Page 54 of Carnal: The Beast Who Loved Me

“Sorry,” he said. “I’m taken.” At that he reached across the bar. He grabbed Rosie’s hand, pulled her down to the end of the bar, then picked her up and put her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. As he headed for the door, there were hoots and hollers from the few who noticed. It wasn’t much of a spectacle in the midst of a full-blown Exiled party.

Rosie could have easily forced Carnal to put her down, but she would have to stop giggling first. There was something exhilarating about being claimed in such a primal, and public, way. She could halt the progress of whatever Carnal had in mind whenever it stopped being fun.

His long strides ate up the distance between the Commons and the Extant’s house. He opened the door with his right hand and was about to cross the threshold when he put that free right hand on Rosie’s behind, so close to her most sensitive bits that she threw herself straight up into a vertical position just in time to hit her shoulder blades on the cross frame.

“Ow. Fuck, Carnal.” He set her on her feet immediately and searched her face with a look of concern. “That was a bad time to try for third base.”

“Third base?” He looked confused.

“It means you need to keep your paws to yourself.”

“Paws?” His brows came together. “Is that a racial slur?”

“What? No! It’s got nothing to do with genetics. It means you’re being overbearing and grabby.”

He grinned. “Guilty. Were you harmed?”

She blinked. “Not, um, permanently.”

“Good.” He laughed and bent to pick her up again, but this time she took a step back.

“Hold on. What’s this about?”

Carnal gave her a look like she was stupid. “We’re going to finish the conversation we started in the wasteland.”

“Oh?” When he didn’t elaborate, she began to fidget under his unrelenting stare. “So you want to talk?” She took his lack of reply as agreement. “I can walk myself.”

He motioned toward the stairs in a ladies-first gesture. “My room. You know the way.” When she turned to climb the stairs, he pulled her back into his body and whispered in her ear. “I’m right behind you.” She wasn’t sure whether it was the heat of his breath on her ear or the feeling behind the statement, but the result was a full-on body shiver.

She grabbed the hand rail and began the climb up the stairs. She didn’t need to glance back to know that he was, indeed, behind her. She could feel the energy of his presence.

She opened the door, walked in, but when she turned to face him, realized he’d stopped at the threshold.

“You didn’t! It’s worse than before!”

“What?” She looked around, trying to see it through his eyes. The rusticity of log walls had been replaced with a relatively smooth orange peel texture. She had left the wood and iron furnishings as she found them, but covered the bed in white eyelet duvet and coverlets. The window had been covered with delicate white gauze. The overall effect was sensual, but definitely feminine, more so than the last time he got a look at it.

“I made some changes, but don’t worry. I can put it back the way it was before I go.”

Carnal’s head jerked at that. “You’re leaving?”

“Well, not right away. I just mean, you know, someday.”

He stared at Rosie for a full minute like he was trying to determine whether or not she was telling the truth. Then he turned and jumped on her bed, landing on his back.

Her eyes went wide at his audacity. “Get. Your. Big. Fat. Boots. Off my bed!”

Carnal just chuckled at her, eyes flashing, and locked his fingers behind his head. “The girlie bed doesn’t belong in my room. The purity is just begging to be compromised.”

She got the innuendo and snorted in a way that would make her Auntie Elora proud. “I’m not pure, Carnal.”

“No?” he asked with a twinkle in his yellow/green eyes. “Show me.”

She cocked her head. “You’re not afraid of me at all, are you?”

“Should I be?”

“Yes.”