Freeing the Beast: Taming the Beast, Book 1 Read online

  “In a sec.”

  He rubbed his nose against her neck then gave it a wet kiss. She wiggled at his tongue tickling her. Eric tightened his hold to keep her still and close.

  Becca surrendered, turning her face into his, seeking his mouth and tongue, becoming lost in the moment so easily. Too easily. She had no excuse, except that part of her was only human and painfully weak when it came to him. Becca yearned for Eric…the real Eric…the same way her parents still longed for each other.

  Unfortunately, this wasn’t anywhere close to what they had.

  After their fateful first meeting, Becca’s parents had grown close the mortal way. Rowena hadn’t used any spells or potions on Wade. They weren’t necessary. He’d craved her from the beginning, as she had him, their bond magical. More powerful than any sorcery.

  Eric ended their kiss and pressed his cheek to hers. His skin was smooth, hot, scented with his aftershave and her fragrance. Becca wanted to throw her arms around him in an honest, impassioned caress, but didn’t. Couldn’t.

  He played with her nipple. “You falling asleep?”

  She wished. Doing so, being sheltered within his embrace, would have been so wonderful. Then she wouldn’t have to consider the inevitable. With it pressing down on her, Becca shook her head.

  “Sure?” He slid his fingers from her breast to her ribs. “You’re awfully quiet.”

  “No, I’m not—what are you doing?”

  “What do you think?”

  She pressed her face to her shoulder, muting her giggles. “Don’t! I’m ticklish!”

  “You think?”

  A husky laugh erupted from her. Becca tugged his fingers. She tried to slap them away and finally clawed him.

  Didn’t faze Eric at all. He tickled her until Becca convulsed with laughter, her face lifted to the sky, throat exposed.

  After leaving a trail of kisses there, which had her panting like a contented dog, he murmured, “Can you walk to my car, or do you need me to carry you?”

  She tightened her cunt around his cock. A risky move Becca couldn’t resist, though she warned herself not to go farther. “Give me a sec.”

  “Take all the time you want. What you’re doing feels great.”

  His strained breathing sounded as turned on as hers, his shaft stiffening again. Knowing where this would lead…and where it wouldn’t…Becca stopped squeezing him and tried to stand. “We can’t stay here all night.”

  He said something beneath his breath, then whispered in her ear. “Okay, I’ll carry you to my car.”

  “No.”

  He tensed slightly, as though he hadn’t expected that answer. “I don’t mind. Don’t you think I’m capable?”

  “I know you are, but it’s not necessary.”

  “If we want to get from here to there it might be.”

  Becca wanted to be straight with him, but couldn’t bring herself to do so. Unsettled, she came up with the best excuse she could think of. “With a flick of my hand, I can send you wherever you want to go.”

  Eric leaned around her so he could see her face. “You mean magic?”

  His obvious misgiving didn’t surprise Becca since she was a shitty witch. “Guess I’ll walk,” she mumbled.

  Eric ran his fingers down her arm. Becca trembled. He whispered, “Sure?” He kissed her biceps. “I don’t want you to get tired. At least not until we’re somewhere private. Your office is nearby. It’s closed for the night, isn’t it?”

  The heat from his words and breath travelled to the core of her being, landing deep within Becca’s soul. “Ah no. Not until dawn. Our vamps have appointments all evening for the obvious reasons.”

  “Right. I forgot about that. Them.” He hugged her. “My apartment it is.”

  Stop this. Now. “My place is in the French Quarter, a block up from my business.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “I could walk from here,” she said. “It’s not that far away.”

  Eric gave her an odd look. “You want to walk?”

  No. Becca had never been as weary. However, getting in his car was out of the question. She’d make more excuses that would only prolong the pain.

  “What’s wrong?” He smiled as though he wasn’t certain if she was yanking his chain or not. “You can’t be worried that I’ve had too much to drink to get behind the wheel. I had less wine than you.”

  Becca knew what she had to say, but still couldn’t get it out.

