by Vonna Harper
The thud of feet against earth opened her eyes. Lifting her head, she stared in the direction the sound had come from. There he was, he, the man who’d claimed her. Why was he in shadow when sunlight rained down on her offered body? His smell was unfamiliar, as was the tempo of his breathing. Even his shadow was unknown to her.
She should be afraid, should be begging him to free her. To not kill her. Should be digging through her mind for her past. Instead, she inclined her head.
“You understand,” he said. “Understand what’s happening.”
“Do I?”
“I hope you will,” he said after a moment. “So much depends on—you’re beautiful, exquisite in your captivity.”
“The ropes—you’re responsible for them, aren’t you?”
“We both are.”
“That can’t be.” A sliver of fear sliced into her and awakened her emotions. Panic was a breath away. “I wouldn’t have tied myself like this. It’s impossible.”
“You let it happen.”
“How can you say that? I don’t remember—”
“Silence!” Stepping out of the shadows, he slapped her cheek. She didn’t feel pain so much as a throb of sensation. He could do this to her, couldn’t he? There was nothing she could do to stop him.
Shoulders aching from the strain he’d put them under, she leaned away from the bulk looming over her. Feeling herself start to lose balance, she struggled to straighten. The lesson learned, she concentrated on this man, her mysterious captor. Some part of her said this wasn’t really happening, at least not yet. But it was the only reality she had.
“I have made you mine,” he went on. “You belong to me because I must have something, because I will possess.”
“Why me?” By the time she remembered that he’d ordered her to be quiet, it was too late. She steeled herself for another slap, only to have him grab her hair and force her head back. Her throat was exposed; it would be so easy for him to slice it open.
Maybe he’d tapped into her thoughts because, still gripping her hair, he stroked the taut tendons. She shivered, and yet fear didn’t consume her. Her upthrust breasts grew harder. If he touched them, what then? Would she beg him to let go—or to caress, tease her nipples, close his mouth over them?
Out of control, sensuality seeping through her. In the grasp of a powerful stranger.
“This is my place.” He released her hair but kept his hand over her throat. “You came to my land, mine and the others like me. A gift from Skinwalker.”
Swallowing cautiously, she took a chance on speaking. “Skinwalker? Why would a ghost give me to you?”
“Because he took everything from me. Now it is time for Skinwalker to give back a little—to hand me the one thing I want, you.”
“You don’t know me.”
“But I will.” His grip carried enough strength that she’d wondered if every breath would be her last. Now, perhaps because he’d made his point, he began stroking her flesh there. She’d learned the folly of trying to move; there was nothing she could do except present her body to him, to wait. Feel. “Just as you will come to know me.”
She couldn’t make out his features, so how could he say that? In contrast, she had no doubt that her face, and more, was fully exposed to him. It had to be a dream—a dream that included strands snaked around her elbows, wrists, belly, and legs.
“Where are we?” she tried.
“I heard you call it Sani, The Old One. To us it is Tochona.”
“Tochona? What does that mean?”
“Land of the Mountain Lion.”
A shift, something changed inside her. Although she remained acutely aware of her helplessness, she broke free enough so she could concentrate fully on her captor, if that’s what he was. The sense, the gift that set her apart, was stirring to life. Perhaps she’d shoved it aside so she could deal with what was happening to her, but maybe he’d separated from that part of her mind and soul. Whatever the answer, she longed to embrace the familiar. To learn everything she needed to.
“Touch me,” she said. “On my face.”
A grunt made her wonder if he knew what she was trying to do, but what did it matter as long as he granted her request?
“What are you afraid of?” she asked when he didn’t move or speak. “You think I can hurt you?”
“You aren’t ready for this; neither of us are.”
“Ready for what?” Straining to see his features kept her from crying out or letting fear overwhelm her. “And if not now, when?”
Another tightening of the fingers on her throat brought her back to reality. “I sense you, and yet I don’t.” She kept her voice low and her body still. “You’re a man, and yet…”
Unspoken words backed up inside her. She was still trying to sort through them when he ran his rough fingers from her chin to between her naked breasts. Shivering, she acknowledged the new life in her pussy. To be turned on at a time like this—
Ah, his hand under her right breast, cupping and gripping so when he pulled it upward, she rose off her haunches as far as the leg ropes allowed. Instead of trying to back away, she turned into him and leaned forward, resting her breast in his palm. Something not human spread out from him to whisper of secrets kept. She wanted to explore what he’d handed her, but it would have to wait until the sexual creature in her no longer demanded her full attention.
“Is this what you wanted to happen?” She glanced down at her breast. “You captured me so you could manhandle me?”
“Yes.”
“That can’t be all,” she managed once she’d worked her way around the lump in her throat. “It’d be so easy for you to force…”
“For me to rape you?”
Insanely, she wanted to thank him, because not having to say the word made facing it easier.
“I’d never do that,” he said.
“Then why the ropes?”
