Savage Legacy

by Lora Leigh

  “Good night, Ariel.” As though she understood better than she should, Chantel touched her hair gently before turning and moving back to the sitting room where the others awaited.

  “I think we’ve been asked to leave,” she told them coolly as she passed Shane. “Are you ready to go, Devlin?”

  “More than,” Devlin grunted, his voice soft, though Ariel picked up on the disgruntled rumble. “It’s like visiting a caged lion in here.”

  Ariel stood still, her lips pressed together, fighting to control the anger pouring through her as she held Shane’s stormy gaze. As the door closed behind the others, Ariel felt the air around her thicken further, growing heavier. At her breast, the crystal warmed, a sudden shift in the power sending chills chasing down her spine.

  She didn’t know this Shane.

  “Do you have something to say?” she asked him then, arching her brow mockingly as she stared back at him, meeting him glare for glare.

  “I have a lot to say,” he nearly snapped. “I’ll start with this.”

  Before she could evade him, avoid him, he moved to her, his hand gripping her arms as he jerked her to him, his head lowering, his lips slamming down on hers.

  Shock. Surprise. For a moment, the sheer power behind the kiss rocked her system. Desperate hunger, surging passion, a riot of conflicting emotions surged through her with chaotic violence. She could feel it building in herself as well as Shane. A mix of conflicting needs, desires…angers.

  “Damn you, fucking touch me.” He jerked back from her, pulling her arms from across her breasts and forcing them to his shoulders as she gasped for breath, her eyes wide, her breasts rising and falling harshly from the adrenaline, the surging lust.

  His hands gripped her hips, jerking her against him, lifting her until he could press the surging length of his erection against the soft pad of her pussy.

  He was hot. Thick and hot, pressing into her, creating a firestorm of lightning fast sensations that barely allowed her to breathe for the pleasure and the hunger rising inside her.

  “Feel me,” he growled, his head lowering, his teeth scraping over the sensitive flesh of her neck as he ground his cock between her thighs. “Feel what you do to me, Ariel.”

  His hands flexed on her hips, his fingers digging into her flesh with almost bruising strength as her head fell back, a moan tearing from her throat.

  It shouldn’t feel so good. His hands were rough, his kisses hot, filled with a hunger that seemed more compulsive, desperate. Almost angry.

  “Shane…” She wanted to soothe him, wanted to still the storm raging inside him, but the passion, the lust burning between them overwhelmed her.

  “God, you’re beautiful.” The words were spoken a bare second before the shirt she was wearing was ripped from her back.

  Powerful hands tossed the shreds of material to the floor as she tensed, staring back at him in surprise. His eyes were almost glazed, dark, his expression intent, consuming as he stared down at the full mounds of her breasts. Her nipples strained toward him, hard and peaked, the full curves of her breasts swollen, engorged with pleasure.

  His hips bucked against her, pressing his cock firmly against her aching, drenched pussy.

  “Do you think I’ll ever let you go again?” he snarled, fury and lust whipping in the thunderhead color of his eyes. “Do you think I’ll ever accept less than all you are? Ever again?”

  She shivered at the sound of his voice, the roiling emotions his words evoked within her.

  “Shane…” She shook her head, fighting to make sense of the sudden shift of emotions within him.

  This wasn’t the gentle giant she had come to expect. This wasn’t the lover who had eased her through each adventure. This was the Viking. Ravenous, out of control of his lust, his emotions. And he was making her so fucking hot, her pussy was dripping with it.

  “Don’t tell me no, Ariel.” His voice was ragged as his grip eased, his hands moving from her hips only to jerk at the leather cord that laced the front of her pants. “Get these damned things off before I rip them off you.”

  Ariel moaned, trembling, staring back at him in dazed fascination as she felt his hands pulling at the snug leather, pushing it over her hips as he turned her, tumbling her to the bed as he abandoned the pants to quickly remove her boots.

  “What are you doing, Shane?” She gasped as he flipped her over before jerking the pants the rest of the way from her legs.

