“Are there many humans around Midnight Moraine?”
“They wouldn't dare come near the Moraine. Midnight Moraine has a bad reputation among the humans around the area. Some of them even say it's haunted, but that's just Midnight dropping out of nowhere and disappearing just as fast.” He chuckled low in his chest.
Melody shivered. She could imagine a panther blacker than the blackest night sailing through the treetops, pouncing on its unsuspecting prey, and vanishing without a trace.
That black streak of unstoppable energy wormed into her soul. It infected her with spongy sexual desires she didn’t understand. She shrank from them her whole life. Now they reared up out of her soul and growled demands she shuddered to answer. The bear wanted what she wanted, right now. She wanted him.
“You should come with me, Melody. You should see it for yourself.”
Melody started out of her dreamworld. “I couldn't do that. I couldn't leave the Peak. It's not safe for Bruins outside our own territory. Marla proved that.”
“No one would bother you if you were with me. I would protect you.”
She started to draw away. “I better go. People will be looking for me.”
His hand darted between the bars and came to rest on her cheek. “You're a sweet girl, Melody. I've never met anyone like you before. You saved me. I'll never forget that.”
Melody froze in astonished confusion. His warm palm caressed her cheek. Her emotions exploded every which way inside her. What was he doing? What was she doing? How could he touch her like that?
Even as those questions tumbled over one another in a flustered flurry, she already knew. She already wanted it.
She lifted her hand to his. She meant to take his hand off her cheek, but she got caught somewhere in the middle. Her fingers traced his, and she wound up pressing his hand harder against her skin. She inclined her head to rest in his palm.
He moved closer through the bars. His voice purred through her veins with an intoxicating, hypnotic electricity. She stared into his black eyes and couldn't look away. “I should hate you. I should push you away, but I can't. I have to be near you. I have to touch you. I have to taste you.”
Against her will, she let him pull her toward the bars. Her lips popped apart. She fought for breath through pouting lips. Her eyes widened in search of him in those magnetic eyes.
She didn't see what he was doing. She only felt his other hand take hold of hers and bring it inside the bars to rest on his chest. “You turned me on before, when you touched me right here.” He laid her hand across the burn. Her touch made him tense in pain, but she sensed the rising energy inside him.
His voice caressed her all over. “Did that turn you on? Does this turn you on? Do you like touching me like that?”
The blood pounded in her head and burned across her cheeks? What was he talking about? How could touching him turn her on? She was a Bruin, and he was Midnight.
Now when she touched him, she sensed it all. He was Midnight, all right. He was something so far beyond anything she could understand. Midnight was the only word that made sense of what he was. He was pure, black Midnight. He was a force beyond this world, beyond life and death. He was black, heart and soul.
Every instinct told her to tear herself out of his hands. His touch mesmerized her so she could only stand still and watch her own destruction coming closer. He pulled her right up against the bars. She watched his mouth gliding closer until his lips touched hers.
Her forehead bumped the bars, but he kept his hand glued to her cheek. He murmured so low she could barely hear him. “I want you, Melody. I haven't wanted anyone this much in my life. I need you.”
She fought her way out of her trance. “Is this what you do when you want something—someone? Is this what your people do?”
“We mate with whoever we want. Sometimes we keep it casual. Sometimes it only lasts one night. Then we move on. All our connections stay fluid and natural.”
Fluid and natural—like everything else about him. He was lawless—all Midnight were. She understood that now. They didn't mate for life like Bruins. They took what they wanted. Their relationships came and went on the inky tide of night.
Even knowing that, she couldn't pull away. Her body wouldn't let her. That bubble of wetness between her legs popped and flowed into her panties to saturate her thighs. His very alien menace excited her beyond comprehension. She didn't want to admit it to herself, but he turned her on. He turned her on like she couldn't believe.
