Kiss of the Beast (A Classic Paranormal Romance) Read online

  "The next time you try to kiss her, I will."

  "What gives you the right to tell me that? And just what the hell are you, anyway? King Kong on steroids?"

  "Eva is my woman and I protect what is mine. As for what I am—"

  "That's enough out of both of you! Ethan, go home. Urich, go lift some weights if you want to let off some steam. As for me, I'm so steamed that I'm smokin'."

  Ethan looked from one to the other. "Your woman? Does this mean that you two are, uh... like engaged or something?"

  "Something and more," Urich confirmed. Eva didn't dispute him, but she looked mightily tempted to.

  "Why didn't you tell me, Eva? You could have saved all of us a really nasty scene."

  "That's a good question, Eva. Why didn't you tell him about us?"

  Lips pinched, she glared at the two men who were waiting for an answer. It came to Urich that they'd put her in Ethan's earlier position, when he'd turned from victim to suspect. Suppressing a smile that would get him into more trouble than he already was, he offered, "Oh, of course. You wanted your family to be the first to know."

  "Right," she said tight as the corner she was in. "Consider yourself honored, Ethan. You got the news before I had a chance to absorb it myself."

  Though he surely considered the honor dubious, Ethan said quietly, "Congratulations."

  "You're very gracious. I'm impressed." Which he was. Even from Ethan he was learning.

  "And I'm envious as hell—but I know when I'm beat." Ethan breathed out a "whew" as he sized up the winner. "So, you're a body builder. How much can you press?"

  "I could go for a world record." He flexed an arm.

  "I guess." Ethan eyed his biceps with even more envy than he'd expressed over Eva. "Wow, you snagged yourself a real Charles Atlas. He was my idol growing up. My dad gave me all those old books he'd ordered when he was a kid but—"

  "I don't believe this." Eva rolled her eyes.

  "Belief is the key," Urich explained. "You have to train your mind to achieve what you really want. Mind over matter."

  "So that's... never mind." Then to Eva, he said, "I pushed my luck and I'm really sorry about that. Guess getting those braces off went to my head. No hard feelings?"

  "Of course not." Her shoulders stiffened as Urich put a possessive arm around them.

  "Great. Maybe we can get together another time—make it a foursome—and Urich can give me some pointers Charles Atlas didn't cover." He laughed awkwardly.

  "I'd like that," Urich told him, admiring Ethan's strained attempt at humor. "I hope you'll accept my apology for what I did. It was inexcusable."

  "No sweat." This time Ethan didn't hesitate to shake the hand Urich proffered. "Later, Eva."

  He was nearing his own car when she threw a quelling glance at Urich and broke away, caught Ethan's arm. She spoke quietly to him and though Urich wanted to listen, he did not. And when she kissed his cheek, he made himself watch, endured the flash of jealousy, and knew a small triumph in simply waiting as she gave Ethan an affectionate hug.

  It was certainly more than she gave him upon returning. "Get in," she snapped.

  Urich allowed her to drive several miles before breaking the terse silence. "Eva, I'm—"

  "Don't talk to me because anything I say back won't be nice." She slapped away his hand.

  Her rejection stung. She wouldn't let him apologize, though Ethan, who'd been not only rejected but nearly mauled, had shown admirable grace in his acceptance. Women. Why did they say nothing was wrong when something was? Why, when they said something was wrong, did they lash out with silence and refuse to talk about it?

  "Really, Eva, I don't under—"

  "I said don't talk to me."

  He nursed his hurt and a growing indignation while she fumed in silence. By the time she killed the engine and marched into the house several paces ahead of him, the composure he had maintained was at an end.

  Urich slammed shut the front door she'd left open. Eva stopped in her tracks, slowly turned. Between gritted teeth, she punctuated each word. "This. Is. My. House. These. Are. My. Doors. Break another one and—"

  "And you'll do what?" he challenged. "Spank me? Send me to my room? You're treating me like a child and I resent it."

  "Then quit acting like one." She gave him her back. "Good night, Urich."

