Things That Go Hump In The Night (37 page)

I could see dark shapes moving in the garden. "What's that?" I asked, pointing.

Ryan stood behind me, wrapping his arms around me. He looked down. "Enemies," he replied. "Isengrim and his cronies. Marcus is there, too, behind the hydrangea bed."

I squinted in the poor light, and could just make out the back of the sandy-coloured fox. My stomach churned with fear. I could see at least eight large animals down there, stalking the garden, preventing us from leaving. "Where is Isengrim?"

Ryan pointed at a large shape standing on the water fountain. The creature looked up at the moon and I realised it wasn't a fox like the others, but that giant grey wolf with the cold yellow eyes. He stared up at us through the window, his wide mouth pulled back into a snarl, revealing sharp, deadly teeth. "He's the one who attacked you, and tore up my leg."

I shuddered to think I'd been so close to those snapping jaws. We watched the wolf circle the fountain, and then sit on the edge, throwing his head back and howling. The sound reached us, even through the thick glass, and it chilled me inside and out.

Ryan kissed my neck. "Relax, Alex. They can't get us in here."

I pulled away from him. "You can't do this to me."

"Do what?"

"Before, you were…and then, suddenly, you're prowling around like something is going to attack you." I folded my arms across the chest, keeping my eyes glued on the shadowy forest so that I didn't have to look at him, so that he couldn't see the tears pooling in my eyes. When I spoke, my voice was hard. "What's wrong with me? I told you I wanted to be your mate. So why do you push me away?"

He grabbed my arm and spun me around. "Something startled me," he whispered, his eyes boring into mine. His robe had come undone, revealing the outline of his naked chest beneath it. "The thread of a memory. I am sorry."

"That's not it. It seems as if you're holding back. I see all the wild desire in your eyes, and yet, when you kiss me, it is tame."

"I'm trying to be gentle," he said. His grip on my arm tightened, the pain sending a shiver of desire through me. I knew that's what he was trying to do, but I wanted him to stop. I didn't want to sleep with Ryan the sensitive artist; I wanted Ryan the wild, powerful fox man. I wanted the raw, primal lust I saw in his eyes, for that same desire burned below my skin.

"Ryan, you can't pretend to be something you're not. If I am to be…your
mate
, then you treat me like one. I am to have all of you, or I am to have nothing."

His eyes flickered. "Alex, you don't know what you're asking. The relationship between a fox and his mate is very…complex. It's an exchange of power, of vital, elemental magic. It's a test of the vixen's strength to endure what her mate desires of her. I wanted to ease you into it. I wanted to give you pleasure you'd never known before, before I tried to break you."

"You can't break me, Ryan Raynard." I said, staring back at him with the fiercest expression I could muster. "Just you try."

As I delivered this, I yanked my arm away. But he was too quick. He stepped in and grabbed my other arm, twisting it around so that I no choice but to follow it. He pinned my arm behind my back, pressing his naked chest against me, so I could feel the warmth of him through the thin layer, feel his hardness pressing against my ass cheeks. I was just where I wanted to be, trapped and completely under his power.

This is more like it.

Ryan grabbed my shoulders and pushed me to the floor, so that I was on my knees. I tried to shift my position, to make myself more comfortable, but he pushed my shoulder down again. "Don't move," he snarled, as he reached down, and with one hand, yanked my blouse free, scattering buttons across the thick carpet. He slid down the zipper on my skirt, and tugged the fabric until it tore down the middle. Tossing my ruined skirt aside, he walked slowly around me, and with a single finger unhooked my bra, tugging the thin fabric off my shoulders, leaving my breasts exposed. The only thing I wore was a tiny pair of red cotton panties. He lifted a finger beneath the elastic and, with a sharp tug, broke those, too.

My whole body ached with desire as I waited, my skin tingling, ready for him to touch me, to do what he would to me. I started to say something, but he clamped his hand over my mouth. "You don't speak," he hissed. "Or I will think of something else you can do with that pretty mouth of yours."

