by Keta Kendric
“How does that feel?” she asked, leaning closer to make eye contact, her chest brushing my arm. Like a fucking dream. Her seeking gaze pressed against my hot need, demanding a response.
“It’s good. Feels good.” The words rushed out on a quick breath. The feel of her tight nipples pressed against my arm had my dick stirring.
She kept touching me like I was an object she was fascinated with. Was I imagining her interest in me? Was I wishing and willing it to be true when it wasn’t? Her smile started in her eyes, perched on her lips, and bloomed over her body. The sight caused me to lift a brow, noticing that there was genuine interest in her expression. When her warm lips connected with my flesh above where she had put the bandage, I jumped.
“Desiree!” I growled harshly. Her lips on me were nothing short of intoxicating, feeding the desire I had fought so hard to stomp down. My dick had never gotten so hard so fast. My hormones had never been so energized. I had never wanted any other woman the way I wanted Desiree and was certain I never would.
She would run screaming from my house if she knew my secret concerning her.
In an attempt to shut her out, I pinched my eyes shut again, fully aware that she had her sights set on me. Her warm, soft hand remained in place, wrapped around my arm. I could have told her to let go or to back off. I could have done a million things, but I was more alive under her touch than I had ever been.
“Khane,” she called softly.
Taking care to move only my eyes, I aimed them in her direction.
“I’m waiting,” she informed. A few minutes ago, I was certain I could resist her, but she was wearing me down by the minute.
“I’m waiting for you to tell me about the men who were spying on Mecca and me.”
Thankfully, she was waiting for a story and not for me to kiss her. Every cell in my body demanded that we kiss until our lips went numb, and that I shoved myself so deep inside her it would take a week to separate us.
After a deep sigh, I revealed everything in graphic detail, down to how my knife had slid into flesh until it chipped bone. I wanted her to know that I wasn’t the nice guy that she assumed I was, the one that I had created for her.
Her brows pinched at my vivid detailing of the act, but she listened intently and digested the news. Her face sat pinched in disgust at the bloody brutality I revealed about the BMW passenger, but in all my bloody detailing, I noticed that she had never released my arm.
“Khane,” she called softly. She was about to tell me how crazy I was before she attempted to psychology me back into some form of normality. Truth was, I had accepted and made peace with my ways. I felt sorry for people who lived their lives with limitations because they ended up committing suicide from imprisoning themselves. I, at least, practiced what I was taught, improved on the skills I had learned, and applied them to my everyday life.
My eyes lifted to meet hers. Her stiff posture and clenched hands revealed that she was afraid of my truths, but there was something else in her gaze that I didn’t recognize.
“I can’t lie to you. Your story scares me. The knowledge that someone could be after me has my nerves on edge. But, you were honest with me, and I appreciate that. Will you promise to always be honest with me? Even if it’s something you know I may not want to hear?”
I nodded. “Promise.” A smile surfaced on her lips before her head fell against the top of my shoulder, above the area she had bandaged. She squeezed her soft, warm body into my side, her action telling of how comfortable she was with me, despite the truths I had revealed.
Did she not just hear me say how much I enjoyed killing people? She had not mentioned a word to the fact that I had just confessed, in detail, to murder.
I squeezed my forehead in a tight grip with my free hand, and prayed for the strength I needed to get me through the next six days. It was becoming painfully obvious that although Desiree had a delicate appeal, her family ties had hardened her, if not physically, most certainly mentally.
“Will you tell me how you got the name Kannibal?” she asked, nuzzling her head into my shoulder. Those big pretty eyes of hers were sitting there waiting to rip apart my insides. She was making this so hard for me, and I was left with no other choice: fuck her or talk.
“I was fifteen when I got the name. My father used to hold these tournaments of sorts that were similar to the setup of gladiators. They took place in the fields of the big deserted farm he owned. He had gone as far as placing portable stands around the fight area where spectators could look down on us.”
A deep crease of worry ran down the center of her forehead, but she remained silent.
“The events drew large crowds, hundreds who placed bets on who would win, who would break or get something broken, who might kill or be killed. My father forced Arjen and me to fight at each event. The penalty if we lost was two weeks inside a deep, dark, soundless hole he had in the ground. Two weeks in there was enough to eat away at your sanity in the worst possible way. He left me in there for a month once, and it took me just as long to start speaking complete sentences again.”
“What?” She stared, appalled. “Khane, that’s crazy. How could someone get away with something like that in modern society?”
I shrugged. “Money. Power. Being a member of one of the most powerful organizations in the world. Enough of any of those could get a person whatever they wanted. Other fathers in the syndicate seeking to harden their sons would turn them over to my father for training. They didn’t get their same sons back, as my father would ensure he had taken a piece of their minds. They came to him as boys and left as animals. People think it’s me, but my father is the reason the Vallin name is synonymous with animals. It was him who turned Arjen and me into the most vicious kind.
“There is no such thing as freeloading in the organization, as you are accountable for contributing. By eighteen, you are either in sales, management, distribution, or security. My father ignored the age requirements and started training us the day we turned five-years-old.”