  “Oh hey.” His smile faded. “You think I’m too tired to drive because of this?” He gestured to their partially naked state, the fact that his cock was still inside her cunt.

  “Maybe,” she lied.

  “But walking through a crowd of drunken tourists, dodging their elbows and feet will perk me up?” His expression said she’d lost her mind. “I’ll drive.”

  Say something. Put an end to this.

  The words wouldn’t come.

  “Up you go.” With his hands on her waist, Eric helped Becca to her feet. Immediately, she missed the feel of him within her. Something she’d have to get used to.

  He gave her his handkerchief. She tidied up as best she could while he got dressed. With his jacket slung over one shoulder, he offered her his free hand.

  Don’t take it.

  She did, sighing as he kissed her fingertips.

  On the way to his car, his step was more than light. He seemed wired again, ready for round two. Given the potion he’d taken, Becca wasn’t surprised. As he drove into the French Quarter, she stared at his hand planted firmly on her knee, assured and possessive.

  “Where do you live?” he asked.

  “Not far.” She pointed at a car leaving a parking space. “Pull over there.”

  “Why?” He leaned over to look out her window, no doubt to see why she wanted him to stop here. “Isn’t there parking at your place?”

  “Not always. Go—before someone else grabs it.”

  He slipped his Mercedes into the tight spot, ignoring the screeching horns of others who wanted it.

  A group of thirtysomething men and women passed, laughing hysterically, holding beer bottles between their thumbs and forefingers. Across the street, a sax and trumpet wailed, the sounds mournful. The clip-clop of horse hooves joined the other sounds as a mare passed, pulling a white carriage. The couple in the backseat kissed as though they were the only people left in the world.

  Becca eased her purse’s chain over her shoulder. “You can leave me here.”

  “What? Wait.” Eric captured her wrist. “Leave you? Why?” He glanced out the front windshield. From where they were, Becca could see the roof of her office. Apparently, so could he. “You’re going back to work?”

  She was going to find the closest bar, knock back a couple of whiskeys to dull her heartache, then drag herself home.

  When seconds passed in silence, Eric frowned. “Becca, I asked you a question. Answer me.”

  She said what she had to, not what she wanted. “The evening’s over, Eric. I’m going home. Alone.”

  He couldn’t have looked more surprised than if Becca had told him she was a man.

  “Are you saying you didn’t have a good time tonight?” He appeared flabbergasted, pensive, then pissed. “Uh-uh. I don’t believe that. No matter what you say, I’ll never—”

  She interrupted gently. “Of course I had a good time. Tonight was probably the best night of my life.”

  He stared. “That sounds good.”

  “It isn’t.” She pulled her wrist from him. “Don’t you understand? It’s not real.”

  “What isn’t?”

  This, tonight, them. Her soul ached for more of him, an endless supply.

  “What’s going on with you?” Eric asked. “You were eager as hell back at Desi’s. Now you’re—”

  “Quit
pretending this is more than it is,” she snapped. “This was a dry run for the real thing. Nothing else. It wasn’t a date.”

  Shock then offense crossed his face. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  Becca crossed her arms and leaned against her door. “Okay, let’s talk about what really happened tonight.”

  “I don’t have to. I was there.” He pushed his shoulder into his door. “I thought you were too. Apparently, I was wrong. You were only pretending to enjoy yourself.”

  “That’s not true. I didn’t fake one orgasm.”

  “Neither did I.”

  Becca tightened her arms and fists. “That’s not the point. Have you ever behaved with other women as you did with me tonight?”

  He pressed against his door as a trapped animal would. “Why?”

  “Eric.”

  He muttered, “No, I haven’t behaved with any woman as I have with you. Dammit, Becca, you really turn me on. If you think I’m going to apologize for that, then you’re out of your mind. I like you. Everything about you. Except for this weird conversation.”

  “The potion’s making you aroused. Not me.”

  “That’s nuts. I don’t believe it.”

