Waking the Beast (8 page)

Oh God, she was going to cry. He felt like he belonged to her?

“I can feel your brain spinning from here, Abby.”

She snorted and nipped his shoulder with her teeth. He grumbled and jerked her onto his chest, so he could see her face.

“We’re going to have to talk about these caveman tendencies you’re developing.”

“I’ve always been possessive.”

“I’ve seen you with other women, Tah,” she reminded him. “You’re not possessive.”

He growled as if her reminding him of the other women pissed him off. “I’ve always been possessive of you.”

She opened her mouth to argue with him and stopped herself. The past was the past and if this was going to work, they’d both have to understand that.

“I’m possessive too, Tah. You’re mine now, and I don’t share.”

He smiled at her, and if it melted her heart a little bit, then no one needed to know but her.

“I’m yours.” His hand stroked over her skin, and she watched his gaze fall to the mark he’d left on her when he bit her. “Does it hurt?”

She flexed her shoulder and then shook her head. “It doesn’t.”

“I didn’t mean to bite you,” his brown eyes seemed contrite. “I couldn’t stop the urge. It was like I needed to mark you in a way so that no one could ever say you weren’t mine. And even I realize how insane that sounds.”

Without thought, she lowered her mouth to his chest and clenched her teeth in the top of his pectoral muscle, just above his left nipple. She bit down hard and sucked his skin into her mouth. He jerked against her and that sexy growl rumbled up through his chest again. His hands clenched against her ass, and she felt the steel length of his erection before he flipped them over and spread her legs with his knees.

She released him with a cry as he buried inside her once more.

“Mine, Tah.” She did a good job of growling at him. “Now I’ve marked you as well.”

He growled down at her, but she could see the pleasure on his face, the warmth in his eyes.

“Yours,” he agreed and took her to heaven all over again.

Chapter Five

From the journal of Abby Lane

I dream about the lion. If I told anyone about these dreams, they’d have me locked away, claiming insanity. But the dreams are there, and I swear they feel real. More like visions than dreams. Maybe I am crazy.

In the dream, I’m surrounded by woods. There are trees and mountains, and though I never see a house, I know I am home. Sometimes I walk alone. Then there are times I walk with a lion beside me. He butts his head against my side as we walk, and I smile, brushing my fingers through his mane. He is fierce and beautiful, but I have no fear of him, only love for him.

Once I dreamed of a child with golden hair and amber eyes that laughed up at me. And I felt love, so much love pouring from me for this child. I can sense the man, but he always remains in shadow, and I feel as if he represents the possibility that might exist if I make the right choices, follow the right paths.

I sense he will come to me, and it will be up to me to save him. From what or who, I don’t know. But I know if I do the wrong thing, he’ll die and the happiness I’ve dreamed of will never be.

Sometimes when I’m awake, I swear I can feel him there, in the mark of the lion’s claws on my skin. It’s as if the lion was trying to tell me something when I was a child, but I didn’t have the ability to understand. I still see his big sorrowful eyes in my mind, both in dreams and waking. And I wonder how he really died.

I hope when the time comes, I will know what to do. I want the happiness. The man. The lion. And the child. I want it all, and I know no matter what battles lie ahead I will fight to get it and kill to keep it. That knowledge terrifies me even as it strengthens me. I will kill to keep it.

* * * *

Abby awoke with Tah’s erection nudging her ass. He was plastered against her back, one arm lying under her pillow while the other wrapped around her waist and held her close to him. He had a leg between hers, his hard thigh pressing against her pussy. A tremor went through him, and she felt the tremble of abused muscles, even as her pussy grew wet with desire.

She rolled in his arms and wasn’t surprised to find him blinking at her. She was happy to see the warm brown of his eyes. His hand rubbed her ass, and his cock pulsed against her belly. There was no way she could take him again this soon. She might be wet, but she was also sore. Before yesterday, she’d only had a toy or her fingers inside her. Tah was bigger than both of those. A lot bigger. And she’d taken him twice with little break between. She was going to need a little while before they did that again.

