Legendary Beast

by Barbara J. Hancock

  “Remove my beard. Reveal my hidden face. But know this—I will still be savage with need no matter how you civilize my appearance. And I will prove it with the way I claim you when you’re through.”

  Madeline shook with desire by the time he’d finished his sultry speech. He hadn’t moved. He merely waited for her to shave him as he’d promised. But he was fully erect now. His penis jutted up from the nest of golden curls at the apex of his thighs. It reached all the way to his lean abdomen just beneath his navel...and it was thick and flushed with color. He was obviously as excited as she was.

  “I’d better get started, then,” Madeline spluttered. Desire made her lips seem hungry and swollen against her tongue as she moistened them. His eyes followed the dart of her tongue and then the movement of her throat as she swallowed.

  “You should kiss me once more. Like this. So you can compare the difference when you’re finished,” Lev teased. It was a challenge. Suddenly, Madeline knew they had always been like this—playful but urgent. Testing themselves against each other as they teased their desire higher and hotter. What they’d done earlier, when he’d refilled the tub as she displayed herself according to his wishes by the firelight—that was a game they’d played before. Both bold and submissive. Taking turns on top and beneath each other.

  It would be so easy to toss down the razor and straddle him right now. She could ride him again the way she had before. He wouldn’t resist. They both wanted it. But it would also be a loss on her part. Because it was his turn to take her, and it was her turn to tease him unmercifully until he did.

  Hot memories came soaring in as more moisture flooded her. She was slick and breathing heavily when she reached for his face with soapy hands. She did straddle him then, but even as she lowered herself to her knees, she kept her moist heat off his lap. She hovered above the tip of his erection. Her body barely brushed against his chest and stomach as she worked the soapy lather into his beard.

  He groaned then. His head dropped back, and he closed his eyes. His arms reached out on either side of him to brace against the hearth and also to grip its hot stones with his hands.

  She knew the game now. And she remembered how to play. As his knuckles whitened, she began to brush her heat against his naked stomach. Her shirt was long, and it was in the way. But the thin cotton barrier could easily be removed.

  He must have felt her moist heat as she felt his hot, lean abs. His beard was crinkly and thick beneath her fingers. She soaped it thoroughly, but her attention was fixed on his full, parted lips. She almost kissed him when he licked them. She wanted to—wanted to devour his mouth. Instead, she leaned against him to press her barely covered breasts against his chest. She rubbed her body more boldly against him, and his eyes opened. His head was still thrown back, but he looked at her with intense eyes that glittered through his lowered lashes.

  “Maddy, I’m going to spread your legs and bury myself so deep. Are you going to howl for me? Are you going to howl my name?” Lev asked.

  Madeline leaned toward his mouth. She didn’t kiss him. But she moved her soapy hands out of the way so she could speak against his parted lips.

  “Yes,” she answered. She met his eyes and made her mouth into an almost-kiss that teased her as much as she intended to tease him. “I’m going to howl. I’m going to beg. I’m going to come so hard you will hardly be able to thrust against my tightening. But I’m so wet, Lev. I’m so ready for you. You’ll slide even as I clench.”

  She felt him lose control then. Just a little bit. Just enough to thrust his tongue into her parted lips and catch her unaware. The sudden penetration made her gasp, and she lost control, too. She sank into his mouth for a deep, exploratory taste. Her tongue danced against his. And then his tongue thrust again. And again. He mimicked the rhythm of his promised claiming. Her body tightened, almost as if their words had already come true. She felt the sudden soar of pleasure she only expected from much more intimate play.

  Only from the thrusting penetration of his tongue.

  She moaned, and her soapy hands tried to find purchase on his broad shoulders. They slipped and slid, but he maintained his hold on the hearth. He was only kissing her. He kept control of all else.

  Then Madeline brushed against his erection. She lowered herself just enough to tease her heat against his hot shaft. Once. Twice. Then she caught herself. She reached for his beard again and gripped both sides of his face. She pulled herself away from his lips and held him still while she caught her breath.

  Lev was breathing heavily as well. His chest rose and fell against her sensitive nipples.

  “You’re killing me,” he growled.

  “Then you will be a clean-shaven corpse,” Madeline responded. But she couldn’t hide what his hungry kiss had done to her. Her lips were swollen. She could feel the heat of a flush suffuse her skin. The sensitive flesh between her legs throbbed with need.

  She released her grip on his beard with one hand and reached for the razor beside the kettle. She’d sharpened it on a stone. It was no longer rusty; its edge was sharp enough for the task at hand. She dipped it in the water and brought it, dripping, to his face.

  She wanted to kiss him again. She wanted to end this sweet torture and make love to him until he was senseless beneath her. Instead, she applied the blade to his left check and swept down in several rasping movements that plowed golden hair before them.

  “Your hands are shaking,” Lev noted.

  He was right. She was so excited, her fingers weren’t steady. He’d almost caused her release with his kiss. She wanted more of him. Now. Right away. He’d said she was killing him. She was almost dying herself.

