She came over to him in slow, careful steps, not realizing that it put sensuality in her movements, making her body curve and sway as if in seduction. When she was finally standing before him, her ripe breasts level with his mouth, he forced himself to clear his throat of its sudden tightness and said, “Kneel.”
She obeyed him, kneeling like a supplicant, making his entire body scream with savage need. But he kept tight rein on it.
“Raise your arms above your head,” he said gruffly.
She did so slowly, her eyes always wary as she watched him. He gathered up the silky peach creation and then reached to drop it over her arms and head. He hated to cover her up, but he appeased himself by remembering that she would have to change again and again in the days to come, and he would see to it he was there every time. It might be a form of self-torture, but he really didn’t give a damn.
The silk settled over her, sliding over her breasts the way he wanted his mouth to slide over her. But he knew she didn’t want him to touch her. Not sexually, anyway. The thought pissed him off and he reached for her, his big hands encircling her waist as he drew her up against his chest. He found her ear beneath her hair and growled, “Tonight and every night you sleep with me. I will fall asleep with the smell of you in my nostrils and the feel of you alongside my body.”
“B-but you said you wouldn’t—”
“There are other ways I can have your affections, Kathryn,” he said ominously. “But do not be afraid. I will never hurt you.”
“You have before,” she argued on a whisper, her hands going to his shoulders and knotting into the fabric there.
She had a point and he couldn’t possibly deny it. And he really shouldn’t make the promise since he was just as volatile to himself as he was to her and everyone else, but it was important to him that she trust him, and he would fight himself into the ground to keep his promise. He never wanted to harm his precious treasure.
“It will be different now,” he swore to her, almost believing it himself with his newfound control lacing through him. “I will make you a bargain. If I ever hurt you again, you will be free to go from me.”
“F-free? You really mean that?”
“In return,” he continued, “you give me everything I ask for.”
“I can’t do that,” she protested. “If you ask me to kill someone or…or something like that, I can’t make that kind of blanket promise!”
“I wouldn’t ask you to do that. All my requests will be reasonable, things you are capable of.”
“But not necessarily things I will like,” she quantified for him. “Like stripping down in front of you.”
He nodded for his reply. He watched her lips thin as she suppressed her anger with him. Those gorgeous gray eyes were snapping with irritation and aggravation and her fists were clutching his shirt so tightly he thought she might rip the fabric. He wanted to smile at her, a feeling he wasn’t used to having anymore, and he wondered over it. Was it possible that this lovely little creature was making him…happy?
He shook the query off. That didn’t matter right now. What mattered was the feel of her against his body, the weight of her breasts against his chest, and the warmth of her that bled into him everywhere. This he wanted to feel. This was safe to feel. For now, anyway.
He reached for the first button on his shirt.
Kathryn gasped when she realized he intended to strip off his clothes as well. She backed off away from him but he grabbed her arm and made her stay where she was, only a few inches away from him as he pulled off his shirt. He knew he was exposing her to his ugliness and he could tell by the widening of her eyes what she was thinking of him, but that didn’t stop him.
“Are you going to get n-n-n—”
“Naked?” he supplied when she couldn’t seem to force the word out. “Yes, I am. I am sorry to expose you to the sight of me, but that is how I sleep, and that is how I want to feel you beside me. Of course, if you wish to level the playing field, feel free to remove the gown at any time.”
The suggestion so flustered her that this time he did smile, from his fangs all the way to his eyes.
She caught him in the act.
“You’re just saying and doing these things to upset me! You take perverse pleasure in my embarrassment.”
“On the contrary. I find it charming and delightful. Your innocence is one of the most precious things about you.”
“And testing that innocence delights you! You said it yourself, you would take great joy in corrupting me!”
Adrian frowned at that. “I was angry when I said that. I did not mean it. I was just lashing out at you for the pain you had caused me.”
She tilted her head, regarding him through narrowed, thoughtful eyes. “Does it still?” she asked even as she reached to touch his bare skin with warm, open palms and slightly trembling fingers. “Does it still hurt you when I touch you?”
Yes. It was like being on fire from two different sources. Her tenderness sent bracing pain down his spine and all throughout his nervous system, and the touch itself was heavenly and arousing. He hadn’t been touched like this in decades. He couldn’t even remember the last time a woman had touched his bare skin. He would have thought he’d remember that, but he didn’t. All he could think about was his clever Kat and the way it felt when her fingers rubbed warmly over him.
“In many exciting ways,” he informed her with a low rumble of honesty.
The information took her by surprise, but despite that she didn’t jerk her hands away. Instead, she shaped the line of tendons between his shoulder and his neck, stroking gently as she made her way to his throat. When her finger touched him there he swallowed hard, making his Adam’s apple travel beneath her curious touch. He groaned softly at her kind and curious stroke as waves of pain flew through him, nauseating him even as she continued to thrill him with the contact.
“I thought you’d be all shaggy and…deformed. But mostly you’re just bigger and bulkier than a human male.” Yet even as she said it she ran her hand back over the shoulder that was deformed, the one that threw off his gait and made it almost impossible to find proper-fitting shirts. And it ached whenever there was bad weather. But she didn’t seem to mind it much at all as she moved her touch down to the enormous bulges of his biceps.
