WickedBeast (6 page)

Kelly stood up without letting go of Cord’s hand. Calmly she
stepped around and backed into his lap.

“What? What are you doing?” Molly demanded as she watched
Cord open his arms and settle her.

“We need him uber strong,” Kelly said. “Explain it to her.”

“I’d rather the new tree in your front yard grew a pair and
got his ass in here. He can explain it to her.”

“He’s here?” Kelly asked as she leaned forward to peer out
the kitchen window. “He’s been watching? Oh, that’s good, isn’t it?”

Dawn was streaking the sky with the promise of a clear day.

Molly shot out of her chair, went to the window, scowling.
“You’re right, that tree wasn’t there yesterday.”

“It could be good,” Cord answered Kelly, taking the moment
to lick her neck.

Molly was firmly focused on the oak in Kelly’s front yard.
Cord had noticed it when they came downstairs. Unsure if it was who he thought,
he’d waited to see if it became a threat.

It’d become clear Legion was figuring things out the same
way he had. Only he was out there letting Cord do all the work handling his
woman. Cord wanted to handle his own woman.

Kelly’s acceptance of his physical needs wasn’t a puzzle.
Her reasons for being on the lap of the creature she’d met a few hours ago were
exactly what he deserved. She was doing whatever she had to. Protecting her
child required he have access to power, her power. Here she was on his lap.

“Are you telling me that the big stump out there is a
dragon?” Molly demanded. There was an edge to her voice. She’d already proved
she was aware of her natural talents, and Cord suspected she used them much
more than she let on.

Kelly was the one who didn’t seem to have any idea how
powerful she was. Why had she been in the basement physically looking for her
cell phone? A Wind Witch should have called it back up the pipe. Nor should she
have been stuck under the tank. What was the problem? Was she simply not using
her powers? Or was she as dangerously unaware of them as her daughter?

There were a lot of questions Cord would have liked to ask,
but Molly abruptly turned on her heel and exited the kitchen, headed for the
front door.

“Wait a sec, Molly,” Cord called after her as he set Kelly
in the chair next to him, Cord got to the front door but not fast enough. He
grabbed Molly’s arm to stop her marching into the front yard. “Will you hold
on, woman? He might be dangerous.”

Molly’s head whipped around, her body half turning to say
something to Cord but she never had the chance.

“Hands off her, Windweaver,” gravelly tones demanded.

There was no longer an oak in the yard. Behind Molly stood over
seven feet of hard, male. His skin the color of rich soil, he appeared more
rock than man. Simple T-shirt and jeans covered massive muscles that moved in
fluid grace as his large palm slid around Molly’s waist to pull her against his
abdomen. Tall, dark and gravelly turned her with the move so they both faced
Cord, who held her arm. Standing in front of Legion, with her jaw hanging open,
Molly’s head reached the bottom of his pecs.

Kelly’s gasp of shock warmed Cord’s neck as she saw the
exceeding large male. Cord’s other arm flashed behind him to hold her there,
making sure she stayed back.

“The lady’s choice,” Cord replied in calm tones.

The bastard was huge, not a gaunt molecule in his form.
Cord’s eyes didn’t flicker as he surveyed Legion. “Though considering how well
fed you appear, I’m guessing you’ve been hanging around for a while? Perhaps
you can clear something up for me since the old ones were obviously full of
shit. Do dragons really go a little blind from beating it that much?”

Cord’s eyes flick down to Molly’s round ones. “Been having
hot dreams lately? We feed on sexual energy and the boy looks well fed.”

A little gasping, “Oh,” escaped Molly as she stared at Cord.
Then the shock on her face did an amazing transformation into indignant anger.
“
Oh!
”

Her head twisted around to look up at the male holding her.
“Let. Me. Go!”

Kelly’s hands fluttered on Cord’s back. “Um…is he safe.”

Cord remained in ready stance but his voice was relaxed. “Oh
yeah. Big boy has been here awhile. He figured it out long before I did.”

Legion immediately released Molly and stepped back as the
ground rolled beneath their feet. “Shut up and get your hands off her, Cord.”

His hold on Molly was loose. She easily pulled her arm away.
“Seriously? Sexual energy?” she asked Cord.