My heart pounded as I knelt there, my knees and shoulder aching while Ryan circled me with slow, deliberate steps, his trademark self-satisfied smirk on his face as he ran his eyes over every inch of me. The smile tugging at the corners of his mouth suggested he liked what he saw.

"Ryan, do you–" I started, but he stepped in, and clamped my jaw shut with his hand. He leaned in close, his lips just brushing my ear.

"Don't do that," he whispered, his breath caressing my earlobe, making my body ache with desire. "I told you not to speak."

Ryan stood up again, and disappeared into a dark corner of the room. I heard him open a drawer and rummage around in its contents. He came back with a silk tie, the same tawny red as his hair. He bent behind me, and tied my hands together behind my back. While he pulled the bonds tight, his breath caressed the sensitive skin on my neck, making my hairs stand on end and delicious shivers run through my body. The black metal boyfriend had been into blindfolds and hogties, but he always wanted me to be the one tying him up and doing all the work. It felt good to submit to Ryan, to be completely at his mercy.

Giving my hands one last tug to ensure they were tightly secured, Ryan stood in front of me again, and shrugged off his robe, revealing his powerful, muscled body in all of its naked glory. His shaft stood erect – the skin pulled back to reveal the engorged head, primed and ready for action. It was by far the largest I'd ever seen, an almost terrifying length that seemed far too large to fit anywhere in my body. As I stared at him, I felt an ache pressing against my core, a strong, primal desire to take him into me, every glorious inch of him.

Ryan tipped up my chin with his fingers, and with his other hand, guided his enormous shaft against my lips. I opened my mouth, and he pushed himself inside. I took him in till I could feel the tip of him brushing the back of my throat. But still, I could not fit the whole length of him inside my mouth. I lifted myself up on my knees, lowering myself back down and moving him in and out of my mouth. He tasted warm, and slightly salty.

Ryan moaned and pushed my face down against him, his fingers gripping my uninjured shoulder as he thrust deeper into my mouth. I sucked him faster, swirling my tongue around his tip. I loved the way my mouth felt stretched around his shaft, tasting his saltiness on my tongue. He moaned as I worked him, digging his nails into my shoulder, and I could feel his whole body begin to tense. Just as I thought he was about to burst, he grabbed me under the shoulders and hauled me onto the bed.

Rolling me on to my stomach, Ryan pushed my naked body against the sheets and climbed on top of me, pinning me with his weight. He shoved his knees into mine, forcing my legs apart.

His nails scraped down my back, leaving tingling trails across my skin. He jammed his hand between my legs, his fingers finding that little spot from which all my aching came. He pulled and rubbed it roughly, and the ache grew within me, beginning to creep out through my body, threatening to overwhelm me. Unable to move at all, I gave myself over completely to him, moaning as his touch moved me closer and closer to orgasm.

"Don't move," he growled in my ear. "This will hurt."

Ryan moved his lips to my neck, and bit down against me, pulling my head back against him. I cried out as his teeth broke my skin, and searing pain rocked through my body. While he bit deeper, he continued to rub his fingers around that little bud. The pain fought against the growing pleasure spreading through my lower body, each sensation fighting for dominion.

The pain won, sweeping through my body in a great wave of agony. It felt as thought a cool liquid trickled through my limbs, turning my whole body cold – except for the mound between my legs, which burned with a blazing fire. I could feel a strange energy flowing from Ryan's mouth into my body – a shimmering magic transferring into my veins through the coldness. I tried to cry out, but my lips were numb, my breath frozen in my throat.

My body was growing colder, my veins turned to ice, the cold seeping into my lungs and pricking at my skin. It was as though my whole body was been pierced by a thousand tiny needles. The pain in my limbs became unbearable. I screamed silently as Ryan's bite held me paralyzed. He rubbed my clit faster and faster, until the ache inside burst forth, the searing heat boiling over, pressing back against that painful cold. Tongues of fire burned through my body, washing away the freezing pain and bringing my body back from the brink.