She touched his chest with one hand and pressed his fingers to her cheek with the other. She couldn't stop herself turning her head to kiss his palm, she wanted him so much. His chest muscles rippled under her hand.
The sides of his shirt moved under her touch and fell aside. That was the first glimpse she got of the angry, jagged tattoos stabbing down his chest to form a wicked suit around his shoulders. His wild dangerous cat nature exploded in her awareness.
He moved forward one more time, and when his lips touched hers this time, he didn't release her. He crushed his mouth against her and consumed her with his lips.
Melody wanted to fight her way free, but her hand kept stroking his chest, back and forth. She brushed his nipples, one after the other, and his breath caught in her mouth. His tongue flickered into her mouth and vanished, only to reappear on flames of excitement.
She tasted cat, and that taste set her blood on fire. She kissed enough Bruin guys to know what they tasted like. She even gave Rhys Dodd a blow job once, but that meant nothing to her. She wiped off her mouth and walked away from him without a care in the world.
She could never walk away from this. The first time he kissed her, she knew it was hopeless. She couldn't get enough of that taste on his lips. She pressed her tongue into his mouth and licked his saliva off his cheeks. She dove her hand into his shirt and pinched his nipples.
A ragged groan interrupted their kiss. “Oh, fuck, you make me so hard. Touch me right now. Feel how hard you make me.”
A second later, their kissing swallowed all words. Nothing in the world existed but that eternal kiss. It filled Melody's heart and soul with endless desire for nothing but him. She could go on kissing him forever.
She heard a zipper buzz, and her eyes snapped open. Riley ripped his lips away from her and looked down. She followed his gaze and saw his fly lying open. That same cock, the cock he pulled out to piss in the bucket, lay erect and throbbing in his hand. “See? See how hard you make me? I'm gonna give it to you like you don't know how.”
Melody jumped back a foot in the air. She could barely croak out the words, “I can't!” before she bolted out of the basement. She even forgot to take her candle with her.
She hit the stairs, slammed the door behind her, and locked the door. She dragged her hand across her mouth to wipe off the saliva and raced into the night. She had to get as far away from Riley as she could, and fast.
What was she thinking, kissing him like that? What was she doing, touching him and deliberately turning him on? She must be out of her mind, but that one touch, that one kiss changed her forever. It changed her very blood chemistry. It woke the hidden sexuality lying latent in her heart.
The bear rumbled and roared for what she wanted. She wanted to devour him in big greedy gulps. She wanted to grab him and maul him with her mouth. She wanted to inhale him into her flesh until she erupted in a supernova of erotic galaxies.
She ran from those urges, from the bear demanding them, but she couldn’t get away from them. She wore them like a suit in her very bones now. Wherever she went, they haunted her until they wore down her resolve. They would give her no peace until she satisfied them.
She could never satisfied them with a casual encounter like this one she just had with Riley. She couldn’t satisfy them except by giving them her whole life. She would have to dedicate her life to this new self taking over her soul. She would have to give herself to…to him—or something cosmic force like him.
She ran all
the way back to the marquee, but she couldn't see or hear anything going on around her. Lyric was right. Mattox was right. Walker was right. Everyone was right. Riley was the enemy. They ought to kill him at sunrise and send a strong message to the Midnight that Bruins wouldn't tolerate any intrusion on their territory.
She knew the danger these panthers posed. Riley himself admitted what he'd done. He was proud of it. Even knowing all that, she couldn't reconcile it with the young man in the basement. His warmth, his skin, his delicious kiss wiped it all out of her mind.
She could only keep repeating over and over the words buzzing in her mind, Come with me, Melody. You should see it for yourself. What would it be like, to see all those panthers living together on one mountain?
She shook that thought out of her head. The Midnight meant the Bruins nothing but harm. Riley could be blowing sunshine up her dress when he said he could convince his people to back down. Maybe the Midnight didn't give a hoot whether they provoked a war or not. They wouldn't trespass on Bruin land if they did.
