Marie Harte: Julian's Jeopardy

They crossed a narrow tributary before he felt confident enough there was enough distance between them and their enemy to stop. Sunlight filtered down through the eerie darkness around them via a few points in the space above the canopy of leaves overhead. Hell, he'd run all night long.

“Seems like in the short time I've known you, we're always in the dark,” Sheridan muttered, the first words she'd spoken in hours.

Jules walked to a small patch of sunlight and set her down gently. He made sure she stood on steady feet before letting go. Rummaging through the backpack, he found a bandanna he dampened in the nearby river. After cleaning himself, he returned to her and wiped the blood from her body. To his surprise, her wounds had already healed.

She stared at him in silence, her look one of awe.

He frowned. “What?”

“You're so…different.”

Yet instead of backing away, Sheridan took a step closer.

His beast liked the courage in the slight female, and Jules waited without moving, not wanting to spook her.

“Can I touch you?”

His cock rose in an instant, begging to be petted. “Wherever you like.” She flushed, a pretty pink that made him want to see it all over her body. As she stroked his forearms and chest, he took in everything he'd been trying to ignore while he carried her.

Her breasts strained the fabric of the thin pink camisole she wore, her nipples hard and outlined against the sheer cotton. Her shorts hugged her hips. Just as transparent as her top, they couldn't hide the thin strip of hair covering her mound.

He salivated at the thought of how sweet she might taste, and to his astonishment, he caught the scent of her lust on the air.

He opened his mouth to taste it and licked at his fangs. A light floral scent, exotic and particular. He'd never smelled the like before, and it intoxicated him.

Without meaning to, he leaned down and licked her neck, purring at her answering shudder. The floral perfume of her arousal intensified.

“Oh, that tickles.” She inched closer and stroked the hard plane of his abdomen. “You must work out a lot. I can see all your muscles.” He closed what little space remained between them, incredibly aroused, especially when his cock touched the smooth fabric guarding her belly.

“How are you so big?”

It’s you , he wanted to say, then realized she meant the change . “I'm Circ.”

“What's a Circ?” Her hands left his stomach to graze his ribs.

He couldn't help it. A louder rumble vibrated though his body.

“You're purring!” She paused, then continued to touch him.

“That feels good.”

“You have fangs. Claws.” She fingered the sharp blades of his nails, not at all afraid but curious like a cat. Her creamy skin contrasted with his darker flesh, so tender, while his was so tough.

“I'm Circ. I'm a man who can change into this. A beast.”

“A beast,” she whispered. “Is this why Ricardo wanted you? To be able to transform like you?”

“I'm not sure.” He didn't know her well enough to trust her with all his secrets, despite how close his body wanted to make them.

“You're fascinating.” She stepped back, and he had to fight the urge not to pull her closer again. When she glanced up at him, her blue eyes sparkled in the light.

The neon blue of her gaze warned him to be careful. Her image fluttered in and out until he blinked her into focus and ignored his fading energy. He needed to lie down, to rest and recuperate with the enemy all too close. But he needed to be inside her even more.

She bit her lower lip. “You can heal yourself, like me. But you're so much more.”

He grunted. “You're a lot more than you appear to be as well.” Sensing they were safe, at least for now, he changed back, wanting to feel his normal body again, to be more compatible with Sheridan. Hell, if he were honest with himself, he wanted to feel her hands on the man's skin, not his beast's.

“Incredible.” She caressed his chest, and he stifled a moan.

The fog of lust made everything else fade into the background. Suddenly consumed with the need to take Sheridan, Jules could think of nothing but her. His aches and pains disappeared, pushed behind a door in his mind as his carnal desires overwhelmed his senses. Shit, I’m hard enough to split wood. And her pussy is creaming for me. I need this . “Hmm, yeah. Incredible.” He kissed her before she could protest, and she sank into his arms like she'd been made for him.

He licked her lips and pushed his tongue into the sweet cavern of her mouth, dizzy with need. She felt so damned good against him, so feminine and yielding. He wanted to sink inside such softness, to let it surround him and lose himself in her warmth. The energy in the woman called to him the same way her voluptuous little body did.

Ending the kiss, he trailed his mouth down her cheek to her neck. He placed his mouth over the spot on her neck he'd seen bruised, and lightly sucked, aroused when she moaned. Her nipples raked his chest, and he thrust against her belly, aching for her.

“Oh,” she gasped. “You're making me so hot.”

“Good, because you make me burn.” He had to touch her. He ran his hands over her back, then slid them under her top. She didn't protest, and he tossed the camisole away, exposing her creamy shoulders and breasts. “Oh, man. A rosy peach, my favorite color.” He groaned and sucked on her nipple, unable to keep away.

She moaned his name with so much desire and urgency that she soothed his need to take her hard and fast. After all the suffering he'd undergone, he intended to linger in the first sense of true peace he'd had since his hellish time in captivity.

Hell, since he'd turned fucking Circ, if he admitted the truth.

Her breasts were full, so large and round, and tipped with wide areolas and tight nipples. He feasted on one, then the other, biting the engorged buds until she cried out and clutched him tighter. Her small hands on his waist felt so hot, so good.

He wanted them on him, over his cock and balls. Closer, so close until there was no him or her—only them, joined as one.

Jules pushed her shorts to the ground and eased them both to their knees. He lay back, not wanting to hurt her skin on the rough ground. Not liking even that small of a distance between them, he pulled her closer to continue suckling her breasts.

Her moans and the sweltering scent of her need surrounded him with true paradise.

She settled over him more firmly, bringing the wet heat of her sex over his cock, and he bucked up, sliding in her cream.

“Jules, please,” she rasped, a throaty whisper that taunted his willpower. “I want you inside me.”

“Demanding little thing, aren't you?” he teased and kissed his way back up her throat to her mouth. A small part of him whispered of danger, of potential enemies nearby, but his beast snarled the caution to silence. This was much more important, vital to Jules's well-being. He needed Sheridan like he needed breath. And he intended to have her.

He licked at her mouth and thrust past her lips, caught in the feminine taste of her.

The kiss flamed through his body, connecting them in a way he hadn't anticipated. Affection poured through him, racing alongside the lust that continued to build. Everything in Jules, in the man and his beast, cherished the gift of this female, so small yet so resilient as he laid claim to her. He wanted the moment to last as he learned all the ways to please her.

But the stubborn woman on top of him had other ideas. She shifted, and before he knew it, he slid inside her, the head of his cock engulfed by wet heat.

“Oh, fuck.” He swore and tried to stop her from moving.