Stealing Kathryn

by Jacquelyn Frank

  “Put this on,” he commanded gruffly.

  He dropped the thing at and over her feet, the pale peach color of it almost blending with the skin on her ankles. Unable to help herself, she reached down to touch it, feeling the liquid-soft silkiness and stifling a little moan at the pleasure of how it felt. She pulled it up into her hands so she could see what it was, and it only took her an instant to realize the thin spaghetti straps and the finely worked lace bodice belonged to a nightgown. One that would cling to every curve and leave her very, very exposed. The fabric was so tissue thin and pale in color it was most certainly see-through.

  “I can’t wear this,” she whispered, not sure if it was the immodesty of it or the tiny hand-painted leaves on the lace that made her say it. Such painstaking work surely was never meant to be worn by a simple girl from a ranch in Australia. It was meant for someone much more refined, someone who breathed rarified air and drank wine from precious bottles of reserve.

  “You will wear it and any others I give you,” he barked at her.

  This time she growled, huffing out an angry breath of frustration. “So am I supposed to dress in front of you, or is it too much to ask that I get a little privacy?”

  “It’s too much to ask,” he said flatly.

  He stood at the foot of the bed watching her every action and reaction, so he couldn’t have missed the lethal daggers she shot him from her eyes. Oh, if only looks could kill! Her glare right then would be poison tipped to boot!

  Pressing the nightgown to her breasts for cover, she tried to keep concealed as she wriggled free of her clothing. She felt a hot blush burning up over her face as he watched her intently through every second of her struggle. She tried to gauge what he was getting out of watching her like this, but his expression was as inscrutable as everything else about him seemed to be. To cover for her shame and embarrassment, she began to talk.

  “S-so you control people’s nightmares?” she asked him. “Does that mean everyone’s nightmares everywhere? All at once? Or can you only do it one at a time?”

  His lips twitched as she asked questions too fast to allow for answers. He fought the urge to smile because he knew it would flash her a mouthful of fangs and she hadn’t proven to be very accepting of such things.

  “I do not control anything. I guide what an individual person’s mental energy is seeking for. I create the images and environs that will provoke the greatest response.”

  “You mean what will frighten them the most,” she said with a frown.

  “Often,” he agreed. “But nightmares are not just about fear. They can be about our darkest desires as well. They express unresolved issues from the waking world. They are cathartic fantasies that generate huge amounts of energy.”

  “That’s the second time you’ve talked about energy,” she noted. She was struggling to figure out how to put the gown on while remaining fully covered at the same time. She had worked her blouse free, treating Adrian to flashes of a smooth midriff.

  “Energy is everything,” he said. “It is powerful and all encompassing. It fuels everything in the world in one way or another. Energy is the reason I do what I do. I was not born to conduct the nightmares of others, but like Aerlyn, I was born with the talent to guide dreams. Some time ago, at a time when I used to truly be the man you met in your dreams, I made the choice to work with nightmare energy and all the power of the emotions it created. Years of indulging in this task has warped and contorted me into the beast you see before you.”

  She blinked liquid gray eyes of surprise at him, forgetting to keep her chest covered as her hands dropped into her lap with her shock. Her lush little lips parted as she made a sound of disbelief and Adrian swallowed back a groan at the tempting sight of them. More and more he was noticing these sweet little details about her, and more and more he felt his desire for her growing. It didn’t seem to matter to the rest of his body that his head was well aware she wouldn’t let him anywhere near her if she could at all avoid it.

  Well, she couldn’t avoid it, he thought hotly. He would see to that. He might not be able to do anything else, but he would touch her.

  “You mean you did this to yourself on purpose?” she asked with disbelieving awe. “Why? Why would you do something like that?”

  “I had little choice in the end. I am a Guardian for my people. They are starving more and more with every day that passes, and the only way to feed them—”

  “Is with energy,” she filled in for him, her tone absent and thoughtful. “Those beings whom I met were pure energy.”

  “The Ampliphi.” He nodded. “Our governing body.”

  “But one was solid…like us.”

  “Julian. He has not yet evolved to the point of being able to exist as pure energy. That faded state takes much less energy to maintain than a corporeal state does, so those who can prefer to remain the way you saw them to be. Each Ampliphi has a Guardian, who is like a reaper who goes out into your emotionally energetic world and harvests energy to bring back to the Ampliphi, who then doles it out to the villages of Beneath and its peoples. We do our best, and yet our people still want.”

  “Because they can’t exist in the energy state like the Ampliphi can?”

  His mouth curled at the corner as he appreciated her quick and bright mind. He had taken her for many reasons, but he had not realized just how intelligent she was.

  “Correct,” he replied. “We are very sensitive to emotions of any kind. Anything will feed our hunger, but the type of energy received heavily influences us.”

  “Like before. When I was able to hurt you,” she said in a small voice.

  “Yes. Although…” He frowned. Should he tell her that normal people from his world suffered the opposite of what he did? Should he tell her that he now thrived on negative emotions, the darker the better, and apparently, thanks to what she had shown him, he now knew that positive emotions and kindnesses were shockingly painful? It had taken him completely off guard when it had happened. Aerlyn was everything he wasn’t, light and positive and good, and she often tried to touch him—didn’t she? Adrian tried to think back to the last time Aerlyn had made actual physical contact with him.

