Blood Dark (14 page)

Prickles crept up her spine again.

She grabbed his wrist, forcing it an inch away from her. ‘You’re an arrogant bastard, Malloy.’

He flashed her another fleeting smile. Withdrawing his hand, he knocked back the second shot. ‘With good reason,’ he said, his rasp teasing her ear again before he pulled away.

The gap between them felt immense.

Not sure how to stand to look less awkward, she leaned back a little as she searched the crowds for him.

Eventually she spotted him stood with two other males less than fifteen feet away. Whatever they were talking about, they were engrossed.

As she watched, her heart beat a little faster. Aside from when she’d seen him sat in the chair with Erica and the other guy, this was the closest she’d ever got to seeing Kane in action with his own. In all the years she’d followed him, she’d never got close enough. The photographs that had occasionally come through nowhere near reflected the intimacy with which he communicated with those around him as he did then. This wasn’t the sullen, aggressive and self-seeking Kane as reputation dictated. And it was the way his captive audience responded to him that made Caitlin watch on with intrigue; it was their equally relaxed composure around him. As one leaned into him, saying something in his ear that instantly made Kane laugh, Caitlin couldn’t help but smile to herself.

But her glimmer of ease lapsed as she saw a female sidle up to him, her hand sliding up over his back to his shoulder. His hand instantly on the small of her back lacerated Caitlin somewhere deep, but not more so than as she saw his thumb meet the nape of the female’s neck as he leaned in to let her say something in his ear.

Caitlin’s back instinctively straightened, her sense of possessiveness taking over again.

But the female’s shrug was one of quiet resolve before she sloped back into the crowds.

Her heart beat a little harder as Kane gave a nod to his companions, a slap on the back to the one closest to him, before he slipped away.

She clutched her glass. She wasn’t going to follow. He expected her to, but she wasn’t going to.

Not yet.

She was
not
at his beck and call.

She scanned the crowd again. There was still no sign of Meghan. There was still no sign of two other agents that Kane had claimed followed them in there.

She reached for her bag to get the round in that she had gone there to order.

And realised it had gone.

She
never
ever let her guard down.

She checked over her shoulder then back through the crowds.

‘Bastard,’ she hissed under her breath.

She didn’t relish taking the bait, but neither did she relish the prospect of admitting to her new colleague that she’d been so incompetent, so naïve, as to lose her gun. Because she’d have to flag it up to Meghan. There was no way she could risk manoeuvering back across Blackthorn with nothing more lethal than heels.

She knocked back the shot, the scorch hitting the back of her throat, the fumes leaking into her senses. She tapped the empty glass on the bar for a few moments.

Pulse thrumming, she pulled away from the bar.

Heading in the general direction she’d seen him go, Caitlin slipped through the crowd of gyrating bodies, past the pillars and various booths, before she felt a hand on her upper arm.

She looked up at the vampire who didn’t make eye contact as he steered her through the crowds. She knew he worked for Kane. She knew that was where she was being led.

Her escort had given the nod to at least four others on his way through to the less crowded part of the club, no doubt all on increased lookout now that agents were in the midst.

The guy stopped outside a heavy floor-to-ceiling curtain and pulled it back.

A leather horseshoe seat spanned the entire twenty-by-twenty foot periphery; a circular table with a few chairs around it lay central. The space was dimly lit by two muted overhead spotlights, supported only by the flashing images on the screens that sat left, right and directly ahead, reflecting the activities of the club at various magnifications.

Thankfully Kane sat alone, leaning back in the middle of the deep seat to her left, his legs spread, one knee semi-drawn to his chest, his foot resting up on the edge.

She stepped across the threshold as her escort dropped the heavy curtain back into place behind her, it bunching behind her ankles.

Kane knocked back a mouthful of beer before resting his elbow on his raised knee. He wasted no time examining every inch of her body.

And, as he met her gaze again, there was an unmistakable glint of mischief in his navy eyes.

C
aitlin knew
her walk was the most important part of her approach – that and her refusal to drop her gaze from his. And knowing from the look in his eyes that he liked what he saw as she’d hoped, it was easy to have the confidence for a minor strut.

She stopped a couple of feet away from him – and wished he didn’t have to subtly lick the remnants of beer from his lips like he did then.

‘Kane, I’m working.’

‘New uniform?’ he asked, cocking his head to the side as he looked down at the black strappy heels that complimented her dress, the ties wrapping three times around her ankles. ‘I’d like to see you take down a vampire in those heels.’

With a sigh she rested her hands on her hips. ‘Taking my weapons when I come to see you is one thing, right now you’re out of order. Give my gun back and you can have it later.’

‘Thanks for your permission.’

‘I’m serious, Kane.’

He tilted his head to the side again as he traced the rim of his bottle up her outer thigh, following its path with his gaze as it lifted the hem of her dress. ‘And playing hard to get by the seems of it.’

She took a step back and held out her hand. ‘Now, Kane.’

He caught hold of her wrist, placed his bottle on the shelf behind and tugged her astride him.

