The Man Within

by Lora Leigh

  Her eyes narrowed dangerously, her lips thinning with her rising anger. Now, if she could just get her breasts to stop swelling and her vagina to dry up, maybe she could really blast into him. It was hard to be pissed when all she wanted was to be fucked.

  “Taber, I’m about to lose my patience with you.” She sighed roughly, pushing her fingers through her hair, hating the sensual feel of it sliding along the bare skin of her upper back. She knew better than to let Merinus talk her into wearing this damned dress.

  “Why?” He laughed in surprise. “For God’s sake, Roni, all I’m trying to do is protect you, not lock you up. As soon as we figure out what the hell he’s up to I’ll let you run him off personally.” She gave him a resentful look. “No you wouldn’t. It might be too dangerous .” She drew the last word out mockingly.

  Taber sighed. The sound of it pricked at her conscience.

  “Is it so bad, Roni, to need to protect you?” he asked her softly, watching her with a heated, lust-filled gaze.

  Her eyes flickered to his hips, then back to his face. She ignored the glimmer of amusement she saw there. His cock filled out the front of those jeans in a way that sent her pulse hammering and silky heat sliding from her vagina.

  “In a way, it is,” she finally answered him as she moved closer, drawn to him, her body demanding his touch. “I don’t like it, Taber, not having a choice.”

  She saw his grimace as her hands touched his chest. His larger, calloused hands covered hers, his eyes closing briefly before he opened them, allowing her to see the haunted depths of his own fears.

  “I know this isn’t easy for you.” His whisper stroked over her nerve endings like sensuous silk.

  She allowed her fingers to stroke him in a similar manner. She loved the look on his face when she caressed him, touched him as a lover. His eyes became heavy-lidded, his lips a bit fuller, his high cheekbones flushing darkly.

  “Being horny makes me cranky, Taber.” She leaned against him, cushioning the hard ridge of his cock against her lower stomach. “It makes me want to take a bite out of someone.” She leaned forward, her mouth opening over his flat nipple as she allowed her teeth to sink into the muscle there.

  His groan shattered the silence of the room as his hands moved to her hips, holding her against him with almost bruising strength.

  “Go ahead and bite me all you want to.” He was nearly panting when her tongue peeked out to rub against the hard little nub beneath it. “Damn, Roni. God, yes.” She felt the material of the dress inching up her thighs, pulled by Taber’s gripping fingers as she rubbed against his chest. She could feel the heat of his flesh radiating through the soft cotton shirt he wore, the building lust that simmered just under the skin.

  “I need you,” she whispered as she lifted her head from his chest and licked her lips nervously. “Now.” An involuntary moan escaped her throat as his hand cupped the bare globes of her rear, clenching the firm muscle, lifting her closer to the cradle of his thighs. Her fingers moved to his shirt as desperation speared through her like wild lightning. She didn’t take time to unbutton the material. Her fingers gripped the parted edge and pulled, ripping buttons free, tearing cloth as he growled in sexy approval.

  “Whenever you want it, baby,” he whispered. “However you want it.” He pushed the material of her dress to her waist before his fingers hooked in the waistband of her thong, tearing it casually from her body. There was now no barrier between his touch and her flesh as his fingers slid between her thighs.

  She was so wet, so slick from the juices seeping from her pussy that his fingers slid easily along her cunt lips. He circled her clit slowly as his arm tightened around her waist, holding her still for the erotic manipulations. She was drowning in heat, in sexual desperation.

  Roni couldn’t still the twisting of her hips as she fought to get closer to the tormenting fingers driving her insane. Her mouth opened on a soundless moan of exquisite desire only to have his lips cover hers, his tongue plunging in demandingly, twining with hers, silently demanding she take what he offered. Her lips closed on the intruder with a desperation that she knew should have horrified her.

  The sweet, honeyed essence of the unique mating hormone surged through her system. She could feel it.

  The taste of him filled her first, then within seconds she could feel her blood heating, burning through her veins, surging to her nipples, her sensitive cunt.

  “Good girl,” he whispered thickly as he drew back from her long moments later, staring down at her, his gaze hot as two fingers spread her inner lips before plunging inside the gripping depths of her pussy.

  Roni rose to her tiptoes as a harsh exclamation of near orgasmic pleasure rushed past her lips. His fingers thrust ruthlessly inside her once again, spreading her apart, working in and out with a fierce, controlled rhythm that had her pussy gushing.