  “So, this nightmare energy has clearly poisoned you,” she said, her eyes running down over him like a rapid physical touch that made him tense responsively. “Wouldn’t it poison your people as well?”

  “The Ampliphi filter and buffer what I bring them. They dole it out evenly along with the more positive energies like what Aerlyn brings them. So by the time it gets to my people, it is a blend of many energies and not the pure knot of tainted emotions that I deal with every single night.”

  “Why didn’t you simply get energy from good dreams like your sister does and bring back only good energies to your people? Why bother with the negative at all?”

  “Because there must be balance in everything. There must be negative energy in order to enrich the positive. Only that way can my people live full lives.”

  Adrian reached out to grasp the footboard of the bed, needing to feel its solidness beneath his fingers, for some reason. It bothered him to speak of his people and the safe, normal lives they lived. It never had before, but now as he stared at Kathryn sitting curled up in his bed, her arms and shoulders exposed almost all the way to her breasts, he suddenly found himself craving the normalcy he could never have. He found himself craving her.

  “Stand up,” he commanded throatily.

  Surprised by the sudden demand, she moved her hands back to the silk that was clinging to her breasts.

  “B-but…”

  “And leave the gown on the bed.”

  Kathryn felt heat crawl all over her skin as she realized what he wanted. She also realized she wasn’t in the position to deny him anything. The last thing she wanted to do was provoke him in any way, having seen what he was capable of.

  She angrily got to her feet on the bed and threw down the peachy silk creation he’d given her, exposing her bare breasts. �
�Just when I am starting to feel sorry for you, you have to go and act like a monstrous pig!”

  “I do not ask for, nor do I want, your pity!” he snarled from the foot of the bed. But even as he tried to act the beast, she saw his eyes rivet onto her breasts with something that didn’t feel so much like exploitation of her vulnerabilities. The heat creeping around her skin turned into a whole new kind of blush and she raised her arms to cover herself in her resulting confusion. “Keep your hands to your sides—unless you plan to touch yourself, Kathryn. That would please me very much.”

  Kathryn dropped her hands instantly, her face coloring so deeply at his suggestion that he was tempted to smile. She truly was as innocent as she had appeared. Not just in the physical state of her body, but in all things sexual. He thought about how he had touched her in the dream and immediately grew aroused and hard for her. It was a state that he could keep concealed behind the height of the footboard, so he let it rush through him as he looked his fill of her. She was still clothed from the waist down, but he was more than happy to spend his time roaming the creamy skin he could see. Her full, womanly breasts were tipped the fairest pink he’d ever seen, and he imagined they would darken considerably at a lover’s touch or bite.

  “Take off the rest,” he ordered throatily. Oh, Adrian knew this was a bad idea, but he couldn’t seem to help himself. Maybe he wanted to torture himself, or maybe he just needed to see her, but whatever the motivation, he wanted her naked in his bed as soon as possible.

  “Forget it,” she snapped at him. “I’m not here to give you a free peep show! In fact, I don’t know what the hell I am here for—except to be one of your precious treasures!”

  “And I like to look at my treasures. I like to admire their beauty. Sometimes for hours. You are breathtaking, Kat. Let me admire you.”

  “I…I’m not breathtaking,” she protested, reaching to rub her fingers over one blushing cheek. “I’m overweight and…and dumpy.”

  Was it possible she didn’t realize just how stunning she was? Adrian could hardly conceive of it. How could something so beautiful have made it so long without learning of the admiration of others?

  “There is nothing the slightest bit dumpy about you,” he huffed, irritated by the people of the Earth plane who would let such a treasure go so unappreciated. “You are a round and curvaceous woman, proportioned perfectly to fit in a man’s hands. Your lush little body would tremble and shimmy with every thrust your lover made inside you.”

  God, how he wanted to be that lover. He knew it was impossible, but that didn’t keep him from craving it wildly. He wanted more than anything to come around the bed and reach to touch her, but he knew she would be braver if she felt there was an obstacle between them. As it was, if she blushed any deeper her cheeks were going to catch fire.

  “Let me admire you, Kathryn,” he repeated huskily, his forest green eyes almost imploring her to give in to his wishes.

  Kathryn had never stripped in front of a man before. There simply had been nothing for her except her family and the ranch. There had been no time or opportunity for things like boys and boyfriends. Certainly nothing as intimate as a lover. Adrian and her dreams had been the only erotic experiences in her life. This one was fast entering her top three. She could see the hunger in his eyes, the tightening of his whole body as he struggled to hold himself in check. She would have to be out of her mind to give in to his wishes. It would be like dangling Brie in front of a rat. A very dangerous rat.

  “Do it, Kat, or I’ll come around and do it for you.”

  Alarm raced through every nerve ending. Allowing him that close under these circumstances—while she was naked—would be asking for all kinds of trouble. And she knew she wouldn’t have a chance against him because she was so insignificant compared to his power and brute strength.

