Helpless beneath him, with his huge, naked body pushing hers into the mattress, she shut up.
Chapter Twenty
His chest, broad and warm, rubbed against her distended nipples as he kissed her, stealing her breath, weakening her muscles. He slid his lips across her skin as if he had all the time in the world, as if each touch, each moment wasn’t heavy with an underlying urgency.
It was torture.
Tied as she was, she couldn’t even touch him. Her fingers itched with the desire to feel his skin beneath the delicate pads.
He drew her hair to the side and brushed his lips against the side of her neck. Drawing her earlobe into his mouth, he gently caressed it with his tongue, and she sighed, sighed and gave herself to him, mind, body, soul. Again.
Nothing had ever felt more right than lying beneath this big man, his lips on her, his weight a solid, warm protection against everything that had ever hurt her. And for this moment, she could forget everything else. There was only him. Only Kai.
She didn’t have to fight, honestly had an excuse not to. His restraints saw to that. She had given the good fight. Now she wanted to be loved by her man. This was the man fate had chosen for her, whether she, or he, liked it or not. She would think about afterward, when afterward arrived.
Turning her face toward him, she sought his lips with hers. He gave her his kiss, deepening it, lifting his hand to hold her face as he took control. Holding her still, he slid his tongue into her mouth, tangling with hers in a dance of tenderness, of passion.
He left her lips and slipped down her body, his skin so hot against hers she was sure the touch would ignite sparks, would light the drapes on fire with the power of their passionate heat.
“Kai!” Oh God, he was killing her. He put his lips to her nipple and sucked the hard point into the moist, warm cave of his mouth, playing over it with his tongue.
Her other nipple grew rigid with desire, pouty from neglect. At last he circled the nipple with a long finger, teasingly, while his mouth continued to move on the other. Each suck made the heaviness between her legs grow, made her ache with impatience.
“I want you inside me.” She cared not at all that her voice came out hoarse with need. “Now, Kai!”
With one last lick, he pulled his mouth from her breast. “Not until you’re screaming beneath me, your desire so strong you think you might die from it. Because that’s the way you make me feel every time I’m near you.” He didn’t sound as if that fact made him happy.
“I don’t want to wait any longer.” She tugged at the restraints. I’d like to break these and attack you. Slide down your enormous cock until it—
“Enormous cock,” he murmured.
Damn. Had she said that out loud?
“Are you wet for me?” His voice, thick with sex and heat, caressed her body. He slid off her in one fluid motion and crouched beside her stretched-out body like a demigod over a sacrifice.
“Since the day I met you.”
Watching her, he skimmed over her belly with a light hand. Her stomach tightened, cramping from the shock of his feathery touch.
“I should check,” he said.
“Oh…”
Resting his palm on the mound between her thighs, he rubbed his fingers back and forth over her smooth skin. Tormenting her with every move, he moved his hand ever closer to her center.
“Kai…”
“Yes?” Quietly, so quietly, he waited.
“Touch me?”
He slipped his fingers over her clit, into her moistness with one smooth move. She arched her back, fingers clawing the air. “God!”
“So good,” he whispered.
He pulled his fingers out to rub them over her clit, gathering the small, swollen bit of flesh, pinching and massaging, before slipping them back inside her.
“Oh God!”
“No, sexy baby…” His crooning voice soothed her even as his fingers hurtled her toward paradise. “Not yet.”
The mattress bounced as he moved to kneel between her open thighs, his heated gaze upon her pussy. “So ripe and juicy,” he said, “like a mouthwatering red fruit.”
If he would just put his mouth on her. Please, please…
Spread-eagled and tied to the bed, she could do little but take everything he wanted to give her. And he wanted to give her so much. Almost too much.
He slid a finger over her exposed clit, exploring between her legs, his gaze as intent as if he’d never seen pussy before.
She bit her lip as the pressure built, the sensations overpowering. He pushed long, firm fingers inside her, probing, filling her up with ecstasy.
She couldn’t take any more…
But then she discovered she could.
He slipped his hands under her hips. Cupping her ass, he lifted her slightly, parting his lips as he leaned forward. He ate her like she really was an overripe fruit, messy, fast, hard. He couldn’t get enough, and it showed.
For endless moments, she writhed, screaming beneath his masterful tongue. Crying out as he brought her kicking and screaming to the gaping chasm of orgasm, then refused to allow her the release she craved so badly.
Her entire body was a screaming nerve ending. A fire of desire crept over her skin, her insides pulsing in time with his tongue, with his teeth, his lips. The throbbing of her clit was a slow, hard beat, and she screamed herself hoarse waiting for him to send her over the edge, to turn that slow throb into a million splintering, pounding vibrations.
And yet he continued to tease, to take her to the edge and draw back just before she could reach that so-desired climax. He closed his lips over her swollen clit as he sucked and pulled on the oversensitive button, his tongue darting inside her until she staggered half-alive to that first orgasm, and it wouldn’t have mattered had he pulled back then; she shattered, screaming and clawing, bucking against the restraints, needing something so badly, needing him so badly.