  “Lay still.” His hand landed heavily on the cheek of her ass.

  It should have enraged her, that demanding little punishment. She should have come up fighting. Instead, her cunt creamed violently, spilling along the swollen curves and heating her further.

  She pressed her face into the bed, listening to the hard bellow of his breaths as moved behind her.

  “Shane, I don’t understand this.” The turnaround was too abrupt. The shift from gentle lover the first time he had taken her, to ravenous lust was exciting, arousing, but confusing.

  “That doesn’t surprise me,” he growled.

  A flare of anger filled her at his tone. Her lips thinned as she jerked at her legs, determined to roll over and confront him.

  “I said, stay still, wench!” His hand landed on her rear again, and despite the anger in his voice she couldn’t help but laugh.

  Wench?

  “Shane, you’re slipping.” She ignored the fiery heat in her bottom as she felt his hands slide over the curves, spreading her legs further apart. “It’s the wrong century for the word ‘wench’.”

  “You are as tenaciously determined now as you ever were then,” he fairly snarled, moving back as his hands slid down the backs of her legs.

  Taking the opportunity, Ariel quickly rolled to her back, kicked out at him, catching him off-guard as her feet planted in the hard muscles of his stomach and managed to push him back.

  He fell hard, right on his ass, his eyes narrowing on her with a glint of retaliation in their depths. His oddly colored eyes were almost a quicksilver now, turbulent with emotion, intensity. It sent a chill up her spine and a ripple through her pussy. This was the Viking. The pillager. The rough, sexual, take no prisoners male she had researched before opening her antiques store in Lexington. This was the Berserker!

  “You will pay for that.” He rose slowly, tall, strong, tension tightening his body as she jumped naked from the bed, her eyes wide as her glance centered on the swollen bulge beneath his leather pants.

  She swallowed tightly, her eyes lifting to his face.

  “Whenever you’re ready to try, big boy.” She arched her brow mockingly as she stilled the quiver of lust that rippled over her nerve endings. “Here I am.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  He caught her as she attempted to jump from the other side of the bed and rush for the doorway that led into the dressing room before turning into the sitting room. One long arm wrapped around her waist, her struggles ineffectual as he pressed her against the wall, his hard thigh slipping between both of hers as he forced her legs apart.

  With her face pressed to the wall, unable to see his expression, she had only her senses to guide her. Senses that were rioting, filled with pleasure, adrenaline and the rush of lust that thundered through her system.

  He felt so big behind her, overwhelming her. She could hear his breaths sawing in and out of his chest, feel his cock pressing against her lower back. This was a side of Shane she hadn’t seen. One that excited, aroused and sent nervous anticipation whipping through her senses.

  His arms were hard, his chest cushioning her back as one broad palm pushed demandingly between her thighs, his fingers sliding through the thick, rich cream that leaked from her pussy.

  A low, rough groan echoed against her back.

  “You’re drenched with heat,” he growled at her ear. “Your pussy is dripping for me, Ariel. So hot and wet you’ll drown me in your fire.”

  How was she supposed to speak when he did that? Talked to her with the ruined, rough vo
ice of his. The sound of it slipped over her senses, driving her higher, causing her breath to catch as her womb convulsed with arousal.

  A low, harsh cry escaped her as his fingers slid lower, two clamping together and pushing past the tight entrance to her vagina before filling her, penetrating her with a rough, sudden thrust that had her going to her tiptoes, her head tipping back against his shoulder as fire streaked through her body.

  “Spread your legs,” he snarled at her ear as the limbs in question trembled in excitement.

  She spread her legs as he pressed her cheek to the wall.

  “Wider.” He gripped her wrists, forcing her to flatten her hands on the wall above her head. “All the way, woman. I’ll have none of your reticence this time.”

  She shuddered in near orgasm. He was forceful, dominant, unwilling to take no for an answer or to accept the slightest hesitation.

  “Good girl,” he crooned, his voice dark as he rewarded her by pulling his fingers back and thrusting in deeper, harder, causing her to cry out at the fire that streaked through her cunt.

