Rhyannon Byrd - Primal Instinct 04 (29 page)

It came to a stop in the center of the room, and all
Olivia could think was Oh, my God. Ohmygod…Ohmygod…Ohmygod…

The animal’s massive head was cocked a little to the
side, and its bright amber eyes stared back at her, sharp with intelligence,
glittering with awareness. As he stood there in the pale glow of light, she had
the strangest sense that he wanted to come closer, but was wary of how she
would respond. Of frightening her away.

It took a moment to find her voice, but she finally
managed to say, “So I g-guess I was more right than I’d realized when I
c-called you a tomcat, huh?”

He chuffed a rough sound under his breath, almost as
if he was laughing. But there was a shadow of something dark hanging over him,
the intensity of his emotions blasting against her like a physical force. She
could see the longing in his eyes. Could sense how badly he needed comfort,
someone to hold on to him, and her fear melted away like snowflakes beneath the
burning warmth of the sun.

With her back braced against the door, Olivia slid
down to the floor and stretched out one hand, calling him to her with the
silent offering. He came forward slowly…cautiously, until his fur-covered head
nuzzled against her chest. She funneled her fingers through the soft, thick fur
on the back of his strong neck, feeling the powerful shift of muscle beneath
his hot skin as he drew in a series of deep, ragged breaths. And then, like a
dam cracking apart, allowing the rushing waters to flood through, she began to
cry. Fat, salty tears that she had no hope of stopping or controlling. She
wasn’t even sure she could explain what the tears were for, understanding only
that they were as essential as the air shuddering in her lungs, the blood
coursing through her veins.

Then the unthinkable happened, and Olivia could have
sworn that he started to cry, too. The sounds were rougher than human tears,
rawer, like something angry and hard being shredded inside him, and her heart
softened in a warm, breathtaking wave of tenderness, until it was nothing more
than a hot, burning glow in her chest. “It’s okay,” she whispered, stroking his
fur as she curved herself over him, around him, cradling him in her arms. “I’m
here. I won’t leave you.”

Hours could have crept by, or perhaps only a handful
of minutes. Olivia didn’t know, and she didn’t care. She was content to be
where she was, whispering to him in the darkness, careful to keep her voice
soft…soothing, gentling him until his breathing had grown calm. Eventually he
lifted his head, the tiger’s face close to hers as he stared deep into her
eyes. He cocked his head a little to the side again, and she gave him a
trembling, watery smile.

“You’re so b-beautiful,” she whispered, running her
fingertips over his face, awed by the sheer, miraculous wonder of him. She had
thought she would be terrified if she ever saw him in his animal form. That the
beast would be foreign…unknown. But it was no stranger who stared back at her
through those golden, hypnotic eyes. It was Aiden, and in that instant the
horrifying realization burned through Olivia’s mind that she was falling in
love with him. The crazy, rushing, head-over-heels kind of falling that she
couldn’t defend against, couldn’t fight. “I think…” She swallowed, working for
her broken voice. “I think you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

He gave a deep, rumbling purr, then licked the side of
her face.

“Uck,” she groaned, laughing as she wiped away the
tiger drool, and again she could have sworn the rough sound he made deep in his
chest was laughter. In that moment, everything inside her churned into a
desperate, needy ache that only he could ease, and she knew that she was tired
of running from the inevitable. Tired of fighting what she wanted so badly to
happen.

Olivia ran her hands down the sides of his face, his
throat, her voice trembling with raw, devastating need as she said, “Change
back, Aiden. Now. Change back for me.”

He looked away, tensing, and she grabbed his thick
fur, pulling until he was staring at her again. “Change back,” she whispered,
holding nothing back, letting everything she felt inside bleed into her
expression. “I need you here with me. Right now.”

