Hunting the Hunter Ch. 07

"I'm still angry with you." She whispered.

There was a pause. "I know." His breath was warm against her ear.

"This isn't ok. It might never be ok." There was a much longer pause.

"I know...I'm sorry."

"I don't think that's going to cut it."

This time there was no response, just more warm breath against her neck. Then, a hot mouth against the back of her shoulder and a hand brushing aside her braided hair. She didn't know what to do with it. It was pleasure...desire. She wanted it. She was supposed to want it, that's what one did with pleasure...but now she felt like she wasn't allowed to have it. How could something so intense, so immediate, be an illusion?

"I don't know what to believe, what to trust." She continued, even as he pressed another shiver inducing kiss to the edge of her ear, dragging his lips tortuously up to the tip. She couldn't bring herself to stop him. Her eyes fluttered closed and she had to breathe deeply to still the low moan attempting to escape her throat.

"You sound like me. What about trusting what you know?" He whispered back.

"That's the problem." She clenched her jaw. "I'm having trouble differentiating between what I know is real and what's...induced."

His fingers curled against her stomach.

"What are we going to do?" She asked, her voice sounding smaller than she liked.

"I don't know." She could hear his breathing hitch slightly. "No. I do know. We're going to sleep. And then tomorrow we hunt...and if I survive that, I'll come back, and we'll talk. If I don't make it, then you'll be free of me. Problem solved."

"Well that's the most asinine thing I think I've ever heard you say. I'm going to pretend you didn't. Otherwise I'd be obliged to kick your ass for it." There was another long pause. "What are we even supposed to talk about?"

"I don't think it matters at this point. We just...need to talk. About figuring out a way to end this...or figuring out a way to make it work. Either way it's a start. We will get this figured out, and whatever you decide you want to do, I will do everything in my power to make that happen. Even if you decide to go."

She bit her lip and swallowed the knot that seemed to be growing in her throat. "How am I supposed to decide one way or the other?" She turned enough that she could see his face. Her eyes searched his. "I don't want to go anywhere. Do I follow that feeling?"

He looked away.

"What?"

"You know what. You know how I'd answer that."

"Then do it. Say it Feric." He turned his dark eyes back to hers.

"Yes. Follow it...believe it...stay."

"What if it's just the bond? What then?"

"So what? What does it change? Does that make it less real?"

She pulled out of his arms and sat up, leaning on one arm to look down at him. "I don't know."

He sighed and smiled sadly. "Better 'I don't know' than 'yes' I suppose."

"You want me to stay."

"Obviously."

"Aren't you worried that this, us" she gestured between them, "is just an effect...like a spell? That everything has just been a...a spell, or god knows what else?"

He rolled onto his back and folded his hands over his stomach, looking thoughtful. "What is it that happens when two people...click? Or, and I know you probably don't use this word often...but what is love? Not the kind that takes years to grow, but that instant kind, the kind that makes your stomach drop and your head swim?"

She smirked. "That's lust, stud, not love."

He adjusted his arms back behind his head and sighed. "Fine. What's lust then? Why did I want you as badly as I did? Why did I lose my head? What made you do the same? Why did you put down the knife that night, and why didn't you pull away? I mean...all you could have seen was that a lion was circling you. How did you know?" He shook his head. "I'm still trying to figure out how you knew to turn your bow that first time."

She considered it, then shrugged. "I don't know. Who knows? I just did." He raised an eyebrow at her and she smirked.

"Does that not knowing change it? Make it any less real? And now, for one reason or another, I want you. What matters to me is that I feel the way I do, and what I'm going to do about it, not why."

She bent over him, bracing herself on either side of his head. He stared up into her eyes. She leaned in until their lips were barely a breath apart. She drifted there, letting the whatever-it-was between them build until it was palpable...like an electric current of energy buzzing between them, making her lips tingle.

"What is that?" She murmured thickly. He seemed to understand what she was meant.

"Are you looking for a technical term?" He asked, his voice a low growl. She felt that growl in the pit of her stomach...and lower.

She glanced down at his body, naked and hard. Very hard. She turned back to him and sighed. She lay a hand on his chest, then let her fingers slide down over the short golden-brown hair which ran in a tapered V down his stomach. She could already feel the heat climbing up her throat and into her cheeks and ears. "I'm going to hate myself in the morning."

His jaw clenched and she could tell he was holding back a smile, if only by the glint in his eye.

"Then let it be my fault, and hate me instead."

He grabbed her by the waist and turned her onto her back, straddling her hips. She drew her nails down over the plane of his stomach before dropping them to her sides. She gnawed her lower lip as she eyed the impressive erection now laying against her stomach even while trying to ignore the throbbing between her thighs. It wasn't working very well.

Ah hell... fuck it to oblivion. Literally in this case.

Feric gazed down at her, watching with intense interest as she eyed him. He half expected her to tell him off again, but a man could still hope.

She arched a brow and wriggled, pulling her long, loose night shirt up over her head, leaving her nude save for her ever present little smirk. "I think I can do that."