Whatever else Riley was or wasn't, he wasn't helpless. He might be captive and injured and defensive, but he wasn't helpless. He was a predator, wild and primal. He hunted the treetops for his prey. He and his family considered Bruins their prey, and now they hunted them, too. Melody and every other Bruin on the Peak were nothing more than a quick buck to them.
She couldn't stop reliving that kiss. Her hands tickled his perfect skin. She touched the tight pricks of his nipples, and the muscles contracted down his abs to his pelvis. The veins along his cock distended with hot blood. He pointed it right at her. See how hard you make me? I'm gonna give it to you like you don't know how.
God, he turned her on like nothing else! Every inch of his rock-hard manhood swam through her mind in scorching drunken delirium. Her very blood screamed for him. She wanted that thing in her hand, in her mouth, in her guts.
She had to find a way to wipe him out of her mind. She had to find a way to stop thinking about him and fantasizing about him. He said himself his people didn't mate for life. They probably couldn't mate with Bruins at all.
If that was the case, how could he kiss her? How could he get that hard for her? She was a bear. He was a cat. She shouldn't be attracted to him at all. They should have repelled each other.
She ran on, past the marquee into the night. She got lost in the woods and shifted to get her mind off him. The bear wandered the misty woods, and a thousand smells distracted her. In the end, though, nothing could erase his smell and his taste. That smell and that taste, the one true taste she craved and searched for, just wouldn't go away until she found it again.
Chapter 9
Melody sat at breakfast with the rest of the Mackenzies. Azer, Lyric, and Mattox ate their bacon and pancakes while Rex drank a cup of coffee. Melody ate in silence and listened to Lyric and Mattox talking. “Is Walker still saying he'll kill anyone who stands between him and the bear-baiter?”
Mattox nodded. “Brody and Austin and I are meeting with Boyd and Aiken in half an hour to discuss what to do about him. Walker is working the whole marquee to rally every friend he's got to help him knock the kid off this morning. He's got Don MacAllister with him, and of course the Dunlap boys can't wait to see the kid's brains spattered all over the basement.”
Rex put down his coffee cup. “Can we please talk about something else until breakfast is over?”
“Sorry, Papa,” Lyric replied. “I think most people at this wedding have heard enough about that kid.”
Rex and Mattox talked about the weather, and Azer and Mattox talked about their cattle ranching operation. Melody watched her chance, and after the rest of the family took their dirty dishes to the kitchen for washing, she came up alongside Mattox. “If it's all right with you, I want to go back downstairs and take Riley some more food.”
He shook his head. “I don't think I can convince Aiken and Austin to come with me at a time like this. Everybody's busy dealing with Walker right now. Riley can wait a few hours, at least until we know whether he's gonna live or die.”
“Aiken and Austin don't have to come. Riley won't do anything. You saw him last time. He obeyed you when you told him to back off.”
“Of course, he obeyed me with two other men standing by and a cattle prod aimed at his chest. He wouldn't dare come near with that in place.”
“Then you aim it at him, or give it to me. If he comes near me, I'll shock him to kingdom come.”
Mattox tried not to smile. “You really want to help that kid, don't you?”
“If I can talk to him alone, just once, I might be able to find out something that would stop Walker from killing him.” She didn't dare tell him she already did find it out.
“All right, but don't blame me if you get your head bitten off. Go get your food, and I'll meet you at the basement stairs in five minutes. I won't be able to stay long. You'll just have to drop the stuff off and leave.”
“Can't you let me stay, just for a little while, just to talk to him?”
Mattox shook his head and clucked his tongue. “If you're right, and you can show me he doesn't mean you any harm, I might think about it.”
Melody jumped up and planted a kiss on his cheek. “You're the best, Mattox.”
He pushed her away and wiped the kiss off his cheek, but his cheeks shone with a rosy flush. He really was irresistibly handsome when he blushed like that. “Hey! What's the idea? I didn't ask for this. Your sister might see us.”
