3. Kane
THREE
KANE
I gripped her by the outside of the thighs, hands trembling as I peered at her stunning face. That face that kept ripping the air from my lungs every time I looked at her. There was something about her that had me drawn.
I searched for a no in her expression because I sure as hell hadn’t anticipated the night to come to this.
There wasn’t a single speck.
She wanted it.
To be touched.
Adored.
Cherished.
Fingers fisted in my hair and urging me on, that yes still echoing in the air.
Still, I knew I had to be careful with her.
This wasn’t about me.
This was about whatever the hell she was dealing with. Something I wished I had the power to chase away.
Maybe for a little while I could.
Make her forget both her troubles and her name .
“You need to come, sweet girl?” It was a rumble from my tongue as I leaned in and let my nose run the length of her throat.
Her head dropped back, granting me access as those hands pulled hard at my hair. Pinpricks of pain lit in the most delicious way.
My cock turned to stone, pushing at my jeans.
“I don’t even know what that’s like.”
Her response should be a red flag. A reason for me to stop and wrap this woman up and get her safely to wherever she was supposed to be.
But she was moaning the most delectable sound as the tips of my fingers sank deeper into her thighs. Desire coating the air as she whispered, “Show me.”
Greed spiraled through my being, and I let my mouth take the place of my nose. I kissed along the delicate flesh at the side of her neck and up behind her ear.
Imbibing her intoxicating scent.
As sweet as the roses my mother used to grow out in her garden.
“You want me to show you how good I can make you feel? Send you flyin’?” I rumbled it at her flesh.
A tremble rocked her.
Right down that tempting, perfect body.
“I know you can. Make it stop hurting.” It sounded like a prayer. Like a hope that had gone dim.
I edged back to take her in where she was propped on the edge of the desk.
Wearing a black dress, the short sleeves capped in lace, a match to the frilly skirt that was bunched high on her thighs.
The woman short and slim and toned.
Every inch quaked with need.
Sun-kissed locks mussed from her tumble, those amber eyes both alight and despairing. Face the most gorgeous thing I’d ever seen.
Which was all fucked up considering the life I lived.
I knew beauty.
Tore through it like a fiend.
But there was something about her that pierced me like a knife. Hooked me in a glance. This familiarity that tugged at my consciousness.
Like she fucking mattered when there was no chance of that.
I didn’t get attached. My life was wrought with too much peril to even entertain the idea, even if I wanted to.
But there was this feeling right there, tugging at my chest.
“Hate that you’re hurting. Would give anything to take it away.”
“Please,” she begged again, and I let my mouth go wandering, up and down her trembling throat and along the defined angle of her jaw.
Dragging down to the exposed skin above the scooped neckline of her dress.
While my hands started gliding, roaming the outsides of her thighs.
Lighting her up the way she was so clearly aching for me to do. The girl giving me a haggard sigh as I slipped the skirt of her dress up higher with the next pass.
She squirmed on the desk.
“Barely touching you, and this body is already about to blow.”
“I need…” The words were wisps, and she trailed off, though she arched from the wood, silently begging me to give it to her.
“I know what you need. I won’t send you away wanting. This is just for you. Not gonna take it beyond this.”
My palms slipped all the way up, riding the curve of her hips, fingers tucking into the sides of her lacy underwear.
I edged back, watching her close as I began to peel them down her slender legs.
She trembled and shook, and she hung onto the edge of the desk like she was worried she might float away. Short gasps ripping from her lungs as she watched me wind them off the black high-heeled wedges she wore on her feet.
“Oh, God,” she choked, eyes wide in some kind of disbelief. Clearly shocked that she was sitting there like this. No question, this was completely out of bounds for her.
But I wanted to take her there. To a place she didn’t go. Remove her from reality .
I took her by the knees and spread her.
Nearly came at the sight.
Her pussy glistening and soaked.
Lust gripped me by the guts, and I had to grit my teeth to keep from pulling myself from my jeans and feeding her my cock.
Mouth watering, my tongue stroked out to wet my suddenly dry lips. “You drippin’ for me, sweet girl?”
Redness crawled up her throat and to her cheeks, though the single word cut into the dense, thick air. “Yes.”
“Good. Just the way I want you.”
Starting at her knee, I kissed a path up the inside of her legs.
Moving from one side to the other.
Showering them in slow, languid kisses.
“Why’s it feel like you are supposed to be right here? Right here at this moment?” I mumbled it at her flesh, not even sure where the inane words were coming from.
“I needed this. I needed you.” Her voice was a plea, and her hands were back in my hair, softer this time, whimpers tumbling from her lips as I moved higher.
