Read Beast of Fire -- a Demon Hunting Sexy Romance Online
Authors: Lisa Renee Jones
“He stays with me,” Adrian said. “Then one day you will grant me a favor, nice and proper, and I’ll consider releasing him.” He yanked her toward him, his lips going to her ear. “One day when you least expect it, I will find you again.” He disappeared.
She sucked in a breath. Not if I find you first.
Because that was her new mission in life. Find a way to destroy Adrian. She forced herself to walk, reminding herself that her taxi would soon arrive.
When she reached the street to find it waiting, she didn’t look back as she climbed inside. The car started to pull away. A loud pounding sounded on the roof and they halted.
“What the—"
She rolled down the window and suck in a breath. “Cullen.” Handsome, cold-hearted Cullen.
“You resigned from the Council? Leaving town?”
“How did you know?”
“Prince Risen.”
A fine time for Risen to choose to check his messages. “It’s for the best.”
“Stay.”
“No.”
“I’ll help you find your brother. We’ll find him together.”
“Everything you do is to protect the pack. I’m not a part of that. I can’t be. And you could never trust me, anyway.”
“I’d like to try.”
Try. The truth was, she wasn’t sure she trusted herself. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do. Only that she was going to make Adrian pay.
“Don’t. Don’t try.” She reached for the window controls, spoke to the driver. “Go, please.” Then to Cullen. “Goodbye, Cullen.”
They pulled away, and she looked behind her, saw him standing where the cab had once been, staring after her. But he’d get over it, over whatever drew him to her. Had she stayed, she wasn’t sure she would have done the same with him.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Lucan held Kresley as she slept, and the comfort of his familiar, faded brown comforter and wood-paneled room surrounded him with hope that this really would be home again. She’d slept for several hours, an aftereffect of the earlier sedative he’d given her.
Jag had returned with news of the hostages' safety, and Des had come in with a few smart remarks that amounted to a showing of support. And as much as he wanted Kresley to wake up, he was content to hold her, to know she was safe.
“I love you, too,” Kresley murmured in his arms, as if she were responding to the confession he’d made hours before. The words traveled to his heart, wrapped him in warm satisfaction. But she was still in a daze, still barely awake. He did not dare hope she meant them, yet he did dare – dared with all his soul.
He slid his hands into her hair; he loved the silky texture, the fiery red that matched her personality when angry, but so contrasted with the softness of her many other moods.
“Kresley, sweetheart, wake up,” he said, trying to control how she woke, limit her disorientation.
She blinked up at him, lashes fluttering with the effort. She cast him a groggily sweet look with those beautiful green eyes. “I like it when you call me that.”
He chuckled. “I’ll remember that.”
“Baby is nice, too,” she sighed.
A second later her eyes went wide. She wiggled around and forced herself into a sitting position. “Where am I? Is this a dream?” She turned to him, grabbed his arm. “Are you real? Please be real. Not the snakes. You. Be real.”
“I am,” he promised. “I am. The Guardians attacked you, but they are gone. We’re at the ranch.”
“How? Wait. The ring? Where is the ring?”
“Safe with Cullen.”
“And the Knights?”
“Safe. Everyone is safe.”
She kissed him. Pressed those warm, velvet lips to his and kissed him. He tried to restrain himself, tried to hold back. But the soft play of her tongue sliding into his mouth pushed him over the edge. He tried to uncurl her hand from his hair.
“I need to tell you something.” She had to know that this time it was forever, that he wouldn’t have the ability to hold back.
“Later,” she said, her leg wrapping around his. “I want to feel you close, Lucan. I need . . . " She kissed him again, her body pressed tightly to his. Hunger for her beat at him. The beast was rising, free from the Guardians, primitive with desire.
He rolled her on top of her back, ravished her lips with his own, his hand stroking her breast, tongue demanding her submission. Long, drugged minutes pulled him into a haze. Somehow, they were naked, her soft, delicate curves beneath him, his body hard, pulsing with need. Control. Yourself. He repeated the words to himself. He kissed her. Touched her.
Slid his cock along the wet heat of her body and barely stopped himself from sliding inside her.
Somehow, he detached himself, landing with heaviness on his back. “No.”
Somehow, he'd found a hair of control. “Not like this.” Resistance was futile, control, a facade. Kresley followed him, climbing on top of him, and he had no will to stop her as she took him inside her. “I want to ask … I ..”
She leaned down and whispered against his lips. “Will you be my mate, Lucan?” She leaned back and smiled. “Is that proper enough for you?”
Those words were gold, the keys to his heart and soul, but also the ones to his sense of honor. She had to know everything. His palm splayed along her back. “Do not move. Just listen.”
He quickly relayed the events that had taken place. The shots. The pain as his Beast battled the Guardians for possession. Both losing in the end as man mated with woman. “Your serum saved me,” she whispered against his lips. “I can’t imagine anything more perfect. I love you, Lucan. I want this. I want you. More than I can ever express in words.”
Lucan kissed her then, and he held nothing back. Their passion a lifetime of pain, a lifetime of need.
When finally three centuries of need were released, his beast freed to mate, Lucan sank his teeth into her neck, marking her as his mate. A war raged within him as the Guardians reached out to bond with Kresley – the beast within him battling for control. Every muscle in his body ached, his chest so tight, he thought it might explode. Kresley held him through it all, murmuring soft comforts.
Slowly, the pain became pleasure, and the passion ignited again. The Guardians were gone. The Beast bound forever. There was only Kresley and Lucan. They’d proven they could make it through anything – together.
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