Clawed, Pounced, Mauled the Complete Trilogy

by Kym Dillon

  She couldn't finish all the meat that Marcus had hunted for her, and he bundled it up into small packets of leaves and twine.

  The heat of midday had come upon them, and when Marcus said they should rest for a few more hours, Jessica decided that she needed to be in the water. She started to pull off her clothes, but the meal had restored some of her natural modesty, because she hesitated.

  "What's the matter?" asked Marcus with a grin. He had put on his old jeans again, but otherwise, he was still naked. "Feeling a little shy?"

  She tilted her chin up at the implied challenge in his voice, and defiantly, she stood up and stripped her clothes off. She walked to the pool, aware that his hot gaze was still on her, and then she forgot all about it in the merciful coolness of the water. It was cold, clear, and she sighed as what felt like a year's worth of grime sluiced off her.

  Sooner than she would have thought, however, the cold got to her, and shivering, she returned to the fire. Marcus had laid out a blanket of leaves for them, and she came to lie down next to him. There was precious little padding between them and the ground, but clean and with her belly full of meat, she hardly cared.

  As she was drifting off, however, a thought occurred to her.

  "I don't think I've ever tasted meat like that before," Jessica said thoughtfully, and Marcus chuckled.

  "No, you wouldn't have," he said, and something about his tone made her sit up and take notice.

  "I've tried a lot of different meat," she said, leaning up on her elbow. "I mean, I've worked in Tanzania and Nairobi..."

  "Have you worked in South America?" he asked reasonably, and she froze.

  "I... South America?"

  "Where anacondas come from," Marcus was clearly suppressing a grin, and Jessica's head started to spin.

  Oh god, did he chase that snake woman down? Did he butcher her, am I eating... am I eating...?

  She gagged, staggering up and away from Marcus, but before she could even get off the blanket, he had risen and caught her in his arms.

  "Oh god, that’s disgusting!" she cried out wildly. "What the… no, oh my god..."

  "Calm down, calm down," Marcus said, wrapping his arms around her. Panicked, she fought him, raining blows on his arms even as she was aware that it was nothing to him.

  "Don't tell me to calm down!" she yelled. "Why didn't you tell me, why the hell didn't you..."

  "It's wild pig," Marcus said between laughs, "I swear, it's just wild pig!"

  She stilled, looking up at him with wide eyes.

  "Wild... pig?"

  "Yeah. There's a stream not far from here. It stopped to drink, killed it, and ate my fill. I tore off a few chunks of meat to drag back here and cook for you. It's wild pig. It's definitely not anaconda."

  She searched his face for truth, and when she found it there, she could feel the panic and disgust drain out of her brain.

  "Are you all right?" he asked. "I swear to you, I wouldn't have fed you snake, let alone a person. Well, not without telling you..."

  She was silent, and tentatively, he released her. The humor had drained out of his face now, and he was looking a little worried.

  "Jessica... say something. Are you all right? I was just making a joke, I didn't think it would get to you so much.. I'm sorry, I should have thought..."

  He reached a tentative hand to brush her hair back, and stepping forward into his space, Jessica gave him a hard shove. The look of surprise on Marcus's face was almost enough to make up for her panic, and she started to laugh.

  "Oh my god, you're an ass!" she shouted, wailing on him and beating her fists against his chest. "You are such and asshole! You made me think I was eating a person!"

  After a moment of shock, Marcus joined in her laughter. He suffered her blows for a moment, and then as easily as someone grabbing hold of a kitten, he caught both of her wrists in one large hand.

  "I can't help it. You make it too easy," he protested with a grin. "If you were in my place..."

  "I wouldn't be an ass and tell someone they were eating a person," she retorted. "Even if that person was some nasty skank who had tried to kill you..."

  She tried to attack him again, but with a soft grunt, he took her to the ground, pinning her with her hands over her head. Jessica realized that she was entirely naked underneath a man who was also almost naked, stretched out, perfectly vulnerable and open.

