The Last of His Kind (3 page)

He released
her and sank down heavily onto her floral settee, and amusement replaced
Penelope's arousal. He looked so out of place sprawled along that piece of
furniture, the afghan barely hiding the massive cock she'd glimpsed that
morning. He let his head fall back and growled low in his throat.

Penelope's
heart thudded painfully against her cheekbone, and she put a tentative hand to
his forehead.

"You're
burning up again, damn it. Let me call a doctor. I've done what I can with my
mother's herbal recipes, but that wound of yours will need seeing to."

The growl
intensified, and he shook his head so vehemently the settee shook.

"I'll be
fine. I just need to rest. I can't leave the
Loch
."

"Why
not?" She had to ask. "You're under house arrest or something?"

He raised his
head, and Penelope lost herself in the intensity of his golden gaze when he
opened his eyes. A genuine smile crossed his features briefly, and Penelope
forgot to breathe.
Jesus, that smile was devastating.
As quickly as it
appeared it was gone again.

"Something
like that. You would never believe me, even if I told you,
ceannbeag.
"

"Try
me!"

Chapter Three

Oh it was
tempting, so very tempting. The little human almost vibrated in outrage,
clearly intent on proving him wrong. Hands on hips she tried to stare him down,
and when he didn't respond, she rolled her eyes and stomped her feet in
frustration. He couldn't help it; he laughed.

"What is
so damn funny?"

She wrapped
her arms around herself and stalked away from him, once again muttering to
herself.

"As
endearing as that habit of talking to yourself is, I can hear you. If you want
to insult me, you'll have to try harder. And for the record, there is nothing
wrong with the way you look, and the glasses are cute."

She swung
round again as if to say something, and then bit her lip. Her vulnerability
raised his protective instincts, and he sighed.
 
A sigh that brought her straight back to him, her eyes narrowed and her
face worried as she ran a tentative hand along the swollen line of his hip,
where the poison still festered. He knew his skin there was changing to the
scales of his true self in an effort to heal, and her frown deepened.

"This is
getting infected. If you can't leave, then we'll have to call you a doctor. I
don't think my mother's brew will help with this, and besides I'm almost out of
it."

"Would
that be the awful concoction you poured down me earlier?"

"Err,
yes, sorry." She shot him a worried glance.
 
"I know it tastes foul, but you had such
a fever and it works for that, much better than any modern pills, if I had them
in the house, which I don't, ‘cause mum would never…err…well, never mind, you
don't need to hear about that." She muttered something else under her
breath, and he cupped her chin to make her look up at him. He couldn't have
heard that right.

"She
would never do what? Your mother was a witch?"

She paled and
winced, and he forced himself to relax the grip on her chin. Her skin was so
delicate; she would have bruises in the morning, another reason to leave her
well alone.

"No, she
wasn't a witch. Don't be silly. At least not in the 'stir things in a cauldron
and hex people kinda way'. She merely believed in the power of nature and
utilizing what the gods gave us. So we never had medicines, just her brews. We
never had a telly or modern conveniences either, and on the rare occasion we
had meat, we had to thank the spirits. I know it sounds crazy, but it worked
for her. That doesn't make her a witch or nasty or, damn it, I don't even know
why I'm telling you all this."

Her voice
wobbled, and tears gathered in her eyes. She blinked furiously and pushed her
bottom lip out.

"Anyway
all that doesn't matter anymore, because she passed on three months ago. If she
was here, you'd be healed already, or maybe not. She'd have had more sense than
to take in a naked man, who seems to have either appeared out of the
Loch
or fallen from the sky."

"Then
she sounded a wise woman, and I'm sorry for your loss. It can't have been easy
growing up with a mother like her though." He knew it hadn't been. He'd
overheard enough arguments between mother and daughter, during their summers
here.
 
Not for the first time he wondered
why her family chose to stay this close to the
Loch
.
If Penelope's mother was in tune with the forces of nature, witch ancestry or
not, she would have known who exactly lurked in the depths of the
Loch
. It certainly explained her complete refusal to
allow her daughter anywhere near the waters.

Penelope
sniffed in answer and shook his hand off, returning her attention to his wound.

"Well,
yes, though she was unreasonably paranoid about the
Loch
.
You wouldn't believe the tales she used to tell me."

"What
tales? The one about man-eating monsters by any chance?" He couldn't quite
keep the bitterness out of his voice.

Penelope
didn't seem to notice. She'd grasped his hips and turned him sideways, so she
could study his wound better. He waited for the predictable reaction of
disgust, surprised how much the thought of her finding him distasteful hurt.
She did gasp, but in a concerned way.

"This
really doesn't look good. You're having some sort of reaction here. What on
earth was in that dart? And why did you get shot with that anyway? I know
you're big, but even those dumb hunters couldn't mistake you for Nessie
now." She smiled up at him, a slight flush across her cheekbones giving
her thoughts away as clearly as her intensified scent. "Though perhaps
you're the dumb one, taking a swim in the
Loch
this early in the morning. I'm assuming that's what you were doing?"

He simply
smiled, and she rolled her eyes at him.

"Why on
earth would you do that, really?" She shook her head at him. "And how
far have you swum? There's not another house this side of the
Loch
for ages. Anything could have happened to you."

"Afraid
of your mother's man-eating monsters?"

The slap to
his chest hurt, and the fury behind it surprised him.

"There
are no such things as man-eating monsters. Not in the
Loch
anyway. Nessie never harmed anyone, and if you believe that, then you're just
another stupid idiot." She stepped away from him, shaking her head.
"Oh what's the use? This is getting us nowhere. I think the best thing we
can do is get you back to wherever you came from, so that you can get that seen
to. And you need to file a report with Euan. Those bloody trophy hunters could
have killed you."

