The Man Within

by Lora Leigh

  n she finished it before covering the tray and then sitting back in the chair and watching her silently.

  “Okay, answers,” Roni reminded her. “What did he do to me and how do I get rid of it?” The answers better come fast too, she thought, because the small contractions in her womb were about to drive her crazy.

  “Conception.” Roni froze at the other woman’s words. “It’s the only thing that stills the heat. But you won’t be free of Taber, even then. Nature is a little smarter than we’ve given her credit for here. You and Taber will never be able to separate. You’ll always be a part of him, through the child you conceive as well as the hormone that will never completely leave your body. You’re his mate. Forever.” Roni stared at the other woman for a long, silent minute. If Merinus didn’t look so serious, Roni would have laughed in her face. Unfortunately, this just didn’t feel like a good time to find amusement in a situation rapidly bordering nightmare quality.

  “Like hell I am.” Roni jumped to her feet, paying little attention to the chair that flew out behind her, turning over on the carpeted floor.

  This was not good. She stared at Merinus’ calm expression, feeling panic well inside her as the other woman watched her almost pityingly.

  “Roni, you need to understand…”

  “No, you need to understand,” she retorted furiously as she pushed her fingers desperately though her hair. “I did not ask for this. I didn’t ask him to leave this stupid mark on me and I sure as hell didn’t ask him to kiss me. I won’t accept this.”

  A child? She had to get pregnant first? Bring a baby into the world that would have every mercenary and low life criminal looking to steal it. To take it from her arms and turn it over to a group of monsters who would do only God knew what to it.

  Horror welled up within her as her hands pressed against her stomach and her mind fought to reject any such conclusion. She couldn’t do it. God help her, she wouldn’t survive it.

  “Roni, denying it won’t help.” Merinus came slowly to her feet. “I’ve been where you are. I know how confused you are and how pissed you are. But they didn’t ask for this, either. Not in any way. You can work this out with Taber.”

  Roni stared up at her unblinking. She could feel hysteria building inside her mind as she fought to accept what she considered the unacceptable.

  “Workwhat out with him?” she finally snarled furiously. “Spread my legs so he can knock me up and leave again? Oh yeah, let’s talk about that one. His track record sucks, Merinus, and I’m not willing to face the consequences of this alone. And sure as hell not with a child whose very existence will be in danger from the moment it’s conceived.”

  Merinus frowned. “Taber would never leave you, Roni.”

  She laughed. She couldn’t help it. Merinus looked so sincere, so very certain of Taber’s honor, that it was all she could do. “So tell me, Merinus, how did I get this mark? Where the hell has he been the last year or so?”

  “Taber didn’t know about the mark…”

  “So they can mark whoever they want to and then like any old tomcat just jump and run to the next.” Roni clenched her fists as her fury nearly overwhelmed her.

  “Roni, you have to understand…” Merinus tried again.

  “Wrong.” Roni’s hand slashed through the air as she rejected Merinus’ plea. “I don’t have to understand shit, Merinus. This is my life. Any child conceived will be mine. I won’t let him do this to me. And I sure as hell won’t let him get me pregnant and then decide he needs someone who is more woman than I am again.”

  The thought of Taber touching another woman made her insane with grief.

  “Roni, Taber wouldn’t do that,” Merinus protested. “You will be protected and your child even more so.”

  Roni snorted in disbelief.

  “Callan might be more of a man than that, Merinus, but I’ve seen Taber’s work first hand. No thanks.

  No babies. No Taber. Where the hell am I and how do I get home?”

  “What home?” Taber’s voice, pitched low and furious, growled from the doorway. “It was burned to the ground before we ever landed here at the estate. Looks like you’re stuck with the tomcat, baby.” Chapter Twelve

  “Taber!” Merinus’ voice was distant, though the thread of shock was readily apparent. “That was uncalled for.”

  Roni didn’t give him time to apologize, though. She stomped over to him, fury and rage blending with a pain so resounding she felt as though it would destroy her.

  “Did I ask you to bring me here?” she screamed at him furiously as she shoved at his broad, immoveable shoulders. “Look what you’ve done, Taber. You made my own body turn against me. Now some bastard has burned my house down because I wasn’t there. You let them burn my house down.” She couldn’t believe it, couldn’t process the fact that she would never see her home again.

  Conception was something she couldn’t consider. Her home was real. Her home was all she had left when Taber decided he no longer wanted her. That he needed someone older, or more experienced, or whatever else she wasn’t that someone else would be.

