by Vonna Harper
“He wants me dead,” she said.
Alarm shot through Ber as he drew her against him. “Why?”
She has changed you.
“Maybe,” he said, when the truth was he’d never go back to what he’d been before her. “And if she has, why should you care?”
Because what exists between the two of us has also changed.
Although he could have pointed out that what they’d shared about their dreams of fatherhood had taken their relationship in a new direction, he didn’t. “I can’t take us into the past. We can only go forward.”
If she is dead, it will again be you and me.
“I can hear him,” Luann whispered. “He wants you for himself.”
You belong to me! She is an outsider, the enemy.
“No, she isn’t,” Ber protested. “After what happened between her and me today, I could never see her that way.” Determined to make his point, he cupped a hand around her breast. “She carries my cum. Maybe my child is already taking on life inside her.”
Luann shivered and a faint sigh slipped past her lips. Even with that distraction, Ber took note of the way the Beast was staring at her belly.
“What are you thinking?” he demanded. “Of killing her?”
It would be an easy thing.
“And I’d hate you for it. I could never forgive you.”
You are my companion, the only one who sees me for what I am, the last of my kind.
“Just because there’s now more to me than my role as Beast Master doesn’t mean I want that to change.” Reaching around Luann, he extended his hand. “If you truly see me as your companion, which touches me deeply, then you should want me to find happiness. To have a mate.”
“Ber?” Luann looked up at him. “I might not be able to give you that.”
His throat tightening, he dismissed the Beast and stared at the woman who’d complicated and fundamentally changed his life. “Why not?”
“Water isn’t enough. I’ll need more than that if I’m going to live.”
“That’s what brought you here, isn’t it?” Even as his cock responded to the smaller body against his, he berated himself for not having realized this before. “There’s something on Puma Mountain you can’t get where you live.”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“The ferns.”
“What about them?”
She briefly closed her eyes. “Our medicine woman says nothing else will stop the fever. So many are sick. Some have died.”
Even as her words fell away, Luann knew she’d said too much. When she’d volunteered to try to retrieve the ferns so they could be boiled and the precious juices extracted for drinking, she’d assured her people she’d never tell the Pumas why she was risking so much. The Deer clan’s survival could well depend on not letting the Pumas know of their vulnerability.
But Ber was no longer simply a member of the predator clan, and her life depended on trusting him.
“You came knowing you were sick?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Better me than mothers and fathers.”
“And they let you?”
“I told no one about my fever. But now…” she swiped at her forehead and held up her sweaty fingers, “it’s too late.”
“Because I captured you.”
“I let my need for you come between me and my mission,” she admitted and looked up at the Beast. “You’re right. I don’t deserve to live.”
Because you believe you failed your people?
“I did. They put their faith in me and I failed them.” If she could, she’d present herself to the Beast’s killing claws and teeth. But what if Ber’s seed had sprouted in her? Her death would destroy two lives.
Even as a feverish wave shook her, she acknowledged that that tiny life, if it existed, was also doomed. Too spent for tears, she let Ber support her while trying to keep the Beast in focus. At least she’d die knowing she’d discovered what it meant to be a sexual being.
“Thank you,” she managed.
“For what?”
“Today. Your body.”
“Today isn’t enough, damn it! And having sex one time isn’t enough for either of us.”
Stroking Ber’s cheek nearly exhausted her. At the same time, the touch seemed to strengthen her. “I want the same thing you do. For us to learn all we can about each other, but—”
“Be quiet! I won’t have you speaking of death.”
“I don’t have a choice. It’s reality.”
“It doesn’t have to be that way. I’m here, and what happens to you means everything to me.”
“I want to believe you,” she whispered.
“Then do. How many ferns will it take?”
“You’d collect them?”
“Listen to me, Luann. Meeting you has turned my world around. I’ll do everything in my power to continue what we’ve begun. Learning about each other and each other’s clans isn’t going to happen while your life is at stake. How many ferns?”
Her vision blurred but whether from her fever or tears she didn’t know. “A great many. And they need to simmer for a long time.”
Instead of responding, he studied her as if determined to learn things about her she didn’t know about herself. Not being able to see him clearly freed her to concentrate on the man beneath the surface.
“If you knew this was going to happen, would you have captured me? Maybe you wish we had never met.”
“I needed us to meet,” he said softly. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have faced certain things about myself. I’m not the only one, am I? You aren’t the same woman you were yesterday.”
“No,” she admitted. “I’m not.”
He brushed hair off her forehead. “Right now the only thing that matters is making sure you have a tomorrow. I don’t want to leave you again, but I don’t have a choice.”
