by J. S. Scott
Damn. That was another thing I liked about him. He didn’t screw around with words. He was pretty damn bold, and had no problem voicing whatever he was thinking…at least when it came to sexual comments.
I tried to pull my arm away, but he had a solid grip on my wrist.
“Let me look at you, Anna. If I can’t fuck you, then at least let me have the satisfaction of seeing you look relaxed and sexy as hell. It might be torture, but I like you this way.” Kane’s voice was low and husky.
It wasn’t exactly a demand. He was definitely being bossy, but there was a plaintive request in his voice that I couldn’t ignore. “Okay,” I agreed. “It is pretty comfortable.” I didn’t want him to think I’d agree to whatever he wanted, so I made it sound like I was doing it because I wanted to.
His comment about fucking me had gotten to me, and my panties were damp just thinking about what a demanding lover he’d be.
If he was really my lover.
Which he wasn’t.
He’s my jailer, my kidnapper. I have to remember that.
Kane let go of my arm with a small smile of seductive satisfaction. “Good. Now are you ready?”
Ready? “For what?” I questioned, confused because my overheated body wanted to climb across the table and mount him like a horse. At the moment, that was pretty much all I could think about.
“Another game.”
I shook my head slowly. “No. Not unless I can play naked to distract you more. I think you recovered your skills pretty quickly. I could cook us dinner if you’re hungry?”
“Having you play naked are definitely terms I could agree to, Cupcake—and I’m hungry…just not for food.” His eyes grew dark and stormy, making it impossible to ignore the need I saw in them.
“Not happening.” What had occurred between us earlier in the day couldn’t take place again. My body might crave him, but my mind was screaming at me to get a grip and remember who Kane was and why we were here.
Unfortunately, the reason why we were together in this remote mountain location was getting harder and harder to remember.
I’m starting to like him!
And holy hell, that could be dangerous.
I still wasn’t completely sure what his role was in the death of the woman found murdered in his bed. Yeah, he was being nicer to me, and he obviously wanted to fuck me, but that didn’t mean he was innocent.
As I’d told him earlier, trust didn’t come easy to me, and there was a whole lot of reasons why I shouldn’t put my faith in Kane.
If only…
“I need you to let me go, Kane. I need you to let me go home. I have to check on the diner, and I hate being in these mountains.”
He was silent for moment, his look brooding and thoughtful. “I can’t right now. I told you that.”
I got up, not giving him the chance to keep me from going to the refrigerator to see what I could make for dinner. We were going to start running low on the good stuff, so I was going to have to get creative sooner or later. Luckily, his uncle was a paranoid old man, so the cupboards were filled with canned goods and unperishable items. And I was good at improvising when it came to cooking.
Finally, after gathering a few things on the counter, I stopped, my back to Kane as I answered. “I know you don’t trust me, but I swear, if you let me go, I’d never tell a soul where you were.”
And actually, that was exactly what I’d do. I was starting to believe it could have been possible for someone to frame Kane, and I wasn’t about to turn him over to the police when I had doubts. If he really had been blamed unfairly, I’d give him his time to prove his innocence.
His fist came down on the kitchen table so hard that chess pieces scattered everywhere. “Goddamn it! I can’t trust anybody right now, Anna. I fucking can’t—even if I want to!”
For some reason, his words hurt. Sure, he really didn’t know me. But he’d fucked me, comforted me, and he was the first person I’d opened up to in a very long time.
“I guess I’ll just stay a prisoner, then,” I muttered as I dug through cupboards for pots and pans.
“You’re not my damn prisoner,” Kane growled as he got up and moved behind me.
“Oh, then I’m free to leave?” I asked lightly as I sat a pot on the counter.
“No,” he rumbled. “You’re not.”
I turned just as he started to wrap his arms around me from behind, and pushed him away.
“Then call me whatever you want if it makes you feel better. But if I’m not free to go, I’m your captive. I hate being underground, I hate being in these damn mountains, and the only way I’d be here is if I was being held against my will.”
I glared back at him as his tumultuous gaze collided with mine.
He could rationalize what he was doing by saying we were friendly, and that we’d even screwed until I’d nearly lost my mind. Still, he didn’t trust me.
“I’ll get you out of here soon enough,” Kane grumbled. “I just need some time. I told you I’d pay you.”
I didn’t answer. I turned around and focused my attention on dinner, hoping I could forget that I was underground and pissed off because my kidnapper wouldn’t set me free.
I was angry, but part of that emotion was directed at myself, too. I’d let myself start to care about Kane, and it was one of the worst mistakes I could make right now.
“I don’t want your money,” I informed him stoically.
“Then what do you want, Anna? Name it. Just as soon as we’re out of here, I’ll fucking make it happen.”
I stayed silent, and eventually Kade started picking up the chess game and setting it right while I cooked.
The tension in the room was almost unbearable, his question remaining unanswered.
I couldn’t tell him what I really needed. I didn’t want his money, and I was really afraid that by the time all of this was over, all I’d want was for him to fuck me into oblivion, just like he had earlier.
“Nothing,” I finally said in a voice just loud enough for him to hear. “I don’t want anything.”
