“What if you guys moved in together? Roommates, not anything else,” he added when Crystal’s eyes narrowed.
“How?” she asked. “I’m part of the pack, right? Shouldn’t I be with you?”
Hank stared at her for several seconds and then licked his lips. “Yes, you should be.”
Crystal bit her lip. She meant to ask if she should be with the pack, not with him. Did his answer mean what she thought it did, or what she hoped? “Um, yeah. So, like, Stephanie isn’t one of us. How could she live with us? And don’t you guys move around from time to time too?”
“Live with us?” he repeated.
Crystal’s eyes widened. “All of us. The pack,” she scrambled. “Not, um, you and me us. Right?”
“Oh,” he said. She saw his shoulders sink a little bit. He dropped his gaze from her eyes and said, “You could, you know?”
His soft question stole her breath. It wasn’t just the rich timber of his voice; it was the gentle way he asked it. He was vulnerable. This giant mountain of a shapeshifter was baring his soul to her and it made her want to leap on him and shower him with kisses. Well, that and other things. But she couldn’t let him off the hook that easy. “That’s silly,” Crystal said. “I can’t do that.”
His eyes flashed and narrowed for a split second. He stiffened and gave her a short nod. “Of course.” He grunted and started to back away.
Crystal realized she was playing a dangerous game. Hank was hurt when she’d meant to be playful. She moved after him and said, “This place is too small for both of us. We need a bigger bathroom and a bed big enough for two people.”
His breath hissed through his nose as he stared down at her grinning face. His lips twitched and crept upwards. “You were screwing with me?”
She bit her lip and nodded.
He laughed and grabbed her up in his massive arms. Crystal yelped as he spun her around and kissed her. She kissed him back, luxuriating in how his lips crushed hers and his stubble tickled her skin. He was all man and she was all his.
The spinning slowed as the kiss deepened. She traced his teeth with her tongue and then felt his slide against hers. They moved against each other in a perfect harmony, slipping and sliding until she managed to coax him into her mouth. She trapped him between her teeth playfully and then wrapped her lips tight around his tongue, sucking on it suggestively.
Hank growled and stumbled back. Crystal let him go and squealed when they fell on the couch. She landed tight against him and paused, breathless, and stared into his brilliant blue eyes. She was burning up and unable to think. All she knew was that his eyes promised relief from the red fog around her. She leaned forward and kissed him again, giving in to the passion that made her stomach tremble and her legs weak.
After a few minutes or a few hours passed—she’d lost track of everything except the smell and feel of Hank—she noticed a hardness that was grinding up against her. She sat on his lap, her legs spread over his. The skirt of her dress was trapped between them, the only thing separating her from the thick ridge in his jeans that tormented her.
Hank’s hands moved up and down her side, teasing and rubbing but never touching her where she ached to be touched. She broke the kiss out of necessity, not want, and leaned back so they could see each other clearly. She panted and grabbed his hands where they rested on her hips. “I. Need. You.”
Hank’s nostrils flared and he growled deep in his throat. She whimpered and started to lean back into him. He caught her. “Wait,” he said, his voice husky and even deeper than normal. “Are you sure? Is this safe? For you, I mean. I don’t care about me.”
She grinned and nodded. She wasn’t in heat anymore. At least not a supernatural kind that promised nightmare offspring and death. She buried her face in the crook of his neck and bit him, like she had when they’d ridden together. He stiffened beneath her—both his body and the hardness that was grinding between her legs. Crystal pulled his hands up to her breasts and used her hands to encourage him to squeeze her. He took to her instructions like a moth to a flame.
Crystal groaned and writhed against him. She shifted her hips, rubbing herself against him and whimpering all the while. She bit and sucked at his neck, changing locations but needing to taste him. She shuddered in his lap. Sweat was pouring from her but she wanted more. She needed more. She grabbed her dress and lifted herself a fraction of a second to yank it out from between them.