He did of course. Nothing was keeping him here, except for what was taking place between them.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“Don’t thank me until you’re well.”
If I get well. “And then?”
“I don’t know, yet.”
Neither do I.
Epilogue
Luann stood and shook herself, shivering as water droplets flew or ran down her to land in the creek. Next she squeezed what she could from her hair. Instead of letting the sun dry her, however, she headed for the bank and the waiting helping hands.
Ber was smiling, his white teeth reminding her of his clan’s namesake. Her legs felt stronger than they had in days, but she let him grasp her fingers and help her to shore. If anything, today was even hotter than the last two, but the water had chilled her, and she was grateful for Ber’s embrace. Smiling herself, she turned her head so her hair brushed against his naked chest.
“Cold!” He pushed her back but still held on to her. “That’s so damnable cold.”
“Then you know what I feel like.”
“The fever’s completely gone?” he asked.
“Yes. I just wanted to get rid of the sweat.”
“As you should.” His announcement made, he turned her so her back was to him and guided her arms behind her. “I think I like you like this, my little sex slave.”
“What if I’m willing?”
“Maybe that makes it all the better.” He pressed his lips to the nape of her neck and then ran his teeth over her there, causing her to shiver. “I love your reactions. Knowing you can’t do anything about them is just what this predator needs.”
“What if I have no objections?” she asked. “Does that lessen your pleasure?”
He didn’t answer, not that she needed him to. In the two days since she’d drank from the fern-laced water he’d prepared under her guidance, she had no doubt that he’d saved her life. Her gratitude went so deep she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to tell him. Then without her having said a word, he’d gathered as many ferns as he could pack
into a blanket.
He’d offered to immediately take the ferns to her people, but she’d pointed out that they wouldn’t trust him. Consequently, they’d had to wait until the next day when she was strong enough to make the journey. The moment they’d recognized him, her warriors had aimed their spears at him. He’d reacted as she’d known he would by dropping the laden blanket, gripping his knife, and crouching like a puma about to attack, but she’d stepped between him and the Deer men and explained why they were here. It had taken Ber awhile to relax, but at length she’d convinced everyone to put away their weapons. Remembering what he’d told the Beast about wanting to become a father, she’d first taken him to see the sick children.
“We’ll make them well,” he’d told everyone. “Nothing else matters.”
With Ber by her side, she’d filled her own cooking pot with water and the ferns and let the mixture simmer for several hours. Then she’d invited her entire clan to partake. Despite their continued distrust of Ber, they’d done so. Even those who were so ill they couldn’t rise from their beds soon started to feel better. She’d cried when she’d seen that, especially when Ber lifted a boy in his arms and then placed him on his shoulders so the child could proclaim that he was the tallest person in the world.
Her family had wanted her to remain with them, but although she’d been torn, she’d told them she needed to go back to Puma Mountain with Ber. Now she stood in his embrace, or should she say under his control?
“It’s beautiful here,” she admitted, with his cock pressing into her backside and her core responding. “I think my people should spend at least part of the summer where it’s cooler.”
“Only if the Pumas approve. Otherwise…” Pushing her hair aside, he caught the back of her neck in his mouth.
“By the spirits!” No matter that he was driving her crazy, she didn’t try to break free. “If that’s the way you treat your Puma women, no wonder they want nothing to do with you.”
Growling, he licked her so-sensitive flesh. Then he straightened but continued to hold her hands behind her. “Are you saying you don’t like what I do to you? Strange, that’s not the message I’m getting.”
“I wanted to see the Beast again. If you think I returned to the mountain because of you, you’re mistaken.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Oh? And what makes you say that?”
“Your body.” He slid an arm around her, his forearm flattening her breasts and causing her nipples to instantly tighten. “Go on, tell me you don’t want this?”
They’d returned to the creek where Ber had gotten the water that had saved her people’s lives. No evergreens lived here, but there was a large grove only a hundred or so feet away. Although she had yet to see the Beast today, she sensed his presence in the shadows.
“I want,” she admitted, “everything you do to me.”
“Just as I want and need you.” Releasing her wrists, he slid his now-free arm over her waist. “Now and tomorrow.”
“I know.”
Not breathing, she took hold of the arm around her waist and drew it lower. Still holding her breath, she guided his hand between her legs. His erection challenged her to ignore it, something she wouldn’t try to do.
“You’re ready for this?” he whispered. “Strong enough?”
“I’ve never felt stronger.” Even before she finished, she wished she could take back her words, because next to his strength, hers was nothing.
