Legendary Beast

by Barbara J. Hancock

  Lev’s body glistened in the firelight as the lather ran down his hardened flesh. His scars and the marks the wolves’ teeth had caused on his skin didn’t detract from his sculptural beauty. His rock-hard penis jutted out from golden curls, proving that however carved he seemed, he was hot and real and, at least for tonight, hers to enjoy.

  She bent to scoop another kettle full of water, but Lev bent down to stop her. She allowed the kettle to sink to the bottom of the tub as he gripped her shoulders and encouraged her to stand. His hands were strong, though gentle on her arms, but they were also insistent.

  She’d been right. His patience was gone.

  Suddenly, he crushed her to his wet chest and lowered his lips to hers. She only had time to gasp before his hot, questing tongue speared into her mouth to twine with her own hungry tongue. He delved deeply, tasting and exploring and taking her last breath. Her head grew light. Her knees buckled. But he held her so she didn’t fall. He eased up, but only seconds before she thought she would faint.

  And she didn’t mind at all.

  Because his ferocity was hers. His passion was hers. She gasped for air and mourned the loss of his mouth at the same time. He allowed her to reach up and throw her arms around his neck. He lowered his hands from her arms to her hips. Somehow her feet were off the floor, her legs were wrapped around his waist and his engorged cock was pressed against her hot core.

  Her face was above his now. She tried to kiss him again, but he spoke against her lips instead.

  “I’m going to empty this tub and fill it with fresh water for you. But I’m going to undress you first. I want you to sit naked by the fire so that I can see every inch of you while I prepare you a bath. I want to see your hard nipples and the lush globes of your breasts. I want to see the auburn bush between your legs. I want to make those red curls glisten with anticipation,” Lev murmured. The movement of his mouth on hers teased, and his words enticed. Heat rushed to the juncture of her thighs as she thought about him enjoying her nudity as she’d enjoyed his. She moved her hips as her ache increased, and he laughed in response.

  Madeline was stunned into motionlessness. Then she reached to cup the sides of his face as if she could capture the smile on his mouth and the sound of his laughter in the palms of her hands.

  “We’ll get there, Maddy. We’ll get there,” he teased, and he held her bottom in two powerful hands so she couldn’t resume her wiggling. He stepped from the tub and crossed the room to stand by the fire. She didn’t protest when he untwined her legs from his waist and placed her feet on the floor. She was facing him in the firelight. His thrusting cock measured the distance between them.

  She waited, trembling, for him to strip her as she’d stripped him. She didn’t have to wait long. He raised one hand to her chest and undid the buttons of her shirt, one by one. She breathed lightly but quickly as he exposed her flushed skin.

  “You’re even more beautiful than I remembered,” Lev said. His hands hastened to move her shirt aside when he undid the final button. The fabric swept off her shoulders and down her arms in a cottony whisper that tickled the same way desire was tickling the insides of her thighs with need. “You’re also sweeter than I remembered. I discovered your sweetness last night. And since then, I’ve been dying to taste you again.”

  He leaned down to illustrate his hunger with his lips on the curve of her neck. Madeline’s head swooned backward as she gave him greater access, and he took her offer with a sucking kiss against the vulnerable pulse point at the apex of her neck.

  Her push-up bra cupped and displayed her breasts at a delicious angle. He stood back to look at her, and she could see his appreciation in his eyes. She looked down and saw her dusky areolas and pink nubs of her nipples showing through the pale peach lace. As she watched, he cupped her left breast, then caressed her swollen nipple through the thin material of the bra with his calloused thumb.

  “Lev,” Madeline breathed. It was half protest, half plea. He laughed again in response.

  “Now you know how hard it is to be patient when you’re being pleasured by someone you desperately need to take” Lev said.

  With a sudden jerk of his hand, he twisted her bra free. The lace sprang loose and fell to the floor, forgotten. The fire’s warmth fell on her breasts. The dancing flames illuminated her hard nipples and the flush of desire on her pale skin. She was left in nothing but leggings and boots, but not for long. Lev’s hands were already on her waist. He jerked the stretchy material of her modern buff leggings down...and he went with them. She placed her hands on his broad shoulders as he worked her body almost roughly to pull at the leggings, and to wrestle the boots off her feet at the same time.

