Blood Shadows (25 page)

Because it might have been.

Her heart thudded. He might have taken her at her word. Her failure on the table might have convinced him it was a waste of his time and energy pursuing her any further. He might have already been making plans to find another shadow reader. Maybe she wasn’t as integral to his plans after all. He might even have already left to go and find one.

Another shadow reader to spend time with. Another shadow reader to taunt, tease and seduce.

The pang in her heart wasn’t panic. It was something even more terrifying.

She stood up despite the tremor in her thighs. She couldn’t just sit here as he made decisions about her fate. She couldn’t let him discard her like she was nothing.

She tentatively crossed to the door.

There were no obvious signs of him. But the door to the outer room was halfway open. Her heart skipped a beat. He was still around. He hadn’t left her. He’d probably gone back to do some work on his car – to take his frustrations out on that. And if he’d resolved to kill her, he clearly wasn’t intending to act on it yet.

She needed to talk to him, not that she knew what she’d say. More than that, she needed to see him. She needed to look him in the eyes to see if he’d given up on her.

The music resounded in her ears, the increased darkness softening the room around her as she headed over to the door.

She stopped at the gap. She couldn’t see anything in the shadows beyond, not from the angle she was stood at, so she opened the door a little further and stepped up to the threshold.

She froze. Her mouth dropped.

He was pounding into the punchbag, every move swift, precise and controlled. He was in nothing but a pair of low-riding sweatpants that showed off his sculpted, lithe perfection in all its physical glory as he punched and kicked. Even partially masked by the shadows, he looked phenomenal in action.

Her heart skipped a beat, her mouth dry, a rush of heat flooding her lower abdomen.

Frustrated, angry, bored, routine – whatever his reasons for punishing the bag, she knew it was an image she would never recover from, even if her life did only extend to a few more hours.

How she managed to cross the room towards him, she had no idea. But she did manage it, even if she didn’t remember the journey. She leaned back against his car, facing him, her hands at the small of her back.

He didn’t stop straight away, but when he did he faced her fully. His usually undetectable breathing was more frequent and heavier. A sheen coated his skin, a few traces of which he wiped off his forehead with the back of his hand. He unravelled the white tape from around his left hand, something he clearly used to protect his knuckles. His eyes were terrifyingly dark as they met hers.

Right then, right there, she could have thrown herself at him whatever the consequences. The sense of liberation was intoxicating.

She should have been frightened, but those eyes – dark and intense and unyielding as they were – also glinted with a self-possession that had a lure all of its own.

As he walked across the few feet towards her, she couldn’t speak, her toes digging into the cold, rough concrete.

His appraisal of her was swift, almost cold.

She bit back a breath.

It took no effort on his part to spin her around and pin her up against the car.

She was instantly back in the shadows of the corridor, his hard body taking her by surprise, giving her heart the biggest jolt to life she had ever known. The spark, even back then, telling her she was playing a far more dangerous game than she’d been willing to accept.

This time he didn’t say anything as he kicked her legs apart, slammed her hands onto the bonnet of the car.

She could hardly breath, uncertain whether it was from fear or arousal. But this could be it – the moment he ended it. One fatal bite, one twist of her neck, and it would be all over. But all she could feel was that capable body; all she could see was those strong, masculine hands holding hers; all she could smell was that musky, woody scent. And close to her ear, she heard those subtle, infrequent breaths that reminded her he was far from human.

‘What took you so long?’ he asked softly against her ear.

Words failed her as he forced her wrists together, encircling them with just one hand, keeping them on the roof of the car.

‘Remind me, how long have you been hunting me, Caitlin?’

All she could think of was his lips – those beautiful, cool, masculine lips against her ear. She tersely licked her own, but her mouth was still too dry. ‘Tracking. Not hunting.’

‘Semantics.’ He raked her hair back from her neck, lowered his mouth to her ear again. ‘That’s all it’s been for years, isn’t it? Me and the soul ripper consuming your every thought, every motivation, every waking moment. You’ve hunted me for so long that you think you know me. But you don’t know me. You don’t know me at all. But I know you. I’ve been watching you for a long time. Wanting you. Wanting to break you. And now I know how. I’ve worked out that to make you lose control, I’ve got to take that control. Completely.’

Her stomach flipped, her heart lunged. He’d asked her how bad a vampire she imagined him to be. Right then, she didn’t care. She knew his idea of bad and her idea of bad were probably two completely different things, but something told her she was about to find out how different.

He moved his hips just an inch to drag the back of her dress up to bunch at the small of her back.

Caitlin flinched and instinctively tried to free her hands, but his slap on the exposed side of her behind made her still.

‘Don’t move,’ he warned. He nipped her lightly on the ear, his cool thumb gliding firmly over the curve of exposed flesh. ‘Careful now, I can hear that heart pumping. There’s only so much temptation a vampire can take.’

She bit into her bottom lip as he pressed her hard against the car again, the metal cold against the heat of her thighs and sex through the thin cotton of her dress. ‘What are you going to do?’ she asked, the tension in tone unnerving her, but not as much as the undertones of arousal seeping through with it.

He tugged down his sweatpants, pressed his erection flat against the cleft between her buttocks as he closed the gap again, his chest hard and tight against the back. ‘What do you think I’m going to do?’

She raked her nails against the roof and braced herself. ‘Don’t you hurt me,’ she warned breathily, surprised it wasn’t more of a plea. But some sixth sense told her he had no intention of hurting her, that it was nothing about causing her pain. Not entirely.

