Beauty's Beast - By Jenna Kernan Page 0,12

wandered lazily down her face and then fixed on her mouth.

Her lips parted as she recognized the blatant desire written on his face. His mouth quirked and his gaze slid to her throat and then her breasts before returning to fix on her eyes. The intent stare made her tingle all over.

She writhed against him, side to side, feeling his erection growing as she did so. He winced as if in pain.

“You should stop that,” he said, his voice now no more than a growl.

Samantha ceased fighting.

“That’s better.” His voice mesmerized, his eyes hypnotized.

“What are you doing to me?”

“The same thing you’re doing to me, I think.”

The desire beat inside her like a living thing, demanding she yield.

“You’re putting these thoughts in my head.”

It had to be his thoughts. This feeling could not be coming from inside her. She could not be physically attracted to her enemy. He must be sending them to her, invading her mind as she had heard some Niyanoka could do.

He shook his head. “This does not come from me. It comes from us. It is unwelcome.”

“You said it, buster.”

“I meant that I find it unwelcome.”

That shocked her into silence.

His fine hair shimmered in the sunlight, his eyes narrowed and he stared a long moment. She felt he was deciding something and found herself holding her breath.

“You were sent to my mother. That makes you my responsibility. So I place you under my protection.”

“She’s not your mother.”

His eyes went cold then and his mouth turned hard. “What do you know about anything?”

He rolled away but held control of her wrist. She tried and failed to break his grip as he dragged her to her feet. She made an attempt to run, and he yanked her arm so that she collided with his torso. A moment later he had her in his arms.

“Stop acting like a child. I didn’t invite you here,” he said. “And I don’t want you here. I just want to be left alone.” He gave her a squeeze, pressing the breath from her. “Can you understand that? But neither of us gets what we want. I’m stuck with you. And you’re stuck with me. Got it?”

“I don’t need your help,” she said and tried to prove it by jerking her arm free of his grasp. She failed again.

“You wouldn’t last ten minutes. Now stop making a nuisance of yourself and start acting like what you are, an uninvited guest who is a pain in my ass.”

She was about to laugh in his face. Did he really think she was that helpless? She was a grizzly bear, for heaven’s sake, fully capable of defeating...

Some of her bravado ebbed away and she stilled. She couldn’t defeat Alon. Were there others here like him?

Chapter 4

Alon held tight to the little Skinwalker, who had finally come to accept that he was stronger than she. How he’d love to just let her go. But his mother would skin him alive. Alon knew Sebastian by reputation. His mother would want him to protect her friend’s child.

“If I release your wrist will you promise not to run?”

“Why? I thought you could catch me so easily.” She tried for a fierce look that only put a wrinkle in her pretty brow. This game wearied him.

“Perhaps I will tie you to that tree,” he said.

That arched an eyebrow as she turned to consider the tree in question. He didn’t have any rope, but she didn’t seem to realize that.

She held on to her anger, gnawing her full lower lip, but she conceded. “I will not run.”

He released her instantly, happy to be away from the softness of her skin and the scent that drew him like nectar.

Now he could not feel her yielding curves. But he could see them. Samantha Proud was tall for a woman, reaching nearly to his chin, and he found that he liked the way her body fit to his as much as he admired the grace of her movements.

She had an extremely pleasing feminine form, full and shapely at the breast and hip, and narrow in the waist. Her thick dark brown hair had come loose in her wild run, and she no longer wore the ridiculous ranger hat. Where had it gone? The thick strands now cascaded in a tangle over her shoulder, spilling over her full breasts and curling at her waist. Her mane framed her heart-shaped face. Her large eyes, high flushed cheeks and pointed chin combined to be more than their parts. His