Both the fire and the ice abated, leaving me weak and wounded. Ryan let go of my neck, dropping my head against the bed. I gasped for breath, my entire body shivering with a strange sensation, a kind of tingling numbness.

"Now I have claimed you," Ryan whispered in my ear. "We are bonded together."

He flipped me over, so that I faced him once again. My hands were still pinned beneath me, forcing my back to curve upward at an awkward angle and my breasts to jut out. My eyes landed on his, and there I read the hunger of a hunter spying a deer in the distance. He bent over my chest, scraping his teeth across my nipples, enjoying the shudder that ran through my body.

I longed to reach up and touch him – to run my fingers over his wide, muscled chest – but he didn't seem to want to untie me. He had to be in control. Ryan threw the corner of the duvet over my head, so I lost sight of him. I fought against the folds of the fabric, but this only made him clamp the sheet down tighter. "Don't fight," he warned me. "I'm not going to hurt you…much."

His words filled me with a delicious terror. I don't know what he'd done to me, but it make every inch of my body shimmer with a kind of magical ecstasy. Ryan pinned my legs with his arms, and I felt something warm slide over my wet folds, dancing over the spot that gave me such joy.
His tongue.
I ached for him, longing to feel his hardness inside of me.

Not being able to see him made the experience even more erotic. He licked and sucked, reaching up with his fingers to twist my nipples, first softly, but then harder, so hard that my chest soon ached with pain. The strange energy he'd transferred to me took that pain and spread it through my entire body, pressing it against the fiery pleasure that once again threatened to overwhelm me. My stomach swelled with the pressure building inside of me, tendrils of pleasure reaching out through my arms, down my legs, across my chest, filling my body with warmth.

Ryan scraped his nails across my inner thigh as he buried his head between my legs, his tongue darting into every fold of my most intimate place. I felt his stubble along my thighs, his long hair tickling my sensitive skin as his tongue worked its magic. The pressure in my stomach burst and the warmth flooded me. I cried out as the orgasm carried me away, my vision disintegrating into a thousand red splodges – like one of Matisse's decoupages coming to life before my eyes – and my limbs kicked and jerking of their own accord.

Before I had even recovered, Ryan climbed on top of me and pinned my legs with his. I heard him tear open a condom and roll that on, and then he thrust deep inside me. I cried out as his length filled me, pressing against my wetness on all sides. Frantic and wild, he came at me with abandon, thrusting with such force and ferocity that the bed around us creaked in protest. I could see nothing but flashes of silk and bright red spots, but I could
feel
everything, more powerfully than I ever had before – every stroke, every swirl of his fingers, every thrust. The energy in my body flared up once more, only now it seemed to be swirling all around us, enclosing us in a cocoon of shimmering, sizzling magic. Feeling him move inside of me while he swirled his fingers around my tight nipples made the pressure bubble up inside of me once again, starting between my legs and rising like steam through my belly and chest.

Ryan tore away the sheet from my face, and covered my mouth with his, his tongue darting possessively into every corner and crevice. We rocked against each other. Ryan's fingers closed around my breasts, squeezing them, pushing them together, making them ache and throb. The pain and pressure built inside of me, and became one in my body, crawling through my limbs and reaching right down to my toes. I cried out as another orgasm rippled through me, my moans muffled by Ryan's forceful tongue. Fire coursed through my limbs, and I bucked against him as I fought to gain control over my body. All the while, the strange magical energy danced over my skin.

Heedless to my passion, Ryan continued to pound against me, his thighs slapping against mine. He twisted my nipple hard, and tears fell from my eyes as the last of the fire within me faded into a dull, warm ache. I bucked against him, rising up to meet each stroke. We began to move together, slamming against each other with enough force to knock the bed against the wall.

Finally, Ryan's own orgasm claimed him. He cried out and collapsed against me. When he had completely emptied himself, he rolled me over and pulled the sheets around us both, wrapping his arms around me and holding me against his warm body. The air around us seemed alive, crackling with residual energy.

"You are mine," Ryan whispered into my ear. "And I am yours."