His silence made her wonder if he didn’t know the answer. The breast in his palm felt heavy, protected and tested at the same time. In contrast, her other breast was lonely, lost somehow. She couldn’t say whether this body was still hers; maybe ownership had been transferred to him while he was restraining her. He’d taken her clothes, giving rise to the question of what she’d have to do or say in order to get them back. She sensed words would have little effect on him.
His thigh brushed her shoulder, making her jump.
Then he took hold of her hair again and pulled her head back, and she was looking at his cock. It was only inches from her face, hard and radiating heat. She wasn’t the only one naked.
Acting on a message as old as time, she inhaled his scent. Yes, that was male, human and—something else.
Still cupping her breast, he slid his hand outward until his fingers bracketed her nipple. He tightened his grip. Eyes unfocused and burning, she cautiously turned her head from side to side until stopped by the fingers laced through her hair. Her thighs burned; pins and needles worked their way up and then down her immobilized arms. She felt her hair slide against her back, felt the power in him, felt her response.
All woman, helpless and lost, sanded down to something elemental and primitive. Smelling something that wasn’t quite human, her senses struggling to make sense of it.
“This is what will bring us together,” he said.
Before she could begin to guess what he was talking about, he released her aching nipple. Then he leaned down and ran his hand between her legs and against her crotch. Hissing catlike, she lifted herself again, parting her thighs as much as she could. His hand easily parted her flesh. Then deserted.
Her head was free again, her scalp still tingling from where he’d pulled on her hair. She was grateful for the ability to sit upright again, but she’d already learned that he was a creature of change and possession. He’d lay claim again. All she could do was try to be ready for him.
To tell herself she didn’t want this.
Something pressed against her cheek, drawing her atte
ntion there. Almost before she’d realized that the something had been his cock, the touch was gone. Then he was on his knees next to her.
“You’re beautiful,” he whispered. “Mine.”
Was it as simple as that, a few ropes and touches, and she belonged to him? But for what purpose?
“What if I don’t want—”
“But you do.”
“How can you say—”
There was his hand again, resting on her thigh, leaving no doubt of what it was capable of doing. She started to clamp her legs together, but the strength for that washed out of her. She was a piece of merchandise, gift wrapped for him. No, she admitted with her temples pounding, she was hardly an unwilling participant.
His fingers went on the move once more, burying themselves between her thighs, sliding against her mons, coming closer and closer to her labia. Widening her stance once more, she let her head sag. Now her hair slid over her shoulders as if trying to shelter her. She wanted his hand where it was, and her body locked in place.
From where he was, he couldn’t enter her, but her cunt must not know that because it wept for him, oozing and hot. She was becoming loose-limbed, all bundled nerves and not enough thought.
“You’re ripe, Kai. Ripe and ready.” He turned his hand so it was palm up, and pressed relentlessly against her sex, demanding she make herself even more accessible to him. Ignoring her protesting knees, she slid them along the ground until she was obscenely spread. She kept her head down and eyes closed, breathing deep but quick, trying to sort through the impressions but learning not enough.
It was her body’s fault! She couldn’t possibly begin to make sense of what or who he was with her temples pulsing, belly knotted, pussy streaming.
“You can’t, you can’t…”
“Yes, I can. And by the time I’m finished, I’ll know I can trust you.”
Him, trust her? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? “That’s why—the ropes?” Two, then three breaths before she trusted herself not to throw herself onto her back so her pussy was open to him, fully and wildly open. “So you can—what—remake me?”
“Not that. I don’t want you to be anything except what you are.”
How could he say that when she’d never known this wild child lived inside her? Deep breaths failed to cool her. If anything, the damnable dangerous flames leaped higher than they had a moment ago, all because he continued stroking—stroking.
“What—what are you?” she sobbed, cheeks flushed, breasts feeling as if they’d explode. “Who?”
“Hok’ee.”
“I don’t under—”
“The Abandoned One.”
Then he was gone, his hand no longer sending sensual messages throughout her core, his cock not brushing her skin, that deep half animal voice silenced.
Shaking and sweating at the same time, she forced open her eyes and looked around. Night greeted her, night with its secrets and deep shadows, and the memory of the creature who called himself Hok’ee.
At length the ropes fell away, but she didn’t try to stand. Neither could she stop her tears, or still the hand now cupped around her sex.
“You sound tired. I thought you were used to sleeping on the ground.”
“I am,” Kai told Dr. Carter. Cell phone reception had been spotty, but the head of the archeology department was coming through clearly this morning. She just didn’t understand why he’d punched in her number instead of Garrin’s.
“Better you than me,” he said. “My back would never make it.”
“I always use a certain air mattress. Expensive, but an occupational necessity. Did you try calling Garrin? Maybe you’d like me to find him.”
“No, no, that isn’t necessary. He’s already out and about then?”
“We both are,” she explained, although at the moment Garrin was in his tent. “There’s so much territory we want to cover.”
“So he kept telling me. Kai, I want you to be honest. He isn’t pushing you, is he? I have to ask because it isn’t yet eight o’clock.”
Granted, she hadn’t expected to see Garrin eating breakfast when she crawled out of her tent this morning. Fortunately, she’d put on a sweatshirt first. Otherwise—her attention strayed to the rope marks on her arms. Rope marks? From a dream? “I’m fine.” She wasn’t sure who she was trying to convince. Maybe herself.
