Page 16 of Carnal Magic
On cue, he moved his leg slightly, drawing my attention to skin-tight black pants and knee-high shiny black boots.
“See how easy it is to manipulate me, my lady?” He drawled, tapping a riding crop against his leathered calf. “You’re entirely in control here.”
“Oh really?” I retorted, my cheeks burning. “I didn’t think of a riding crop.”
His eyebrows rose, his lips quirking. “Oh? Are you sure? Perhaps you meant…”
A whip snaked across the rocky floor to lightly lick at my toes. I leaped back with an embarrassing squeal, but it didn’t hurt. Cheeks burning, I shot him a hard look. “I would never want a whip.”
He had the audacity to wink at me. “I’ll remind you of those words later.”
I trembled, torn between fury and embarrassment.
And arousal.
I’d never felt so off balance. For all his promises that I was in control, I couldn’t help but doubt everything. Especially myself. I hadn’t thought of a whip, had I? But I couldn’t deny the delicious threat pulsing through me. A gorgeous man with seduction blazing in his eyes and a whip in his hand. Heart-pounding adrenaline pulsed through my veins. The sinking pit in my stomach blurred into blooming heat in my groin.
Fear and arousal. A heady combination.
I tried to calm down and focus on what was real. This was a dream. Right? Then I could just wake up. Why didn’t I wake up as soon as I thought of it?
Why didn’t Iwantto wake up?
He stood slowly, a casual display of masculine grace and beauty unfolding before me. “You may want to run, my lady, but you don’t want to wake up. Youwantme to catch you. You want me to ravage you like the beast I am.”
I opened my mouth, but I couldn’t argue with him. His face blurred as he took another step closer. His skin grayed, his eyes sinking like dark pits in a skull. Another face, the helmeted lord of darkness, his height increasing with each step. His shoulders wider. His thighs larger. Huge hands lifting toward me. In slow motion, I watched talons sprout from his fingertips, lengthening and sharpening like a giant bear. Vicious teeth. Glowing red eyes. The beast I had feared.
And wanted. Before I even fell asleep.
“There’s a reason Belle’s Prince doesn’t roam the park, my lady. For who could ever want to fuck a Beast?”
I swallowed hard, trying to stop trembling. He was so close now. I could smell a raw, thick scent. Fur and musk and dark magic. Death and blood, a creature of night. The suit was gone, revealing corded muscle and sinew, sprinkled with fur. Wide sweeping black horns. And the largest, thickest cock I had ever seen in my life.
A mythical monster—in full rut.
He wrapped his fingers around my throat and my breath rushed out in a sudden oomph. His claws ticked against stone. I couldn’t move, trapped against a wall. The ground. Maybe I’d fallen. Panting, I stared up at him, trembling. I must be lying on some kind of slab. He stood over me, straddling my body, but he didn’t touch me except for his hand around my throat.
“Tell me how hard to squeeze, my lady.”
“Please,” I forced out the word, wincing at the fragile sound. My heart pounded so hard that black spots danced in my vision. I could breathe. He wasn’t strangling me. I could still talk. But the barest idea of his fingers tightening made me moan.
I clutched his wrist, his skin sizzling against my fingers.
“Yesssss.” His breath hissed, his tongue flicking out, as if he could taste my fear and arousal in the air. “I do.”
It took a moment for my brain to connect his words with meaning. He did taste my fear and arousal. He’d told me he could smell me miles away. He wasn’t even touching me yet. Not really. Just his hand on my throat. Yet I couldn’t lie still. I couldn’t stop shaking.
“What—” I gulped. “Do you. Want?”
He threw his head back and laughed, a deep, baying sound of wicked amusement that echoed all around us. His neck and shoulders strained, tendons standing out in stark relief. His skin flickered between deep, smoky red and shadowed gray, as if he couldn’t make up his mind what shape he should take.
Rather,Icouldn’t make up my mind.
Still chuckling, he lowered his head toward me, inch by inch, holding my gaze. Waiting for me to flinch away. Scream. Beg for mercy. I wasn’t sure. The tips of his horns dug into the stone with a screech on either side of my head. His hot breath ruffled my hair as he inhaled deeply and loudly, taking in my scent. “Ah, my lady. Surely you know by now what it is that I want. What I need. What only you can give me, if you dare.”
His other hand settled on my knee, the heat of his palm soaking into my flesh. My thigh muscle quivered and jumped with alarm as he trailed his hand higher, deliberately dragging the tips of his claws up the inside of my thigh. Not enough to hurt. Just a threat. A promise. Of what he could do.
He didn’t force my legs to fall apart wider. He didn’t have to.