  The pain building inside her would kill her. Not just the physical, womb-ripping pain of the agonizing arousal tearing through her, but the soul deep pain of losing her last link to her own peace of mind.

  “Look what you’ve done,” she screamed again, her fist flying for his face, violence surging inside her like a tidal wave of overwhelming emotion.

  “God, Roni…” He jerked her into his arms, tightening them around her, holding her still as she struggled against him, fighting him, because God help her, there was nothing or no one left to fight. “I’m sorry, baby. I’m so sorry.”

  Silence filled the room. Roni fought to stay on her feet. He held her against his body, a steady weight, as he had always been. A comfort she knew could be taken away from her all too soon.

  “Let me go.” But she didn’t fight for release.

  One hand held her head to his chest, the other wrapped around her waist, cushioning her from the violence raging through her system.

  “I just bought a new chair,” she whispered. She trembled and fought the reaction. God, it was all gone?

  “Roni, I’m sorry,” he whispered into her hair. “I shouldn’t have told you like that, baby. I’m sorry.” She flinched as she pushed back, moving away from him, desperate to escape the pain echoing through her soul. There was nothing else they could destroy now, nothing left for anyone to take away from her.

  Nothing except the child, if she allowed its conception.

  “Well,” she breathed out roughly. “Hell.” She didn’t know what to say, what to do. She felt fragmented, dazed by the events that were happening too fast to allow her to catch her breath, to make sense of what was happening.

  She breathed in roughly, pushing her fingers into the pockets of her robe, fighting the panic blooming inside her. Okay, she couldn’t kill him. She was sure the others in his family would consider that a no-no.

  No matter how damned bad she needed to shed his blood now. She was okay. It was just a house. She was going to have to leave it behind anyway. She should have expected this.

  The little pep talk wasn’t helping. She could feel something inside her chest thickening with pain at the thought of the home she had slowly been creating. With her own hands, blisters and blood she had made it worth living in, made it something worth having rather than the eyesore it had been when she was younger.

  “Roni, you have a home here now…” Taber’s voice only fed her fury. It was soft, remorseful. As though her pain was breaking something inside him. The loss of her home had been nothing compared to the agony she had faced when she had lost him before.

  “Do I?” She fought the surge of adrenaline that cried out for a fight as she turned back to him, watching him with brooding fury. “With you, I presume?”

  “With me.” His expression hardened as he said the words.

  “Poor Taber.” She sneered. “Stuck with me after
all. Not exactly what you envisioned for a future mate, am I?”

  He watched her with a slight frown and no small amount of heat in his eyes.

  “I actually never imagined anyone else.” He finally shrugged, confusing her further. “Though I can tell you aren’t exactly pleased.” And why did it seem to bother him so much, that she wasn’t pleased?

  So where was the man who decided he needed more of a woman than she was? His attitude wasn’t making sense to her. Unless it was just the hormone or whatever the hell it was driving her insane. The thought that a drug, no matter how natural, was their only bond broke her heart.

  “Not exactly pleased would be a little mild for my reaction.” She made certain her smile was all teeth and no warmth. Her pussy was hot enough to make up for it, though she had no intention of letting him know that any time soon. The adrenaline thundering through her system seemed intent on building the arousal that much higher. “Where are my clothes?” She ignored the cramps building in her womb as she turned away from him.

  She didn’t even have a home now, and she couldn’t allow herself to believe that anything she could have with Taber would last longer than it took for her to become pregnant. Where would she be then? She had to leave, had to run, or she would never be free of him.

  Taber sighed heavily behind her. “I know you’re scared, Roni.”

  “I’m not scared.” She fought back a shudder of pure sensation as heat sizzled between her thighs. Then made sure the look she gave him glittered with her need for retribution. “I’m mad. So get the hell away from me before I take your head off like I should have done when you put this damned mark on me.

  Where the hell are my clothes?”

  She re-entered the bedroom, determined to ignore the man stalking behind her. She could feel him and he wasn’t even touching her.

  “Your clothes are being washed,” he told her, his voice too soft, too carefully controlled as he came up behind her. “Roni, you’re in pain. It doesn’t have to be this way.” Roni stopped at the bottom of the bed, gripping the footboard with desperate fingers as her stomach clenched almost violently. She closed her eyes, fighting the man, fighting the knowledge of what was happening to her with everything inside her. God, she was so weak, because she knew that despite the unnatural height of the arousal, she would have still found it hard to resist him, to maintain her fury. His voice was soft, regretful, reminding her of the years he had always been there for her. Reminding her how much she had loved him, how much it had hurt when he suddenly wasn’t in her life any longer.