The smile he'd been resisting finally broke free as he arched over her, anxious to get started before she could change her mind. Of course once his mouth closed around her breast it became clear there was little chance of that. Her fingers wound tightly into his hair, and she gasped and arched against him, her nipple becoming instantly hard against his tongue.

It was so bloody sexy, the way she always responded so quickly and so completely. The way her nipples hardened and skin tightened. The way she mewled and growled and writhed under his mouth...under his hands. The way her hands gripped his hair, and her nails scored his shoulder, back, and ass. It was as intoxicating as that taste of salt and cinnamon on her skin— as the heavy, fiery spice and the mouth watering scent of her arousal.

He knew it wasn't all for him, or because of him. It was just her, part of who and what she was—demanding and hungry....voraciously uninhibited. She wanted what she wanted and when she wanted it. He certainly didn't want to be the one to ruin that for her, to make her stop wanting, to make her doubt.

And he hoped to hell he hadn't.

As if in response to his thoughts she bucked under him and pushed down on his shoulders. "A little lower if you don't mind" she rasped, a sultry laugh tinting her quick-sand voice. His cock throbbed painfully as he moved down her body, and he shuddered as he slid against the soft silk of her thighs.

She tasted so damn good.

Inanna laughed softly and gripped the back of his head, pressing her hips up toward the deliciously hot mouth which had latched itself around her aching, swollen clit. He wasn't gentle either, and she sucked in hard, fast breathes as she bucked against him. As he pushed harder, and his teeth bite down, she dug her nails into the back of his skull in retaliation.

It just seemed to make him worse. He nipped and sucked at her flesh like a starved man, and when she thought it might just kill her, he switched tactics, impaling her with his eager tongue instead.

He didn't let up there either. He crossed the foreplay line and kept right on going until she was digging her nails into his shoulders and broke her spine trying to levitate off the floor. Trying since much of her was still pinned under her wicked cat...the same wicked cat who decided it might be fun to see how much farther he could keep pushing her.

He pinned her wrists as well, gripping them in one hand as he shifted to push one leg free and over his shoulder. It seemed there was nothing she could do but forebear. Poor, poor, Inanna. What ever would she do?

Nothing but writhe and whimper apparently...and do her very damnedest not to start wailing like a netch in heat. That and find religion apparently. Or so the unstoppable litany of ' oh god's' and curses seemed to indicate. She even began begging him to stop, but the bastard just chuckled and kept going.

By the time he took pity on her now aching back and excruciatingly sensitive girl parts, she'd counted at least three proper climaxes. At least while she was still paying attention.

And yet, despite all odds, she still wanted to jump him. And How.

"Azura's ghost, Feric." She breathed, blinking away stars as she stared up at the ceiling. "You'd think you were auditioning for something."

He crawled back up her body, grinning as he caressed one of her ears and watched her shiver in response. "I sort of am." He replied. "Have I gotten the part?"

She tilted her head and arched a dainty brow at him. "Well...I don' t know. There are still so many people left to auditio—"

He didn't seem to like that response and used that talented tongue of his to give her mouth something else to do. Not that she minded terribly. And talk is so overrated.

She grinned crookedly up at him when he finally pulled away. "I like how I taste on your tongue."

"Not half as much as I do." He teased her bottom lip with his teeth, biting it gently and shifting his hips until his cock was grinding against the top of her smooth mound. She squirmed to prolong the contact, but her legs were still pinned between his. "But then," he murmured, as he dragged his mouth along her jaw to nip the bottom lobe over her ear, "You'd taste good anywhere." He made a sound like a gravelly purr against her ear and she felt her insides contract in response. He had to know what that did to her...the ear...the sexy growling...purring...

"Oh, god, shut up and fuck me already." She groaned.

He pulled away, grinning hotly, and pressed a knee between her legs, knocking them apart. Her legs were already wrapped around his hips and pulling him close before he'd even managed to settle back between her legs.

Just as quickly as she'd reached for him, she seemed to change her mind and pressed a warding hand against his chest.

Luckily she didn't give him time to start worrying. "Wait. Lets do this the right way."

He watched her with a mixture of uncertainty and amusement. "We're doing it wrong?"

"Look, if I'm going to be stupid and do something I'm going to regret, then I'm not going to do it by halves. Change."

She pushed his at his chest and wriggled out from under him. He cocked a brow and backed away from her a little. His stomach dropped and he felt the heat of his desire wane a little.

"Look, Ina, if you think we're doing the wrong thi—"

"Don't argue, stud. Just do it." She emphasized her point by rolling up onto her hands and knees and presenting him with a very tempting view. God he loved that. Such a sweet little ass...

Yet, he still hesitated. She cast a dark grin at him over her shoulder. "Don't pussy out on me now kitty cat. This is supposed to be your fault, not mine remember? Don't make me come over there and force you to ravish me."

He could feel the low groan rumbling around in his chest as he gazed down at her raised, swaying bottom. She made it that much worse by spreading her knees even further apart, exposing the slick, dark folds of her glistening slit, and ran two slender fingers up between them, spreading herself until he could see the pink, heated center.