She knew it was pointless fighting him; pointless evoking conflict she didn’t want.

‘You’d rather be out there than in here?’ he asked, his hands sliding up her outer thighs beneath her dress to grasp her behind and ease her tighter against him.

Her heart skipped a beat as she felt his hardness against her sex, as she looked back into his steady gaze. ‘I
need
to be out there.’

‘So this isn’t a ploy?’

She raised her eyebrows. ‘A ploy?’

‘I’ve seen you in that dress before.’

The shock of his revelation threw her off guard, because there was only one place she had ever worn it.

‘The New Year party at the TSCD HQ,’ he said, reaching for his drink again, one hand remaining holding her hip. ‘It was the only year I’d ever seen you there.’

Her pulse raced as she tried to get one step ahead as to why he would even mention it. ‘You
saw
?’

He knocked back a mouthful before resting his elbow on the back of the seat. ‘Call it a ritual. I used to observe from the rooftop opposite, watching everyone mindlessly celebrate their year’s achievements at keeping us third species in our place. It was an annual reminder of what I was planning to do. Then
that
night, you turned up in a taxi right outside. I had to look twice; I barely recognised you. I resolved someone’s luck was in that night.’ He tilted his head to the side slightly as his gaze skimmed her bare shoulders, her collarbone, the upward curve of her breasts beneath the bodice of her dress.

‘But you got halfway up the steps,’ he added, ‘and then you stopped. I thought at first that you might have sensed you were being watched. I remember moving a little closer to the edge of the building, daring you to look up and see me. But then I realised your nerve had gone. It was my first glimpse of the woman beneath the agent. The agent was always so in control, so focused so confident. But it was as if out of your jeans and a shirt, you were someone else – nothing more than a vulnerable, fragile girl who had the gall to go after
me
, to think
you
could hunt me down.’

Her jaw tightened. It always had been and always would be the bone of contention with her: the ready assumptions in her male-dominated profession.

Kane had made the most of teasing her about it that first time he’d pinned her to the wall in the corridor, letting her know he had overheard their whispers; letting her think he was of the same ilk in order to gauge an emotional response from her and make her drop that cool, calm and collected professional sheen.

She hadn’t.

And now, for some reason, he was playing that game again.

‘Back then, another three years seemed too long to wait when you were right there on that lonely, dark street,’ he added, running the lip of his bottle down her cleavage, the coolness of the glass making her breath hitch before it reached fabric, ‘all your comrades within screaming distance. I knew I could have been down there in minutes. It could have all been over in a couple of hours.’ He knocked back another mouthful before holding the bottle loose in his hand as he rested both elbows back on the shelf behind him. ‘So what’s the dress about tonight, Caitlin, as you turn up in
my
territory, armed
and
with back-up?’

His paranoia scraped through her, irritating her that it made her feel uneasy. But out of sheer awkwardness of the intensity he had created, out of hoping he was winding her up, she smiled.

She waited for him to smile back.

He didn’t.

This was Kane back in his king-of-the-east role. And she didn’t like it. In light of what had happened between them that afternoon, in light of her interview with Meghan, she didn’t like it at all.

She shook her head slightly and glanced at the curtain to break momentarily from the tension, knowing only too well she was not getting beyond without his agreement.

She looked back into his eyes.

Because she had no intention of backing down by attempting to move.

‘So first I’m deceitful and disloyal,’ she said, ‘and now I’m stupid enough to walk in here armed with back-up in your territory where I know you have eyes everywhere? Or maybe you think this is a double-bluff? Is that how
your
paranoia works?’

A hint of a smile returned to his eyes. ‘And as if
I’m
stupid enough to have hung around if I believed any of that.’

‘Then stop with the mind games, Kane. You asked me for help earlier – is
this
how you think you’re going to get it?’

‘I also asked you to keep those pouches on you at all times.’ He lifted the bottle to his lips. ‘Didn’t I?’

The hint of his protectiveness hit deep, it making it harder for her to stay annoyed at his accusation – playful or not. And the opportunity not to make the most of it was too great. She reached for the bottle, taking it from his hand. ‘Why? Just how real is the threat out there, Kane?’

‘Are you asking in your official or unofficial capacity?’

‘You want information from me, I want information from you.’

His raised his eyebrows slightly. ‘Are you here to
trade
, Parish?’

Her heart skipped a beat at that playfulness intensifying behind his eyes. But it was a playfulness laced with a risk on her part – exposing that she was just as much there in her role as herself.

But right then he looked like he could take it. And right then something deeper and darker was coiling in the pit of her abdomen as she felt the pressure against her sex, lingered on the intensity in his eyes, reminded herself of the attraction of the danger he exuded.

‘Too right I am.’

He licked his incisor behind his smile. ‘Once an agent, always an agent.’

‘Once a vampire, always a vampire.’

‘
Master
vampire,’ he reminded her as he removed the bottle from her hand, chucking it aside. He slid both hands back up her thighs. His gaze brushed her throat, her shoulder, down to her ankle locked against his thigh as she remained on her haunches astride him. ‘Go on then,’ he said, his gaze snapping back to hers. ‘Trade.’

