Bargain With the Beast by April Andrews Page B

up
against the wall. He opened the fridge almost automatically and
poured himself a glass of orange juice before taking a seat at the
counter. The arched window which ran through the entire open plan
living area gave him a glorious view of the bay below, and as he
looked on it, Tobias tried to immerse himself in the view, to not
let the Beast back into his thoughts.
    It was a futile attempt.
    If he closed his eyes he could see
him, naked, muscled, his hands reaching out, a smile on his lips,
desire darkening his eyes…
    If he closed his eyes a bit tighter,
Tobias could almost imagine what it had felt like to be touched by
those hands. How he had shuddered as the Beast kneaded his flesh,
stroked across his skin, licked along his cock…
    Tobias did not close his
eyes.
    “ You have to stop this,”
he hissed. “It’s over.”
    And he knew that, because one thing
Tobias had done this week—apart from working out constantly to try
to get rid of all the excess energy he seemed to have—was to replay
every single moment of their time together. Many things about that
time took on a new meaning now, and Tobias reached out to pick up
the list that he had left on the counter. He had made it the first
night he had returned to his apartment. That return had been weird,
almost surreal, and the list had been his way of trying to work
through the confusion that had filled him. Since then it had served
another purpose.
    To understand.
    He read down the bulleted list now,
picking off item after item, considering them and trying to piece
together what it all meant, almost like a jigsaw puzzle that had no
guiding picture…
     
You ended up underground because
one of the females tried to escape.
You don’t know why.
Karl took you because he worried
that you had seen something you shouldn’t…only you didn’t. You
would have been oblivious to everything if you’d just been left
where you were, knocked out on the red-carpeted floor.
The Beast rules below ground. That
much is clear from the way the other males reacted to
him.
But the community here, below you, is one of many. Does the Beast rule there too?
What is the community? Why is it
hidden? Why does no one know about it? Why do they all have yellow
eyes?
No one who enters the community
ever leaves…except you. Why are you the exception? Because you
pleasured the Beast?
Why did the Beast say you would
return..?
     
    Tobias frowned and dropped the list
back on the counter, that last question nagging at him the same way
it had all week. No matter how many times he read it, no matter how
many times he tried to understand it, he couldn’t. And now, so many
days later, the whole experience was taking on almost a dreamlike
air. Almost as if it had never really happened.
    Except it did.
    If he just closed his eyes…
    He shot up, suddenly
restless, his muscles twitching, his head spinning. The view of the
bay beckoned him now, and Tobias knew that he needed to be out
there, in the fresh air, trying to run off these feelings, trying
to get back to himself. It was what he’d been doing all week after
all. It was the only thing that helped.
    He drank his orange juice in one quick
gulp and jumped up. His sneakers were under the dining table so he
bent down to retrieve them. What else did he need? His key. He
grabbed that too, bent down to tie his shoelaces, looping the key
around one as he did so.
    A few moments later and he was running
down the stairs, across the lobby, and outside of the door. The
wind hit him the moment he stepped out, but it felt good. It was
cold, harsh, the moisture in the air stinging ever so
slightly.
    He broke into a jog, and usually would
have taken the route that led inland. It snaked along the hillside
before meeting a trail that would lead down into the valley proper.
But today Tobias didn’t want to do that. Instead he headed towards
the water, and even from this distance he swore he could hear the
sound of the beating waves.
    Tobias ran fast, not even