Beast Master Read online

  “The Beast said you’re mine,” Ber said and his breath slipped through her hair. “He’s right. I’ve already demonstrated my power over you, haven’t I?”

  Did he expect her to reply? If he wanted an answer, he’d first have to release her.

  “What is it?” He ran his free hand under her skirt, his fingers light on her thigh. “You need further proof?”

  “Don’t!” She strained to put distance between them.

  “Don’t do this?” His fingers continued their upward march, scorching muscle and flesh and melting her knees. “Strange. The last time I touched you, you loved it.”

  “I didn’t! Let me go. Then we’ll see what I put up with.”

  “Why would I want to do that,” he pressed the palm of his hand against where thigh and hip joined, “when this brings me so much pleasure?”

  “No. No. No.” Her eyes closed and her head fell back.

  “No, you don’t like this kind of pleasure? I’m sorry, but what you’re saying is the opposite of how you’re acting.”

  Touch me, touch me, touch me. “You know nothing about me.”

  He took so long to respond that she concluded he was taking her comment seriously. “No, I don’t,” he said at last. “And I need to.”

  Why? Their two clans had never established any kind of relationship mostly because neither had anything the other wanted. At least that had been true until she’d been compelled to harvest a plant that grew only here.

  “Don’t bother,” she came up with. “I…I’m a simple person.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  His hand had rested where her hip and leg came together while they carried out their brief conversation. Now it stirred again, and she expected him to zero in on her sex as he’d done before. Why wouldn’t he want to see if he could drive her to the brink of sanity? After all, what better way to ensure breaking through her defenses?

  But he made no attempt to work his hand between her legs. Instead, he slowly closed in on her belly, forcing her to tighten the muscles there. Every inch of the journey over her hip and then around in front robbed her of her breath and closed her throat. She again tried to turn her back to him. This time he didn’t haul her around but planted himself behind her so her buttocks settled against the front of his thighs. With his arm now reaching around her and his fingers pressing into her belly, she was hard-pressed to remember what had brought her to Puma Mountain.

  If only she’d been the one to place ropes on him. If the power lay in her hands, she’d touch and stroke, nibble and lick until he begged her to fuck him. Maybe she’d heed his desperate plea, maybe not.

  “Is this how the Deer clan women fight?” he asked with his mouth near the top of her spine. “If so, I understand why they aren’t known for their battle skills.” His forearm tightened as he drew her closer. “A rabbit in a wolf’s grip has a greater instinct for survival.”

  In ways she prayed he’d never know, she loved having her arms secured above her. She couldn’t run, couldn’t struggle even. As a result, she had no choice but to stand where he’d placed her while he did things to her she’d never imagined would happen. Her body had surrendered to his. Her mind might not be far behind. As for her heart—

  “A question, Luann.” His breath chased over the back of her head and neck. “If you had your knife right now what would you do with it? Would my life be at risk?”

  She belatedly remembered the weapon he’d taken from her and now lay a few feet away on the ground near her carrying bag. “How can I answer that? You aren’t going to give it back to me.”

  “True.” He chuckled. The sound so intrigued her that she was slow to realize he’d started massaging her belly. “The last thing I want today is a stab wound. Still, if you believed you could wound or kill me, would you try?”

  Her stomach had never felt this alive. She’d be a fool to completely trust him, but it was becoming harder to think of him as the enemy. What did she care that she’d die if he walked away leaving her like this when his light caresses reached all the way to her spine? It was almost as if he was trying to reach her womb.

  “More silence? Something else you don’t want to or can’t answer?”

  He must not have cared whether she responded because before she could think what she might say, he widened his stance so his legs straddled hers and his cock ground into her spine. The hand she hadn’t been able to put her mind to slipped under her skirt. He flattened his fingers over her outer thigh.

  “You came into my life at a dangerous time,” he said, sounding short of breath. “With Ashlyn no longer able to control the Puma men, we’re on the brink of turning into animals. Animals determined to take what they want.”

  “You already have me.”

  “Yes, I do.” He rubbed his cock against her. “Maybe forever.”

  Cold fear attacked her only to be swept away by the fingers that had left her thigh and were heading toward her belly. But instead of joining the hand that had already claimed her stomach, this one closed in on her mons. She had a moment in which to ponder how long it would be before the assault on her pussy began, but then he cupped her mons and nothing else mattered.

  “So soft.” A finger glided over the pale hairs there. “Part of a woman’s magic.”

  A sigh escaped her. Wondering if she could make his cock slide between her legs, she rose onto her toes. That done, she silently cursed his loincloth.

  “Are you a witch?” he asked. “Filled with magic? Is that why I have to have my hands on you, because you’ve cast a spell over me?”

  If there was any spell-casting, he was responsible.

  “More silence?” he asked. “What do you hope to accomplish by it?”

  Survive, maybe.

  “It doesn’t matter,” he continued, giving her mons a shake. “Because you belong to me.”

