Predator

by Vonna Harper

  “I know.”

  She’d wanted to say a thousand things when she couldn’t speak, but now her mind emptied out. Or maybe the truth was the energy between them outstripped the need for any other kind of communication. She’d never understood women who liked being manhandled, and twice had ended relationships because the boyfriend at that time had started acting as if he had the right to call all the shots. As for the whole man always on top thing, that belonged to her grandmother’s generation.

  And yet—

  Ah, shit, and here she was slipping away, becoming whatever it was he believed she needed to be.

  Maybe he’d once again tapped into her thoughts because he cupped his hand over her mons, his fingers trailing over her slit. Electricity slammed into her and lifted her buttocks off the ground. If she could have moved her legs, she’d—what? Watching him through half-open eyes, she accepted the heat and strength seeping from him to her. He’d turned her into something weak and pliable. At the same time, she was absorbing his strength and making it hers—giving her the courage to see this through to the end, if there was one.

  “We aren’t so complex after all.” His voice hummed through her, sliding her down into a space she’d never known existed. “We humans think we’ve evolved so far and that our so-called superior intellect has lifted us above animals.” His middle finger glided over her pussy lips, the journey made easy by the fluids weeping from her. “But beneath that veneer we show the world, we’re as primitive as they are.”

  Stark bent low again, his mouth first touching and then engulfing her right breast. His forefinger entered her at the same time, a sleek and simple invasion she acknowledged by clenching her pussy muscles around him.

  He sucked, sucked some more, pulled back until only her nipple remained in his mouth and held it between his teeth. Held on. Another finger—she couldn’t tell which—joined the one already in her, and her pussy softened and expanded and wept. Her feet beat a rapid tattoo on the ground, and she couldn’t stop whipping her head from side to side. Animal sounds escaped.

  And although she could no longer see the creature, she sensed the cougar’s eyes on them.

  A burning throughout the breast Stark had claimed penetrated the hot fog drifting around her, forcing her to still her movements. He wasn’t biting her nipple so much as trapping it between his teeth, but circulation was being compromised. Knowing what he was doing took her into a place of fantasy where she existed as nothing except this man’s plaything. Not only had he claimed her as his possession, he knew exactly how to keep her emotionally off balance and sexually on fire. The invading fingers provided more than stimulation. They claimed, owned, controlled. Gave birth.

  Modern, liberated women—and she considered herself a card-carrying member—would never allow a man to treat them like a possession, and yet she was.

  Could she make him stop?

  Did she want to?

  A quick bite of pain followed by release and relief swung her thoughts from her cunt to her breast. Although now free, her breast still throbbed and probably would for several minutes. Lifting her head, she saw that he’d left indentations where his teeth had gripped.

  Watching her with a mix of concentration and amusement, he cupped a hand around her breast and lightly squeezed it. “My marks. Proof of my claim on you.”

  “You—you have no right.”

  “It’s not a matter of right, Mia. This is about responsibility and commitment.”

  I don’t understand. But telling him that wouldn’t change anything. He’d continue going about whatever it was he was doing at his pace and in his way, and she had no choice but to accept and absorb.

  The hell you do, a rebellious spark insisted. You can fight. Tell him you’ll have him arrested.

  Only his fingers remained deep inside her, and he’d all but stripped her naked, and she wanted nothing more out of life—well, almost nothing. Letting her head fall back, she tried to concentrate on her aching nipple instead of the intimate invasion elsewhere, but the ache, the delicious burning, was on the move, traveling along her veins and arteries and flooding her with sensation. She was alive, keenly alive! Exposed and expanded.

  How she loved the feel of a cock in her! Even when her mind argued that the man fucking her wasn’t the one she could consider spending her life with, the instinctive animal who lived beneath her civilized surface was content. All that creature needed was to fuck and be fucked, to climax and scream and scratch and bite and have those things done to her.