“Listen, it’s not like that,” Legion started behind her.

Molly simply held up a hand at his face without bothering to
turn her head and look at him. “I’m not speaking to you, Rot Wood. Fungus can
explain it.”

A slow smile spread across Cord’s face as he relaxed to lean
against the doorjamb. His arm drew Kelly around beside him. “Well, it’s like
this,” he began.

“Enough!” Legion growled. “You’ve helped me enough,
Windweaver. Molly, calm yourself,” he commanded.

“Oh, so not a good idea,” Molly replied in a quietly
controlled tone, still not looking at the tall male. “I think I’ll go home. If
anyone here is so stupid as to follow me, I am from the Islands and very aware
of my craft. You will end up a twig with a bad case of termites.” She nodded at
Kelly. “Thank you for breakfast.”

“You cooked it,” Kelly murmured.

Molly had already turned and was heading to her house.
Legion scowled after her and glanced at Cord. “You talk too much.”

“You could have talked a little more. How long have you been
here?” Cord shot back. “A warning would have been welcome.”

“When? You’ve been in a bottle since the last moon phase.
You were in no shape to protect the child. It was my duty.”

Cord raised a brow and motioned with his chin at Molly’s
retreating form. “And you have such a handle on your duty?”

Legion grunted and turned to follow Molly.

“Bottle? What does he mean by you were in a bottle?” Kelly
asked as Cord shut the door.

“He means I preferred the oblivion of scotch to being aware
of how hungry I was,” Cord confessed as he looked down at her. He wasn’t quite
sure which way he wanted to go. Back to the kitchen or the other way to the
box-jammed sitting room? He glanced up the stairs and rejected that temptation.

“Are you an alcoholic?” Kelly wanted to know.

She was planted in front of him, frowning, and he realized
how serious a subject this was for her. Of course it would be if he were human.

“Kelly, I’m an addict. Consider me a crack junkie. My drug
is you.” He resisted the drive to touch her as she looked at him.

He had no choices and neither did she. To protect her
daughter she’d do precisely what he needed. The one possession he had, the
thing they could not program out of him was what he was determined to give her
now. The truth.

Chapter Five

“Cord, that is an amazingly sweet thing to say in a really
weird way, but I’m being serious. Do you have a drinking problem?”

Her hands were on her hips, and if she’d had a tail, it
would be fluffed in irritation. Did he find her irritation cute because he was
programmed to? Or was she really adorable when she was annoyed? What did it
matter, his reaction to her would only grow.

“Sweet? I’m being direct. Using the illustration of an
addict is not a ploy. It’s as close as humans can come to what’s been
programmed into me. The only thing I can choose to give you is a little time to
grasp what I am. I don’t even have much of that. The rest—protection, defense,
these things are yours whether you want them or not.” He continued after a
brief pause, it was all he could manage to make sure she heard this part. “The
way you get rid of me is to refuse contact. I’ll become diminished and one of
your attackers will eventually figure out how to kill me.”

Kelly’s head cocked to the side as she listened to him, and
then she reached for his hand. “Come here.”

She led him into the living room, around a haphazard stack
of boxes and to the couch. “Sit.”

Cord sank down on the couch. Kelly girl wasn’t processing
the information he was trying to give her in the manner he’d expected. Sure, he
expected her to be ticked, who wouldn’t be when they became a possession as
opposed to a free woman? Mad at him was a natural response. He was the monster
and she had no alternative but to accept him into her life in the most intimate
way imaginable. But she didn’t seem mad at him for reasons he couldn’t fathom.

She stood between his wide-spread legs and frowned down at
him as if he were messing things up.

“Do you know what I see when I look at you?” she asked.

Cord resisted the urge to run a hand through his hair. “No.”

“Give me your hands,” she requested softly.

He held them up and Kelly grasped them, letting him take her
weight as she slid both knees onto the couch, straddling his hips. She then sat
back on his thighs and laced their fingers together. Holding his hands, her
eyes studied his face.