  "Where do you think you're going?" His feet cut an aggressive path to the stairs before she could take to them.

  "To my room. Alone."

  "No you're not. We're going to talk about why you're mad because I protected what was mine. And once you apologize to me for your rude rejection of my apology, then we'll kiss and make up. In. Bed. Together."

  "I have no intentions of making up tonight and hell can freeze over before I apologize after you had the nerve to act like I'm your chattel! Well, I'm not. Do you hear me? I am not some kind of possession you can claim as yours, and nearly kill somebody over for something as minor as a kiss."

  "You are mine. Mine to protect—with more care than I did earlier—and to kiss whenever I want. I want to kiss you now, Eva. Now."

  "Too bad. I don't want to kiss you. If you're lucky, I'll wake up feeling otherwise." She tried to pass him but he latched onto her arms.

  "You'll feel otherwise once I kiss you."

  "Damn it, Urich, you're behaving worse than Ethan."

  "He doesn't have a right to that behavior. I do," he informed her, scooping her up and making haste up the stairs.

  "Put me down!"

  He did. Plop in the middle of the bed he stood beside with legs braced and arms folded. "We'll finish our discussion and then I'll have that kiss you're withholding."

  Rather than praise his restraint, the logical discourse he offered when they both knew he could have anything he wanted from her with a single well-placed fingertip, she threw a pillow at him. Smack in the mouth.

  "That's the closest you're getting to a kiss tonight." She pointed to the door. "Out!"

  Out? He'd give her "out" all right. Out of his clothes, out of hers. Out with her frustration and his reasons for sustaining it. And then out with her binding answer to seal their shared fates.

  Slowly, with absolute purpose, Urich unbuttoned his shirt. Eva closed her eyes but he knew she was peeking beneath her lashes.

  "Open your eyes," he softly commanded.

  "No. You'll try to control me if I do."

  "I don't want to control you. All I want or need from you is acceptance. Acceptance of my flaws and the best I have to offer. My fidelity, my devotion, my love. And my body's expression of them... such as my body is. Now, open your eyes and see what I am."

  Hesitantly, she did. He watched her watching him as he released the snap to his jeans, then drew down the zipper. Though he wanted to close his eyes against any revulsion in hers, he had to know, see her acceptance or rejection as he pushed the jeans to his thighs.

  No farther did he go, prepared to restore himself at a single shudder. No shudder came, but she did gasp.

  Her hand trembled as she reached to touch him. The touch she blessed him with expanded both his heart and the loins she marveled over with whispers of wonder.

  "You see as others do not, Eva."

  "What I see is... Urich, you're breathtaking."

  "I'll take yours away as never before," he vowed as she stroked his sheath. "Come Beauty, come love your beast."

  Chapter 16

  The touch of mink. A fur so luxurious and sensual and soft, she would have wrapped her body in it if she could. Sliding her cheek over his pelt, Eva could feel him pulsing within, feel the heat rising from him and enveloping her with warmth, such warmth.

  The scents of rain and musk were a heady perfume and she pressed her nose close, inhaling his most private scent, even more intoxicating than the fragrance wafting from his skin.

  She purred, loving the sound that naturally emerged from her; thrilling to his answering low growl. His hands were in her hair, sifting gently, then insistently pulling
her head back until she raised her face to him.

  "There's a change coming on me. What's beneath the surface is close to emerging and once started I can't stop it. We call it The Unveiling. These are our origins and not even logic can eradicate this stripping of the civilized veneer we hold so tightly to. It's is painful for the male, but he has to endure it to prove himself strong enough for his mate. And she has to be strong enough to see his changing—then brave enough accept him as the beast he is. If you can't bear to be touched by a beast, then tell me now. Tell me before it's too late."

  Could she bear it? Eva knew the only thing she couldn't bear would be the loss of their once in a lifetime love.

  "I want you, Urich. In any way, shape or form, I want you." Stroking that marvelous lush texture, she could feel he was rigid but sleek beneath. But when she tried to expose him, Urich cinched her wrist and pulled her hand away.