She let out a soft howl when she sank back and felt his denim against her sensitive flesh. She jerked and bit him again, muffling her cries. He grunted and she tasted a fresh wetness in her mouth. It was salty, metallic, and delicious. She lapped it up and pressed her lips to where her teeth had broken his skin.
Hank growled and dropped his hands to his pants. She lifted herself, knowing what was coming, and let him rip the button and zipper with his great strength before he pushed his pants down. She sat down, her trembling legs unable to keep her way from what she desired, and felt the burning skin of his erection pressed against her slit.
Crystal shuddered and moaned again, collapsing against him as electricity sparked through her body and left her tingling. She mewed against him and ground her hips in tiny circles, making him wetter and wetter with each movement.
He growled again but she couldn’t understand him. No, that wasn’t true. She didn’t know what he said but she knew what he meant. What he needed. She bit her lip and slid forward on his lap, rubbing his length against her and making it impossible to think or even breathe. She felt the spongy head of his manhood bump against her and then slip into the depression that she knew was the doorway to her soul. She moaned into his neck again and rocked her hips, lifting him up and slipping him into her entrance.
“Crys,” he groaned, his voice savage and contorted. He was on the edge; she could sense it. Not the edge of release, but on the edge of control. She’d learned her lesson about teasing him. No more.
Crystal exhaled and moaned as she slid her hips down on him. Her moan was cut short as her breath got stuck in her throat. He spread her and pressed up, driving in with as much force as she’d been driving down. Her body felt full and stretched at first and then the stretching became too much and his progress halted.
Hank was panting beneath her and gripping her hips so tight she expected bruises. She lifted her head up and let a long and low moan escape her throat. The stretching was beyond anything she’d imagined. She ached and she hurt, yet she craved it. She needed more. As soon as the pain began to subside, she pushed herself down and captured more of him, only to renew the process again.
She managed a startled gasp when she felt the pressure against her flesh. She glanced down and saw their bodies were joined and she’d managed to take all of him. She picked her head up and stared into his eyes. They were bright and beautiful, but also had a wild look in them. It excited her, knowing how dangerous he could be and knowing that she made him that way. Yet she was safe. She knew that. Hank would never hurt her, only love her.
She rotated her hips, grinding herself against his pubic bone, and saw the way his nostrils flared. It reeked of sweat and sex in the small trailer and it was incredible. She licked her lips and found the strength to pick herself up a fraction of an inch. She let go and dropped back down on him; their movements were tight and impossible but each twitch multiplied into a thousand flutters inside her. She gasped and repeated the action, gaining an inch of motion before she drove their hips together again.
She fell into his arms and buried her face in his neck again. It was too much; she couldn’t focus on moving and feeling the incredible sensations. Hank shifted under her, trembling and trying to continue pumping against her. When she could do nothing but whimper and suck on his neck, he lurched forward and picked her up off the couch.
Crystal whimpered and locked her legs tight around his butt. She was afraid he was going to pull out and ruin all the work they’d done fitting him inside her. Her worrying was needless. He spun them around and dr
opped back to the couch. This time she felt the furniture against her back and grunted as Hank’s weight forced him still deeper.
“Yes!” she panted. “Oh. My. God!”
Hank grunted and took over where she’d failed. In moments, they were driving against each other. Crystal ground her head back against the couch. She gasped for breath every time he pulled back, only to have it driven from her when he plunged back in. Her body was so hot and her breasts, pushed up and into Hank’s chest, felt like they were capped with liquid fire.
She tensed, her exhausted muscles contorting beyond endurance. The ceiling faded into a red and then white fog. She reached up and wrapped her arms around him, pulling herself up and tasting the sweat on his neck again so that her cries of pleasure would be stifled.