  “Taber.” Her fingers struggled with his belt, desperate now to release the hard wedge of his erection from the confining material of his jeans.

  She needed him with a hunger she couldn’t control, one she didn’t want to control. Hard and fast, slamming into her pussy, driving her to the edge of madness and beyond.

  “I can’t wait to sink into this tight little pussy,” he whispered, his voice guttural, vibrating with the animalistic growl that never failed to make her cunt clench. It did so now, causing him to groan against her lips as he licked them hungrily. “Come for me, baby. Let me feel you come on my fingers.” His voice stroked over her senses. His fingers fucked into the tormented depths of her gripping cunt, driving her insane with the whiplash of pleasure that tore through her body.

  Roni was gasping for breath as she felt the heated coil in her womb tightening with spasmodic intensity.

  She fought for breath as his fingers took her ruthlessly, driving deep, stroking nerve endings that were throbbing in desperation from each plunging thrust.

  “Taber, I can’t stand it…” She was drawn tight, hips thrust forward, gyrating on his fingers as he pushed her closer to the brink.

  “Take it.” He held her tighter, his fingers working inside her tormented pussy, his thumb stroking the swollen bud of her clit. “Come for me, baby. Let me feel your pussy explode, Roni.” The sounds of hot, wet sex filled the room. The plunge of his fingers slapping inside her, her moans tearing through her chest, his explicit, exciting words pushing her over the edge as nothing else could have.

  Her back arched as she felt the end rushing for her. Fingers of electricity danced over her skin, struck her womb, seared her cunt until it came together in a flash of blinding, rapturous sensation. She felt her entire body explode, her pussy tightening until he was groaning with the effort to continue thrusting inside her. Her release poured through her, convulsing her body as she drove herself repeatedly on the hard digits invading her.

  “Hell, yeah,” he moaned, holding her close as she shook against him. “There, baby. So good. So good.

  Come on my fingers like a good girl, baby.”

  Roni felt the tears on her cheeks as she trembled in his arms, the wicked forks of sensation flaying her body in repeated aftershocks as she felt him move her.

  Her buttocks met the cool wood of the desk as a small measure of sanity began to return to her. She was weak, shaking with a release she couldn’t have anticipated, couldn’t steel herself against. Her gaze was heavy-lidded, her mind sluggish until he spread her thighs wide and gazed down between them with hot, greedy eyes.

  “I want that sweet pussy so badly I can’t think straight,” he growled as he worked at his belt and the metal buttons of his jeans. “All that matters is pushing my cock so deep and hard inside you that we both scream with the pleasure.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Taber was burning with a fever of lust so deep, so strong, he felt as though every cell in his body was going to explode with the need. His fingers shook like a youth’s as he unbuttoned the small pearl closures on her dress, spreading the edges apart, revealing the full, te
mpting globes of her aroused breasts. He didn’t know what to do first. Latch onto one of those spiked nipples like a starving man and fuck her until they were both dying of it, or eat the thick cream that lay tempting and sweet on the swollen lips of her pussy.

  He licked his lips, staring up at her as his cock throbbed its insistent demand to plunge inside the little slitted opening of her cunt. His mouth watered for the taste of her.

  “Play with your clit.” He held her legs up, spreading her, staring down at her with a building need he didn’t know how to answer.

  She whimpered. A low, desperate sound that had his cock jerking in response.

  “Play with it, baby,” he crooned gently, watching as her trembling fingers slid down the soft roundness of her stomach. “There you go. Feel how wet and hot you are.” It was the most exciting thing he had ever seen in his life. Her fingers, slender and graceful, moving to the soft, soaked fleece that surrounded the swollen bud of her clit, parting the swollen lips, circling the hard little nub.

  “Oh yeah, sweetheart,” he encouraged her, almost panting from excitement. “Slide your fingers down, Roni. I want to see you fuck yourself. See you part that pretty cunt with your own fingers.” She was whimpering, flushed, her soft blue eyes dazed with lust as her hips jerked.

  “Oh, that’s a good girl.” His hands tightened on her thighs as he watched her fingers slide down the narrow cleft, two of the slender digits sliding to the first knuckle inside the tempting depths of her cunt.

  “Feel how hot that sweet pussy is.” He could barely force the words from his mouth. “I’m going to fuck it so hard and so long you’ll never forget what it’s like to have my cock owning you.” Her hand jerked, a cry tearing from her chest as more of her juices coated her fingers.