"Damn it woman, do you have any idea what it does to me when you do that?" He growled.

"I have some idea." She whispered softly back...her fingers now pressing deeper, slowly penetrating herself under his fixed gaze. "Come on Feric, wouldn't you rather this were you?" Her grin became feral. "I won't bite...if you do it first..."

That was about as much as he could take. Before he knew it he'd shifted and had buried his muzzle between her thighs, his hungry tongue fighting her fingers for purchase inside of her.

She groaned and dropped her forehead to the thin mat below her, using it to prop her up as the sensation of the hot, rasping tongue forcing its way between her probing fingers made her limbs tremble weakly.

A moment later the rest of her gave as well as the soft fur of his belly brushed her ass and back, and she felt the iron hot tip of his length glance against the cleft of her sex. She found enough will left in her to buck her hips on the next pass, trying desperately to angle him inside her.

He too shifted, however, leaving her empty and wanting. "Bastard." she growled against her forearm, and ground her ass up against stomach. "Keep teasing me like that, and I will show you a whole new world of pain."

He slipped lower, pinning her once again, and grasping her shoulder with his teeth. Her cry of pain was mixed with one of relief and pleasure as he jerked his hips forward and thrust into her half a second later. "God, yes!" She panted out, arching back into the thrust and clawing her fingers against the thin mat.

Inanna wondered, and not for the first time, if she'd lost it. She was supposed to be mad at him...supposed to be keeping him at arms length while she figured it all out...supposed to be...

She wasn't supposed to be enjoying this... wasn't supposed to want to be fucked senseless by a bloody lion...and sure as hell not begging for it...

She groaned as he stroked out of her body slowly and gasped hard as he drove back into her with a literally breathtaking lunge. As always it was all she could do to hang on, breathlessly cooing her encouragement as he speared into her with glorious ferocity.

Oh, who was she kidding, she loved everything about this. The way he moved inside of her, filling and stretching her, riding her hard and fast. The feel of his hard, muscled body bearing down on her, siding against her... and he was magnificent in either form. Whether it was lovely tanned skin under her nails or the luxuriousness of his thick fur moving along her body...she wanted it, adored it. There was nothing like it. Nothing like him.

She could feel his teeth at her neck, and in the corner of her eye saw his claws flex for purchase. She shuddered as the reality of her situation weighed down on her...literally. Four hundred pounds or more of solid muscle and perfect killing machine...mounting her, covering her...moving inside of her. She moaned at both the thought and the sensation accompanying it.

She gasped and cursed and reached for him, gripping his neck hard as her body spasmed around his still thrusting cock.

Feric could feel her nails digging into his flesh and it pushed him over the edge. His jaw clamped tighter, finally breaking skin, and he thrust hard and deep, growling into her shoulder as he jetted rope after rope inside her, filling her until he'd felt like he'd emptied his entire being, his very self, into her beautiful, lithe body.

They stayed that way for a long, moment, silent save for the music of their labored, panting breathes. Finally he shuddered, spent, and rolled off of her onto his side. When he blinked his eyes open, she was facing away and he could see the still bleeding wound on her shoulder where he'd bit her.

He carefully pressed his muzzle to her shoulder and when she didn't move or complain, gingerly lapped at the fresh marks and blood. She grumbled but allowed it, and even lifted a lazy arm to brush loosened strands of hair from her neck in order to give him better access.

He was pleased beyond measure that she did. And even more so when she eventually shifted closer to nestle against him for warmth...even if he was pretty sure he knew exactly what five words she was muttering incoherently into his fur as she did.

Either way she fell asleep with her hands buried in the thick fur around his neck and shoulders and with her slight, naked frame curled up against his side, much as she'd been the night of the storm...after they'd come back from Wariel.

He understood then that it wasn't just warmth she was seeking, that she needed, then or now. He could only hope that as she slept, she found it.

@@@

"I'm still mad at you."

Feric was very careful not to smile. "I know." He intoned. He'd lost count of how many times they'd had that exchange today. She was determined that he not forget it.

This time it was by way of goodbye, and therefore had a somewhat different tenor. It sounded less like 'don't think you've gotten away with anything' and more like 'be careful, and come back in one piece.' So, necessarily, his "I know" was actually "I will."

She confirmed her meaning by crossing her arms, glaring, and then telling him to keep off the roads and stick with the western ridges. She knew damn well that was already the plan, but he appreciated the thought and the unspoken words behind it and nodded.

So it was that they parted with terse words and curt nods and under the curious observation of the rest of the pride. He knew it was partially for their sake. It was one thing to make a tentative peace between them on a personal level, but public restitution had yet to be made by him. He understood that, and had kept his distance.

Once he'd left however, he regretted it. Despite the previous night, and despite the palpable subtext of their terse exchange, there was still a deep wound that needed to be tended to, and leaving it like that, without a soft word or soothing touch...it made his skin and brain crawl with apprehension.

He hated leaving it like that.

It looked like he'd have to make it back in one piece after all...