Melody laughed out loud and raced away. Her heart fluttered as she filled her basket. She was on her way to see Riley again! With any luck, Mattox would let her stay alone with him and talk to him. She caught sight of the Dunlap boys in deep conference with Aiken near the drinks table. None of them excited her the way Riley did.
Mattox took out his cattle prod by the basement stairs. He calibrated it to stun mode. Melody cast her eye down at it. “You better give me that this time.”
He hesitated, but in the end, he handed it over. “Okay, but I'll be watching. If I see any funny business, this whole charity act is over with. Do you understand me? We've got much bigger things to worry about this morning.”
“I understand. If he tries anything at all, I'll never visit him again.”
Mattox nodded, and they ventured down the stairs. As soon as they showed their faces, Riley got to his feet. He retreated of his own accord to the far end of the cage and turned his back. He put both hands up and grabbed the bars. He stood still and didn't turn around.
Mattox stopped at the foot of the stairs. He jerked his head at Melody. “Go on. Show me.”
She took hold of the cattle prod in one hand and the basket in the other. She already knew Riley would never do anything to hurt her. He would never bite the hand that fed him, especially after last night.
She had to put on a good show for Mattox, though. She walked up to the cage with the cattle prod extended in front of her. She set down the basket and backed away to rejoin Mattox. “See? What did I tell you?”
Mattox frowned. “Are you sure you want to stay down here?”
Melody nodded. Riley still hadn't turned around. The sight of him standing exposed and vulnerable against the bars contorted her guts in knots. Her whole body ached to touch him, to soften his ordeal.
“You keep that prod ready. Understand? If anything goes wrong—anything at all—you come straight to me. Do you hear me? If you don't come and find me in half an hour, just to let me know you're okay, I'm sending in the big guns. Got that?”
“I got it. I'll see you in half an hour.”
Melody fought to control herself until he disappeared up the stairs. As soon as Mattox left, she hurried to the cage. “I came as soon as I could.”
Riley turned around to face her. His hair tumbled over his forehead, and his eyes searched the basement for any hidden threat. “Thank you for coming. You don't know how I looked forward to seeing you again.”
She almost burst out laughing in sheer hysterical
excitement. She cast the cattle prod aside and clasped his hands through the bars. “I couldn't wait to see you again.”
His face inched near hers, but he didn't pull her in. “I'm sorry about last night, Melody. I shouldn't have pushed you like that. I won't do it again. I understand you don't want to get mixed up with someone like me, especially not now.”
“It's okay.”
“I mean it. You're too nice for that. I want you to know how grateful I am for your kindness. I never want to do anything to disturb you. I shouldn't have forced myself on you like that.”
She really did laugh then. “It's okay. You didn't do anything I didn't want you to do. Let's forget it. Now that Mattox is letting me talk to you, I can tell him about what you said. I can tell him the Midnight wouldn't come into our territory if they thought it would lead to war.”
Riley let go of her hands. “Maybe you shouldn't tell him that. Maybe we should forget it.”
“Why? The alternative is letting Walker kill you. If we suggest they send you home to take that message to your people, you have a chance. Otherwise, they'll treat you like any other trespassing bear-baiter. Is that what you want?”
“Of course not. I just don't see how they can let me go, just like that. If the situation was reversed, you can believe the Midnight would kill the intruder. There would be no discussion about it. They would never bring the intruder back to their Homestead and lock him in the basement. They would blow him away on the spot and leave his carcass to rot under the tree.”
“Well, we aren't Midnight. We're Bruins, and we have some humane feelings for other sentient creatures. We don't go around murdering everyone who happens to stray onto our land, not even when the hunters from town trap and skin us and sell our hides for profit. The Alphas wouldn't threaten you at all if you hadn't kidnapped Marla first.”
Bruins Peak Bears Box Set (Volume II) Page 6