Claiming Her Beasts Book One Read online

  “Reed, are you even listening to me?”

  “Yeah. That poser didn’t deserve you, and he was out of line.”

  “Really? He didn’t pinch my ass once.” She let out a husky laugh that told me she was still buzzed.

  I sat down next to her, forcing my gaze from lingering on her bare, damp legs. “You’ve never shown an interest in any guy before.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not gay.”

  “I never thought you were.” I’d caught her staring at my ass more than a dozen times this week alone. “But you’ve always avoided the dating scene.”

  “You’re one to talk. You’ve never even gone on a date.” Her gaze went to my chest, and she flushed.

  I rubbed my scars through the fabric of my shirt. I was embarrassed about the way I looked, but that’s not why I avoided dating. The urge to confess everything made my throat tight.

  Now isn’t the right time.

  Aubry’s story about her mother flashed in my mind.

  What if I lose Lee to some other dude while I wait for the right time?

  Taking a deep breath, I said, “Yeah, but not for the reason you think. I’ve been waiting for someone.”

  She blinked. “Really? Who?”

  Here it is. The moment I’d been both dreading and anticipating for years.

  Do I go for it or do I play it safe?

  My mouth dried, and my heart started to pound.

  Seeming to grow impatient with my tongue-tied silence, Lee reclined back on her bed. “Fine, keep your secrets. As for me, maybe I’m just tired of being alone.”

  “You’re not alone.” I’d never leave her side.

  “I know. I have you and Eden, but it’s not the same thing. God. I can’t believe I’m actually going to say this, but I think… I think I’m ready to hook up with someone. You should too. You’re gorgeous, Reed. You could have had your pick of the women at the party tonight.”

  “I don’t want them.” I shifted across the bed so I was stretched out next to her.

  “Well, who then?” Her beautiful caramel-colored eyes were filled with questions. Questions I was finally going to answer.

  The staccato hammering of my heart roared in my ears.

  Screw it. Here goes nothing.

  “You.” I leaned over and kissed her.

  She gasped.

  I deepened the kiss, tasting her shock along with spearmint toothpaste.

  She moved her mouth against mine and moaned my name. My motherfucking name.

  Thank Jesus!

  She shuddered at the first stroke of my tongue against hers and pulled me down over her.

  All the blood in my body shot straight between my hips as the softest parts of her pressed against the hardest parts of me.

  Can this really be happening?

  She let out a sexy moan and bit down on my lower lip.

  My head spun as if I’d smoked an entire bowl of that trippy weed Ronnie made me try on my last birthday. If this was a hallucination, I never wanted it to end. Not with the incredible feeling of her gorgeous body under me.

  I tore my mouth from hers and kissed down the delicate arch of her neck, cataloging every sharp inhale and gasp.

  All of my senses intensified. Her skin had never felt so soft, and the scent of her vanilla body wash had never seemed more seductive.

  I lapped at a tiny drop of forgotten water that had collected in the recesses of her collarbone.

  She let out a husky moan, her fingers threading through my hair.

  As I kissed down the top of her chest, her breathing quickened. Coming to the terry cloth barrier, I looked into her hooded gaze, seeking permission.

  In response, she reached between us and yanked open the towel.

  The sight of all that bare golden skin blanked my mind. My need ignited in a raw, brutal explosion of hunger so desperate it took all my self-control not to fall over her in a frenzy. “I’ve been dreaming about this… about you forever.”

  Some of the heat left her gaze.

  Is she having second thoughts?

  She chewed her lower lip the way she always did when she was anxious. “Maybe this isn’t—”

  Sensing that her excitement was fading, I lowered my head and licked one of her stiff brown nipples.

  She let out a raspy moan.

  Encouraged, I licked and sucked its twin.

  She threw her head back against the pillows. “Oh, God. Yes, more.”

  I spent the next few minutes experimenting with different levels of suction and pressure.

  She rocked her hips under mine in a wordless plea for me to shift my attention.