  “I want you. I need you inside me. I want to come around you,” Madeline said softly. Nevertheless, she focused on the shave. First, she took off the excess hair in half a dozen swaths. She had to hold the beard with one hand and gently saw with the razor in her other. It couldn’t have been a comfortable process for Lev, but without scissors, she had no other way.

  He didn’t flinch. He didn’t pull away. He leaned against the hearth and let her remove his beard without complaint. Perhaps his focus was on the sway of her breasts or the heat radiating off her body. She tried to ignore those things for now. And the slow but sure revelation of Lev Romanov’s lean, handsome face helped her to succeed.

  Little by little, scrape by scrape, Madeline followed the perfect angular contours of Lev’s cheeks and jaw. The golden curls fell away beneath the rough blade. And every revealed inch of his skin was a beautiful disaster. He was marked by fine white scars. But not marred. Never that. He had been born so perfect that the faded scars only influenced his appearance by giving him a depth and history he wouldn’t have had before. She remembered. His perfectly smooth skin. His younger, untouched face.

  Tears sprang up in her eyes, but she blinked them away. She didn’t want him to think she was sorry over the face she revealed. Not when she was only sorry that she hadn’t been there to help him fend off whatever blows had caused the marks on his skin.

  In the firelight, the scars were only visible because she leaned close to shave him. Most people wouldn’t notice them at all. But most people weren’t his wife. She’d kissed his unmarked chin.

  Her gaze lifted and their eyes locked. He seemed to see the emotion swimming in hers.

  “Don’t cry, Maddy. I survived,” Lev said.

  Madeline paused in her work. The razor had found bare skin. There was only a little bit left to do.

  “The scars I see are nothing compared to the scars I can’t see. You carry scars beneath your skin, Lev. And I fear they aren’t old and mostly faded away,” Madeline said.

  “Those I might not survive, but we’ll face that battle tomorrow,” Lev said.

  He reached for the razor in Madeline’s hand. He was no longer holding the hearth. He dropped the razor into the kettle of now tepid water. But his eyes didn’t leave Madeline’s face.

  “I have lost you even as I’ve found you, b
ut I refuse to let that spoil our time together. I meant everything I said earlier, Maddy. There are promises I intend to keep,” Lev said.

  He rose beneath her effortlessly, as if she weighed nothing at all. His arms came around her and he lifted her with him, and suddenly they were both standing before the fire. But he didn’t pause there. His hands dropped to the hem of her tunic and he pulled it up. She didn’t resist. In fact, she raised her arms and allowed him to pull her shirt up and over her head.

  Her bared breasts came up against the hard plane of his chest, and she thrilled at his strength and solidity. He was a rock. Immovable and hers. Not forever. Witches came between them. And the white wolf that wouldn’t rest within his heart.

  But nothing would come between them tonight.

  “Tell me you want me to keep my promises, Maddy,” Lev said. He leaned over her. His large palms were hot on her lower back as he spread his hands to lightly hold her in place.

  Madeline answered by twining her arms around his neck. He was tall even next to her. And so strong. So hard and lean. His big Romanov build had been honed to nothing but muscle and bone by his centuries of running wild. But such muscle. Such bone. Her heart pounded in her chest. Surely he could feel it against him.

  “I want you to keep your promises. I want you to take me. Hard. Completely. No holding back,” Madeline breathed. Her confession was a sigh, but she tilted her chin up so he could see the intensity in her eyes. “I’m not afraid of the savage, Lev. I only shaved you so I could see you as clearly as you deserve to be seen. Every moment you ran. Every second you searched. Every battle you fought. For ages. For me.”

  He lowered his head and groaned her name against her mouth as he crushed his lips to hers. She welcomed his hunger. Her swollen lips had already been tingling in anticipation of another kiss. His mouth was hot. The stubble the ancient straight razor had left on his skin was slightly rough against her, but she didn’t protest. She clutched him close, holding on to the back of his head, where much softer hair tangled in her fingers.

  There was no soft bed waiting for them. There was no softness at all. But when Lev backed her up against the cool stone wall, Madeline cried out urgent encouragement. There was no place she’d rather be than pinned between the wall and Lev’s big, hard body, with nowhere to run and hide from the desire to join with him.

  He lifted one of her legs high, and she hooked it around his hips. He held her there as he found the wet, throbbing core she’d been teasing him with all night long. He buried his other hand in her hair and held her with a fistful of scarlet waves as he entered her with a single impaling thrust. They both cried out into each other’s mouths.

  “Maddy... Maddy,” Lev gasped again and again as he slammed into her.

  “Yes...yes,” she said with each thrust, and then she screamed his name. She had come hard and fast. The shave had been almost more foreplay than either of them could handle.

  The name she screamed was one that had been beloved to her long ago. A name that she’d discovered was beloved to her still.

  It was savage, but it was their savagery, not just his. They were savage for each other. Madeline knew they always had been. She remembered. Their passion was forever, even if their coupling couldn’t be.

  Lev stiffened and shuddered violently as his release followed hers into her orgasm-tightened folds. His body jerked and his head fell back, and Madeline opened her eyes to watch him become gentle and vulnerable for her. Only for her. It had always been so. She couldn’t remember every moment. She didn’t remember everything. But she remembered this. Their carnal connection was deeper and more meaningful than the enchanted connection they had to reject.

