Free Loving an Ugly Beast by Danielle Monsch

friendship. This went beyond anything she had ever dared hope. Nissa continued. “No, that’s not it. You courted me as Byron. You could have had any woman in the village, or better yet, you could have traveled and explored and met a new woman in every port. But you stayed by my side.”
    And finally he looked at her. Those amazing eyes were so soft, so clear. He was bare to her, open to her as he’d never been before. “That was all I wanted.”
    Her heart beat so fast it was a miracle it didn’t punch through her chest. The man she had loved, the man she lusted over, committed everything he was to her. Her, not a beauty and not in any way special. He loved her for her.
    Just the way she loved him, how she always loved him. She loved him because he was scarred, and because he was anti-social, and because he was the most honorable man with a core of integrity nothing could break. What was a pretty face compared to those?
    And this man chose her.
    She wanted to giggle. She wanted to laugh. She wanted to dance around the cabin and throw flowers through the air in celebration.
    Benton’s chest expanded on an inhale, the muscles bunching in quick movement, and desire hit her hard, curling itself through her stomach and wrapping around her lungs and heart, slowing them both as desire flowed through her veins.
    But more than anything, Nissa wanted this man. She wanted him now, inside her. She wanted his strength used not to protect her but to pleasure her. And she wanted him for the rest of her life.
    Nissa leaned closer, her mouth inches away from his ear and blowing hot air against the sensitive skin. “What was your wish, Benton?”
    His eyes half closed and a small shudder ran through him at the sensation, his voice a hoarse and broken thing as he answered her. “I wished the beast away. I thought that was the way to get you to love me.”
    She smiled and leaned her head against him, forehead against the side of his head, breathing in his scent, another reminder he was back. He was an idiot. She was an idiot. All the time wasted. “Why didn’t you ask me how I felt about Benton before you changed yourself to Byron?”
    But why talk anymore? It was preventing her from getting him naked, and that needed to happen now. Before he could answer she ducked her head so her mouth followed the line of his throat and employed little tugs and nibbles at the rough skin. There was the movement of his Adam’s apple under her teeth, and then his voice, low and growly, came forth. “Didn’t think there was a need.”
    This was heaven. This was completion. Time for her tongue to come out and play again, dipping into the hollow of his throat. “You thought wrong, Benton. I’ve been lusting after you for months. That last day we were together, when you came to get me, all bare-chested and glistening with sweat? I nearly knocked you over and attacked you right then. I was shaking I wanted so badly to be in your bed.”
    He groaned then, either because of her words or her tongue, and grabbed her face with his hands. He brought her mouth to his and thrust his tongue into her mouth, the action like everything Benton did, strong and sure and without hesitation. He took her over, overpowering any objections. His tongue slid along hers as his hands wrapped in her hair, using the leverage to adjust her enough that he could deepen the kiss.
    There was no gentle flare of responding heat. Her body went to an instant conflagration, desire and want pooling into every square inch.
    His fingernails scraped over her scalp and down her neck, the small pain making her growl and press her mouth harder against his. He moaned into their kiss, and she thrust her tongue into his mouth in a deliberate attempt to mimic what she wanted him to do with her body. His uneven groan told her he understood.
    Clothes needed to start coming off. No matter what they were doing now, Benton would not touch her, not after last night. She needed to take the lead on this