  He was worse than she was, refusing to face the truth. “How do you feel now?”

  “Shitty. You?”

  “Eric, how do you feel? Exactly?”

  “Hurt. Confused. Frustrated. Horny. All right? But that doesn’t mean squat,” he said, before she could comment. “The potion was supposed to bring out my inner beast, turn me into a bad boy, not make me want you.”

  “I know, and it did the bad boy part.”

  “You don’t like that?”

  “Of course I do. The way you behaved tonight was beyond wonderful. You were freaking great.”

  He smiled. “Yeah?”

  Before he got too thrilled, Becca pressed on. “But that wasn’t the only thing the potion did.”

  Eric’s attention fell to his groin. “It made me too big? I hurt you?”

  Good grief. “No. Again, you’re perfect.”

  Pure pleasure flickered in his eyes.

  “The potions weren’t mine,” Becca said. “They’re my mom’s. She chose the ingredients. She wasn’t all that certain how you’d react to the second one after what happened with the first. She’d never worked on a god before. Clearly, they did stuff you never asked for.”

  Understanding dawned on his face. He pushed it away quickly. “That’s crap. Just because you don’t think any guy is going to want you doesn’t mean your mother cast a fucking spell on me so I would.”

  Becca’s cheeks burned from his comment, her dignity a distant memory. Her only hope now was that this wouldn’t take too much longer. “Your attraction to me could very well be collateral damage.”

  “You’re saying what you and I did tonight was collateral damage?”

  “I’m saying it’s a result of magic. How the potions acted separately and combined. It could have been innocent or deliberate.”

  “Now it’s a conspiracy?”

  “No. My mom worries about me, okay? Could be she got tired of seeing me so lonely and saw her chance to fix that with you. I’m not blaming her,” Becca added hurriedly. “I’m simply calling this what it is…a sham.”

  He looked stunned. “You’re not going to see me again, are you?”

  Tears welled in her eyes. “You deserve better. So do I.”

  Eric gestured frantically. “What in the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

  “I need a guy who wants me, only me,” she cried. “So I can be myself, not always worried about every woman stealing him. The only way that’s going to happen is if he falls in love with who I am, how I look, my good points and my flaws.”

  “Dammit, you don’t have any.”

  “Yeah, that’s realistic. Listen to yourself. The potion’s talking, not you.”

  He turned away, giving her the proverbial cold shoulder, his attention on the street scene, everyone drunk and happy.

  Becca envied them.

  “This isn’t about what your mother did or didn’t do,” he muttered. “You tried me out and for reasons unknown to me, I didn’t pass your test.”

  “There was no test,” she said. “Look at me.”

  “No.”

  “Please.”

  Jaw clenched, he faced her, hurt and bewilderment playing across his face.

  Oh, Eric. “Nothing you did tonight impressed me more than the first moment we met. I liked you then. I still do.”

  He pressed his fingers to his forehead as though it ached from him trying to figure this out. “So you’re saying you don’t like the new me, after all? A few minutes ago, you said you did. Which is it?”

  “I enjoyed it, but it’s not real.”

  “The fuck it isn’t.” He lowered his hand. “I didn’t sprout wings or a thirty-inch cock. This is me,” he insisted. “And you’d know that if we kept going out. We could see where this takes us.”

  “No, we can’t.”

  “Why? Afraid to find out that our chemistry has nothing to do with the stupid potion?”

  What else could it be? No man—certainly none as sinfully handsome as him, with an awesome sense of humor and a good heart—had ever fallen for her. In two days, no less.

  “Trust me, it is.” Becca put up her hand to stop him from saying anything. “I know you don’t believe me, so test it out yourself. Ask someone out. See what happens. I’m not wrong.”

  “You want me to go on a date.” He frowned. “If I’m obsessed with you because of your mother’s magic, won’t being with another woman prove to be kind of pointless? Won’t that be unfair to the other woman?”