  Even the fear of conception couldn’t dim the needs rising in her body like a flashflood of sensations.

  How was she supposed to deny him? How could she fight her body, its needs and her heart as well?

  “I’m fine.” She forced the words between clenched teeth. “Find me some clothes. I want out of here.” If she could just get away from him, she thought desperately. It hadn’t been this bad, this intense, until he showed up in her life again. If she could leave, maybe it would ease; settle back to the mild irritation it had been before.

  “It won’t go away, Roni.” His hands settled heavily on her shoulders, his thumbs smoothing over the taut muscles as she fought the shivers of pleasure his touch evoked.

  The calloused pads of his thumbs rasped over her skin, heating her flesh, making her moan with the pleasure that streaked through her body. It was exquisite, his touch, the scent of him wrapping around her with a warmth that seared her to her soul.

  “I can’t do this,” she whispered, fighting the tears that thickened in her throat. She had needed so much more from him. “Everything’s happening too fast.”

  “You don’t have to do anything, baby,” he promised her gently, his lips whispering over the mark he had made so long ago. Making her shiver in longing. “I’ll take care of everything, Roni. I promise.” Every cell in her body screamed out in pleasure when his tongue stroked over the small wound. She would have denied him, she assured herself, if she could have fought past the web of arousal and need that tightened about her, leaving her breathless beneath his touch. How could he do this? How could nature have been so cruel as to give him this advantage over her?

  “I can smell your heat,” he whispered at her ear. “Like warm, sweet cream. It draws me, Roni. I want nothing more than to go to my knees, draw the gown to your hips and bury my tongue in your hot pussy.” She shuddered violently at his words, a whimper of longing escaping her throat as he drew the robe from her shoulders. She felt weak, dazed, unable to fight him when she wanted him with every breath in her body.

  “You’re so warm, so soft and tempting, you make me lose any semblance of control. You make me desperate, Roni, so hungry for you I can barely think of anything except tasting you.” His tongue licked over her shoulder, raspy, slightly roughened, drawing a gasp of pleasure from her lips at the sensation. His hands drew the thin straps of the gown over her shoulders as his lips trailed hot kisses down the slope of her arm.

  “I lost control before.” The gown slipped over her hardened nipples, but she had no chance to miss its dubious warmth.

  Taber’s hands covered the swollen mounds, his palms cushioning the elongated points, rasping them gently as she moaned in rising pleasure. That was good. Too good. Too hot.

  She stared down at his hands, amazed at the contrast between his dark skin and her paler flesh. It was so erotic, watching him touch her, seeing the differences between his hard, muscular body and her softer one.

  “I won’t lose control now. I’ll show you how good it can be, baby.” His voice was rough, a sensual caress to her senses as the gown slid to her hips, caressing her as it slipped lower and finally pooled at her feet.

  “See, all you have to do is relax,” he assured her, his voice at once soothing, stroking her senses as carefully as his hands stroked her breasts. “Let me show you what we missed out on all those months ago.”

  “You left me.” She fought to breathe, to find the strength she needed to refuse him. But it wasn’t there.

  Her body was overruling her mind, stealing her objections, her fears.

  “You left me no choice, Roni.” His hands cupped her breasts, his finger and thumb gripping her nipple, making it hard for her to think, to speak.

  She left him no choice? She had loved him, needed him, until the sheer intensity of those needs had nearly destroyed her. And yet he claimed that she had left him no choice? She wanted to rage, to scream at him, but it was all she could do to breathe beneath his demanding touch.

  The pads of his thumbs rasped over the tops of the swollen peaks, then with the help of his index fingers, gripped them with firm, exact pressure as he tugged at them slowly.

  “Taber.” She cried out at the sharp, streaking pleasure that arrowed from her nipples to her vagina, causing her to arch against him, her hands to reach back and tighten on the outside of his hard, muscled thighs.

  “Do you like that, baby?” He did it again, and Roni thought she would explode from the building heat.

  “I’ll use my teeth next,” he whispered at her ear. “As I grip and pull, I’ll stroke them with my tongue, suckle with my mouth and make you come from that sensation alone.” And he could. She knew he could. Her climax was already building, the pleasure threatening to peak inside the tormented depths of her pussy. Then he stopped. Roni whimpered at the loss of sensation on her tormented nipples. Then she groaned in pleasure as his teeth nipped at the mark on her neck a second before he placed his mouth over it and began to suckle, much as he threatened to do to her nipples.

