Skin Walkers: Leto (20 page)

There was no way she was going to let Leto force feed her, she didn’t care how much her belly growled.  It just didn’t make sense that she could be hungry again so soon after breakfast.

As if on cue, the bedroom door opened and Leto silently stalked to the bed and bent to scoop her into his arms.

“Don’t!”  She struggled to get to her feet.  “I’m not hungry
and I
can
walk ya’ know
!
”  Her belly growled and her face flamed when Leto smiled and nodded once as if that settled the matter.  He picked her up and she could only cross her arms over her chest like a petulant child.

“
Leto put me down.  I’m not hungry.  There’s no way I can be.  I just ate enough for an army about two-seconds ago.”

He didn’t even look at her as he strode effortlessly to the kitchen.  “The baby wants food.”

“Well I don’t!” She knew how selfish it sounded but if Leto had his way she’d be four-hundred pounds by the time the baby was born.  “I want to go for a walk…
outside!
”

He didn’t even look at her.  “No.  Eat.”  He shoved a
plate holding a sandwich and a pile of potato chips in front of her then stalked to the fridge and pulled out a gallon of milk.

Shy glowered at the sandwich.  The stupid ham and turkey on wheat smelled delicious and had her mouth watering.  She had to fight to keep from popping a potato chip into her mouth while Leto’s back was turned.  “I’m not eating.”  She
re-crossed her arms over her chest.

Leto brought her
a glass of milk and set it beside the plate as he dropped into the chair beside her and simply stared.  “Eat.”

“You eat!
  I haven’t seen you take a single bite of anything since I’ve been here, but yet you have no qualms about forcing food down my throat.”  She’d thought about that while she’d been forced to stay in bed and part of her wondered if Walker’s didn’t have some strange diet.  Leto looked thinner and more pale than he had the days after they’d been rescued and fattened up.  He looked worn out and she wondered what was causing it.  Her presence?  Was he allowing her to stay with him out of guilt over the fact that she was pregnant with his child?  Did he really just want her gone?

“I can’t eat.”
The statement was simply made and had Shy sitting a little straighter as her curiosity piqued. 

“Why?”

“Because you haven’t claimed me yet.”

“What?” Shy unfolded her arms, propping her bandaged wrist on the table.

“I am afflicted Shy.  I cannot eat or sleep until you claim me.”

Afflicted?
  She remembered Aries and Jenny speaking about it.  “What is afflicted?”

He shru
gged one shoulder.  “It means I…” he smiled wickedly then and Shy knew she was in trouble.  His eyes slid down to linger on her lips before dropping to rest on her breasts.  “I need to spill my seed deep inside you to mark you as mine.”

Shy felt her entire body flush. 
Have I lost my damn mind?
  She tried to look appalled while her body begged her to give Leto what he wanted and God did she ever want to give him what he wanted.  She yearned to bask in the safety of his embrace and the demanding inferno she was certain she’d find in his lips.  His gaze alone left a scorched trail wherever it skimmed her flesh.  She wanted him and he wanted her and every minute they were together it was harder and harder for her to deny her attraction.  Attraction hell, he’d become the object of her desire, the man of her dreams, and wasn’t he already the father of her child? 
What could it hurt?

As if sensing the minute fissure in Shy’s defense
s Leto pressed, “You should claim me.  It isn’t safe for you or our baby for me to be in a weakened state.  I need to be strong to protect you both.”

Her eyes rounded, “Protect us from what?”

Leto’s eyes swept the room and lingered on the large bay window in the living room.  “From everything!”

“But Leto,” she didn’t get to finish.

“I’m not going anywhere Shy,” he drew his eyes from the window and let them settle on her as he slid from his chair to kneel beside her, his hand finding hers and holding it to his chest.  “Just as you belong to me, I belong to you.  I want no one else and I’ll never need anything else but this,” he squeezed her hand tighter.  “You don’t have to claim me now Shy, but you
will
claim me!”  His voice took on a deep rumble and Shy doubted she’d ever deny him anything.

