‘I would have done whatever it took to keep you there long enough to read you.’
‘Clearly,’ he remarked, before taking another mouthful.
‘When I joined the VCU, I searched the archives about my parents’ deaths. Two separate psychic reports said the same thing: that their astral bodies were taken with their souls still intact; their souls hadn’t passed into the afterlife. But there was only so much I could research without a name to go on. No third species would talk to me because of my job and my links. I was running out of options. And time.’
‘So you came looking for me.’
‘I knew you were no ordinary vampire. The things people said. The way you conducted yourself. Research I’d done. I was going to bring you in anyway but yes, I was hoping to find something in my shadow-reading.’
‘But not one of your colleagues knew what you were up to? Not even Max?’
‘No one’s ever believed me that my parents’ deaths were linked.’
‘Well, well, the golden girl’s got a devious streak.’
She knew she had no time to waste, that he would have already planned what he was going to do with her, but it still stuck in her throat even as she said it. ‘I want to make a deal with you. The thing that slaughtered my parents is coming for me too. Help me kill it and I’ll give you what you want.’
His silence, his dismissive smile, riled her.
‘It wants my soul, Kane,’ she added. ‘And obviously so do you.’
‘But it’s not coming for another three days. I’ll be done with you by then.’
Her pulse raced at his nonchalance, as she struggled to suppress her annoyance and panic. ‘To get to my soul you need my heart. So far you don’t stand a hope in hell. I’m offering you a way in. You’d be a fool not to take it.’
‘Such conviction.’
‘I mean it, Kane.’
His gaze slid tauntingly over her again. ‘So are you advising I’d best take what I want, while I can?’
Her stomach flipped. Her eyes narrowed at the passive threat. ‘Why not? Help me hate you more. That’ll help your cause.’
And she did hate him. Hated him for discarding her plea like it was nothing. Hated him for being so arrogant as to think he could still seduce her. Hated the fact he had got her there in the first place.
And as he flashed a hint of that sexy smile, those deadly alluring incisors, she hated the way he ignited her inside.
Hated the fact he was so damned sexual. So damned bad. So damned everything that deep inside she craved.
Hated the fact that she wanted him despite knowing he was poison. A poison so deadly that if she let it into her system, it would all be over.
Silence filled the gap between them as Caitlin’s defiant eyes locked in indignation on his.
If he hadn’t indeed needed her, her belligerence and insolence would have incited him to act on his carnality without hesitation. Nobody looked at him like that. And certainly no VCU agent.
But the stakes were too high.
Besides, hate was less painful than love, and he wasn’t going to be that merciful. Because glower though she may, Kane had seen the look in her eyes when he’d strolled out of the shower. He’d seen the transfixed gaze she’d snatched away when he’d dropped his towel. Caitlin who, in that simple momentary act, had given away that she wasn’t just inexperienced, but also enticingly shy.
He’d been watching her long enough to know that in work mode she was bold, impetuous and calculated. But only because she had control, where there were boundaries and protocol. Here she was awkward and unsure – and not solely because of the power shift. He’d already seen evidence of it in the corridor and on the table. He incited something painfully uncomfortable in her, something potentially integral to his advantage – a potential worth exploring.
Besides, it was better she learned quickly who was in charge before he was tempted to do something more damaging to prove his point.
Kane moved off the bed and placed his bottle on the bedside table. He cleaned his lips of the remnants of alcohol that would taint the taste of her. He caught her behind her knees, unravelled her legs with ease despite her struggle, and slid her onto her back under him. Caitlin snatched back a breath as he pressed his hips to hers, her hand slamming against his shoulder to forge distance, a hand he pushed away, deftly interlacing his fingers with hers, pinning it down beside her head.
He watched every response as he trailed the back of his free hand slowly down her bound wrist, down the soft, delicate skin of her forearm, past the upward mound of her breast to her throat. As he gently caught hold of her jaw, he revelled in the telling spark in her eyes – a spark that every vampiric instinct incited him to fuel.
But there was a fine line between a spark and an uncontrollable blaze, and never had he needed to wield such self-control. Caitlin’s nubile, warm body, the panic and latent desire in those beautiful vulnerable eyes, instantly summoned the depraved side of him. A side he reserved only for the most sexually proficient, not those barely teetering on their awakening. Taking her then would ruin everything, because if she saw what he was capable of, if she learned what he’d wanted to do from the moment he’d first seen her, it’d scare the hell out of her and forge a distance he couldn’t afford. Let alone if she knew how even now he fought beneath the surface to suppress the deepest of his desires, his need to feed on her. Humans were one thing, but the energy that shadow readers gave off when they climaxed was as intoxicating as it got, the bite during sex knocking it up a notch – the ultimate dual feed. And Caitlin, with all that finely tuned repression, would be as sating as a shadow reader could be.
This wasn’t about satisfying his desires though. Not yet. This was about initiating hers. This was about getting inside her body, then her mind, before unlocking the chastity belt that was her heart, to steal the soul inside.
This was about getting his roots in deep, because they’d have to be deep to get what he wanted. And Kane wanted, needed, to be as deep inside Caitlin as anyone could be.
