He lightly scraped his claws down the back of her bare thigh, tickling against the back of her knee at the end. Then he shifted around to the front and traveled back up, this time with the pads of his fingers only, his rigid palm refusing to allow a single claw to come into contact with her.
Yes, he thought hotly, he could control this. He could be careful enough not to hurt her. He could enjoy the textures of her body like any lover might enjoy the body of his woman.
Oh, but it had been so long since he had touched another person. And now for it to be this exquisite creature—it was making his hand tremble in fine movements as he stressed about his potential to hurt her. He wanted so badly to taste as well as touch that his mouth went dry with the desire. The only thing that would make his contact with her better was if she were awake and welcoming it. But he doubted she would let him be so intimate if she were awake.
He pushed his hand up over her naked hip, moving her gown farther up and out of his way. He could smell her instantly, the aroma of a deliciously aroused woman. His touches had affected her even in her sleep, her mind open even to him in that state. But he wanted her to be open only to him. In her dreams, did she think of another man? Or worse, did she think of the man he had been and could never be again? He’d never have thought he could be jealous of himself, and it was a ridiculous thing to spend his energy on, but he couldn’t seem to help himself.
“Wake,” he rumbled into her ear as he nuzzled against it. “See who makes you feel this way.”
He drew back and watched her eyelids flutter briefly, but she did not wake. He dipped his head and caught her mouth against his. He had meant to kiss her gently, but the moment he tasted her lips against his he was lost to his craving for her. He licked at her softly parted lips, his tongue flicking against her closed teeth. Then he kissed her again and again, soft noninvasive kisses, until he felt her respond with equal pressure and lifted his gaze to hers. Her eyes were still closed, but her hand drew up to weave fingers into his hair.
“Open your eyes, Kat,” he commanded her. “See who it is that makes you feel this way.”
She did. Her lashes swept up and her dilated pupils shrank to accommodate the light in the room. He pressed his mouth to hers once more and willed her to respond now that she could see whom she was really kissing.
But instead, she gasped and drew back, the action sending pain lancing through his chest that had nothing to do with her touch against him and everything to do with the removal of it. He knew the very moment she realized how she was wrapped around him, and only the strong clamp of his hand on her thigh kept her from rolling away from him. She was breathing hard, a mix of fear and residual arousal. How did she explain it to herself? he wondered angrily. How did she excuse the responses of her body? She felt these things for him. He knew it. And he could use it against her to get what he wanted from her.
“Do not pull away from me,” he said sharply.
She settled instantly, but it was fear that motivated her, not any desire to actually stay close to him.
“Don’t hurt me,” she whispered. “You promised you wouldn’t hurt me.”
“Does this hurt?” he asked, reaching to press a gentle kiss to her lips.
“N-no,” she answered honestly, licking her lips, taking his flavor onto her tongue. He groaned at the sight of her doing that and this time moved in for a kiss that was not so gentle. He kept his lips closed, protecting her from his fangs, but kissed her with as much deep passion as he was feeling.
The moment she responded to him was a moment of joy and excruciating agony all at once. But he welcomed the pain. It meant she was feeling warmly toward him, feeling positive emotions instead of negativity and fear alone. That was exactly what he wanted.
Adrian let his hand slide down the length of her thigh, and caught a gasp in his mouth when she reacted. It was so sweet, so perfect, to feel her respond to him while she was awake and aware. Maybe it would not matter to her that he was a beastly-looking thing. Maybe he could find ways to make her forget that he was so evil inside.
Kathryn was trembling beneath his touch and kiss, proving to him just how aware she was in that moment. He drew back from her lips and found her wide, beautiful eyes.
“Is it so horrible?” he asked her. “Am I really so horrible that you cannot even bear to have me touch you?”
“No,” she breathed against him. “I…didn’t think it was horrible at all.”
The surprise and delight that rushed through him had him tightening his hand on her hip, and the wildest urge to smile came over him. But he suppressed it, not wanting to break the tenuous moment between them by flashing fangs at her when she was so close to him.
“You didn’t?” he asked. “Then why do you quiver like a flower in a rough wind?”
“Because I’m confused and I don’t understand this. I don’t understand why you’re changing, and I’m always afraid you’re going to lose your temper suddenly if I do something wrong and displease you.”
“You could never really displease me,” he said to her honestly. “When I feel anger it is at myself, not at you. Though I know it seems otherwise to you in the moment. I swear to you that I will try not to do that.”
“I see you trying,” she agreed, reaching to touch two tentative fingers to his lip where a fang hid beneath. “And the changes?”
“What changes? In my temperament?”
“Among other things,” she said. “I meant the changes in your face and features, though. Last night I studied you, remember? And this morning you are different. Much different.”
This was news to him. He glanced over his shoulder at the large ornate mirror hanging in the room, but it was too far for him to see and angled in the wrong way. He would have to change that. He wanted to see what they looked like in bed together. But for the moment he ignored it, not wanting to separate himself from her warmth and closeness. His touch had lightened up on her and she had not made any movements to withdraw from him in spite of their provocative positioning and the intimacy of his hand on her bare hip.