He shuddered beneath her hands, then pulled away,
slipping out of her hold. Panicking, she scrambled to her knees, ready to chase
him down, until she realized he was already shifting back to his human shape,
right before her eyes. It felt as if she’d fallen into some kind of magical
universe as she watched thick fur melt into sleek, silken skin, his bones
cracking as they reshaped themselves into the familiar, breathtaking body that
never ceased to dazzle her, melting her down into a thick, molten burn of
hunger and lust. As his muscles rippled beneath his skin, he fell away from
her, sprawling across the floor on his back, the pale streams of moonlight
illuminating his dark, dangerous beauty.

Before he’d even fully completed the change, Olivia
crawled over him, straddling his ridged stomach, her hands reaching for his
damp face. He shuddered beneath her, his golden eyes suddenly popping open, and
he grasped her wrists, locking them in a manacle grip before she could touch
him.

From one instant to the next, his expression turned
savage, and he curled his lip. “I can’t believe I let that happen today.” The
words emerged in a low, seething snarl, and he grasped her upper arms, giving
her a little shake. “It was so stupid. I should have kept you locked in the
truck. You both could have been killed. I could have lost you!”

“It wasn’t your fault,” she argued, fighting against
his hold, mindless of the pain in her arm. “Damn it, Aiden. Let go of me and
let me touch you.”

His eyes squeezed closed as his head fell back against
the floor, tendons straining in his throat from the arched position of his
neck, his hands still gripping her arms, holding her away from him. “You
shouldn’t want me.” Dull, emotionless words, as if he was the one shutting down
now. “Not after what happened. Not after tonight. After seeing me like this.”

Frustration welled up like a froth of lava getting
ready to explode. “Why? Because you’ve shown you have emotions like the rest of
us?” she burst out in a hot, angry rush, struggling against his hold even
harder. “God, you alphas are so thickheaded sometimes! Now, let go of me before
I scream!”

He released his hold on her arms and opened his eyes,
his expression painfully grim as he dropped his hands to the floor. They curled
into hard, tight fists, his body rigid beneath her, caught on a knife’s edge
between need and rage. “Get out of here, Liv. Now.”

She lifted her chin, refusing to budge from her perch
on his stomach. “No. I’m not going to go running just because you’re in a foul
mood. So you got upset? So what? What’s the big freaking deal?”

“It’s dangerous to let out what’s inside me.” His
breath jerked in his lungs, lifting his chest, his golden eyes burning with
frustration and fury and lust. “Trust me, Liv. It isn’t all teary and tender.
Most of it’s ugly and raw and black. Most of it would scare the shit out of
you.”

“You don’t scare me, Aiden. In fact, I’ll show you
just how not scared I am of you,” she snapped, caught up in a complicated, powerful
knot of desperation and love as she leaned down to press an openmouthed kiss
against his left nipple. He reacted with a sharp jolt, as if he’d been struck
by a crackling surge of electricity.

“What are you doing?” he snarled, staring with
narrowed, suspicious eyes as she began to scoot back, kissing her way down his
beautiful, muscular body. His massive erection jerked and pulsed between them
as she kissed her way over his ribs, lingering on a smooth, curving scar. When
her tongue dipped playfully into his belly button, the guttural sound that
crawled up his throat was only part man. It should have terrified her, the
sheer animal savagery of that sound, but it didn’t. If anything, it only made
her hotter…hungrier.

“Answer me, damn it.” He was drenched with sweat, his
eyes flashing between those of the man and the beast as she dared a quick
glance up at his face, watching as his anger reshaped itself into something
dark and erotic. “What the hell are you doing, Liv?”

With his hot male scent filling her head, she scooted
lower, pressing a tender kiss to the healing welt on his thigh. The
mind-boggling length of his erection bobbed at the edge of her vision, rising
from its thick nest of caramel-colored curls, and she couldn’t wait to touch
it. Hold it. “You’re a smart guy, Aiden. Figure it out,” she said in a low
voice just as she wrapped her cool hand around the heavy, vein-ridden shaft.
His body went completely rigid, held in a straining vise of control, his eyes
shocked wide, still red from his tears, but it only made him sexier, that
ragged edge of emotion adding a fierceness to his features that spiked her need
even higher. Or maybe that was just the excitement of holding him in her hand.
The heady anticipation of knowing that she was going to take him into her
mouth. Her body. Or maybe it was everything. God, all he had to do was look at
her and she was ready, more turned on than she’d ever been before.

