Rhyannon Byrd - Primal Instinct 04 (2 page)

Need her. Naked. Now.

He was, to put it bluntly, completely screwed, and as
his body crushed hers against the ground, two thoughts fired simultaneously
through Aiden’s brain, obliterating everything else. The first was that she
felt better than any other woman he’d ever had beneath him, even if she was a
human. The second was that he needed to get the hell away from her, before he
ended up making the biggest mistake of his life.

This second idea was completely born from the first,
and the first had so many tangled layers to it, it was difficult to find his
way through them all. He’d known she smelled good, but now that he was so close
to her, the effect was staggering, like some tantalizing cross between the dangerously
forbidden and the comforting warmth of home. Illicit, and yet strangely
familiar, as if it was a part of him. Despite the difference in their heights,
she fit against him in a way that just seemed right, and there was something
painfully erotic about the soft, gasping sound of her breathing…the way she
squirmed to get free.

Just calm down, he thought, struggling to hold himself
together. And while you’re at it, get a friggin’ grip.

All right. Okay. He could do this, damn it. He just
had to think it through. Wrap his mind around it. There had to be a reasonable
explanation for his reaction, because human females did not call to his beast
this way. That was why he slept with them—for the sheer fact that they did not
affect him…that they were safe. If someone had asked him to explain why he
liked to bed down with the things he most hated, that would have been the
answer right there—the fact that he remained completely untouched by the humans
he had sex with. For the most part, he still considered humanity to be nothing
more than a cesspool of greed, filth and perversion, aside from the select few
he now considered his friends. And yet, even though he loathed their species,
he never hurt the human females he slept with. Never allowed that darker side of
his nature its freedom.

You’re just in a bad way. It’s been too long for you.
That’s all it is, he silently argued, forcing his locked muscles to move, and
he managed to lift himself away just enough that the woman could roll over
beneath him. Then everything went to hell, because the instant Olivia Harcourt
was on her back, she stared directly up into his narrowed, no doubt “changing”
eyes, and the only thing Aiden could manage to say was “Shit.” A red, steamy
haze instantly filled his vision, and his cock went so hard he was half afraid
he would go off right there, inside his friggin’ jeans. She might have been on
the delicate side, but her breasts were incredible, cushioned against his
chest, her nipples hard beneath the fabric of her sweater. Her soft, glossy
lips were moving, no doubt cursing him to hell and back, but he couldn’t hear
her words over the roar in his ears. Through the dizzying, deafening storm of
hunger, Aiden watched helplessly as he stretched her arms above her head and
pinned her wrists against the cold ground with his left hand, the aggressive
action so at odds with the way his right thumb tenderly stroked the fragile
edge of her jaw.

It didn’t matter how hard he tried, he simply couldn’t
stop staring down at the strange little human, completely mesmerized by the
things he could see…and even more so by the things he could sense.

The heat blooming beneath the pale, pearl-like luster
of her skin.

The provocative rush of blood pounding through her
veins.

The heady rise of desire as it softened her body.

Then she exhaled a sharp, shivery breath, the scent of
her mouth filling his head, and Aiden realized he’d made a fatal error. A
serious miscalculation. He’d thought she smelled good on the outside, but it
was nothing compared to her scent on the inside, the sweetness of her inner
secrets breaking him down. He could only imagine how perfect it would smell
when her warm juices were slipping from her sex like honey, pooling like melted
sunshine between her thighs. They would be mouthwatering—hot and slick and
exquisite—and in that instant the man faded to the background of his mind…and
the animal took over.

One second he was poised above her, and the next thing
Aiden knew, he’d taken her mouth, thrusting his tongue deep, tasting her completely,
the kiss just shy of violent as he sought out that rich burn of flavor. A
devastating burst of pleasure poured through his muscles and his limbs,
scorching every inch of his body, inside and out—the painful, gnawing need so
much worse than it’d been before.

