Mated to the Beast(32)

There, I heard it again. Someone was in the room.

“Lights, half power.”

The room brightened.

It all came back to me in a quick rush. I was in temporary housing quarters with my new mate, waiting for the magnetic storm to clear so we could transport. The room only had the one bed, no couch or other chair, forcing us to share. I was unaccustomed to sleeping with a man—usually a one-night stand didn’t include a sleepover. But this wasn’t a quick roll in the hay, this was my mate, and I’d fallen asleep with his huge body wrapped protectively around mine. While the bed was large, so was Dax, and I’d given up protesting when he pulled me against him and drifted to sleep.

Now, though, the sheets were a wild tangle. I was in bed but Dax was sitting on the floor in the corner. His hands were clenched into fists, his neck was arched, his bare chest glistened with sweat and his fingers tapped out a frantic pace against the floor.

“Don’t move. I won’t be able to save you,” he growled.

Worry cut through me but I stilled. “What’s wrong? A nightmare?” I knew many fighters who struggled with nightmares from the horrors of battle.

“The fever. Don’t come closer unless you want me balls deep and out of control.”

I remembered the strength he’d displayed as he grabbed the Hive soldier and ripped his head off. I worried my lower lip between my teeth as I wondered just how dangerous he was. “Do you think you’ll hurt me?”

“I don’t know what the beast will do, Sarah. I’ve never had the mating fever before. It can sense you, smell you. It wants you and you’re there,” he pointed at me, “in a bed and wearing just that skimpy clothing, your nipples hard. I can smell you—”

He shut his eyes to block me out.

He wouldn’t hurt me. Deep down, I knew that. I have no idea where the knowing came from, but instinct told me he wouldn’t hurt me. Not now, not ever.

Dax’s sleep pants were black and the loose material did nothing to hide the rigid outline of his cock. It tented his pants and it proved all of him was large. He’d said that the fever brought about rage, anger, the need for sex.

“You said it was the mate’s job to soothe the beast,” I replied, sliding from the bed and crawling toward him. “And you said I could ride you, Dax. You promised me.”

Every line of his body was tense, taut with restless energy and need. He was like a male model, all defined, hard muscles. His broad shoulders tapered into a narrow waist, a smattering of dark hair was between his brown nipples and tapered to a thin line that went beneath the band of his pants. He didn’t have six-pack abs, but eight. He didn’t need body armor to be rock hard. And lower, God, lower, his cock was like a hammer beneath the fabric of his pants. I physically ached to touch him, to feel the softness of his skin, the heat of it, the springy feel of his chest hair. The thickness of his cock. The taste of it.

“I don’t think you can soothe this, Sarah. When full mating fever is upon me—and this isn’t even it—the only way I can be soothed is to fuck. Not once, not twice. Again and again until I’ve finally burned off the restless energy, the need.”

I had no idea why the idea of having Dax unleashed was so appealing. I should be fearful, just as he cautioned, but I wasn’t. Not after the way he’d seen to me earlier. He’d spanked me, then made me come. While he’d been dominant, he hadn’t been hurtful. It had been… exhilarating when I’d finally relinquished control to him, when I finally understood that I didn’t have to be strong for him.

So while he was trying to be strong for me, it was my turn to give him what he needed. I was the only one who could.

“So you want to take me hard?” I asked. The very idea of him taking me without finesse had my pussy weeping.

His eyes were on my body. My tank top was snug, clearly outlining my bare breasts as I crawled toward him, my nipples already hard.

“Yes.” His eyes narrowed and the pupils were all but gone, leaving complete black.

“You want it rough?” I crawled closer. Perhaps we were perfectly matched, for I couldn’t imagine anything hotter than Dax going wild, which meant I wanted it that way.

“Yes.” His palms slid over the floor as if trying to grab something, anything, but me.

“You need me to take the edge off?” I had a few needs of my own. I needed to come once or twice.

“Yes.”

I felt powerful and desirable and my pussy dripped with a returned need. The way he’d fucked me with his fingers, made me come from them alone, had me wanting more. Now, now I wanted it as much as he did. I should walk away. I should run away, for I truly didn’t know this man. I was going to have sex with a stranger, an oversized alien with mating fever who wanted to fuck and fuck and fuck.