The orgasm went on forever. Her clit vibrated; her body shook with the force of it. “Kai! Please!” She had to have him.
He shoved himself inside her then, the heat and size of his cock plunging her immediately into another orgasm. This one, though, this one, with him on top of her, his body heavy on hers, his ass pumping as he thrust; violent thrusts that touched something so deep and dark inside her she’d never even known it existed until him…
It was perfection.
Chapter Twenty-one
She wanted little more than to be by his side. To have him love her, for the rest of her life.
She rubbed her wrists. They were a little sore from the violence with which she’d fought the restraints. He’d removed the cuffs without a word but had gently caressed the slight marks on her skin.
Tracing a finger through the sheen of sweat on his smooth chest, she cleared her throat. “Kai?”
“Hmm?” Half-asleep, he lay with one meaty arm thrown over his eyes.
She cleared her throat again. “I just realized something.”
“Yes?”
“I mean, I understand now. I, uh…I care for you. You’re meant for me. I know that.” Damn it, did she have to sound so stilted? It was just so important. He had to realize how she felt.
And not because she wanted to use him for Constantine, but because she truly knew he was part of her. It was more than love. Almost more than she could comprehend. She just knew.
“Really.” He didn’t sound impressed.
“Kai.” She rose up on her elbow and shoved his arm away from his face. “You have to believe me.”
He lifted an eyebrow, eyes still closed. “I don’t really have to.”
“Are you ever going to trust me again?”
“Sarah.”
“Yes?”
“You talk too much.”
Wounded, she flopped onto her back. “It’s important.”
“Don’t pout.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
“Of course I’ll tell you what to do. It’s what a master d
oes.”
“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never had one. Asshole.”
“Do you care for me a little less now?”
She turned away from him, disgusted. “I wish I didn’t care. My life would be less complicated.”
“I doubt it.”
“Ah, so you acknowledge how I feel?”
“I acknowledge that you’re trouble.”
“I need you to know. I need you to forgive me…” She turned back toward him, her temper already cooled. “I need you to accept how I feel about you.”
“Damn! I must be killer in bed.”
“Kai, stop it. Please. I’m serious.” And yes, you are.
“It’s not always about what you want or what you need, Sarah.”
Her voice was small, humble. “I know that. If I could go back—”
Finally, he looked at her. Silent and waiting.
“I’m sorry for betraying you,” she said, putting every ounce of earnestness she felt into her eyes. “I know you understand, for he is my brother.”
“You should have talked to me. You should have trusted me.”
“I know.” She shook her hair out of her eyes, curiously near tears. “But why should I have trusted you?”
He stared at the ceiling. “And now?”
She held her breath, afraid to hope. “Now everything is different. Now you know, and…”
“Go on.”
“And I love you.” Simple words, full of meaning. Full of truth.
He swallowed. “God help us.”
“You must trust me, Kai. I swear I will never again betray you. Or your love. That is…if you love me.” A frozen lump of ice surrounded her heart. She meant the words to sound nonchalant but doubted severely the success of that wish.
His chest rose in a deep breath, then fell. “Damn you, Sarah.”
“What does that mean?” Her voice was quiet. He could never admit she’d actually hurt him.
“It means…I don’t know. Just give it some time, will you? Now come here and let us sleep. I haven’t slept well of late.”
“I know the feeling.”
“You deserved more than a little time in holding.” His voice was rough, grumpy.
She smiled. “You wanted me out of there.” She snuggled up against his warmth and nipped gently at his chest. “Is that the reason you couldn’t sleep?”
“Hush, witch. Let me have a moment of peace.”
But as she drifted in his arms, her thoughts went to Constantine, tormented in his cell. How could she relax in luxury while he suffered? Surely now Kai would release him. He must. If he cared for her, he would release her brother.
In one way, they’d made peace and settled things. In another, uncertainty loomed like a deep black hole.
Chapter Twenty-two
Kai walked the streets, fingers close to his gun. It was no secret that Sampson would have men lurking as often as possible. Maybe he should have let some of his men keep him company, but right now he wanted nothing more than to be alone with his thoughts.
Alone with his thoughts of Sarah. She was a knife blade in the gaping wound of his heart. His feelings for her went beyond mere fondness. She had attached herself to him, and he couldn’t force her loose. Maybe he didn’t want to.
Scents of roasting meat caused his stomach to rumble. He should go home to her, have dinner, and fuck her until he’d had his fill. But somehow he didn’t think he was ever going to get enough of Sarah.
The sunshine brought people into the streets, some standing outside their shops gossiping. It looked almost peaceful. One could imagine that danger didn’t lurk, constantly looking for a chance to slip past carefully maintained defenses. That desperate men didn’t hide in the shadows, watching for the moment when they might steal a fish or a coin or a loaf of bread.
“Fresh doughnuts, Commander!” yelled the baker, wiping his hands on a stained old apron.
“No, thanks, John.”
The baker shrugged, took a huge bite of his own doughnut, and went back inside his shop.
“What are you doing out here alone, Commander?”
He looked up at the sound of the sheriff’s voice, regretting the loss of his solitude.
