Shifters, Beasts, and Monsters (12 page)

 “What are you supposed to guard this barrier from,
exactly?”

“From forbidden incursions. Now that the two worlds
have separated, they must be kept apart. There is no magic to speak of in our
world. It must be kept out.”

“Surely a little magic can be permitted to enter our
world. Everybody needs a touch of magic.”

He couldn’t help himself. He reached out and brushed a
silky lock of her hair with his fingertips. “Even a touch of magic can be
dangerous.”

She blinked, her inky lashes briefly curtaining her
eyes. “You’re speaking as if magic were real.”

“What makes you think it isn’t?”

“I wish it were! I’d love to see the fantastic
creatures that pass through this barrier. Your sea dragon, in particular.”

“That might be arranged.” He smiled. “I am, as you
know, the current Laird of Mallochbirn.”

Her eyes were very bright. “And you have mystical
powers.”

“So I’m told.”

She tilted her head and studied him more closely than
she ever had before. With his heightened senses, Ross perceived that she was
assessing him on many different levels. He thought he felt a faint brush
against his mental walls. He rebuffed it automatically, then wished he hadn’t.
He knew what it was like to be open to her, and he enjoyed it.

  “I would dearly like to meet your Zrakon. Can you
summon him through the mystical barrier for me?”

“That might be dangerous.”

“Shall we try your powers on something smaller? I hear
rustling in the hedgerow there—it’s probably a mouse. Can you command its
will enough to lure it out of hiding?”

“You like mice?” he asked, eyebrows raised.

“I like every sort of animal.”

Her challenge was not entirely casual, he suspected.
She had been able to form a link with the Zrakon. The only other person who
could do that was his twin, with whom he shared identical DNA.

Ross focused, reaching out with his mind. She was
right—there was a mouse nearby. The fact that she could perceive it was
telling. Most humans would not have known it was there.

He closed a mental bond with the mouse—a trivial
feat, really, and lured it into the open. It scampered obediently toward his
boot. He stooped, cupped his hand in the grass, and the mouse crawled into his
palm.

Kate, who had been watching him with an arch smile,
gasped. She slipped to her knees beside the bench, squinting down at the tiny
field mouse that he held out to her. “How did you do that?” There was no skepticism
in her voice now. “The poor thing—it’s trembling.”

“It’s frightened.” He released the creature, which
scurried away, diving into the hedgerow.

“I’ve never seen anyone do that before. I can communicate
with cats and dogs and such. But they don’t obey my will.”

“I’m not that good with cats. I get along well with most
other animals, but cats remain elusive.” He grinned. “Rather like human females.”

Kate rose to her feet, but her knees were weak. Who
was this man? He had just moved them both into a different territory. Ross Malloch
had casually done something she would have thought impossible. “How did you do
that?”

“I’ve startled you. Forgive me. I am a vet, as you
know. I have an affinity for animals.”

“Will you teach me?”

His smile flashed, crinkling his eyes and softening
his cheekbones. He moved closer and his voice lowered, spinning a sensual web
around her. “Teach you what?”

She felt giddy. She was alone in the heart of a maze
with a sorcerer. And unless she was mistaken, he was going to kiss her.

He moved the two paces that brought him close to her.
The atmosphere around them thickened. It was as if he walked around with his
own cloud of sensuality surrounding him. All he had to do was get near her and
she was engulfed, too.

He drew her close. There was heat where his body
touched hers. It made her breasts heavy and caused a warm, fluttery feeling in
her belly. Desire. She wanted him
so
much.

She felt his fingers brush her scalp, and then graze
the side of her throat. He cupped her chin. His blue eyes, intense now, gazed
down into hers, then blurred as he lowered his face to hers.

He took his time. His mouth stayed poised above hers
while the small space between them pulsed and throbbed with expectation. He
brought her closer still, tightening the arm around her waist. His other hand slid
into her hair. The air sizzled as his lips touched hers.