But sometimes he forgot. Sometimes he forgot just how fragile humans are compared to third-species mates.

‘But Caitlin,’ he whispered against her ear, his rasp igniting every nerve ending. He lowered himself slightly to direct his erection up between her legs. Pressing the tip against her sex, his lips hovered over her ear again. ‘I thought you said you weren’t fragile.’

And he pushed.

It wasn’t the gentle nudge it had been before, a gradual breaking inside her, building her arousal with his own. This time he gave her no time to adjust. This time he made the most of her wetness. This time he was feeding his own hunger as well as hers as he entered her in one slow, steady but unrelenting move, filling her to the hilt.

Caitlin cried out and arched her back, but he pressed her hard back against the car. She flexed her fingers. Closed her eyes. Her body shuddered. Her own dampness masked her thighs as he withdrew only to thrust again. This time it was harder and intentionally so. She dropped her head back against his shoulder and cried out again, her nails digging deep into the palms of her hands.

‘I wanted you from the first moment I saw you,’ he said against her ear. ‘And when I had you up against the wall in that corridor, I could have taken you so easily.’

Tension gripped the pit of her stomach, the stirring in her lower abdomen distracting her from the ache as he penetrated her slow but deep.

‘Do you know what it took not to?’ he asked.

He kicked her legs further apart, his thrusts picking up pace.

‘And I know you wanted me too,’ he said, hints of a growl in his gravelly tone. ‘You’ve always wanted me. And only me.’

If he hadn’t pinned her so firmly against the car, she knew her legs would have given way, her whole body already trembling, her breathing shallow, her throat tight.

‘Just like I’ve wanted you. But I never expected you to feel this good,’ he declared, the strain of arousal leaking into his tone. ‘Or I might have taken you sooner.’

His words struck straight to the core and imploded as his pace increased, her discomfort at his onslaught tempered only by the arousal already taking a tight hold deep inside her.

She was sure she’d wake any moment, fantasy and reality merging indistinguishably. One of those raw, sexual moments she had let herself indulge in, in the privacy of her own thoughts now having life and movement and sensation. Once-powerful fantasies now appearing weak compared to reality.

Because she had only been able to imagine what Kane was like. And she realised just how limited her imagination had been as he consumed every inch of her, thrusting into her with such controlled force that every part of her ached.

Bright lights ignited behind her eyes, the floor feeling off kilter. Stars exploded, the room surging in heat around her. Caitlin clenched her hands as her climax kicked through her system at an increasing rate, building, surging. She jolted as she lost touch with reality. She cried out, buckled with the force of her climax almost too powerful to bear. Tears trickled down her cheeks, her whole body absorbed in the aftershocks.

Every part of her ached and tingled. Every part of her felt alive with both pleasure and pain. The sensations made her feel sick, sated, an alien sensation of ease flowing through her body.

He had managed it. Kane Malloy has managed the impossible.

And it had been perfect.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

C
aitlin’s dress dropped back into place as Kane pulled away.

She turned around, her hands against the car to help her keep her balance. But her legs felt too weak, her quivering thighs barely able to hold her more than a few seconds. She slid down to the cold, hard floor, her legs coiling under her.

She still struggled to catch her breath, wiped the tears from her cheeks. He’d done more damage in that climax than she would have thought possible. Kane Malloy had just proved himself a far more lethal opponent than she could have even conceived.

She warily looked up at him as he unwrapped the tape from his right hand. For a moment she wondered if she’d just inserted the entire scene in her own mind, somewhere between him removing the first lot of tape and the second. But she knew what had happened was real – terrifyingly real. Her aching body told her so.

And so did the ache in her heart.

She couldn’t fall for him. She wouldn’t let herself.

But she had the terrifying feeling if he didn’t say something nice to her, her too-fast-beating heart would splinter.

He crouched down on his haunches, agilely remaining poised on his bare toes. He reached out and gently brushed a few stray strands of hair from her eyes. ‘Are you all right?’

Her heart jolted. She managed a nod.

He clipped her under her chin, the gentle act, coupled with his hint of a smile, one she could almost mistake as affection.

‘Let’s get you off that floor,’ he said, standing upright, catching her by the hand.

He guided her to her feet, Caitlin pressing her hand back against the car to ensure she didn’t fall over with the motion.

‘Can you walk?’

She nodded.

‘Sure?’

‘I’m fine,’ she said, though she wasn’t sure she was.

Kane led the way back across the room, his hand on the small of her back as he guided her back inside the living area, closing and locking the door behind them.

‘Go and lie on the bed before you fall over,’ he said.

She looked across at it. Never had it looked more inviting. But she couldn’t allow herself that comfort. She certainly couldn’t afford to sleep. Now more than ever she had to remain on her guard.

He knew. He had to. He must have sensed it – the change in her. If she looked at him he’d surely see it in her eyes.

She lowered her gaze from the intensity of his as he stepped alongside her.

‘Did you hear what I said?’

‘I don’t need to lie down. I’m fine.’

‘Did I not tire you enough?’

Apprehension squeezed her chest. Suddenly their intimacy left a bitter taste in her mouth. She looked back at him. Tire her enough to let down her guard and let him probe at her heart a little more – test the water? ‘Is that what you were hoping?’

He scooped her up in his arms in one easy move and carried her across to the bed.

‘Kane, put me down!’ she demanded, but he got her to the bed within seconds.

He knelt astride her hips as he pushed her wrist back towards the cuff, locking it in place. She stared at him aghast as he grabbed her other wrist, reached over to the beside table and pulled out another set of cuffs from the drawer.