  When I still didn’t switch my focus, she grabbed my hand and placed it between her legs. “Touch me here.”

  My motherfucking mind was blown.

  Her bare pussy was even more beautiful than it’d been in my fantasies.

  When I didn’t move, she rubbed herself against my hand. “Please.”

  Thanking every god I’d ever heard of under my breath, I slowly stroked her. It was so much hotter and sexier than the erotic videos I watched on my phone at night.

  I switched the angle of my fingers to press against the top of her sex.

  She cried out and nearly flew off the bed.

  I went still thinking I’d done something wrong, but she rocked against my hand, urging me on.

  Gaining more confidence, I rubbed her little nub harder and faster.

  “Oh, yes!” she moaned brokenly.

  My dick strained at my zipper. It was a furious, throbbing ache that grew more uncomfortable with every breath. Guided by some primitive playbook, I slid two fingers into her.

  Her inner muscles clamped around my fingers. She was so hot, wet, and impossibly tight.

  My breathing went ragged as I finger fucked her.

  “God, yes. More.” Her hips worked furiously as she bucked against my hand.

  I wanted her to come all over my fingers, but I wanted to taste her orgasm even more. I pulled my hand away and kissed down her stomach.

  “Yes,” she cried, her legs sawing under me. When I stopped to nuzzle her belly button ring, she let out a frustrated cry and shoved my face between her legs.

  Chuckling, I gripped her hips and brought my mouth to her center. Then, I set about making the woman of my dreams come harder than she ever had in her life.

  12

  Lee

  Nothing had ever felt as incredible as the velvet heat of Reed's mouth. All I could do was quiver and shake as pleasure overwhelmed me.

  He made a humming sound. The vibration sent me into yet another stratosphere of pleasure.

  Who knew Reed was so talented with his lips?

  His scent—clove with a hint of juniper spice from the gin—surrounded me. It was familiar and yet strange at the same time.

  An inner voice whispered a warning. Before I could register it, Reed thrust his tongue deep inside me.

  My thoughts scattered like confetti in the wind. “Yes, there!” I cried, arching off the bed.

  As he went to work licking every inch of my core, I wrapped my legs around his shoulders and rocked against his face. His beard rasped against the skin of my inner thighs, but I barely felt the burn.

  Lust and alcohol spun me into dizzying bliss. “God, yes. More.” Pressure coiled tighter and tighter inside me.

  A loud thunk sounded by my window.

  Reed froze and looked up. “Did you hear that?”

  “Don’t stop.” I grabbed the back of his head and ground myself against his lips.

  “I should have known you’d be bossy in the bedroom, too.” The sound of his laugh threatened to kick down the door of a lifetime of memories.

  This is wrong.

  Reed is family.

  He can’t be my lover…

  Screw that. Forcing all thoughts except pleasure away, I arched off the bed, chasing his mouth.

  Hearing my unspoken plea, he spread my thighs wider and began licking me har
d and fast.

  I thrashed against his mouth, overcome with mind-blowing pleasure. As I spiraled higher and higher, it became impossible to breathe. To think.

  He fixed his mouth around my clit and sucked hard.

  Letting out a shriek, I detonated into the most intense orgasm of my life. My vision dimmed before coming back into full focus.

  Reed looked up at me from between my legs. “Did that feel good?”

  There weren’t words for how good. Trembling with the aftershocks, all I could do was nod.

  He pushed himself up on his arms. “I’ve never done that before, but I’ve been studying.”

  I blinked up at him. “Studying?”

  “Yeah.” His face flushed. “I’ve kinda been waiting for this moment all my life.”

  My blissed out and inebriated mind reeled in shock at his confession.

  “This is the best birthday present ever.” He punctuated his words by lowering his head and licking my clit again.

  Ecstasy blindsided me. All I could do was moan and fist the covers as he brought me to orgasm a second time. I came so hard I swear the curtains over my window undulated with my screams. After I’d melted into a puddle of pure rapture, he crawled over my body.