  "No, you don't have a cruel bone in your body, do you?" he said softly, and his eyes roved her form up and down. Jessica licked her lips.

  "I try not to be cruel," she said, her voice soft. "I mean... I can be snide and petty sometimes, I guess... but I never want to be cruel. I want to help. I want to serve."

  "And that makes you so special," he whispered.

  He leaned down to kiss her. There was plenty of time for Jessica to turn her head, to shrug him off. She knew that if she did so, he would let her up. It would have been wiser to do so. She was here in Tanzania on an important mission. She couldn't let herself be distracted by a man, by romance.

  Jessica tilted her head up to kiss him, and when their lips met, she felt that same electric thrill run through her. There was something in her that was drawn to this man, and she whimpered as her body reached for him. The heat pooled in her lower belly, and when he tenderly ran a rough hand from her throat, down her sternum to her thighs, she arched against him.

  "We... we should get back on the trail," she whispered, and he shook his head.

  "Too hot. If we walk in midday, we'll be slow. The whole forest is slowed down for the heat. We can spare an hour or two..."

  "An hour or two," Jessica murmured, trying to sound casual. The effect was rather ruined by the gasp as Marcus tweaked her erect nipple gently. "What... ah... will we do for an hour or two?"

  "Oh, I'm sure we'll think of something," Marcus said. He might have wanted to sound casual, but there was a tremor to his voice and a darkness in his eyes that told her how very much he wanted her. He was crouched half over her like a panther devouring its prey, and through the thin fabric of his jeans, she could feel his arousal clearly. Deliberately, she pressed her thigh up against his erection, and he groaned.

  "You are a dangerous thing," he said, and she might have responded, but then he slid a hand between her legs. She gasped a little at the intimacy of it, but when he started to trace her soft and vulnerable cleft there, she whimpered instead, opening her legs a little farther to allow him more access.

  She wanted to reach for him, but he still held her hands over her head. Jessica felt pinioned, like prey he had hunted and was now enjoying as much as he liked. There was something delicious about that thought, and something deep inside her relaxed. He was going to do what he liked to her. All she could do was enjoy the pleasure.

  It was as if Marcus could sense her surrender. His free hand roved her body, squeezing and petting her by turns as his mouth swooped down over hers. The kiss he gave her was claiming—dominant and wild.

  He let her hands go, but before she could reach for him, he reached for his belt. He looped the belt around her arms twice before tugging it tight, and now she was tied even more securely.

  "This is mine," he growled, running his hands down her body. "I am going to enjoy you..."

  She should have protested, but instead the word that rose to her lips was a whispered yes, so full of longing that it made both of them shiver.

  She lay on the blanket in the shade of the gully, her eyes open but unseeing as he started to touch her. All she could do was shiver as he stroked her, kissing her body and nuzzling it.

  There was something primal about the way he touched her, less like a man touching her for pleasure, more like a wild animal exploring her, feeling her and learning about her responses and her needs. Thinking was not something that Jessica could handle right now. Her body was set on fire with his touch, and all she could do was respond to him.

  "So beautiful," he nearly groaned, as if he could not bear it. "You're what I have wanted for so
long..."

  He leaned down to kiss her with a kind of reverence that made her shiver. There was nothing playful in his touch now, nothing casual. Instead, it felt as if they were enacting some sacred ritual, some age-old dance that their kind had danced for millennium.

  "I want you," she murmured, and Jessica knew that she had never spoken more sincere words. He swore briefly at her words, standing up to strip off his jeans, all that was left of his clothing. When she could see him in the light of day, she caught her breath. Jessica was certain that she had never seen a man that was more perfect, never seen someone who was more profoundly good-looking. This was not a body that was a product of a gym or pointless repeated movement. Marcus was a weapon, one honed for use and intent on survival. It plucked a chord deep inside her, and she knew that she would never respond to any other quite this way again.

