The Man Within by Lora Leigh Read Free Book Online Page A

her legs weak, her mind consumed with the vision stalking toward her. He was acting on instinct. He was no longer controlled, as she had always known him to be. He was harder, savage. And he terrified her.
    “Taber.” She stopped suddenly as her back met the rough bark of the tree behind her.
    He stopped inches from her, his eyes a brilliant jade-green, intense, overpowering. In that moment, fifteen months of pain and anger overwhelmed her. Here he stood, staring at her as though he could devour her in a single bite, after destroying every dream she ever held in her heart.
    Her fist clenched, and before she knew what she was thinking she struck with all her strength into the hard, tight muscles of his stomach. She had a feeling she hurt her fist more than she hurt him.
    “Dammit,” she yelled as he barely flinched, his body tightening, his eyes narrowing in anger. “Look what you’ve done to my life. Thanks for nothing, Taber.”
    “Mine,” he snarled. The sound echoed through her body, her soul, as she felt her breath falter, her eyes widening at the sheer animalistic sound.
    Before she could react, he caught her hands in his, pushing them back against the tree, ignoring her frantic struggles, her strangled curses.
    He leaned closer, his expression stark, primal. His gaze held hers captive as his large body pinned her smaller one to the rough bark. Roni fought to breathe, to draw precious air into her body, to clear away the dazed arousal spreading through her mind.
    She could smell him: dark hunger, intense male and heated lust. The scent of him wrapped around her senses, drowning her in the bleak knowledge that had come to her only because his animal instincts demanded it, not because the man within desired her.
    “Let me go!” she screamed, trying to kick out at him, to break the hold that was both fierce and yet gentle. She was trembling, shuddering with her own anxiety and surging emotions, and her need to hurt him as much as she was hurting now.
    He leaned closer, his hard chest pressing against her breasts, sensitizing her nipples even through her bra and torn shirt. Her head was pressed back against the tree, her lips parting as she fought to breathe, to ignore the call of lightning-hot desire ripping through her body that mixed with the blistering rage.
    And then he growled. His lip lifted at one side, revealing the longer, dangerous canines at the side of his mouth. The sound—a rumbled warning of danger and excitement—came a second before his head lowered and his heated, demanding lips covered her own.
    She would have fallen if he hadn’t caught her. Strong arms wrapped around her, pulling her closer as his head angled, slanting his lips across hers, his tongue pressing forcibly into her mouth.
    Drugging, exhilarating, the touch was lightning and heat, a morass of conflicting sensations that swept through her body like a tidal wave of impressions, swamping her beneath their force.
    Her fingers curled, her hands straining against his grip on them. Her nails bit into her palms as she whimpered against the demanding thrust of his tongue. God, the taste of him. Dark honey, sweet and tempting, lured her with the promise of passion even as it pulled her into a lust that threatened to destroy her.
    Her tongue swept over his. Feeling the small, swollen glands just under the sides, she moaned in pleasure at the taste that was released from her caress of them. She needed more. She needed to fill herself with it, to discover the full, heady promise of the intriguing flavor.
    His tongue pressed more demandingly against hers then. A growl lingered in the air around them, completely feline, male, a demand that speared through her womb.
    Roni allowed her own tongue to caress, to taste, and yet still he wanted more. When her lips closed on him, her mouth drawing at the sweet elixir of his taste, his groan rocked her. This was what he wanted of her. His lips ground against hers, his tongue thrusting into the tight