Adrian did a double take and looked back at his hand. He lifted his fingers up and studied the curve of his claws. Last night they had been dark and long with a wicked curve; this morning they were lighter and distinctively shorter. Was this what she meant by changes? Why did he not feel them for himself? And why was this happening to him? Why now?
He looked back into the curious gray of her beautiful eyes and began to swiftly posit a theory that it was all because of her. Was this why he was in so much pain when she touched him? Was she changing him with every touch of her gentle hands?
Adrian reached for one of her hands and laid it against his chest over his heart. He closed his eyes and absorbed the shock of pain, but beneath that was the pleasure of the touch itself. Her skin was warmer than he expected from one moment to the next. Even though she was wrapped around him in many ways, it was still new and different every time she came into contact with him.
“Sweet Kat,” he said softly. “Are you changing me? Are you going to be my salvation?” He reached up and drew a single nail down the side of her face, shaping the contour of her gorgeous cheekbone and the hollow above her jaw. He traced along her chin, over her dimple at the corner of her lips and then up the slope of her nose. He tracked over each of her eyebrows and then, magically, she smiled at him. Her smile brightened her entire face, lighting her eyes so magnificently it took his breath away. There was so much he owed her in explanations, so much she didn’t know and would probably be angry with him for, but for right now she was smiling and that was all he cared about.
“Your fangs are smaller today,” she noted, making him realize he had smiled back at her. He quickly pressed his lips together but she reached to touch the corner of his mouth. “No,” she said, “don’t do that. Don’t hide yourself because of me.”
“But I frighten you,” he said.
She bit her lower lip, worrying it for a long moment. “Only because I don’t
know anything about you. I don’t understand why I am here. I miss my family and I am worried about them. Was it true? What you and your sister told me about my family in the dream? Are they recovering in the hospital?”
“Yes, it’s true. We were able to enter their dreams and cull the information from their subconscious minds. It would have made no sense to lie to you about that when we had planned to return you to your home.”
“And…now that has changed? You won’t let me go home?” The question was full of potential pain and he didn’t want to answer it, but he knew he must and bear the consequences for his actions. He had hoped to somehow make it softer, to woo her into at least liking him a little before he told her the truth.
“The moment you met the Ampliphi it sealed your fate,” he said in a low voice, keeping her eyes the entire time. “The law is, no one who enters our plane can ever return to theirs. This plane, known as the Barrens, is an example of the harm that can happen when one world invades another. There isn’t a soul alive on this plane except for me, Aerlyn, Cronos, and now you. We must protect Beneath from a similar fate at all costs. It happened once before to us…we allowed a woman from another plane to return home and she told a scientist about us. Together they found a way back into our world, bringing diseases with them, and as a result our female population was decimated. There is one woman to every two hundred males in my world. Our population dwindles because they cannot give birth fast enough to replenish it.”
“But…that’s so unfair! I swear I wouldn’t tell a single soul!” Tears welled up into her eyes and she moved to withdraw from him. But he held her fast where she was, unwilling to give up her warmth and nearness. He had been cold and alone for far too long to let her slip away that easily. “Why couldn’t you have just followed the dream and let me go back home? I would have never known the difference! I would have been free to go back! You did this on purpose!”
“Yes. And now this is your fate. You must accept that.”
“I don’t want to accept it! Let me go!” She tried to move free again and tears tracked over her face as she moved. Adrian felt a tremendous pang of regret, an emotion so foreign to him he barely recognized it.
“Listen to me,” he insisted as she gripped his wrist and tried to force his hand from her hip. “I had to have you. I had no other choice.”
She made a sound of disbelief and gaped at him.
“Are you kidding me? You had to have me? You had no choice? You had the choice of letting me go! But you didn’t care what I might have wanted! You didn’t even ask me!”
“Because you would have said no! You would have screamed it at the top of your lungs! Who would volunteer to stay with one such as me? I’ve done nothing but horrify you from the moment you first laid eyes on me!”
“You stole me out of my life!” She finally squirmed free of him because if he held her any harder his claws might have punctured her skin, and he couldn’t bear the idea of breaking his promise not to hurt her.
He sat up as she flew from his bed, running her hands through her hair and pacing wildly back and forth on her side of the bed.
“Tell them you made a mistake. Let me go home! Please! I’ll do anything if you’ll just let me go home.” Her eyes were beseeching him, filled with pain and fear.
“It’s too late,” he said with soft regret, although he knew he would do the same thing again and again. She wasn’t ever getting away from him. “You may as well give up the idea. You’ll not see your home again. This is your home. For now, anyway.”
She whirled at that, facing him down. “What the hell does that mean?” she demanded to know.
“What do you care? You despise me, and there’s an end to it.” He jerked back the covers and got to his feet. He moved to a dresser close by, ignoring her gasp at his bold nudity.
“I-I don’t despise you,” she stammered, clearly flustered as he pulled clothes free of the drawers.
