Seduced by the Beast (4 page)

            She closed her
eyes, willed the blossoming desire down.  He knew not what he did.  It was
abhorrent the thoughts flooding her mind.  He didn’t knowingly touch her--she
could be any woman for all he was aware.  It was insane to react to the touch
of a beast, a stranger.

            Slowly, she
regained her purpose and used the strength of her leg to slide out from under
him.  She freed herself enough to rise from the bed.  Almost at once, he sighed
and turned, lying flat on his back with his arms upraised.

            Swan stopped
breathing as she awaited discovery.  Watching him suspiciously, she got her
first look at the man who had captured her.  When he didn’t stir immediately,
when it was certain he slept on, she took her leisure in examining this man-beast. 
He was different than she’d thought, not at all the monster she had visualized.

            Long, black hair
shrouded his face, streaming over the sharp line of his jaw.  A single strand caught
in the part of his full lips.  She itched to remove it, part the flow of hair
to see him fully, but she didn’t dare.  Almost, she wished he would open his
eyes, just so she could see the color, but that time would come soon enough.

            The rising moon increased
at the window and sculpted the hard lines of his chest in the silver light.  It
slipped along his tapering waist and the flat hardness of his stomach, drawing
her eyes down.  He was completely naked, but she couldn’t quite bring herself
to look at his sex.  Not the smallest measure of fat existed on his body.  He
was all muscle and rampantly male, more so than any other she’d ever known--and
far more dangerous.

            She wondered what
he looked like awake.  Would his muscles play fluidly with restrained power? 
Would his smile be as feral as she imagined?  Swan shook herself from the
arresting vision of him in repose.  Now was not the time to dawdle.  She had no
notion the ways of servants in this castle, but she couldn’t chance discovery
before she’d had the chance to put her plot into action.

            She quickly
searched the room for some implement to bind him.  There were no tools or ropes
that she could see, no drapery but the fragile gauze that even she could rip
through with ease.

            The furs would be
of no use either.  They were too tough and thick to bend as needed.  She looked
back at the squat table.  All she had were the sad remains of her robes. 
Sighing, she picked the robe up and walked softly around to the opposite side
of the bed where he lay.

            With quick
efficiency, she twisted the length of fabric into a thick cord and looped the
ends into knots that she could slip over his wrists and tighten from the top
once in place.  She knew she would have to move quickly, before he could
rouse.  Thankfully, he’d angled enough in his sleep that she saw she could bind
him to one bedpost.

            She wrapped the
length around the post and took a deep breath, willing her nerve not to waver. 
It was now or never.  Her heart drummed in her throat, choking off her breath. 
Steeling herself for action, she gently slipped the loops around his upraised
wrists.  The moment she had the loops around his wrists, she snatched the knot
at the crux of the post, tightening the binding.

            He awakened at
once with a startling growl.  Swan leapt atop the bed and straddled him,
holding him down with her body while she clamped her hands over his mouth.  He
went still immediately when he saw her, though his arms tensed with leashed
power. 

            Alert, he was
more frightening than she’d imagined he could possibly be when she’d thought
about tying him up.  Slanted brows drew down in anger.  Fierce black eyes,
flecked with gold, stared at her above the level of her hands.  Swan watched
him warily, swallowing hard past the lump in her throat.  She’d caught a wolf,
and now didn’t know what to do with him.

            “Are you going to
call for help if I take my hands away?” she asked.  “Blink once for no, twice
for yes.”

            He blinked once.

            Swan regarded him
suspiciously for several moments before she slowly withdrew her hands.

            “Why have you
bound my arms?” he said, his voice tight, his gaze watchful.

            Swan felt a surge
of victory as she realized he was well and truly caught.  She’d done it.  He
was at her mercy.  She needed only the strength of will to enact her plan. 
“Now you are my prisoner,” she said triumphantly.

CHAPTER THREE

            “What do you plan
to do with me?” he asked, his voice carefully neutral.

            “Quiet!  I’m in
control now.  You will answer my questions or I shall be the one dining on
wolf.”

            “Yes, my lady,”
he said, condescension evident in his tone.  His mouth quirked in a half smile
that was as inherently sensual as it was annoying.  His lack of an appropriate
response spoke volumes--he didn’t believe the seriousness of his situation.

            He leisurely
raked his gaze down her nude body, lingering for long moments on the tips of
her breasts, peeping through the curtain of her hair.

            Swan flushed at
his encompassing look, wishing she’d thought to consider covering her nakedness
before proceeding, but there was no time for regret.  In any case, she had
known she must act fast.  There’d been no time to look for something to cover
herself if she’d thought to consider it.

            She was in
control--she had to remember that fact.  Until he satisfied her--she blushed at
the turn of her thought, wondering when she’d turned into such a carnal
creature.  Was it an effect of the spell?  She firmly pushed the wicked
thoughts from her mind.

            Shadowmere was a
barbarian land.  She had to make an impact on him, no matter how distasteful it
was to her sensibilities.

            She corrected
herself--Until he appeased her by agreeing to help, she would use her wiles to
whittle down his resistance.  After all, he’d promised to practice much the
same torment on her.  Fair was fair.

            “I want you to
agree to help me, Lord Raphael.”

            “I’ve answered
you once before.  Nothing has changed.”

            “I think you’ll
agree much has.”  She indicated the cloth binding his wrists to the bed,
limiting his movement.

            “What have you
planned?  I warn you, pain is of no consequence to a beastman.”

            “There are other
methods much more pleasant, as you so graciously pointed out, that can be just
as effective.”

