Tempting the Tiger (18 page)

“I will never betray you, Amia. Never.”

“Then let me go, Reno. Don’t let me be the reason they find you, kill you. Don’t make me live with that guilt.”

He was shaking his head before she even finished. “I can’t let you go.”

“You have to,” she pleaded.

“And you?” He questioned. “Do you think you could really leave me?”

She looked confused for a moment, but defiantly nodded her head. “Say the word, and I’ll leave.”

“You would destroy me?”

“Never!” she all but yelled. “Staying here, with you, would bring the destruction of you and everyone else here.”

“Leaving me would,” he countered. “Don’t you understand? I’m not whole without you.”

“What?” she asked.

“I told you how badly I want you. I ache for you. Deeply.” He put his hand to his heart. “In here. I ache, and only your touch can soothe me.”

“Reno,” she began, but he silenced her by leaning in and touching his lips softly to hers.

“I need you, Amia, like I’ve never needed anything or anyone.” He skimmed his fingers down over her breasts, the hard points of her nipples, until he found the hem of her shirt. Holding her gaze, he lifted it, waiting, watching for her consent.

With a nod, she lifted her hands and helped him pull it up and over her head.

“I need you like I need food or water.” His lips traced along her neck while his hands slid behind her to undo the clasps of her bra. “I need you like I need air to breathe.” The bra disappeared, leaving her breasts displayed for him, high and firm with hard pink nipples just begging for him to suckle her. He licked over her neck, tonguing the scratches there, knowing soon he’d replace them with his bite.

“I’m going to take you,” he told her, and Amia moaned. He could smell the unique scent of her lust rising up around them. “I’m going to strip the rest of your clothes off and feast on your sweet pussy.”

“Reno.” She groaned his name, and he could hear how much his words stimulated her, smell how hot and wet she got.

“Then I’m going to turn you over and mount your pussy, burying my cock balls deep inside you. I’m going to fuck you hard and fast, then slow and easy.”

“Yes,” she cried out in agreement.

“And when I’m ready to come, I’m going to grip you with my teeth.”

Her lust-glazed eyes met his.

“I’m going to grip you and bite down, sinking my teeth into you.”

“Oh, God,” she moaned, but it wasn’t fear he scented. No. Her lust burned even hotter at his words. She wanted his bite as much as he wanted to give it to her.

“If you don’t want this, me, then say something now. Tell me no. Demand for me to leave.”

She shook her head at him.

“You will be mine, Amia.” He needed her to know, to understand. “Mine,” he said, gripping the snap on her pants and popping it open. He held her gaze as he tugged the zipper down. “Mine, and there will be no leaving me. Ever.” He slipped his hand down into her panties and cupped her hot pussy with his palm. He used his middle finger to dip inside her, rimming her opening with the promise of what was to come. “Tell me. Tell me you understand. Tell me you want this.”

She nodded, the pink tip of her tongue flicking out to wet her lips. “I want this. You,” she amended. “And you’ll belong to me? You’ll be mine?”

“I already am,” he vowed as he tugged the pants and panties down her body and off, leaving her completely naked before his eyes. “I’ve been yours since you woke me on that wall with your sweet promise of setting me free.” He skimmed his lips over her nipples, giving each a deep suctioning kiss before easing lower. “And you did. Free me.” His lips brushed her belly, moving ever lower. “All of me. You tempted me.” He shifted, pressing her legs wide to make room for his shoulders. “You took what was tame and content, and tempted it into awakening.”

“What did I tempt?” she whispered.

He looked up her body to meet her gaze. He lowered his head, holding her stare as he took the ripe bud of her clitoris into his mouth and sucked gently on it. Her moan of pleasure had his dick jerking behind his zipper with need.

“The beast,” he groaned, licking over her plump lips on his way to her slick opening. “You tempted the beast awake, and now only you can control him.” Her taste filled his senses, and he purred against her flesh. “Mine,” he claimed and flicked his gaze back to meet hers. “Mine,” he repeated and waited.

“Yours,” she finally acknowledged. “I’m yours.”

He sank his tongue deep, pumping it inside her before pulling it back out. “Mhmm,” he groaned and went back for seconds.