His proximity was distracting and the way his thumb rubbed over the back of her hand had her fighting to concentrate on what he was saying.
  Suddenly she was very hungry but it wasn’t for food.

“I know I’ve been…off lately.  I’ve been told it’s part of the affliction.  Thinking coherently,
speaking
coherently.  It’s difficult when all I want to do is bury my dick so deep inside your sweet pussy that neither one of us knows where the other ends and we begin.”

The words sent a punch of lust straight to Shy’s womb and she tried to pull her hand free but Leto merely held tighter.

“I’m consumed with you Shy, the thought of touching you, having you, claiming you, and of raising our child with you.”  He lowered his eyes, “And I can wait for you to forgive me.  Dr. Arkinson has me on supplements and I should be okay…”

“Supplements?”  Shy’s brow furrowed.  “What do you mean you should be okay?”  She jerked her hand free and got to her feet.  “Why wouldn’t you be okay?  What’s going on?”
  She almost smiled when Leto growled then slowly rose to his feet, spearing an angry hand into his satiny black hair.

“I can’t eat or sleep
without a claiming.  The halo only ties you to me.  It doesn’t mark you as mine.  I have to do that.  Nature’s way of ensuring I’m not too dumb to overlook my angel is to prevent me from eating or sleeping until I claim her.”

Shy’s mouth fell open.  “But…Leto, it’s been…
” she couldn’t even remember how many days it had been since they’d been released.  “When did it start?”

He smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes, “Do you remember when I first saw you in the motel room?  When you dropped me to my knees?”

“That was…”

He nodded, “That was the beginning of the affliction.  The second I laid eyes on you I knew that you were mine.”

Shy fought down her lust as concern overrode the emotion.  “What happens if…if I don’t claim you?”

His expression darkened instantly, “You’ll not have anyone else.”  His hands locked around her arms and pulled her into him as he frowned down at her.

“No,” she shook her head, “I don’t
want
anyone else.”  She felt herself blush at the comment but carried on, “What I mean is, what happens if we wait?  How long can you go on like this?”

He shrugged one shoulder, “Apparently I now hold the record.  No one knows what will happen if the affliction is ignored.”  He smiled, “We could be the first case.”

“That’s not funny.”  Shy actually paled and it didn’t go unnoticed.

“Are you ill?” Leto didn’t even ask before scooping Shy up and rushing toward the bathroom. 

“No, I’m not!”

Leto stopped just outside the bathroom door.

“If you’re not eating and not sleeping,” she shook her head.  “Please take me to the bedroom.”

Shy looked sick and he could scent her fear.  Something was wrong with his angel.  He gently placed her on the bed and pulled a blanket to cover her.  “Stay!  I’ll get Jenny.”
  Before he could leave, Shy’s hand gripped his forearm.

The words that escaped her lips had Leto dropping to a knee beside the bed.

“I-I
claim
you Leto.”

Chapter 27

Leto didn’t move.  He was afraid that the action would somehow shatter the spell and cause Shy to change her mind.

“Did you hear me?”

Her soft voice called to him and had him turning, his eyes narrowing on where she lay on the bed.  “Say it again,” he commanded, slowly getting to his feet.

“I’m not sure if I said it right or if I’m even suppos
ed to…” 

She was rambling and he could scent her discomfort
and uncertainty but he knew what he’d heard.  He wouldn’t allow her to back out.  “Say it again,” he growled impatiently and regretted the fierceness of his tone when Shy sucked in her bottom lip and lifted the blanket higher under her chin with her good hand. 

“I...said I claim you.” 

Her eyes refused to meet his and as much as he wanted to ensure she knew what she was doing, the words were enough.  The blood that seemed to have stalled to a cold sludge in his veins over the past few weeks surged to life with a fiery rush that had his flesh heating and his balls swelling.  His senses instantly heightened and under her insecurity and hesitation, Leto could scent Shy’s heat.  It wasn’t lip service or pity.  She wanted him!

