Bonding With the Beast Read online

  Isobel wanted to go to the big Kindred and cuddle in his arms but something stopped her. His oculars were down again, shading his eyes in impassive black, making it impossible to know what he was thinking…what he was feeling.

  Was he happy that she and Brandon had come with him to his suite? Or were they invading his private territory? Was he still upset about what had happened between them during their abduction? Did he wish he’d left them back on Earth?

  “Of course I don’t wish that.”

  The quiet, deep voice in her head startled Isobel so much that she jumped.

  “Oh!” she gasped, putting a hand to her rapidly pumping heart.

  “I’m sorry—did I frighten you?” He turned his head to look at her and she saw that his oculars were retracted, showing his strangely beautiful, pale blue eyes. “I just wanted to see if I could call to you the way you called to me,” he went on.

  “I can hear you,” Isobel said cautiously. “But I couldn’t tell if you could hear me,” she went on, trying some of the strange new mental-talk herself.

  “At first I only knew there was something wrong—that someone I cared for was in danger,” Hail admitted aloud. “But as I got closer to Earth, I began to hear your words.”

  “I’m so glad you came to save me—to save us.” Isobel came and sat beside him on the cushy, overstuffed sofa. It was a big, solid piece of furniture, obviously built to hold the large, muscular Kindred with no problem.

  Looking into her eyes, Hail cupped her cheek.

  “I told you, Isobel…I will always come for you,” he murmured into her mind.

  “Oh…” she whispered. She couldn’t tell why, exactly, but hearing his voice inside her head was more intimate, somehow. Not to mention extremely erotic. “Hail—” she began but he cut her off.

  “Tell me now, can you ever forgive me for what I did to you aboard the ship of the Chalombs?” he asked earnestly.

  “The little gray men, you mean?” she asked. “Hail…there’s nothing to forgive. We did what we had to do to get free of them—to go home.”

  He frowned and looked away. “I savaged you. I could not control my beast then as I can now. I forced you, Isobel.”

  “No, you didn’t. Hail, look at me.” She got up on her knees so she was more on his level and put her hands on his broad shoulders. His shirt had burst open earlier when he had let his beast come out and it still hung open, showing his broad, muscular chest in the firelight.

  Isobel put her hand on his rough cheek and turned him to face her. Reluctantly, he turned his eyes towards hers and she saw pain and regret…shame and despair in their lovely white-blue depths.

  “Listen to me,” she told him, using her mind voice this time. “We had rough sex. It was scary and at one point, I did want to get away. But after I calmed down, I wasn’t upset.”

  “You…you were crying. When I came back to myself and I found what I had done…when I saw the tears in your eyes…” Hail shook his head, obviously unable to continue his thought. “It was my greatest nightmare,” he sent at last. “The reason I feared to let my beast out in the first place.”

  “I was crying because it was intense,” Isobel told him. “I’d never had an experience like that before. I felt taken…owned…” She ducked her head, biting her lip. “I…I felt like I belonged to you,” she finished at last, in a whisper. “I’ve never felt like that before with any man.”

  “And I’ve never felt like this with any female,” Hail admitted hoarsely. He lifted her chin with his fingers and looked at her earnestly. “I…feel like I belong to you too, Isobel. If you want me,” he added in a low voice.

  “Of course I want you. More than anything,” she said softly.

  Hail searched her eyes with his intently.

  “So…you really forgive me? And…you don’t fear me anymore?”

  “I’m not afraid,” Isobel promised him. “Not for myself or for Brandon either. And I forgive you with all my heart, Hail.”

  “I love you,” the big Kindred admitted. “At least, I think this is love. It’s a throbbing here…” He pressed one huge fist to his chest. “And I feel like I never want to let you go. Like I would die without you—is that love?”

  “That’s love,” Isobel whispered and kissed him.

  At first Hail seemed frozen in place. Then he wrapped his massive arms around her and kissed back. Before she knew it, Isobel was in his lap, straddling him as she ran her hands through his thick, short hair and pressed herself against him.

  God, he tasted so good…felt so right against her. His big body seemed to cradle hers and his large, warm hands were everywhere, rubbing up and down her back and thighs, touching her eagerly as though Hail couldn’t get enough of her.

  Isobel felt the same way. She was still just wearing the tattered remains of her white nightgown and now, with one sweeping motion, she pulled it over her head and dropped it to the ground. The act left her completely bare, since she hadn’t been wearing panties under it.

  Hail’s eyes blazed and he groaned softly as he saw her body in the firelight.

  “Gods, Isobel—you’re so fucking beautiful,” he murmured, pressing one big palm to her trembling abdomen, just between her pussy and her breasts. “It makes me so hard to see you all naked and open like this.”

  “Then make love to me,” Isobel whispered breathlessly. “Take me again, Hail—make me yours all over again.”

  “Mine…” he growled hungrily, just as he had when he was the beast. But he made no move to take her.

  “What is it?” Isobel asked, catching his hesitation through the new mental bond they shared.

  “It’s just…Yipper told me my emotions would be regulated now and that my beast wouldn’t come out unless I wanted it to but I still worry…”

  “Don’t,” Isobel cut him off. She pressed her pelvis down so that her bare pussy rubbed against the hard bulge of his cock, still trapped behind his flight leathers. “Make love to me, Hail. And if your beast comes out, well…I’m all right with that.” She shivered a little at the thought but it was desire, not fear that tightened her nipples and made goosebumps break out all over her arms and bare back.

  “You are?” He frowned. “But after last time…”

  “You can think as the beast now, remember?” Isobel said. “It won’t be like last time. You’ll be able to give me all the intensity of the beast without worrying about hurting me. Please, Hail…” She pressed against him again and thrust her bare breasts into his face, surprised at her own need. “Please, I want you inside me,” she whispered through their link.

  “Gods, Isobel, I can’t say no to you. But I have to ask once more—are you sure?”

  For an answer, she reached between them and tugged at the tight black flight leathers, releasing his thick, hard shaft. God, he felt good in her hand! So hot and rigid but his skin was as soft as the petals of a flower. Isobel loved it. Suddenly she felt so hot she couldn’t breathe.

  “I have to have you in me—now!” she commanded.

  Hail’s eyes glowed with intensity and desire.

  “Put me in you, then,” he growled softly. “Ride me, Isobel—take what you need.”

  With a soft little moan, she did as he said. Fitting the broad head of his cock to her wet pussy, she rubbed him against her aching clit, moaning softly with need. Then she raised up on her knees and, with trembling fingers, guided him into her entrance.

  They both groaned as she sank down on him and she felt Hail’s big hands tighten around her hips as he thrust slowly up, filling her to the hilt. Isobel gasped as she felt her inner walls stretching to take him but it felt good—felt right to be so intimately connected to him—to be taken by the man she loved.

  “Gods, Isobel,” she heard Hail groan inside her head. “Feels good…almost too good.”

  Isobel could feel the uncertainty in him and, through their new link, she could feel his alter-ego longing to come out. The beast wanted to claim her as badly as Hail did himself but t