She smelled deliciously ripe…and somehow tasted even
better. Though he knew it was madness, the feral part of his soul was roaring
that he needed to mount her, penetrate her and fill her up with a hot, thick
surge of come before she could get away. He growled low in his throat,
wondering where that strange urge was coming from, compelling him to do the
unthinkable as he pushed himself between her thighs in a hard, aggressive
movement. He’d never willingly spilled himself inside any woman, and he sure as
hell wasn’t going to start now.

A chilling shadow from his past crept through him, but
he mentally shoved it away, fighting against that slick, nauseating pull.
Never. He would never go down that path again. Which meant that he needed to
get away from Olivia Harcourt…and stay away. Now. The sooner the better, for
both their sakes.

If he could just get her and the kid out of there, he
could take them to a motel. Then he could switch up—to hell with the promise
he’d made his friends back in Colorado—and hand her over to Kellan. Let the wolf
deal with her, while he protected them from a distance.

Struggling to find the presence of mind to break away
from her, Aiden became painfully aware of the fact that he was grinding against
her now, thrusting his hardened cock against the warm, tender notch between her
thighs. Even as he fought to hold back the release of his claws and fangs, his
fingers and gums burning with the need to change, he was eating his way into
her mouth, unable to stop. His beast had hijacked his body and he was helpless
in the face of its primitive demands. Once he’d started kissing her, he was
lost. And God help him, it felt as if she was actually kissing him back, her
small tongue rubbing against his, her sweet breaths filling his mouth as he
shifted his head from one side to the other, searching for a deeper angle…a way
to get even more of those pansy-soft lips and the sleek, lush warmth that lay
within.

It completely unnerved him, how lost he was to the
act, considering he’d never been all that interested in losing himself in the
taste of a woman’s mouth before. After all, there were always more interesting
things a female could be doing with her lips and her tongue. And for some
strange reason, Aiden had always viewed a kiss as something a little too
intimate for the kind of affairs he had with women.

But he was kissing the hell out of the little human
trapped beneath his body and the cold, hard ground, and he never wanted to
stop. He was also dangerously close to taking her right there, and he could not
let that happen, for too many reasons to count.

She’s one of them, you idiot. A friggin’ human. Do you
even know what you’re doing?

With a deep, bitter snarl, Aiden finally managed to
pull away from the drugging depths of pleasure, breaking the contact of his
mouth against hers. But it wasn’t easy. Breathing hard, his heavy chest rising
and falling beneath his black T-shirt, he forced himself to change the position
of their bodies, pinning her hips between his rigid thighs. With that done, he
wiped the back of his wrist over his damp mouth as he struggled to calm his
thundering heart rate.

“Who are y-you?” she stammered. “G-get off me!”

For some reason he couldn’t understand, Aiden found
that stutter of hers completely charming. It probably made him nine different
kinds of insane, but watching the way her mouth trembled when she got stuck on
a word just made him want to kiss her again.

“Are you deaf?” she cried out in a shrill voice. “I
said to g-get off!”

He kept her wrists pinned against the weak blades of
winter grass and did his best to ignore the devastating effect of her
struggling body beneath him. “Just take a deep breath and calm down,” he choked
out. “I’m a good guy, okay? I’m not going to hurt you.”

Her eyes went wide with disbelief. “Yeah, r-right.
What kind of moron do you think I am?”

Even in the frosty, moon-drenched darkness, Aiden
could see her clearly, though he knew he remained mostly in shadow to her human
vision. Her unusual violet eyes were bright with shock, her mouth swollen from
the hard aggression of his kiss—the pink, full lips glossy and smooth, tempting
him to take them again. The rational part of his brain knew that her individual
features weren’t the most beautiful he’d ever seen—that they were more cute and
feylike than exotically sculpted—and yet he was completely mesmerized by them.
She was undoubtedly pretty, but he couldn’t stop staring with rapt absorption,
as if he were gazing down at the most exquisite, provocative female ever
created.