I knew I was lying, but I didn’t care. Somehow, I had to protect myself. After losing my parents, I couldn’t bear one more loss, one more disappointment. My entire world, including my career, had ended in a matter of moments. I was just starting to put myself back together again. I couldn’t lose it now.
He stomped away to get a drink without answering, and I let out a sigh of relief.
It didn’t matter how annoyed we might be with each other, the sexual tension between us was almost palpable and damn uncomfortable.
My body relaxed for a moment because he’d left the room, but I knew it was going to be a long evening.
CHAPTER 13
Kane
I paced the stocked pantry, cursing under my breath, before grabbing a bottle of whiskey off the shelf, and taking a long swig, needing to slow my racing thoughts and calm my nerves. I couldn’t let Anna get to me. No good would come of it.
If I let her go, she might get her life back a week or two early, but it’d be at the expense of my entire fucking life.
I couldn’t go back to jail, and if I gave in and let her go, there was too good of a chance someone would start asking her questions about where she’d been—or worse, she’d go straight to the cops.
I’d been too soft on her. Too willing to do whatever it took to get her not to fear me, to get her to feel comfortable around me, and try to make her see that I wasn’t a bad guy. That I was innocent.
And what the hell was that going to fucking get me?
No…I should have stuck to my guns and kept her tied to that bed, and to hell with her fears and feelings. The world was a cruel fucking place—and we both knew that firsthand. Why the hell should things suddenly change now?
I walked back into the living room, grateful for the numer
ical lock at the top of the stairs, knowing that if it weren’t for that, she’d have already tried to make a run for it the moment she got the chance. Dropping onto the sofa next to her, I took another swig from the bottle, not bothering with a glass, before offering her the bottle—which she surprisingly took from me.
With her angry blue eyes locked on mine, she raised the bottle to her lips and sucked back enough whiskey to no doubt have her head spinning, then plopped the bottle down with a thunk on the coffee table. “So, this is what we’re going to do now? Just drink ourselves into oblivion until we forget our problems?”
“Works for me, Cupcake.” I grabbed the bottle and took another swig, knowing it’d take a hell of a lot more to even get me buzzed, let alone drunk. I had a rather high tolerance when it came to alcohol. “Or maybe…I need to tie you to my bed again. Make you realize that your current arrangement isn’t so bad…give you another perspective on the situation.”
“You really are an asshole.” Yet fear flashed in her eyes as she saw that I was serious.
“Never said I wasn’t. Though, I think you liked being at my mercy a whole lot more than you’d ever admit.” And there was the proof…her cheeks flushed red, and her nipples went hard against the fabric of the T-shirt she was wearing. I couldn’t help but smile as I shook my head, half-tempted to check to see just how turned on she really was at the thought of being at my mercy. “You really are so fucking gorgeous, Anna… And I’m fucking sorry that I’ve made your life a mess. But for now, I have no choice but to be the asshole you hate.”
She stole the bottle back from me, and took a long sip before setting it down, her eyes locked on mine, looking like she was mulling something over. “My life…it may have been a mess before you showed up. But being stuck down here…being underground…and the walls…they feel like they’re closing in around me. At the very least, can we go back upstairs? Please, Kane…”
Fucking hell… It was a bad idea. And yet the way she looked me had me rethinking things.
“Believe me…I know firsthand what it’s like to feel trapped, to be stuck in a small space…to be confined.” Just like my prison cell. “And I know this has been hard on you.”
“But…?” Her eyes narrowed at me, filled with hate.
“But…it’s still safer if we’re down here. I’m sorry, Anna. I really am. But you also have my word that this is just temporary, and everything will be sorted out soon.” Gavin had texted to let me know he was getting close to finding enough evidence to convince the authorities that I wasn’t responsible for the murder of that poor woman. “And in the meantime, I promise to do all I can to distract you.”
Her eyes narrowed at me as I grabbed the bottle from her and set it aside before pulling her onto my lap, loving the feel of her body against mine as she straddled my lap. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Taking advantage of our slightly inebriated state to make you forget that I’m asshole and you hate me.” Yet as I held her in my arms, my heart hitched, and I knew that there was no one else like Anna…knew that even after all this was over, there was a good chance I wouldn’t be able to walk away from her. “Despite everything—despite what you think of me—I want you to be happy.”
Tangling my fingers in her hair, I hauled her to me for a brutal kiss, my mouth plundering hers as her hips rocked along my erection, making me desperate to get her naked again, to claim her as mine, and make her realize that there was so much more between us than the fucked up start of our relationship.
I didn’t want her to think of me as the criminal who abducted her; I just wanted her to see me as a man. Maybe that was too much to ask, but damned if I didn’t want it anyway.
She tasted like whiskey and honey, and I didn’t know if I’d ever get enough of her. Breaking away from our kiss only as long as necessary, I pulled her shirt up over her head, loving that she didn’t have a bra on, her hard nipples pressing against my chest as our tongues clashed in a heated dance, and we added my shirt to the pile.