***

Shy watched as Leto’s nostrils flared.  The heat that stole into his eyes had her simultaneously nervous and excited.  Goosebumps rose on her flesh and when Leto’s hands gripped the hem of his shirt and jerked it over his head, her eyes locked on the rock hard abs that were revealed.  He drew closer but she couldn’t seem to pull her eyes from where they drank in his impossible physique.  Finally, when strong hands gripped the button on his jeans, Shy was able to raise her eyes to his. 

He watched her intently
as he slowly undid his buttons and pushed the denim over lean hips.  Unsure what else to do Shy turned her head even as she felt her cheeks singe.  She hadn’t missed the huge erection that sprang forth and bobbed its demand for attention.

“Once we do this Shy there is no going back.
  You’ll be mine.”

She lifted her eyes and wanted to ask what he meant but he was already crawling onto the bed, gloriously naked.
  The sight sent a shiver of excitement coursing through her.  She planted her good hand and had intended on scooting to the side to give Leto some room but his hand clamped on her thigh.

“Don’t!” he growled.

“I-I wasn’t leaving.”

“Don’t run from me Shy.  Not now.  I won’t be able to control myself.  I’ll chase you and force you down to bury my dick so far inside you…”

The thought should have terrified her but as usual where this Walker was concerned, the image his words brought to life only excited her.  She shook her head and promised, “I won’t run.”

Leto’s eyes dropped to the hand on her thigh and he rubbed before his brow crinkled and he pinched the denim fabric of her jeans between his fingers.  “Take this off!”  He sat back on his heels and eyed her shirt.  “Take it
all
off!”

Shy wasn’t inexperienced with sex but getting naked in front of a practical stranger wasn’t something she was comfortable doing with all the lights still on. 

“Can you turn off the light?”

“No.  I want to see you.”

She lowered her eyes again, not wanting him to see her embarrassment.  “Please Leto?  This is kind of…weird.”

“I’m naked,” he challenged.

“I’m modest,” she threw back just as quickly.

***

Leto seemed to struggle with her request before he growled and jerked back from the bed.  Quickly he stomped to the light and flicked it off.  He didn’t bother telling Shy that he could see in the dark.  Before he knelt back on the bed he felt a pang of guilt.  He was moments away from claiming his Shy but it felt incomplete.  All his life he’d witnessed fellow Walkers claim their angels.  Typically, it was done slowly with some form of courtship.  Now, he’d foolishly done just as Commander Drago had and permitted things to get too far along to allow his angel any of the wooing and flattery that was a typical precursor to a claiming.  What’s worse was the protocol had been forgone by his mistaken belief that she was his enemy.  She wasn’t getting what she deserved because of him. 

“Did you change your mind?”

Shy’s soft voice calling to him from the dark made him realize that he’d stopped just short of climbing onto the bed.

The bed dipped as he crawled over her, his warm body slid over the smoothness of her own and he realized that she’d stripped.  He’d had intentions of asking her if she wanted to wait, if she wanted to be courted, but when his
body rubbed against the satiny heat of her own his hope of waiting was lost.

He settled on his knees between her spread thighs and he felt
goose bumps speckle her flesh.  “Are you cold?”

“No.”

He placed both hands on her slender ankles and slowly eased them up her body.  His calloused hands skimmed firm thighs and rounded hips.  His thumbs touched each other where her waist tapered and then drew apart again as her rib cage flared beneath his touch.  When he cupped two heavy breasts, Shy shivered.

Dipping his
head, he took one berry ripe nipple into his mouth.  Shy arched beneath him and he felt her small nails biting into the flesh of his shoulders.  The thought that she might mark him excited him and had him tugging on her nipple with greater suction even as his tongue flicked her nipple.