A harsh breath warned that she’d pushed him too far. Before she could decide what to do, he closed a hand over the breast closest to him. His fingers pressed against her flesh, hurting and awakening it at the same time. Disconcerted, she divided her attention between his face and what he was doing. His grip was firm and secure. No matter how she might struggle, if he didn’t want her to be free, she wouldn’t be. Drawing in a ragged breath of her own, she vowed to wait him out. She’d give away nothing of what she was feeling.
“What is it?” he taunted. His hold tightened until she was certain he’d leave finger imprints on her breast. “You want me to think this is nothing to you? You don’t feel it here.” Using his other hand, he fingered her nipple. “But you do, my slave. Your body is giving you away.”
No! she wanted to scream. You’re wrong. But her nipple had already hardened, as had the one on her other breast.
“There’s so much you don’t know about me,” he informed her. “You may think I’m only a warrior, but you’re wrong.”
He kept fingering her nipple, causing her to curl and uncurl her toes. She longed to thrash her head about, to run or, if necessary, crawl away from him. At the same time, a warmth that had nothing to do with the day licked over her body. He wasn’t hurting her; if he had been, she’d have concentrated on his cruelty and hated him.
Instead he was reminding her that she was a woman.
At least partly.
“I can do this all day and into the night if that’s what it takes.” That said, he bent low over her and licked her too-sensitive nipple.
“Ah,” she moaned. Shaken by the sound, she tried to dive back into silence only to moan again when he ran his teeth over her nub. “Stop, stop!”
“Why would I do that?” His breath washed over her breast. “In fact, I see no reason not to continue this—” He released her breast but only so he could suck much of it into his mouth.
Her head suddenly felt as if it was going to burst. Even more upsetting, the drawing sensation encompassed her entire body with too much heat settling between her legs. Every muscle tightened as she struggled to not let him know what he’d done to her. He’d lightly raked his teeth over her flesh while swallowing her breast, the promise of injury and pain teaching her a lesson about him she’d never forget. Within him lurked the capacity for savagery. Although he was now tonguing and sucking her, she didn’t dare move.
Caught in ways that threatened to shatter her mind, she again struggled to divorce herself from her system. Fought and failed.
Please, please, please.
If he heard her, he gave no indication. Either that or her trembling body had told him how close she was to falling apart, which was why he continued to hold her as she’d never been held. His ropes were nothing compared to his teeth on her skin.
Moments ago her muscles had protested the position he’d forced them into, but now nothing registered except for damp heat over and around her breast and an even greater heat in her pussy. The wonder.
She hated him, hated! Feared. But her emotions weren’t that simple. Much as she wanted him to do something to make a lie of her thoughts, she half believed he knew more about her than she did. He’d restrained her leg the way he had not simply so she couldn’t get away but because he had easy access to her sex.
Desperate for something, anything to think about, she tried to bring the sky into focus, but his form was in the way. If a Falcon was watching, she couldn’t see it.
Make him pay for this! Punish him!
Diving into the act accompanying her silent command, she imagined Falcon digging his talons into her captor’s back. Blood would leak around the long gashes, and he’d scream. Keep on screaming.
Instead, he suckled on her breast. Shocked and disbelieving, she twisted her wrists in a desperate attempt to get at the knots, but even as she strained to escape the inescapable, the drawing sensation grew stronger. He wasn’t hurting her. If he had, her loathing of him would be simple and clean. Instead, the chasm between the two of them was blurring almost as if they were becoming one.
No, that couldn’t be his intention. Could it?
“Stop it! Stop it!” She struggled to turn away only to have him plant a hand against her collarbone. Her breast was starting to throb, whether from discomfort or pleasure she couldn’t say. Most upsetting, she no longer understood what she was feeling. In many ways, her body had turned against her.
“Don’t!” Digging her free foot against the ground, she struggled to get out from under him. “You can’t—don’t!”
Using his tongue, he pushed her breast free, but before she fully comprehended what had happened, he’d rolled her about so he could cup a hand around the other breast and position it near his mouth.
“Attack! Kill him!”
At her outburst, he froze, his system hard and unmoving. Even as she struggled to comprehend what she’d said, she likened him to a predator—a cougar, maybe, or a wolf. Much as she loathed admitting it, the thought of him being ruled by instinct sent energy shooting through her. He could become an animal. More than human, like her.
Still holding her in place, he rocked back on his heels and looked all around. Because she couldn’t not, she studied him. Yes, this enemy warrior had become more animal than human.
“Who were you trying to command?” His voice was cold.
Careful. “Do you think I’d tell you?”
“Maybe not now but you will, once I’ve taught you.”
Could he? she pondered while he continued to study his surroundings. She couldn’t fathom him altering her from what she’d always been, but then until today she hadn’t believed a man would ever control her as he did.
Moving with a speed beyond her comprehension, he gripped her chin and forced her to look at him.
“There’s no one here. Nowhere for someone to hide.”
Someone? How little you know. “Isn’t there?”
“No.” He cocked his head to the side, smiling faintly as he did. “But you want me to think differently. You want me to believe I’m about to be attacked so I’ll let you go, but that’s not going to happen. Think about this, Wilding. Maybe the time will come when I have no use for you. When and if that happens, I’ll discard you. But until that happens, you won’t know what freedom feels like.”
Left tied and immobile? Was that what he was hinting at? Fear dried her throat, and it took all her self-control not to look toward distant Raptor’s Craig for reassurance.
“What’s this?” He touched his fingers to the sides of her throat. “Your blood is racing. What I said frightens you, doesn’t it?”
“No.”
“Don’t lie.”
He thought she’d tell him the truth? As one moment became another, her heart rate slowed, and she no longer found it so difficult to swallow.