  "Careful. Unleash me there and the change will be on me before either of us are ready."

  "Will I change too?" she asked a little hopefully. There was some comfort in thinking whatever he became she would be equal to his prowess.

  "Physically?" He shook his head. "You're not genetically able. However..." He looked away. "Your genes are amply compatible to give birth to a hybrid like myself."

  Amazingly, it was the first thing he'd said that gave Eva pause. It should be preposterous, worrying about not having any condoms when he was made too uniquely to wear one. But what a serious consideration it was. "We seem to have a problem now. I don't have any birth control."

  "It doesn't—" He hesitated, then gestured to his genitals. "If the child could be spared this. If we could live out our days together and raise a family here—would you want my children?"

  Wanting to give him the assurance he seemed so needful of, she quickly did. "I didn't want to have John's babies because something in me insisted that a child deserved two parents who couldn't live without each other. That's the way it is with us. Would I want your children? Yours and only yours, Urich."

  His smile was tinged with sorrow. "I just needed to know if you would want what I do, so much, so very much—but can never have." A ragged breath and he said, "I'm infertile, Eva. I can mate but I can't breed. We're a dying race, you see. Our ability to propagate was taken from us. Almost."

  When she would have asked him more, Urich put a finger to her lips. "Put aside what's better saved for later and take what I offer you now: My mark. It's the sign of my protection, our mutual possession, and once there, can never be erased. None of my kind would ever dare touch you and no human male who valued his gender would try to steal my claim for as long as I live. Mate with me and those children you wish for might never be. Give your answer with care. You'll never make a decision more binding than this."

  Gazing at him, at this child of the universe who had brought such infinite wonder to her life, Eva was moved. That he would bind himself to her, a woman not so different from the others of her world, was testimony to the highest universal truth: The one every woman knew from the first breath she took; it was rooted in the heart.

  "Love, real love, is unconditional, Urich. Love simply is, and the simple truth is—I do love you. You've changed my life and I don't want to live it without you. Children would be icing on the cake, but you're the cake."

  There was joy, sheer joy in his kiss. But when he broke it, his voice was somber. "The changing is near and waiting. You're ready for this?"

  Upon her nod, Urich softly chanted. He swayed to a ritual sound, an alien incantation spoken in such a way she knew it was holy.

  And then he said, "I vow my eternal devotion to you."

  "And I give mine to you."

  "Ah Eva, I—" His sudden stillness was absolute; it seemed he was poised, listening for something only he could hear, waiting for something only he could see.

  And then he doubled over.

  "Urich, Urich what's wrong, what's—"

  "It's happening. Please, Eva, whatever you do, don't run. If you do, I'm afraid that I might—might—attack you."

  "I won't run." She reached for him but he staggered back, hugged himself as if trying to contain something that was tearing him apart.

  His eyes rolled up. His face contorted in anguish, and how it hurt to see him twisting against the bindings of his shirt.

  The seams split. The muscles of his chest were expanding before her stricken eyes while her ears registered the ripping of stitches. His sleeves hung in tatters, revealing his biceps, enlarged and rippling with a powerful grace as he tore off the shirt with a chilling howl. Arms reaching for the sky, his hands nearly doubled in size while his fingers curled slightly in and his nails extended into deadly claws.

  She couldn't have run if she'd wanted to, so compelling was his wrenching transition. And thank God she couldn't run; his thighs were flexing, extending into powerful pistons of muscle and flesh that could surely overtake her in a leap.

  His gaze that had turned inward now focused on her. His eyes glittered with a ferocious hunger and she heard the snap of bones shifting, saw the slight but noticeable recession of his cheeks, the extension of his jaw, lending him a striking likeness to a wolf.

  But it was a man who spoke, his voice a rough, riveting sound that matched his altered physique.

  "It's over. Are you afraid of what you see?"

  "No." But she should be trembling, terrified by this man-creature who towered over her, majestic and formidable in his brute strength.

