To Love a Shifter: A Paranormal Romance Boxed Set (83 page)

          The voice was hypnotically beautiful but commanding and powerful at the same time – the voice of authority, the kind that was used to being obeyed instantly.

          “Fuck you.”

          Her fierceness pleased him, making it harder for Silviu to keep his voice unsmiling but mild as he asked, “Why did you take your top off, milady?”

          The accent and that last word he murmured tipped her off.
A local, no---a titled local,
George realized. She was almost out of her mind with fear, but she forced herself to file away the possibly useful information. Thoughts of Marquis de Sade entered her mind, and those she pushed away completely. Those thoughts, she totally had no use for.

          “Milady?”

          “I…” Oh God – did she tell the truth? What if he thought her insane…and that was some kind of turn on for him? “I…was…hot?”

          “You are,” Silviu affirmed, unable to hold back the thread of possessiveness that lined his voice as he studied the girl before him. With her arms over her head and the tree against her back, she was forced to stand straight, thus pushing out her cotton-covered breasts.

He inhaled, struggling for control. As a half-incubus, desire was a power he wielded easily. Apparently, it was not applicable if the girl in question was his heartkeeper.

George could feel eyes travelling all over her body, the hunger in the stranger’s gaze palpable. It made her squirm in mortification.

“Look at me.” The voice was smooth as velvet, a silken command that George found herself obeying against her will. She saw knee-high boots, the most expensive kind – she had spent more than enough time here to know the difference by now.

His breeches were also expensive, appearing warm, luxurious, and custom fitted, outlining the strength of his obviously-muscular legs. He wore no coat – only the finest lawn shirt, white as snow, unbuttoned low enough to reveal a golden triangle of skin, smooth and hard.

George hesitated when her gaze focused on his lips, the sight of it – thin, defined, and beautiful – making her feel sick in the strangest and most shameful way.

Oh God, this couldn’t be happening---

“Look at me.”

She did.

And her worst fears came true.

He was the most beautiful man George had ever seen. Words like sculpted and chiseled were often used to describe someone who was gorgeous in a
manly
way, but somehow even those words did
not
feel enough to describe this man’s appeal.

His every feature was perfect – high cheekbones, aristocratic nose, and strange bright eyes that seemed to be colorless one moment and then possess all the fucking colors of the rainbow in the next. And oh! That hair – gold, blond, shiny and
long
– George had always thought guys with long hair as aging frustrated rock stars, but on this man – ah, this man.

He made the long-haired Orlando Bloom look like a fucking sissy.

He made her think of Vikings come to life.

He made George want to run away screaming because he was making her feel so goddamn weird!

And so she tried to do just that, but the invisible ropes around her wrists seemed to tighten the more George struggled.

What. The. Fuck.

George struggled harder.

          “Milady.”

          “I’m not your fucking lady!” In her fury, George looked up to give the man her most evil scowl but instead their gazes clashed.

          And with it, he consumed her.

A sensation she had never felt before unfurled inside her body, responding to the essence of him in the most basic level, causing George to press her legs together as hard as she could.
Dammit
. She really was going insane. How could being stared at by her possibly-would-be-rapist make her feel this…this
weak?
This
hot
?

She blinked, and he was still several feet away. She blinked again, and he was standing next to her body once more.

George opened her mouth to scream, but his lips closed over hers instead.

Too. Much.

It was her first kiss. Her first kiss and it was gone, stolen, just like that – George might have cried over it, but she couldn’t, not when his firm lips moved so agonizingly slowly over hers. His lips pressed and lifted over hers repeatedly, pressing little kisses everywhere as if he had all the time in the world to enjoy her.

George’s body was weakening, but she did her best to fight the languor that the stranger’s kisses was weaving over her. Even this close, only their lips touched but it did not matter. His heat was…

Too. Much.

A soft broken gasp slipped past her lips. The heat of his body was intensely explosive, making it unnecessary for him to touch George to possess her. He already fucking did – just by standing this close.

Silviu reluctantly lifted his head, his breathing harsh as he gazed down at her. Her lips were swollen by his kiss, and the sight of it fascinated him. He rubbed his thumb on her lips soothingly.