She tasted sweet, addictive. He’d never get enough of her. He fucked her with his tongue, making a feast of her pussy as her moans floated on the air around them. Slowly, he licked his way back up to the hard kernel of her clit and thrust two fingers into her. She met him, pumping her hips in perfect counterpoint to his fingers. One hand gripped him tightly by the hair and held him to her. He wasn’t planning to go anywhere. His only plan was to enjoy, to make her come over and over again, until he couldn’t deny his own need any longer.

“Reno.” She cried his name as she rode his mouth and fingers. “Oh, God! Oh, God! I’m coming! I’m coming!”

He loved the way she shuddered and shook as the pleasure overtook her. He could feel her thighs trembling, see the way her stomach contracted. He loved the long, low moan that left her lips as her eyes glazed, then shut. Her fingers tightened to the point of pain in his hair as she tugged and held, her sweet cunt grinding against his jaw and lips. Perfection. She was perfection. He’d never seen anyone more beautiful, and in that moment, he realized something that rocked his whole world.

Mate was far too simple a word for what she was to him. She was more, so much more. She was his very heart and soul. He would kill for her, die for her, fight off any demon that threatened her. The thought of anyone trying to harm her was inconceivable to him. The thought of her unhappy, sad, had the power to knock him to his knees. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for her. It was more than love. It was a joining of souls, of spirits, at least for him. He was still unsure of what Amia felt.

“Reno.” She whispered his name, her fingers softening in his hair, stroking through the strands.

He glanced up her perfect body and met her gaze.

“Take me. Make love to me. Make me yours.”

He stood, holding her gaze while he quickly stripped off his clothes before joining her once more on the bed. He eased up her body, his lips brushing every inch he passed along the way. He met her lips and shared the pleasure of her taste with her. His tongue penetrated her mouth, finding her tongue and rubbing along it. She surprised him by sucking on his, appearing greedy for a taste of herself. It only made his lust burn hotter. She pulled back, trailed her lips over his neck and down to his chest where she nipped him with her teeth.

“Fuck me, Reno.”

He used his knees to part her thighs and slid through her pussy lips, coating his cock with her juices. The broad head bumped her clit, and he watched her eyes flare in ecstasy. He reached down between their bodies, slid his thumb in a tight circle over her clit and gripped his dick. Using one hand to hold his body over hers, he guided his cock to her entrance with the other, and holding her gaze, thrust deep.

She moaned, arching her head back and closing her eyes. Her hands came up to clutch his shoulders. Her legs lifted and wrapped around his hips, feet tucked against the small of his back. He was lost in her. It was more than the fiery pleasure of her tight cunt squeezing his dick. It was the flush on her face, the sexy cast of her eyes. It was the spill of her curls over his pillow, a cascade of red and gold that made him think of a sunset. It was the sounds she made, how she crooned his name and begged for more.

She came again, her pussy rippling around him, almost milking his cum from him. But not yet, he wasn’t ready, yet. He needed more. He tugged free and, with her help, rolled her over onto her belly beneath him. She moaned as she came up on her hands and knees.

“More,” she demanded, glancing over her shoulder at him. “Give me more. Give me everything.”

With a loud purr, he thrust home again, and wasn’t that a good description. She was home to him. He was beginning to understand that there was never really any chance of him letting her go. He couldn’t. And he would bet that was why she’d never really attempted to leave him after the first time they’d tasted each other. There was no going back for either of them.

He rode her hard and fast, following the direction of every cry she made.

“Harder!”

He gripped her hips tight in his hands and pounded into her, rocking them both on the bed.

“Faster, Reno! Fuck me faster!”

He pumped his hips, pistoning in and out of her slick heat.

“Oh, yes! Yes! Oh, fuck yes! Reno! Reeennnooo!”

His name was a long drawn out wail as she fisted around him and came again. Her cunt was so wet he felt her juices coating his cock and slipping down to moisten his balls. With a roar of dominance, of possession, he leaned over her, slamming deep and holding his cock there as he covered her and his lips found her shoulder. There, where his teeth kept trying to claim her, he finally did.

“Mine!” He gave the primal claim just before his canines sank deep, finally marking her in the way his beast demanded. He sucked her skin with his mouth as his cock swelled larger, stretching her farther around him.