Hank roared and shifted his arms under hers and around her back. His fingers, each of them strong as steel cables, curled around her shoulders and helped pull her down as he thrust up. Crystal mewed and whimpered and then lost the ability to speak. Her body contorted and she lost herself to the primal force that swept through her. Dimly, on some distant and otherworldly level, she felt him swell and jerk inside her. She sucked and swallowed, losing focus on everything except the need to be there for him. The white fog surrounding her faded into darkness.
Chapter 14
Crystal gasped and had to blink several times until she could focus clearly. She relaxed when she noticed the wall and door of Hank’s trailer. She picked her head up and looked up into Hank’s smiling blue eyes. Somehow he’d rearranged them on the couch. She was lying half on top of him and half tucked between him and the back of the couch. Her left leg was sprawled across his belly and her arm was curled on his chest.
“How?” she whispered.
“How what? How did I move us?”
“Mmm, yes,” she said before kissing the side of his chest.
His arm, wrapped around her back, squeezed her against him for a moment. “You passed out and nearly took me with you. I managed to stay awake and, after I got my strength back, picked you up and moved us.”
Crystal snuggled into him and nodded. The trailer was still warm but she didn’t mind. A little sweat was a fine price to pay to be next to him. To feel his skin against hers. She gasped and picked her head up. “We’re naked!”
Hank grinned. “Feels better this way.”
She opened her mouth to respond and then realized he was right. It did feel good. Just like in the swamp, she felt natural. Like this was how she was supposed to be. How she felt to her and how she felt to him were two completely different matters. “I’m not crushing you, am I?”
Hank’s chuckle died in his throat as he looked at her. “You’re serious?”
Crystal bit her lip and nodded.
“Don’t get any skinnier,” he said.
Crystal blinked. “What?”
“We’re both big,” he told her and then cursed when her chin started to tremble. “No, I mean tall and with broad shoulders. You are beautiful, Crystal. A goddess.”
“Stop it.”
“No.” He shook his head. “If you get any smaller, I’m going to be afraid to touch you and that just won’t do. I really, really like touching you.”
Crystal blushed. “Me too.”
He laughed. “You’d better!”
She jerked her eyes back up to his and found herself getting lost in them again. “I’d better? Why?”
“You bit me.”
“Oh my God!”
Hank stared at her, his features relaxing until only a gentle smile remained. “You don’t know, do you?”
“Know? Know what?”
“Biting. It’s a sign of dominance or maybe possession. At least when you’re not fighting for your life. Although I guess it applies then too.”
Crystal shook her head. “What are you talking about?”
“You bit me. That means you want to claim me as yours or make me look up and respect you.”
Her eyes widened and she blurted out her question before he could finish. “Do you?”
Color filled his cheeks before he admitted, “Yes. Very much.”
“Oh my God!”
He chuckled again. “That’s a bite. But you drew blood. Once was enough, but you did it twice. And you soothed the bites.”
“Twice? I only remember once.”
“When you came, at the end.”
Crystal gasped at a faint memory of chewing on his neck and swallowing every time she felt him quiver and release inside her. “Oh! Um, so what’s that mean?”
“Normally it means you’ve chosen me.”
Thoughts of the beast biting her and claiming her filtered through her head. “Chosen you?”
He blushed and nodded. “As your mate.”
“Mate?” she gasped.
“It’s like a boyfriend, only longer term. Like, a lot longer,” he supplied.
Crystal slapped his chest lightly. “I know what it means! I just—um, wow. I had no idea.”
“I figured as much. I’m not holding you to it.”
“No!” Crystal dropped her eyes from his. It was what she wanted, wasn’t it? She loved him. He’d just taken her virginity, for crying out loud! She rested her head back on his shoulder and kissed his chest again. “It’s not like that. I mean, I like you. Like, I really, really like you.”
He smiled and leaned over to kiss her on top of her head. “I like you too.”
She shivered in spite of the warmth and hugged him. “So we’re cool?”
She felt a hitch in his breathing. “I’m not sure. What did you decide?”