  Yet another shift alerted her to a change in his attack. He splayed his hand over her belly, holding her in place. Again and again, he withdrew the fingers in her hole until she was afraid she’d lose him, only to have him plunge deep again. There was no rhythm to what he was doing, no cadence she could climb onboard. Her inner tissues clamped and released, clamped and released. A climax was close, so close!

  “Not yet.” Although he barely whispered, his voice had a strangled sound. She might have taken closer note of what that said about his emotional condition if his fingers hadn’t quieted.

  “Don’t, please.” She tightened her inner muscles around the wonderful invasion. “Please don’t stop. I—”

  “This isn’t just about sex, Mia. It’s about you giving up chunks of yourself so you’ll become what they need.”

  “They?” If only he’d finish her off, then she could and would concentrate.

  “The Cougar Spirits.”

  There was more than the one creature watching them? For a moment, she couldn’t think of anything except the possible ramifications, but then he pulled out of her and nothing except that mattered. “What—Stark, what—”

  “Quiet!”

  Despite feeling as if she were about to break apart, she caught her lower lip between her teeth and stared up at him. One hand continued to press against her belly, but the other, the one that had taken command of her sex, where had it gone? She was pulsing inside, a mindless, wonderful, excruciating throbbing.

  Once more he attacked her jeans, this time pulling on them and her panties so everything was now knotted around her ankles. Until he removed her short hiking boots, he wouldn’t be able to dispense with her clothes, but apparently, he intended to leave her hobbled. What did he think she might do, outrun him with her hands tied behind her?

  No, the last thing he intended today was to free her.

  That inescapable fact hit her like a blow to the gut. It should have before, but she’d been so intent on each moment in their developing relationship that she’d given scant thought to how it would all play itself out. She still had no idea—or maybe the truth was, she didn’t want to face the so-called finish line—but she could no longer delude herself into thinking their relationship would soon end.

  What did he intend, to turn her into his sex slave?

  Even as the thought brought bile to her mouth, she cast it aside. Whatever Stark’s intentions were, she couldn’t believe they involved sexual slavery. True, sex was at the core of whatever was happening between them at the moment, as witnessed by her about-to-short-circuit body, but his reasons went far beyond determination.

  As for her reasons for not fighting him with every ounce of strength in her—

  Chapter Five

  While she watched, fascinated and yet disbelieving, Stark removed her boots and tossed them aside. After disposing with her jeans and panties, he lifted her legs so one rested on each of his shoulders. He’d crouched low while getting her into position, but now he straightened a little, lifting her buttocks off the ground. Blood began pooling in her head.

  “What are—”

  “What you need.”

  She didn’t know anything about herself, so how could he be so sure? Having her hands lashed behind her with him over her made her feel helpless, but that was nothing compared to what she was experiencing now. Not only had she lost control over her body, she wasn’t sure she wanted it back.

  She trusted him. By all that was holy, she tr
usted him!

  Almost as soon as she acknowledged the thought, she reminded herself that the blood rush could well be responsible. But although a small part of her brain devoted to self-preservation wanted back freedom and self-determination, she’d sunk too far into need and wanting to heed its cry. She’d been claimed by a stranger, taken over by him, freedom stolen, and that was good.

  Heady.

  Incredible!

  He began running his hands over her inner thighs. A willing participant, she sank deep into sensation, and when he brought his mouth within inches of her cunt and breathed his hot breath on tender tissues, she sobbed out her need.

  “Hush,” he warned, his words sliding like warm water over her labia. “Feel. Only feel.”

  As if she could do anything else! He continued drawing in mountain air, heating it, and expelling it on her until she feared her head would burst and her heart explode. “Oh God, oh God, oh God.”

  “Quiet. Let it happen. Become part of me.”

  What was that he’d said, something about losing herself and turning into him? But she couldn’t think how to focus on what might be a warning, not with his mouth so close to her core and need pounding through her.

  “Do me, oh God, do me.”