A glance down showed her riveted to my every word, her head against my shoulder staring up at me, and her warm body pressing harder into my side. Was I really sitting here telling her about my childhood? I had never let anyone close enough to even ask me about it.
“One time, in a tournament, I was getting beaten. The guy was bigger, a few years older, and he had technique and training on his side. The threat of a harsher punishment to come from my father was the only motivation I had on my side.”
Her body stiffened against mine every time she suspected my words would reveal something harsh. Her eyes were aimed at my face, her mind connected to my every word. “How did you beat him?”
“How do you know I beat him?”
“You found a way,” she said, assured in her confidence of me.
“I did what my father had trained me to do because I knew what he would do if I lost. I knew that if I could get my opponent into a submission hold around his neck or one of his limbs, he would not tap out, so he would either pass out, or I would end up breaking something. I knew this because I wouldn’t have tapped.
“I got him into an arm bar and ended up breaking his arm. He became so enraged that he bit me, clamped onto my wrist and wouldn’t let go. He bit me in an area, that if he had penetrated the skin, it would have severed an artery. I countered with a bite of my own, taking a chunk out of his neck. They started calling me Kannibal because it wasn’t the first time that I had broken someone’s skin with my teeth. I caused such a bloody mess that I thought I had killed him.”
“Did you?” she asked, staring with an awed expression. “Kill him?”
“He never talked right again, but he lived.”
Her face bunched in disgust, but she didn’t move away. “Your father sounds like a real sick son of a bitch.”
Hearing her curse had me fighting to keep my smile from surfacing. “I’ve never met anyone meaner. He cornered the market on evil.”
Thankfully, she e
ased away from my side, releasing me from the entrancing affect her touch had over me.
“So, what’s going to happen now that there is someone watching me? Will I be confined to the house? What will I have to contribute to the organization since I’m obviously over eighteen?”
“You won’t be confined to the house. I’ll be with you wherever and whenever you want to go. You, don’t have to worry, I won’t let anything happen to you. There is always someone after me and Arjen, but we refuse to hide from life, and we won’t let you hide from it either. When you return to Arjen, he will make your safety a priority. You’ll continue to run your design business. Arjen and I weren’t given a choice because of our father, but you can be whatever you want to be to the organization.”
She stood. She was still way too damn close as her hand slid along my arm. “Thank you, Khane…for looking after me.”
“You’re welcome.” Why the hell did I look up? Now, I was lost, stuck in her gaze. So much care and genuine appreciation rested there. So beautiful, and so incredibly close that her hip was pressed against my left knee. She inched closer, stepping into the V of my legs, rendering me helpless. I had killed, tortured, and destroyed men without emotion, yet I couldn’t pull my gaze away from Desiree to move.
She bent closer, possessing me with her hypnotizing eyes. She was a touch of heaven in this pit of hell I called my life. She was everything good and loving, the purifying drop of water that could fill a desert bathed in heat. She was everything to a man like me, who’d never had anything but a strong motivation to chase death. She reached forward and cradled my face in her hands and inched her lips closer to mine.
“Desiree!” I called out in a harsh rumble before I jumped up like the couch had caught fire, swerving to avoid her.
Although she represented everything good, she was also the most dangerous thing that I had ever encountered, and I doubted she even knew it. She was the kind of danger that made you question who you were, the kind that had you willing to do any and everything for her, the kind that men were willing to start wars over.
My breaths rushed, making my lungs contract and expand, quick and harsh from her getting my fucking nerves and hormones revved up so fast. Something inside wouldn’t even allow me to get upset at her, but I managed to point a daring finger at her.
“No one else in the whole entire fucking universe could get away with all the shit I’ve allowed you to get away with. Touching me. Talking like we are life-long friends. Me keeping you company when you flash me those big pretty eyes. No more. Fuck no. We can’t be that close anymore, Desiree.”
Her eyes dropped from my lips to the finger I pointed at her, before moving back up to my daring glare. Her right eyebrow lifted as she stared without uttering a single word in response. Was it challenge I saw in her gaze?
The moment she walked into my kitchen that first day, I knew I had a big fucking problem on my hands, but I couldn’t let her unravel me. I had already let myself slip with her, and I couldn’t allow it to happen again.
There was no mistaking that she was about to kiss me on the damn lips. It was time I got the hell away from Desiree, and it was not because I didn’t want her. It was because of the substantial amount of energy and effort it took to keep from slinging her ass against any sturdy surface and fucking her until we were too exhausted to feel guilty about our actions.
I stepped away with my dick hard and aching and my mind yelling for me to turn around and give her what she was so clearly asking for. A glance back showed her standing there, twisting her seductive body, staring after me like she wanted me to devour her whole. Was it arrogant of me to think that she was thinking of all the wicked little things she wanted me to do to her?
When her teeth sank into her bottom lip and her eyes scanned up and down my body, I realized my assumption had been wrong. She was imagining all the wicked things she wanted to do to me. The deep breath I blew out failed to relieve the pressure on my throbbing dick.