  She welcomed the hurry. She wanted to be bare. She needed to be naked. For him. Only peach lace remained when he tossed her pants and boots aside. And her auburn mound showed through, level with his kneeling face. She didn’t resist when his hands came around her hips to pull her toward him. But she did emit a surprised yelp when his hot mouth opened and he gently closed his teeth over her throbbing mound. The heat and pressure teased her even through the lace.

  And then he stood.

  “When I come back, I want those off. I want you on the hearth by the fire, and I want to see how ready you are for me,” Lev said.

  He turned away so suddenly that Madeline swayed. Cool air rushed back at her in his wake, in spite of the fire. She watched as he easily picked up the copper tub, even though its weight had been increased due to the water it held. His muscles bulged, and she admired his broad back as he walked out of the room.

  I want to see how ready you are for me.

  She was ready. And she wasn’t too shy to let him see.

  Madeline hooked her fingers in the waistband of her underwear and pulled them down. She stepped out of them and tossed them to the side. She wanted a bath; she wanted Lev to give her a bath. But most of all, she wanted the large erection she’d held in her hands deep inside her. He would fill her to the limit. She remembered perfectly the stretch, the fullness. That absolute perfect friction of their sliding together.

  And even though it was probably wrong to desire him more, here and now, she was sure it would be even better. His hips would be harder and more frenzied between her thighs. His body would be a hot sculpture come to life only for her hands and her heat. He was a beast. Definitely. There was no doubt about it. But he would be her beast tonight. And she was warrior enough to take him.

  Madeline settled on the heated stones of the hearth. They were almost hot against her bottom, and the heat radiated elsewhere. She wiggled against it and felt the pleasurable flush rise to tease her.

  Lev would dump the tepid, used water from the tub. Then he would come back, any minute now, and find her just where he’d told her to wait by the fire. Madeline raised her hands to her aching breasts, so she could cup and caress them, and remind herself of his teasing hands. Her nipples were responsive and tender. Sensation zinged from the brush of her fingers straight to the pulse between her legs.

  She clamped her thighs against the feeling, but then she remembered his orders. She thought she could hear his step in the hall. Madeline leaned against the hot stone at her back. The fire had died down, but it was still crackling enough to cause beads of sweat to spring up on her forehead and upper lip.

  She was naked, but she wasn’t cold at all. In fact, she’d never been hotter. Lev stepped into the room carrying the empty tub just as Madeline spread her legs. Across the room, his eyes were dark from the firelight, but she saw and felt him take in her display from her head to her feet...with a long pause in between. His pause was like a physical caress. Madeline could almost feel his fingers teasing the flesh between her thighs.

  “You’re going to kill me, but I’m determined to fill this tub,” Lev said. He placed it on the floor with a clang and rose. The tub had shielded his erection from her sight. Now she appreciated how hard and ready he appeared. So much so that she pressed her hands against her hot stomach to
quiet the ache there.

  “Look at you. It’s going to take more than that to ease your need. When I come back, I want to see your fingers wet, Maddy,” Lev said. He picked up the kettle and turned to head back to the fountain to fill it. She’d gone motionless at his latest order, but as he headed back outside, she gladly obeyed. It wouldn’t take him long to fill the kettle. Madeline moved the hand she’d pressed against her stomach down to her damp curls. She threaded her fingers into the nest to find the moisture he wanted to see. She gasped, her excitement heightened because he’d told her to touch herself and share her physical response with him.

  Lev came back in the room as she raised her damp fingers back to her stomach. He crossed the room and placed the kettle on the fire beside her. And then he stepped to her. He reached for her hand and raised her wet fingers to his lips. He suckled first one and then the other. The hot suction and the sultry act caused her to gasp, but she didn’t close her eyes. His erect penis was so close to her face. She went even wetter as she saw how much he wanted to replace her fingers with his cock.

  She leaned forward, and he didn’t stop her. She took the head of his penis in her lips. But he stopped her by grabbing a fistful of her hair before she could take him deeply into her mouth.

