Obsession Untamed (6 page)

“What are you doing to me?”

“Rain and thunder,”he growled. He released her face and reached for her hands, forcing them against her cheeks as his warm fingers brushed her skin. “We’re going to try this again.”

“Try what? What exactly are we trying to do?” If she knew, maybe she could help him. Or pretend to. If she got him to let his guard down, maybe she could find a way to escape.

He didn’t answer her. Instead, he licked his lips, sending a shiver of longing shimmering through her. A need to feel her mouth against those lips.Sick .

He clenched his jaw and pressed his fingers firmly against her cheeks.

Like before, warmth brushed her mind, but this time it went deeper, flowing down into her body on a rush of pleasure so sharp she gasped. Desire
swamped her, and she thrust her hips against his, rubbing herself on the hard length of his erection. Even as her body burned, her mind recoiled, horrified at her body’s betrayal. She couldn’t have played the part of the horny slut any better if she’d tried.

The thought brought her up short. What if she could use this ungodly attraction to her advantage? In war, anything was fair. And sexual desire had been wielded as a powerful weapon since the dawn of time.

All she needed was a moment to turn the tables on him, to outsmart him and seize control. A moment to take the bastard down.

Her mind spun. Rape wasn’t his usual M.O. None of the other victims had been sexually assaulted. If she could get him to have sex with her, he might start thinking of her as something other than his next victim.

It would be the last mistake he ever made.

Chapter Five

Tighe stifled a groan as the half-naked woman rubbed her lace-clad pelvis against the erection filling his pants. He’d never had this much trouble exerting a little mind control over a human.

What in the hell was happening? He could barely think through the flood of sensations assaulting his body. The sweet, exotic scent of her intoxicated him. The taste of her arousal danced on his tongue, making his body throb and ache. His hands shook with the need to free his erection, push aside the scrap of lace that covered her honey, and push himself deep inside her.

Get control! Yes, she was beautiful, and hotter than sin, but his life was at stake here. Sex wasnot on the agenda.

But, goddess, she was lovely. Her flawless skin was the light natural tan of the Mediterranean, her limbs long and slender, her body toned and strong, yet not without lush, perfect curves. Her hair, fire-lit mahogany, had come loose and fallen around her shoulders in soft waves. Her eyes were the same dark color, though while her hair sparkled with red-and-gold highlights, her eyes glittered with hatred.

The only thing, theonly thing he should be thinking about was clouding her mind so he could climb inside and retrieve his visions. Maybe then, he’d finally be able to catch that good-for-nothing clone.

But getting control of her was proving to be damned difficult. Twice he’d tried to cloud her mind. Twice all he’d seemed to do was arouse her. Which was a disaster on so many levels.

Because he had to remain in control himself, and that was hard to do when one of the most beautiful women he’d ever touched was thrusting her hips against him, gasping with desire.

His gaze caressed her face, then moved to her eyes, staring into their dark depths as he once more pressed into her mind to control and cloud. But all she did was gasp, her passion thickening as she resisted his control as no human ever had before.

Hawke’s words came back to him.She’s only 99.9 percent human now.

And, apparently, immune to his control.

Maybe if he could calm her, he’d be able to breach her mind’s unnatural defenses. He softened
his hold on her jaw, his gaze drawn to the rich fullness of her mouth. Heat swirled low in his body, his own mouth aching for a taste of her. “Don’t be afraid of me. I’m not going to hurt you.”

“It’s not fear I’m feeling right now.” Her voice was low and husky as she pressed that tiny scrap of lace against his raging erection. “You’re a handsome man. Sexy as hell.”

Sweet nature, did sherealize she was asking him to take her? He focused on the taste of her emotions. Desire was there, but barely discernible beneath the fear and the fury and the raw, hard-core determination.

He snorted with understanding. The lady Fed was playing him. Trying to use the attraction between them to distract him so she might escape.

Smart.

And damned annoying. Because he’d been attempting to playher . Clearly trying to calm her wasn’t going to do an ounce of good because, at the moment, she had better control over her emotions than he did his.

So if calming her wasn’t the way to get past her mental barriers, he needed to get her to lower her guard another way. Perhaps by earning her trust. And he knew just the way to go about it. With what was, amazingly, almost the truth.

“You don’t have to be afraid of me, Delaney.”

She tensed, her eyes flaring for only an instant. “You know my name.”

“I had to find you. I’m not who you think I am.”

Hard eyes probed his face, the touch of her gaze
deceptively soft. “And who do I think you are?” Her sultry voice felt like a stroke to his throbbing cock.

Heaven help him.

“You think I’m the man who attacked you, the man who’s killed more than a dozen people in the past few days. But I’m not him.”

Sharp doubt ripped through her eyes, then disappeared behind a wary screen. “Who are you, then?”

“His twin.” He stroked her soft cheek with his thumb, enchanted by the silky smoothness of her skin. Would her skin taste as sweetly exotic as she smelled? “That’s why you’re still alive, brown eyes. My evil twin would never have let you live. I’m not sure how you managed to escape him the first time.”

Her gaze searched his face as if looking for the truth. “Someone shot him,” she said slowly. “I shot him.” Her eyes narrowed. “Is he dead?”

“No. He’s still very much alive. Which is why I’m here.” He opened his mouth to tell her he’d come to protect her, then remembered who she was.What she was. Delaney Randall was no damsel in distress. She was a warrior. He needed to appeal to that in her. “I want to stop him before he kills again, and I know you do, too. If we work together, we can get him, Delaney.” He stroked her cheek, watching her formidable brain debate his words.

“Work with me, brown eyes.” He tasted her doubt, her uncertainty, and pressed his advantage. “Help me catch him before he kills again.”