She ran out
of steam, as he stood watching her, not quite daring to believe her outrage on
behalf of his kind.

"Unless
you can't go to Euan, because…Damn it, you said you couldn't leave. Why can't
you?"

"Well,
for starters I haven't got any clothes." He chuckled at her sharp intake
of breath, when he dropped the material he'd used to cover his arousal.
"Of course if you don't mind, then let's go."

"Err, do
you mind? Let me find you something better to cover up with. You'll do someone
an injury with…with
that."

She wrenched
her eyes up to his face, only for her gaze to stray back down to his hardening
cock. Her breathing grew shallow, and the scent of her arousal in the air made
his mind up. He would deal with the aftermath in the morning. He needed to
heal, and he had the perfect means to achieve that standing in front of him. It
had been way too long. He just hoped he could control his true self.

****

Oh the man
was infuriating and arousing in equal measures. She once again wrenched her
eyes away from that huge cock, suddenly all too aware how isolated the cottage
was. No one would hear her screams, should he choose to attack her. The mere
thought had her heart miss a beat, before it turned into a jackhammer, even as
the barely functioning rational side of her brain told her not to be so stupid.
She was hardly God's gift to men. He seemed perfectly able to control himself,
and everyone knew men's cocks had a mind of their own. It didn't mean he would
rip her clothes off. She'd never evoked that kind of passion in a man before.
She had no boobs to speak of, her hips were too wide, her legs too skinny, and
the damn glasses, well, they spelled librarian, not sex goddess, as her
ex-fiancé had accused her of acting like all too frequently.

"Has
anyone ever told you, you think too much?" His deep voice shook her out of
her musings, and his hot breath fogged up her glasses. When had he gotten so
close? The tip of his now fully erect cock left a wet stain along her tummy,
and Penelope took an involuntary step back. The smile on his face could only be
described as predatory, as he matched her step by step until her back hit the
wall. She swallowed nervously when he took her glasses off her nose, and pulled
the hairband out of her hair. His large hand massaged the back of her neck, and
he caged her against the wall until she couldn't move. Heat suffused her being
as his natural scent surrounded her, and his body heat seeped into her very
bones. He towered over her, and panic set in for one minute, before the sharp
yank of her hair brought tears to her eyes and forced her head up to look at
him.

"I asked
you a question,
ceannbeag.
" The
softly spoken words held an edge of steel she found unable to resist. Her pussy
clenched, and her nipples tightened; and she bit back a moan as he yanked her
hair again, just hard enough to hurt, just hard enough for her to soak her
panties. A flash of triumph in the depths of his rapidly darkening golden eyes
preceded his knowing smile. He quirked an eyebrow at her, and she licked her
lips, willing him to close the distance and kiss her. She tried to get her
hands up to pull him down for that kiss she so desperately craved, but he had
her pinned so effectively, she couldn't move.

He shook his
head at her ineffective attempts.

 
"Well? Would you like me to stop those thoughts
I see swirling in your eyes? But I warn you." He pulled back slightly, and
Penelope drew a shuddering breath into her lungs. "Thinking will not be
allowed, and I expect complete obedience. Do you understand what I'm
saying?"

Did she? Did
she ever! Was this man even real, or was she still asleep and this was all a
dream? Who looked like that and washed up on her shore naked, and injured, and
still able to turn her insides into a quivering mass of need just by the way he
looked at her? He watched her now out of hooded eyes with an unwavering gaze
that raised goose-bumps on her flesh. Instantly his warm hands rubbed up and
down her exposed arms, and a shiver of a different kind went down her spine.
His nostrils flared, and the grip on her arms grew painful.

"If you
want me to leave, you have to tell me now." His voice had dropped an
octave, his accent thicker than before. "If you want me to stay, and I
sure as fuck hope you do, then know that you're mine to do with as I see fit. I
will use your body until you scream your surrender and my cock has filled you
every which way you can think of and some you couldn't even imagine."

Oh good God.
I'm doomed. If this is a dream then I really must eat more cheese to make sure
I have more of them.

"Do I
get a safe word?" She barely heard her own whisper over the roaring in her
ears. Her heart beat so fast she felt faint and had his body not been holding
her up, she would have simply sunk to the floor in a puddle of her own arousal.
Never, ever had she been this turned on, and he'd barely touched her.

"Pick
one."

"Nessie."

He smirked
and shook his head as though amused, before he lowered his head, and his lips
touched hers. She opened automatically allowing him access, and his taste
exploded in her mouth. She gasped when he moved his hands and grabbing the
neckline of her t-shirt ripped it in half. He made equally short work of her
shorts and panties until she stood naked before him. He resumed his kiss, his
tongue thrusting in and out of her mouth with breathtaking intensity, and he
used her shredded shirt to tie her hands in front of her. He broke the kiss
again and tied a strip from her shorts round her eyes. He spun her around and
kicked her legs apart, murmuring his approval. A warm hand between her shoulder
blades pushed her forward until her head rested against the wall, and she
gasped at the sharp sting to her nipples out of nowhere. Her breasts felt
heavy, and her nipples ached as she waited for his next move, his harsh breath
in her ear and the thick, hard length of his cock digging into her back telling
her he was as aroused as she was. He trailed one finger down her spine, digging
in just enough to bump along her vertebrae. She jumped slightly with every
bump, anticipation making her light-headed. By the time he reached the globes
of her ass and squeezed them, she was so aroused her juices trickled down her
leg. His hot mouth followed the path his fingers had just blazed. He spread her
cheeks wide, and she gasped when he tongued her ass crack and sank two fingers
into her wet and needy channel. His hot breath fanned across her swollen pussy
folds, and her sex swelled further, trying to draw him in, as her body spasmed.