Clearing his throat, he somehow managed to say,
“Seriously. I mean you no harm,” then immediately winced, thinking he sounded
like some geeked-out alien trying to reassure the panicked earthlings that he
came in peace. What in God’s name was wrong with him?

“How do I know that?”

“Because if I wanted to hurt you,” he countered in a
gravelly tone he was determined to keep even and calm, “I’d have already done
it.”

A bitter laugh spilled from her lips. “And that’s
supposed to make me t-trust you?”

“I don’t give a damn if you trust me or not. But you’d
better do what I tell you if you want to make it through this alive, because
the bad guys probably aren’t far behind me.”

“What do you want from me?” She forced each word
through her gritted teeth. “Why are you here?”

She continued to pull at her trapped hands, but Aiden
wasn’t ready to let them go, knowing she would only try to strike out at him
and end up hurting herself. “I’m someone who was sent here to keep you alive.”

“That’s not p-possible.” Her stammering words suddenly
trailed off, the look of rising horror on her pale face tearing at him like
claws. “Oh, my God,” she whispered. “You’re one of them, aren’t you? You son of
a bitch. Monica said they could look human. You’re one of the bastards who
killed my sisters!”

“I’m not a bloody Casus,” he growled, scowling down at
her.

“Right! And I’m just meant to b-believe you?”

“Well, if I was, you could bet your sweet little ass
that I wouldn’t have been knocking on your front door. And I wouldn’t be taking
the time to talk to you, either,” he finished in a guttural snarl, his own
temper beginning to get the better of him.

She calmed a little at his words, sinking her teeth
into that full lower lip that Aiden knew was going to play front and center in
his dreams, obviously thinking over what he’d said. Then she took a deep
breath, slowly exhaled…and finally stopped fighting his hold. “If you’re not
one of the monsters,” she questioned in a soft, hesitant voice, “then just who
in God’s name are you?”

KNOWING THIS WAS GOING to be the tricky part, Aiden
stalled, using the time to simply appreciate the way her curly hair spread out
against the ground beneath her, the vibrant color shimmering like blood red
jewels in the silvery glow of moonlight. It contrasted sharply with the
paleness of her skin, the violet smoke of her eyes. When he found himself
fighting the urge to lean down and nuzzle his nose against the crimson strands,
he coughed to clear his throat again. “I’ve come here to help you,” he told
her. “Your sister’s the one who sent me.”

“Now I know you’re lying.” She bit out the words,
resuming her struggles. “My sisters are dead!”

“One of them is.” His tone turned gruff as he noticed
the liquid rush of tears glistening in her eyes. “The other’s been taken.”

“What?” She visibly swallowed, trembling beneath him.
“What are you talking about?”

“The youngest witch. The Casus have taken her
prisoner.” Rough, husky words that, if he didn’t know better, almost sounded as
if they had an undercurrent of emotion to them. “We’re not sure where they’re
keeping her, but we’re working on it.”

“You mean Chloe isn’t dead?” Her voice cracked as the
tears spilled from those violet eyes, and the tip of her nose turned an
adorable shade of pink. Though Aiden figured she had to be at least in her
mid-twenties, there was an innocence about her that made her seem younger…and
made him feel like a lecherous old geezer. “Answer me, damn it. Are you saying
that Chloe wasn’t m-murdered?”

“As far as we know, she’s still alive.”

Her shock was obvious, as was her hope that he was
telling her the truth. “We never found a body,” she whispered, “but…she’s been
missing for over a month. When Monica’s body was found three weeks ago, I…I
just assumed that they’d gotten Chloe, too.”

“Yeah, well, they do have her,” he said in a low
voice. “But for some reason they haven’t killed her yet.”

His gut twisted at the realization that he would
eventually have to reveal the specifics of her eldest stepsister’s death, and
how it had led to the hunt for her niece. “It’s Monica, though, who is
communicating with Molly.”