  “You want this then?”

  This? The question, like the alarm accompanying it, drifted off like mist touched by a summer sun.

  Driven by a force she couldn’t name, she struggled to scoot closer. And when he rewarded her efforts by running his tongue over her need-soaked labia, she sobbed and writhed. His deep laughter floated around her, the sound both superior and understanding. Her body twitched and quivered, the sensation of countless pinpricks making it impossible for her to remain still.

  “Come with me. Come to that place where we both belong,” he said.

  Although she didn’t understand his message, she nodded and gasped and offered her sex to him. “Again!” she begged. “Please, again.”

  His tongue claimed her once more, not quick and furtive this time, but a slow, possessive stroke that had her mewling. Before she could begin to reclaim ownership of her nerves, he licked again, his tongue no longer soft, but hard and insistent. She was melting, falling apart, flying off into a million pieces.

  “Hold still!”

  She tried. Oh, how she tried, but her nerves spiraled out of control. She felt as if she were trying to catch fireflies one-handed. Everything was happening so fast, and she couldn’t get a handle on the pace, but maybe she didn’t want to.

  Maybe she only wanted to shatter.

  To climax.

  Driven by the overwhelming need, she pushed her legs against his neck. Using her forearms for leverage, she offered him more of her pussy. Bits and pieces of what might be sanity kept breaking away to stand watch from the sidelines. She was acting like a slut, or a bitch in heat, but even when her cheeks flamed, she was too far gone to stop.

  How could she put on the brakes when he licked her sex lips and ran the tip of his tongue into her hole, when his teeth scraped her clit and set her to squealing? Being unable to stop his attack and wanting it more than the breath of life had taken her where she’d never been before. Only feeling mattered, only this relentless drive to release and relief.

  “Killing me! You’re killing me.” Startled by the high-pitched voice, she was slow to acknowledge she’d spoken, and that she’d been so honest. So undone.

  “Not killing.” His lips pressed against her hot and heavy core. “Bringing you to life, the one I now live.”

  Again he was handing her pieces of some planned future and maybe warning, but she was too deep in the flames to make sense of it. “I want—I need…”

  “I know what you need, Mia. The same things I do.”

  That couldn’t be, could it? Surely he didn’t want to be tied up and sexually manipulated, to have her tease him until insanity ruled.

  But if he did, he’d have to wait until she’d scraped herself back together, and that wouldn’t happen until she’d found release. Although she’d managed to remain still while they were talking, she now offered herself to him again. A small part of her was appalled by the wanton way she presented herself, but she couldn’t begin to think how to stop. She smelled her heat, her need, felt her racing blood.

  And then he closed his mouth around her clit and sucked, and she shook like a leaf in a storm.

  “Ah, ah! Help, oh, help!”

  No relief. Hard heat centered on her cunt and the poor trapped nub wanting to explode. Needing to shriek and shatter and then laugh with joy.

  Sensing a lifting up, a spreading outward, fresh heat plunging throughout her, she dove into the impending climax. If she could think how it was done, she’d scream. Instead, she buried herself in her body.

  And then she heard it—a sharp sound like lightning striking and splintering a tree. The harsh crack was almost immediately followed by another. A third, loud enough to hurt her ears, came.

  Pulled out of herself by the nerve-shattering explosions, she sobbed as her nearly there climax faded. Blinking the world back into focus, she saw him staring at her. His mouth was open, the moist heat he’d gifted her with still on her pussy. “What—was that?”

  Although he cocked his as if trying to determine where the sound was coming from, his attention remained locked on her. “You heard it?”

  “Of course. My God, it sounded only a few feet away.”

  “Your hearing…”

  “What about my hearing?” she prompted when his words trailed off.

  “It’s so keen.”

