Page 26 of Taken
Holy shit. Is this monster leaning over me with claws for hands and fangs for teeth…a poet? Iquiver. QUIVER. My knees fall open without me directing them to. He seems to have expected that, the sorcerer, because he instantly repositions his right knee a few centimeters forward so that it’s in between my legs, pressed right up against the underside of my left thigh. “But I would like one more thing.”
Yes. Whatever it is,yes.“Anything.”
He makes a sound that’s too gruff to be called a chuckle but is. “Your name.”
“I like owelay,” I whisper as his knee shifts again, moving right where my thighs meet. I want him to cut through the rope and rip this miserable suit off of me like an animal.
“Then I shall call you that,” he says in his deep brogue, “but I still would like to know you.”
I smile, my heart hammering. “Rhen.”
“Rhen,” he breathes, and the sound of my voice in his screechy, scratchy accent…it’s unholy.
“Holy shit,” I gasp.
He frowns. “You need to defecate?”
And then the spell breaks.
Just.
Like.
That.
I flop onto my back and die of laughter. I’m literally rolling around in filth and giggles, feeling like I could fly—or like I’m high—with how elated I am right now. When I finally manage to get my breathing back under control, I become aware of one massive hand covering the entire left side of my waist. His claw tips press into the skin of my stomach and ribs in a way that should feel threatening but actually feels closer to a kiss.
“What is it?” he hiss-says.
I simply shake my head and wipe the tears from my eyes, finding his face looming over mine, blotting out the unfamiliar and unnatural lights of the ship above us. “I’m going to have so much fun with you.”
His head tips to the side. “You…” He clears his throat. “You intend to remain mated to me?”
“Mated?”
He nods, stroking a claw up and down my neck while I struggle to sit up.
“The bite marks?” I ask, shivering when they tingle.
He nods again, his gaze flashing to the side. “I did not give you a choice. And I know that I would not have been your first choice for a mate, owelay. You offered yourself to me in exchange for protection, but I took more than that. I took your choice away. No other male will mate with you now that you carry my mark. I will not allow it. But I also understand…” He swallows hard, sounding strangelywounded. “I stole you from your tribe. If you desire to return to them, I do not believe it right for me to take that choice away from you, too.”
I blink at him, wondering if the world is upside down. Maybe, that’s all the universe is—the small toy of some infinitely large baby giant. I can feel myself rattling around within it, feeling both lost—adrift in the sea of forever—and at the same time, found by this male before me with scales and claws that slice and soft little flowers for a heart.
“I…” I swallow hard, feeling vulnerable in a way I never have, because I’ve never had a mate before—someone who wanted me enough to be selfless with me. Because I don’t want to be selfless back. I want…I justwant.
I take his hand and bring it to my cheek. I kiss his palm, tasting the sand and grit. “I wanted…always wanted…to stay with you…”
His surprise morphs quickly into frustration as his hand tightens around my cheek. “But you left the clothes I provided for you behind when you left in the night. You ran from me many times.”
“Yes, but it’s because…” I sigh, sparing an angry glance away from his face to my treacherous Pam watch. “It’s a long story. But I thoughtyoudidn’t wantme. You pushed me away the first time I tried to touch you.”
“Because I knew what you wanted. You tried to trade me this,” he says, sliding the hand on my face down my neck to my right breast, which he squeezes. “For your life. I would have kept you safe, even without it.”
“Why?” I pant, struggling to remain coherent when all I really want is to choke on his cock.
“Because you were innocent. And very pretty.” He touches my hair, which is surely snarling at him with all its vehemence. “And small. With no defenses to help you.” He takes my hand, holds up my fingers, examining each in turn, as if expecting claws to shoot from their tips at any moment. When they don’t, he kisses my fingertips like they are the most precious things to him. My heart hooks in my chest and I know with a certainty that I’ve never felt before that I would follow this creature to the ends of the earth. This earth, or any other…“I didn’t want to hurt you.”
I grin, biting my bottom lip as the shy feeling slips over me again. “You d-didn’t. And I wouldn’t have offered myself to you if I hadn’t wanted you.” My back arches without me telling it to and he starts to lower me to the hard, gray tiled floor.