  His cock was an agonizing throb now. Propping her small feet on the edge of the desk, he used one hand to spread her pussy apart, the other to grip his cock, to ease the mindless rush to shove it so far inside her that he merged with her very soul.

  “I’m dying.” Her cry echoed with a touch of fear, thickened with lust, emotion and desperation.

  Her fingers sank into her vagina again. Pulled back. Thrust in as her hips lifted from the desk in response.

  “Yeah, baby,” he groaned. “Get your fingers nice and slick with that sweet pussy juice. Because you’re going to feed it to me, allow me to suck it from your pretty fingers while I fuck you crazy.” She came. He watched it, the way her clit swelled further, pulsed and glistened. The flesh stretching around her fingers clenched, spasmed, as her desperate mewl of release whispered past her lips. Taber could wait no longer.

  He gripped her wrist, pulling her fingers free, grimacing in painful pleasure at the sound of her tight cunt sucking at her departing fingers. Pressing closer, he tucked the head of his cock at the little opening as his eyes met hers. He brought her fingers to his lips, dripping with the swirls of her rich cream, and sucked one into his mouth as he plunged his cock deep inside her pussy.

  “Oh hell.” His back arched. The tight, gripping muscles of her sex sucked him in, closing on his erection like a silken vise, milking it rhythmically. “Sweet Roni,” he groaned around her fingers. “That’s a good girl. Oh yeah, good, baby. Milk my cock.”

  Her cries were constant now, mewling little sounds, the whisper of his name, the erotic plea that he fuck her hard, deep. But he wanted to stay just like this, his cock spreading her, the lips of her pussy nearly flattened from the width of flesh shoved inside her.

  “So pretty.” He licked her fingers of the last drop of erotic cream before laying her hand to the desk, pressing it there firmly, a silent demand that she not move it.

  She stared back at him, her eyes wide, her lips moist as she tried to breathe past the excitement building in the air around them.

  His gaze dropped back down to her thighs, a primal rumble of conquest escaping his chest.

  “My pussy.” He pulled back then, watching his cock slide nearly free of her, glistening with the slick inner juices that flowed from her. “My pretty, hot pussy.” He worked the desperately hard shaft back inside her, loving the fierce grip, fighting his orgasm with every breath so he could relish the nearly painful clenching of her muscles on his flesh.

  His balls had contracted tight and hard beneath his erection, pulsing with the need to release their hot load of sperm into the silky depths of her cunt. His body was raging. Sharp talons of sensation streaked up his spine as he pulled free of her again, only to re-enter her slowly, groaning at the sheer pleasure of watching his cock fuck into her, feeling her grip him, her pussy weep for him.

  “Ah baby, so good.” She tightened on him again as the head of his cock sank to the entrance of her womb, pulled back, stroked in. “That’s my sweet baby. So tight and hot around my cock. God, I love fucking you, Roni.”

  But he couldn’t fight the need clenching every cell in his body much longer. Her sex was an inferno around the thick flesh fucking into her, tightening on him with every thrust as her keening pleas rocked his mind.

  He was unable to stop the building speed of each penetration, his mind consumed by the sheer exhilaration of burying his cock inside her, feeling the tender flesh glove him, tighten on him. His release was only seconds away. He could feel the barb beneath the head of his cock beginning to lengthen, to prepare to lock him inside her, to release its silky semen along with the load ready to erupt from the head of his cock.

  “Baby.” He moved inside her hard and deep now, the moist sounds of his cock penetrating and her cunt suckling, filling the air.

  He couldn’t plunge into her fast enough, hard enough, couldn’t get enough of the feel of her pussy tightening on him. Tighter. Tighter.

  “Fuck yes. Yes.” He gripped her thighs harder as he felt her vagina quake, ripple, then lock down on him with a force that had him roaring in pleasure as she unraveled beneath him.

  He couldn’t hold off any longer. He threw his head back, sweat dripping from his hair, his face, as he lost his hold on reality. The barb extended its full length, locking him inside her as it pressed firmly into the back of her pussy, holding him in as it released its own precious load into her fertile body.

  The sensitive extension prolonged the exquisite agony of his release, making his body tremble, convulse, as another roar tore through him. The animal was triumphant, the man awed by the sheer power of emotion that poured from him. His. His woman. His pussy. All his.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “Taber, we have movement outside the house. I’m sending Dawn and Sherra to protect Merinus and Roni in their rooms, but I need you out here.” The call came in after midnight, mere hours after Taber and Roni managed to fall into an exhausted sleep.