He hadn’t expected her to explore him. It was something he thought only to dream about. And though he knew she didn’t mean it in a sexual manner, he could not help becoming aroused as she went. Especially when she went back to his chest and brushed against the dark nipples beneath his crisp hairs. She shaped the huge expanse of his rib cage, tracing the lowermost ribs on each side. Then her fingers began to travel down over his sectioned abdomen.
Kathryn was aware she was playing with fire, but she couldn’t seem to help herself. He had seemed somehow so much more monstrous when she had first set eyes on him, but with every passing moment she became less afraid of his looks. Oh, she kept a healthy fear of his temperament, and at any time his disposition could grow out of control, but the ugliness that had so scared her was now reduced to a brilliant pair of eyes the color of a mighty jungle teeming with life and danger, and this magnificent chest that was full of awesome power and incredible muscle.
She stole a look up at his face, the cruelty of his lips and the pronouncement of his features not so scary anymore. She could see his fangs beneath his lips, their monstrous size still very intimidating. Had he ever bitten anyone with those vicious fangs?
Before she realized she was doing it, she touched his lips where she saw the lump she knew was a hidden fang. “Can I see?” she asked softly, unsure if her curiosity would enrage him.
“You can have anything you want,” he breathed in a whisper softer than anything she’d ever heard from him to date. His words bolstered her courage even more and her next touch on his lip encouraged him to draw it back and expose the awesomeness of his teeth. It reminded her of looking into a lion’s mouth, that was how tremendous they were. And she
didn’t doubt for a second that he shared the same jaw power as that mighty predator as well. She touched the pointed tip of one fang, feeling its strength.
“Is it uncomfortable for you? You didn’t always have them, right?”
“Not always, no,” he agreed, careful not to accidentally bite her fingers. “But I am used to them now.”
And like water coursing naturally from one place to another in a stream, she flowed to his ears and their odd triangular shape. But she didn’t seem to mind that oddness as she explored them carefully. He felt chills of erotic delight chasing down his body as she did so, the sensitivity of them almost too much to bear on top of the racking pain she was causing with her good intentions. He didn’t understand how it could be both wonderful and agonizing all at once, but he didn’t want to question it. He simply wanted to feel. It was so overwhelming and so free of anger and rage, the only things he had known for so long now.
Kathryn started when he reached up suddenly for her hand, wrapping it up in his big paw, making certain his claws didn’t touch her delicate wrist as he lifted it to his mouth. He brushed his lips over her pulse there, a warm, slow movement that exposed a fang, allowing it to scrape over the skin until she was racked with shivers of sensation. They chased up her arm and into her body, making her nipples prominent beneath the silk she wore and raising a flush to her skin that had nothing to do with embarrassment. But how could that be? How could she be feeling this way toward someone…like him? He wasn’t even human!
But there was something about the way he was struggling with himself now, the way he was fighting his own nature to treat her gently. His demands were still crude and coarse, but he really did intend to keep her safe from harm. Especially from himself.
After a long minute, Kathryn pulled her wrist away and sat back on her heels away from him. She put her hands in her lap and gave the impression that she was waiting for something.
It took all of a minute for the haze in Adrian’s head to clear enough for him to realize she was waiting for him to continue undressing. He reached for his belt with great hesitation. He had been goading her before about sleeping naked with her, trying to provoke her blushes and ire. But after feeling what her touch was like on his bare skin, he couldn’t conceive of what it would be like to lie next to her completely exposed…and not being touched because of her fear.
His hands worked his belt free nonetheless. Perhaps he had grown sadistic as well as vengeful in his years inside his blackened mirror, but whatever the reason, he found himself stripping off his pants almost eagerly. He was a fool. Setting himself up for—
She gasped, a hand going to her succulent mouth, hiding her vibrantly colored lips. Her stare was riveted below his belt, more specifically at his cock, and like magic it began to rise and grow all the more for her. He knew why she was so shocked. Like everything else about him, his cock was monstrous. Oh, it looked normal enough, he supposed; it was just that the size was well beyond expectation.
Adrian had been a big man before he had begun to change into what he was now; the changes had only made it worse. This was why he wouldn’t dare even think of touching her with it. He’d easily rip her in two.
But it was easy to forget about things like that when he stood there under her transfixed gaze. Then, for a moment, he wondered if she had ever seen a naked man before. Not on television or in magazines, but real live and up close. When her stare continued, he was willing to think not. By then he was heavy with arousal and standing at perfect attention for her.
“Are you going to let me into bed?” he asked her hoarsely.
Kathryn didn’t realize she was staring until that very moment. Now color raced to flood her features, heat quickly following, and she backed up across the fine bedspread to let him enter his bed. He lifted a corner of it and slid all that muscle and frighteningly huge male flesh between the silken sheets. Then, once he was settled, he lifted the other corner of the spread and beckoned her to join him.
Whatever nerves had been keeping her going until then quickly abandoned her. She knew she had to go or he would come and fetch her, but she was truly afraid.