  “I’ve been waiting for something else too,” he whispered in my ear.

  “Mmm-hmm.” I’d totally lost track of our conversation.

  “This.” His hard, lean muscles pressed me into the softness of the mattress as he settled his hips between my thighs. His hard cock pressed against my aching sex.

  My greedy clit pulsed with renewed hunger. She needed more.

  More touching.

  More pleasure.

  More Reed.

  The desire to feel his skin against mine had me grabbing his shirt. “Take this off.” My voice was so husky, I almost didn’t recognize it.

  Reed rocked back on his knees, his hands going to the top button of his shirt. A mixture of emotions flashed across his face.

  He didn’t think his scars would bother me. Did he? “Here, let me.” I pushed myself up. The mattress seemed to rock underneath me like Reed’s waterbed. I must still be drunk. I put a hand against his chest to steady myself.

  His heart pounded a furious beat under the fabric of his shirt.

  Our eyes met.

  “No,” he mumbled. “You don’t need to see this.” His warm palm curled around my hand.

  I brushed it away. “You’ve just fucked me with your tongue. The least you can do is take your shirt off.”

  “Lee,” he pleaded.

  I wouldn’t let his insecurity kill this moment. Holding his gaze, I slowly unbuttoned his shirt. When I finally swept the fabric aside, I let out a shocked gasp.

  Despite us living together for years, he’d always kept his scars hidden. Hell, he even swam in a long sleeve shirt. Now, seeing the overwhelming extent of damage, I could see why.

  How did he survive this?

  Tears welled in my eyes as I realized how much pain he must’ve suffered.

  “Great. I’m making you cry.” Reed clenched his jaw and tried to close his shirt.

  “Don’t hide from me.” I yanked it all the way off and tossed it on the floor.

  Reed looked down at himself and flinched. “I’m a freak.”

  “No, you’re not.” There was no denying the scars were intense. I swept my hands over his chest. The burn scars covering his chest and arms were almost like braille under the pads of my fingertips. Lower, along his abdomen were the smooth silvery scars from the shrapnel that had impaled him in the accident. They mingled with the thicker, raised incision scars from the multiple surgeries that saved his life.

  His breath caught, and he stared down at me. It seemed like he was desperately trying to read me.

  I bent my head and began kissing each scar.

  He groaned as I licked one of the burn scars that warped the flesh of his nipple. “You don’t have to do th—”

  He broke off when I kissed him lower. When I got to his waistband, he shuddered and fell back onto the bed. “Jesus, woman. I don’t think I’ll be able to hold back if you put your mouth on me.”

  “Maybe I don’t want you to hold back.” While he watched with wide eyes, I undid the top button of his fly and slid the zipper down.

  In contrast to the scarred flesh of his upper body, the bronze skin below his waist was kissably smooth.

  With a tug, I slid off his boxer briefs. His thick shaft sprung out and bobbed in the air inches from my lips. “Oh, my!” I reared back in shock.

  I’d seen my fair share of penises. Hell, I couldn’t get through a week at the club without some perv whipping out his junk during a private show, but I’d seen nothing quite like this.

  “What the—?” I stared, slack-jawed, at the rows of silver barbells that pierced the underside of his cock from head to base.

  “It’s called a Jacob’s ladder. Do you like it?”

  Transfixed, I ran my fingers over the barbells. “It looks painful.”

  He shuddered, and his thick purple crown grew slick with arousal. “I won't lie. It hurt like a son of a bitch.”

  “Was this the reason you walked like a drunken cowboy for weeks on end?”

  “Yeah,” he gasped, rocking against my fingers.

  “Why would you do this?” Some dancers at the club had nipple piercings, and I even knew one dancer who had her clit pierced, but they did it to enhance their sexual pleasure. Reed was just as sexually inexperienced as I was.

  “I did it for you.”

  “Me?”

  “Yeah, I overheard you telling Cami that you love men with pierced cocks.”