  He had carried her back to their room after the exhausting release in the office. Just to sleep, he had assured himself. They hadn’t left the room except to eat the rest of the day.

  The drowsiness fled his brain at Kane’s abrupt announcement. “I’m on my way,” he said quietly as he moved from the bed. “How close are they?”

  “Too fucking close. I have men securing the outside of the house. You and Callan take care of the inside. There are still too many holes we haven’t managed to plug yet. I’ll keep you updated.”

  “Fuck,” Taber cursed as he jerked his jeans from the floor and rushed for the weapons he kept in the large walk-in closet in the bathroom. Roni was only steps behind him.

  “This is turning into a bad habit,” she muttered as she pulled on a pair of sweat pants and a loose T-shirt he threw her. Merinus was going to run out of clothes soon if she didn’t manage to get her own.

  “Stay in the room. Dawn will be up here in a minute to stay with you,” he ordered her softly. “Keep the curtains closed and stay away from the balcony doors. You’ll be safe here. I don’t want to chance moving you through the house right now. Dawn knows what she’s doing, baby. Just scream if you need me.”

  He handed her the pistol he had taken from her the night before and ex
tra clips before jerking the automatic rifle from the gun rack mounted on the wall.

  “I shoot first and scream later. Remember?” She pulled her sneakers on and laced them quickly before following him into the room.

  He moved carefully, his body tense, poised for action. Roni didn’t speak, just followed his lead as he moved through the bedroom, paused at the door that led to the sitting room and stared into it intently.

  “You’ll be safe here.” He turned, his lips pressing into hers for a hard quick kiss before he moved for the door. “Lock the door behind me and don’t let anyone in, Roni. No one but me. Do you understand?” She gazed up at him intently. “I understand. No one but you.”

  “Good girl.” His voice was seductively approving. She frowned at her own reaction to it. “Lock the door now.”

  He opened it slowly, moving with a smooth, graceful slide of his body that drove home the fact that he had lived his entire life enmeshed in danger. He was so used to it that he unconsciously moved with care, no matter where he was or what he was doing.

  He slipped through the door, then held it open as the small, silent figure of his sister entered the room.

  Glancing at her one last time, Taber closed the panel gently behind him. Roni turned the lock quickly, then slid the steel deadbolt into place. They locked their bedrooms here tighter than some people did their homes. She laid her head against the thick panel of wood and fought her tears at the thought.

  She couldn’t hear anything or anyone outside the door. She knew the heavy carpeting would have muffled most things, but she also knew the number of men who slept in the house just for safety’s sake.

  The Breeds weren’t taking any chances with their leader’s wife and the mother of the Pride’s first child.

  All precautions were taken to protect Merinus and Roni from any threat.

  “He’ll be fine.” Dawn Daniel’s voice was a soft, gentle sound, almost purring as she spoke behind Roni.

  Roni drew in a deep breath, pushing herself away from the door as she turned to face the other woman.

  Taber had told her that Dawn was a Cougar Breed, her DNA mixed with that of the reclusive, graceful mountain cats. She looked like she should have been from a tabby cat, though.

  She was slender, almost fragile. Several inches shorter than Roni, and despite the fact she was at least several years older than Roni, she looked like a teenager. A very young teenager, until you saw the automatic rifle slung across her shoulder that she carried like an extension of herself, or looked into her haunted eyes.

  Dawn shifted uncomfortably as Roni gazed at her through the dim light that barely filtered from the other room. Shoulder length, thick, tawny brown hair barely brushed the other girl’s shoulders as it framed a small, heart-shaped face.

  “Thank you for staying with me,” Roni said softly, moving to the couch, trying to still the nervous shaking of her hands. She laid the gun on the cushion beside her as she curled up in the corner, watching the other woman.

  Dawn followed suit, though she took the chair opposite her, propping the rifle against her knee as she watched Roni with shy curiosity.

  “Taber’s one of our best fighters,” she said in that soft, melodic voice. “He won’t let anyone get up here.

  And if they did, I wouldn’t let them past the door.”

  A thread of steel ran beneath the last statement. There was barely enough light to see by, but Roni glimpsed the flash of rage in her eyes.

  Roni hadn’t had a chance to really talk to Dawn, or any of the other family members she had known in Sandy Hook. Not that anyone could really have claimed to know Dawn. She was rarely seen in the small town, and when she was, she rarely talked. There was something too silent, too heartbreaking, in the quiet features of her face. As though she carried a cloak of nightmares about her at all times.

