Read The Beast Within for Free Online Page B

spoken. He loved her.
    “Sebastian,” she said, nearly choking on his name.
    He hadn’t betrayed her or used her. And now he was here, with her, and her emotions were sharp and too overwhelming for words. She could only stare at him, throat tight, eyes filling with tears, wanting to tell him she loved him, but unable to squeeze the words out.
    But she didn’t have time to wonder or worry why she was speechless, because he closed the distance between them and brushed his mouth over hers, a soft sigh of a kiss, a gentle worship of her lips. Liv closed her eyes on a deep exhalation of air, her shoulders relaxing, fingers losing their grip on the sheet as he hovered over her mouth, in her space but not touching, his fingers traipsing across her forehead, down her cheek. This is what she wanted. Tenderness. The night before had been raw, exciting, a fantasy, now she wanted real, intimate, loving.
    “I missed you,” he breathed, forehead resting lightly on hers. “The thought of you kept me alive when I was bleeding in that river.”
    “I wish I had known.” Liv slid her hands down his shoulders, pausing to trace the mottled and angry outline of his scar. He had suffered as much as she had. More even, and her heart broke all over again for the pain he had endured, for how they had both needlessly suffered. There was dried blood on the laceration she had given him, and she shuddered as her fingers hovered over it.
    Turning his head slightly, he brushed his lips over her fingers. “It doesn’t matter. What is important is we’re here, together, now. And that we’ll be together tomorrow.”
    She sensed the question in that and she never hesitated. Sebastian’s eyes had always been oddly fascinating, one a pale sky blue, the other a mossy green, so different that she’d often thought they worked independently of each other, conveying their own distinct thoughts and emotions. An illusion, no doubt, based on the fact that the light hit them differently, but now as he looked up at her, there was no disparity, no variance.
    Having experienced such little deep and unwavering love in her lonely life, she knew it when she saw it, and it was there in Sebastian’s unusual eyes.
    “Yes, we’ll be together. Today, tomorrow, always.” Despite the last six months, despite realities that would have to be faced, it had always been, and always would be Sebastian for her.
    Wanting to feel her skin against his skin, Liv pulled off the T-shirt he had just put on her and tossed it to the floor.
    He kissed her then, a deep possessive kiss that swelled her heart and stirred her desire. As the touch lingered, as his hands moved to grip her shoulders, Liv became very aware of the fact that she was naked, he was naked. The sheet scraped against her tight nipples and rustled between her legs as she shifted to be closer to him. God, she had missed his touch, and as his kisses grew more urgent, hungrier, Liv dropped her mouth open and let him plunge his tongue inside her.
    Tenderness had disappeared. His fingers were digging into her flesh and he was dominating her mouth, a hot skilled assault that left her limp and breathing hard, clinging to his arms for support. The fierceness of his possession both startled and excited her, and she suddenly realized there was one important piece of information Sebastian didn’t have.
    “I have to tell you something,” she murmured between kisses, gasping when he nipped her bottom lip.
    “Later.” Sebastian yanked the sheet down and eyed her breasts with blatant longing.
    “No, it’s important.” She swallowed hard and tried to ignore the response of her body to his piercing gaze. “I never…we never…” She took a deep breath and forced the awkward words out. “We never had sex. Scarborough and I.” Her voice dropped down to a whisper on his brother’s name, and she felt her face heating up. This was a conversation she had never expected to have with him.
    Sebastian’s eyes moved from her