  They had lived terrible lives of hardship and battle. There had been blood and terror. Triumph and loss.

  But there had also been this. They had found each other during times of intimacy. They had played while the world burned around them. They had created life with their love, and they had both treasured Trevor. Their family life had been a bubble of harmony amid the chaos of the war between Dark and Light.

  Until an unexpected enemy had torn them apart.

  Vasilisa. Queen Vasilisa. Suddenly, Madeline knew that Lev would never let her treachery against them go unpunished. He wasn’t only with her to help save Trevor. He had agreed to help her because he intended to make the Queen of the Light Volkhvy pay for what she had done.

  * * *

  Vasilisa had helped her and Trevor since Madeline had awoken on Krajina. Or so she’d thought. She’d been certain that the queen was her best counselor and companion. She had allowed the Light Volkhvy unrestricted access to her child, and she had considered Vasilisa a nurse as well as her leader.

  Lev had said it was all a lie. That the queen had misled Madeline to cover up her shame.

  She was no longer certain that Lev was wrong. He might not be the same man he’d been before the white wolf claimed him for centuries, but he wasn’t merely a beast. He had exercised extreme control with her every time they’d been intimate. Even against the wall, he’d required her permission to continue. He had respected her needs and desires, sometimes shaking with the will it took to keep himself in check.

  Those were not the actions of a wild man. His passion was savage. Lev was not. At least not when he was human.

  Madeline quietly helped Lev freshen the water in the tub as she sifted through all these thoughts in her head. When he helped her wash up, she didn’t resist. His gentle ministrations after the ferocious eruption of sex was only more proof that he might be thinking rationally when it came to what Vasilisa had done.

  He’d been awake. She hadn’t. If Queen Vasilisa had forced her into an enchanted sleep to “protect” her and Trevor from the curse she’d leveled on everyone else at Bronwal, then the queen was responsible for the sudden waking that had left her impaired by her memory loss. But that meant she was also responsible for waking Trevor more slowly to give him time to adjust.

  If it was true, the whole scenario meant Queen Vasilisa lived in a world of gray, not black and white. Suddenly accepting that the Light Volkhvy queen might not be so light made Madeline’s heart thud in her chest.

  “I scraped your back against the wall,” Lev said. She could feel the bumps and bruises he rinsed with water from the tub. She could also feel the pleasant tenderness in all the right places.

  “I was rough, too,” Madeline replied. She traced the marks her nails had left on his shoulders as she rinsed the sweat from his skin. They were nothing compared to the wolf bites or the past injuries that had left him scarred. But she was tall and strong, and she’d given as good as she’d got.

  “The fountain is filling. We used very little water compared to what’s welling up from the spring we unclogged. We should get some rest while we can,” Lev said. He didn’t wait for her to protest. He pulled her near the fire and urged her down to the floor with him, partially cushioning her against his big body to buffer her scraped back from the stones. He stretched one muscular arm beneath her head like a pillow. Every move caused the thudding of her heart to increase.

  Not from desire. Her body was completely satiated from their earlier lovemaking. The intensity they’d shared had left her satisfied. Her heart raced because she’d remembered enough about Lev and their relationship to know that if Vasilisa had done what he’d accused her of doing, the queen was in terrible danger.

  Madeline cared most about Trevor’s safety. She couldn’t allow Lev to harm Vasilisa as long as she thought the queen was helping her child.

  Even as he cradled her gently, she knew he would tear apart a witch who had placed his family in jeopardy.

  Chapter 21

  His witches and the wolves they controlled had failed to destroy the white wolf or his former mate. Fortunately, Aleksandr’s plan was still in motion. The world he saw through the windows of his private jet was a black haze, but it was still his world to claim. As he flew toward the Carpathian Mountains, the sword, Lev Romanov and the former war
rior, Madeline, were all together, but their enchanted connection had not been reforged. They were separate, and therefore, they were weak.

  And the credit for that was his.

  His attempt to kidnap their child had created chaos and confusion. Setting a giant pack of wolves on their trail had hounded and harried them even further. By all reports, Romanov had been injured.

  Aleksandr could hear the cries of the souls lost in Ether as a distant hum beneath his skin. The Ether he’d absorbed was filled with those cries. Perhaps even filled with the souls themselves. He had wondered for a while if the lives it ate increased the Ether’s energy output. Perhaps Vasilisa had fed and strengthened the Ether with her curse. After the wolves attacked Lev Romanov, Alek had begun to hear the echo of those cries from far, far away. His witches had channeled the Ether into their pack of wolves. Now the wolves had infected Romanov with Darkness. Alek could hear the same cries of the lost that flowed through his veins from Romanov’s blood.

  The white wolf could have expelled the Ether with one good, long run. Romanov wouldn’t be able to shake it off as easily. Alek’s witches also reported that the white wolf hadn’t appeared. Romanov had seemed close to the shift during the attack. He had fought off the Ether-charged pack with his bare hands.