But that, in part, was why she’d left her clan and accompanied him. It would be awhile before she knew whether she was already pregnant, but it didn’t matter because they had endless days and nights in which to make that happen. She was still a Deer and wanted to remain close to her clan, but the brief amount of time she and Ber had spent together had taught her that it was possible to be more than one thing.
The Beast was part of the change.
Thinking to press her lips to Ber’s, she turned and faced him. Her arms went around his neck. As their mouths came together, he grabbed her around her waist and lifted her. She wrapped her legs around his middle and leaned away, arching as she did. His cock pressed against her entrance, and when he drew her close again, he slipped in to fill her.
Speared by him, lost in him, she tightened her hold. He held her in place, his strength speaking to her thighs and buttocks and the small of her back so she felt new and old at the same time.
“Just like that?” he asked.
I’m falling in love with you. “Just like that.”
Holding her silent admission to herself, she closed her pussy muscles around the hard invasion and made it part of her. The heat that flooded her now had nothing to do with her earlier fever. She’d spoken the truth when she’d told him she’d never felt stronger, but she wouldn’t have reached this point without him. They’d become one, Puma and Deer on the same journey.
“The boy you put on your shoulders,” she said. “When I saw that…”
“What?”
“Something changed in me,” she continued around the sudden mass in her throat. “Everything about you suddenly made sense.”
“Because I made him feel tall?”
“Not just that.” Words swirled inside her, but with their arms around each other and sex touching sex, she had to struggle to finish. “You knew what would make him laugh and forget he’d been sick. Only a compassionate and loving man could do that.”
“Giving him a reason to laugh pleased me, but not as much as doing this does.”
He drew back a little and then became still in that incredible way he had of doing. She waited with him, breathed in time with him, shared her strength with him and drank from what he was freely giving her.
“I’m falling in love with you,” she whispered.
“Love?”
“You don’t want to hear me say that?”
“I do. By the spirits, I do.”
She might have said more if she hadn’t sensed that wild gathering of muscles. One heartbeat he made her think of a quiet lake. The next waves tossed and the storm hit. And as Ber plowed into her, she looked over her shoulder at the trees where the Beast stood.
You returned.
“Yes.”
Why?
“Because I was alone until he came into my life.”
I understand.
“Do you resent my presence?”
I can’t be everything to him. I was wrong to think I could.
“I don’t want to take your place.”
That doesn’t need to happen. There’s room in Ber’s heart for both of us.
Somewhere between tears and laughter, she drove herself at Ber. “Just as there’s room in my heart for man and beast.”
“No more talking,” Ber said. “Not now.”
Whether he was commanding her or not didn’t matter because she was beyond words. The Beast no longer mattered. There was nothing except muscle and bone against muscle and bone, heat fueling heat.
The mountain that had first intimidated her seemed to be watching. Emboldened, she rubbed her breasts against her lover’s chest. Then she opened her mouth so she could draw her teeth lightly over his chin. He chuckled, lifted her a little higher, let his breath out in a whoosh that seemed to bathe everything about her.
There it was, the quick and fluid movement that caused her pussy to swell and weep. Although she could barely feel her limbs, she continued to grip him. Instinct ruled her as she advanced and retreated and scratched what she could reach of his back and shoulders. He laughed again, longer and stronger this time. The deep sound buried itself in her, and she started laughing with him.
Then her laughter slipped into gasps. She wanted to know why that was, but before she could gather her senses about her, the mountain fell away. There was only him. Fucking. Crying out repeatedly.
Coming.
Landing in time to embrace his hot, wet gift to her.
Much later she lightly combed Ber’s sweat-soaked hair as he lay dozing with his
head on her belly and the mountain came back into view.
About the Author
“Of course I’ve time-traveled to the ancient Everglades, infiltrated bondage strongholds, done wilderness search and rescue, and spent a night trapped in a workout gym with Mr. Universe. How can I possibly write about something I haven’t experienced?”
Although I love telling readers that, the truth is much more mundane. In my “day” jobs, I’ve been a commercial pilot, brain surgeon, worked as a white-water river guide, bee keeper, snake charmer and garbage collector.
And if you buy all that, let me pitch the bridge I have listed on eBay.
The author welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
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Also by Vonna Harper
Brothel Night
Captive Warrior
Dangerous Ride
Dark Touch
Down and Dirty anthology
Equinox II anthology
Forced
Getting Laid
Hard Bodies
Her Passionate Need
His Voice, His Command
Hot Earth
Jungle Cries
Night of Fire
Night of the Cougar
Refuge
Roughing It
Savage Storm
Scarlet Cavern
Scarred Hearts
Spoils of War
Thunder
Under His Thumb
Virgin Afternoon
War Prize
Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer e-books or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you breathless.
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