The images of her riding me with that same expression on her face popped into my mind. I quickened my stride towards the garage because shit was getting out of hand between us. There was only so much I could take before I stopped giving a fuck about crossing the line.
The question I had pushed from my mind a dozen times resurfaced. How the fuck was I going to survive the next six days with my brother’s fiancée if she kept tempting me?
13
Desiree
The first thing I did was call Mecca to give her the heads up that someone other than the Vallins had been watching us. She wasn’t surprised, and I was sure I’d heard her cock a gun on the other end of the line before I hung up.
After a long cool shower, I sat in bed with my computer across my lap, failing to get any work done.
It had been four quiet years since I’d had to deal with any sort of threat. I didn’t believe it was a coincidence that this one appeared right after my engagement to Arjen and after the deal he had struck with my father.
Khane was confident in his ability to protect me, and I believed that he would keep me safe.
Fixing his wound was my way of finding out what the hell was going on. Men saw the delicate features of a woman and assumed we couldn’t handle the gory details that reigned over our own lives. I didn’t care how bad a situation sounded or how dire it was projected to become, I wanted to know what was about to happen.
The fact that Khane had decided to talk to me, endeared me to him that much more. Maybe that was why I had almost kissed him. He was open with me, and although he fought it, he showed me he cared in an unconventional sort of way. I wasn’t oblivious to the fact that he had given me all the gory details of his actions as a way of turning me off.
I lifted my head to the ceiling, hoping to push back images of Khane. A cold chill easing up my arm stopped my chain of thoughts as it inched its way to the exposed skin of my neck. I removed my laptop from my lap, setting it atop the mattress beside me.
Don’t you go messing with that man. Leave him alone, my internal good sense warned. Instead of listening, my bare feet were already kissing the darkly tiled floor.
I could no more explain what led me from my bedroom as I could explain what drew me to Khane. My roaming mind led and my body followed, breezing through the house, and I didn’t stop until I was standing in front of the mysterious door.
The sight of it fed my fear as much as it stirred my curiosity. A glimmer of light traced up the seam of a small crack in the door. Khane was in there, and I was about to find out what was on the other side of it. The bend of my smile deepened as a rush of excitement flooded me.
It felt like I was gliding closer to the door instead of walking, my soundless steps impressing even me. The tip of my pointer finger pushed at the cold, thick wood. The crack grew wider, making the seam of light break apart the darkness in the hall. I expected the door to creak or whine, but it was uncommonly quiet as I pushed until there was enough space to step through.
The dim lighting on the other side didn’t match the level of brightness that had shone through the crack. Surrounded by dark stone, I stood on the top of the small square of a cliff. Choppy stone steps, cracked and brittle in areas, led down to a cave-like basement.
Based on the thick silence of the surroundings, it appeared that this portion of the house dipped into the mountain. The idea that I was stepping into a mountainous cave at the lower level of Khane’s home had fear and excitement fighting a grudge match inside me.
The dark stone walls surrounding me were as worn as the steps, parts crumbling and dusting the walkway. There was no railing to hold on to, so balance and careful steps led me down.
The small pieces of biting stone poked at the pads of my feet and crunched under each of my careful steps. The merging of flesh, stone, and movement ignited the space around me with sound. Khane hadn’t shown up to stop me, so I continued on my path down the steps covered in goose bumps.
The chill in the air touched me down to my bones, making
me fight back shivers. A spot on the top of my head presented a pulling sensation, a supernatural touch from beyond, warning me to stop, turn around, and go back to bed.
The mysterious door at my back was being folded into the darkness until it disappeared, but the sight of a thick metal door in front of me filled my dim view as I stepped down the final two steps of the dungeon-like stairway.
After swiping a hand across it a few times, I found a nook that would aid in sliding the metal door open. I placed the tips of my fingers in the delve, pulled, and the door moved sluggishly, sliding behind the stone wall that held it in place. The weight of the door made the process a slow one as it slid apart like a black curtain revealing a surprise.
“Aww! Nooo!” came a shrieking yell that caused me to jump back and place my hand over my chest. My heart pounded like I was facing down an eighteen-wheeler approaching head on at top speed.
“Why were you watching the women?” Khane’s voice was calm and easy. Curiosity was a strong motivator. It pushed my fear aside and demanded I find the strength to take the next steps.
Light swallowed me in its brightness, but the strong chill in the air had me shivering within seconds. Straight ahead were more dull and gray stone walls. I had been transported back in time and was standing in the hall of a medieval dungeon. Like Khane’s house, the theme of this basement, if it were a theme, was just as compelling.
A sharp left would put me face to face with whatever horror Khane was participating in. The hallway wall blocking my view was a blessing and a curse, protecting me from the horror I’d heard and keeping me away from what my curiosity begged to witness.
“God. Please. I’m begging you!” Another series of pleading yells sounded off loud enough to send ripples vibrating over my skin.
Was Khane torturing one of the men who had been watching us earlier? Based on the detailed story he had revealed, I assumed he had killed them both. Had the man been in the back of Khane’s truck the entire time I was following him up the mountain?