  “The estate here is gorgeous,” Roni finally said, desperate to keep the other woman talking. She needed to concentrate on something other than the possible dangers Taber would face outside. “How did you find it?”

  A mocking little smile played about the lush fullness of Dawn’s lips. “The estate was given to us, actually, along with a nice little lump sum of money to help aid the other Breeds being found in various locations.

  Several of the Council members were high-ranking heads of our government.” Her voice sang with an earthy, haunting quality.

  “How many are there so far?” Roni asked her curiously.

  “So far, we have nearly a hundred Feline Breeds on site working to secure our place in society in Washington. More come in monthly…” Her voice trailed off, as though the thought of those coming in struck a chord of resounding pain within her soul.

  “I’m sorry.” Roni didn’t know what to say.

  A gentle smile crossed Dawn’s lips, filled her expression. “Don’t be sorry, Roni. We are alive and isn’t that what matters?” It was obvious that Dawn asked herself that question often.

  What was it about her? Roni had never understood the quiet aura that always surrounded the other woman. She had seen the men of the county when they were around her. Rough, hard-edged men suddenly softened, their smiles gentling. Men who would have often made lewd advances to any woman as beautiful as Dawn had cast their eyes to the floor, shame marking their expressions.

  Her looks weren’t so unusually striking as to stop traffic. She was slender, delicate, with thick silken hair and large brown eyes that always seemed so haunted. And perhaps that was it, Roni thought. Her eyes seemed to tell a tale that Dawn never whispered.

  “Everyone looks at me like that.” Dawn shook her head in apparent confusion as Roni watched her.

  Roni sighed deeply. “I’m sorry. You seem…so sad. I guess before I never realized why.”

  “And you do now?” There was no insult intended in her voice, just weary acceptance.

  “I don’t think so.” Roni shook her head slowly. “I think it’s more than the situation, more than your entrance into society. How old were you when Callan brought you out of the labs?” And there was the answer. Her eyes flashed. Nightmare, memory and terror.

  “I was fifteen. Sherra was eighteen. That was more than ten years ago. It seems only yesterday sometimes.” She shook her head, a weary smile crossing her face. “They made us tell them about the labs during the Senate hearings and the closed trials of some of the Council members. Sherra cried.” Her voice dropped. “Like she did in the labs, before Callan took us out. She has never cried like that since our escape. Callan picked her up out of the witness stand and carried her out of the proceedings. It was weeks before she could awaken without screaming.”

  “What about you?” Roni asked her gently.

  Dawn shook her head, lowering it before giving her a soft, broken smile. “I just don’t sleep, Roni. Not for long and not very deeply. What’s the point when the monsters can take you again and again and again?” She shuddered and came to her feet, her head tilting, her eyes suddenly narrowing as the gun fell naturally into her grasp.

  “What…?”

  “Shhh,” Dawn hissed softly. “Listen.”

  She heard it then. A scratch, a scrape at the balcony doors. Her eyes widened in horror as she grabbed the pistol, moving along the wall, careful to stay as far to the side of the glass doors as possible.

  Dawn moved like a shadow then. She jerked the comm. link down from its position on the back of her head, adjusting the mic as she listened intently. The scratching came again, followed by a careful shuffle of the doors.

  “Alpha one. We have a breech.” Dawn’s voice was so soft Roni barely heard it as the other woman moved to her, covering her as she motioned to the bedroom.

  Keeping her weapon at her shoulder, Roni moved quietly around the room, her breath nearly strangling her as she fought to keep the fear to a manageable level.

  She got as far as the bedroom door and stopped. The slow slide of the balcony door had her eyes flying to Dawn in alarm.

  “Fuck. Get up here!” Daw
n’s voice was soft as she spoke into the comm. link, carrying no further than Roni as the other woman motioned to her and they headed quickly to the bedroom door. “We’re evac.

  We’re evac.” She slid the locks free, opening the door as she checked outside quickly before moving from the room.

  Roni followed quickly, her finger caressing the trigger of the gun as she held it ready, checking behind them often, fighting to hear above the pounding of her heart. The hallway was dark, silent, as they moved quickly along the corridor.

  “We’re heading to Merinus’ room, Taber. Get up here. They’re on our asses now.” Dawn opened another door and they moved through it as a sudden curse echoed from the open door of Roni and Taber’s room.

  Dawn locked