“Walking, Amelia.”
“Well, I can see that,” she said, snappy as ever. “But if I must speak in a more exact manner, what in hell are you doing moping about on the streets?” She glanced around. “Alone, even. That’s just—”
But even Amelia wasn’t quite brave enough to refer to her commander’s actions as stupid. She pursed her lips and looked away from his glare, but he got the feeling she was biting back a smile.
His attention was diverted by two hulking men backing a much smaller man against the weathered wood of the fishmonger’s shop. He started toward them, but Amelia put a hand on his arm.
“Let me, Kai.”
He inclined his head, smiling at the eagerness that caused her wiry body to visibly vibrate. “Be my guest, Sheriff.”
He watched as she ran toward them, her weighted baton at the ready. Amelia liked an excuse to fight.
She drop-kicked one of the thugs, then a few quick, hard strikes with her baton sent him bloodied and battered to the ground. The second man backed away, his face pale. He stumbled as she started toward him, then turned tail and ran, leaving his buddy writhing in the dirt.
Amelia looked at Kai and grinned, her white smile a beacon in her dark face. “Did you see that, Commander?”
He laughed. “I saw, Amelia.”
But she was already walking to the young man whose neck she’d just saved. Kai watched her hold a hand to the boy. “Come on, sugar.”
Amelia and her strays. Just like him and his. And watching her tenderly lead the victim away, he realized something. He didn’t think of Sarah as a stray or a victim or one of his protected ladies.
She made him happy. Oh, fuck him. Mooning about like a love-crazed idiot, softened by one black-haired girl who’d betrayed him and would no doubt do so again.
Because when it came to a choice between him and her brother, she would choose the brother. Every time.
“Now what am I going to do about it?” A couple of hurrying women clutched each other and scurried by him, throwing fearful glances at the big man muttering to himself. He laughed, which he was sure only caused them more distress.
There was a solution. He just wasn’t sure he could allow himself to stomp his pride beneath his boot heel to take advantage of that solution.
He could let the brother go. Then Sarah would belong to him. If Con were safe, maybe Sarah would be content. But would she, really? If she had a choice of leaving with Constantine or staying with Kai, which would she choose? Could he take that chance?
Could he really forgive her and forgive her brother? A family of traitors and murderers…
But her voice, small and sad, echoed in his mind. “I love you,” she’d said. “I love you.”
He couldn’t allow himself to believe her. If he believed her and returned that love, and she betrayed him again, it could destroy him. She had the ability to break him.
How the fuck did he end up in these situations? He sighed again. “I’m just lucky, I guess.”
He strode home, still undecided and more confused than ever.
Chapter Twenty-three
Sarah sighed as she watched Teddy bustle around her bedroom. No matter how much she argued, Teddy was determined to tidy her rooms. “I can do that myself, Teddy.”
Teddy ignored her. “Are you sure you’re all right, Sarah?”
“Of course I am. He wouldn’t really hurt me.”
“You don’t know Kai.”
“Oh, I think I do.”
“I just don’t think you ought to push him. You could get hurt.”
“I’ll be fine.”
Teddy pursed her lips, coolness peeking from the inky depths of her eyes. “You shouldn’t hurt him either.”
Sarah softened. “I will not hurt him, Teddy.”
Uncomf
ortable, Teddy pulled at her nose. “See that you don’t, and we’ll be fine.”
She wanted to ask Teddy about the woman in his past, the one who’d hurt him, but didn’t. His past was his own. He’d tell her when he was ready.
“Thanks, Teddy.” The woman was like a mama bear. And Sarah was pretty sure that if she were threatened, Teddy would be the first one to offer her protection. “Teddy, can you take me to the other women?”
Teddy paused, her eyebrows raised in surprise. “You want to see Kai’s women?”
Well, when she put it like that, not so much, no. “Uh…not right now. I just thought it’d be nice to talk with them.”
“Well. Whenever you’re ready, I’ll ask Kai.”
“What do they do all day? Does Kai… Does he go to them?” She studied her fingernails. “Does he have a favorite?”
“They work all day, Sarah. They’ve all come from terrible situations, and they’re happy here. Kai treats them very well.” She shrugged, a smile playing about her lips. “They earn their keep, and not like you’re thinking. They help keep this place running. It is enormous, you know. And I can’t possibly do everything.”
“Oh, I’m quite sure you can do everything, Teddy.” She grinned as Teddy bustled from the room with rosy cheeks and a pleased smile. Her spirits were buoyed by the talk, even though Teddy had managed to sidestep the real question.
Kai had pretty much restored her former privileges; she could roam the yards, had freedom to go where she might, as long as it was inside the gates, of course. Only this time, he had a shadow on her anytime she left her rooms.
For days, she’d self-consciously taken walks in the sunshine, having the good sense to stay far from the jail, though her feet wanted so badly to carry her there. Not yet.
As soon as she was surer of him, she’d once again broach the subject of Constantine’s freedom. And she wouldn’t stop until she either nagged him to death or he released her brother. But she would never again betray him. She’d spend the rest of her life proving that to him, if he’d let her.
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