  “You’re hard to resist. Did you know that? I can hardly pull away. I have to feel your hot lips. Just for a second,” Lev groaned. Madeline sucked as much as he would allow her to suck—only a teasing inch between her lips. She was so hungry for more. She moaned in frustration and then, because he wouldn’t allow her to have more of his cock, she bathed the head with her tongue. Again and again, until his legs shook and the hand in her hair grew almost painfully tight.

  “Oh, yes, Maddy. I’m going to take you tonight. I’m going to make you scream,” he promised.

  Madeline wiggled on the hot hearth, and he let go of her hand and her hair, but he also stepped back. She licked the salty taste of him from her lips. They were full and swollen from the suction she’d used on the head of his cock. He reached to take the water from the hearth with the tree limb. He carried the kettle over to the tub and tilted it so the steaming water would pour out.

  Madeline felt as if her body was steaming as obviously as the bathwater. Lev looked back at her. He paused in the doorway with the empty kettle in his hand.

  “I’ll be back,” he said.

  This time her instructions were left to her own imagination. She tingled with the anticipation of his return. The taste of him on her lips made her crazy for more. It was easy enough to rise to her knees on the hearth and give herself what she needed. But it wasn’t enough. Only he would be enough.

  She was rocking her hips against her own fingers when he stepped back in. Lev slowly crossed the room to the hearth. Through narrowed lids, Madeline watched him approach. She didn’t stop. She continued to rock. She’d felt this way almost since she first found him in the tower room. He heated her blood. He drew out every ounce of ache and need her body could feel. He should see what he did to her. Just as she could see what she did to him.

  He placed the kettle on the flames, but he only had eyes for her. He stood for several moments, watching and appreciating before he leaned down to take her salty lips with his. He kissed her gently this time, licking all the perspiration from her upper lip, suckling her lower lip as her hips still moved against her own hand.

  “Oh, Maddy, love. You are mine, aren’t you?” She startled at his words and her hand fell away, but he continued. “No. I know. We are bound to be apart. But you’re mine. And I’m yours. There’s no denying it, no matter our circumstances,” Lev said against her lips.

  Madeline gasped when he replaced her hand with the nudge of his hot penis. Yet he didn’t penetrate her. He only teased. He slowly eased his large cock high between her damp thighs, so he nudged her most tender flesh. She cried out his name and grabbed his shoulders.

  “Say it, Maddy. Admit it for me. Just for tonight. Admit that you’re mine,” Lev said. “Forever.”

  Her “yes” was forced through teeth that chattered because her need for him was so great. When he stepped away to pour another boiling kettle of water in the tub, she thought she would cry.

  “Only a few more trips,” Lev promised.

  The kettle was large, and the tub wasn’t made for soaking. Madeline cuddled herself in the heat of the fire while Lev continued his chore with no more teasing. None was necessary. She already burned hotter than the fire itself. And his hands fumbled with his tasks, as if he was impatient to be through.

  Finally, after several unheated kettles, the tub was filled enough for their purpose.

  Madeline uncurled her legs, but this time Lev picked her up and carried her to the tub instead of the kettle. He set her down in the steaming liquid and rose before her. Madeline looked up at him as he soaped his hands. He didn’t use a cloth to wash her, but rather, used his large palms. He lathered her from head to foot, even scrubbing her long hair with gentle, kneading fingers. It was a different kind of sensuality than the one they’d shared moments before—it was passion paired with consideration.

  But when he kissed her between rinsings, she knew he was going to fulfill his earlier vow. His tongue mimicked a rhythm she recognized. He thrust deep into her mouth. He claimed her, and she welcomed it.

  Yes. She sketched, but she also wielded a sword. It would take a furious desire to make a warrior scream. Only Lev Romanov, out of the entire world, could match the fury of the need in her own belly. Before the last of the soapy bubbles were rinsed away, Madeline wound her arms around Lev’s neck and refused to let him bend to dip the kettle one last time.

  “I was wondering when you’d grow tired of my teasing,” Lev said.