Crystal blushed. She hadn’t decided anything. She didn’t know what the hell she was doing. Only that he’d made her feel incredible and she wanted to do it again. Stephanie was right: people who didn’t like sex really were crazy!
“Crys?”
“Sorry, I was thinking about Stephanie,” she half-lied. “Um, yes, I like you. And yes, if you’ll have me, I’d like to be with you. I don’t know what that makes us, but, um, I’ve kinda been calling you my boyfriend.”
He grinned and kissed her again. “So if I get a bigger place you’ll move in?”
She bit her lip and nodded. Her mom would freak but this was her family now. Her pack. She’d deal with her mom when she had to.
“Great. Um, how big of a bed will we need? You know, three people and all.”
Crystal picked herself up and stared at him. “Three? What are you talking about?”
“I thought you wanted to keep Stephanie around?”
Crystal’s eyes bulged and she gawked at him. She slapped his belly even as he laughed at her reaction. She pouted for all of a second until she dissolved into giggles. “Stop it!” she chided him when she could talk again. “I’m not sharing you with anyone.”
He grinned. “Good.”
Crystal leaned over and kissed him. She broke away and paused, and then leaned back in. He was a good kisser, so why not?
The door to the trailer flew open and sent Crystal jumping up off the couch and then crashing back down on top of Hank. He grunted and held on to her to keep her from hurting herself—or him.
Guntar stood in the doorway and stared at them while they stopped thrashing on the couch. Crystal saw his lips curl up in a smirk beneath his heavy mustache and beard. “Get dressed. We’ve got to ride.”
“What?” Crystal asked.
“You too,” he told her. “ Adrian took a ride to check on this Chad guy. He just called. Your friend Beth’s at his house.”
Crystal lurched to her feet, breaking out of Hank’s arms and then fell when her feet hit the floor. “Oh my God!” she cried as she grabbed her groin. She couldn’t stand up, her muscles hurt so bad. With no regard to her earlier thoughts of how wonderful it had been, she blurted out, “I’m never having sex again!”
###
**Part Five**
Chapter 1
“This is so crazy.” Stephanie had to yell to be heard over the sound of the wind
rushing past them.
Crystal looked over at the former bully. “Welcome to my life,” she said. She squirmed in her seat and rolled her eyes at how sore she still was. She wasn’t healing as fast as she had before she’d driven the Beast out of her. She blushed at the thought of having a different kind of beast in her a little bit ago.
“Why would Beth go there?” Stephanie asked.
Crystal pushed the pleasant thoughts of making love to Hank out of her mind. Beth needed them. “I don’t know,” Crystal said. “She’s worried about me and wants to help.”
“About you?”
“Well, you too.”
Stephanie smiled. “You’ve got Chad after you, but I’m the one looking forward to a padded room and a straightjacket because I can’t stop lusting after you.”
“Oh my God.” Crystal groaned. “Do you have to make it sound like that?”
“Sorry,” Stephanie said. “Just want to make sure you understand how bad I’ve got it for you.”
“You mean how bad I screwed you up?”
“Crys, stop it,” Stephanie rebuked her. “I drove you to it and you didn’t know you could cast a spell on me. It’s cool.”
“You’re only saying that because I did that to you.”
“Yeah, but I don’t mind. I like it. Just being here and talking to you makes me feel good.”
“Even though you’re driving me to something that could be terrible?”
Stephanie shrugged. “It’s okay. I’m just surprised that you’re not riding with Hank. And yeah, I’m happy.”
Crystal glanced over at the mirror and saw Hank riding behind them on his Indian motorcycle. She smiled at the sight of the large man. “I can’t help it, you’re growing on me. Besides, this dress is too short to wear on a motorcycle.”
Stephanie glanced over at her and dropped her eyes down Crystal’s tall form to her long legs on display below the bottom of the sundress. “It wouldn’t stop Ember.”
Claimed by the Beast Bundle Page 30