Cord didn’t move. She was touching him. His body tightened
as he savored the feel of her weight on him. She’d placed herself on his lap as
if it were natural for her to sit there. Why she would do that didn’t have much
time to bother him. The globes of her perfect ass resting on his thighs took
too much of his attention.

“I see midnight in your hair, so dark the black becomes
purple when I glance away and I have to look again. My fingers want to touch it
to feel the night. Your eyes are the steel gray of winter morning. Lush lashes
can’t soften the coldness there, but when you look at me, they become the color
of steam rising from the fire within.”

Her voice moved through him, a melody of sounds that almost
drowned her words. It was intimate, softly open.

Letting go of his hand, the back of her knuckles feathered
down his cheek. “High cheekbones, a straight, arrogant nose and those amazing
lips. The close-cut beard brings night’s shadow to your face without disguising
its strength. A male face that is so perfect it’s a mask, except when you look
at me.” Her eyes lingered on his lips a moment then met his gaze as she
continued.

“I refuse to believe the honor holding you still under my
hands is some programmed thing. I feel your body shudder and I’m not so
ignorant as to think it’s sweet emotion moving you. If you are even a little
bit of what you say, the choice to give me this freedom is one you are making
every second, isn’t it? Comparing yourself with a drug addict is unacceptable.
Please do not.”

“What would you like me to do then?” Cord asked tightly.

Kelly let go of his other hand. As her hands settled on his
shoulders in light exploration, she smiled into his eyes. “Like yourself a
little,” she murmured.

Cord leaned his head back on the couch and closed his eyes.
His hands started at her knees and slowly glided up silky flesh, curving around
the back of her thighs to pull her up and into his body. She flowed into him
just as he’d asked her to with the gentle pull. Keeping his eyes closed to give
her a little more gentleness, he grimaced sadly.

“Kelly, we both know what you’re doing. If even half of what
I’ve said is true, you need me to protect Minuet. Knowing your response is what
feeds me, strengthens the beast, you’re willing to try. If you want to ascribe
some sort of honor to me because it helps you deal with this, I’m all for it.”

Her hands framed his face as she demanded, “Open your eyes.
Look at me.”

His lids lifted in lazy sensuality. Her face hovered over
his and there had never been a sexier sight than Kelly panting slightly and
little bit mad.

His caress grew bolder as knowing fingers played over soft
inner thighs then trailed down her legs to casually caress the backs of her
knees and upper calves. He felt her pulse quicken. The sweet fire of desire was
well kindled low in her belly. He would keep building it. Carefully, slowly,
knowingly drawing her deeper and deeper into sexual abandon.

His body drank her pleasure and he’d take that substance
from her until she was helpless in a sexual frenzy. There was nothing he
wouldn’t do to get more of her and when he was done, there would be nothing she
wouldn’t do for him.

He knew exactly how to get what he needed from a woman. But
she had no idea what he’d take from her. She was already feeding the beast,
giving him her soul. What she asked of him was impossible. She’d understand
that eventually. He was a user and she was the drug.

“Kiss me,” she breathed into his mouth as she lowered her
lips to his.

Her touch was not tentative as she opened and kissed him
with fierce female claim. His response was a flash fire of demand. He ignored
it, letting her take what she needed from him. Perhaps he could give her this,
this little bit of control. It wouldn’t last, but she needed it right now.

Sucking her tongue deep in his mouth he stroked it as she
withdrew, his head lifting off the sofa to follow the nectar, demanding she
enter again. Her hips took up the rhythm, pressing into him and retreating as
he continued the light touches along the length of her legs. The gliding caress
was no longer enough.

Her body asked for more and he denied her, only giving her
his mouth in full abandon. Her hands became claws, raking from his hair to his
shoulders. Kelly moaned into his mouth and that was the trigger he couldn’t
refuse. Abruptly it was his tongue invading her with a hard push as his body
shifted in a liquid ripple of muscle, turning them to lay her back on the
couch, his body blanketing her.

Steel thighs pushed between her legs, giving her no other
option but to wrap those long columns of perfection around his hips. His fly
thrust into the crotch of her shorts, driving material between soft wet folds.
There was no mimicking going on anymore. He stroked her with a hard length of
distended jeans. The layers of clothing between them added to her frustration.