  If she hadn’t been torn between sexual frustration and alarm, she would have pointed out that only the profoundly deaf wouldn’t have heard what had to have been a rifle firing repeatedly. When she’d heard the shots earlier—how many lifetimes ago had that been?—they’d been at a considerable distance. Now she was surprised she couldn’t see the shooter.

  What if the hunter was just over the hill or beyond the sheltering bushes and trees? If he came across her and Stark… “Let me go!” she ordered, struggling to lift her legs off his shoulders. “Now, let me go!”

  Instead of granting her plea, he gripped her calves, holding her in place. Although carnal need continued to overload her system, it now warred with another basic emotion: survival. An armed stranger was out there firing when it wasn’t hunting season. If he’d just killed an animal, maybe he was capable of silencing anyone he perceived as a threat to his getting away with a crime.

  The massive cougar! Had he shot it?

  “I mean it, Stark.” Although it was too late to matter, she dropped her voice to a whisper. “This is dangerous.”

  “Danger?” He didn’t bother to keep his voice down. “How?”

  Was the man crazy? “I don’t want to get shot.”

  “You won’t. Not unless he gets a lot closer.”

  Furious, she renewed her struggles. Although her strength didn’t come close to matching his, he ducked his head and slid out from under her legs. Having them on the ground again sent pins and needles shooting through her. As soon as she could, she sat up, hands digging into the dirt to help her balance. “Untie me, please.”

  Something both softened and darkened in his eyes. “You’re afraid, aren’t you?”

  “You aren’t?”

  “Not anymore.”

  Confused, she stared at him. He’d taken her so deep into herself while stimulating her that she’d been incapable of contemplating what was happening to him. Now she clearly saw that he was far from immune from arousal. Granted, she couldn’t fully comprehend his expression, but his body was wire-tight, his cheeks flushed, sweat glistening. Although the scent of her arousal was strong, she smelled his heat and excitement.

  What was it about this afternoon that had made her sight crystal clear? Beneath his jeans, his engorged cock was all but fully exposed. She swore she could see its swollen veins and reddened flesh. When she stopped breathing, she heard both their hearts beating, the sounds li
ke frantic drums.

  “What’s happening?” she asked, then had to clamp down on a confused and frightened whimper. “Everything—”

  “Your senses?”

  “Yes.”

  “They’ve never been this acute.”

  He hadn’t asked a question. Instead, he’d spoken as if he understood everything she was experiencing. “What’s happening?” she repeated, on the verge of tears. Her voice hammered in her ears, but even worse was how out of control she sounded.

  “The same thing that happened to me,” he muttered. Then he wrapped his arms around her and cradled her against his chest. Off balance, she didn’t try to pull away, but sank into his strength. He smelled male, masculine. When his body heat seeped through his shirt and spread over her, she no longer saw herself as his prisoner, but something precious. And when he pressed his lips to her temple, she turned into him and kissed his throat.

  “Listen to me,” he said with his mouth so close that every sound he made vibrated. “I don’t understand everything that’s happened to me since I came here. I’m not sure I ever will. There’s something, a force I call Cougar Spirit because I keep seeing a cougar.”

  No, he wasn’t crazy. Or if he was, she’d joined him in insanity.

  “It began the day I entered the forest. Before I started hiking, I stopped to see a forest ranger friend who warned me to look out for poachers. There’s been a lot of killing in the area—deer and elk out of season, idiots looking for a thrill.”

  That’s what was out there then, poachers. “Can’t the rangers stop them? If they know they’re there—”

  “They don’t have enough manpower. Along with all the cutbacks in federal funds, rangers’ responsibilities across the board have increased. Unfortunately, as a result, poaching’s been relegated to the back burner.”

  “And in the meantime innocent animals are being murdered for sport! That’s sick.” With her ear so close to his heart, she could hear his beating clearer than she could her own. The sound was music.

  “Yes, it is sick.”

  His simple words made her feel as if they shared a core belief system. Not only did they both embrace the wilderness, but anything that jeopardized that wilderness appalled them.