            He laughed and
slanted her an appreciative look.  “Do your worst, my lady.  My answer will
remain the same.”

            His stubborn
unwillingness to listen infuriated her.  Though he was beast, she could not
believe he was not the same as any other man she’d ever encountered, who fell
to their knees and begged when presented the opportunity to bed a woman,
promised anything for the chance of it.  “That is not satisfactory.”

            His mouth
quirked, revealing a dimple on one side.  “What would it take to ... satisfy
you?”

            The heat of her flush
crept up her neck.  Her eyes narrowed.  “Don’t speak to me that way again or I
shall gag you.”

            He chuckled
knowingly.  It infuriated her, but she couldn’t stomach violence--there could
be no other choice but the one she’d set out on.

            Leaning forward,
she drew her tongue up his neck in one long, slow stroke.  Instantly, he went
quiet, tense.  She rose, met the heat in his eyes and felt an answering fire
spark in her depths despite her reservation.  Power over a man of such strength
strummed her veins with potency.

            Swan’s lips
curled into a slow smile.  She’d gotten his attention.  Bending once again, she
nipped one earlobe, secretly thrilled to hear a soft gasp as she sucked it into
her mouth.  He turned his head to allow her easier access.  It was only a
matter of time until he was hers.

            Releasing his ear
lobe, she licked a trail down his chest, and rounded one small nipple.  She
circled it, staying just beyond reach.  Flicking a nail against the opposite
nipple, she raked her teeth over the tiny bud.  He groaned, his skin jumped in
response, heating with each grating pass of her teeth.

            “Do you like
that?” she asked.  “I can give you more, if you’ll only agree.”

            “No,” he said
through gritted teeth.

            “It will only
worsen.”

            Something
glittered in his eyes.  His jaw hardened, teeth clenched.

            “So be it.”  It
was altogether different being in control.  She’d been freed by circumstance,
allowed to do as she willed with no repercussions.  The shock of power was
heady, addictive if sampled overlong.

            Swan straightened
above him, smoothed her palms over his chest, reveling in the feel of his taut muscles,
teasing his nipples with every pass.  A trickle of moisture leaked from her sex
down her thighs, until she could slip easily against his hard stomach.  She
rubbed experimentally against him, the ridges of his muscles abrading her clit.

            Swan bit her lip
at the exquisite sensation, at the goosebumps that rode across her flesh as she
rocked against him.  He groaned as she rubbed her slit back and forth along his
lower belly, her folds held open by the spread of her legs.  His erection dug
into the cleft of her buttocks, insistent, demanding.

            She reached
behind, grasped it firmly, massaging its engorged length.  He sucked a breath
in sharply, jerked against his bonds.

            “Take me inside
you, Swan,” he said, his voice hoarse and commanding.

            Swan opened her
eyes, met his dark, heavy lidded look.  His eyes glittered as the black depths
were swallowed by golden flecks.  She hesitated at the leashed wildness in his
eyes.  “Do you agree to help me?”

            “Yes.”

            She stared at him
a moment, uncertain she could accept such an easy capitulation.  Finally,
however, she decided she could take him at his word.  He’d given it.  He surely
would not go back on it.  “Good.  I-I will release you to tend to your own ...
needs.”

            He shook
violently, his look thunderous.  She gripped him with her thighs to stay
upright until he stilled.  “To tease a man is foolhardy.  To tease a wolf is
perilous.”

            Swan shivered. 
She’d not intended to provoke him so far.  Her control had lapsed.  “They say
all is fair in war.”  She shifted to get off him, not so sure now that she
wanted to untie his hands.

            With a deep
growl, he snapped the bonds like paper.  In the blink of an eye, he grabbed her
and rolled until she lay beneath him, trapped by the cage of his body.  The
color of his eyes bled to purest amber, near glowing with ferocity.  Wolf’s
eyes.

            He captured her
hands before she could flay him, drew them up over her head until he’d manacled
her wrists in one hand.  Swan opened her mouth, and he covered her full lips
with his own, muffled her scream.  She bit his lip as he sawed his mouth across
hers.  He bled but a little before the wound closed.

            Her legs splayed
wide round his hips, she could do nothing as the enormous head of his erection
parted her folds and prodded her opening. 

            She’d only
experienced the penetration of a man once before, and it had been a gentle
affair—nothing like this.  Her pussy wept in a wet plea that she remain still
and allow him to ravish her however he deemed appropriate.  The strength of her
will demanded she do no such thing, no matter how much her treacherous body
might want it.

            She tore her
mouth from his, gasping and feigning an anger she didn’t truly feel.  “You
would force me?”

            He looked deep in
her eyes.  His own glittered with brutal animalistic need.  “You think I cannot
smell the sweet hot scent of your pussy begging for my possession?  We both
know you want me,” he growled.

            She trembled,
though not with fear.  Excitement, coarse and wild, shuddered through her every
nerve, leaving her feeling as though she dangled over a precipice. 
Anticipation surged through her, making her cunt tighten.  Her nipples throbbed
beneath the brush of his silky haired chest.

            She hadn’t
realized his sexuality would be so potent, so alluring.  She’d caught herself
in her own trap and had no way to escape it.  And did she really want to?

            “I’ve no interest
in bedding an animal,” she ground out.

            He hung his head
low, a threatening tone to his voice.  “You think that highborn pussy of yours
is too good to be fucked by a wolf?”

            The utterance of
those words were nearly enough to send her over the edge.  He punctuated each
with a hard stab of his cock against her spread, wet nether lips.  She barely
restrained a whimper, biting her full bottom lip to keep from crying out.