The mouth that could look so hard and stern at times
could kiss like velvet. He tangled his tongue with hers. The skill of that
tongue sent bolts of arousal into her breasts and belly. Her arms slid around
him and clung. She went up on her tiptoes and rubbed herself against him. She
could feel him along the entire length of her, hard bone and firm sinew
pressing aggressively into her softer flesh.

He sighed with pleasure. She could feel his heart
thundering against her breasts, and between her legs she was slick and hungry.

The hand that had been in her hair moved. His fingers
descended along her back to her hip, then cupped her butt and squeezed hard
before sliding up the groove of her spine, one vertebra at a time.

Kate was damp with need, intoxicated by him. Fiercely,
she caressed the smooth, firm muscles of his back. He made a low growling sound
of encouragement. “Kate,” he murmured. His breathing changed and she felt him
tremble. His hands roughened, and his touch felt like fire.

He explored her breasts, pushing fabric aside. Her
eyes widened, for, as his fingers drifted over her, they gave off tiny sparkles
of light, like phosphorescence on the surface of the sea at night.

He seemed to notice it at the same time she did. His hand
stopped moving. “Don’t be afraid,” he said raggedly. “It’s nothing.” He drew a
deep breath and the sparkles coming from his fingers winked out. Kate blinked
at the air where they had been, wondering if intense desire could make people
see stars.

Ross seemed to realize how tightly he was holding her.
He released her. A look of unease crossed his features. “Am I hurting you?”

Kate shook her head. She wanted to laugh out loud. Who
was this man, this mysterious Ross Malloch? She had never met anyone remotely
like him. He was special. He gave off
sparks
.

How would it feel to strip off his clothes, and trace
her fingers over his glowing skin? Her body yearned to join with his, giving
and receiving all varieties of pleasure.

 Ross cleared his throat and passed the back of his
hand over his damp forehead. “That settles it.”

“
What
 
was
that?”

“There is a bond between us. You felt it, too.”

“Well, I certainly felt 
something
.”

“There’s a strange old legend about the Zrakon’s Bond—I
thought it was a fable, but maybe it’s not. You are meant to be with me. To be
my mate.”

Kate backed up a step. “Your—wait, what do you
mean?”

“You know what I mean.”

She didn’t know what he meant, but what the hell, who
cared? The energy emitted by his hands had looked like sparkler fireworks from
Fourth of July celebrations. How would they feel against her skin? Taking his
hand, she brought it back to her breast.

She felt him tense. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

Her curiosity was stronger than her fear. She had to
know how it felt. “It doesn’t hurt.”

That wasn’t entirely true. As soon as his skin touched
her, the sparkles started up again. As she drew his hand inside the neckline of
her top, she felt both heat and static. The sensation was odd. It didn’t exactly
burn, didn’t exactly shock, but was something in between—a strong
tingling, vibrating feeling. “What does it feel like to you?”

“It feels good,” he admitted. “Intense.” His eyes
looked dreamy. “It’s warm and it tingles. It makes your skin feel extra soft and
silky. It’s as if all the nerves in my fingers have been zapped up to a higher
degree of sensitivity.”

“That’s how it feels to me, too. It’s as if your
fingers have turned into a human vibrator.”

He laughed low in his throat. “Really? Well, in that
case...” He slid his glowing hands lower on her breasts, letting the sparkles
flicker over her nipples. She groaned and arched her spine, bringing her breasts
more fully into contact with his magic. The sensation from sparkles radiated
from her nipple down in a line to her clit, which pulsed strongly. Her breath
came out in a sigh. “Ross,” she said his name like a plea. “It doesn’t matter
who won the race. If you want to get naked right here in the maze, I won’t say
no.”

Ross felt his pulse go into overdrive. Had she just
said yes to him? Sure sounded like it.