  With shaking fingers she reached for the button at the waistband of her pants. Then, suddenly, she realized she was wearing something different than she had been before. It wasn’t the diamond-dusted creation she’d first woken up in. These were her clothes. Clothes she’d been wearing when he’d kidnapped her.

  “You’ve already seen everything,” she realized irritably. “Why do you have to see it again?”

  “Because I want to. Because it’s worth seeing over and over again. I’ll never grow tired of your beauty, sweet Kathryn. And I will gladly dress you up in beautiful things and drape you with beautiful jewels and trinkets, but always there will be nothing to compare to you, naked, perfect just as you are.”

  Kathryn felt liquid heat swirling through the center of her body, his compliments warming her in ways she’d never felt before. How could a creature so harsh and so innately malevolent say such beautiful things? Unless…maybe it was because his malevolence was not innate at all. He had once been a normal man. A man who had done what he must in order to feed his starving people. He’d sacrificed all that he had once been for their sake. Now he was this warped creature who clung to unique and beautiful things in a bid to…to keep himself sane. To keep grounded. Perhaps to keep from going over into darkness completely in a way that would unleash an unstoppable monster on some unsuspecting population.

  Realizing this had the power to change the dynamic between them almost instantly. It wasn’t pity she was feeling now, but she wasn’t ready to understand what it was. She couldn’t put a finger on it. So, instead, she bolstered her courage and reminded herself that he’d already seen everything there was to see, and whatever his saving graces, he was still a volatile entity that could be unpredictable when provoked. She knew she had to do this or risk his temper, and she simply wasn’t brave enough to take that risk.

  It took less courage to strip for him.

  With shaking fingers she unzipped her pants. Then, hooking her thumbs around the waistband, she slowly eased them down over her hips. She refused to look at him as she did this, but she could feel the intensity of his gaze on her. It touched her like wild caresses and she felt her nipples tightening in response. She wished she could blame it on the chill of the room, but it was warm and comfortable and the only thing giving her chills was the unrelenting regard of the beast at the foot of the bed.

  She slowly stepped out of her pants, dropping them over the side of the bed as she stayed crouched by her ankles. Then she reached for the gown.

  “Not yet. Stand up first.”

  She had been afraid he would say that. Her temper flared and she straightened up sharply, her hands going to her hips. “Fine! There you go. Get your jollies and see if I care!”

  “You do care or you would not be so angry,” he mused as he looked her over. “You forgot something.”

  She followed his gaze to the simple pair of cotton panties she wore.

  “No way. Forget it!” she snapped, stomping her foot for emphasis.

  “Take them off, Kathryn. I want to see every part of you. You’ll hide none of your beauty from me.”

  “Why?” she demanded to know. “Because you own me? Just like all your other little treasures?”

  “Yes. Exactly for that reason. And because I find myself drawn to your beauty like nothing else has ever drawn me before. I must have all of you, Kat. Every bit of you I can safely take.”

  That sounded almost ominous, and Kathryn swallowed against a new wash of fear. What did he mean by that? Maybe she should just shut up and be grateful that he wasn’t asking her to touch him or to let him touch her. At least not yet, anyway. She didn’t want to strip down and tempt him into taking it further and further. But then again, she didn’t see that she had much of a choice in the matter. She was helpless. She supposed she could scream for Aerlyn, but what good would that do her? It would only piss him off and make things worse all around.

  So she pressed her lips together and snared her panties with her thumbs. Trying not to think about what she was doing, she shucked them free of her body and then stood up, trying to resist all the urges she had to cover herself with her hands and arms. She looked up to see h
im watching her, could see the tight grip he had on the footboard of the bed, and saw that his thick claws were gouging into the stone. There was something so primal about his reactions, something so purely male, that it called to the innate female inside her. Hadn’t she always wished a man would look at her in that way? As though she was the only woman in the universe that mattered? There was no mistaking the devout zeal in his dark eyes. She felt, for the first time in her life, as though it wouldn’t matter to him if there were a hundred supermodels stripped naked before him just then, he would still only have eyes for her.

  Why, oh why, did he have to be this thing that he was?

  Adrian took several deep breaths in through his nose, but instead of calming him, it brought the jasmine-sweet scent of her into his senses, and something else as well. He could smell her distinct arousal. She might protest and deny all she wanted to, but his keen senses had found her out.

  Unable to stand still any longer, he rounded the foot of the bed and walked up to face her from the side. She was nearly in the center of the bed, always trying to put as much distance between them as possible. Well, that was going to stop. As of right now.

  He reached forward and snagged the silken gown, drawing it over to him, and then he reached out a single clawed finger and beckoned to her. She hesitated, and just the thought of coming closer to him made her cross a protective arm over her chest. He let her get away with it. He could still see every sweet slope of her shoulders, the warm curve of her lower spine, the gentle rounding of her belly, and the wide flare of her juicy hips. Her ass was a thing of beauty and the dark brown curls protecting her womanhood were like a mysterious lock waiting to be breached. Oh, what he wouldn’t give right then to be the man he once was. He would trade away every single treasure he’d ever acquired just to be man enough to be her lover.