  Naked now, with nothing between them, Marcus came to cover her body with his. She could feel his clean skin slide over hers, and as he dropped fervent kisses over her upturned face, her vulnerable throat and her breasts, she could also feel his erect member pressed hard against her thigh. Instinctively, she knew that he was ready to take her, but at the same time, he wouldn't, not yet.

  He thrust his hand between her legs, his clever fingers gliding along her slit, circling, making her gasp.

  In less time than she would believe, Jessica was bucking up against him, mewling frantically as she tried to gain her satisfaction from his fingers. Maddeningly, he would rub her soft flesh for several minutes with a steady pressure that made her whimper, but just as she thought she would reach her climax, he pulled back, leaving her shaking and longing.

  "Please!" she finally cried. "Marcus, please, I don't know how much longer I can wait...!"

  For a moment, she wondered if Marcus would be so cruel as to deny her, but then with a muffled growl, he grabbed her by the hips and turned her over, pulling her up so that she was kneeling on the blanket, her belted wrists and elbow flat against the ground.

  In the heat of her mind, Jessica realized that in this position, presenting herself to the man that she wanted more than she wanted anything else, they were mating like animals in the jungle, a primal and wild dance that was older than cities, older than humans even.

  "I'm going to take you," Marcus growled, and she felt her belly turn to liquid at the force in his voice. "I'm going to ride you, and Jessica, I am going to make you feel so good..."

  She stuttered out an answer, or at least, she tried to. All thought of words vacated her mind, however, when he rose over her, taking her hips in his hands. For just a single moment, she could feel his cock press up against her warm entrance, the blunt head sliding against her slick flesh.

  Then he pressed deep into her, touching the very core of her being with one single thrust.

  "Oh, Marcus!" she cried out, unable to help herself, and his response with a growled sound that might have been her name. For a moment, they simply froze like that, perfect and joined deeply. Then he started to move, setting a pace that was nearly punishing, and she cried out frantically.

  The heat and pleasure that swirled inside her found form now, gathering low in her belly and swelling up higher and higher, hotter and hotter. The pleasure he was giving her was so intense that she could barely think of a climax, but then the edge of it was there, heating up deep inside her and making her cry out with a deep need.

  She thought that the tension might last forever, but then he thrust one hand beneath her body, finding her clit with an unerring accuracy. Jessica wailed at the first touch, and then she was trapped between his hard thrusts and the sure strokes of his fingers. The two sensations met and melded together into something that was nearly white hot. She could not have controlled herself if she wanted to.

  Instead, she closed her eyes tight, her hands clenched into fists. She didn't want to tip over the edge until he did, until he had fallen over that imperceptible edge as well, but the motion of his body and the skill of his fingers was making that difficult. She tried to pull back, but she might as well have tried to stand against an avalanche.

  Jessica could feel her body stretch out as if it were a thread, pulled harder and tighter, and then suddenly, it was too much. The pleasure rolled over her, and her ability to resist was gone. She snapped, and the pleasure rushed in, filling her from head to toe as she groaned with need and fulfilled lust.

  She knew that she was calling Marcus's name, and more distantly, she could hear his own voice, calling hers in return. With one final thrust, his liquid heat spilled deep within her, claiming her just as his bite had.

  Somehow, his pleasure meshed with her own, twining around it and making it all the more powerful. For a moment, it was even as if she was feeling what he could feel, every muscle tensed as he spilled inside her. It was as if the entire world had lit up with sunlight before going dim again, and by the time Jessica's body dropped down to the blanket of leaves, limp and spent, she was shaking with exhaustion.

  She whimpered a little when Marcus pulled away from her, but then she purred with pleasure as he kissed the damp skin at the base of her neck. There was something about being in his arms that could make her forget all about the mess they were in and the danger in the forest around them.

  Jessica was almost drifting off when she heard Marcus heave a sigh. He sat up, only chuckling a little at her murmur of discontent.