  Belong? Yes. His hands, arms, legs and body controlled her in ways she’d never thought possible. Her head had fallen back, but now she was looking straight ahead, seeing nothing except colors. Her legs burned from being on her toes. The sensation flowed up and over her pussy to bleed into the fire he’d created. Panting, she pulled pine- and pitch-scented air into her lungs. Her mind cleared enough to allow her to draw a mental picture of what she looked like.

  Her dress was hiked up so high that her naked buttocks were again on display, but maybe he wasn’t aware because instead of standing back and appraising her ass cheeks, he kept them pressed against his body. His arms circled her smaller body, and his hands held her immobile. He’d been right. She did belong to him.

  “Let me go, please.”

  “No.”

  Of course he’d say that. Why had she pleaded for something that wouldn’t happen?

  Because you’re afraid of yourself.

  “I’ll keep you forever,” he muttered. “Put a collar on you and lead you around so whenever I want to fuck I can.” The hand that seemed a permanent part of her belly started inching upward. “Tie you like you are right now when I have to go hunting.”

  “How…long would you be gone?”

  “As long as it takes to make sure my slave is fed.”

  She should point out what would happen if he couldn’t return to her, but the words wouldn’t come because he was flattening her breasts under his muscled forearm.

  Caught. Helpless. Surrounded by male. A sigh swam up from somewhere deep inside as she rested against his chest. He might not be touching every inch of her, but her body didn’t care. He’d claimed her, taken her, and found her desirable.

  Her eyes didn’t want to stay open. Now trapped within herself, she drew another image of the two of them. He should have stripped her before securing her wrists to the branch to make touching her even easier. His large warrior hand cupped one breast, and he lightly massaged it while continuing to press his forearm against the other.

  What was it she’d tried to put her mind on a little while ago, something about what it would feel like if their positions we
re changed. Let him squirm and suffer while she teased every inch of flesh only to leave him just before his body let go. Give him a taste of the sweet pain she was drowning in.

  A sound like a small, lost creature escaped her throat even before the first finger reached her labia. Her head spun, and she struggled to pull him into her.

  “No,” he muttered, still pressed against her so she could barely move. “I won’t keep you like this when I have to be away, after all, because I don’t want my slave harmed. But neither do I want to risk you getting free.”

  Free belonged to another world and another woman. The one she’d become was spreading her legs as wide as they’d go while panting.

  “Trees, yes,” he continued. A second finger settled on her pussy, making her whine. “I’ll secure you with your hands in front when you must be alone. I’ll let you sit, but I must make sure you can’t reach the knots.”

  Even as a third finger joined the others and her cunt softened and her head fell forward, she imagined her hands secured over her belly so her inner wrists pressed together. Her fingers would touch each other but nothing else. She’d become what he wanted of her, his possession.

  As she was now.

  Chapter Five

  “Do you really want to be free, Luann?” Ber rubbed a finger along the length of her slit.

  “Hmm.”

  “No answer? That leaves me with no choice but to figure that out on my own.”

  Even in her confused state, Luann sensed his lighthearted response hadn’t come easily. He’d looked so dark and conflicted when he was done talking to the Beast. Now he confused her with yet another mood. If only she could concentrate on anything except what he was doing to her.

  Still claiming the entrance to her sex, he shifted to improve his access. Then he slipped a finger into her. Her spine arched and her cheeks burned. Her wrists ached, adding to the sensations rampaging through her. She couldn’t keep her head still.

  How could she possibly crave this treatment, this dehumanizing—

  You love it.

  “Where’s your fight, Luann?” His finger still nestled in her, he hauled her against him. Because he’d taken a backward step, she was thrown off balance, her body bent at the waist and her arms stretched. She felt disconnected from herself, floating, free in ways she didn’t question. “Where’d it go?”

  “Don’t say—”

  “Don’t say what? That we both know the truth about what’s happening to you.”

  “What about you?” she snapped with her legs separated and her head roaring. Her body belonged to him. Him. “What am I pressing against?”

  “A man who has lived alone too long.”

  The level of his frustration was his own problem. She had all she could deal with handling her feelings. Everything centered around two bodies working almost as one and a man’s hand claiming her most private place. She wanted to experience, nothing else.

  Sweat clung to every inch of her. Her cheeks and throat felt flushed adding to her need for release from the tension clinging to her sex. The first time he’d pushed her off her emotional cliff, he’d done so by manipulating her clit. This time she didn’t want to be the only one on that journey. Let him lose control too!

  Let him experience everything she did.

  Those thoughts came in fragments and only when his fingers stilled. Despite her denials, she was again close to that mind-shattering cliff. All too soon she wouldn’t be able to hold back. He wouldn’t release her, she had no doubt of that, but it didn’t matter because bondage added to what she was experiencing. There was something about his being able to touch her everywhere and her unable to stop him made her heart race and her mind empty.

  He was too tall for his cock to reach her pussy. Through a haze, she spotted a fallen tree with its trunk broken into several chunks.

  “Stop,” she managed as his fingertip glided over her clit. “By the spirits, stop!”

  “Don’t tell me you don’t want to be touched here.”

  “Not like this again.”

  “This?”