He promised not to hurt me, she thought to herself, over and over, as she forced herself to crawl to his side and slide beneath the covers. She pulled the sheets up over her breasts and lay stiffly beside him, keeping a good foot of distance between them.
He made an angry sound and suddenly his arm lashed around her middle and he yanked her up against himself. She squeaked in protest as he pressed her back to his chest, her bottom snuggling up against that enormous male member and his heavy leg insinuating itself in between hers.
“Fear not,” he hissed in her ear. “This monster is exhausted from the dream of normalcy he tried to give you for days. I’m too tired to be the bastard I know you think I am.” He pushed her head onto the pillow. “Sleep. I won’t be in your dreams today.”
Chapter 8
Kathryn didn’t think she would be tired since, in essence, she’d been asleep for days. That proved to be wrong eventually, but for at least an hour or two she lay there spooned up against him and was left with her own thoughts. The first was the same as always. How had she gotten into this mess? Why her? Of all the millions of women in the world, why had he chosen her? Was she just cursed, or was she somehow lucky? She had to admit, this had been quite an adventure so far. How many times had she longingly wished for the freedom to go off on some kind of adventure? Of course, she had always thought it would take the shape of going to the States or something. She could never have imagined this in even her wildest…
Dreams. He was some kind of sandman, only he’d been cursed to experience only the worst of the worst that the human subconscious could create. It had fed him pure evil for year after year as he held on to provide the energy his people desperately needed. It wasn’t his fault he was the way he was. He was a byproduct of something he couldn’t control.
Why was he holding on to her so tightly, though? It was obvious she caused him great pain whenever they touched, as long as she wasn’t angry with him, that is. Why would he want to subject himself to that over and over again? Was he some kind of sadist? She thought back to the enormous erection she’d been mesmerized by, the one she now felt nestled against her backside. What had given him that kind of pleasure, her presence or the pain she caused? Did it really matter which one it was? Either way she was the cause of it, and that deadly thing wanted her. She made no bones about that. She might be inexperienced in the ways of men, but that much she could figure out for herself.
Eventually Kathryn’s racing thoughts ran down and she grew sleepy. She comforted herself that he was sleeping there beside her and that meant he couldn’t invade her dreams, dark or otherwise. She didn’t like the idea of him having access to her most intimate thoughts and desires. Even she didn’t fully understand what those were; she certainly didn’t want to be sharing them with Adrian!
Adrian was aware of the moment she fell asleep because that was the moment that pain stopped coursing through him. Bearing up under the brunt of it was exhausting, but he believed it was getting to be more tolerable and not nearly as strong as time went on. With any luck it might go away altogether and he would be able to touch her free of pain. At the same time, the thought scared him. If there was nothing left to intimidate him about touching her, how was he going to keep himself under control? What leash would he use to control his wild nature?
He fell asleep worrying on that thought, but woke up to other thoughts completely. During their sleep she had tossed and turned, rolling over the width of the bed, and every time he’d dragged her back to his side. By the time he woke up she had tangled herself up against him, facing him front to front now with one long leg thrown up high over his hip and an arm wrapped around his neck. Her nightgown had ridden all the way up her thighs to her hips, and because she was asleep and feeling nothing for or against him, he was completely free of pain and left with only the delightful possibilities.
The first thing he did was take a deep breath. The sweetness of her scent wrapped up with his was almost unbearably wondrous. He amazed himself that at the moment he had first taken her he had thought to keep her in a cage, safe and protected, not even subject to his touch. This way was infinitely better. The pain was incidental compared to the joy of touching her and smelling her like this, feeling her wrapped around him as if she were his lover. Oh, that he could make that so! He closed his hand into a fist and fought back the wave of rage the thought provoked. He wished he was the man he had once been, someone worthy of her, a true match for her. Not this beastly thing who frightened her to death. He knew exactly how he would approach her, how he would use her own sensual body against her. She might be innocent in the ways of sex, but she carried desire in her deeply and naturally.
Adrian reached out with a single claw and ran it over her shoulder and down her arm until she squirmed in her sleep at the tactile sensation. She made a soft, provocative sound and he was lost instantly. Throwing all caution to the wind, he reached between their bodies and cupped her sleep-warmed breast in his hand, taking great care not to scratch her by accident. Silk and skin shifted against one another and he exhaled harshly when her rigid little nipple thrust out against the peach-colored material. It was such a beautiful sight to behold, the material thin enough for him to distinguish the color of even her fair nipples. He remembered the soft color of them, the way they barely stood out against the warmth of her skin. Her arms were darker than the rest of her, the tan no doubt coming from working out of doors. He wondered what it was she did on the family ranch to keep so darkly tanned even in the winter months.
The inane question flew out of his thoughts when she arched against him in her sleep, clearly thrusting her breast against his palm. Her leg squeezed restlessly against his hip and he began to grow hard for her. In for a penny, he left her breast to smooth his hand down her ribs and side, coasting up over the generous swell of her hip. He remembered how he had touched her in that dream, remembered how wet and hot her roused flesh had gotten. He longed to touch her like that again, but he feared hurting her. Still…if he was to be very, very careful…
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