T
hat minor flare
in her eyes was as addictive as the heat of her flesh beneath his cool hands – the fact she was willing to play along. Because it had to stay playful. He had to play this one
very
carefully. And that started with suppressing his frustration that there was something in it for her, her intention to bargain far from a game.

‘You go first,’ she said, clearly intending to take control. ‘What’s going on out there, Kane?’

‘It doesn’t work like that. I asked for something first. Dates and times, Caitlin.’

‘And then?’

‘And I’ll tell you what’s happening out there.’

Once he’d worked out what low-risk fragment of information he could share.

‘Just like that?’

He slid his hands into her knickers to cup her bare behind, to press her harder against his erection. Because the blood had rushed instantly to his groin the second he’d touched her, not helped by the sight of those bare shoulders, the dress that flattered her so perfectly, those slender and shapely legs looking silky smooth, the heels she wore emphasizing their length, their femininity. And there, beneath the crisscross laces that wrapped around her ankles and lower calves, was the ankle bracelet.

The bracelet that had made her his.

Seemingly the days had long passed since shadow readers simply did as they were told for their masters.

‘Unless you’re planning to get the information out of me another way?’ he remarked. ‘Trading with something else?’

‘Like what?’ she asked, her calm tone and faultlessly steady gaze not reflecting the increase in her pulse.

She was toying with him.

She was
daring
to toy with him.

Because her eyes told him she knew
exactly
what he meant.

She tilted her head to the side slightly. ‘Are you suggesting I offer you sex in exchange for information, Kane?’

For once he struggled to read her. Either she was willing to play or he was about to get an almighty slap. He wasn’t entirely sure which was going to eventually result in more pleasure.

He caressed the firmness of her behind with the equally firm massage of his thumbs. ‘Are you
offering
sex in exchange for information?’

‘You think I’d be willing to do that?’

He could hear her heart pounding. As he looked at her throat, he could see the subtle throb of her pulse beneath her fragile skin. Tracing from her collarbone to the upper curves of her breasts, her breathing had enticingly picked up a notch. He glanced at her lips – her warm, soft, tender lips that he was seconds away from grazing with his own.

He looked back into her eyes, which were anything but reluctant.

Gliding his fingertips up her spine, up to the nape of her neck, he gently coiled his fingers into a fistful of hair, his lips inches from hers. ‘You come into my territory with the intention of trading with me, a beautiful woman like you, do you not think I’d have every intention of persuading you?’

‘Seducing me? Or coercing me?’

‘Depends on my mood.’

‘And what’s your mood right now, Kane?’

‘Impatient,’ he said. He tightened his grip on her hair, slid his other hand between her legs from behind, heard her breath hitch as his fingers found her sex.

Her heat, her wetness coating his fingers, the glazing of her eyes, the parting of her mouth as he met her gaze incited that impatience further.

She slammed one hand to his chest, her fingers clawing his T-shirt, her other hand clutching the seat behind him.

‘I reckon we can negotiate,’ he said against her ear, purposefully wasting no time in finding her clit, loving the way her body instantly shuddered, her eyes closing, her breath snagging.

But instead of being impassive, she slid her hand from his shirt to his throat to press his head back against the wall behind. ‘You reckon?’ she asked breathily, her eyes hooded as they gazed down into his.

Her attempt at a dominant move sparked his basic vampire instincts. He grabbed her wrist that held him, pressing it behind her back as he simultaneously spread his thighs, spreading hers with them. He eased his middle finger inside her, relishing in her flawless smoothness, her wet heat.

She arched her back a little, exposing her neck to him in an act that was dangerously tempting as he locked on her throbbing artery.

He sat upright, pressing his chest to hers. He let go of her wrist to grip the back of her neck, his lips then inches from hers as he pushed his finger deeper. ‘Oh yeah,’ he said. ‘I reckon.’

He could feel her thighs trembling against his as his lips caressed her collarbone and back up her neck, the taste of her consuming every other sense.

‘The latest theory is that you’re still coming for the TSCD,’ she said against his ear. ‘That you never intended it to end with the soul ripper. That maybe that was a ploy.’

His lips curled into a smile at the partial accuracy. ‘Is that right?’

‘I don’t know, Kane,’ she said, breathily. ‘Is it?’

‘So you’ve come for information and to bargain.’ He slid his tongue up her neck before nipping her earlobe. ‘Dangerous. And are you fucking me to get close to me, Caitlin? Are you planning to help Sirius get what he wants?’

She tensed. ‘Is that
truly
what you believe?’

‘You’re not giving me an answer.’

‘Because I don’t want to believe it’s a serious question.’

‘It’s a serious question, Caitlin,’ he said, meeting her gaze.

‘
You
never give me straight answers, Kane,’ she said defiantly, holding her ground in a way that incited those vampires instincts further. How he didn’t slam her onto her back on the seat, he had no idea. ‘It works both ways.’

‘Then ask me a question,’ he said.