I tucked myself up close to her, and I wound my arms under her legs and took hold of the tops of her thighs.
I paused for a fraction of a beat. Eyes going to hers for permission.
Hers burned and flamed and toiled in a way I didn’t quite understand, and I dove in, dragging my tongue through her tight slit.
She cried out, no restraint, just those fingers curling tighter in my hair.
Every inch of her throbbed with want.
I no longer hesitated. My tongue stroked out to get to that swollen bud.
I licked and lapped, driving her high, my insides a wreck because I wanted to take this so much further than she was ready to go.
Dick screaming in possession. My stomach twisted in a way it’d never been.
I smoothed my left hand around her leg, shifting so I could spread her wider, tongue still lapping at her clit .
Carefully, I pressed two fingers inside her tight, slick cunt. Her walls clamped around them.
“Needy girl,” I rumbled as I began to drive them deep, pulsing and stroking as I wound her into disorder.
In one instant, the woman came alive.
Light radiating around her.
Could feel it glowing.
A blinding storm that gathered from the depths of her being.
Didn’t take long to set her off. Her body winding into a vibrating, trembling knot of pleasure before that pleasure splintered apart.
A shout tore from her as the orgasm ripped through her body.
Streaking and shattering.
The walls of her pussy throbbed and pulsed as she gave herself over to the bliss.
Woman flying.
Soaring the way I’d promised.
She rode the wave of her orgasm forever, nearly levitating off the desk while she kept those hands firmly rooted in my hair.
Holding on as if she needed a buoy to cling to.
That’s what I wanted to be.
For tonight.
The one who showed her maybe things weren’t so bleak.
Aftershocks worked through her body, and I slowly peeled myself away so I could stare up at the way she glowed.
“Look at you. Blooming like a morning glory with the first rays of the sun. Coming out of the darkness and coming alive.”
She choked a surprised sound as she gazed down at me, toffee eyes wide and filled with shock.
Turbulence and confusion so clearly wracked her thoughts.
Old fears clawing at her consciousness and awe at what had just gone down carved into her expression.
And I wished I didn’t recognize it. Wished I didn’t see the trauma that had been scored deep inside her.
But I did.
I had seen enough in this twisted life to know .
She ran a trembling right hand through her hair, and she diverted her attention to the wall as she whispered, “Oh my God.”
It was the first time I saw the tattoo on the inside of her forearm.
Saw what was written in a dainty script near her wrist.
Find me in the darkness, bring me to the light.
I took her hand and brought her wrist to my mouth, lips caressing over the words as I murmured, “I would if I could, but I’m not worthy of that.”
What the fuck was I saying?
But my chest stretched full as I issued it, and this tenderness came across her stunning face.
A puff of soft air from between those lips as she took the hand I was holding and set her palm on the side of my face.
“That’s what you did. Tonight. You made me remember that I’m real. Alive. Even when it hurts.”
I stared at her for the longest time, just swimming in those eyes. In her soul. In this beauty that was rolling out of her.
Finally, I gave her a slight nod of my head then took her by the waist and balanced her on her unsteady feet. I slipped off the edge of the chair and onto a knee, grabbed her black-lace panties, and worked them back up her legs and over her hips, situating her and making sure she was covered.
Exhaling, I pressed a kiss to her belly, not sure what the fuck had come over me, but certain right then this woman held the power to bring me to my knees.
Then I forced myself to stand.
“Come on, let’s get you home before I try to keep you.”
Before I fully stripped her out of those clothes and took her the way I was dying to. Before I pushed into a space I couldn’t go.
She warred, then she shook her head, hands coming out in front of her as she backed for the door.
“No. Stay right there. Let me remember you just like that. Let me remember this .”
A swell of protectiveness ramped inside me. “It’s fuckin’ late, and that asshole?— ”
“Please,” she cut me off. “Let me have this. Let me keep what happened in this room. I’ll never forget it.”
It went against every instinct I possessed, and as she pressed her back to the closed door, I found myself uttering, “And what if I want to see you again?”
Wistfulness rippled across her mouth. “I don’t live in Moonlit Ridge, and I think you and I both know this was a fleeting moment. A perfect one I’m going to cherish.”
My muscles ticked, the urge to wrap her up clawing through me, and I had to basically pry the word from where it was locked in my soul. “Okay.”
Nah, nothing about her walking out that door felt okay .
She fumbled around behind her to find the knob, and she hesitated, those eyes watching me from across the space.
Energy thrummed between us.
Both soothing and inciting.
She tipped me an awed smile. “Thank you.”
Then she turned and disappeared out the door.