  “You’re close.” He didn’t sound pleased. “Too close. You won’t come yet, Ariel. Not until I allow it. And I intend to enjoy this fully.”

  His fingers pulled free of her.

  “Damn you,” she whimpered, pressing her cheek harder to the wall as she fought for her own control.

  “Now, let’s see just how much of my cock you’re willing to take, beloved.” He jerked the chair from beneath the nearby table, pulling it close. “Prop your foot here.”

  He bent her knee, raising her leg until her foot rested in the seat, completely opening her, leaving her undefended, her juices dripping down her thighs as lust hit her squarely in the deepest reaches of her pussy.

  Behind her, she could feel him loosing the leather breeches he wore, releasing the straining length of his cock. She couldn’t imagine anything more erotic than the thought of his erection straining from the loosened edges of his breeches, aiming for her vulnerable vagina. Unless it was seeing it straining toward her. She shivered at that thought.

  “You’re so tight, so fucking hot.” She trembled as the tip of his cock rested at the opening. “Now feel me, Ariel. Feel every inch of my cock fucking you…fucking you…”

  She screamed as he powered into her. A hard, mighty thrust that sent him spearing deep, deeper than he had ever gone before. Harder. Thicker.

  Her fingers curled into claws as she fought for something, anything to hold onto. She wanted to be free, she wanted to be penetrated deeper. She wanted him harder, yet she felt stretched to her limits, bruised by the steel-hard flesh impaling her.

  His hands gripped her hips, rough, animalistic growls vibrating from his throat as he began thrusting inside her. Long, slow thrusts, demanding, intent on penetrating her to her very soul.

  The friction was driving her insane. The hard throb of blood rushing through his cock vibrated through her pussy until her womb rippled with the sensation. The head, thick, pulsing, fiery hot, stretched her impossibly.

  She was gasping for breath, certain she would never survive, yet more than willing to fly into the very heart of the death awaiting her. Fire flamed through her, heat filled her, consumed her with each long thrust that pierced her pussy, sinking to the very depths of her, nudging, stretching her further, making her scream out at the pleasure pain of it.

  His hands slid up her ribs, covered her swollen breasts. Hard fingers massaged and pulled at her peaked nipples until lightning hard streaks of pleasure were ripping from her breasts and tearing into her core. She was on fire. Blazing out of control.

  “Now!” she screamed hoarsely, poised on the edge of release, dizzy with the whiplash of sensations whipping through her.

  “Now,” he agreed, his voice hot, sensually, sexily rough as his hands moved back to her hips.

  He began to move harder, faster. His cock hammered into her with desperate lunges, filling her, releasing her, filling her deeper, harder, faster…

  The cataclysm that swept over her was destructive. Bones and muscles tightened with brutal force as the sensitive tissues of her pussy began to milk him, clenching around him tighter than before, until she heard his hoarse shout in her ear and felt the fiery blasts of his semen erupt inside her.

  Ariel collapsed against the wall, held in place only by his hands on her hips, his erection jerking inside her. Exhaustion washed over her as she fought to recover her strength, her breathing.

  She felt him pull from her then, slowly. An almost imperceptible shift of the air swirled around her then, making her shiver with the strange foreboding she could sense within it.

  “I have to go for a while.”

  She started in surprise as he moved away from her. No kiss. No gentle words. Nothing to ease the sudden darkness that seemed to swirl around her.

  She turned slowly, watching as he jerked his pants on, lacing them roughly. He wasn’t looking at her, his expression was closed, tense.

  “What did I do?” She couldn’t help but ask the question. Couldn’t control the fears rising inside her.

  “You didn’t do anything.” He shook his head tightly as he jerked his soft boots over his feet and tightened the laces quickly. “Go to bed. You need to rest.”

  She stood silently, watching as he jerked a T-shirt from the duffel bag beside the bed and stomped from the bedroom. Minutes later, she flinched violently as the door to the suite slammed closed with enough strength to rattle the frame.