“I’m sorry.”

She did not answer, but her eyes shot sparks at him.
No, you are fucking not.

A sense of premonition gripped Silviu at that instant, tempting him with a vision of the future – of this very girl cursing him through the bond they would share when she became his heartkeeper. This girl would always fight him, never let him walk all over her – and she would be even more passionate in bed.

He could not fucking wait for that damn day to come.

When her captor looked down at George, he was smiling. 

The sight of it convinced her. He was crazy – and she was drugged. Somehow, he had gotten drugs into her system, which had now taken effect and were causing her to imagine all sorts of things. Like her hands over her head? It was not magic, not fucking supernatural powers of any kind at work – it was her nervous system not cooperating because of the drugs.

“Tell me why you took your top off.”

“Fuck---” He made a move towards her, and fearing that she had provoked the stranger into hitting her, George lost her courage and said quickly, “I’m sorry! I’m going to tell you the truth now!”

The stranger moved back, his face once again a picture of patience.

“I was taking it off because there’s this legend I know that when there are elementals trying to trick you, they can cause you to have hallucinations. The only way to escape them is to turn your shirt inside out.”

George kept her voice as low as possible and she did her best to slur her words, hoping the tactics were enough for the stranger to misunderstand her.

She looked up, and her heart sank.

He appeared stunned, which meant he did hear and understand every word George had said – and his next words confirmed it. “That’s fucking stupid.” He paused, adding in an extremely innocent voice, “But maybe if you strip down completely…”

“Fuck you.” The words were out before George could stop them.

Ah shit. Rule #1 for victims who wanted to survive was
never
to provoke their captors
unnecessarily.
And she had done exactly that. She was so in it for now.

George squeezed her eyes shut, unable to stop herself from cringing as she readied herself for an attack---

But it never came.

When George opened her eyes, he was smiling again.

Fuck, he really was crazy.

“I’m not going to hurt you.” His voice was incredibly gentle, but that only made her more nervous.

“But I am a very possessive man.” Now, his tone became a mixture of warning and apology at the same time. “And worse, you must be made aware that with you, I think I will become…jealous, too.”

He said a lot of other stuff, but by then George no longer heard a word he said. All she wanted to do was weep.

Fuuuuuuuuuck
.

It was just her luck to come across a serial rapist or killer who also happened to be the craziest son of a bitch in town!

“Milady?” Silviu had to say it thrice before his beautiful girl looked up, her eyes questioning. She had not been listening at all, he realized in exasperation.

He sighed.

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously at the sound.

Good. Now he had her attention.

“Listen well, my lady.” This time, Silviu allowed just a little bit more of his powers to emerge, and the combination of angel and incubus made her automatically sway towards him.

Good.

 “If you ever have such a thought again – any thought that involves showing your body to anyone else but me…”

George screamed. Of course she would fucking scream, what with her captor’s large hands suddenly covering her breasts. And he did so
completely
!

She had embarrassingly full breasts, the kind that made it difficult for her to shop for bras. They were so large she had always thought they would spill out of a man’s hands – well, now she knew. She was mistaken.

Her captor’s large hands squeezed her covered breasts and she shook her head wildly. It was the only thing she could do. George wanted to scream, but she didn’t, afraid that instead of a horrified shriek a moan would come out instead. The way he was touching her drove her mad, with the way his fingers moved this way and that, tantalizing her senses. 

It’s the drugs, George. You’re not really---

Tweak.

He had pinched her nipples, gently, but it was just
too much.

Too. Much.

George moaned, a sound impossible to prevent as his fingers tightened over her breasts once more.

          “These are MINE.” He spoke quietly, the possessiveness he warned her about more than evident in his voice. It vibrated, demanded,
captivated
–

         
Fight off the drugs, George! You’re not aroused. He’s just making you think---

         
He began to knead, and his touch became hotter, burning through the cotton. “These beautiful breasts can’t ever be seen by anyone’s eyes but mine.” He squeezed her breasts hard just before tweaking her nipples again, teasing them mercilessly like a master would with his harem slave.