  Her head fell back against his chest. She was distantly aware of the fact he was undressing behind her, removing first his shirt, then his shoes and jeans. His chest caressed her back, making her shiver with the sensation of the tiny, almost invisible hairs that covered it. She had noticed those years before, but had forgotten how sinfully sexy they felt against her skin.

  “That’s right, baby,” he whispered, his breath sighing over t
he mark, making her shiver in reaction. “Just enjoy. Feel how damned good it can be. You’re so sweet and soft, so tight and hot when I thrust inside you. Just touching you is the most pleasure I’ve ever known in my life.”

  “You’re killing me.” Her chest was tight with emotion, aching with the need for more than just his physical touch. “How will I stand it when you’re gone again?” He growled, a fierce, animalistic sound that nearly made her climax from its impact on her senses. God help her, how could something so feral sound so damned sexy?

  “There’s no way in hell I’ll let you go now, Roni,” he told her, his voice dark, his hands gripping her hips and pulling her tightly into the cradle of his thighs.

  His cock was strong and thick, hot and hard. It felt like warm steel as it pressed against the crease of her ass. She ground her buttocks against it, her hips moving, forcing the shaft to part the rounded globes and press deeper between them.

  Behind her, Taber breathed in sharply a second before a rueful chuckle vibrated through his chest.

  “Don’t tempt me,” he warned her, his voice vibrating with arousal. “I’m already at the edge of my control, Roni.” She could almost imagine that sexy grin she heard in his voice. The one that made her heart clench at the wicked thoughts it inspired. The little quirk to the side, the flash of teeth as his green eyes sparkled with humor and warmth.

  “Why should you have control?” She fought to breathe, to hold back her pleas that he take her now, fast and hard, as he had before. “You haven’t cared about stealing mine.”

  “Ah, baby.” He moved slowly, his arms coming around her thighs, her shoulders, as he picked her up.

  “But my control will bring you more pleasure than you could ever imagine.” She gasped, her arms circling his neck as she stared up at him in surprise. No one but Taber had ever carried her in his arms. She had missed that. It made her feel too feminine, too desired to have him hold her like this now, though. His eyes were dark and glittering with hot, naked lust as he carried her the short distance to the bed.

  He had no problem holding her as he maneuvered them both into the bed. But he held her close, secure, until he lowered her slowly to the mattress beneath them.

  “I want to lick every inch of your body,” he growled. “But I don’t know if I’ll make it past your lips before I’ve got to have you.”

  He knelt beside her, his gaze possessive, brilliant with his rising needs as it raked over her. His body was a work of art. His chest and arms flexed with power, his tight abdomen rippled with strength, and his cock… She swallowed tightly as she allowed her hand to smooth along his thigh toward it. Like silk-encased steel, the dark head throbbed with life. The sight of it had heat and moisture spilling from her hungry cunt.

  “No.” He caught her hand before she could touch him. “Touch me, Roni, and I’ll lose all control. Just relax. Let me show you how good it can be.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  It was too damned good. Roni’s hands clenched in the sheets beneath her as Taber lay beside her and drove her to the edge of madness. His lips were at one breast, toying delicately with the hard peak while his hand tormented the other.

  His tongue stroked confidently around the sensitized nub, the rough rasp causing her to cry out at the building sensations weaving through her body. When his mouth covered it, drawing on it with deep, hard pulls of his wet mouth, she nearly climaxed in reaction. Her womb spasmed with such force she flinched from it and nearly screamed out her pleasure.

  “Yes!” he hissed, his voice rough as he moved over her, settling between her thighs, his mouth continuing to torture the swollen tip. “Let it go, Roni. Let me have it all.” He moved to her other breast, repeating the caresses there as her hands clutched at his shoulders. How much more could she stand? She writhed beneath him, her hips arching as she pressed the aching mound of her pussy against the hard planes of his stomach. Oh, now that was good. Her clit throbbed in pleasure as it raked across his flesh.

  At the same time his teeth gripped her nipple, pulling at it, his tongue stroking across it, creating a vortex of sensations that rippled through her womb. He stared up at her, his eyes so brilliant, so hot, it hurt to stare into them. His expression was intent, savagely hungry, yet softened with gentleness. How many nights had she dreamed of him touching her this way, holding her?

  Her fingers tightened on his muscled forearms; something was rising inside her that she didn’t know how to contain.

  “I need to touch you.” She was restless, a heat and a yearning blooming inside her that she wanted to fight—wanted to and yet couldn’t.

