowly dragged her panties over her hips and down her legs. As she stepped out of them, his gaze remained on her pussy, seemingly fascinated by what he saw there.

After breathing in deeply, he stood and looked her in the eye. “My angel. You are the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.”

She shifted on her feet. “It’s okay. I’m already naked. You don’t have to flatter me.”

“I wasn’t.” He narrowed his eyes at her and cupped her cheek. “And you are exquisite.”

Heat ravaged her cheeks under his touch and his remonstrance. Years of awkwardness bubbled up inside her, making her feel shy and ungainly. “I’m just the lynx-next-door. Nothing more.”

Without warning, he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. While she dangled there, catching her breath, he slapped her ass. It was hard enough to make her skin tingle and intimate enough to make her wet. He soothed her cheek by smoothing his hand over it. When he put her back down, angry tiger eyes seemed to glimmer from behind his own. “Next time you speak of yourself in such terms, I’ll spank both cheeks.”

For a moment, she stared back, speechless at the man who clearly thought more of her than she did of herself. And then, while she gawked at him, openmouthed, her lynx decided to play. It compelled her to cock her head at him and grin. “Maybe I’ll spank you back.”

“Gabi was right. You must have some tiger in your bloodline.” He dragged her close and his erection pressed against her belly, making her almost dizzy with want, and with the possibilities careening through her head.

“I’m all lynx.”

Anton fondled her ass as he held her. He flexed his lower half, moving up and down ever so slowly, teasing her by sliding his cock along her wet seam.

He felt so good and he wasn’t even inside her yet.

I am inside you. I’ve been inside you since we first saw each other. Just as you are in me
.

He hadn’t voiced the words, and yet somehow he’d spoken them. She stared, perplexed for only a moment, when she realized the words had come from his tiger.

The power of those few words made her question her whole world, made her burn with desire and something even stronger. Something intangible, but potent. She believed his words, and knew they came from Anton as much as his inner animal.

She could no longer deny he affected her. He had from their first encounter. Already, she knew her life would be altered for the worse if Anton Gaspar ever exited it.

The very thought made a strange pain reverberate inside her stomach. As much as she tried to reconcile her emotions, her lynx didn’t give her much opportunity. The animal was in heaven, purring and strutting for Anton’s tiger, and it wanted more.

He seemed to understand. Anton leaned over and captured her earlobe between his teeth, fondling her ass the whole time. His finger dipped dangerously between her cheeks, grazing her entrance, and her knees almost buckled under the sweet pleasure.

“Marci,” he said, moaning, “I’ve wanted to taste you for so long. I don’t plan on waiting any longer. I want you on my face. Right. Now.”

With that, he released her and moved to the bed, stretching his long body out on the covers. Marci joined him as soon as he was flat, straddling him, needing so badly to be near him. He welcomed her by running his warm hands up her thighs. Tugging gently, he urged her toward his face.

She paused. “I’ve never done it like this before.”

His eyes glowed. “First of many positions, kitten.” He grinned like a happy sinner. “This just happens to be one of my favorites. Now crawl up here and let me eat you up.”

She didn’t waste another second. Sliding up his body, Marci positioned herself above his head and held onto the head rail. Before she could even adjust how she was kneeling, Anton held her fast and brought his mouth to her anxious pussy.

Fire.
Soft, persistent warmth shot into her core.

He laved her lips, wrapping his mouth around her, and tickled her clit with his tongue. Shards of delight shot through her body as she writhed above him. Once again, it struck her that his every motion, his every pass of the tongue, seemed devised to drive her insane. And when he sucked her pussy lips into his mouth, her wetness seeped out of her and he drank her down with apparent gusto.

“You taste so good,” he murmured in a deep, frenzied voice.

As he explored her with more intimacy than anyone ever had, her thoughts raced back to the stories of his family hurting him. In that moment, as she contemplated a bruised and battered Anton, Marci felt closer to him than she ever had to anyone else. This man, who had been hurt and betrayed in so many ways, cared enough to make her body hum with ecstasy.

She wanted to make him feel the same way. She wanted to take away all his hurts and help him feel whole again.

With a low growl that sounded more animal than manly, Anton released her swollen skin and moved out from under her. With ease, he pushed her back onto the bed and onto her back. Spreading her legs, maneuvering them as if he owned them, he continued his incredible oral assault. Noises emerged from her, ones that matched his in ferocity, and Anton chuckled his approval. As shallow breaths overtook her lungs, Marci closed her eyes and tried to control her out-of-control whimpers.

So close
.

As if he understood her body better than she did, Anton sucked her clit and she unraveled on a slow, greedy sigh. Her whole body seized and lightning flashed before her closed eyes, the sensation was so seismic. Marci felt every one of her hairs stand on end while the massive orgasm claimed her, even the hairs under her skin that only appeared when her lynx did. Each inch of her skin was consumed by Anton’s heat. And with each passing second, just when she felt she could endure no more of the foreign pleasure, he continued plundering her pussy, wringing out several mini-orgasms.

Pure, unadulterated delirium.

He only moved his mouth when she had the strength to reach down and touch his head. “Please.”

His laugh was sweet torment to her weakened body and overwrought mind. “Fuck. You taste even better when you come.” He slid a teasing finger along her seam, wet it with her juices, and sucked it into his mouth.

She jolted beneath him. “A minute, please.”

“I don’t think so, Marci. Now that I’ve had you, I don’t want to stop.” He loomed over her, his mouth wet and smiling. “Do you?”

She drank him in. The flirtatious smile that broke up an otherwise somber face. The rippling muscles along his shoulders. The way his eyes seemed so dark in the cabin, and yet how they burned bright with want, want of her. “No. Don’t stop.”

He leaned in and kissed her, and her mouth opened automatically, like a baby on its mother’s breast. His kisses nourished her, made her feel whole and perfect. Each soft invasion of her mouth resulted in flurries of goose bumps and echoing shivers up and down her body. A few more gentle caresses from his tongue, and she knew she’d once again fly to the highest heights. She could come from his kisses.

Her body reeled from sensory overload. Flannel blankets cushioned her body from below. Anton’s hardness pinned her to the bed, and her hands fluttered up and down his large back. His manly scent filled her nostrils with every breath, making her want to take him into every pore. And his taste seemed made for her.