His eyes closed, as if in sudden pain. “Since the maze,” he echoed hoarsely. “I’ve wanted you since I first saw you.”
“Then I don’t know why you’ve stopped,” she said, and his eyes flew open again.
“I won’t.” He dragged her closer and bent his head. “Not even if you beg.”
He swept aside the loincloth. Her body trembled, and she forced her muscles to steel. Then his strong teeth nipped the inside of her thigh, her hips jerked forward, and she would beg, she would beg if he didn’t bite her again.
But he didn’t bite. He gripped her hips and tilted her forward and licked. And licked again as she cried out and pulled against the leash, bucking against his mouth and thanking the goddess for sending her to find this man. This beast who growled and held her still as he devoured her.
Abruptly his head shot up and he stared past her with jutted jaw, glistening lips, and the promise of death in his eyes. But even as she realized that someone had approached the table, they must have retreated, because he dragged her closer again.
So he wouldn’t hurt her . . . and he wouldn’t share her, either. Chest heaving, she whispered, “Kavik,” and he looked up at her through thick black eyelashes as his mouth gently closed over her clitoris—and softly tugged. He tugged again, and this time she screamed his name, then begged, but not for him to stop. Never to stop, and to give her more, and harder. He licked and tugged again, and again, pushing her closer and closer to the edge. She suddenly froze, her body straining, then shattered all at once when he followed another lick by thrusting his longest finger deep into her sheath.
The orgasm ripped another scream from her, her body writhing and her inner muscles clamping down on him. His satisfied groan buzzed through her flesh. Her spine arched, because now it was too much, she’d begged for more and he’d given her more than she’d been ready for.
His licks softened and slowed. His finger slid from inside her, and though he still held her knees open his touch had changed. The kisses that moved up the length of her thigh weren’t hungry, but almost reverent.
Then a soldier shouted, “If your head’s down there, little pony, she’s got you tamed already!” and Kavik shoved her off the table.
Her blood still roaring, she swung from the beam before her toes found the floor again. Her legs were as steady as pudding. Over the soldiers’ raucous laughter, she heard Kavik call for another ale.
She grinned down at him. “I didn’t count how many tugs that was, warrior. You might have to do it a second time.”
He shook his head. His skin had flushed with anger again—at her, at himself, or at the soldiers, she didn’t know. He downed the ale in a few great gulps, then without looking at her, reached past her thigh and slipped his broad thumb into her swollen sheath.
Mala gasped, her muscles tightening around him. She canted her hips to allow him deeper access, but he was already withdrawing his hand and rising from his seat.
Holding her gaze, Kavik brought his thumb to his lips and sucked her wetness from his skin. “I’ll wait until I can fuck it.”
He abruptly strode past her, abandoning the table. Mala bowed her head, biting her lips against her laughter. She didn’t know if he was leaving her to hang or just going outside to jerk the stiffness from his cock, but either way, this quest had started out very well—and Kavik was not as cold toward her now as he’d been when she’d first stepped into the inn.
Light steps approached. Mala looked over her shoulder to meet Selaq’s concerned gaze.
“Do you need to be helped down?” the innkeeper asked.
“Is Kavik returning?”
“I don’t know. He is through the back chamber, gathering his clothes.”
So he might be returning. “I’ll wait. With another ale, if you’ll bring one.”
But the next steps that neared weren’t Selaq’s or Kavik’s. Mala swung around to face one of the soldiers, a drunken brute with greedy eyes and his erection making a tentpole beneath his brocs.
His gaze rose to her bound wrists before sliding down her body. “Your beast ran off to his den. But it sounded like he warmed you up good.”
Mala recognized this one’s voice. Little pony. “He did. Now walk away from me. He had my permission. You don’t.”
The soldier scratched his bristled chin. “Problem is, you warmed up me and my men good, too. And we’re thinking it won’t be long until you’re screaming and squirming on our pricks, and liking it just as much.”
She stared at him in disbelief before glancing at the others. They didn’t look as eager to fuck as they did entertained. They would enjoy her encounter with this brute no matter the outcome. “Do you not know what I’ll do to you?”
“We’ve heard what you did to the citadel guards.” He tilted his big head to the left and eyed her wrists. “Don’t know how you’ll manage that now.”
Easily. “I warn you, soldier. You’ll lose any hand that touches me.”
Behind him, Selaq came into the common room, carrying Mala’s flagon of ale. Her eyes widened in alarm. “You soused lout, Delan! Get away from her before she takes your fool head!”
Her warning only made him more determined. His lewd sneer turned ugly. “We’ll see.”
He reached for Mala’s loincloth. By Vela, she would not even give him a chance to touch her.
Gripping the leash, she hauled herself up and snapped her booted foot into his balls. He folded over, retching. Swiftly she spun toward the table. Kavik had shoved her sword farther down its length than she could reach, but one of her knives lay close enough. She trapped the hilt between her feet and flipped upward, bringing the blade to her hands. Before her legs swung back to the ground, she’d sliced through the leash.
With an enraged roar, Delan came at her like a charging ox. The idiot. Her hands were still bound but she held a leash and a blade.
Choosing her weapon, she whipped the length of leather around his throat, leapt up onto the table and vaulted past him, yanking the leash. His feet kept going; his upper body didn’t. His legs flew out from beneath him and he landed hard on his back, choking and ripping at the leather circling his neck. Mala jumped heavily onto his chest and stomped his cock again. It wasn’t so hard now.
She glanced up. Kavik hadn’t run off to a den; he’d apparently only been donning his clothes and gathering his belongings. Arms crossed over his now-armored chest, he stood at the nearest table, watching without expression. Selaq waited behind him, her mouth agape.
Good. Mala had worked up a thirst even before this scut had attempted to touch her.
“The ale?” she asked, and gratefully took the flagon the innkeeper brought to her. Beneath her feet, a purple-faced Delan tried to heave her away. She ground the toe of her boot into his throat and didn’t step off until his eyes rolled back and his struggles ceased. Not dead. Just beaten soundly.
As if suddenly uneasy, the other soldiers looked away from her and quietly resumed their drinking. Since they weren’t going to display the same stupidity or avenge their comrade, Mala approached Kavik and held out her bound hands.
“Are you still showing me what it means to be tamed? We’ll need a new leash.”
“No.” He unfastened the collar from her wrists with a few sharp pulls. “I’ll return for you here when the moon is full.”
“I’m supposed to wait?”
“You will.”
The warrior hadn’t tugged her leash that well. But she said nothing and watched him go. There was still much to learn about Kavik the Beast; it could not all be done now. He had more to learn about her, too—such as how patient and stubborn she could be.
He would soon find out.
CHAPTER 5
The woman in red followed Kavik across the moors. Riding her stallion and leading three other horses, she’d appeared behind him as the midday sun slipped behind gray clouds. As the rolling hills flattened into a dank marsh, she dismounted and trailed him on foot. When evening fell, she stopped to tend to the animals and to lay out a camp. By night, she was only a small flickering fire in the distance. Though hungry and tired, he continued on until the shadows of the Weeping Forest swallowed his trail.