But that didn’t mean she couldn’t do other things, things she’d been dreaming about since she’d first laid eyes on him. With a gentle nudge from her, he rolled over to his back, and she licked her lips as she let her eyes run over him. He was sheer masculine perfection, and he was hers. All hers.

She trailed her lips over his jaw, then along his neck, and down over his chest. She took feminine delight in seeing the vivid mark on his skin where she’d bit and sucked at him. She hadn’t pierced his skin as he had hers, but still, she’d marked him as hers. She licked over it, then latched on and sucked the skin into her mouth again.

He purred under her, one hand clasping her head and holding her to him. When she released him, she licked over his nipple, teasing it until the flat disc hardened and brushed against her lips. She nipped it with her teeth and sucked it before moving over his chest to do the same to the other nipple.

“Abby.” Her name was a purr rumbling through his chest as she slid over to his tattoo.

She kissed him there, nuzzling against it and licking the lines of the powerful lion’s lips and jaw. She nuzzled her nose against the one inked into his flesh. One final kiss there and she was sliding lower still, her lips skimming over the flexing muscles of his incredible abdomen.

She felt the damp tip of his cock kiss her skin as she moved down. She turned and nuzzled along the shaft, flicking her tongue out and tasting the rigid flesh.

“Mmmhmmmm.” It was her turn to purr as he growled and thrust his hips up at her.

“Abby,” he pleaded. “Don’t tease me.”

She cupped the taut sac of his testicles in one hand, while she wrapped her other around his girth, so she could slide her palm along the velvet skin. She licked over him, tasting everywhere—his balls, his shaft, and then over the mushroomed head already wet with a bit of pre-cum.

“Suck it, Abby,” he ordered her. “Suck my cock.”

She moaned as she opened wide and sucked the crowning head into her mouth. Her tongue flirted around it, rubbing and tasting as she tightened her lips and fed on him. She used her hand on the shaft, while she worked the head with her tongue.

“Fuck, baby. That’s it.” His fingers were wrapped in her hair as he exerted just a little bit of pressure while pumping his hips up. “Take more of me, baby. Let me in. Suck my dick. Suck it.”

She let him guide her, show her what he wanted and how to give it to him. She couldn’t take all of him in, but he put his hand over hers and showed her how to work the rest of his shaft in tandem with her mouth. She glanced up his torso and met his eyes with hers while she sucked him. It was erotic and powerful, and she took satisfaction in seeing the pleasure she was giving him.

“Ahh, God, baby.” He groaned as he spoke, his hips pumping off the mattress to meet her mouth and hands. “I’m going to come, baby. Feels too good. So good.”

She sucked harder, swirling her tongue and tapping it in the deep ridge under the head where it crowned over the staff. His chest was doing that rumbly-growly thing he did as his fingers tightened in her hair.

“I’m coming, baby. I’m coming.” He growled, throttling back a roar as the first jet of semen hit the back of her throat and almost choked her.

He heard or sensed and tried to pull free but she gripped him with her teeth, holding him in her mouth as he continued to come. She reveled in the taste of him on her tongue, the heated wash of his release as it filled her mouth before she swallowed every drop down. Hers. It was all hers. And though there might have been women before her, she would kill any woman who might try to take what was now hers.

“Abby.”

She reluctantly released him as he tugged gently on her head. She grinned up at him. “Not bad for a first blow job.”

“The best blow job of my life,” he vowed, and whether it was the truth or not, she believed him.

She wasn’t surprised when he hauled her back up his chest and took her mouth with a heated kiss. A man as confident and sexual as Tah wouldn’t care that she’d just swallowed his cum.

She lay on his chest for a long moment after, her chin propped up on one fist while she ran the fingers of her other hand through his hair.

“It’s growing,” she noted out loud. “And I think you’re getting some gold streaks in here.”

“I’m changing,” he agreed. “And I can’t control it.”

She met his eyes. “You’ll be okay, Tah. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

He held her close. “Did you find any information yesterday that could help us?”

She liked the way he said us, admitting they were in this together. Then she jerked up as the sexual haze he’d had her under finally lifted since they’d walked in the motel room however long ago. “What time is it?”