  Of course. But who said life was fair? It sure as hell kept screwing up her happiness. “It’s one date. Surely, no woman will fall that quickly.”

  “Like you?”

  His bald statement, the sorry truth behind it, sent a wave of heat to Becca’s face. Yeah, she’d fallen for him at supersonic speed and would just have to get over it. “Maybe your Uncle Desi put something in my food. Could be he put something in yours too, which only exacerbated the problem.”

  “So, you’re admitting you fell for me tonight. The new me, the old me, some part of me. Take your pick. Just don’t deny it.”

  She couldn’t say anything at all.

  Eric leaned across the seat, getting in her face. “How often have you behaved with another man as you did with me tonight?”

  Never. Not even when she’d been horny and drunk. “You need to tell your uncle not to play with magic.”

  “Sure, you go with the fantasy that he and your mom caused this, not the truth of what you’re honestly feeling. Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

  “I’m sorry, Eric. I didn’t plan for this to happen.”

  He turned away.

  Becca was about to touch him when she thought better of it. She opened her door but didn’t get out. The car ding-ding-dinged. The crowd laughed and hollered. Music played. Becca wanted to scream.

  “I thought you were leaving,” he said. “No, wait. That came out wrong. Go on and leave. I’m tired of this shit.”

  Becca murmured, “I’ll talk to my mom, get her to lift the spell, that way you can get on with your life. Don’t change anything about yourself, Eric. You’re perfect. Always have been. You’re the most wonderful man I’ve ever met.”

  Not giving him a chance to respond, Becca hurried out of his car and ran down the street.

  What the fuck had just happened?

  Eric yanked off his seat belt and got out of his car. “Becca!” he hollered.

  She wove in and out of the crowd as quickly as she could.

  “Becca!” He went to the front of his car, trying to spot her in a sea of bodies, searching for her red—There. Wait�
��no. What he’d seen was a scarf wrapped around a woman’s head so she could look like a medium or some other freaky thing. Get out of the damn way.

  She did. The crowd even parted momentarily, giving him a better view of what was in the distance. Too late. Becca was already gone, ducked into one of the endless businesses, bars or restaurants, unless she’d disappeared in a puff of smoke.

  No. She couldn’t be that reckless. She really wasn’t that great of a witch.

  Eric followed for a few yards until he remembered his car doors were open, keys in the ignition. Spell, his ass. Potion, his butt. If her mother had done something weird to him would he be worrying about his Mercedes being snatched?

  He returned to it and stopped. A guy he’d never seen before was sitting in the passenger seat, guzzling whatever was in his Styrofoam cup.

  “Out.” Eric grabbed the guy’s arm and hauled him from the seat.

  “Hey man.” He jerked away. “I saw this baby first.”

  “The baby belongs to me,” Eric growled, baring his teeth. “Want to make something of it?”

  A suicidal question, he knew. The guy had fifty or more pounds on him, much of it lard and a lot of it settled in his huge fists.

  “Nope,” he said, sweet as could be and lifted his hands in surrender. “You have a nice night.”

  Not fucking likely. Eric slammed Becca’s door then climbed into his seat and pulled away, glancing at the bars, restaurants and businesses he passed, debating if he should scour each.

  The traffic wouldn’t let him slow down. There was no fucking place to park.

  He finally reached her business, stopping just short of it. All the lights were on. A shadow that didn’t resemble anything human moved across one of the windows, then slammed into the glass causing the closed shutters to shake. Someone, probably Zoe, hauled whatever it was away.

  Eric tapped his thumbs against his steering wheel, debating whether to go up there and corner Becca if that’s where she’d fled to. Reason with her.

  What he’d felt tonight, all of it, couldn’t have been the potion or potions. Could it?

  No. That was beyond ludicrous. From the moment she’d ordered him to strip and asked if he wore baggy boxers, he’d liked her. She was bossy as hell, fun, honest, sweet…when she wanted to be…intelligent and so fucking unsure of herself she’d loused up the best thing that had come her way.