Salty drops of moisture leaked from the shaft’s
swollen, plum-sized head, and she used them to lube her hand, making her palm
wet enough to glide along his length in a smooth, slick pumping action that had
his lips pulling back over his sharp white teeth. His powerful body shuddered
beneath her, his thick, ropy muscles defined in sharp relief beneath the
burnished silk of his skin. And his eyes…his eyes burned with a hunger that was
so savage and raw, she could only marvel at its existence.

“Last chance, Liv. You need to get up and walk out of
here. Right now. Or it’s going to be too late.”

“It was too late for me the second I set eyes on you,”
she whispered, feeling as if she’d been caught up in a whirlpool that was
sucking her down deeper…and deeper. But she wasn’t fighting the current. She
wanted to be pulled under. Wanted to be battered by the waves, crushed by the
stunning force of the currents. She wanted to be swept away. Lost. Taken.

And she wanted it now.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she told him, holding his
burning gaze as she leaned down and licked the heavy, glistening head of his
cock, the resulting tremor that shot through his body making her smile. “Not
until we’ve finished what we’ve started, Ade.”

WONDERING WHERE the shy, stammering kindergarten
teacher had gone, Aiden glared down at the stunning seductress, who was driving
him out of his mind, her touch so damn good his eyes were nearly rolling back
in his head. “You put your mouth on me again,” he forced out through his
gritted teeth, “and I won’t be responsible for what happens. You understand me?
And you’re not ready for it, Liv.”

“Like hell I’m not.” A flash of temper sparked through
her violet gaze, along with a heavy dose of frustration.

Reaching down, he fisted the fingers of his right hand
in the silky strands of her hair, his voice a rough, guttural rasp as he tried
once more to give her fair warning of what she was getting herself into. “I
won’t be able to control myself, which means it’s not gonna be some sweet, easy
ride. It’s gonna be me covering you, holding you down, buried about a mile in
your body, going at you as hard as I can.”

“Good. Because that’s how I want it.”

Aiden eyed her warily, afraid to believe what she’d
just said. The staggering implications behind her husky words. That this was
actually going to happen, here and now.

He was too on edge to handle it, still reeling from
the crazy, chaotic storm of emotion he’d been dealing with since the moment
he’d realized that she and Jamie had been taken. The stark, chilling terror
that had ripped him apart. Then finding that bastard with his hands on her.
Hearing the vile things he’d said. It’d been like slipping into the most
excruciating, heinous depths of hell, and now he’d been transported to heaven.

It made his head spin. Made him feel as if he was
going to burst from his skin.

She tilted her head, pulling against his grip, and
softly said, “Now let go of my hair, Aiden.”

Struggling to keep himself as controlled as possible,
he carefully exhaled the deep breath he hadn’t even realized he was holding and
relaxed his fingers. She pulled away a little, the silken strands of dark red
slipping from his hold. Then she sent him a slow, hungry smile that made his
muscles seize…and lowered her head again. Holding his narrow-eyed gaze, she
opened her mouth and touched her tongue to the strained, damp head of his cock,
the eager look in her eyes telling him that she was more than ready to handle
the consequences of her actions. Lust erupted through his body with such
savage, violent intensity that it arched his back, the sharp action nearly
knocking her away. She gripped his hip with one hand to steady herself and
opened her mouth wider.

“Deeper,” he growled, her soft moan making him see red
as she took him in. “Suck it hard. You won’t hurt me. The harder you suck it,
the better it fee—” He broke off, roaring, as his head fell back, a thick surge
of hot fluid blasting into her mouth, though he hadn’t come. Not completely.
Not yet. When his beast was so close to the surface, his orgasms changed,
becoming different, building up in sharp, wrenching bursts until he finally
crashed over the edge in what would undoubtedly be an explosive, jaw-grinding
release.