“Reno!” She yelled his name, one hand gripping the covers beneath them while the other reached back and buried in the hair at the base of his neck. She pushed into his bite, pressing her skin deeper against his mouth.

His cock jerked, and his cum left him in what felt like an endless wave of hot spurts that had him dropping over her, too weak and spent to move. He could hear her panting for breath, and struggled to get his body to move off of her.

“No.” She tightened her grip in his hair. “Don’t move. Not yet. I love the feel of you inside me. The weight of you over me.”

He had to be crushing her, but he enjoyed the feel of her under him as well, took pleasure in covering her with his heat and strength. Still, he moved, using his arms to push himself up, his head hanging as he sucked oxygen deep.

She tilted her head back, just enough to meet his gaze, and the slow smile that graced her lips had him feeling like a king.

“Nobody has ever made me feel like you do,” she whispered.

Fuck king. He felt like a god. He tugged his cock free and shifted to land on his side next to her on the bed. He used one hand to trail down her back from shoulder to the full, round curve of her oh-so-tempting ass. He was incapable of not touching her.

“How do I make you feel?”

“Special.”

“You are.”

“Unique.”

“I’ve never known another woman like you.”

“As if I have meaning. Worth.”

“There’s no one who means as much to me as you do. Your worth is beyond measure.” He turned her to her back and loomed over her, wanting her to see the truth in his eyes. “You are what fills me up. Here.” He placed his open palm over his heart.

She looked a little shy and uncertain, two things his mate should never be around him.

“What is it?”

“I’m afraid,” she admitted.

“I will kill anyone who tries to hurt you.”

She smiled again, and one soft hand came up to brush his cheek. He leaned into her touch, loving it, loving her. And that’s when it hit him. The words. Words had power.

“I love you, Amia.”

Her eyes flared with wonder and filled with tears. “I don’t think anyone has ever said those words to me. Not in my entire life. Not even my mother.”

He shook his head, hating her family even more for the scars they’d left. He would be more than happy to wipe every one of them off the earth.

“They’ll come for me, Reno. It’s why I quit trying to run away. Every time. They found me, brought me back. And if I’d try to make a friend,” she shuddered. “I got to watch them die.”

“They won’t get you this time. You’re not alone. You’re one of us now, a part of our pride. We will stand for you.”

Tears trembled on her lashes then spilled down her cheeks. “I don’t want to be the reason anyone is hurt.”

“You’re not to blame for what the Blanes or any other group of hunters choose to do.” He used one hand to wipe the tears from her cheeks. “They’re unworthy of your emotion.”

She gave a weak laugh. “These aren’t for them. They’re for you.”

“I made you cry?” He was appalled. What had he done?

“I don’t deserve you or your love.”

“You have it wrong, Amia. I’m the one who is undeserving.”

“I love you, Reno. I’ve never said those words to anyone in my life. Never understood what love was. Until now. Until you. You fill me up too. Here.” She placed her palm over her heart as he had done. “You make me feel like, for the first time in my life, I belong.”

“You do. You belong here, with me. Always.”

“I like the sound of that.”

“I’ll make sure I remind you often then,” he said, then lowered his mouth to hers for a chaste brushing of lips. “I don’t want to leave this bed.”

“But…” she prompted when he didn’t finish.

“But we have a lot to deal with right now.” He dropped another kiss on her lips and shifted away, rolling off the bed and holding his hand out to her. “Why don’t we shower? Then I’ll take you to the kitchen, and we can eat. I’m starving.”

“Then?”

“We need to talk. There are a lot of questions.”

“And if I don’t have the answers?”

He wondered if she realized her heart was in her eyes, almost as if she were still afraid he would reject her if she made a mistake. She might say she loved him, but it would take a while to deal with the demons that haunted her. But he would. He would show her that his love didn’t come with a set of rules and conditions she had to live up to.

“We’ll figure it out. Together.”

Chapter Ten

Amia was tense and uneasy, a complete bundle of nerves as Reno led her into the room he’d disappeared into earlier—the one he’d been in when she’d been taken downstairs. His hand was solid in hers, their fingers interlaced, offering her his strength. She’d learned not to depend on anyone else a long time ago, and now here she was doing just that. Was that what love was? A way to make you vulnerable? Losing him wouldn’t just devastate her, it would kill her, and that was a terrifying thing to realize.