“You aren’t having second thoughts about what you’re doing here?”
Dr. Carter was intense. At first she’d taken him for the stereotypical absentminded professor because of his long graying hair, whiskers, and ready for the rag bag clothing, but she’d learned he simply didn’t give a damn about his exterior image. In many respects, she understood. After all, what took place between her ears was much more compelling than whether or not she had on makeup.
“Not second thoughts so much as wondering about my ability to sort through all the impressions I’m being hit with,” she admitted. And that’s the least of it.
“I hadn’t thought about that. Of course I have no idea what it’s like for you.”
Dr. Carter’s voice was the only connection she had with the world beyond Sani. She didn’t want to lose it. Thinking about him reminded her of his prominent Adam’s apple, which looked as if it could slice through the spare skin covering it. Unfortunately, she was also reminded of the big, strong hand that had been on her throat last night. She hadn’t imagined that, she hadn’t!
Maybe.
“I’m sorry we didn’t have the opportunity for a decent conversation,” Dr. Carter continued. “I wish I knew more about your psychic abilities. Kai, hopefully it goes without saying that I agreed completely with Dr. Gentry’s decision to hire you.”
“I’m glad to know that.” She sipped on her coffee, then shuddered. Tomorrow morning she wouldn’t let Garrin get near the pot.
“I trust you didn’t have any doubts. Frankly, your ability fascinates me. My world is cut and dry, nothing but reality. Then I meet someone who, what, talks to animals?”
“I haven’t had what I’d call a conversation with anything four-legged,” she said, trying for a light tone. “Maybe I’m stepping out of line, but I’d like to know something.”
“Of course.”
“Do you believe what I do is the real deal? Maybe I’m a convincing con.”
“I don’t know,” he answered, thankfully without pausing first. “Being able to communicate with animals—I’ve never come across anything like that in my twenty-plus years of academia. The important thing is what you’re able to do with whatever’s going on inside you.”
I don’t know what’s happening to me, why I have those marks on my wrists and ankles, why I could swear a man’s hand was on my sex last night.
“Thanks for being open-minded. I appreciate it,” she said. “I might need more than just Garrin vouching for me.”
“He’s Garrin to you?”
“That’s what he told me to call him, why?”
“Nothing.” In the silence that followed, she imagined Dr. Carter sitting at his large, old, sparse desk in a room that begged for a desk half that size. “Kai, I’ve known Dr. Garrin for many years, although perhaps know isn’t the operative word. He’s an ambitious man in an ambition-driven line of work. As I’m certain you know, the competition among academics can be fierce. And as such, the competitors are reluctant to play their hand around each other.”
“What are you saying?”
He sighed loud enough for her to hear, despite the distance between them. “Sani is the most exciting thing to happen to the archeological world in many years. And for the site to be practically in the university’s backyard is doubly exciting. Be glad you weren’t around to witness the posturing that took place while the president was deciding who to put in charge of the expedition.”
“It was fierce?”
“Exceedingly. If it wasn’t for this knee of mine, I would have pulled rank. Kai, I called because I don’t want you to lose sight of the fact that ambition c
an do some amazing but not necessarily honorable things to people.”
“You’re saying what?”
“Exploitation,” Dr. Carter said softly. “If Garrin can exploit any of us on his way to fame and fortune, I fully expect him to do so. Him, or anyone in this position. It’s human nature.”
“I guess.”
“No guess to it, Kai. I’m serious. Keep your eyes open.”
5
Dr. Carter’s warning remained with her the rest of the morning, not because what he’d said hadn’t occurred to her, but that, coming on top of things that had happened over the past few days, it had her feeling as if her world were slipping out of control. Up until now she’d managed to convince herself that she’d been making good and valuable use of her time by going wherever the muse or her mind, or whatever it was, took her. She trusted her instinct. Said instinct coupled with her psychic ability might well result in something remarkable, maybe earth-shattering.
But that wasn’t it at all, was it? Truth was, lack of purpose and outright hesitation had kept her from letting Sani’s creatures truly open up to her.
Sani? Her dream man had called this area Tochona.
Land of the Mountain Lion.
Initially Garrin had wanted them to remain within sight of each other, but she’d finally convinced him that his presence wasn’t helping. She needed to be alone. He’d argued that it wasn’t safe for her to be on her own, especially because of the unreliable cell phone reception. Mindful of Dr. Carter’s warning, she’d stood fast. If she’d been a man, she’d pointed out, he wouldn’t be saying what he was. Then because even that hadn’t made the desired impact, she’d asked Garrin whether he trusted her to share whatever she learned with him.
Not bothering to respond to his insistence that of course he trusted her, she’d fastened her water bottle and pistol to her waist, and tucked her cell phone in the rear jean’s pocket that didn’t hold her digital. She told him she was heading for an upper canyon about a mile away, where hopefully ponderosa pine and gamble oak provided shelter for any number of living creatures. She promised to be back by dark.