  "You're very brave. A worthy mate I now claim for my own." A growl emerged from his throat as he stroked a talon over hers. "Bare your neck."

  Eva took off her trim jacket. Then with surprisingly steady hands, she unbuttoned her silk blouse, tossed it beside his shorn shirt. Opening her arms, her mind and emotions, she offered him all that she was, had been, could ever be.

  His hair whipped her breasts as he shook his head. "First I'll hear you ask for my mark."

  "Mark me," she whispered, arching her neck.

  His head lowered until lightly, ever so lightly his teeth grazed her skin, made it tingle with anticipation.

  "I love you, Eva. And it's with love that I give you the kiss of the beast."

  His teeth clamped her neck and she could feel those two sharp incisors lodge there. A shooting pain mingled with a rush of ecstasy as his lips yawned wide and his tongue laved her. His jaws, she could feel them working back and forth with the force of his sucking. And his teeth, they were moving all the while, pressing and retreating but never withdrawing from her skin, unmistakable in their coupling intent.

  She couldn't move. She couldn't speak. All she could do was accept his possession of the very life of her and exult in his hunger, his mouth drinking her in.

  A transcendent kiss of mysterious power was the kiss of the beast. She was floating, and if this was death then how sweet to die, to trip on the light fantastic, her body electric with the fusion of their souls.

  His teeth slipped from her neck and only then did she cry out. Crying, "don't stop! Come back. Urich, come back!"

  "It's done," he pronounced gravely. And then he put his predator's hand to her throat. He could have torn it open with a single swipe to her jugular, but no greater protection had she ever felt than in his moving caress which imparted a glowing sensation.

  "I've sealed the wounds, but my mark is forever. Not even time, in all its fickle composition, can erase my eternal kiss. You trusted me with the life I've vowed to honor above my own. In exchange, I give the life in me, to you."

  The bed sank near to the floor as he settled his weight on the edge and pulled her onto his lap. It felt like the size of a throne, his groin a cushion that was softer than silk, harder than jutting granite.

  He urged her head to his shoulder and Eva pulled away, held his brutally beautiful face in her hands. "What you did was... a wondrous thing and—and I want you to do it again. Again and again. But, Urich, I can't do that to you."

  "You think I want you to mark me?" At
her nod, he chuckled. "You'll mark me as yours, but not with your teeth."

  "Then... how?"

  He smiled with a dark radiance, wolverine incisors tipped with a moonlight sheen. "We mate."

  It's savage and it's sacred. Eva, I cannot. She'd thought many times of those words framing his refusal, and with great curiosity; but now that the moment was at hand, she wondered if curiosity could indeed kill the cat.

  "Will you hurt me?"

  "Hurt what I would die to protect?" He licked her neck. "This is the sign of my protection—even from me. Had you run before I marked you... I shudder to think. But you didn't, just as I knew you wouldn't. Eva," he said with great pride, "you did well. There's not another in the universe more courageous than you."

  She did feel courageous. Courageous and proud to bear Urich's sign of their bond. She also felt worthy of it, equal to his awesome strength. There was no fear in her, none at all. It made her a little reckless, induced her to ask:

  "So I'm safe... even if I run?"

  "Oh, I'd like that. Especially since you probably wouldn't be an easy catch. Listen, can you hear her?"

  A distant sound, she heard it. Closer it came until she knew that if only she reached within, she could race the wind, touch the stars, be anything she imagined she could be.

  A feline smile tilted her lips. "The lioness."

  "Yesss," he hissed.

  Though she had no physical changes such as his, there was a change working in her as well. Her sense of self was crystallizing as never before, gathering momentum and infused with so much energy that her limbs twitched with the need to release it. Had his bite done this? Or had her show of courage been the catalyst that finally unleashed the wildish woman she no longer feared.

  Skating a nail over his enormous chest, Eva murmured, "So what's a lioness to do on her mating night?"

  His lip lifted in a sexy snarl. "She runs with the wolf."

  "Or..." Bounding from his lap, Eva stretched enticingly. Then leaped away from his possessive snatch at her. "She could run from him."