And he’d do it without the deceit of playing her protector.
He’d do it without the deceit of being her hero.
The satisfaction of Caitlin accepting him for what he was would serve to make his triumph even greater.
Unfortunately there was a delicate balance between arousal and fear, between pleasuring and wounding her. He couldn’t go too fast. He had three days to break her. Three days to work out exactly what would tip the balance with the consummately restrained shadow reader.
He held her jaw still as his mouth met hers. He gently prised her lips apart with his, caressing those soft, warm lips, exploring her teeth and tongue slowly and coaxingly with his. Her refusal to reciprocate, despite her arousal, gave him further satisfying clues of her enticing internal struggle. And the flush of her cheeks, the dilation of her pupils revealed too much for him to act the gentleman, especially with the rosy tinge of those tempting lips, her pulse racing invitingly, her tense body compelling him to mercilessly break inside her.
He bit her lip and Caitlin flinched, her fingers tightening in his as he savoured her blood –blood just as sweet and intoxicating as he’d imagined. Her shudder and gasp were temptation enough to release her hand to slide his to the exposed waistband of her underwear, Kane yearning to tear the fragile silk, his self-control teetering as her eyes flared.
‘Stop,’ she said, blood still seeping invitingly from her lower lip, her trembling hand clutching his wrist, her long, slender fingers unable to meet its circumference. ‘Or you’ve already lost.’
He licked his lips as he coaxingly entwined the band of her knickers around his index finger. He absorbed the heaviness of her breathlessness and the panic in her eyes, because Caitlin didn’t panic. She was trained not to show fear. So the rawness of her reaction, let alone the immediacy of her protest, only added to his curiosity.
She was scared of him, yes, but she seemed just as scared of herself – or at least of her responses
to him. Caitlin wasn’t as confident of her ability to handle him as she liked everyone to believe, nor as she liked to portray.
He tugged the band down just a little further, causing her to tighten her grip. ‘Really?’ he asked, searching her eyes. ‘I’m not so sure.’
She swallowed hard, the quiver of her lower lip showing him she’d reached her limit.
He removed his hand, placing it beside her head, his lips hovering just above hers, her whole body tensing again in a way that enthralled him. ‘Then don’t goad me, little girl,’ he said. ‘No rules, remember?’
He could see her assessing him and the risk he posed. The fact he’d stopped when she’d asked had clearly confused her. She already had an established view of him, thought she knew him. And he’d have to start by doing something about that.
A game.
Caitlin’s pulse raced painfully as Kane’s clever, perceptive eyes assessed her every reaction.
Some kind of twisted test.
He’d toyed with her and she’d fallen for it. He’d wanted to reclaim the balance, remind her who was in charge, and she’d let him. In a moment of weakness, she’d panicked and given him exactly what he’d wanted.
Part of her wanted to retaliate at that point, but common sense told her to keep her mouth shut while the tempestuous vampire still lay above her, still held her confined to his bed.
There was no VCU to back her up now. There was no one to come running when she bit her lip. And there was no guarantee, despite the hint of playfulness in his eyes, that he wouldn’t think better of his decision to stop. The vampire in him could so easily decide it was worth the risk.
‘I need the bathroom,’ she said, the first and only thing she could think of to break away.
He held her gaze for a few torturous moments longer, before partially moving off her as he reached to open the beside table drawer.
She caught a glimpse of the key and, as he looked back down at her, she silently pleaded that he wouldn’t humiliate her by making her beg. That he wouldn’t keep her there more than a moment longer.
It took all her composure not to heave a sigh of relief as he eased off her completely to sit beside her. His cool hand took hold of her wrist to unlock the cuff before he finally moved off the bed.
Caitlin rubbed her wrist to encourage the circulation back in, watching him warily as he held out his hand towards the door.
‘Be my guest,’ he said.
She slipped off the bed, her bare feet meeting wooden floorboards then a rug as she tentatively crossed the small space past him and into the bathroom.
Closing the door behind her, she leaned back against it, her eyes closed, her heart pounding. Twenty minutes. That’s all it could have been. It had taken all but twenty minutes. There was no way she was going to survive a couple of days of this – not if he kept looking at her like that. Not if he smiled once more in that self-assured, coaxing manner. Not if he pressed his hard, capable body against hers again. He was probably laughing to himself now. Laughing at the awkward, sexually inept VCU agent who panicked the minute he touched her knickers.
She clutched her head, heat flooding her face. She hated herself for being weak. She was never weak. Not when it came to that. Her head was always so screwed on. So why, and how the hell, was he making it spin? It was as if he could see right into her as he cruelly played on her every weakness, her every psychological G spot.
He was so sure of himself. So arrogant. So infuriating.
And her negative, self-deprecating thoughts were not going to help her in either of her causes. She needed to get back into agent mode and fast. This was what she’d wanted for so long – to get up close and personal with the vampire himself. It wasn’t in the detainment unit as she’d planned, but it certainly didn’t get more up close and personal than being tied to a bed in one of his dens. This was as close as anyone got to Kane Malloy. As close as any VCU agent had ever got. She had a job to do. She had information to get for the VCU and for herself.