He knew now the true tenor of their bond. No sooner
had she surrendered to his first kiss than the erotic magic of the Zrakon swept
through him. She had been seared upon him, body and soul. It was more than just
a sexual attraction, far more. She had imprinted on him. She was his mate.

The Zrakon wanted her, he knew that, but he wasn’t the
Zrakon—at least, the Zrakon wasn’t
all
that he was. The Zrakon’s
midsummer lust every year was an inconvenience, but he had tolerated it since
the first time, when he’d been nineteen. Usually the damn creature left him
alone. They didn’t even have the same taste in women. The Zrakon liked lassies
like, well, like Effie.

But one of the most enduring legends of the isle was
that he, the human part of him, would one day feel a mystical bond with a human
female and fall in love with her. And now his body was clamoring to seize Kate,
march her up to his bedroom, tear off her clothing, and fuck her until they
both screamed aloud, sealing the bond between them.

The Zrakon always knows his mate.

Control, damnation, get some control. He forced
himself to breathe slowly and evenly. 

She was his. He let the images of what he intended
flow toward her, envelope her. She felt them; he could tell by the way her lips
parted and her breathing grew shallow and fast. He could arouse her without
even touching her. They shared a telepathic link. That was exactly the way it
should be between them now.

He wasn’t going to waste this chance, burning hands or
no burning hands. As gently as possible, he slipped her top over her head. It
got tangled in her long hair, but she laughed and helped him pull it free. He
loved her laugh—so deep and throaty. Kate was a woman who really enjoyed
life. It was one of the things that drew him to her.

It might be his hands that were glowing with mystical
fire, but she was the one whose warmth radiated into all the gloomy corners of Mallochbirn.
He was certain that the riot of colorful flowers blooming in the garden today
was due to her presence. The entire place was greener and more fertile since
the Zrakon had cradled her against his breast and brought her to the keep.

Don’t think about that, he warned himself. The Zrakon
was growing more and more difficult to suppress. Touching her in his human
form, especially when his dick was so hard and heavy with desire, was a
dangerous thing to do. The more aroused he got, the closer to the surface the beast
rose. Usually the only time of year when it was difficult to keep him buried
was on Midsummer’s Eve, when he came out and had his fun. But this year his fun
had been denied.

Kate had already unsnapped and slipped out of her bra.
Christ, her breasts were beautiful. Pert and plump, they were larger than he
had imagined. He wondered if, like many women, she worried about them being too
large. Why did so many women choose to be so skinny these days? Some of them
barely had breasts at all. Kate’s were just the right size, though. Lovely
breasts, her dark nipples hard with arousal.

He put both his hands on her breasts and let the
sparkles stimulate the nipples. At first she flinched slightly, and he knew
what she was feeling could not be quite as harmless as she had claimed. But a
moment later, she relaxed and even arched into his hands. Her lovely eyes
closed and the expression on her face spoke volumes—she was into it. Her
head fell back and she writhed like an erotic dancer as the sparkles danced
over her flesh.

“It’s so amazing,” she murmured. “I’ve never felt
anything like it. You’re some kind of sorcerer, aren’t you? The Sorcerer of
Sex.”

He laughed, not feeling much like a sorcerer, but
wishing he knew more magic, if magic would please her. Keeping one hand at her
breast, he slowly moved the other down over her belly. Her skin felt so smooth.
Every touch of it reverberated in his cock, which was just about splitting his
trousers. He traced his hand in a circle across her abs, which were well-defined.
She was really fit.

She was wearing one of those skirts that clung to the
hips rather than the waist, but it was getting in the way. He searched for its
fastenings, and she obliged by unbuttoning something in the back and pushing it
down over her hips. Then she kicked out of it and slid her bikini panties down
her long, lovely legs. She didn’t seem at all shy to be naked, which didn’t
surprise him. He reminded himself that he had already seen her bare body thru
his Zrakon eyes. And then again as a human when he carried her from the cavern
to her bedroom in the Tower. But even so, her body was a revelation to him.