He made no move to help her as she flounced around the room naked, searching for the clock before realizing she didn’t have her glasses on. And she could see. Not perfectly, but she could see. Holy shit, normally she could barely make out shapes without her glasses.

“What’s wrong?” Tah was out of the bed, landing in a crouch in front of her as if searching for whatever had frightened her.

“I can see,” she whispered, reaching down to pat his shoulder. “Holy crap, Tah! I can see.”

He stood up slowly, turning to look at her, and she saw whatever comment he’d been about to say disappear as he reached up and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

“You’re not wearing your glasses.”

“And I can see. What the hell did you do to me?” The words were out of her mouth and in the air before her brain was engaged enough to stop them.

Tah flinched, and his gaze became hooded. She’d hurt him carelessly, and she hadn’t meant to.

“I’m sorry.” She moved into him, nuzzling her face against his skin and wrapping her arms around his waist. “I’m just a little shocked here.”

His arms came around her. “I understand.”

Of course he did. Her vision was nothing compared to what was probably happening to him. “Did you grab a phone yesterday?”

“It’s on a charger in the bathroom.”

“I contacted a friend of mine, Professor Mueller. He gave me his number and told me to call him last night. I think he’ll be able to help us. If not, his daughter will.”

“What is he a professor of?”

“Anthropology, but he has a degree in biology as well. And his daughter Jess has multiple degrees. Last I knew, she was working R&D with a pharmaceutical company.”

“You trust them?”

“She’s brilliant, Tah. I know she’s done research that involves using animal blood in humans with hemophilia to see if it will help their blood clot. If anyone can help us figure out what’s going on inside of you, it’s her. And Professor Mueller is the one who helped me find you.”

“He’s the one you went to Africa with?”

“Yes.” She nodded.

“Call him.”

Abby eased out of his arms and stepped into the bathroom to grab the phone. She punched in the number from memory and wasn’t surprised when it was answered on the first ring.

“Abby?”

“Hello, Professor.”

“Good Lord, girl. You scared me to death. Why didn’t you call last night? Did anything happen? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. We just got a little sidetracked.” She did her best to ignore the way Tah lifted his brow at her. She wasn’t telling the Professor they’d had sex instead.

“Is he with you? Is it safe to talk?”

“He is, and it is. I’m not keeping any secrets from him. Do you think you can help us figure out what’s going on?”

“I’ve already put a call in to Jess. She’s married now by the way. Her relationship is interesting, to say the least. But I think they’ll be able to give you some of the answers you’re looking for. I contacted her last night. They’ve agreed to meet you at the cabin. Do you remember where it is? How to get there?”

He was being vague, and that had her worried. Was he still afraid someone was listening in? Those watching eyes he’d hinted at in the forum conversation? Or was he just being overcautious?

“I remember.”

“Good. Don’t say anything else. We’ll meet there. Don’t worry about anything you might see or hear. Just go to the cabin. You’ll be safe there.”

“Professor?”

“I have to go, Abby. We’ll talk later. Be safe.”

The phone clicked in her ear.

“Abby?” Tah drew her attention to him. “Is everything okay?”

“We need to head to Colorado,” she said. “There’s a cabin there. Professor Mueller wants us to meet him and Jess there. She’ll be bringing her husband with her. The Professor said they’d be able to help us. It was interesting.”

“Interesting?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t really say much. Just to go there and we’d be safe.”

“Was someone watching him?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “He’s always been a bit paranoid, or at least I thought so. But he swore the whole time we were in Africa he could feel evil eyes watching us, and now I know Harlan was there following me. So maybe he’s not so paranoid.”

“Did he say anything else?”

“He told me not to worry about anything I might see or hear.”

“What does that mean?”

“Your guess is as good as mine, Tah.”

He let out a low grumble. “Why don’t you take a bath and soak some of the soreness out while I get our supplies together. I’ll leave some clothes out for you while I go grab breakfast.” He ran his eyes over her body reminding her she was still naked while he’d at least pulled some jeans on, though they were pretty snug around the bulge at his crotch.