  Think. Put words together. “You, making me climax while denying yourself.” There. She’d said it.

  A rough finger rested on her clit. Another remained inside her while the others blanketed her cunt lips, nearly rendering her stupid, but somehow she found the words to go on.

  “Are you afraid of letting go? Of showing what you think of as weakness?”

  “There’s nothing weak about me. That’s why I was given the task I was.”

  Devoting his life to the Beast, she silently finished for him. “I’m yours,” she told him to keep from feeling sorry for him. “You said as much, yours to handle as you want.”

  “Which I’m doing.” He demonstrated by roughly pulling out and then spreading her juices over her labia. “Deny what I made happen to you, go on, lie.”

  “I won’t.” I can’t. “What is it? You don’t want the same thing?” Growling, he ground his cock against her backside. She clamped on to her tongue to keep from growling in reply.

  “I do,” he told her. “I just have more self-control.”

  “Do you?” Before she could continue, he plundered her again, this time with two fingers that stretched her pussy walls and forced her to pant.

  “All right, all right!” she all but bleated. “What do you want me to say, that I submit?” Tears burned. “We both know the answer to that.”

  “I want to hear you apologize,” he said. “A man who faces the Beast—”

  “The Beast is one thing.” Her body was starting to fall apart, shattering like ice and yet on fire. He’d become her world, the air she breathed, maybe the blood burning through her veins. “A woman’s cunt is another. That’s what you’re afraid of.”

  The hand on her breast tightened until pain ran through her. Not content with simple pressure, he gripped her nipple between thumb and forefinger.

  “You lie,” he retorted. “You know nothing about me.”

  “How can I when there’s been no sex?” she managed through clenched teeth. Her head throbbed, and repeated blinks failed to clear her vision.

  “That’s what you want, for us to fuck?”

  Speak, while you can, before he silences you. “I want…for us to be equals in this one thing.”

  He made another sound. This one reminded her of an angry bear. At least the pressure on her nipple let up. Although he didn’t release her, she sensed a change in the way he held on to her. After a moment, the fingers inside her twitched, lifting her back onto her toes and melting her spine.

  Fight or surrender? Focus on her reason for being here or live for the moment? Let her body rule?

  Yes, her shattering body.

  “That—that log.” She jerked her head at it. “Bring it here. I’ll…stand on it.”

  Instead of obeying, he increased the pressure on her breasts until her head spun. The fingers on her nipple marched upward until they reached her throat. Knowing he could easily cut off her breath had her struggling to guess what he had in mind. At the same time, a liquid wave born of sensation and emotion drenched first his fingers and then the insides of her thighs.

  “What—” he started. Then, “You’re incredible. Absolutely incredible.”

  She couldn’t speak, couldn’t think. He owned everything about her, and she loved being possessed.

  “So you want sex, do you?” he muttered. “So do I, but it’ll change things between us.”

  I know.

  “Doesn’t that matter to you?”

  He punctuated his question by increasing his hold. Now she had to work at breathing and her pussy walls clenched at what invaded them. Caught in his strength, she forgot who she was and what she’d been before him.

  “Damn you!” he hissed. “If I’d known how dangerous… Too late. Too damn late.”

  For an instant, she believed he was going to choke her, but suddenly the pressure was gone. Not only that, he again pulled out of her and backed away. Her pussy
tightened in misery, and again she was on the brink of tears.

  Although they were in shadow, as she watched him walk over to the log she’d indicated, she swore the afternoon sun was streaming down on her. Her throat was so dry it hurt, and her eyes burned. The strain in her arms briefly distracted her from the clawing need in her pussy.

  Then that need surged through her again. She fought it in the only way she could think of by mentally placing him within the bonds that trapped her. In her mind at least she was the one standing before her victim. Whether he begged or cursed her made no difference. Careful to stay away from his determined kicks, she grasped his cock and drew it toward her. In her mind his threats turned into pleas as she stroked and caressed.

  Feel my strength, she told him. Understand the depths of my control.

  “It’s not going to work,” he said, his words pulling her back to reality. She noted that the tree had fallen apart when he tried to separate it from the ground. After shaking his head, he walked over to a nearby boulder. After rocking it back and forth several times, he lifted it. His arms bulged as he rejoined her, and when he dropped the large rock in front of her, a little dirt clung to his chest.

  “Get on it,” he commanded, but she’d already placed her right foot on the stone. She nearly lost her balance lifting her trembling left leg, prompting him to hold her around her waist until she could stand on her own. Being higher took much of the strain out of her arms, but when she turned to thank him, she noted that he was looking at her body and not her face. What softened her cunt even more was his expression.

  This was no longer a highly regarded member of the Pumas but simply a male. Perhaps the struggle with the boulder had knocked his loincloth aside although maybe his fierce erection was responsible. Whichever it was, her first view of his cock made her shiver. He was a man with a single goal—fucking her.

  Blinking restored moisture to her eyes and cleared her vision but did nothing to lessen his message. Another tremble assaulted her.

  “You’re still afraid of me?” he asked.