Needing her naked, I scooped her up in my arms, and carried her off to the bedroom, loving that she wrapped her arms around my neck and held on to me tight, her head buried in the crook of my neck as she spoke. “I don’t know why I give in to you…why I can’t tell you no.”
“It’s because you know that I’m not the monster the media has painted me to be—and because there’s something between us that’s impossible to ignore, no matter how hard we try.” I couldn’t be the only one who felt it—and I knew that it wasn’t something I was imagining due to our circumstances, even if I had no doubt that it was the current mess that I was in that was amplifying my feelings for her. Or maybe it was just the fact that I had very little to lose by speaking my mind right now.
“It might be impossible to ignore, but it doesn’t mean it’s a good idea, Kane.” Yet as I kissed her, she held nothing back, our tongues clashing as neither of us could deny our desperate, voracious appetite for each other, a hunger that consumed my soul.
I swore I’d never get my fill of her…and as I breathed in her sweet scent…as I trailed kisses down her neck and tasted her salty skin...I couldn’t keep my heart from hitching as it hammered against the wall of my chest.
I paused to cup her breasts and suck one nipple into my mouth as I pinched the other, loving how her back arched as if she was offering herself up to me. Teasing her nipple, I caught it between my teeth before trailing my kisses lower, running my tongue over the curves of her belly as I nestled myself between her legs once more.
I needed to taste her, needed to have her screaming out my name as I made her come, needed to make her see that walking away from me wasn’t an option.
Running my tongue against her slick folds, I breathed her in, loving the taste of her on my tongue as I sucked on her clit, her hips bucking in response as her fingers sank into my hair to pull me even closer, her words urging me on. “Fuck, Kane…that’s it. More…”
My pace quickened as I slipped two fingers deep inside her, flicking her clit with my tongue as I held it between my teeth, her needy little moans only making my cock ache with how badly I wanted her. But then she was coming…crying out my name...and I swore, I’d never heard a sweeter sound.
CHAPTER 14
Anna
I was done.
And I wasn’t talking about recovering from the earth-shattering orgasm that had just rocked my world. I was finished trying to justify my craving for Kane. It was there, and just as natural as breathing. I couldn’t stop my need for oxygen, and I definitely could not hold back the waves of longing that threatened to drown me.
I could either give in, or keep fighting until I died.
Sure, I might be a little bit buzzed, and still trembling with the aftermath of my climax, but it was like a switch in my brain suddenly clicked on, flooding it with reality, and it now refused to be dimmed.
My breathing went fast and ragged as I had this epiphany, still trying to recover from Kane’s easy domination of my body. “Get naked,” I gasped. “Now.”
He shot me a wicked grin as he rose. “Make me,” he demanded.
My mouth watered as I took in his muscular chest and abs, already bared to my gaze.
Jesus, he’s so freaking gorgeous.
There were scars marring the perfection of his body, and that tattoo which had branded him as a murderer to me, but those small blights marring his skin just made him all the more attractive to me. Had Kane been without his history, without his hardships, I doubt I would be this attracted to him. Somehow, it made me understand him so much better because I wasn’t without my own faults and screwed up past.
Kane was real.
And right now, he was mine.
I struggled to my feet, my head spinning just a little as I scrambled off the bed, standing up in front of him as I tilted my head to look up, then gazed at the raw look in his beautiful eyes.
It was that sudden spark of vulnerability that spurred me on. His eyes grew more heated as I fumbled with the button on his jeans, finally forcing myself to look away from him as I focused my attention on getting him as naked as I was at the moment.
His body tensed, and my heart melted, knowing he was probably wondering what my motives were, why I was initiating something I’d never done before. “I want to,” I said huskily as I dropped to my knees and lowered his jeans, taking his underwear along with the denim. “Let me.”
“Fuck, Anna!” he answered huskily. “I don’t know if I can. If you wrap those sexy lips around my cock, I won’t last.”
“Does it matter?” I asked curiously, helping him as he kicked away the garments, and I tossed them aside.
“Hell, yes. It matters. I’ve jacked off to that fantasy. If you make that dream a reality, it might kill me.”
I smiled just a little, loving that I could have that sort of effect on him. I wrapped my fingers around his steely cock, then flicked out my tongue to lap up the fine droplet of moisture on the tip. “You won’t die. I promise,” I answered in a sultry voice that I barely recognized.
The fact that he had actually touched himself to sexual fantasies about me was my secret pleasure, one I couldn’t even explain myself.
One taste of him had only been a tease. His essence was salty and masculine, and as I breathed him in, I swear that he released pheromones that drew me to his body. I wrapped my lips around his cock, only going a small distance down the shaft before sucking as I drew it out again.
“No teasing,” he growled desperately. He speared his hands into my hair and held on.
Yet Kane didn’t force me. It was as though he was gripping my hair to keep his sanity, or somehow steady himself.
Without further torment, I took as much of his cock as possible into my mouth, the taste of him intoxicating me as I devoured him like my favorite ice cream…only Kane tasted better.
He was a large man everywhere, and I needed my fingers wrapped around the base of him, moving it along with my mouth as he became slick and so damn deliciously addictive.