  “What?” I blinked in confusion. “I never said that—” A distant memory tugged at the back of my mind. “Are you talking about the time when Cami tried to set me up with Leo?”

  Reed gave me a puzzled look.

  Oh, God. “Reed, I was joking.” For some inane reason, Cami had been trying to set me up with her ex-boyfriend. Knowing Leo was pierced, I’d said sarcastically that my ideal man was tall, long-haired, tattooed, and had a pierced cock.

  I’d had no idea that Reed was eavesdropping. And even if I’d known, I’d never imagine he’d take my words seriously and do something so insane.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, I was just kidding about wanting someone pierced.”

  Reed’s blue eyes widened. “You mean… you mean…” His erection deflated. “Jesus, I feel like the biggest fucking idiot right now.”

  I couldn’t take my eyes from the barbells. “I can’t believe you’d do something so crazy… so painful…”

  He dragged in a deep breath. “Isn’t it obvious, woman? I love you. I always have.”

  The raw emotion in his gaze took my breath away.

  He loves me.

  Wait. What? No. My inner alarm shrieked. This was supposed to be fun. No emotional attachments. Passionate love made people crazy. I saw my mother’s lifeless body in my mind’s eye.

  I sat up in bed. “This isn’t happening.”

  “What?”

  “Leave.”

  “But…” His face twisted with confusion and pain.

  “Just go now,” I said so loudly the mirror over my dresser shook and the curtains over my window fluttered.

  Reed slid off the bed and bent down to grab his pants.

  Oh, God. He had the finest ass of any man I’d ever seen. Forcing my gaze away, I threw my comforter over myself.

  “We’ll act like this never happened.” Things could go back to the way they were.

  Reed shook his head. “I can’t do that. I love you.”

  I scooted back on the bed until my spine hit the headboard. “Reed, I love you too—”

  “I knew it. I knew you felt the sam—”

  “—like a brother,” I lied softly. “Even though we aren’t blood siblings, I’ll always think of you that way.” It wasn’t true, but I needed him out before we did something we could never come back fr
om.

  “What about…” He motioned between us.

  I tugged the comforter tighter around me. “A mistake.”

  His eyes narrowed. “You liked me touching you. I know you did.”

  I opened my mouth to deny it but couldn’t. “Just leave.”

  “If I did or said anything to upset you—”

  I interrupted him. “You didn’t. Just go.”

  His shoulders slumped, and he turned toward the door.

  “Don’t go anywhere, cocksucker,” a deep raspy voice ordered.

  Reed spun around at the same time a huge, naked man emerged from behind my curtains.

  Certain the guy was an alcohol induced hallucination. I closed my eyes and opened them again. The man was still there.

  No, my shocked mind amended as I stared into his glowing yellow eyes. Not a man. A monster. A nearly ten-foot monster with jagged fangs and rippling muscles that enveloped every inch of his body down to the massive erection he sported between his brawny thighs.

  I opened my mouth to scream.

  The monster brought one of his fingers to his lips. “Neither of you move or make a sound.” His voice rang with an otherworldly tone that reverberated inside my head.

  I tried to bolt from the bed and found I couldn’t move a muscle.

  Oh, God! What’s happening? Fear skittered down my spine.

  Reed was a statue next to my bed. His terror-filled eyes were wide. “Run,” he mouthed.

  “I can’t,” I mouthed back. My breath came in sharp, shallow, pants. Somehow the monster was in total control. What will he do to us?

  As if reading my mind, the monster bared his fangs in a smile made of nightmares.

  13

  Hunter

  My dancer and her roommate stared at me with mirroring looks of horror. The frantic pounding of their heartbeats rang in my ears, while the acrid tang of their fear burned my nostrils.

  Normally, I’d eat that terror and pain up like a pancake breakfast, but not when it was coming from her.

  My mate.

  I wanted her to look at me the way she had back in the club. I wanted her to look at me the way she was looking at that human.