“You’re just saying that so I’ll explain what I meant. Suffice it to say, you’ll partly have your way in a week’s time. You’ll never see me again. But even so, you still won’t be allowed to go home.”
He marched away from her, trying for all he was worth not to fly into the rage that was seething inside him. But why should he resist? She hated him anyway. There was no changing that.
He burst into the bathing chamber just off the main room. Not one to usually care about his grooming, he was suddenly desperate to shower and brush his teeth. It was as though all the desires for the trappings of the normal world were somehow seeping back into him. Rather like her touch seeped pain into him. But if she touched him now it wouldn’t hurt, he would wager. She was furious with him and held him in clear contempt. All because of a family who had held her prisoner to their needs, a father who had enslaved her for years and made certain she never had the chance to break away from them. He had denied her college and more, even though they had the money for it. But her father had lied to her and told her otherwise. Anything to keep her close. She might as well trade that prison for another. She should be glad for the change of scene. And he wouldn’t make her work her body until it was bone tired and then expect her to be mother and teacher to her younger sister as well. He wouldn’t expect her to care for an entire ailing household and maintain the abandoned chores too.
He started the shower and let it grow hot while he put his toothbrush to good use. Unwilling to end their argument, Kathryn bearded him in his new den.
“Tell me what you mean,” she demanded. “What happens in a week?”
“Get out.” He turned and faced her with a low, predatory sound. “Get out or you’ll find yourself sharing my shower.”
He said it on purpose, knowing she’d blush and quail. But though she did blush she braced herself up and faced him down.
“Is that what it will take for me to get an answer out of you?”
He smiled at her, and this time it was a feral thing that made her swallow visibly. “If you share my bath, little Kat, you’ll get more than answers from me.”
“You’re just saying that to embarrass me! You’re just trying to make me go away, and I won’t!”
He took a hard step up to her, towering over her as he growled in her face. “I don’t make empty threats,” he snapped.
“Tell me what happens in a week,” she said, shaking mightily but still holding her ground.
“Take off the gown.”
Kathryn wished she could stop shaking so hard. She would be much more convincing if she did.
“Take off the gown,” he growled at her, looking more and more the beast as he very successfully tried to intimidate her.
Just the same, she wasn’t going to let him back away from this. She was going to shame him into telling her what she wanted to know, and she didn’t care what it took.
“Will you tell me if I do?”
That offer seemed to take him by surprise, but only for a moment. A darkly sly look came over his face as he took a moment to contemplate his answer.
“It will take much more than showing me what I’ve already seen to get you your answer.”
Kathryn felt every blood vessel she owned heating up and opening wide. She knew she was blushing bright red all over, but damn it, she just couldn’t help it! He was constantly speaking in crude and suggestive ways she’d never heard before. She’d grown up so sheltered from men other than her father. Were they all like this?
“L-like what?” she asked in a squeak.
“You’ll touch me. No,” he corrected himself, taking full advantage of the moment. “You’ll bathe me. Everywhere. No shyness. No fear. Like a woman would bathe her lover. Do that and you’ll earn your answer.”
“You would do that to me?” she cried. “You know I can’t do that! I-I’ve never done—”
“Then go away and leave me be!” he roared in her face, forcing her to step back and bump into the door frame. Finally he touched the right place inside her and pissed her off. She exploded back at him.
She grabbed the gown and yanked it over her head, throwing it at him. She took huge satisfaction in the shock that registered on his features, but it was only momentary. The next expression was all male and all about him recognizing he had dominance over the situation.
Her fleeting courage evaporated just like that.
“How do I know you’ll keep your word?” she asked him in a suddenly small voice, unable to meet his penetrating gaze.
“Nothing I can say will reassure you. You’ll just have to trust me.” He held out his hand for her, palm up, open and waiting. The cynicism she saw in his eyes told her he didn’t believe she was going to go through with it, and frankly, she wasn’t all that sure either. She looked over her shoulder and out at the vast chamber beyond the bath, as if someone there might rescue her from this insane situation. But there was no one. It was just her. She had to make the choice all by herself and face the consequences, again, all by herself.
She lifted her hand and set her trembling fingers against his palm. Like a Venus flytrap waiting for its feast, he quickly closed his fingers around hers and drew her closer to him. She took a breath in through her mouth, the faint sound not so much reflecting fear as awkwardness. She didn’t know how to do what he wanted. Maybe she could fake her way through parts of it, but she feared she didn’t have the guts to do everything he would demand of her.
“Don’t fret,” he said gently, as if reading her mind. “You’re a natural at sensuality, Kat. You enjoy all things visual and tactile, and that’s all you need for this.”
His entire demeanor had changed on a dime. He went from raging and furiously mean to gentle and bolstering. But of course he would. Anything to coax her into doing these acts for him. He was determined to get his jollies at her hands, damn him. She tried to hold on to that thought of anger as he drew her closer to the shower, hoping it would help fuel the courage she needed to do this.
Stealing Kathryn Page 13