  It was that look in his eyes. Despite the lust, despite his pleasure in touching her, there was a sadness she barely glimpsed. She wanted to wipe it away and replace it with something more. With a pleasure as destructive as what he was giving her. Something beautiful, something so soul-deep it would wipe the shadows from his gaze.

  He licked her nipple again, purring—oh God, he was purring—his chest vibrating with such a sexy sound that her pussy gushed with the force of her excitement.

  “Not yet,” he whispered, his breath whispering over her flesh as he moved farther down her body. “Let me touch you, Roni. Let me drown in your taste. You have no idea how much I’ve needed this.” His voice was tormented, hoarse. As though his only thought, his only need, was the hunger for her. But in his eyes she saw another need, one that came much too close to what she had seen in her own eyes over the years every time she looked in the mirror.

  When he moved again she couldn’t think of anything more.

  “Taber.” Her voice was a squeak of dismay as she felt his breath between her thighs.

  Startled, she looked down her body then moaned weakly as she watched and felt him spread her legs further, opening her to him, his eyes locked with hers.

  “Cats love cream, Roni,” he whispered wickedly. “And I bet you have the sweetest cream in the whole damned world.”

  The breath locked in her chest as she watched his tongue distend then disappear within the curl-shielded slit that guarded her sex.

  “Oh God!” She tried to scream but the sound was weak, breathless, as her hips rose from the bed, her body shuddering at the feel of the long slow lick that parted her feminine lips and delved to the secretive opening into her vagina.

  His hands cupped the cheeks of her bottom as he lifted her from the bed, angling her to the stroke of his tongue. Then he began to lap at her, small, hungry licks through the thick essence of her desire. He growled as he ate her, his tongue dipping into the furnace of her pussy, drawing yet more of the frothy sweetness into his mouth.

  Roni stared unseeing up at the ceiling, wracked by a pleasure so exquisite she feared it would destroy her mind. His tongue was ravenous, merciless. It plunged into the small channel, stroking sensitized tissue, driving her to the edge of madness as she writhed beneath it.

  He slurped at the cream he drew from her, the sounds of the moist excess joining his rumbling groans as his tongue fucked her with slow, even strokes.

  It went beyond her most desperate dreams. The pleasure filling her was like nothing she could have imagined, nothing she could have dreamed of ever sharing with him. The intensity began to build. The rippling in her womb strengthened, the convulsive tightening of her vagina became spasms of almost painful pleasure.

  “Taber,” she panted, shuddering in his grip, her legs tightening against his broad shoulders as she fought the rapidly building sensations streaking mindlessly through her body.

  He growled again, the sound vibrating against her clit as he lifted her closer, his tongue stroking deeper, his nose grinding against the little bud in a caress that devastated her.

  She screamed. The sound echoed around her as he destroyed her. Her orgasm exploded through her, ripping the world apart as light and color splashed behind her closed eyelids. Her hips gyrated, grinding her pussy against his mouth, intensifying the excruciating sensations as every muscle in her body trembled in protest agai
nst the strength of her release.

  “Mine!” Taber’s hoarse shout was the only warning she had before he rose to his knees, lifted her, and buried his cock into the snug depths of her tightening channel.

  Death couldn’t be as painful, as exquisite, as completely shattering, as the feel of his heavy erection separating her, forcing its way into the ever shrinking depths of her pussy.

  Roni shattered. Everything inside her collapsed around the desperate penetration, the hard, almost brutal thrusts of his cock inside her gripping cunt. He fucked her like a man gone mad, but even worse, her body accepted it, screamed out for more. She couldn’t believe that was her voice she heard. Shattered screams. Pleas for more. Deeper, faster, oh God…

  “Harder…” Her hands were locked around the tight muscles of his forearms, her nails biting into his flesh, her legs lifting, her ankles crossing above his driving hips. “Harder… Fuck me, Taber. Fuck me harder…”

  Not her, she thought distantly. She wouldn’t scream such words. She wouldn’t plead so desperately…

  “God! You’re too tight! Too tight, too hot…” He was gasping, sweat dripping from his body to hers, his cock stroking inside her, pistoning desperately until he threw her higher, harder into yet another orgasm.

  She felt the change in his cock again—the locking, the stroking against the most sensitive area of her quaking cunt—and lost all sanity. She didn’t know what she cried out. Didn’t know she could have the breath to voice a word. The sounds echoed around her, guttural, primal, as a roar exploded from his c