Predator Read Free Page A

point.
    This point being she was lying on the ground and feeling supremely alive, waiting. You’re messing with my mind somehow; that has to be it .
    What do you want of me? she ached to demand, but he’d already taught her a lesson—patience. He’d speak when he was ready, and nothing she said or begged would change that. Besides, she was far from a position of power.
    Bottom line, she was trapped on her side, her free leg under her, spine arched so her breasts were on display, her crotch easy for him to reach. He could rip off her shirt, unfasten her sports bra, manhandle her breasts, grab—
    No, damn it! She wasn’t getting wet. She wasn’t! Only an idiot would react to being captured by becoming turned on. Those crazy, adolescent fantasies about being spirited away by pirates or Tarzan types had been nothing more than the result of her newborn sexuality.
    Mind control. Trapping my thoughts as thoroughly as he trapped my body .
    When he dropped to his knees beside her again, she expected him to start pawing her. When he only stared, she remained tense, waiting, wanting and anticipating something she couldn’t name.
    “It doesn’t have to be like this,” she told him. “You’re a handsome, healthy young man. Women—women have to be falling over themselves wanting attention from you.”
    From his lack of expression, she wondered if he’d understood her words. There was something about him—a loneliness, a distancing, almost as if he’d lost touch with himself. “Do you want to talk? Maybe if I understood, I could help.”
    “It’s too late.”
    Fresh movement on the hill distracted her from his somber tone. It was as if—impossible, of course, but it was as if whoever or whatever was up there was judging him.
    “No, it isn’t,” she insisted. She didn’t dare concentrate on anything except her captor. “Let me go, and we can both forget what took place. I don’t hold grudges. I’ll chalk it up to one of life’s unexpected adventures, this crazy thing that… I won’t go to the police if you release me now.”
    “You’ll leave. I need you here.”
    She could lie and say whatever he wanted to hear, but surely he’d see through words meant to gain her freedom and nothing else. Besides, for some strange reason, she wanted to be honest with him. “I came here to explore the mountain, gave myself four days to do so. Then I have to get back to work.”
    “That’s what I thought when I arrived,” he muttered and again shook his head. “But then the mountain reached me.”
    The mountain? “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    “I know. It’s my job to teach you.”
    “Teach me what? Never mind. I’m not—” Her words trailed off. If she’d angered him—
    “You’re beautiful. Healthy.”
    Her throat seized, making it nearly impossible to swallow. Tears stung her eyes. When he reached for her, she briefly believed he felt sorry for her. But then his fingers trailed over her neck.
    This wasn’t the first time he’d touched her, but earlier, he’d manhandled her. This was something entirely different. Lowering her head to the ground, she tried to focus on him, but all she could see were his knees. He continued running his fingers along her veins. She felt smaller than she had a few moments before, softer, more womanly. A spell? Was it that simple?
    “Wh-who are you?” she stuttered. “Please, at least tell me that.”
    “Stark.”
    Stark. Strong. Masterful . She hoped he’d ask her name and with the sharing they’d become more than strangers, but he didn’t seem to care. Maybe nothing mattered to him except that she was female to his male.
    The pressure against her neck increased. “I can feel your pulse,” he told her. “Your heart’s racing.”
    “Of course it is. You can’t possibly expect me to—”
    “I fought at first,” he interrupted, his forefinger now running behind her ear. “When Cougar Spirit came to me, I denied his wisdom, but in the end, I