He tasted it, the small, secret lift of excitement amid her raging doubt. The opening of her mind, just a sliver.

It was enough.

Tighe pushed hard into her mind, pressing against the softened resistance. He had no choice but to force his way in. If he couldn’t get control of her, he had to kill her.

No choice.

The woman’s eyes widened, then fell heavily as she moaned, her body arching to rub against his arousal. Her passion surged, rising like a thick, exotic scent on her skin, ensnaring him, threatening to wrench him free of his own thinning control.

She groaned. “What are you trying to do to me?”

“Not this.”

Goddess help him. Hehad to get past the barrier in her mind. As he pushed harder, she flung her head back, gasping for air, looking for all the world like a woman about to…

She screamed as she came, her body rocking, shaking, shuddering with the force of her release.

Holy heavens and Earth. He was a heartbeat away from following her into that sweet oblivion, his own body hard as stone, dying for a taste of her, dying to be inside her. Never had he been in so much pain for a woman.

Her eyelids lifted slowly, heavy with passion above stunned eyes. “I want you inside me.Now .”

Heaven help him, that’s all he wanted.All he wanted. And he couldn’t take her. She was human,
dammit.Human . And even if she weren’t, his desire for her was nearly out of control. If he entered her, he feared he’d lose himself entirely. And if he went feral, he’d kill her.

That was something he was loath to do.

But he had to taste her.

His fingers released her wrists to slide into the softness of her hair as his mouth covered hers. She cried out, the sound halfway between a moan and a plea, as if she were drowning, and he was the only one who could save her. Or maybe he was just transferring his own feelings to her because that was exactly the way he felt. He’d die if he didn’t taste her.

His tongue swept inside her welcoming mouth, reveling in the sweet, exotic lushness. She tasted just as he’d imagined she would, only a hundred times better. Like the nectar of a rare jungle orchid.

Like heaven.

His tongue stroked hers, then her teeth and the insides of her cheeks, exploring the damp depths of her, thrilled when she did the same, as if she couldn’t get enough of him.

Heaven knew, he couldn’t get enough of her.

Kissing wasn’t enough. He unbuttoned her shirt with quick fingers and brushed aside the opening to cover her lace-covered breast with his palm, squeezing gently until she arched into his touch and moaned into his mouth. His fingers went to the tight little peak, pinching and rolling it between his finger and thumb until she was rocking against him in a half-crazed frenzy.

He pulled away from her mouth and tasted the sweet skin of her cheek and the salty tang of her brow.

His breaths were coming in short, shallow gasps, his own brow damp from the effort to retain some semblance of control. But why maintain control? Why not just take her? With his release, this crazed need would abate. He’d be able to get them both under control.

The logic almost made sense.

“Fuck me,” the woman groaned, her freed hand sliding between them to clamp around his painfully hard erection. “I need you inside me.”

Goddess. His hand slid to the button of his jeans, but as his fingers reached for the zipper tab, the bitter taste of hatred slid across his tongue. His hand stilled as he explored the taste and knew it was hers. A hatred of him, certainly, but also of herself. Self-hatred had a taste all its own.

She might have decided to play on their mutual attraction, but she was way past pretending, lost to passion’s madness. And despite his assurance to the contrary, she still thought him a killer. She hated herself for wanting him.

Goddess knew, he didn’t want this attraction any more than she did. He did not fuck humans.

It was all he could do to pull away from her, but he managed it. Barely. He gripped her shoulders and pushed her back to the wall. Her damp, swollen lips and slumberous eyes were nearly his undoing, until he saw the confusion in those eyes and the pain of betrayal, even if the betrayal was her own.

Once more he looked into those eyes and attempted to cloud her mind.

She shuddered. “Don’t.” The word was low, pained.

He was getting nowhere with her. Whatever had happened to thrust her in the way of his visions was making her immune to his control. And if he couldn’t control her, he had to eliminate her as a problem. Kougar was right.

The Ferals never destroyed life without justification, but humans who threatened the Therian race or any of its members, in any capacity, were eliminated without hesitation. Always.

The woman watched him with fathomless eyes, her lips parted as she struggled to catch her breath. “What now?”

A hard knot formed in his gut. He’d promised he wouldn’t hurt her. His hand reached for her, his thumb stroking her soft cheek.

From that first vision when he’d watched her face her death with a warrior’s toughness and fury in her eyes, he’d known she was different. When she’d faced him tonight, thinking her attacker had found her again, he’d tasted her fear on his tongue, yet she’d never whimpered. Never begged. She’d fought him. Even while her pulse raced, her mind had remained clear, her words calm, laced with a bitter wryness that had tugged at him. She’d won his admiration, which was something no human had done in a very long time.

He met her gaze as his palm slid down the long column of her throat, and he saw the question in
her eyes. She wasn’t ready to die. He could feel her will to live rushing over him with a force like liquid steel. Yet she waited, watching him, with grace and courage.

As his palm stroked her throat, he knew he couldn’t do it. Human and fragile as she might be, there was something peculiarly strong about her. Inexplicably rare.

Deep inside him, he felt something stir, as if the tiger within raised its head, scenting something on the wind.

He couldn’t take her life.

But neither could he let her go. Sliding his finger to the hollow at the base of her ear, he pressed.

The woman collapsed, unconscious, and he swept her into his arms. Somehow, he was going to have to find another way to steal back his visions and get control over her.

Hawke and Kougar were going to think he was starting to lose his ability to reason.

And he wasn’t entirely sure they’d be wrong. He didn’t have to have premonitions to know Delaney Randall was going to be trouble.

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Chapter Six