  “Shane,” she whispered his name as she felt him moving away, not just distancing himself physically from her, but mentally, emotionally. Drawing away, leaving her alone in ways she had never known before.

  The crystal warmed at her breasts, the air swirled around her.

  Beware, Ariel. Beware the disturbance.

  She blinked at the sound of the weakened voice, the weariness that filled it.

  “Arriane?” she whispered softly, feeling the strange mix of sensations that alerted her to the other woman’s psychic presence.

  Be careful, sister, she whispered again. Beware the Savage…

  Just as quickly she was gone.

  Ariel firmed her lips, stilled the tremor that would have shook them before slowly straightening her shoulders and taking a deep, steadying breath. Beware the Savage. She rubbed her arms slowly, attempting to warm herself against the sudden chill that chased over her. Shane wouldn’t hurt her, she assured herself. She knew him, remembered enough about that life before to know he loved her. He had worshipped her. He had been tender, caring…

  Her breath hitched in her throat. As much as she had relished the more forceful touch, the hard, lustful possession, she knew it was something he had never before lost control of. The Savage had never been present when he touched her. Until tonight.

  Beware the disturbance…

  She could feel it in the very air around her.

  Shuddering, she turned and strode quickly to the shower. The water was hot, the pressure pounding, and suddenly, she had a horrible, frightening need to be warm.

  *

  Lightning flickered in the distance as rain clouds thickened in the night sky. The elements were unsettled, the air thick with an unnatural tension as Shane stepped from the hotel and drew in the scents of the night.

  Since finding Ariel, his own sensitivity to the air around them had increased. His gift from the Guardians had been that of physical strength, yet Shane found himself now sensing things he had never known before. It made him feel…unbalanced.

  He shook his head, pushing his fingers roughly through his hair as he paced around the side of the building, searching for a darkened area to hide within, though he knew there was no place he could hide from himself.

  God, what had he done?

  He had pushed her against the wall and taken her like a camp whore, uncaring of her delicate body, pushing her past limits he would have never pushed her past before. The anger rising inside him had been overwhelming, the rage that he had alwa
ys controlled so easily, working free as though it had no restraints placed around it.

  There had been a time, centuries before, when the Berserker rages had tormented him. It had taken a while to accustom himself to the mental and physical changes his powers had given him, to find the control it took to push back the physical responses to his anger. It had been more than a millennium since he had been tormented with them. And never had the dark anger risen in Ariel’s presence. Not until she had denied him her love.

  There was no excuse for it.

  He sighed wearily as he found a bench beneath thickly leafed trees and sat down heavily. He was angry at her, yes. Worried. In that life before she had denied her powers, but she had never denied her love for him. Now, it seemed she was accepting the powers as they came, but not the love he had waited so long to give her.

  His fists clenched at the thought. A thousand fucking years he had waited. Never touching another woman, lusting after nothing but the dreams he had of Ariel each night. Tormenting, lust-filled dreams, but nothing like what he had just done to her.

  He wiped his hands over his face, breathing out roughly. Surely the payment exacted by Fate and Destiny for this second chance wouldn’t be the love Ariel had once felt for him. It was a price he couldn’t pay, he thought savagely. He had lived for her, lived for her love, her touch. And now, he would be forced to push her further, harder than even he thought he could.

  Thunder vibrated in the distance as lightning crossed the sky once again. It was closer now, the smell of rain thickening in the air. Her sisters were coming to her aid. Against him? He growled at the suspicion that they would dare to interfere.

  They had been close in that first life. The four women had shared their strengths, bolstered each other’s weaknesses, and drew solace from the bond they had shared. Chantel’s death had destroyed a part of them, weakening them further than they had been due to the lives they were born into.

  Chantel lived now though. And she strengthened them. Drew them together, made them stronger. But they wouldn’t interfere in his relationship with Ariel, he would see to it. And he would be damned if he would allow Ariel to deny him much longer. There was no way to save her without that emotional bond. No way to open those final powers that would lead her to Caitlin. No one to ensure they would be together for all time without the mating of the spirit, as well as the body.