  "Come on, sweetheart, time to get up. We have plenty of daylight yet. Lots of miles to put behind us."

  She groaned, but obediently, she staggered to her feet.

  "All right, all right..." she grumbled, but she stopped when Marcus swept her hand up into his, kissing the knuckles with a kind of Old World charm.

  "Soon," he whispered, "maybe we won’t be so rushed."

  Even as she blushed, she could feel her body tightening in anticipation of his words, and she grinned, reaching for her pack. There were, she thought, worse ways to motivate her.

  That night, after Jessica had faded off into a deep sleep in her hammock, Marcus stayed up. He would return to his feline form soon, but right now, there was something too precious, too real about simply watching her sleep. The moon had risen, casting everything into deep black shadows and silver light. Under the moon, Jessica looked oddly fragile, even though he knew at this point she was tougher than she had any reason to be.

  If he had foreseen these circumstances back when he first met her, Marcus knew that he would have dismissed her out of hand. She was too small, too weak, simply too human to survive the trek, let alone thrive. Now, he knew different and from his branch close to her sleeping hammock, he reached over to brush her hair out of her face. In her sleep, she smiled a little, shifting towards his touch and making the hammock sway slightly. Marcus's heart tightened at the look of her, and with a feeling of dread, he knew that it was time to acknowledge how he felt to her.

  Marcus was a man who enjoyed women. It was a simple fact, and until now, no more troublesome than an affection for beer or a certain type of meal. This was the first time in his long life that he had looked at a woman and known beyond a shadow of a doubt that the word 'enjoy' was far too pallid a word for her, too weak and pale by far.

  The wild, protective and tumultuous feelings that coursed through him could not be corralled by a simple desire for her beautiful body. No, it was a longing for the woman herself, a need to possess her that could drive him insane.

  He had not been looking for a mate when he started this journey. Now that Marcus had found her, he didn't know what to do.

  "I love you," he whispered to her sleeping form, and though she didn't stir at that, there was something in him that was at peace just for saying it aloud.

  Now he simply had to get her back to civilization with a pack of enemies on their trail.

  Simple.

  9

  Jessica looked up with surprise when she heard running water.

  "There's a river ahead?" she asked, and Marcus smiled at her.

  "A ri
ver has fish in it, and in most cases, a river provides us with a clear-cut way towards a village. It does me no good to smell civilization if I can't cross a gorge to get to it..."

  In less than an hour, they had reached a wide river that was racing along swiftly. Jessica couldn't resist running her hands in the cold fresh water, splashing her face briskly. The water from the still pool in the gully felt like a beloved memory more than something that had happened the day before, and the water on her skin was like a blessing of some kind.

  Jessica watched in bemusement as Marcus stalked out to the shallows, his trouser legs rolled up fastidiously. He didn't look like he felt the cold of the water at all. He peered into the surface of the water, facing upstream, and just as she was getting ready to ask him what he was doing, his hand shot into the roiling water, faster than she could see.

  In a moment, there was a flopping wild fish in his hands, alive and desperate to escape.

  To Jessica's surprise, Marcus brought the fish to his lips. For a moment, it looked as if he was whispering something to it, and then with a flash, it was out of his grasp and back in the water. Marcus nodded with satisfaction and made his way back to shore.

  "Did... you and the fish have a good conversation?" she hazarded, and Marcus grinned at her.

  "Fish don’t converse, Jessica, get real," he said, and she smacked his shoulder with the back of her hand gently.

  "How would I know? It seems like you talk to everyone else..."

  Marcus chuckled at her words.

  "Fair enough. I suppose it’s has been a strange new world that I’ve dropped you into, hasn't it? That fish... hmmm. Let's call it a long-shot. There's a chance that it can transport a message for me, get us some help, tell someone where we are or at least let them know where we've been..."

  "So that means that there is also a chance of something else happening?"