But it was pointless getting information if she was trapped here with it. She needed to keep assessing her surroundings and look for weaknesses.
She focused on the three high narrow horizontal windows ahead, mirrored glass from the looks of it, or certainly UV shields. They were ajar, the rain tapping lightly against the angled glass.
She hurried to the three steps leading up to the large, oval sunken bath that stretched the length of the wall to her right. She balanced her feet on the edge of the bath and cocked her head awkwardly to look out. She stared directly out onto steel railings. It was dark and dank beyond, seemingly the back of some alley. At least she knew they were ground level, if not basement level. But there was no way she was getting through those gaps, even as small and nimble as she was. She sighed with frustration and sank onto the middle step, her feet on the tiled floor.
What she needed was to stay smart and to stay focused. He wasn’t going to kill her and he wasn’t going to rape her. Not yet. He was playing mind games and that was all. But one thing she knew for sure was that hostility would get her nowhere. She had to stay calm. More than that, she had to stop giving him a glimpse of any vulnerability he might use against her. If he thought she was sexually weak, he’d play to his strength and that was one mind game she knew she’d fail at.
She had to keep reminding herself that she had equal advantage because there was one sure impossibility in this world – you couldn’t make someone fall in love with you. You could trick your head into thinking you were in love, you could even trick your heart – but you could never trick your soul. All she had to do was keep hers safely locked up to stop him getting what he wanted. Locked up until she convinced him to help her. There was a long and hard road between attraction and love – especially for shadow readers and especially for her. It seemed even worldly wise Kane had a lot to learn when it came to that.
And she still had three days.
Caitlin used the toilet and washed her hands. She ran her fingers through her hair to tidy it as she checked her reflection in the mirror. She clutched the edge of the basin and stared into her eyes.
She wasn’t weak, she was just tired. Tired, drugged and overwrought. And Kane was using that opportunity to test her barriers, watch her reactions and assess her responses just as he had done in the interrogation room. It was what the great manipulators did. And master vampires were the greatest manipulators of all.
Common sense told her she needed to play along. There was always the risk that if she played too hard to get, he could give up on her and select another shadow reader. And if he had no use for her, he could do whatever he wanted to her. She needed to let him think he might stand a chance, at least long enough for her to persuade him to help her.
She ran her hands down over her negligee and turned back towards the bathroom door. She stepped tentatively over the threshold to see Kane leaning with his back to her against the bedpost, watching the TV. He didn’t just have a shirt on now but also his jacket.
Her first response was to worry about where he was going, and more so why. Worry that was quickly replaced by realisation that his absence would give her a much-needed opportunity to examine her prison more closely.
But as he turned to face her, cocked his head towards the bed, indicating for her to get back on it, she knew that little glimmer of hope was short lived.
Despite her instinct telling her to comply, her pride kept her rooted to the spot, even with the six-inch height difference suddenly seeming far more intimidating than when he’d had her pressed against the corridor wall.
‘Five seconds and counting,’ he said.
Her pulse raced. She glanced across at the cuffs still attached to the headboard, then back at him. ‘I’m not going to do anything.’
His eyes echoed unnerving sobriety. ‘Three, two—’
Reluctantly she conceded. She coiled back against the headboard and lifted her wrist. To limit the intimacy of his proximity, she looked away as he sat beside her, as
he secured the cuff into the final notch around her slender wrist before easing back off the bed. She watched him tuck the key in his jeans pocket as he strolled away, reluctantly admiring the confidence of his posture, the broadness of his shoulders, the power behind that body as he disappeared through the door.
She listened to him slide a bolt across in two places – top and bottom. A key turned in two separate locks. This was the place he kept things contained. His very own prison. A prison with a bed – more proof that he had more than one way of getting information, or whatever else it was that he wanted.
There was the rumble of an engine and the faint sound of metal grating against metal, the echo dissipating into a large and hollow space beyond.
Then everything fell to silence again.
Caitlin yanked her wrist in annoyance in its binding and slumped back against the headboard. She tongued the bite on her lower lip, which already felt less painful. His sensual licks had been nothing more than preparing her for the feral, cruel bite to follow.
She reached across for the bottle of water he had left on the edge of the bedside table for her, rested it between her thighs and unscrewed the already loosened cap. The water was cool and refreshing as she took a small mouthful.
If that was how he was going to play it, she needed to toughen up.
And fast.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The old bell tinkled as Kane stepped inside the cluttered store. The room lingered with the aroma of incense sticks, cinnamon and cloves. He strolled past the familiar shelves and glass cabinets overstuffed with emblems, charms and miscellany – toys for those who liked to tamper with things they didn’t understand.
He stopped at the platformed counter, in front of the human goth girl sitting behind it. He surveyed her minor piercings and tattoos – an attempt to fit into the crowd she was hankering after. Working at the store no doubt helped towards the kudos she seemed to be desperately seeking. Her large brown eyes, chocolaty against the thick black kohl defining them, instantly met his. Despite looking like she was somewhere in her late teens, those eyes told him she was more likely approaching mid-twenties. She blushed through her foundation.
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