  “That I managed to survive with your soapy fingers between my thighs speaks volumes about my control,” Madeline replied.

  “I don’t doubt your control. It’s mine I’ve been testing,” Lev said.

  “No more control. I can’t bear it anymore. I want to run with you this time. Let’s ride this together while we can,” Madeline said.

  “There are no beds. No blankets,” Lev warned.

  “I only need you,” she insisted.

  He lifted her away from the water with her grip around his neck. She held on long enough for him to wrap his arms beneath her bottom. This time, when she hooked her legs around his waist, they were both naked. Her core settled against his hot stomach, and his erection bumped her bottom.

  Lev took her weight with him to the floor. He shielded her from the rough flagstones with his warm, hard body. And then he moved his hands from her bottom to the aching need between her thighs. He opened her and centered his erection, but he didn’t thrust his hips upward. He merely raised his gaze to hers. She saw the howl—she also felt the howl rise in her own breast. She felt the desperation of the search he’d undertaken to attain this incredible moment of reconnection.

  And still he didn’t take her.

  It was Madeline who claimed the beast. She lowered herself on the erection he offered, and she accepted the incredible pleasure and pain of the tight fit and luxurious friction between them. She cried out his name. It sounded very much like the white wolf’s howl. And with that, he went wild beneath her.

  Her whole body was rocked by the power of his movements, but she clenched her thighs and held his shoulders and responded with the eager, fierce thrusts of her hips. She took him. He took her. And they both found their shuddering release that seemed to be echoed by the earth beneath them.

  He didn’t shift. The wolf was in his eyes, and the white wolf’s song burst from his lips as he came, but he didn’t shift. Thunder rolled and the earth rumbled, but it was Lev beneath her when she collapsed, replete, in his arms.

  Chapter 20

  The water had cooled, but Madeline added another log to the fire and reheated a kettle for the task she intended to undertake. She’d donned nothing but her tunic against the chill. Lev was still nude. He sat against the crumbled stone of t
he hearth and watched her work.

  His muscular physique was distracting in the firelight. Especially now that she’d ridden him like a wild woman. She felt his hard, lean hips between her thighs. She knew how he could fill her. More than that, she knew how she craved to make him howl for her, with her. Even with a look of relaxed satisfaction in his eyes, he still looked ready to pounce, and his readiness matched the tender thrill between her legs. But he watched and waited as she prepared some sudsy warm water for his shave. They had no towels, and the razor she’d found was far from ideal, but she was determined to see his face tonight.

  Please, God, there would be time for other things as well. But this she had to do before they made love again.

  She placed the steaming kettle beside him on the hearth as his glittering eyes followed her movements. He was no longer as relaxed as he’d been. She knew the firelight must silhouette her otherwise naked body beneath the thin white cotton of her shirt. The direction of his gaze hardened her nipples and caused her well-pleasured femininity to tingle. He held himself still as she forced herself to take her time. She dipped her trembling hands into the hot water to moisten what was left of the sliver of soap she’d found, then worked it into a sudsy lather in her palms.

  “You’re killing me, second by second, as I wait for your touch,” Lev said. His rough voice had become like foreplay to her. The fabric of her shirt touched her peaked nipples as she moved, but his howl-ravaged voice seemed to brush against her ears and skin. The timbre and texture of his tones were naturally sensual, but the intent in his eyes and the hardening of the flesh that lay heavy on his left thigh increased this sensuality.

  “I’m going to touch you, Madeline. I’m going to kiss you and take you again and again,” Lev growled. Her body responded with a tightening that made her gasp, and hot moisture flooded her insides. She wanted his explicit promises. She needed his lust. It mirrored hers, after all. “Tonight. We have tonight. The wolves are coming and the fountain is filling. By the morning, we’ll have to travel through the portal and face what we find on the other side. But tonight, I’m going to ease centuries of longing. I’m going to fill you and taste you. I’m going to lick your sweet pink folds and suckle the nub that will release your pleasurable screams. I’m going to claim every impossibly tight, hot inch of you. Hard, Madeline. So hard. Because you’ll love it. You’re no timid maiden. You want me to take you as you took me earlier.